Friends,
I am excited to share the news that I have been invited to serve on the stewardship team for the 2020 Executive Committee Meeting of the World Council of Churches from March 12- March 25th in Geneva Switzerland. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the world wide ecumenical movement, to meet faithful people from all over the world, and further develop my skills as a leader dedicated to peace and reconciliation.
As I am a seminary student I need support in making this wonderful yet unexpected opportunity a reality so I am asking for your support. Anything you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
~Demarius J. Walker
A bit about the WCC
The WCC brings together churches, denominations and church fellowships in more than 110 countries and territories throughout the world, representing over 500 million Christians and including most of the world's Orthodox churches, scores of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed churches, as well as many United and Independent churches. While the bulk of the WCC's founding churches were European and North American, today most member churches are in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific. There are now 350 member churches.
The WCC 10th Assembly called the churches to join a pilgrimage of justice and peace. This call sets the direction for the WCC in the coming years. All WCC programmes aim to support the member churches and ecumenical partners to journey together, promoting justice and peace in our world as an expression of faith in the Triune God.
Today the WCC focuses its work in three programme areas: Unity, Mission, and Ecumenical Relations, Public Witness and Diakonia, and Ecumenical Formation.
All programmes share a responsibility for strengthening relationships with member churches and ecumenical partners, spiritual life, youth engagement, inter-religious dialogue and cooperation and building a just community of women and men.
A bit more about me
“If I can hear the sound of the genuine in me and you can hear the sound of the genuine in you, I can go down in me and come up in you because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.” This quote by Howard Thurman provides a good summary of how I try to live. I work hard to listen and to create space for people to listen and be listened to. I am a 29-year-old heterosexual male from a working-class family in Atlanta, GA in the southern United States. I and my family are scared by the pain of slavery, racial segregation, and white supremacy that persists in a number of ways in the US.
I love the line from the book Life of Pi, “None of us know God until someone introduces us.” For me that introduction was made by my grandmother, who took me and my siblings to Greater Vine City Baptist Church every Sunday. I was baptized at age 11 after my public profession of faith, I sang in the choir and spoke often in Church. I started to really question my faith around age 14 after I asked my pastor what to do when the bible contradict itself and he simply told me it didn’t. For me the answer was insufficient and self-evidently untrue so I just kept asking questions. My question was never really whether this God exists it was more who is this God that people are talking about and what are the different stories people tell about God. Unfortunately, I think I became fascinated with God merely as a concept, I studied Jewish Mysticism, Chinese and Indian philosophies, anthropologies and philosophies of religion. I explored various traditions and spiritual communities around Boston. While these explorations helped me clarify my ideas around faith and God I know these were more journeys of the mind and not the heart.
My heart became involved after my father died. I started to ask myself the question about my gifts and the world’s needs and what made me come alive and I realized that all those roads led to the Church. The question became which church and what expression of ministry was I being called to. During this time I was introduced to the Dean of Marsh Chapel by a mentor and he gave me two gifts that I remain ever grateful for. He invited me to join the ministry internship program at the chapel and suggested I read Howard Thurman’s autobiography, With Head and Heart. The experience I had in the ecumenical chapel gave me a chance to see the various manifestations of Christianity in close proximity and Thurman gave me a context in which I could earnestly explore my faith. God again became real in my life through these experiences when I suspended my inquiry into what God was and just sat in and with the truth that God is. During this time of serving as student chaplain I discovered a real gifting for walking alongside people in their journeys of exploration and creating spaces for authentic encounter.
My introduction to The Anglican Church tradition began in the chapel
and was invigorated when I visited the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, MA after hearing the call to spend time in a monastic community. Through SSJE I was introduced to the Episcopal Service Corps. I spent almost three years in ESC programs serving in three very different Episcopal Church communities engaged in youth and young adult ministry. I went through confirmation courses and was received into the Episcopal Church. I fell in love with the church not just because of the beauty of the liturgy, or because of the rigorous theology, but mostly because of its focus on how God works in and through community and how that community is central to our faith, symbolized by our continual gathering around the table.
After my third year in the ESC I sensed God saying there was something more for me to explore in these intentional communities so I started searching and found the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s invitation for young adults to come live and pray alongside him at Lambeth Palace as part of the Community of St. Anselm (COSA). I know that I will be discovering the fruits of this experience for years so I will cautiously name just three of these fruits. First, serving as a hospital chaplain I learned more about how to listen, be still and rely upon the Holy Spirit in pastoral care work. I experienced quite amazing things happen through, with, for, and in spite of me. Second, I have come more to accept God’s love for me as manifested in Christ and become comfortable in that embrace. Lastly, the deep tragedy of the division of the church was impressed upon me.
Each day while at Lambeth we would participate in the Eucharist celebration. Whenever Archbishop Justin would preside, which was quite regularly, he would ask us to pause and recognize that because we were in an ecumenical community not everyone gathered around the table would be partaking. He would ask us to pray that we might feel the pain of that division. Every morning we would pray for Christian Unity. These prayers and this noticing did indeed shape me by unearthing a deep inclination toward the work of reconciliation.
This call to be a reconciler led me to volunteer with an ecumenical Christian Community in Northern Ireland that serves as a peace and reconciliation center in that deeply divided society. There I was able to regularly engage with refugees and peacemakers from all over the world to learn from their experience and accompany them on their journeys. A large part of the component of my work there was youth and teen engagement working to create opportunities for connection across division. Each week I held worship space for the community and visitors from a variety of faith backgrounds which was always a creative and joyful endeavor. This provides an interesting and energizing challenge around how to hold spaces that allow people to encounter God in their own way while also being authentic to my Christian identity.
After leaving Northern Ireland I became a seminary student at Virginia Theological Seminary where I am working towards a MA in Religion with a concentration on Spirituality. I am also hoping to become a certified spiritual director, university chaplain, and Episcopal Church deacon. I very much feel a call to be a bridgebuilder in the Church, I understand our unity as central to our recognition of Christ. I also hope to explore how greater church unity might be achieved through the new monastic movement.
I am excited to share the news that I have been invited to serve on the stewardship team for the 2020 Executive Committee Meeting of the World Council of Churches from March 12- March 25th in Geneva Switzerland. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the world wide ecumenical movement, to meet faithful people from all over the world, and further develop my skills as a leader dedicated to peace and reconciliation.
As I am a seminary student I need support in making this wonderful yet unexpected opportunity a reality so I am asking for your support. Anything you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
~Demarius J. Walker
A bit about the WCC
The WCC brings together churches, denominations and church fellowships in more than 110 countries and territories throughout the world, representing over 500 million Christians and including most of the world's Orthodox churches, scores of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed churches, as well as many United and Independent churches. While the bulk of the WCC's founding churches were European and North American, today most member churches are in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific. There are now 350 member churches.
The WCC 10th Assembly called the churches to join a pilgrimage of justice and peace. This call sets the direction for the WCC in the coming years. All WCC programmes aim to support the member churches and ecumenical partners to journey together, promoting justice and peace in our world as an expression of faith in the Triune God.
Today the WCC focuses its work in three programme areas: Unity, Mission, and Ecumenical Relations, Public Witness and Diakonia, and Ecumenical Formation.
All programmes share a responsibility for strengthening relationships with member churches and ecumenical partners, spiritual life, youth engagement, inter-religious dialogue and cooperation and building a just community of women and men.
A bit more about me
“If I can hear the sound of the genuine in me and you can hear the sound of the genuine in you, I can go down in me and come up in you because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.” This quote by Howard Thurman provides a good summary of how I try to live. I work hard to listen and to create space for people to listen and be listened to. I am a 29-year-old heterosexual male from a working-class family in Atlanta, GA in the southern United States. I and my family are scared by the pain of slavery, racial segregation, and white supremacy that persists in a number of ways in the US.
I love the line from the book Life of Pi, “None of us know God until someone introduces us.” For me that introduction was made by my grandmother, who took me and my siblings to Greater Vine City Baptist Church every Sunday. I was baptized at age 11 after my public profession of faith, I sang in the choir and spoke often in Church. I started to really question my faith around age 14 after I asked my pastor what to do when the bible contradict itself and he simply told me it didn’t. For me the answer was insufficient and self-evidently untrue so I just kept asking questions. My question was never really whether this God exists it was more who is this God that people are talking about and what are the different stories people tell about God. Unfortunately, I think I became fascinated with God merely as a concept, I studied Jewish Mysticism, Chinese and Indian philosophies, anthropologies and philosophies of religion. I explored various traditions and spiritual communities around Boston. While these explorations helped me clarify my ideas around faith and God I know these were more journeys of the mind and not the heart.
My heart became involved after my father died. I started to ask myself the question about my gifts and the world’s needs and what made me come alive and I realized that all those roads led to the Church. The question became which church and what expression of ministry was I being called to. During this time I was introduced to the Dean of Marsh Chapel by a mentor and he gave me two gifts that I remain ever grateful for. He invited me to join the ministry internship program at the chapel and suggested I read Howard Thurman’s autobiography, With Head and Heart. The experience I had in the ecumenical chapel gave me a chance to see the various manifestations of Christianity in close proximity and Thurman gave me a context in which I could earnestly explore my faith. God again became real in my life through these experiences when I suspended my inquiry into what God was and just sat in and with the truth that God is. During this time of serving as student chaplain I discovered a real gifting for walking alongside people in their journeys of exploration and creating spaces for authentic encounter.
My introduction to The Anglican Church tradition began in the chapel
and was invigorated when I visited the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, MA after hearing the call to spend time in a monastic community. Through SSJE I was introduced to the Episcopal Service Corps. I spent almost three years in ESC programs serving in three very different Episcopal Church communities engaged in youth and young adult ministry. I went through confirmation courses and was received into the Episcopal Church. I fell in love with the church not just because of the beauty of the liturgy, or because of the rigorous theology, but mostly because of its focus on how God works in and through community and how that community is central to our faith, symbolized by our continual gathering around the table.
After my third year in the ESC I sensed God saying there was something more for me to explore in these intentional communities so I started searching and found the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s invitation for young adults to come live and pray alongside him at Lambeth Palace as part of the Community of St. Anselm (COSA). I know that I will be discovering the fruits of this experience for years so I will cautiously name just three of these fruits. First, serving as a hospital chaplain I learned more about how to listen, be still and rely upon the Holy Spirit in pastoral care work. I experienced quite amazing things happen through, with, for, and in spite of me. Second, I have come more to accept God’s love for me as manifested in Christ and become comfortable in that embrace. Lastly, the deep tragedy of the division of the church was impressed upon me.
Each day while at Lambeth we would participate in the Eucharist celebration. Whenever Archbishop Justin would preside, which was quite regularly, he would ask us to pause and recognize that because we were in an ecumenical community not everyone gathered around the table would be partaking. He would ask us to pray that we might feel the pain of that division. Every morning we would pray for Christian Unity. These prayers and this noticing did indeed shape me by unearthing a deep inclination toward the work of reconciliation.
This call to be a reconciler led me to volunteer with an ecumenical Christian Community in Northern Ireland that serves as a peace and reconciliation center in that deeply divided society. There I was able to regularly engage with refugees and peacemakers from all over the world to learn from their experience and accompany them on their journeys. A large part of the component of my work there was youth and teen engagement working to create opportunities for connection across division. Each week I held worship space for the community and visitors from a variety of faith backgrounds which was always a creative and joyful endeavor. This provides an interesting and energizing challenge around how to hold spaces that allow people to encounter God in their own way while also being authentic to my Christian identity.
After leaving Northern Ireland I became a seminary student at Virginia Theological Seminary where I am working towards a MA in Religion with a concentration on Spirituality. I am also hoping to become a certified spiritual director, university chaplain, and Episcopal Church deacon. I very much feel a call to be a bridgebuilder in the Church, I understand our unity as central to our recognition of Christ. I also hope to explore how greater church unity might be achieved through the new monastic movement.