Jenks Remembers

Jenks Remembers

By Todd Endo

This is the first article in a series in Trinity Times based on interviews with Jenks.  In this introduction, Jenks describes his initial responses to my question about the key events and issues in his 40+ years of ministry at Trinity Episcopal Church.  We will follow with both a chronological approach and a thematic approach. For future articles, we ask for your ideas of key events and issues that you wish Jenks to address.  Send your ideas to toddendoarlington@gmail.com and jenks333@mac.com 

Not surprisingly, the first two key events that Jenks relates are personal ones.  Jenks first describes, in some detail, his ordination in the Trinity Church sanctuary, officiated by Bishop John Baden.  He was pleased that the Diocese chose to ordain each minister in his own church in the midst of family, friends, and parishioners.  Jenks remembers:

So many people were here, family and friends from other places. The congregation was here and it was a great celebration. I do very much remember kneeling on the chancel step with the full sense of the other priests who were there joining in the ordination and a very strong sense of the Holy Spirit pressing down on me and saying this is where you're supposed to be! And this occurred with no inkling on my part that this is where I would be for 42 years, or 41 from that point in 1974.  All has unfolded with the power of the Holy Spirit through good times and bad, through the struggles we have had and joyous celebrations. My father's sermon at my ordination was based on the parable of the talents. I hope that I have been faithful to that and the effort will continue because I will retire as rector but not as priest.

Jenks next shared other personal events as fond memories:  the birth and baptism  of his son, Jennings, in 1979 and three years later the birth of his daughter, Berkeley.  He also related the death of his father in 1991 and the following Sunday service at Trinity, at which Sean Kilpatrick gave the sermon on his father’s ministry.  In all of these, said Jenks, he felt immersed in the community of the church, which shared his joys and sorrows.

As important worship services, Jenks highlighted two that extended beyond the Trinity Church community--the traditions of the 11 o’clock Christmas Eve service and the Easter sunrise service.  He recalled that Nels Parson volunteered his land for the Easter service and talked Jenks into it in 1984.  With great peace and joy, Jenks described standing on the hill facing into the sunrise and “celebrating the moment when the women discovered that Jesus had risen.”  About both services, Jenks fondly emphasizes that people from throughout the community attend, not just regulars at Trinity Church.

Also, as part of Trinity’s fun community outreach activities, Jenks listed as two of his key events, the first chancel play by youth in the late 1980s and the ongoing tradition of Vacation Bible School.  He said that the first play was called “Psalty” and featured youth choirs from Trinity and Washington Baptist and a solo for which he was coached diligently by Dawn Fisher, youth choir leader.  About Vacation Bible School, Jenks emphasized the partnership with Washington Baptist Church (and early on, the Methodist Church) and the fact that, for many of the children, the summer week was their only exposure to church all year.  Jenks’ indelible memories of these two youth activities rest heavily on his joy of having fun with kids:  “I love having fun with the kids and that goes back to my original call to share the joy of God.”

Of course, some of the key events on Jenks’ list focus on the programs and structures of the church.  The first he emphasized was the impact of participation in Cursillo beginning in 1981.  Libby Snead, a returned Peace Corps volunteer, wanted to attend the introductory three day retreat and needed the church pastor to attend with her.  So, Jenks agreed to go.  From that start, dozens of Trinity members attended the Cursillo retreats and the follow-up small study groups.  Jenks resonated with Cursillo’s joyfulness in God:

It changed our sense of who we were and how we celebrate God and how we serve God. It had a tremendous effect on me, on Trinity, and on our life together. Cursillo gave me the blessing, if you will, an affirmation of my sense of joy in God. From my earliest time and my early sense of call as a young person, I found God to be fun and joyful.... Cursillo gave me a way to make that fit. It was joyful, it was exciting, and it was based in God.

Moreover, Jenks thinks that Cursillo profoundly and permanently changed Trinity, especially in its commitment to outreach to the local and larger community:

I think that the group reunions with the requirement of weekly talking about piety, study, and action, thinking of our relationship with God became the foundation of the great sense of outreach that this church has today. For the size of our church today we do a great deal of outreach both across the world through formal programs, and locally through the inspiration for each individual one of us to impact the community around us.

Almost twenty years later in 1999 or 2000, pushed by Holly May, Jenks introduced another study group, Education for Ministry, into the life of Trinity.  He said that he had expected, by now, to have passed the leadership of EFM on to someone else, but now will still find it very difficult to let loose of the reins.  Jenks observes that the influence of Cursillo and EFM on the church is seen in by the high proportion of Cursillo enthusiasts who became vestry members, and likewise for EFM members in the last decade.

Finally, Jenks pointed to the crisis of 1979 as a watershed year for the church and for his ministry at Trinity.  He points to this period as a difficult time for the church and for him.  The finances were in the “red,” participation in church leadership and church activities were lagging, and the structure and processes of the church were out-of-date.  Through the help of a consultant from the diocese, Trinity planned for a more dynamic life, involved more people by asking for more and getting more people to say “yes.” A most tangible result was increased church attendance, resulting in getting the church out of a deficit. Working through the crisis of 1979, Jenks ended the string of relatively short-term ministers at Trinity and embarked on his lengthy journey with Trinity Church. 

Climate Change as an Ethical Challenge by Bev Hunter

Climate Change as an Ethical Challenge: 
Religious Creativity and Empowerment for Change 

Conference at Virginia Theological Seminary September 20, 2014
Organized by the Stewardship of Creation Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
 Summary by Beverly Hunter, Trinity Episcopal Church of Washington, Virginia

Three members of our parish attended this conference: Sharon Kilpatrick, Carolyn Emerick, and I.
This meeting was timely for me, as I consider next major efforts and offerings in my own mission for stewardship of creation.  The meeting helped me to dispel some ideas that are unhelpful, reinforced and deepened some ideas I have been working on, and helped me focus on areas of next efforts.  The keynote speaker's thinking also could have implications for Trinity Washington congregation if the congregation wishes to address these matters in a deep way.  For example, there are possible implications for liturgy, local outreach projects, and special forums.

Keynote speaker Willis Jenkins is Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Environment at the University of Virginia. The scope of his teaching and research interests is interdisciplinary with university connections to Religious Studies, Environmental Sciences, Politics, the Bioethics Program in Philosophy, the Environmental Law Program in the Law School, and the Department of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine.
Willis says  that churches must do more than issue official pronouncements against climate change or in favor of specific policies. “Climate change represents a much broader moral and cultural crisis. So the creative, pragmatic action that is needed must show how we can become the sort of people and societies that can bear responsibility for the atmosphere. It’s more than policy.”

His recent book is titled The Future of Ethics: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Religious Creativity.  He interprets  big questions of sustainability and social justice through the practical problems arising from humanity's increasing power over basic systems of life. What does climate change mean for our obligations to future generations? How can the sciences work with pluralist cultures in ways that will help societies learn from ecological change?

Jenkins started his talk by dispensing of some ideas he says are common but not helpful as we look at ethical challenges involved in climate change.  The idea that we must seek a “solution” or a “plan” to climate change is not helpful.  There is not one “solution” either to be found or agreed upon.  The idea that we need “certainty” about climate change, either scientific or moral, is not helpful.  The question is, what is ethical in a world where humans now play a role in atmospheric behavior?  Religious communities should be openly examining these ethical questions in many forums and in liturgy.

Further, he says it is not helpful to say we need “world view change” in order to address climate change or ethical challenges.  That is too hard of a challenge, and probably is not helpful from a cognitive standpoint either.  There is no true false solution.  Climate change is a “wicked problem.”  It is complex, on multiple scales temporally and geographically.  There is no central authority.

As I heard Willis, I understood him to say that focusing on climate change deniers is not helpful.  We are all in everyday denial in our lifestyles, behaviors, investments, infrastructure.  Better to focus on tactics that will create positive directions to move in, rather than abstract arguments against deniers.

Some ethical questions to ask are:  What is the global allocation of responsibility when we have dispersed causes and effects?  There is a perverse asymmetry of interests and impacts.  There is also the intergenerational dimension.  Cause and effect are dispersed over time.  There is ineptitude.  We lack concepts and institutions.  The whole problem exceeds cognitive and political capabilities.  There is radical inequality between human impoverishment and energy development.  How to allocate ownership of the sky?

His questions are:  What is the implication of climate change and what role can religion play?  We need “moral creativity” with potential to negotiate uncertainty.  For example, the practice of “love your neighbor”.  Where is love in a global scene?  In the West, we ask “What is our idea of justice, not just among people but all of creation?  In the East, we ask “Bring us into communion with all nature.”  In the Global South, we say “Polluters should be held accountable.” 

Willis advocates examining and acting on specific tactics.  In the examination example, he discussed divestment.  Divestment is a tactic and a movement.  The idea is to divest from assets in fossil fuel companies.  This might be akin to slave holders joining the abolitionists.  But slavery is morally wicked.  Burning fossil fuels is not inherently wicked.  In that regard it is different from slavery.  Should church divest?  If so, you must state your terms of the engagement.  What terms are demanded of the companies you are divesting?  What is the possible desired future you are seeking?

A tactic Willis mentioned briefly, that is of special interest to me, he describes as “Food as sacrament of new life.”  Invest in changes in a way of life, in how food is produced and distributed.