Friday, 9 Sep 2011

The Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D. — born in Fukuoka, Japan, is a Visiting Professor at the Starr King School for Ministry, Berkeley, California, and Director of Faith Voices for the Common Good and Co-Director of the Soul Repair Project. Her father, a veteran of WW II, was a U.S. Army enlisted man who served two tours in Vietnam as a medic. She was a college professor of religion for twenty years. From 1997 to 2001, she directed the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship Program, Harvard University. From 2001-2002, she was a Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School Center for Values in Public Life. Since 2002, she has been an independent scholar, in addition to her nonprofit volunteer work. She was a Convener of the Truth Commission on Conscience in War. She recently lead her Protestant denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), to become the first Christian denomination to undertake, as a  resolution for the whole church, the ministry of moral injury and spiritual healing in a time of war.

1-3pm Religious Perspectives: Report of the Truth Commission on the Conscience in War

This presentation by Dr. Brock is designed for a gathering of religious leaders to address ethical perspectives on selective conscientious objection and the progress necessary for healing and preventing moral injuries during war.  The purpose is to help educate our communities about: 1) growing criteria governing the moral conduct of war; 2) the growing needs of veterans and their families, including the healing of moral injury; 3) the importance of maintaining commitment to moral conscience in war.

3:30-5pm Religious Practices: Christian Compassion and Veteran Soul Repair Centers

This presentation reviews historical Christianity’s outreach to warriors and the growing, contemporary need for similar healing and restoration processes offered to morally injured, post-9/11 warriors as they face the growing spiritual challenge of making restitution when they are brought back home to peace.

Saturday, 10 Sep 2011

Introducing Faith Action Network of Washington’s Veteran Support Network – working with faith communities around the state to expand support for veterans through a Veterans Support Network, offering training workshops for clergy and lay members about how they can offer services and programs that meet the needs of veterans.  The workshops, which are open to both clergy and laity, aim to educate people about military and veteran culture, clinical concerns, moral/spiritual issues, and local resources and veterans’ benefits. Resource people for this training include active duty, retired and reserve military personnel, as well as clinicians, outreach specialists, and chaplains. The trainings are ecumenical and inter-faith, and open to all who want to help support our Veterans through their faith community.

9am-10:15 Clinical Concerns and Moral Injury by FAN WA VSN Veteran Affairs representatives

10:30am-noon Developing Healing Communities

Lunch: Table Talk Discussions

1:15-3pm Joining Forces on Warrior Care  with Rev. Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock

Register online by clicking here, using only your name and email address to secure your ticket (should you choose to submit your registration disregarding requests for other information). The event is offered at no charge; tickets allow for efficient reproduction of resource materials and assurance of ample food–especially lunch on Saturday.

Japanese officials now estimate the death toll from the disaster at over 3,300 – a number that is expected to rise as search-and-rescue efforts continue. New fears over fires, explosions and leaks at nuclear power facilities have the country and international community on watch.

Global Ministries, the combined world mission of the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has three mission personnel serving in Japan. Martha Mensendiek and Casilda Luzares are professors at Doshisha University in Kyoto. Jeffrey Mensendiek, Martha’s brother, and his family are in hard-hit Sendai where he works as the youth director at the Emmaus Center.

Martha wrote Friday afternoon saying they felt the quake in Kyoto but damage was light in the area. Mensendiek also assured staff that her brother was safe but without electricity or gas.

By Sunday, power had been restored to Sendai and Jeffrey Mensendiek was able to send an email to Susan Sanders, the UCC’s minister for Global Sharing of Resources.

“Our family is fine,” he began. “Thank you so much for your prayers. Luckily we have had water all along which has been a true blessing.

“The worst destruction has been along the coast, where several of our churches, as well as homes of lay people in our churches are located. We are not able to get any information at this point to confirm whether they are OK or not. I will send out another email when I have more information. As for now, I want you to know that we are well, and grateful for your moral support.”

An update from Jeffrey Mensendiek Monday morning said his wife and family would be going to Kyoto due to concerns of radiation exposure in Sendai, what he called “a very serious situation.”

“Sendai is in turmoil,” he said. “Young people are evacuating. Most people at church are elderly. Without water and electricity, they are experiencing so much trouble in their daily life that for them the biggest priority is to get through the day with the basic necessities.”

Mensendiek indicated the possibility that the Emmaus Center, where he works, will become an information center for relief and recovery efforts. “We are still in the process of surmising the situation, gathering information and deciding how and when to accept help from those who are dying to help,” he said.

Sanders also received an email from Luzares Tuesday morning in which she says, “The enormity of the crisis is truly overwhelming.”

Luzares continues, “This morning I woke up, logged on to Facebook and clicked on a link that my daughter sent me ­­– a sung prayer for Japan from someone from Serbia, I think, and I could not stop but let the tears flow. Just a few minutes ago as I was eating a bowl of noodles for lunch I remembered all those without food and water in this land of plenty and I could hardly continue. A few drops of tears blended with the soup.”

Expressing gratitude for the “outpouring of sympathy and expressions of caring from the world,” Luzares concludes, “God is still speaking … my heart needs to listen. Closely.”

Church World Services:
click here for latest updates
Following the 9.0 earthquake and powerful tsunami that struck Japan overnight, global humanitarian agency Church World Service reports its emergency response staff are monitoring the unfolding situation around the Pacific Rim, where CWS has programs.

In Indonesia, where Church World Service has extensive operations, a tsunami of about 10 centimeters was detected in the North Sulawesi and Maluku islands.

Although the Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency has now lifted the tsunami alert for Indonesia, CWS Indonesia staff report say they are staying in contact with two of the agency’s local partners in North Sulawesi who say that communities who have been under tsunami alerts were advised to take precautionary measures and many people have done so. Wave heights of up to 8 feet had been expected in some of those areas.

Church World Service’s Bangkok office is following the situation in Japan and across the region, while in Hawaii, where tsunami waves have reached the islands, CWS’s domestic team is monitoring that situation, working with local contacts in Hawaii.

Further reports, assessments and emergency response as needed will be issued as the situation unfolds.