Most of Vella’s 12 principles applied to the video, but we did not talk about all of them. 

The group in the video spent a lot of time assessing the needs; their conclusions were based on the fact that there were black people living very close to the church, yet church embers had no interactions with them

They also spent a large amount of time discussing what the people needed to learn (and how they were going to go about doing that).  The pastor seemed very empathetic and open to hearing other’s perspectives regarding what was necessary. 

Most people agreed that the groups meetings outside of the church seemed like a safe place, but that the congregation didn’t seem to think that they were in a safe space.  For some, this was expressed in the fact that many simply left and didn’t feel comfortable dialoguing.  Small groups seem to make people feel safer.   People’s remorse when the pastor resigned also demonstrated that they obviously did not feel safe standing up for him. 
Praxis, or action with reflection, was inherent in the pastor’s way of being.  It seemed as if he was trying to teach his people to move into this way of thinking and being, but they were resistant. 
Moving from “small to big, slow to fast, etc” was also one of Vella’s assessments.  The pastor seemed to think that he was doing this, but perhaps there were smaller steps that could’ve been taken. 

In thinking of how to proceed, I thought the ELCA’s conversation around homosexuality.  I appreciated that church has really stressed healthy dialogue in congregations, and have felt like many churches have done a really good job with that.  In this particular situation, large group conversations might get heated very quickly, so perhaps one-on-one or small group conversations would be a good place to start. 

-Julie B, Group 4

Some of these included: small group discussions, barber shop discussions, including children and youth in church conversations, prayer, communion, dress for worship, singing in church (and again, the dress – choir robes), casual meetings, family gathered at the table, birthday cakes, school class outings, shaking hands and committee meetings.

When thinking about some of the rituals that were portrayed through the film it is important to reflect upon the agreement that lies within the value of the ritual.  When we partake in a ritual we should truly think about what significance is held within the ritual and whether or not we agree with what is being said through the ritual.  For example, the purpose of communion brought this to light – communion is not simply receiving the promises of God, but we also affirm that we are the Body of Christ and that everyone holds equal unity within the Body of Christ.  When we come to the table to receive the body and blood of Christ we should keep this in mind and not simply go through the motions of the ritual.  The film brought a few questions of the ritual of communion and whether or not “participants” in that particular ritual internally agree with the meaning held within the ritual. 

This film also highlighted some of the tension that still exists and is present in the church today.  One example that was brought to light was what is currently going on with the ELCA in regard to sexuality.  Sometimes rituals are so engrained into the life of an organization, church, community or individual that things can be difficult to change.  Also, when thinking of the current stand of the ELCA and how congregations are dealing with it there were a few similarities to the film.  

In the film documentary, we questioned and wondered about the formation of small groups and the organization of some of the meetings that took place.  How do we ritually decide who takes place in small groups and who does not?  Also, some of the “casual meetings” which typically take place outside of the “scheduled meeting” discuss some important issues and reveal deep feelings – again, how do we select who hears this information and how it is shared?  Often instead of explaining what happened why try and convince others’ on the “other side” that “our side” is right.  Are there ways that some rituals are reflected upon so that when important issues arise they can be handled in an effective manner rather than simply following what has typically taken place?

When we viewed this film with a ritual lens, it was surprising how many rituals were brought to the forefront.  Rituals are weaved in and out of our lives and often we do not realize a ritual when it takes place, nor do we know the importance and significance behind all of the rituals present in our lives.  I think an interesting point of discussion was understanding the significance of the ritual and thinking about whether or not it matches with internal beliefs of the individual.

All of us agreed that the Bible is present in the film, but not in chapter and verse form. Since the whole movie takes place in and around church means the Bible has a huge role, even implicitly. There were many references to Jesus and his disciples, but there were no specific references to text or stories from the Bible.

 When our group reflected on what texts and stories might relate to this situation we thought of several.

• Exodus 22:21 says: “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”
•  Leviticus 19:34 which states that “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
• Matthew 10:34: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”
• John 4:1-42: The story of the Samaritan woman at the well who as seen as an “other.”
• Acts 10: The story of Cornelius and how Peter sees the vision of animals in a sheet, and God says that what God has sanctified one must not call common.

 As for learning about God, we didn’t really feel that what God wants or who He is, was ever really focused on. The biggest learning that occurred was by the one social ministry chair person and that learning was not due to formal education, but actually experiencing first hand having a discussion with someone who was of a different race.

 The learning goals should focus on a discussion of how to show love as a Christian and also talk about change in the church. When teaching on these learning goals we thought the devotional, theological and historical methods would work together best to create a study around these issues.

 Outside of the Bible cluster questions we also discussed how we thought that the Pastor definitely represents a boundary leader in that he is trying to integrate faith and the civil rights movement together, where other churches put that as “out there” impacting only schools and businesses. If we were in this church, we thought about holding discussions with members to outline what we believe to be true when it comes to worshipping God, studying His word and sharing His love and then examine those beliefs to determine if they are man made or aligned with God’s Word.

Stories of main characters:

Reverend William Youngdahl moved from an integrated Lutheran church in New Jersey to an all-white congregation, Augstana, in Omaha, Nebraska. He is more progressive than his congregation and wants to try a very limited attempt at social integration of blacks from the black Hope Lutheran Church in the same city. After being their pastor only a year, he is trying to lead his congregation more quickly than he has prepared them or heard them out. One group member stated–what was frustrating to watch was how “his great idea” was handed down in a Palmer-Model-1 way (subject to expert to amateurs) to the council, rather than watching the ground for the seeds that had germinated and allowing the people of the congregation to own it, or better yet, demand it.

Ernie Chambers, is a black nationalist barber on the black side of town who interacts with the white Christians and challenges their motives for integration as white condescension. He is very good at dialoguing and challenging assumptions.

Church council member Ray Christiansen experiences conversion from his separatist attitude and fear of dividing the congregation and becomes an advocate for civil rights. He sees the urgent need for racial integration and tries to move the other council members toward social justice.

The stories are of white Americans who are not comfortable with black Americans because of the history that they grew up with- thinking that black Americans are different or inferior. We also have black Americans who have bad feelings toward white Americans due to a history of slavery, inequality, and poor treatment. We have white and black church leaders who want to see past the history that is influencing these groups and look toward the future focusing on the gospel of Jesus and the command to love our neighbors. The history within individual persons, families, the church as a whole, and the history of the country and it’s political and moral issues are all connected to this context. The stories do conflict, in fact that is what the video is largely about.

Learning that emerges from the history could be negative if we continued to allow the history to teach inequality and racism. The educational leader would want to challenge the learning based on this history as the religious leaders in the film are trying to do.

This video struck one group member with the tension between Pastor Bill’s understanding of his prophetic role and his place as one among a larger community in which God is also moving. This is a gathered people of God, no less than their counterparts at Calvin Presbyterian, despite their dehumanizing characterization at one point as being certain “types of people.” Perhaps Augustana Lutheran needed the crisis to move forward, or perhaps there may have been alternate approaches to leadership.

This video could help teachers to reveal Jesus Christ’s teaching to love our neighbors as ourselves. It could intend to foster conversion in the hearts of those who are racist or prejudice. Religious experience is shown as being understood as something that is exclusive and unaccepting of differences. The goal of this curriculum could be to show a group or individual it’s incorrect or negative ways. This video is educating toward a view of society as equal and integrated.

Most important learning goals- love your neighbor as yourself…all are our neighbors…be hospitable and welcoming to all. one of the most important things that we should be doing as leaders of the Church is to try to bridge gaps, bridge hurts and discriminations.

Our group discussed the statement of Christ’s about removing the logs from our own eyes before removing everyone elses. Christianity has many logs. The first is against one another. Where in the film we witnessed racial discriminations, typical of the time period, within the church we also noticed that today we are dealing with denominational discriminations. This denominal discriminations causes such a disconnect for people that Christianity comes off as hypocritcal. We need to remember that we are all Christians and that as Christians we are called by Christ to love one another. History has already taught us that discrimination, hate, and distance only harms us. We need to learn from history or we are doomed to repeat it.

Pastor Bill is in both the teacher and the learner position throughout the program.

Teachers- council members, African American Preachers, high school students, Ernie Chambers (barber), mayor

Learners- council members, pastors, family members, congregation members

This question of teachers and learners was interesting to think about in regards to the movie.  As listed above there are certainly those who are teaching in a direct way, but there are also teachers in indirect ways.  I thought about what those parents were teaching their kids, by the way they reacted to what the pastor was trying to do, also what the community was learning from the congregations involved in the situation.

Explicit Learning- Pastor directly teaching to congregation and council members. Mayor’s discussion with church leaders. Pastor teaching on justice and mercy. Ernie Chambers  teaching throughout through discussion about racial disparity.  High school students engaged in congregations and conversations.

Implicit Learning- Pastor’s reaction to Ernie Chambers (sweating and walking out); Crossracial exchange of students leading to families staying away from church taught that Augustana was racist church; discussion of property decline within church setting taught that economics are more important than justice; The discussion in the barber shop lead to learning by young patrons about racism and status of African Americans; Prayer at table teaching God’s importance within the family; Pastor being forced to resign taught that church was not interested in reconciliation; Council members focusing on timing issues – “not the right time”, “we need to be strategic” – really teaches that they don’t want to make any “waves” and definitely are not interested in creating controversy.

Unintentional Learning- All White church teaches African Americans are not welcome; All male councils teach women are not capable of making important decisions within the church; Pastors and church members not speaking out against racism makes them part of the racial problem.  The Church not willing to take a stand because they are afraid of the reaction.

Type of Learner- Nurturing Faith Booklet

Most of the learners in this situation would be from the adults and more specifically the middle adults. These adults are: profoundly aware of life changes, often reassessing earlier tasks, need to make positive contributions to younger generations, often reevaluates self-identity issues, can move beyond cultural stereotypes, can be a caring mentor for others.

What To Do Next:

I would suggest a multiracial prayer meeting and continued small group meetings. Even though the church has lost their pastor, they still have a congregation who are the “ministers” who could take up the interracial meetings and begin the dialogue necessary with the neighboring church.  I would also suggest the church spend more time prayerfully considering their way forward – we didn’t see prayer about this issue in the video.

Group 3 (mjb)

Each person in our group chose a different focus situation with which to engage the assessment questions. We looked at the different sessions in the curriculum study guide.

We found the following principles in these situations:

Needs assessment principle came up for all three of us. Participants needed to reflect on their thoughts and knowledge about immigration and how they could look from a different perspective to appreciate someone else’s point of view.

Safety also was mentioned by everyone as the issue of immigration is a tough, controversial, and emotional discussion to have. Everyone must feel safe in exploring and expressing their thoughts and feelings, especially in the midst of (sometimes heated) disagreement. Mutual respect is crucial.

Sound relationship- In order to have authentic dialogue, people need to feel as though they are peers, no one is above anyone else or in a position to tell them what is right or how to think or feel.

Action with reflection was mentioned as the participants looked at the life of Jesus to help them make decisions about how to act in their circumstances. They also watched videos and reflect with others on what they saw.

Learning with ideas, feelings and actions was present in that the participants were dealing with complex and emotional concepts. They explore facts and evaluate where they stand on the issues and what action can be taken. They also deal with how to act on this in everyday life.

Immediacy- the issue of justice and immigration is a top concern for most people – on both sides of the issue. The immigrant population continues to grow within the US and throughout the world. A compassionate and just response is immediately needed. Immigration is a bigger issue than most would think; it affects rural areas as well as urban areas.

Engagement was present in that participants engaged in discussions, videos, and other aspects of the learning process.

Verbs we chose:

think, struggle, explore, mention, read, share, react, call, allow, draw on, act, reflect, meditate, look, get to know, listen, walk, revisit, affirm, manipulate, write, attend, retell, observe, reason, analyze, evaluate, discuss, respond, dialogue, question, clarify, study, compare, contrast, paraphrase, express, relate, discover, select, identify, list, name, examine, review, debate, support, choose, notice

A learning challenge is that it is an emotional situation and a politically charged one. People come to the table with agendas and very set in what they believe.

Vella’s list of principles and Bloom’s list of verbs helped identify strengths in the focus situations. The design of the lessons and the materials (video and handouts) used created an effective learning experience for participants to understand the complex issues of justice and immigration.

In regard to the “Who is my Neighbor” curriculum, the teacher is the Colorado Council of Churches and/or the person or people leading the studies/utilizing the curriculum.  The learners are those participating in the studies.  The explicit learning in general is that God/Jesus calls us to be hospitable to and to love our neighbor.  Explicit learning is also found in the various statistics and charts showing facts about immigrants and immigration.  The implicit learning is that we should allow immigrants into the U.S. because it is the morally right thing to do and also based on the information provided in the statistics which show benefits of immigrants/immigration.  The null or unintentional learning could be that Jesus wants us to be hospitable and to love our neighbor even at the expense of our own welfare.

Regarding the coherence of explicit, implicit, and null criteria, there is a contrast drawn with the culture of the migrant worker among the dominant American culture.  God is seen for this family in many ways familiar to other Christians: embodied, participating, and at work in the circumstances, daily lives, rituals, and well-being of the people, and worthy of praise for God’s faithfulness.  And yet there is also dissonance in viewing this video: wanting to commend a life of simplicity that is clearly integrated with faith amid struggle, and a simultaneous desire to lessen the struggle that family experiences.

Ages/Stages of faith formation applicable to this learning environment:

1) Within the film: Sr. Medrano’s film portrays two older adults and three younger people, all in the same household.  Guessing age is always a challenge, but the two older adults, if over 50, would be in the “new senior” age, and the three younger people appear to be either all “young adults” (20’s) or perhaps a mix of “young adults” and “ages 16 to 18″.  It is interesting to try to put the Augsburg resource within this film — the Nurturing Faith booklet draws common experience from the dominant culture in America (ethnic/class), so many of the stereotypical particulars given for age group may not apply.

Those that do appear to apply include:

- 16-18: engaging in making plans for the future, finding mentoring relationships, concerned about physical appearance (on Sabato, especially), can have their own money and transportation (one of the young men — not the driver — refers to the color he wants to paint his truck).

- young adult: forming dreams, finding mentoring relationships, learning job skills.  One of the young men is shown symbolically watching the road behind as they drive to town… while his speaking parts focus on his individual and material concerns, he also shows no outward youthful angst against the older adults, and participates seemingly very willingly in their daily life of intermingled work and faith.

- new seniors (with or without the tilde): both the director of the film and the oldest adult characters show elements of “taking inventory and making judgments,” and also “desir[ing] to leave something behind after death that will benefit others.” [As a related aside, the Augsburg publication seemed awkwardly afraid to connect people in each of the age categories to *their own* other-generational family members (i.e., as mother/father, son/daughter, etc.).  For the sake of the film, it is fair to assume the "others" being benefitted also include their own children.]  For example, the film itself is being left behind as a meditative learning offering; the father(?) and mother(?) in the film exercise spiritual leadership through teaching moments of worship “when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise” (Deut 6:7), recognizing the connectedness of God, the people, and the land, leading by example in prayer and in communion; living life as prayer, seeing and giving glory to God for God’s significant participation in the daily and mundane, whether that is giving life to the land, or shaping that life into tortillas that sustain them.  The mother(?) shows us some of her “conjunctive faith” as we see her reflect momentarily on the disjunctive tension between her Hispanic-American identity together with their modest income, and the Americanized (pre-packaged, processed) Italian pizza box that she rejects in favor of mixing flour and water into tortillas herself at home.

2) For those to whom the film and the packaged curriculum on immigration form the learning environment: all ranges of adult learners (plus ages 13-15 and 16-18, if not younger) might be anticipated for this learning.  The two offerings (Sr. Medrano’s film and the CO Council of Churches curriculum) form a sharp contrast.  The film by Sr. Medrano offers a meditative opportunity for open-ended possibilities of transformation of the viewing community into new thinking, relationships, and living.  The Colorado curriculum instead works from the convictions of its preparers to direct learning along a specific course toward a pre-determined outcome of preferred action (using techniques such as selection of scripture, use of the word “fear” to minimize opposing viewpoints, and a pre-selected list of people who are acceptable to “know” in the immigration debate.  Our group of four seemed to be together in harmony with the Biblical challenge presented in the curriculum (toward loving/inviting/embracing the neighbor, in the midst of the defined “illegality” of many immigrants), but the contrast between presentation/teaching styles was nevertheless marked.  This contrast also mirrors a central point of Eunjoo Mary Kim’s book, “Preaching the Presence of God,” which highlights similar differences between traditional Western and Asian approaches to preaching and teaching.  To directly address the Augsburg booklet, congregational learning communities would presumably also include “middle adults” and “older adults”, each with their own generationally-gifted locations and contributions to bring to the circle.

 The “Yo Trabajo” video was beautiful in its illustration of both gift and tending of the earth, as well as the condition of immigrant farmers with reference to oppression.  The earthly pictures gave a sense of God’s creation still among us.  Each scene detailed the work of the farmer, as God intimately worked the earth in the second creation story. 

The farmers eating together reference many stories of the disciples eating together in the New Testament.  It was also wonderful to see the communion given to each member of the immigrant family.  The Table is meant for all.

Music played during the “la Tierra” was much like the Psalms of the Old Testament.  We could also hear the cord of God’s presence with the Israelites, as well as the presence with the immigrant farmers.

            The use Mark 12:30, 31 in reference to many social problems and specific biblical doctrines of God that humanity wants to reject or disregard because it doesn’t fit contemporary ideology.  Adan Medrano’s video places both a face and a Christian belief on the illegal immigrant’s situation in America; therefore if this biblical passage in Mark 12 is taken seriously, than as Christians we must not do wrong or oppress a stranger because we love God and want to obey Him. Many Christian people love God, but when it comes to giving others the same privileges and rights that they possess. This is a problematic area we did not want to give away some of our prosperity, in order that others might have a good life.  This found to be very convicting.

            The study on immigration by the Colorado Council of Churches was full of Biblical reference to immigration and social justice.  The four sessions includes these Biblical texts:

   In “Session 1 – We Are All Strangers in the Land of Egypt”, explores immigration from our historical and spiritual identity, the Biblical text focus is on Exodus 23:9 – “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt” and Leviticus 19: 33-34 “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God.”
“Session Two: What Does the Lord Require of You?” focused on exploring the faith concept of justice in relation to past and current immigration laws and movements. Biblical texts supporting this session are Micah 6:8 (NRSV) – “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do Justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” be offspring blessed by the LORD— and their descendants as well.”
“Session Three: Perfect Love Casts Out Fear” focuses on exploring immigration through the biblical teachings of love. Supporting Biblical texts included: 1 John 4:7; 16b-21 (NRSV) – “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment, because as God is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars, for those who do

1. Opening Prayer

2.The ritual sharpening of the blade

3. The ritual nature of clearing the fields

4. The communal meal

5. Washing the hands

6. The ritual of adornment, (big in Hindu mysticism)

7. Having ice cream

8. Shopping as a family

9. Making Tortillas in the old style (connection to the old ways)

10. The song (is that the same tune as before?)

11.The ritual of communion

And the final minute ties all of these rituals together in a montage, ending with his fadeout arms high in praise, while the crops remain.

1 and 11 are the explicitly Christian rituals.

3,8,9,10 are all ritual reminders of the old ways and of heritage.

1,2,4,5,6 are all rituals that may remind the family of an even further off heritage, connecting them to the peoples of the Hebrew Bible.

7 is a ritual that connects them to American Culture.

Okay, then the in the Faith Conversation on Immigration:

1. The ritual of prayer

2. The ritual of scripture reading and application of verses

3. The legeslative ritual

4. Some formational rituals including-discussion

5.-reflection (particularly on videos)

6.-perspective questioning

7.-and identification of personal feelings and their roots.

4-7 are rituals that show up often in other facets of life, often in psychology.

1-2 are religious.

3 is a civil ritual, but also a religious one.

We went on to talk a little about how ritual exists with meaning insofar as it is unpacked.  Several group members mentioned that without the meaning behind a ritual uncovered, it is not worth much.  Within the context of immigration it was mentioned that various rituals (done by both the immigrant and the so called “native”) serve to remind us of our unique heritage, remind us of our common heritage, and open up a space that god can fill in our lives no matter who we are. Suzanne quoted Practicing Our Faith : “To welcome the stranger is to acknowledge him as a human being made in God’s image; it is to treat her as one of equal worth with ourselves – indeed, as one who may teach us something out of the richness of experiences different from our own.”

The other main theme that we discussed is that of the independent, often contrary, and pervasive rituals of consumerism that we encounter in modern culture.  Particularly in the context of the immigration debate, I think we all agreed that it is important to look at the way our rituals of consumption were perpetuated, and what they were, in end effect, resulting in. Victor Lebow famously said, “Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life that we convert the buying and selling of goods into rituals.”  Our group all felt that it was time to question these rituals, to make sure that they weren’t causing harm to the ourselves, to the stranger abroad, and the stranger in our midst.

We discussed how difficult it can be, especially for established rural communities in the Midwest, to open themselves to immigrant populations. It’s difficult for more traditional churches to face change, and it’s difficult for smaller ethnic groups to know how to integrate themselves into such established communities. Kevin noted how the video meditation helped him see how hard migrant workers are really working to integrate, which dispels the myth that they’re not trying to integrate.
Kari noted that integration might not be as difficult a task as we think. She noted that there are strong parallels between our own Norwegian (and Swedish) American Lutheran roots and Mexican culture. For example, as Maryanne noted, food and family are very important in the Latino community – along with singing and dancing. God is the center of this family’s work and life. The same can be said of Scandinavian Lutheran culture in the Midwest. Kari wrote, “I think there is far more that unites than divides us. I suspect sharing our histories with one another may be a key to overcoming some of the difficulties we have in integrating rural communities.”
Similarly, Rebecca noted that the Colorado piece was especially helpful in navigating the roadblocks to listening to the history of someone else’s culture and heritage. She wrote, “One way we can overcome our fear is to learn and get to know someone else’s culture. I think this is what Mary Boy means between knowing and doing. The goal of “Who is my Neighbor?” piece is to assess what is one’s prior knowledge or assumption of what immigration is and looks like.
Our cultures, language, and heritage may diverse and very different, but we also have a common culture, heritage and possible language as children of God. Maryanne noted that it’s important to recognize that God is a part of our daily lives, whoever we are or wherever we may be.