Presbyterian Outlook webinar focuses on a ministry of presence going on in the nation’s capital
Commuters and others appreciate Presbyterians praying and listening to folks at Metro stations
LOUISVILLE — After reporting on the ministry of presence provided during the past few weeks by churches in National Capital Presbytery and by the presbytery, the Presbyterian Outlook held an informative webinar Wednesday to give voice and hope to ministry going on in the DMV — the District of Columbia and portions of Maryland and Virginia.
Jesy Littlejohn, the Outlook’s social media producer, hosted the 45-minute discussion, which can be viewed here. Their guests were the Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe, transitional director of congregational development and mission at National Capital Presbytery, and Shani McIlwain, a ruling elder at Faith Presbyterian Church in southwest Washington, D.C.
The webinar explored the ministry response by Presbyterians and others to the Trump administration’s ordering of more than 2,000 troops to the nation’s capital to, according to Trump, drive down the District of Columbia’s crime rate.
Presbyterians have been showing up with signs, clergy collars, and open hands and hearts to pray for and with their neighbors in the DMV.
“As a church,” McCabe said, “we need to be doing the most amazing, intentional, strategic, delegated pastoral care that we have ever done before.” The pastoral and compassionate care being offered “is direct and responding to the people with the ache,” she said.
McIlwain woke up one morning recently with her stomach in a knot because her 17-year-old daughter was getting her makeup done for her senior pictures at school, which required a trip on the Metro. “This is what you need to do as you make your way to school,” she told her daughter, who attends a school that has a 70% Latino-a student population. In March, students witnessed their classmate’s parent being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. “What am I supposed to do?” their classmate pleaded with the officers. “I have four sisters.”
“Good Presbyterians don’t always see the conflict,” McIlwain said. “We hear about it, but we don’t always see it in our face, where we have to decide what side of history we want to be on.”
“I have learned,” McIlwain said, “that protest and resistance and doing something doesn’t always have to look like getting a picket sign and marching. It can be being present, and I thoroughly appreciate the ministry of presence.”
“What does a ministry of presence look like right now?” Littlejohn asked. “How do we do that in a way that’s not performative?”
For McCabe, it’s showing up in a stole or clergy collar with signs that say “Grateful for your work” or “We see you” or “Prayers for you.”
“You’d better be ready to have somebody coming forward asking for prayers,” McCabe said, calling the ministry “private witness in a public way.”
People coming up the escalator off the train “would see us with a sign and do a double take,” McCabe said. “They are saying ‘thank you’ with grief or amazing gratitude, because they never expected to be seen that way.”
“We are coming to them,” McCabe said. “We aren’t waiting for them to come to our churches.”
“Part of being in the presence of people is not always having an answer,” McIlwain said. “We want to fix something right away, but what we are fighting is not a right away, fixable thing. It requires us to humble ourselves and just be there in that moment.”
“That’s the biggest reorientation I have found,” McCabe said. “Being intentional about being there in that moment with that ache and grief does not discount how you can be effective in the fuller sense of evangelism.”
“People say, ‘can you pray for me?’ The next question after ‘thank you’ is, ‘what church are you from?’” McCabe said. “I have just been invited into their day. I want our churches to be ready.”
McCabe said the first question out of the mouths of those engaging in such ministry should not be, “Do you go to church?”
“That’s not why I’m here,” she said. “People are drawn to the pastoral care.”
Littlejohn said that’s how they often feel “when churches and ministry members show up to Pride.” They then asked McIlwain about Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that immigration agents can resume roving patrols in the Los Angeles area. “How do you need us to show up?” Littlejohn asked.
“A city [such as Washington, D.C.] that is overwhelmingly liberal and very diverse, it’s hard not to see the writing on the wall,” McIlwain said. “This threat to democracy — I hope everyone knows that you’re next. If you’re not the target today, you’ll be the target tomorrow. It’s important to recognize that and call it out.”
“Over-policing has never worked to combat crime,” McIlwain said. “You want to end crime, end poverty.” McIlwain gave a shoutout to organizations including Free DC, which among other services is offering residents know-you-rights training.
“As a white colleague, I also need to make sure I’m being invited” before offering herself as part of a ministry of presence, McCabe said. “When we’re not invited and we just show up, I might do some harm when I say what we should be doing right now. I have to take very seriously what it means in my authentic relationships,” including “checking in with local community partners.”
“We have ways to authentically check in and say, ‘where do you need me most right now?’” McCabe said. “I have a dream that with the increased witnessing going on right now and the collective connections being made in our presbytery, I am hoping there will be a way to connect with colleagues outside of DC.”
McIlwain called the government workers being served through the ministry of presence “regular people trying to do the job they took an oath for.”
“I think that narrative gets missed so often,” McIlwain said. “We want to put people in a political box, and I’ve had enough of that. These are people who want to do right for themselves and their faith and the people they are trying to serve.”
“That’s why it’s personal for us in the DMV,” McCabe said. “Pastors and sessions have people who do not feel safe at multiple levels. The things they counted on — employment and trust for the government — that now is a blanket of unsafety.”
“It’s not going to hit the way you want it to,” McCabe said. “But it’s mattered significantly to the people who colleagues are meeting and seeing.”
“You get on public transportation carrying a sign. That has been where real conversation has happened,” McCabe said, adding, “I am very much holding colleagues close in other parts of the country who are being threatened. We know it’s not going to stop. Congregations are missing people from their churches, and that’s where I cry the most.”
“They are missing their people who are being targeted because of their status in society.”
“I’m so thankful to both of you,” Littlejohn said, “for helping us imagine a world that’s more Christ-centered and justice-filled.”
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
