Tough economic times are ahead for 1-in-5 Oregonians in crisis

In Oregon, the Great Recession has had a dramatic impact upon residents. About one in five people depend upon the state for assistance in order to make ends meet. Approximately 635,000 people relied on state-supplied health care last year.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of seniors, children and people with disabilities were also supplied with necessary support. As the year draws to a close, though, the next state budget looks like it's going to fall short of what it takes to provide the same level of service again.

Even if the Oregon spent every dollar of new revenue it is projected to have on providing for residents, as it has in the past, it would still come up about $200 million short of the mark. Adding to the troubles of the state is that about $1 billion of federal stimulus money that supports the state's Dept. of Human Services will dry up on July 1st, 2011.

The New York Theological Seminary is an institution dedicated to diversity, multiculturalism, social justice and racial tolerance. The mission of the seminary is to prepare men and women, from every background, for careers in ministry.

NYTS Student Helps Serve Justice to Restaurant Workers

New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) has always supported diversity and issues of gender equity. Topics of discussion at a recent Gender in the Workplace Summit where panelist Manhattan Deputy Borough President Rosemonde Pierre-Louis summed it up, “we need to create buzz and build allies to create change.”

The Restaraunt Industry Coalition, in tandem with Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), hosted the event at La Palapa Restarant. NYTS student Prabhu Subramanyam is also a case manager for ROC-NY. Like so many of our students, Prahbu combines his education with his work at ROC-NY.

“It is unfair,” says Prahbu, ”that we cry out for justice in the church and in government, yet we don’t seek justice here in the least expected of places, with workers in the restaurant field. We want service and a smile, but we do not understand what workers in the workplace go through behind kitchen doors; sexual harassment, verbal harassment, and minimum wage. We must do something about this.”

The summit demonstrated the prevalence and impact of gender inequality in the New York City Restaurant Industry and provides best practices that can foster equality and greater opportunities for all workers. In tandem with the summit ROC-NY handed out a report titled “Waiting on Equality: The Role and Impact of Gender in the New York City Restaurant Industry.” Other panelists included Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, Council Member Diana Reyna, Colors Restaurant Manager Loretta Pang, and La Palapa owners Margaritte Malfy and Barbara Sibley.

'The Politics of Jesus' speaks to realities of faith and the world

The Rev. Dr. Obery Hendricks took part in an interview with The Center for American Progress during 2007.



The Politics of Jesus was written by the Rev. Dr. Obery Hendricks Jr., a professor at the New York Theological Seminary. It was released by Double Day, New York, in 2006.

In Politics, Dr. Hendricks speaks to the Christ of this world, who wants for human justice; the physical, psychological and spiritual care of people; and understands and resides side-by-side with those who struggle against poverty and oppression. That God is among us in our pain is made clear by Dr. Hendricks. In Politics, Hendricks speaks to difficult topics that people are sometimes reticent to bring up.

In Dr. Hendricks' book, Jesus is not seen through the lens of the privileged, dressed in a robe of sunlight. Rather, Jesus is the Christ of is of flesh, blood and spirit; who is man and God seeking to return humanity to the kingdom through justice and the human revolution of the heart.

The Politics of Jesus speaks to issues of race and class; economic warfare; and the physical needs of our brothers and sisters (of every background) in the context of the word of God.

Inevitably, in examining the ministry of Jesus Christ, politics and human interaction and relations it becomes a matter of the political. And, this book not only acknowledges it but takes it on full-speed, in a scholarly but realistic way.

Attending to the Youth is a Justice Issue for the Next Generation

Pulpit Survey

One of the joys that comes with being the President of New York Theological Seminary is in receiving numerous invitations to guest preach in churches.  Many of these are urban congregations who partner with the Seminary in one way or another.  Week after week I get to stand in a different pulpit and look out upon a new congregation.  While it is by no means a scientific survey, I get to see a number of trends and patterns emerging over time in urban church life.

Personal Concerns Over Social Issues

A number of commentators have noted in recent years what I would call the inward turn in urban ministry and urban church life.  I don’t know how many pastors have told me that their members want them to talk more about personal spiritual concerns in their sermons and not be preaching so much about prophetic justice or transformation.  “My people need help with day-to-day management issues,” one minister told me.  “They don’t want to hear about social issues in my sermon.”

Urban Youth Programs Strong

While this may be a general trend in the culture, one place where I have seen an opposite pull is related to urban youth.  There is a new emphasis in churches on urban youth leadership training, evidenced in the strong turn-out for programs such as the Latino Leadership Circle’s Urban Youth Leadership Training program which has been going on for several years.

Reinforcing Youth in Worship

At Good Will Baptist Church in the Bronx, where I preached several weeks ago, the Rev. Dr. Booker Sears identifies young people in the congregation by name during the Sunday morning service and talks with them about their successes as well as challenges in public school each week.  The fact that there are young people in the Sunday morning worship service in the church is itself an important sign of health as far as the future of the congregation goes - to say nothing of the future of the church universal.

Urban Youth the New Social Justice

I wonder if addressing concerns of urban youth is not the new social justice frontier in urban ministry.  Churches are organizing around issues of education and health care for children.  Intervention programs for so-called “at risk” youth, such as “Uth Turn” in New York City are manifestations of a deeper realization that caring for the well-being of youth is a justice issue, to say nothing of taking care that the church will survive for another generation.

Dale T. Irvin is the eleventh President of New York Theological Seminary and Professor of World Christianity. He is the co-author with Scott W. Sunquist of History of the World Christian Movement. Dr. Irvin is also the author of Christian Histories, Christian Traditioning: Rendering Accounts (Orbis Books, 1998), and The Agitated Mind of God: The Theology of Kosuke Koyama (Orbis Books, 1996), which he edited with Akintunde E. Akinade.