Turning Walls into Tables

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Over 80 people reflected on the theme: “Share the Feast without Borders: Turning Walls into Tables” at the jointly sponsored Global Ministries and Disciples Peace Fellowship Pre-Assembly event. The participants lived the consequences of a dividing wall as they, themselves, were seperated by a chain-link fence during the two days.

Below is the closing statement crafted by Daisy Machado with the input of the participants.

DARING TO HOST A FEAST WITHOUT BORDERS

With a spirit of celebration and a thirst for transformation, under the auspices of the Division of Overseas Ministry/Global Ministries and the Disciples Peace Fellowship, a group of women and men, sisters and brothers in Christ, gathered in Fort Worth, Texas for two days to theologically examine how we can share the feast without borders, how we can turns walls into tables.

Our two keynotes speakers asked profound and hard questions that we acknowledge must also be asked in all congregations:

Why do we allow a theology of scarcity to dictate the priorities of our mission?
Why do we allow fear to dictate our supposedly prophetic response to the immigrant, the poor, and the other?
Why are we so willing to “outsource our souls” to outsiders who are doing the work we have been called by Christ to do?
Why is Martin Luther King’s call to a “revolution of values” so difficult for us to respond to?

These questions remind us that compassion does not call for a do-gooder type of Christianity, but that compassion requires the questioning of every form of injustice as found in systemic racism, economic inequity, unequal opportunities, new forms of slavery, and extreme materialism.

We lift up Martin Luther King’s proclamation that ours is not just an issue of civil rights but an issue of human rights–human rights that are being violated around the world and in our own nation by the disrespect of human dignity, in the denial of water, food, education, and health care.

And so we speak to all our sisters and brothers in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and ask them to join us in taking down borders, in eliminating barriers, in sharing the feast by:

making a personal commitment to befriend an immigrant;
re-emphasizing the poem on the Statue of Liberty and its intent;
using our buildings to provide services for immigrants and community;
advocating for the elimination of torture by the United States and our fear of terrorism;
advocating for a just and living wage for all people
being honest about our racist attitudes;
beginning at the kitchen table to speak about justice forming our values by means of the Gospel rather than by fear;
speaking up; neutrality is complicity;
asking every region to send a delegation to experience border realities;
resisting the war industry;
extending hospitality to persons without regard to documentation;
making an ongoing commitment to sustain fellowship between the Division of Overseas Ministries/Global Ministries, Disciples Peace Fellowship, and local congregations.