Paul Otto Manz (1919—2009)Esurientes implevit bonis

“God has filled the hungry with good things…” Luke 1:53

When I was half my age, literally, a twenty three year-old student, a guest recitalist visited the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Being a chapel organist there (and not because I played poorly this virtuoso’s complexly notated works), I was recruited to be a driver for Dr. Paul O. Manz.

I recollect explicitly being frozen with fascination, in the presence of this dignitary, the dread of driving a legendary musician to his appointments. More than anything, I will never forget the dignity this gentleman showed to me, literally a poor seminarian. I know what it feels like to be judged unjustly or pre-judged. I felt not a scintilla of that from Dr. Manz. His faith lived out Martin Luther’s comment on this text from Luke; that we should “neither cling to the high and rich nor fly from the poor and lowly.” Too many people “judge according to outward appearance; therefore, they often err” (Luther’s Works, “The Magnificat” page 52).

I guess I did “cling,” so to speak, to Professor Manz—in admiration for what he taught us, his immense contribution to Lutheran spirituality and to the worship of the church catholic. A long-time favorite quote of mine comes from Manz’s take on our calling to pursue whatever things are excellent:

“We are as restless as we are ruthless in search of excellence.
We reserve excellence for our God. Only the best will do.
Only that which lifts us to the cross,
the heart of God exposed, is good enough.”

A master of improvisation, Maestro Manz exercised creative fidelity—though grounded in traditional hymnody, he yet pushed the edges of composition and performance. I imagine hearing Manz to be akin to hearing, in his day, that master of contrapuntal invention, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685—1750).

In Latin, from the Luke’s Magnificat, a phrase I have come to love is this: Esurientes implevit bonis—“God has filled the hungry with good things.” In Bach’s setting, Mary’s lilting soprano dances with flutes: we hear hungering ones filled with good things, searching ones delighting in a surfeit of satisfaction, aching ones finally finding comfort. Today, we might say, grieving ones being filled with Christ’s grace to bear through their loss.

Prior to the death of Paul’s Ruth, his wife of 65 years, in the summer of 2008, my dear colleague, Joanne Negstad and I were received into the Manzes’ cozy apartment by Mary Bode, their daughter. We laughed at very old stories, talked about very good and bad music and learned many new things that enchanted Minnesota afternoon. But years before I came to Lutheran World Relief, long before I met Dr. Manz, he and Ruth became donors and supporters of LWR. They who filled ears and hearts with songs from God also contributed to fill with food people living in physical hunger throughout the world.

For these hands that provided beauty for our souls as well as bread for the poor, now thank we all our God!

(Follow this link to listen to a 2001 public radio interview with Manz)

Philippines Bracing for More Flooding

REUTERS/CHERYL RAVELO, courtesy www.alertnet.org

Yet another typhoon is headed toward the Philippines—the third typhoon in the last four weeks. When the storm hits, it will bring heavy rain to already flooded communities. Help us deliver aid quickly. People will need food, water, shelter, and sanitation. Please give today.

Craftswomen of Compassion—and a Few Men Too!

St. John Lutheran Church in Darien, IL celebrated its 150th anniversary on Sunday, October 18, 2009. More than five years ago, prior to my joining Lutheran World Relief, St. John invited me to speak for this event. Bev Grimme, the anniversary chairwoman, must have a special prophetic gift to plan in advance this superbly—to have me, a speaker from an organization with a mission to end hunger, speaking in a congregation that undertakes dynamically so many mission projects that do the same.

One group within St. John that enacts this gracious compassion is the quilters. Taking scraps of fabric and strips of otherwise castaway material, they make beautiful and life-giving blankets. And such is the case in hundreds and hundreds of church basements and workrooms like this one all over the United States; craftswomen (and a few men, too!), from their hearts overflowing with Jesus’ love, work with their hands to create tangible symbols of hope.

LWR will deliver nearly half a million quilts this year to those in crisis or poverty to function as flooring, walls, blankets, baby bedding, or as a way to wrap earthly possessions when oppressed people are driven into refugee situations. There are many other uses as well. What remains remarkable to me is the amount of background work that goes on in advance of this quilt-making. Supplies must be secured. Material needs to be sorted, categorized and stored.

And check out how well-ordered is this quilting room at St. John, with two pastors’ wives standing alongside: Monique, my wife, and Gerry Kirst, the wife of the emeritus pastor of St. John, Donald Kirst.

A Call to Defend

In the U.S., we are promised the right to freedom of speech, allowing us to speak out on issues that affect us and peacefully protest to bring about change.

For religious-leaders-turned-human-rights-activists in Colombia, the basic rights we enjoy are activities that can cost them their lives. In the increasingly violent tug-of-war between the Colombian military, guerillas, and paramilitary groups , the clergy are the thread that holds the social fabric of the people together. People who have been forced from their ancestral land. People caught in the crossfire of conflict. People who are afraid but look to their faith and pray for a better day to come.

The undertakings of these brave religious leaders and activists, of course, come with great personal risk. The Colombian government offers them little protection from paramilitary groups who seek to control the land and the people. Threats, intimidation, disappearances, false accusations and murder are all parts of their daily realities.

Not surprisingly, paramilitary groups who employ intimidation and violence to gain control have few scruples about where they carry out their violent work. Not even the walls of the church are safe. This year alone there are hundreds of reports of kidnappings, beatings, threats, and murders. In one particularly disturbing case, a pastor was murdered in his own church in front of his own congregation.

In this respect, God’s house is under attack. But we can help defend it.

Using our voices, we can urge our government to act to protect these brave church leaders and the work they do to bring peace to the people of Colombia. We can ask our elected officials to ensure that the money we send to Colombia is not used to support a military that has ties to paramilitary groups that terrorize its own people.

We can ask that funds instead be used to support development, protection programs, judicial reform and other activities that strengthen Colombia.

We can ask that our government use its leverage with Colombia to demand that the Colombian government investigate these cases of violence and that they make the protection of churches and their communities a priority.

Will you do it? Will you put out the call to protect people and houses of faith? Join LWR in urging our leaders to take action to protect the people of Colombia and the senseless deaths of its religious leaders.

Please join us in speaking out against this blatant violation of human dignity.

Celebrating Lutheran Community

You may have heard the term “six degrees of separation” once or twice your life—it is the theory that every person in the world is connected to every other person in the world by no more than six human relationships.

Lutheran World Relief is connected to some surprising people by far fewer links. As building staff and guests gathered on October 2 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Lutheran Center at Christ Church here in Baltimore, it became apparent how, through the agencies in this building — LWR, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Services in America and the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the ELCA — Lutherans are connected to people all over the world.

One of the reasons LWR and its sister organization LIRS moved to Baltimore from New York in 1999 was to be closer to Washington, closer to the legislators and government officials whose decisions affect so many with whom we work. One of those lawmakers, Congressman John Sarbanes’ (D - 3rd District) connection to the Lutheran Center was much deeper than that of an elected official to a building in his district. Sarbanes, who joined us for our 10th anniversary celebration, was once the lawyer for former Lutheran Center occupant Diakon Lutheran Services.

The association has clearly affected him. “With so much going on in the world,” the Congressman said, “it is easy to become despondent…to yield to despair. Organizations like the ones working in the Lutheran Center make you feel like you are making progress against all odds.”

As our keynote speaker, we were blessed to host the Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. Dr. Noko shared how, from his perspective, we are all connected through global service and mission and especially through the organization of the Lutheran World Federation.

And that organization is far reaching, connecting many different people from different backgrounds and often with differing views of the world. At one turn, Dr. Noko told us about communities in Mauritania that struggled to plant the trees needed to preserve the environment and at the next, Dr. Noko spoke of Muslim cancer patients in Jerusalem who receive life-saving care in an LWF hospital. These communities are also connected—by the umbrella of Christ’s love and compassion and professed in faith through your support of organizations like Lutheran World Federation, and the agencies here in the Lutheran Center in Baltimore.

We are more than Lutheran organizations—we are your organizations and we exist because of your faith and action.

Together we give thanks to God for the last 10 years of service and partnership and look forward to many more years ahead.

Guest posting from Loretta Ishida, Technical Advisor for Emergency Monitoring and Evaluation with Catholic Relief Services. She served on the LWR board from 2000 to 2006.

"Here in Padang, the capitol of West Sumatra in Indonesia, I’m sitting with a mixed team of over 30 people from all over the world and around Indonesia who work for various Caritas entities from different countries (CRS is part of that international network of Catholic charities devoted to reducing poverty and campaigning for social justice). We are sitting in a hot cinder block building, which I understand is a Sunday School under normal circumstances. Off on one side, roasting spices make us cough as some women are constantly cooking to feed the crowd. The group meets every night at 9:30PM to review the day’s activities: traveling to distant villages to see how the earthquake affected them, receiving shipments of tarps, or distributing hygiene kits to affected villages. Most work past midnight, the begin again early the next day.

Since joining the CRS Emergency Operations team in January, I’m working on my third emergency, and working on the Indonesia earthquakes is the first time I’m in the midst of the early days where relief agencies are trying to respond while still trying to understand the full extent of the disaster.

While my friends are amazed at my visits to interesting places across the globe, I actually end up sitting in an office and don’t see much of the country. The field operations are left to national staff and partners and my role is to support them. But I have had the same impression every time – how proud I am of our staff and partners for the dedication and thoughtfulness they put into their work. I might reluctantly leave my husband and two small children for three weeks, but many of my colleagues are away from home for several months, working long days with very few breaks.

Having been on the side of being a helpless observer of a distant tragedy, I often felt that a small donation to organizations like LWR or CRS may be an insignificant contribution. Even as part of the response team, I don’t feel like I’m doing much. But I have seen all of the human resources that are mobilized to respond as quickly as possible, while being very thoughtful about reaching the most vulnerable with the best assistance. And I’m only part of the Catholic response! Other ACT member organizations (including LWR) and a host of other NGOs and government entities are also doing their part. It feels crazy and confusing to a novice like me, but there are many experienced hands and it’s amazing to work with them. We’re all a part of a greater effort and every little bit counts!"

LWR has a permanent team in West Sumatra, and thus, we were able to react quickly to the recent disasters in Asia. LWR is responding to these crises by working directly with partners on the ground and through our membership in the Action by Churches Together (ACT) International global aid alliance.

In the Philippines, LWR is working with partners to distribute food and supplies to 17,000 families in and around Manila. In Indonesia, we are working with local partners to deliver food and supplies and to provide psychological support to people who have been traumatized by the disasters.

For more information, please visit: lwr.org/news

Thank You!

Today some colleagues and I had the great honor of visiting The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod International Center in St. Louis, to thank The LCMS for 64 years of partnership with LWR. Our relationship and partnership is like Peter's words: imperishable, indefiant, and unfading.

What a great day, from sharing worship together during morning chapel, to sharing some sweet fellowship over Fair Trade Divine Chocolate from the LWR Chocolate Project! In the photo, Matt Harrison, Executive Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, and Gerald Kieschnick, President of The LCMS, join me in front of the LWR display.

Thanks, LCMS, for your partnership over the years. We're looking forward to many more good years ahead.