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 When Brenda
asked me to write a brief article about the lessons I’ve learned during
my 13 years of working at the Council, I thought it would be an easy task.
After all, there are so many lessons, how hard could it be to summarize a
few? Really, really, really hard!
So many
mismatched things came to mind that I got up from my computer, sat on the
sofa, closed my eyes and meditated for 15 or 20 minutes. I kept coming
back to that word ‘lessons.’ I’ve learned many lessons; my time here has
been an amazing, all- encompassing education! Reading, writing and
‘rithmetic barely scratch the surface. Here was my curriculum:
Science: I explored the
stewardship of God’s creation, climate change, fuel efficiency,
sustainable agriculture, AIDS, turkey farms, hog processing plants,
takings legislation and farmers markets.
Math
and Economics: Never my strong suit in college, I began to understand the
importance and relevance of numbers to ‘real life’ in discussing jubilee
debt reduction, education equity funding, predatory lending practices,
lottery and video poker, heirs’ property, raising the cigarette tax to
fund Medicaid and ways to eliminate hunger.
English: Understanding
and interpreting the Council’s ministries required me to develop skills
in writing, researching, drafting policy statements, creating newsletters
and public speaking.
History
and Current Events: I learned so much about South Carolina and about
South Carolinians while working on issues including the confederate
battle flag, immigration, death penalty, church burnings, working for
peace in a time of war, creating unity task forces, preventing child
abuse, restorative justice, church/state relationships, religious
freedom, Christian Unity, public education and preparing for natural and
human-caused disasters.
Music/Art
Appreciation: The spectrum of our Christian family as well as our fellow
Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Baha’is, Unitarian Universalists, Buddhists and
Sikhs gave me the opportunity to worship in wonderful, beautiful places
with wonderful, beautiful people. What joy and blessing.
Foreign
Language: I’ll never forget my first two weeks learning the new
vocabulary: judicatory, ecumenism, social justice. Not to mention
learning that the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist
Church is led by a bishop and broken into districts; whereas the South
Carolina District of the Wesleyan Church is led by a president and broken
into conferences. You get the idea.
Social
Studies: Okay, I know that usually ‘social studies’ translates to
‘civics,’ but I want to tell you that my social studies were
occasioned by working with volunteers, board members, media,
congregations, hecklers and detractors, bishops, ministers and lay
people, historians, farmers, professors, beauticians, senators, computer
specialists, public relations people, artists, governors, musicians,
caterers, activists, and all the other people who in some way relate to,
love and support SC Christian Action Council.
Physical
Education: Marching. We’ve done a fair amount of that in the past 13
years. Plus, you think hauling around and setting up those displays is
easy? See also: variety of worship experiences (you know who you are).
Other
skills: I honed other skills along the way, too, including
debating, typing, photography, coffee-making, envelope stuffing and
sometimes Xeroxing (those machines never liked me).
And
then there are the experiences that defy categorization and yet are
seminal to who I became because of my association with this amazing
organization: from receiving a call from a woman wanting to know what the
Council was going to do about the outrage that Riverbanks Zoo had a
female Santa, to being threatened and cursed for our work to move the
confederate battle flag off the State House dome, to accepting leadership
positions in our national professional organization, to my greatest
professional compliment—being told that once when I walked into a room
full of African-Americans someone asked her friend, ‘who is that?’ and
the response was, ‘oh, don’t worry, that’s just Julia.’
Finally,
let me conclude with a paragraph I wrote in the cover letter of my
application for this new position at Friends General Conference.
“I have
learned the lessons of working together toward a common vision: working
with volunteers and committees; stressing the importance of communication
and relationships at every level of the organization; seeking cohesion
and creative tension among staff and volunteers; maintaining momentum;
knowing one’s own strengths and weaknesses; and, evaluating and changing
course as needed. It has been my pleasure to work with organizations
whose missions are grounded in faith; and, I have witnessed the necessity
of nurturing a collective centeredness and of trusting God’s promptings.”
What a
blessing it has been to live, work, laugh and worship with you these
thirteen years. With St. Paul I say, ‘I thank God in all my remembrance
of you.” Julia Sibley-Jones, Associate Director
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