Donna Schaper has been the Senior Minister at Judson since December of 2006, formerly in Miami. She delights in ministry and Judson and considers her life purpose "providing spiritual nurture for public capacity." She is the author of 29 books, most recently Grass Roots Gardening: Rituals for Sustaining Activism, from Nation Books.

A Message From Senior Minister Donna Schaper and Assistant Minister Michael Ellick

Crisis, Direct Action, and the Underground Economy
(or, the on-the-ground economy of loaves and fishes)

Nine opportunities have presented themselves to us to partner with people.  Not “help” people.  Not (just) “poor” people.  Think populist partnership with people!  So that we can help each other help ourselves—and those beyond our doors—by a simple opening of our doors.

So far we’ve (1) partnered with unemployed members of our congregation, offering them office space for job hunting and résumé development in exchange for volunteer time at the church (at times grant writing,  graphic design, newsletter writing, etc.).  We’ve (2) extended similar offers to various organizations we believe in; providing them with incubation space for little or no cost.  The short-term returns from such groups are minimal at times, but we write this off as an investment for the future (consider our work with City at Peace—a sort of “Theater of the Oppressed” for at-risk teenagers, where young adults are trained in community advocacy, then go on to write, produce, and perform stories taken from their own lives—and you may see the kind of investment/return we are discussing). Another partner is (3) the Egyptian farmer in upstate New York we’ve formed a Community Supported Agriculture agreement with, providing us with fresh fruits and vegetables delivered directly from the farm each week, in exchange for investment capital, administrative support, and distribution work here in the city.  With this a sliding scale was established among investors, so that those who make more money can subsidize the investment shares of those who make less, who will in turn volunteer time to keep the whole project running (if you’d like to be involved, we’d love to have you; feel free to contact Michael).  Yet another partner is (4) the “Really Really Free Market,” an anarchist/freegan bazaar where everything is traded and everything is free.  When we heard they were losing their home at another church across town we were quick to welcome them here, and in return they’ve demonstrated to all of us how a true underground economy might function without middlemen.  The market takes place on the last Sunday of each month, from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m., in our Meeting Room (55 Washington Square South).  

More partnerships are on the horizon.  This week (5) we’re meeting with an evangelical Christian organization that can deliver inexpensive ($30) boxes of quality food that could last a family for a week and a senior citizen for up to a month.  We’re also working (6) with our extended community of clergy to provide affordable “Rituals for Life” (weddings, funerals, etc.) and free counseling for substance abuse.  Likewise our direct action group saw the lack of affordable entertainment as a particular irony on the island of Manhattan, and has decided to (7) experiment in offering a weekly meal and classic cinema to anyone looking to pass on theater prices (see poster above; talent borrows, genius steals…).  We may even (8) set up an internal catering service to cater our own events, as a “micro-business.”  One last possibility in the pipeline is (9) a “Parents’ Night Out” combined with a “Friday Night School” for our Sunday School kids.  More to come as it unfolds.

  The times are still uncertain. Some of these partnerships will work and some of them won’t.  This is messy work, and there’s no reward for the best theory of social change.  We need trial and error.  We need to Roll up your sleeves and try a few things out.  But partnerships are essential.  Behind the interior call to love and compassion another truth is revealed—that we are stronger working together than we are working apart.  Remember the story where Jesus and his friends had only  a little food to feed a whole lot of people, yet somehow—miraculously—everyone was fed, and there was more than a little left over?  It is our secret belief that some of those people had a little bit of food after all.  It is our secret belief that Jesus did demonstrate a miracle that day, by virtue of his compassionate example, a miracle that transformed all who saw it into free agents of a higher and more cooperative power.  Today we might call it an underground economy, but this is just an outside description of a community of friends working together in faith.  It is our not-so-secret belief that this is how churches were always supposed to work.