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Small group opportunities abound at
Newberg Friends
Pastoral Pondering: Jesus sees everyone's
elephant in the parlor
| Looking to
Scotland church as an example of caring for the poor |
Representatives from Richmond-Craigmiller Church work with
a Newberg congregation |
By Schellene Clendenin, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Schellene at sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com |
Minister Liz Henderson sits forward a bit in her chair when she
describes the work her church does for children and the poverty stricken people of the
community surrounding the Richmond-Craigmillar Church in Scotland.
Henderson, Jessie Douglas and Donna Hastings, on staff at the Scotland church, were
invited by First United Methodist Pastor Jane Shaffer and members of the Newberg
congregation to share the idea that a church should not insulate itself from the world.
Instead, it should work to help those living outside its walls. The women will share their
message with Shaffer’s congregation until Oct. 1 when they return to Scotland.
Considered a dangerous neighborhood by many in Edinburgh, Craigmillar is filled
with small children, 95 percent of whom who have lost close family members and friends to
drug use and suicide, Henderson said. Most of those children, ages 4-12, have no one whom
they can talk to about their losses.
Unemployment is high and government support for the area low, but Henderson mostly
describes her neighborhood in terms of hope.
“It’s a community with heart,” Douglas said.
Shaffer visited the Richmond-Craigmillar Church in October and was impressed by the
congregation’s efforts to help people in the neighborhood.
With only 40 regular members in the church, Richmond-Craigmillar has set up
Richmond’s Hope, the first bereavement center for children in Scotland. Each year for
five years the church has also provided low cost meals and a listening ear to about 6,000
residents of the area at the Richmond Cafe. It also offers a food co-operative to provide
food for those who need it.
And when someone in the community needs something — such as a pair of size 42
black trousers for a funeral — the members of the church do all they can to fill the
request.
Hastings, a child bereavement counselor at Richmond’s Hope, said that while
many feel counseling small children who have suffered the death of a parent, sibling or
friend would be disheartening, she sees her work as hopeful.
Family members of the children are often heard saying the children never speak of
the person who died, even after a year, so the family thinks they are no longer grieving.
But when children are given a chance to talk about the death, and release some of the
grief, Hastings said, “You come out of it with your heart lighter.”
Henderson added that, since many people who die in the area are cremated, there are
few places people can go to grieve. The church’s answer? A memorial copper tree that
looks like a weeping willow. Copper leaves are inscribed with the name of a loved one who
has died and then hung from the tree. Family members can light a candle, pray or just
relax while remembering the dead.
Shaffer, who pastored at the Craigmillar church in the 1970s, said the
church’s work is a good example of how a small group of people looking outward can
become a part of the community and share Jesus’s ministry.
“Jesus called us to take care of the poor,” she said. “More than
anything else, that is what we are supposed to do.” |
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From Sept. 24,
2005, Newberg Graphic
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