The Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace preaches during the opening worship service at the Politics, Benefits and Mission Conference in St. Louis. Photo by Randy Hobson.
The Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis co-chaired the communion table during the opening worship of the Politics, Benefits and Mission Conference in St. Louis. Photo by Randy Hobson.
The Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace preaches during the opening worship service at the Politics, Benefits and Mission Conference in St. Louis. Photo by Randy Hobson.
The Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis co-chaired the communion table during the opening worship of the Politics, Benefits and Mission Conference in St. Louis. Photo by Randy Hobson.
The nearly 300 Presbyterians gathered Tuesday for the start of the first Conference on Policy, Benefits and Mission since the pandemic has done what they love to do most: worship God who has not abandoned them and continues to delight in hearing about their faith journey.
No one can truly tell this story like Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace, co-moderator of 225th General Assembly (2022), whose sermon, “In the Margins and Footnotes,” highlighted the opening worship held in a hotel conference center a few hundred yards from the Gateway arch.
Santana-Grace, who was joined in presiding over the communion table by fellow co-moderator the Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis — each dressed in outfits given to them during their recent travels — spoke about her recent experience with success in climbing the landscape. Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia. The arduous exercise gave her a chance to reflect on what she had seen in previous days while visiting Pacific island nations and communities, including Hawaii, the Marshall Islands and other places seriously facing climate change, affordable housing and other forces. Many are places that no previous PC(USA) moderator has visited.
The people of the Marshall Islands continue to experience the effects of nuclear testing that took place decades ago. The government informed many residents that they needed to move if they wanted their children to grow up healthy, which many did, Santana-Grace noted.
Among her many stops, “I was surprised by how touched I was by their journey, their world seemingly limited by complex realities, and yet there was a movement where they were trying to reclaim possibilities,” Santana-Grace said. The churches there “are intentional and purposeful” with their “resurrection theology, even with the realities” that residents face.
“This is a story that needs to be in the pages that you and I read,” she said. “They accomplish much more than we can ask or imaginefrom the margins and footnotes, where so much of life takes place that never happens in the pages we read.
“I cried when I said goodbye. Their stories led my mind to understand more deeply my own journey, the diaspora of my own ancestors, the people of the islands of Puerto Rico,” she said. “I realize that even though I look good, I still live with the scars and marks of people from the diaspora. My story is also written in the margins and footnotes, seeking to find its way into the pages we read.
Fifteen years ago, the “In the heights» won several Tony Awards. Santana-Grace called the musical “the first time someone spoke about Latino identity in a way that others can also see themselves.”
“My mother also owned a beauty salon. This story was his story in many ways,” Santana-Grace said. His father, whose native Spanish was, learned Greek and Hebrew in English classes at the seminary and was later ordained as a pastor. “Somehow they heard the voice of God saying, ‘Don’t stop, keep going,'” a theme Santana-Grace repeated during her sermon.
“They courageously let God’s voice take them beyond comfort and complacency,” she said of her parents. “Their story found its place at the heart of my story. »
This is “the kind of leadership we are called to in a Church that is anxious and worried about its future,” she said. “Half-hearted order can easily descend into legalism, which lacks the central element of our faith: a relational, relentless love that will literally reach into the depths and say, “I got you!” and bring us back.
As those charged with leading the middle councils and the denomination, “This is an opportunity to take stories from the margins and footnotes and bring them into the pages of the present,” Santana-Grace said . “We will hear voices we have never heard before. We will find Spirit-inspired stories to pursue and accept the sounds in our hearts that say, “Don’t stop! To push on!'”
“God bless us along the way. Amen.”
