by Erin Cox-Holmes

"I want to talk about borders and centers, insiders and outsiders, who belongs and who doesn't," Machado said, referring to Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan who aids a wounded traveler. The Samaritan didn't just ask religious questions, she said, and wasn't just a "do-gooder." He was practicing Samaritan theology, which combines works of mercy and risk-taking - standing with, not only for, the one left for dead.

Machado, the first Latina ordained in the Disciples of Christ and a professor at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, TX, illustrated her message with a story from her own life. When she was mugged at knife-point, she said, she was a victim - silent and powerless.

Machado spends much of her time with silent and powerless people living in shadow communities along the Texas-Mexico border.

The Latinos who live in these towns - even those on the Texas side - often live without running water or sewer systems. Even though many are second-generation U.S. citizens, their per-capita income is around $4,000. They live on the margins: economic, social, political - and religious.

She said these desperate borderlands are in part a byproduct of "globalization," which sustains a consumer economy that rests on the backs of workers who are trapped at the bottom.

Machado called for "acompañamiento," which means joining in another person's journey.

"It moves into the theological space which rejects human alienation as our base reality," she said. "A person becomes a person through other persons." Being in this kind of relationship can be heart-breaking, she said, but it pays off in hope and hospitality. "We react with joy," she said, "instead of fear that those who have come in will take over."

Machado's audience responded with laughter and clapping when she pointed out that "one does not need permission from a denominational authority to do works of justice and mercy."

Rick Ufford-Chase, the moderator of the General Assembly, spoke briefly, sharing a moving story about his own border-ministry experience. He later retook the floor to admit, "I just made the biggest gaffe since I was elected moderator - when I failed to introduce to the Voices of Sophia the woman who will function as co-moderator with me."

He said he and Peacock will share the moderator's ministry equally, creating a new model. Then he retired as gracefully as possible, saying, "Now I'm going to get out of the way so she can speak."

That brought the biggest ovation of all.

Voices of Sophia is a group of PC(USA) feminists working to transform the church into a "discipleship of equals."