Cherith Brook CW Advent 2015

Advent 2015

Cherith BrookP r a c t i c i n g G o d ’ s M e r c y & G o s p e l O b e d i e n c e

C A T H O L I C W O R K E RS o E l i j a h d i d a c c o r d i n g t o t h e w o r d o f t h e L o r d ; h e w e n t a n d l i v e d b y t h e C h e r i t h B r o o k … a n d t h e r a v e n s b r o u g h t h i m b r e a d … I K i n g s 1 7

When Workers Take a Standby Caleb Madison

In May of 2013, Stand Up KC, a local branch of the $15 for all movement, held it’s first meet-ing to fight for a $15 minimum wage here in Kansas City. Two years after this initial meet-ing, in July of 2015, KC City Council adopted a minimum wage ordinance in a 12-1 vote which would set the new minimum wage of Kansas City to be $13 by 2020 with an increase based on cost of living and inflation expenses. And now, in October of 2015, this very same ordi-nance has been repealed in a vote by the City Council (7-4). So what happened? The follow-ing is a brief glimpse into the winding road that the minimum wage debate has careened through in our city. Stand Up KC thrives on two cogs which make it so powerfully effective: the strength of their organizers and the voices of the workers who so frequently and eloquently speak out. After the inception of this organization in 2013; dozens of marches, actions, protests, pe-titions, and letters have been created and led so as to raise the city’s awareness of the grief of the underpaid laborer. Stand Up KC also has

wonderful ideals towards collaborative organiz-ing and has worked with groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the American Friends Service Committee, Missouri Faith Voices, and a wide group of local and na-tional denominations and congregations. Stand Up KC and their allies have so excelled in their work that the city not only became aware of the fast food and childcare worker’s plight, but has also been influenced to do something to change it. In the large and sweeping series of marches ranging from 20 people to 600 hosted by Stand Up, Kansas City has certainly come to acknowl-edge the power of so many workers uniting together to form a movement. While these marches were joined in by the other organiza-tions and partially hosted by them, the South-ern Christian Leadership Conference began it’s work on a petition that would eventually have 4,000 signatures to put a $15/hr by 2020 vote on the August ballot in Kansas City. In order to understand what comes next, we have to look a bit at the voting in Missouri’s State Legislature and HB 722.

Workers march on 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, MO on November 11, 2015 Continued on Page 10

HB 722 was a bill introduced in early 2015 to the Missouri House of Representatives that disallowed cities and local counties from pass-ing individual worker’s benefit packages and local minimum wage changes outside the fed-eral or state minimum wage and benefit levels. This effectively means that only the Missouri House of Representatives can add new ben-efits or change the minimum wage, and these effects, unless otherwise noted, would have to be statewide measures. This presents a seri-ous problem for a local ordinance to come into effect: it would have to be completely enacted and unchallenged by August 28th, 2015; which is before HB 722 would be able to come into effect statewide. Governor Jay Nixon at the outset opposed this measure and vetoed, say-ing that HB 722 offered “...a clear example of government intrusion...” and “...interference with the policymaking of local governments and the principle of local control”. Gov. Nix-on’s veto was overridden by a vote from the House of Reps, and thus a very tight deadline was placed on Kansas City to enact its’ new local wage. Our City Council thus began a period of discernment in mid-July, spending much time hearing from both proponents and dissent-ers towards the proposed $15 by 2020. Most of the conversation was not centered around whether the increase was a good idea; it was unanimous both in voting and speaking that a minimum wage increase was necessary to improve the lives of workers in Kansas City. The concern presented most was the logistics of enacting this ordinance and still allowing a thorough enough conversation and under-standing of implications by the August 28th deadline brought on by HB 722. Not only was this piece of the ordinance in contention, but also the number and date of the gradual increase. For instance, numbers like $13 by 2023, $15 by 2023, and 10$ by 2018 were all presented as viable options by various council members at various times. During these debates, Stand Up KC and leaders in their ally movements enacted a hunger strike rotation and an occupation time outside of City Hall where daily people were refusing the comforts of food and home in order to stand in solidarity with underpaid workers. The vote for $13 by 2020 passed with a

2 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker Advent 2015

Walking the AvenueThere’s something that feels almost wrong about walking on Independence Avenue in the Northeast neighborhood of Kansas City. “The Avenue,” as it’s known in the neighborhood, is where many of our street friends sleep and spend their days, talking on street corners or walking up and down to collect scrap metal to sell for much-needed cash. It’s lined on both sides with small businesses, liquor stores, gas stations, churches, and loan centers. The few apartment buildings on the street are shabby and often falling apart, with “No Loitering” and “No Trespassing” signs visible on every door and window. As a white, middle class woman walking with three white ostensibly middle class males, I am acutely aware that I feel as if we don’t belong here, and aware that the people sitting or talking on various street corners we pass don’t feel like we belong here either. This in itself is notable. Many of the people I see on Independence Avenue are the same people I see during show-er mornings or Thursday night community meal at Cherith Brook. But the atmosphere is flipped- on those days, we welcome them into our space. Walking the Avenue, we’re asking that they welcome us into theirs. And they haven’t invited us in. Some of our friends are open and amenable to us stop-ping to chat. Others greet us, but are clearly trying to hurry us along; they don’t want us to stick around, for one reason or another. It’s the attitude you might expect from anybody when you arrive unannounced in their home- some are immediately hospitable, others embar-rassed by untidiness, others just want alone time, and others are in the middle of a birth-day barbecue you weren’t invited to. We split up our group for lunch, and head to two different community kitchens that offer daily lunch. The people serving in the kitchen Eric and I eat at, an Episcopalian mission, don’t know that we’re from Cherith, and we don’t tell them. One of the servers comes over to talk to us about the culinary arts classes that the church is offering next month. He’s talking to us as if we lived on the streets. “If you want to get a head start in the class, start volunteering here on the weekdays to get familiar with the kitchen.”

I am wearing a dirty grey Razorback tank top; I’ve been washing windows all morning. My hair is piled on top of my head in a quickly loosening bun. “You’ll need to wear a shirt with sleeves, that covers your armpits, and a hat over your hair. If you don’t have one, we’ll give you a hairnet.” He goes on to talk about the job op-portunities one could have after the class, pro-vided by some catering company to which the church has a connection. He’s not intentionally talking to us condescendingly, but I feel like he is. He’s talking to me as if I were relatively un-educated and poor. Of course he is. I’m eating

in a soup kitchen, so who else would I be? “Come and help clean up sometime- sweep the floors, get to know our regular volunteers,” he says. “That’ll help you get ahead in the pro-gram.” It’s turned into a networking conversa-tion not all that different than what you might see at Yale dinners, only over plastic trays and chicken salad sandwiches rather than wine and hors d’oeuvres. I suddenly feel the urge to tell him that I’m in college, that I don’t need a culinary arts class, that I don’t need any practical skills, because I go to Yale, dammit. I am immediately disgusted with myself. Why is it my instinct to identify with the social class into which my education has placed me? Is it familiarity? Is it elitism? Has attending Yale become that inte-gral to my sense of self? I’m not sure I want to know the answer.

He’s still talking about the program, but then he’s called away by someone in the kitchen. “My name’s Ken,” he says before he walks away. “Here’s my card. What’s your name? Eric? I’ll remember that, my nephew is named Eric. And yours? Olivia. I won’t remember that.” He laughs and walks back into the kitchen. After finishing our meal, Eric and I leave the community kitchen and walk one street over, where we meet up again with Caleb and Micah, who have just finished eating at Hope and Faith. Before continuing to walk the Avenue,

Eric suggests that we sit down for a minute to reflect on our experiences at lunch. We’ve all just sat down on a stone wall bordering the sidewalk when a group of men rounds the corner next to us, holding a bag of beer and cans of vodka. One of them sits down abruptly in the middle of our group, right between Eric and Micah, and begins to talk to us- or maybe to himself. It’s hard to tell. He’s clearly drunk. His name, he keeps repeating, is Frankie Lee- not Frankie, he’s very insistent, Frankie Lee. He’s a veteran, he says, and the men introduce themselves to him one by one. I’m sitting on the right end of the wall, at

the end of the line, and before I can open my mouth to tell him my name, he turns to Eric. “Who is she-your wife? Your girlfriend? Eh?” “She is a friend of mine,” Eric replies. We’ve gone over many times at Cherith that when sexism is directed at ourselves or another community member, or anybody for that matter, we should address it politely and firmly. “But she’s sitting on your right, mothaf***a. Who is she?” Eric deflects the question again, and there is some talk exchanged about respect-ing women, and I am finally able to intro-duce myself. But I am reasonably sure that Frankie Lee has been insinuating that I am a prostitute.

Continued on Page 10

by Olivia Paschal

Lonnie Welch

3Advent 2015 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker

chologically anguishing for the self-sufficient and independently minded. (Enroll in one secretly as a homeless person, and you may experience my meaning.) The progressive people I am considering would only choose to stay at a shelter if they were penniless and homeless or otherwise ordered to do so—and maybe not even then. Desperate situations result from negative social systems. Poor people have few to no positive support systems created by the poor. The wealthy, on the other hand, have created the systems which sustain them. It is time we, the poor, make systems for ourselves. Progressive-natured, poor people are remark-able. Though they may lack the family struc-tures, nurturing, teachers, and coaches that told them they could achieve, they have still maintained the nature required to succeed.

In the beginning, any setback can devastate and negate the chances of success. This goes for completing college, launching a busi-ness, trying to have a baby, and starting out on your own in life. People who don’t have a strong family support system are most at danger of having a negative outcome when pursuing success. An economic bottleneck traps such people attempting to succeed. This bottleneck creates a cycle of despair where rent accounts for at least half your monthly wages, food consumes a quarter or more, and other living costs can soar as high as the market will bear. The tragedy is not that this is a success trap or even that this is robbing humanity of minds that might revolutionize the world (if they had time to do more than keep a roof over their heads), but rather that it doesn’t have to be this way.

To Overcome Poverty, We Need a Sus-tainable Refuge.

The Tightwad Lodge is a refuge for the person that has made success their purpose. With nine bunks, and five beds this facility houses 23 lodgers paying $150.00 a month for bunks and $300.00 a month for beds. Shared kitch-en, bathroom and work space facilities make this an ideal, economic living arrangement where like-minded individuals can share ideas and help each other in relative comfort. Each person is afforded a footlocker and a locker for personal possessions and is expected to stay for five years, in which time they must save at least half their income in order to buy a house upon their departure. This arrangement appeals to a particular population segment: the working poor & homeless, the struggling student, and the reformed convict. The working poor & home-less have already failed and have experienced the price of failure first hand and wish not to repeat the process. The struggling stu-dent lives on the “knife’s edge” of failure and desperately seeks what will keep the abyss at bay. The reformed convict must succeed for two reasons: first, it is a requirement for parole; second, to stop the cycle of repeat of-fenses before there is no escape. Chances are, the ruling class employs these risk groups at or just above minimum wage, so they need a more economical solution than what is cur-rently available to them. One might say “well, these people could live at a shelter.” Shelters tend to be bleak, oppressive institutions which house many of those who have all but given up hope. They may be adequate refuges of last resort, but their nature and atmosphere make them psy-

Tightwad Lodge:A Local Approach to Creating Sustainable Communityby Joseph Cooper

What We Need Is Here.

Wake-up! We are failing because we are divided. We are failing because the ruling class has monopolized the world’s resources against us. People have always grouped together for strength; evolution has devised this. In civilization, poor people must group together for progress. The Occupy movement failed because those who rule are uncon-cerned about protesters while we, the poor, keep feeding the beast. Basically, we have given our power over to the ruling class. Do you want to take it back? It can be done; in fact, it must be done. The tightening noose around our necks will not loosen until we prove to the ruling class we are more power-ful than them by taking control of our lives. And it all starts with the Tightwad Lodge. The ruling class wants to control our food supply, but at the Tightwad Lodge we will grow our own food in green houses. The

ruling class wants us to pay ridiculous prices for clothes, but we will make our own. When we form our own groups and work together to solve our own problems, the ruling class loses and the middle class grows. If every poor person in America donated $5 to the Tightwad Lodge, we could change our nation’s entire direction. We could wake-up to an America where 75% of our citizenry owns the place where they lay their head. Isn’t that worth $5? Through its self-sustaining and self-rep-licating model, Tightwad Lodge proposes we create a place where people can dust themselves off, wade out of their self-pity and despair, and participate in a place that offers them a better start than they had before they fell. If you get a house, you don’t have to pay rent. You control your power source and don’t have to choose the grid. And the Tightwad Lodge can not only help a person stop their endless renting cycle, but also improve their quality of life. With a backyard mini-farm that includes a stone grain mill, a resident can learn basic farming skills. Resident members also conduct all housing upkeep and repairs, providing another avenue of learning and saving. Meanwhile, the Tight-wad Lodge maintains a staffing agency, which enables employment even if a resident loses a job. Through self-sustainable practices, we can regain the power we lost when community cohesiveness, community organizing, and com-munity collectivizing all broke down. When people regain the possibility of controlling their own lives and owning their own property, they begin caring more about community and becoming part of it. The Tightwad Lodge trans-forms possibility into attainability. Together we can positively change our nation’s future. Please donate with your passion so we may begin this great work.

Joe is a friend of Cherith Brook. He has an entre-prenuerial spirit. This is one of his many cre-ative ideas.


Lessons & NotesOn Becoming an Anti-racist Catholic Workerby Eric Garbison

The Community of St. Louis Catholic Work-ers did us a huge favor the moment they began paying close attention to the wounds of their own racial privilege. They did us a favor by addressing it as a community and in their own community. In the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown and Ferguson Uprising, they prodded the Midwest Catholic Workers into their process. They messed with our Faith and Resistance Retreat by hosting an anti-racism training for Catholic Worker communities. Breaking with the tradition they replaced our action-oriented event with a call to focus inward on our communal lives. Putting aside civil disobedience, we protested our racist selves. We’ve talked about racism before, of course. But now more of us are talking about the white supremacist in the mirror instead of some white hoodie out there. I have learned many things from the dialogue in our movement, the national dialogue and, conversations in our com-munity. Here are two lessons that stand out: First, white participation in the black struggle must find ways to be accountable for expressions of white dominance and accountable to black leadership. It must stand behind Black leadership and willing to join Black led efforts. It must be more public and risk taking in its support. I’m currently tak-ing a deeper look at my life-peer relation-ships and rethinking the local organiza-tions and movement where I’m involved. Second, addressing our misedu-cation, our silence, our complicity and our self-deceptions are lessons we must keep learning. We may learn them at one moment in a particular context or during a particular season of life. But as we experinece life changes, new circumstanc-es and new encounters with others we must relearn them. And relearn them again. It also requires exposure to the tools of history, social analysis, cultural anthropology, political theory and cultural criticism. We burden our relationships when we don’t do this work ourselves. Let me add two observations to the list. These are incomplete at best, “notes” that need to be fleshed out. Note One: Because following Jesus makes utlimate claims on our lives we must continue the challenge of giving nuanced faith accountings of racism and anti-racism work. Christian Imagination is essential for our anti-racist work. Our reflections must make

substantial use of theology and scripture in the context of our lives and struggles. There is much to mine from the vast history of Chris-tian communities as well--failures as well as sucesses. Faith can and must work in concert with the tools of sociology and cultural reflections, history and anthropology, etc. Most good theology already does. There are also unique aspects of our story and convictions where secular disciplines fear to tread. Speaking from a fatih perspective is, after all, a matter of affirmation and conviction. If we neglect this voice, prophetic and divine, we may miss out on its power to emancipate us. We may cut short our particular contributions to the public square.

With our faith story shot full of personal and institutional complicity to racism, theological work is fraught with danger. But just as the tools of analysis can be rescued from systemic racism of the social and academic institu-tions of their origin, so the tools of faith are redeemable from the church’s checkered past. They are after all, a form of God’s address to us in our humble human experiences. As People of the Spirit we trust that our faith resources will connect us to the living God in ways that move us beyond our own limita-tions and theirs. There has been some theological reflec-tion; I invite us to do more, go deeper and speak out of our unique experience as Catho-lic Workers. Note Two: Perhaps race and our back-to-the-land movement are more

directly related than it first appears. Dr. Willie James Jennings recently writes, “When early European Christians entered these places, they fundamentally altered the relation of land to peoples. From positions of unimagi-nable power, they renamed the land, reorganized common life, and reformed the ecologies of native peoples. At the heart of this transformation was a world-altering reconfiguration of the relation-ship between land and identity… These European settlers viewed people as separate from land and viewed land for its development potential as pri-vate property. Europeans taught the peoples of the new world that they carry their identities com-pletely on their body, detached from any specific land or animals or agriculture or place… The land no longer spoke of who we are and who we should

or could be. The animals were no longer kindred beings. They became our tools and resources, and we became geographically adrift in the world, seeing places and spaces as undeveloped dirt or sites in transition to becoming some-thing else.” Jennings uses this narrative to inter-pret the church’s predicament: “So church life has grown apart from the earth and the animals, without any deep sense of the places of our meeting and therefore without a real doctrine of creation. The problem for us is that racial faith is constantly energized by our spatial ignorance.” (see his article “Overcom-ing Racial Faith” at the Spring 2015, Divin-ity Magazine, online or his dense book, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race.) How might this issue of race be related to the Green Revolution and recent renewal of Catholic Worker Farms? What if we try to understand it as a long-term goal of heal-ing our racial identities? For the Green

Revolution to contribute to a way forward it would require a longer view, a multi-genera-tional goal coupled with commitment to plow the deeper history of a particular place. Where an indigenous history is totally repressed and buried, unearth it. Where that presence has been eradicated, mourn it. Transplanting urban people of color to the farm would, I think, completely miss the mark. But, perhaps whites resettling alongside indigenous groups, migrant groups or New Americans whose land connection has not been erased might create a new generation born out of shared connection to the land. City folk could contribute by committing more long term to our neighborhoods, a vow of stabil-ity to invest deeply in the place we have been placed. All of this would be watered by a hope that ancient seeds lay ready to germinate for a new age.

Mark Bartholomew


How is a human being, who has lis-tened for years with a dry heart, with-out a tear in his eyes, who sees all this and does not do a thing, whose heart is broken up, whose heart is empty, whose mind is full of words and theo-ries, and full of himself—how is he to make his heart love again?

J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986)

Racism Is Not A TopicBy Miriam A. Zanders

I was very reluctant to participate in the Crossroads Antiracism Training. Racism is not a topic. It is my reality. Racism is a troubling and deeply painful experience that I am forced to live with every day. It is present in every aspect of my life. The training felt like salt poured in a wound. I left feeling raw and ex-tremely vulnerable. It was emotionally agoniz-ing to have a conversation about the invisible shackles around my very being. I did not walk away from racism at the end of that training. I live under a system of racism, and a conversa-tion does not free me from that reality. The laws of this land were not drafted to benefit a subjugated people. All the founding fathers of this nation owned slaves. My fa-thers and mothers were the founding fathers’ property. It was by design that only some would be free. I am of those people chosen to be slaves in the land of the free. Racism is deeply rooted in the foundation of American society. It permeates American culture. It is that denied and unspeakable shame that

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will not disappear. It is the noose around the neck of the nation. We exist together, but we cannot move forward. We hang suspended in a state of denial and disbelief, because most have no idea how to do if differently. How is a wrong lived with for so long corrected? Perhaps it may never be corrected, because hearts have been adjusted to tolerate a griev-ous wrong. I am barely able to find words that ad-equately describe what it is like to live bound up in the chains of racism. I only know the monumental pain of it. The weight of it is so heavy on my soul; it is difficult to breathe. Every deep breath is an awareness of my stolen life. I struggle to live conscious in that awareness; though it might be easier to soldier on in a zombie like existence. Intellect does not soothe the incessant pain. Like trying to fan out a fire, it only spreads. The pain moves through my heart to my soul. It circulates throughout my entire body. The pain forms my very existence. With my mind I attempt to contain the pain. I compartmentalize all the injustices. I try to give each a place so that I am not suffocated, destroyed by an imposed reality. My spirit has known freedom. Therefore, no well constructed deception can make me deny that I am not free. Ideas and civil rights laws have not transformed hearts. And talk just presses on layers of wounds. Within the core of my being I feel all the past. I remember the hunt and captivity. Bodies beneath the bowels of ships live in me. I know the bodies

of my ancestors, beaten, broken, and sold like cattle. Each lash of the whip upon the back of a slave swells up in my conscious. I am linked to the lynchings, rapes, and castrations. I am the present of that horrific past. I am my peo-ple. That past flows through my blood stream and will be passed on for generations. This is a constructed reality that my people have been forced to endure. I wonder who participates in a talk on racism without a tear in her/his eyes. Who sees all this and does not do a thing? What might I expect gathered in a room with those who benefit from my oppression? Will I just get more words and rhetoric to cover over my reality? Will it ever be possible to compel hearts to love? Just as your ancestors saw all that was done, you see today all that is being done. Will what is witnessed ever be horrific enough to bring tears to eyes? Can an antira-cism training compel a heart to love?

Meet Our Trustees

We are proud to have a strong Board of Trustees who serve

us with wisdom, creativity and faith. We are proud of the fact

that they each have come to us as volunteers

From Left: Jodi Garbison, Trustee & resident; Sharon Hannah, Trustee; Rebecca Lindley, Trustee; Louis Rode-mann, Trustee; Eric Garbison, resident; Kelly Hanerholf, Trustee; Garret Brown, Trust-ee; Allison Rozga, resident; Lonnie Welch, resident

Miriam Zanders participated in the Antiracism Training led by Crossroads of Chi-cago. Volunteers of Cherith Brook and members of Second Presbyterian partnered in this experience.


JJ came with her church, Parkville Presbyterian. She said it was better than Worlds of Fun.

Joe Allen SteelesThe Voices of Zambia entertain in the Cherith Brook Cafe Hepzibah Dutt

I went to church last Sunday morning but not how you might think. I spent most of the time in the car chatting with our friend Carl Kabbat. Carl is at the age where he doesn’t say much. He’s got a few one-liners that keep us smiling. If you ask him a question, you might get, “ah hell, I don’t’ remember, huh. I’m O-L-D, right!” Being with Carl you realize he doesn’t need to say much. His life has spoken vol-umes. He is a Catholic Priest and a Plow-shares activist. His vocation is the abolition of Nuclear weapons. Carl is so deeply devoted to this witness he has spent over 17 years in prison over his lifetime. Carl had asked to be taken to 150 highway and Botts Road to spend time in prayer. Its not the site of your typical church. This is the home of the new National Security Campus in Kansas City. There, 85% of non-nuclear parts for modern nuclear weapons are made and updated. A cathedral of Empire, this is one of those spaces where the bomb is worshipped; where those who put their trust in the gods of war pay homage.

Why Carl Kabbat Matters

Dressed in black and his clerical collar, Fr. Carl slowly lifts each leg out of the car, he’s 80 after all. He slides his St. Louis Cardinal’s hat off the dash and onto his head, grabs his cane and brief case and says, “see me tomorrow, maybe.” I watch him through my rearview mirror as he ambles toward the plant’s entrance. Carl will not be worshipping the bomb; he will be professing its evil and proclaiming its demise. This prophet-priest presides at the sacrament of resistance. As I drive off I also begin to pray: I pray for Carl, he is looking feebler this year. I pray that the God of Israel, Creator of the universe will bring judgment on this place of death and obliteration. I pray that the God of Jesus Christ will transform our hearts so we can resurrect our human efforts for goodness. I pray for the church and her complicity and lack of outrage. I confess my sins, my collu-sion in this “dirty rotten system” and pray for the revolution of my own heart. I pray that we will not lose hope, not give up the struggle for a world free from the presence of nuclear weapons. This year Carl’s prayer service was on August 9th, the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb Nagasaki by the United States. Later I learn that he took a baby bottle filled with blood red paint and squirted the large sign at the entrance to the plant. Carl has performed this sacrament of civil disobedience at the new plant enough times

that as the guards approached they called out, “Carl Kabat is that you?” Kansas City Judges don’t know what to do with him. Some say Carl is crazy (he’s dressed up like a court jester for some of his actions). Who are they kid-ding? What’s crazier than mutually assured destruction? What’s more criminal than intentionally designing the annihilation of the Creator’s handiwork? Carl matters the way the Prophets of old mattered—sometimes it takes holy foolishness to remind us of human foolishness and call us back to sanity. As I drive home I think, “I need to attend this church more often.”

Carl Kabbat, April 2015, outside federal court in Kansas City, Mo. Photo by Lu Mountenay

By EricGarbison

Diana and Henri Garbison with their Great-Grandmother Peggy Garbison

Baby Pellegrino volunteering with laundry Extracting honey by hand. We harvested over 40 gallons of honey this season.


Front Row: Caleb Madison, Jodo Garbison Olivia Paschal, Eric Garbison, Allison Rozga Back Row: Elsiabeth Armfield, Josh Armfield, Lonnie Welch, Rodney Saxton, Micah Chrisman, Henri Garbison, Virginia Paschal, Diana Garbison

DJ

Molly Poe The generousity of our donars make this possible

Kim & Kim Tolan

This year’s sweet potato harvest exceeds all expectations! Oh my, OKRA!

Students from Rockhurst join us on our work day

Volunteers at morning reflections.

Mark Whitney

Knox Presbyterian Church serves up BBQ & music

Self service, Cherith Brook style

NaNa is a devoted volunteer and a Poet


The CORE Conflict Resolution Train-ing led by Center for Conflict Resolu-tion (CCR) and hosted by Cherith Brook enlightened me and made me examine myself. Just how well did I handle conflict? Did I relive sticky situations over and over in my mind, or was I looking for ways to resolve or even avoid them? When the class first started, I was still new to the Cherith Brook experi-ence. A group of new faces—some I had never seen before—sat in a circle, each one facing another, not knowing what to expect. We passed around a picture frame that empowered you to speak while others listened and engaged each other and various thought-provoking exercises. My favorite was one where a picture had two faces. The first draw-ing looked like a frog to me, but others saw a rabbit. This reminds us that even if we’re all looking at the same thing, we may each perceive it differ-ently. We were also reminded that conflict not only affects the people directly involved but can also affect others around it, since we are all con-nected in some way to one another. As time passed, the group became smaller and smaller, and the sharing became more personal. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the circle, metaphorically undressing and sharing my most private ideas about com-

A Healing CircleBy LaMark Smith

municating with my neighbors. There were hugs, fears and—best of all—cheers. But for me, the light bulb session happened the day we discussed core beliefs and paradigm shifts. I learned that if I could surround myself with positive people, places, and things; I could be at peace with myself. And if I could be at peace with myself, I could be at peace with others. Conflict resolved! Class dismissed!

Cherith Brook Partnered with the Center for Conflict Resolution to offer a class for neighbors and friends on resolving Con-flicts. CCR provides mediation services and Restorative Justice programs in KC. Congratulations to the following people who received certificates for completing the Conflict Resolution Training:

Pamela Castor, Micah Chrisman, Jimmie Frison, Brandon Funk, Mickel Gillham, Jared Gillespie, Angel Lowe, Caleb Madison, Ra-chel Marek, Tammy Parker, Ellen Rakestraw, Rodney Saxton, La-Mark Smith, Cindy Spruk, Kath-erine Starr, James Sykes, Patricia Wilson, Lois Swimmer.

Utilities - $8079

Hospitality - $5641

Building maintenance and projects - $5092

Gifts - $2151

Transportation - $5155

Food - $1319

Office - $516

Misc. - $2545

$30498

($10166 per quarter)

($3388 per month)

Here it is! The CB financial report for 3 quarters. It’s no surprise that we have enough – more than enough. Once again we have our needs met by many ravens. This report is a financial check-up It gives us a gauge to see how we are doing this year and gives us insight into how we are doing from year to year. We realize it fails to show the provisions that come by way of donations that aren’t monetary. We recognize that you all are a big part of the health of Cherith Brook regardless if you give monetarily. Whether you show up with undies for the clothing closet, consistently welcome people into the café in the morning, attend workdays, provide meals, do a shoe (or anything) drive, accompany someone through a difficult situation, pray for us, send monetary donations, offer words of encouragement, serve as a trustee, make solar dehydrators, engage in transforming discussions, write an article for the newspaper, tell a friend about Cherith Brook, and a whole host of other things, you participate as a raven providing for the needs at the Brook. Thank you so much for making this place a sanctuary for all of us. Because of this collective effort, givers like you, it’s really no surprise that we have what we need!

Cherith Brook Finances(through the first 3 quarters of 2015)By Jodi Garbison

From right to left: author, LaMark Smith , Pam Castor, Patricia Wilson, with facilitator Don Ivans from CCR


Downward Mobility

of Jesus’ life filled with events and teachings of downward mobility as a form of faithful discipleship. However, the gospel narratives are a summary of Jesus’ life, written for a specific purpose that purpose being to make a witness that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfill-ment of God’s promise of a Messiah that will inaugurate a new kingdom, a new reality for a profound life of servanthood and compassion. The gospel has a feeling of either an upward or a downward direction in individual lives. A careful reading shows the men and women who encountered Christ were a mixture of up and down in their discipleship and discern-ment, and muddled through in their disciple-ship and dedication. This happened after they embraced Jesus as the Christ and was part of their faith journey. Then, what might I say in summary? I feel this book is well worth the time to reflect on our spiritual lives in ministry. Acts of compassion and service are essential for the Christian practice of hospitality and offering grace. Whether this requires a commitment to downward mobility, remains for me, a ques-tion with which I will continue to struggle. Continuing in a ministry of hospitality for the disenfranchised and marginalized will always call into question our comforts. The discon-nect between the life of the cross and the life of we live in our complex circumstances will draw us closer to the wonder of God’s grace. and all we might say is “Thank you.”

At the center of Nouwen’s book, The Self-less Way of Christ: Downward Mobility and the Spiritual Life, is the ongoing quest for living a spiritual life based on being a follower of the Jesus Christ. This spiritual life has at its core discernment, discipline and dedication; all premised on a profound relationship with Jesus of Nazareth whom the Christian pro-fesses to be the Christ, the Messiah. Here is a summary of Nouwen’s understanding: Ministry and the spiritual life belong together. Living a spiritual life is living in an intimate communion with the Lord. It is seeing, hearing, and touching. Living a life of ministry is witnessing to him in the midst of this world. It is opening the eyes of our brothers and sisters in the human family to his presence among us, so that they too may enter into this relationship of love. Along with this first assumption which is not too hard to embrace in belief if not in practice, is accepting Nouwen’s assumption that Christ’s ministry was a direction or path that was unlike and contrary to the way the world unusually believes and acts. That direc-tion is toward downward mobility. The gospel narratives are filled with examples of Jesus’ identification with and the care of those who were marginalized by the principalities and powers of that day. He moved comfortably among the powerless and was in conflict with the religious and political power elites. His challenges to the contem-porary Christian are that we follow the same path of downward mobility and reject the idolatry of upward mobility. The challenge I experience in Nouwen’s call to this form of a spiritual life is not with the radical lifestyle embraced by Christ and the invitation to take up our cross in the same manner. I sense this reflects the call Christ of-fers to all disciples and expects our dedication to this life. However, I find myself resisting the notion of “downward” as opposed to “up-ward.” The terms “upward” and “downward” are attached to a notion of a linear world view. In this assumption a person or a movement is moving in one direction and not the other. It is a form of either/or which I find too sim-plistic. In other words, I find my faith lived out as discernment, discipline and dedication as very complex and muddled in belief and behavior. If I read the Bible carefully, many of the characters who become models of faith in the Judeo-Christian tradition are rarely shown as either upward or downward in their spiritual lives; they seem to move in many directions at the same time. I can appreciate Nouwen’s interpretation

Conversation With Henri Nouwenby Joe Carle

Joe Carle is a frequent volunteer at Cherith Brook. We read Nouwen’s book during our morning reflections at the Shower House.

Eric Garbison, Olivia Paschal (below) and Mi-cah Chrisman (below) join Peaceworks’ annual 10 mile Memorial Day march from the old Ban-nister Federal Complex to the new parts plant at 150 hwy that ended in a die-in at the plant’s

entrance (top picture)


Walking the AvenueContinued from page 1 We eventually leave the street corner and head back out onto the Avenue. We pass a diner, where a group of black teenagers is gathered outside of the door. “Y’all under-cover cops or what?” one of them calls at us. We stick around and talk for a few minutes, telling them that no, we’re not cops, that we live in the neighborhood, that we’re just out for a walk. When we leave, we reflect on the encoun-ter. “As white people, when we walk on the streets, particularly the Avenue, people who don’t know us think we’re either undercover cops or evangelists,” says Eric. We all agree that being stereotyped in such a way both-ers us, although it’s interesting for me when one community member, a white male, says that it’s the first time a stereotype has been so blatantly vocalized at him based solely on his gender and skin color. The night before, biking about two miles back to Cherith from a coffee shop, I had been catcalled at least seven times. It’s worse for women who live on the streets, who are often thought to be prostitutes by their neighbors and by the police. “What do these stereotypes tell you about the white people who come into this neighborhood?” asks Eric. “The attitudes and demeanors of people on the street change when they’re talking to people they think are cops or evangelists. They become more for-mal and less open with you. It’s hard to build relationships and understand someone when they believe you have an agenda, religious or political.” As middle class white people, we have done really poorly in attempting to build community and respect with people in these neighborhoods. Street evangelism swoops in and tries to “save” people with their tracts, Bibles, and prayers of dedicating one’s life to Christ with little awareness of the real needs of the community to which they are evange-lizing. We gentrify neighborhoods with no thought given to the communities we force out when we increase the cost of living, com-munities that have been creating families and tradition in this neighborhood for several generations. We treat homeless populations as statistics in need of saving, we set goals of how many people to “lead to Christ,” and we don’t realize that Christ is already here, and that perhaps we are the ones in need of being led to Him. “Did you give me food when I was hun-gry? Did you give me to drink when I was thirsty? Did you give me clothes when my own were rags? Did you come to see me when I was sick, or in prison, or in trouble? And to

those who say, aghast, that they never had a chance to do such a thing, that they lived two thousand years too late, he will say again what they had the chance of knowing all their lives, that if these things were done for the very least of his brethren they were done to him.” (Dorothy Day, “Room for Christ,” adapted from Matthew 25:34-45). Christ is embodied in our friends on the streets. They have had much more to teach me about love, generosity, and kindness than anyone I have come to know at Yale. In many ways they, rather than any Ivy League ideal, are the people whom I should strive to emu-late. But our capitalist, consumerist culture devalues those who are unable to produce or consume material goods. It says that before I build relationships with them, before I learn from them, I should really think about if they’re worth it. If they can’t contribute to the economic system, the capitalist-consum-erist ideology teaches me, they aren’t. That mentality, I realize now, is probably why I had such a violent mental reaction to being cast as a homeless person. Being a homeless person would mean I have no productive nor consumer worth, and mean I am worthless to society. If I felt so devalued during one interac-tion, imagine how those who live on the streets feel every day. No wonder depression and mental illness run rampant through the streets of the Northeast. I could go on, write two thousand more words about our experiences walking the Avenue that day, but my written word can’t convey the full experience of walking the street without at some point forcing itself into a narrative with a moral at its end, and that’s not really what I want to do. I’d like it to leave you with questions, and I’d like to talk to you about the questions it leaves you with as I try to sort out the answers to the questions it left me with.

When Workers Take a Stand...

Olivia Paschal was an intern at Cherith Brook in the summer of 2015 and is now con-tinuing her education at Yale University

Caleb Madison has been working closely with the people’s movement for a liveable- wage

voting of 12-1. The only naysayer was Ed Ford, who said that the increase was too much, too fast, and didn’t want to instill false hopes with GB 722 hanging in the balance. Cheers erupted from a crowd of workers outside; hugs were shared and the celebratory pulse of a better wage was felt throughout Kansas City. The celebration ended up being rather short lived though as a new peti-tion came into fruition, this time enacted by the business group “Missourians for Fair Wages”. David Jackson, the spokesperson for Missourians for Fair Wages, argued that this minimum wage raise would stop an influx of high-paying jobs into Kansas City and ultimately hurt working people rather than help them. Missourians for fair wages initiated what they have liked to call a “people’s veto”, in which they accrued enough signatures (in this case, 4,000) on a petition to put the minimum wage measure on the Novem-ber ballot. Now, if we remember back to HB 722, this measured had to be completely enacted and written in before August 28th, 2015 in order to take effect. Pushing this back to a November ballot measure nullifies the ability to vote on it: if the people of Kansas City did indeed want a minimum wage increase it can’t happen with the passing of HB 722 (except on a state level). This wasn’t a people’s veto, it was a lobbyist group snuffing out thousands of worker’s hopes and labor. This unfortunately brings us to last week’s vote to overturn the minimum wage ordinance, and bring us right back down to $7.65 in our fair state of Missouri. So where do we go from here? As sure as there is blood in our veins, we do not give up the fight to honor the worker’s labor. If the story of this article has frustrated you, as it well should, I encourage you to do something. And something does not count as a facebook post with a frowning emoji, nor does it count as feeling sorry for our city’s dissension towards a fair wage. It means showing up. It means making a little noise. It means telling this council and the state of Mis-souri and the business and restaurant lobbyists that this is not okay. As the state motto says: “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law of the land.”; and we the people certainly need a higher wage to fare well.

Continued from page 1


Shower Needs

Sugar

Creamer

Baking Soda

Dish Soap

Salt & Pepper

Hot Sauce

Toilet Paper

Tissues

Milk

Butter

Rice

Energy Saving Light Bulbs

Stamps

Candles

Canning lids

Bus Passes (31 day & One-Rides)

Post Cards (Postage Paid)

Large Rolling Pin

Tennis Shoes (esp. men’s 9-13)

Jeans & Belts (30-34, 4-6)

Boxers & Panties (S & M, 4-7)

Shampoo & Conditioner

Body Wash/Shower Gel

Spray Deodorant

Stick Deorderant

Razors & Toothbrushes

White Socks (esp. men’s)

Foot Powder

Tampons & Pads

Ibuprofen, Tylenol, & Allergy

Laundry Soap (High Efficiency)

Cold medicine/Cough drops

Antibiotic Cream

Reading Glasses

Winter Coats, Gloves & Hats

Sleeping Bags

Hand and Foot Warmers

House Needs

Publishing a newspaper only 2 times a year means more time elapses and events take place between editions. It’s hard to capture (or even remember) what happened over the last 6 months. Our life and house are very full right now. Af-ter saying goodbye to our summer interns, Olivia and Micah, we welcomed two new folks to our community. Kimberly Hunter is new to Cherith Brook but isn’t new to the Catholic Worker. She lived and worked at the Worker in Florida but most recently moved back to the KC area from New York. After teaching ESL for several years, she is spending time at Cherith Brook in vocation-al discernment. Austin Dey is a seminary student at St. Paul School of Theology. He will be with us until December at which point he will move to Tennessee to continue his education. Both Kimberly and Austin offer a natural presence and welcome in the café space with friends and bring a new level of charm to our hospitality.

We also celebrated Caleb Madison returning to Cherith Brook. He comes not as an intern but a covenanting member. Like the other adults in this community, Caleb has made the commitment to root himself here in this place, with this particular community, doing this kind of work, striving to live simply. We are excited that we get to live life together. Caleb brings a depth, desire and matu-rity beyond his years. We are fortunate! We have the benefit of meeting with Sr. Therese Elias, our spiritual director. This year she is guiding us through the Rule of St. Benedict. What a beautiful, timeless text! We love and ap-preciate our time with Sr. Therese. She offers us insight that rarely happens from within a commu-nity and we are dependent on someone who really understands our particular community disciplines. We have had a great garden season this year! In addition to wonderful food grown to eat and

share, we have an additional method of preserving our food. In years past we have relied mainly on canning and freezing produce for winter. Thanks to Jerry Penland from John Knox Kirk Presbyte-rian Church and Allison, we have a new solar food dehydrator outside. It was completed near the end of the growing season but we have already enjoyed dried apples and bananas from the dryer. In addi-tion to that, we had a beautiful honey harvest this year. (Good work Eric and Chris!) We were able to harvest 3 separate times and had enough to sell. We celebrated Festival of Shelters again this year. We erected 5 shelters in the yard represent-ing different people groups that experience a sense of ‘wandering’. These are groups of people in our neighborhood who experience life on the margins – the place where God is so often found. It was an-other memorable 24 hours experiencing God’s pro-vision of food, shelter and companionship on the streets of Kansas City. We invite you to consider joining us next year for the day or night vigil. Also, we are sending several folks from Cherith Brook to SOA Watch this year. We have participated in years past and are thankful for the opportunity to send a vanload again this year. It’s almost impossible to summarize the full-ness and richness of rhythm and life here over 6 months. Rather than rely on my inability to capture it fully, please come for an extended stay or consider the opportunity to become an intern with us!

House Notesby Jodi Garbison

Kimberly Hunter and Austin Dey take a stand with Standup KC.

Jerry Penland, Allison Rozga, and

the solar dehydrater they built for

Cherith Brook.

Jodi Garbison

Upcoming Events

Our ScheduleWho Are We?

Showers M, T, Th 8 :30--11:00 am

Prayers M, F 6–6:30 am W 7:30-8am T, Th 12-12:15 pm

Community Meal Th 5–7 pm (Singing every other week)

Work Day Monthly, 2nd Sat 9 am–1 pm

Roundtable Discussions Monthly, 3rd Fri 7 pm–9 pm

Community—Cherith Brook is a residential Christian community committed to sharing table fellowship with strangers, and all our resources with one another. We have found our inspiration from the early church and the Catholic Worker. Mercy—Our daily lives are structured around practicing the works of mercy as found in Jesus’ teachings. We are committed to regularly feed-ing the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, visiting the prisoner and the sick in the name of Jesus.

Peacemaking—As followers of Jesus, we understand our lives to be centered in God’s Shalom. Cherith Brook strives to be a “school” for peacemaking in all its dimensions: political, communal, and personal; working constantly to undo poverty, racism and militarism.

These three orbs can be summed up as the struggle to connect with the God of life. We pray that Cher-ith Brook is a space where all of us—the broken—can come to learn and relearn the ways of Jesus; a place to struggle together for God’s call of love, mercy, peace and justice.

Nov 20-22 SOA Watch

Dec 11 Karaoke Christmas

Dec 12 No Work Day

Dec 18 - Jan 3 CLOSEDJan 16 Roundtable, Dr. Vernon

Howard, Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Jan 18 MLKing Celebration

Feb 8 Mardi Gra Celebration

Feb 13 Work Day

Feb 26 Roundtable, TBA

March 12 Work Day

March 25 Roundtable, TBA

Cherith Brook Catholic Worker3308 East 12th StreetKansas City, MO 64127(816) 241-8047

[email protected]://cherithbrookcw.blogspot.com

Mosaic in the kitchen of St. Joseph Catholic Worker House, NYC.

Cherith Brook CW Advent 2015

Documents

e rs o e

n d t h e r

o r d h e w e n t

h d i d

o b e d i e n c ec

i c w o r

e r c y g o s p e

v e n s b r o u g h