O ctober 26, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age B 6
IGION
Catholic Social Action
Community
Reinvestment
A m erican
S ta te
Bank
Promotes Stability in North-
Northeast Portland, Helps A
P aster S ecure a C hurch
Building
Lamont Tellis was called into
the ministry at the of 16. He began
his Pastorate in 1986, two years
before he retired from the Oregon
Air National Guard after a 25-year
career in the United States Air Na
tional Guard.
Having his ow n church to reach
out to and serve some of the 56,(XX)
residents of N orth-Northeast Port
land has been a long-time dream of
Reverend Tellis. The dream--to pro
vide a place of worship, to strength
en families, to develop innovative
approaches to attack low em ploy
ment, to provide entry-level job
training and community day c a re -
come perilously close to disinte
gration.
Reverend T ellis' dreams pro
vide a foundation from which will
emerge the reality of a stronger
community. His is one more re
spected voice emphasizing moral
and ethical principles, which will
speed the cure of our nation’s in
ner-city afflictions: teenage preg
nancies, drug abuse, gangs, ever
increasing violent crimes, family
dissolution, high school drop outs.
As the oldest, most influential
community controlled institution,
the Black Church, through Pastors
like Reverend Tellis, will energize
the Black institution best able to
motivate our community to address
the inner-strengthening needs of its
residents: pride, self-worth, self re
spect, hope, and determination.
Reverend Tellis pursues a quest
to build an environment where peo
ple can motivate themselves. His
church will become another build
ing block that helps to foster com
munity-controlled solutions to com
munity problems.
Reverend Tellis visited numer
ous lenders, discovering that they
wanted to lend only to asset-heavy
churches w ith lo ng-established
banking relationships. With less
than three months remaining on his
lease-purchase option. Reverend
Tellis had received no encourage
ment from any lenders. The owners
of the facility were also growing
uncertain, feeling that maybe they
should maintain ownership.
A Friend urged Reverend Tellis
to meet with Venerable F. Booker,
Chairman of Portland’s only Afri
can American-owned bank, Amer
ican State Bank. Mr. B ooker's will
ingness to work with Reverend
Tellis to find ways to put together a
financial package that made sense
for Reverend Tellis, the com m uni
ty, and American State Bank, is at
the heart of what community rein
vestment should be.
Today, because an American
State Bank loan backed its faith in
Reverend Tellis vision. Reverend
Tellis has a church building. The
former McKinney Temple Church
of God in Christ located on N.E.
17th and Alberta has become a place
of worship for the Good Samaritan
Church of God, a branch of Church
of God based in Cleveland, Ten
nessee.
What American State Bank did
with Reverend Tellis is what bigger
banks should do with inner city
m in o rity -o w n e d b an k s a cro ss
America. Form teams to expand
credit opportunity, to strengthen
inner-city institutions and commu
nities.
Large, outside-the-communi-
ty banks should team up with small
er minority-owned banks, which
have spent a generation or more
serving an area most other busi
nesses ignored. M inority-ow ned
banks know inner-city communi
ties. They know the marketplace.
Creative risk-sharing alliances be
tween community-rooted minori
ty-owned banks and big non-com
m unity banks w ill bring solid
progress to inner cities.
Alliances like this across our
country could mean in inner-urban
areas not only more churches, more
fam ily-oriented credit, but more
jobs and more opportunities, and
stronger community-based finan
cial institutions. That will bring
stronger nation.
“Sharing Stories of Catholic
Social Action: A Legacy of Hope"
will be the theme for this year's so
cial action celebration. Held in hon
or of the late M onsignor Thomas J.
Tobin, this annual event provides
opportunity for reflection on Catho
lic social teaching. This year’s theme
looks at the men and women who
shaped the legacy of Catholic social
justice here in western Oregon. The
Tobin event will be held at All Saints
Catholic Church, Parish Hall, 3847
N.E. Glisan, Portland on Thursday
November 17 from 7:30p.m . to9:30
p.m.
Father Bernard Sander, OS B w i 11
be the host for this year’s event.
Father Bernard is a monk of Mount
Angel Abbey. He has been a priest
for 50 years, and has served as Vice-
Rector and Rector o f Mount Angel
Seminary and Guest Master at the
Mount Angel Abbey Retreat House.
He is a long time advocate of encour
aging participation in social action
programs.
Kay Reid will explain and give a
brief overview of the “Legacy Hope”
project. It is an oral history project
reflecting on the challenges and suc
cesses of socially just structures in
western Oregon. Kay has been in
volved injustice and peace projects
for several years. She is also the
Awards and Fellowships coordina
tor for Literary Arts, Inc., a nonprofit
organization that helps support O re
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
Every single day 2,400 babies
are born poor in America. Every
single night 100,000 children
in America have no beds of
their own to be tucked into.
And those numbers are getting
worse.
The U.S. Census Bureau, in a
report just released, tells us that there
are more poor Americans today than
there were last year and the gap be
tween the rich and the poor continues
to widen. They tell us that one out of
every five children in America is
poor and one out of every three sin
gle mothers lives below the poverty
line. They tell us that one-third of all
African Americans are poor and near
ly one third of all Hispanics.
The Census Bureau statistics
show that today 39.3 million Amer
icans are poor. They also show that
our nation's rich have never been
richer, while the poor have never
been poorer. Indeed, the top fifth ol
America earns 48.2 percent, nearly
half, of the nation’s income, while
the bottom fifth earned less than 4
percent. And those numbers only
consider income and don't take into
account capital. W hen you consider
houses, cars and other capital hold
ings, the disparity between rich and
poor Americans is even greater.
These frightening numbers do
no bode well for our country. “Amer-
icais indangerof splitting intoatw o-
tired society,” says Robert Reich,
Secretary o f Labor. “This is not any
one’s idea of progress,” he added.
These are frightening numbers,
but they are not really surprising. For
those of us who live in the cities of
this nation and daily watch the num
bers of homeless, or jobless, ot the
hungry grow, the numbers in this
rep o rt are not su rp risin g . Rev.
Imagene Stewart is one o f those who
sees the pain of the poor everyday.
She began the House o f Imagene in
W ashington, D C . as her answer to
the desperate need for a shelter for
the homeless and the domestic vio
lence victims. “W hen you see the
women carry their children from shel
ter to shelter and from school to
school, it just breaks your heart,” she
says. The numbers, from her experi
ence, have grown over the past two
years, with increasing numbers of
middle-class African American fam
ilies falling into poverty. “I ’m seeing
the break-up of families as the wom-
Jusf days before
being restored to
power as the
democratically-
elected president of
Haiti, The Rev.
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide (left), and
Senior Pastor Rev.
William H. Gray, II,
senior advisor to
President Clinton
on Haiti, address
an enthusiastic
crowd of supporters
at a Philadelphia
church. Gray is the
highest ranking
African American in
Congress and
serves as the
President and Chief
Executive Officer of
the United Negro
College Fund.
4224 S.E. 62nd Avenue
(between Powell & Foster)
Portland, Oregon 97206
I
SUNDAY
Sunday School 9:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Evangelistic Service 7:30pm
Tuesday Pastoral Teaching 7:00pm
FRIDAY
Evangelistic Service 7:00pm
DAILY
Prayer 12:00pm & 6:00pm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------!
(503) 774-5470
PA STO RS: Bishop Robert Simpson, Jr. • Dr. Ida M. Simpson
IS a p tiit (J/iuicfi
103 NE Morris St., Portland, OR 97212
f f a if ic H ! / fa fernen f
f f t y f fn e
M o f ó (O ne o f! a O J iin c i rf ^ c c c 5 5 o i f o i
, r jffo
le a n
tfi)
•
(fte n
w c fica n
•
•
•
•
•
Sunday School - 9:30am
Sunday Morning Worship Service - 11:00am
Sunday School Teacher’s Meeting Tues - 6:30pm
Bible Study Wednesday 6:00pm
Prayer Meeting Wednesday - 7:00pm
Church Phone Number
287-7457
We Invite You To Come And Worship With Us.
The Church Where Everybody is Somebody And Chris! Is All.
Dr. Joe S. Hardie, Pastor
■ 'H rtd a y r f M t
fie ffn e lffa y - ffÙ ffa ïf
J : f) f )- f: f > f > /i» t
.7 a fu I f f a y
JO: iW am - 6: OOfi m
’ Halfin f a f f et fffiny S f uff.
2808-
f fa i i
« f fa
n a y J a c k ie n (5 0 3 ) 2 8 8 - 5 2 4 f i
tural Dialogue Group, and currently
is a member of the National Coali
tion Building Institute and People of
Faith Against Bigotry and its Catho
lic committee.
A panel discussion with a ques
tion and answer period will close the
evening, and will be facilitated by
Mary C. Labarre, Director of Pasto
ral Studies at the University of Port
land.
The Tobin events is sponsored
by the Office of Justice and Peace,
Archdiocese of Portland. There is no
admission for the event. A suggested
voluntary donation is $5.00 to help
cover costs. More information may
be obtained by calling the Office of
Justice and Peace, (503) 233-8361.
Suffer The Little Children
FAITH TEMPLE CHURCH
'
gon writers.
Pewonal reflections on social
justice issues in western Oregon will
be provided by I vo Bauman and Mary
K. Anderson. Bauman received a
Master o f Arts in History degree
from Catholic University of America
in 1942, served as an officer in the
U.S. Navy, and served as General
Manager of the Mt. Angel Telephone
C om pany. In addition to several pro
fessional m em berships associated
with the telephone industry, Mr.
Bauman has been active in several
social justice projects including Hab
itat for Humanity. Mary Anderson
has been involved in the Catholic
Family M ovement, the Catholic In
terracial Council, FISH, Inter-Cul
u fu n e ia f fffem e
fie m c fe iy - ^ ffe tn a u a f fia iffe n
Lombard Chapel
3018 N. Lombard
Portland, Oregon 97217
503-283-0525
Killingsworth Chapel
430 N. Killingsworth
Portland, Oregon 97217
503-283-1976
en and children are forced to go to
one shelter, while the men go to
another,” Rev. Stewart explained. It’s
hard for many of these folks to come
to a shelter and to ask for help,” she
added.
The reality is that underneath
the fabric of our social order and of
our political and economic system is
great pain and growing anger. It is
pain which is caused by pervasive
poverty and anger which is caused by
four centuries of racism and the dis
sonance between the values which
we espouse as Americans and the
lives which many of us live. It is this
pain and all of these accompanying
facets which ultimately will threaten
our democracy if we don’t take some
action.
Rev. Jesse Jackson has often
been quoted as saying that American
will be judged by how it treats “the
least o f these” - the children, the
elderly, the poor. That is why those
statistics must serve as a wake-up
call and a call to action for us all.
Because behind those numbers are
people, people whose stories we all
too often choose to block out.
The poverty line, according to
the government, was $14,763 for a
family of four in 1993. But how can
(ß r ia n n a
a family of four live on less than
$ 15 .(XX) a year? How can their chil
dren have enough to eat? How can
they have clothes to w ear or toys at
Christmas?
In a society w hich e x a lts c o n
sp ic u o u s co n su m p tio n ab ove all,
how do p a re n ts teach th e ir c h il
dren any sense o f se lf-e ste e m ? in
a so c ie ty w hich d o es not seek to
c re a te jo b s for the jo b le s s or o p
p o rtu n itie s for all, how do the
p o o r have any hope fo r the fu
tu re? In a so c ie ty w hich d e n ie s
so m any c h ild re n so m uch, how
do they not tu rn to v io le n c e ?
“How dare we, as mere humans,
name a group of people the perm a
nent underclass,” said Dr. James
Forbes, senior m inister o f Riverside
Church in New York City, in a ser
mon given at Chautaqua Institution
this summer. Indeed, the “hear no
evil, see no evil, speak no evil" phi
losophy of not dealing with the growth
o f the poor in Am erica will no longer
work. Or as Secretary Reich said,
“W e cannot have prosperous or sta
ble society if these trends continue.”
Our children are suffering. Let
us read the numbers and hear their
cries. So that our living will not have
been in vain.
annone
WM l a m í
Brianna Lanique W illiams, 6 pounds, 8 ounces, the daughter of
Latwana Chocolate and Kenneth W illiams, was born Oct. 13, 1994 at
Emanuel Hospital in Portland. Her grandparents are Mr. and Mrs.
Roosevelt W illiam s o f Portland, and Patricia Hall of Portland. The great
grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. John Kelly of M ontgomery, Ala., and Mr.
and Mrs. Lee Percy Chocolate I of Rolling Fork, Miss.
&^cV7ndrt ¿zee S<fyer
Funeral services were scheduled W ednesday at the Killingsworth
Little Chapel of the Chimes for Norman Lee Dyer, 36, o f Portland, who
died Thursday, Oct. 20, 1994.
Dyer was born Feb. 18, 1958. He was a lifetime resident o f Portland
and was self-employed in the marketing field. He was a member of the Mt.
Olive Baptist Church in Portland. Survivors include his mother, Mattie A.
Dyer o f Portland and four sisters, Barbara Thompson, A nita Jenkins,
Genora Dyer and Jeane-te Richardson, all of Portland.
We Welcome You to The
(Brrater J&aint J&tepi|en
M issionary ¿¡Baptist (¡Iljurdj
“Serving The Lord With Gladness” Psalm 100:2
Sunday School 10am
Morning Worship 11:05
Wednesday
Prayer & Bible Study 7pm
Rev. G.L. Black I Pastor
3605 N.E. Mallory Ave.
(503) 281-8117 Portland, OR 97212
Mt Olivet
Baptist Church
8501 N. Chautauqua Blvd.,
at Willis Blvd.
W orship Services 8:00ani & 1 1:00am,
Church School 9:30 to 10:30am,
Bible Study, W ednesdays. 10:30am & 7:00pm
Radio Ministry each Sunday, 8:00am on KBMS
ATeaching Church With A Reaching Ministry
Dr. Janies E. Martin, Senior Pastor
Church Office 116 NE Schuyler St. • (503) 284-1954
J