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On the foggy Vancouver Saturday morning of January 29th, fifty Anglicans, representing nineteen parishes, gathered at St. Mary’s Kerrisdale, for a day of workshops and information sharing.The day was co-sponsored by the Diocese of New Westminster’s Eco-Justice Unit, St. James’ Social Justice Group and the Metro Vancouver Alliance (MVA).
 
The facilitator/guru for the day, Joe Chrastil (Senior Organizer for the Industrial Area Foundation {IAF} in the US Pacific Northwest), kicked things off by outlining the history of IAF. It began in Chicago in the 1940s, not far from where Upton Sinclair’s novel“The Jungle” was set. Joe explained that “industrial area” was a polite name for a ghetto. The goals of the IAF, are to create effective leaders giving rise to strong institutions that will in turn lead to thriving communities. In its early days, the organization was made up equally of trade unions and faith communities. Barack Obama was trained and mentored by IAF in Chicago.

Next on the agenda, Bill Saunders president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council and an MVA member was introduced. He posed an obvious question: “why work with the labour movement”?He offered the following reasons.

  • there are 70,000 union members in Metro Vancouver
  • unions are becoming increasingly outward looking
  • unions want healthy communities and good relations with others.
  • they are looking for a “bigger idea”
  • unions believe that they have a role to play in tackling today’s issues
  • their core values are similar to those of faith groups.

IAF has spread overseas, and is now well established in the UK, under an organization called citizensuk.org. Next the group viewed a five minute video from a London, England group. This powerful presentation showed how a previously disenfranchised group were able to mobilize sufficient forces to effect significant change. Their aim is to rebuild citizenship. First they ally; then they train; next they hold meetings to find out what people care about, and then they act. Check out the video for yourself: Ken Foster, an Oblate Father and MVA member also spoke to the group. With some satisfaction he related that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vancouver now recognizes the MVA. He gave a short presentation in which he spoke about power, which he defined as “the ability to influence change”. The MVA is all about creating relational power.This type of power is unifying; responsible; life-giving; creative; informed by values & has integrity. He felt that the Pauline approach was valuable: he expressed it thus: “I have control over them. I have power over them, but it is in weakness that I have strength because I have united myself with Christ”.

 The meeting wrapped up with closing comments from the event’s principal organizer and co-Chair of the diocesan Eco-Justice Unit, the Rev. Margaret Marquardt. She emphasized that MVA is seeking a different model for social change, and it all begins with relationships.
 
She recommended three books for those who wanted to continue their learning in this field:

Going Public and Effective Organizing for Congregational Renewal both by Michael Gecan

Roots for Radicals by Ed Chambers.
 
 
This is an excerpt from a larger article which will be published in its entirety in the March issue of Topic.
(In the top image a table group share their thoughts. Below: Joe Chrastil)