A June Meditation from the lighter side: "What's in a name?"
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."~ Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
The wonderful, and I admit sometimes scary, part of being in a movement is that it moves. Those of you who have been reading these monthly missives for years, know that we have discerned our path by walking with the Holy Spirit and each other. We dream, and attempt to BE, a place of welcome, of inclusion, and of empowerment for those whom many churches have undervalued and discarded.
It's no secret among the Coordinating Team of the Church Within A Church Movement that I have found humor in our acronym "CWAC." What many don't know is the reason why I have found the name humorous. Doesn't it seem strange for the name of an organization that is striving for justice on so many fronts and levels to sound like the noise made by ducks? Well, yes.
However, the back story for me comes from my love of Boston sports teams, particularly the Boston Celtics basketball team. Not so long ago, the Celtics dwelled at the bottom of the NBA as perennial failures. Former Celtic great, Cedric Maxwell, was a radio announcer of the Celtic games on a radio station whose signal, rumor had it, was pointed straight out at the ocean - thus, only ducks and ocean birds were said to be able to hear Maxwell's play-by-play descriptions. Maxwell's "quacks" stand for me as both witness to how far the status of the Celtics had fallen, as well as to the lack of respect shown the team. As the Celtics made their way from failure to full success, including a change of radio broadcast station, then going on to win the NBA Finals of the 2007-08 season, Maxwell continued to insert a "quack" here and there in his broadcasts. While I cannot claim to know Maxwell's motivation for continuing to "quack" (usually after a particularly good play), I wonder if there is a reminder of the past in those "quacks," as well as, for me, a statement that the ones who had been last are now first, or at least closer to achieving their goals.
The Church Within A Church Movement has progressed quite a long way from its beginnings almost 10 years ago. As a movement, we have much, much farther to travel.
Our core values and our intent to become an anti-racist organization will continue to motivate us to stretch beyond ourselves to embody a Church where all can equally share both the work and the bounty, a Church where those who have been oppressed, underpowered, underserved, and under-appreciated will find inclusion, power-sharing, and a place to hope, dream, and make a path by walking it with others. CWAC. CWAC. CWAC.