“Called to Life” at Oxford Presbyterian Church

“I’m not alone in the sense of concern or despair. There are many people in our congregation who have been doing this work and who have shared these concerns all along. Throughout our discourses, when we talked about our personal callings, I just found so much companionship in that discussion with all of you.” – Carla Blackmar

At Oxford Presbyterian Church in Oxford, OH, the opportunity to join cohort one of the Myrtle Collaboration resulted in the “Called to Life” initiative. Through a robust and intentional reflection process including significant introspection, discussion in small groups, focused sermons, journaling, and storytelling, Oxford members discerned two congregational callings in 2019: Caring for Creation and Eradicating Systemic Poverty. These foci, in addition to “Building Congregational Vitality,” also comprise the focus of the Matthew 25 Initiative of the PC(USA). Over the past few years, the congregation has integrated these callings through collaborative community and congregational activities, intergenerational educational programming, and worship services. 

The Eradicating Systemic Poverty (ESP) team at “OPC works to change laws, policies, plans, and structures in…society that perpetuate economic exploitation of people who are poor.” The team meets regularly and also works with regional partners to deepen their understanding of ongoing initiatives to assist persons living in poverty and who experience economic insecurity. The ESP team has led and contributed to significant efforts in Oxford to address food insecurity and nutrition education, including through programs such as Free Monday Meals, Nutrition Education at Talawanda Oxford Pantry and Social Services (TOPSS), and the Lunch and Learn Nutrition Education programs. OPC is also very engaged in ongoing conversations in Oxford to intervene in housing insecurity and to ensure affordable housing for all. 

The Caring for Creation (C4C) team explains their founding and goal in this way: “caring for creation is at the core of Oxford Presbyterian Church’s faith practice.” An Earthcare congregation of the PC(USA) and a leader in the Oxford community on issues of sustainability, education, and activism, the C4C team reaches out to all “who seek a community of learning  and action at this critical time for our biosphere.” C4C supports local, regional and national transformation toward sustainability. The “Trees for Life Program” distributes free seedlings of native trees each year at church events and local festivals in Oxford like Earthfest. OPC’s “Oxford Sustainability Monthly” is a highly-anticipated resource in Oxford and beyond as it shares opportunities for action for congregants and many others outside the congregation. 

This April, Project Director Kathryn House visited OPC and celebrated “Called to Life” Sunday with the congregation. A highlight of the service was the compelling conversational sermon between OPC pastor Rev. Lawrence Bartel and Carla Blackmar, a leader of the Caring for Creation team. In the service, Carla shared how the congregation’s participation in the Myrtle Collaboration and Caring for Creation has been transformative for her. Carla noted that there can be deep despair about the urgencies of this contemporary moment. “We really struggle to rise to the challenges of our time… the refugee crisis, the violence we see in our political system, the climate crisis, or the biodiversity crisis,” she explained. It can be deeply lonely work, she observed. Carla named the efforts of the Myrtle Collaboration and C4C as transformative, however, as they afforded the opportunity to see how many others are invested in and concerned about climate change.“What I realized,” Carla shared, “is I’m not alone in the sense of concern or despair. There are many people in our congregation who have been doing this work and who have shared these concerns all along. Throughout our discourses, when we talked about our personal callings, I just found so much companionship in that discussion with all of you.”

Carla recalled the eye-opening and affirming experience of seeing other church members at the 2019 Climate Strike at Miami University. She concluded, “There was something so reassuring to me to know that I wasn’t alone in this advocacy….that there were all of these people who had been working on this all along, and that we were in community together….The experience of being able to truly share my concern and to see activism from all of you has really transformed my experience of despair into one where I know we can do this together.” You can watch the full service at this link: https://fb.watch/mnKT4de2mT/.

Following the service, a group of 20 folks gathered for lunch and a guided reflection on the impact of “Called to Life” on the congregation and community. Congregants shared that the intentionality and collective nature of discernment about their projects resulted in project foci around which there is energy and continued collaboration. They celebrated the myriad of ways that these initiatives are continuing to grow into new collaborations with community partners.