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