Minute for Mission: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

September 2, 2024

The common good is rarely a “trending” topic. Across various platforms, the latest guffaw by a politician or celebrity inevitably outperforms reflections on this concept, as do spectacles of spending and images photoshopped to perfection. Perhaps the challenge to locate threads dedicated to, let alone acting from, the common good has to do with the complexity of its component parts. In a society marked by polarities, how do we even begin to determine what is “common” or what is “good”?

Yet the complexity of the task need not deter but inspire possibilities! When an ecumenical study team gathered to develop A Social Creed for the 21st Century (2008), they lifted up a “vision of society that shares more and consumes less, seeks compassion over suspicion and equality over domination, and finds security in joined hands rather than massed arms.” This vision also sought “to awaken a new spirit of community,” wherein “tax and budget policies … reduce disparities between rich and poor, strengthen democracy, and provide greater opportunity for everyone within the common good.” In 2024, we find ourselves a little over 15 years after this call to compassion, equity and justice, to generate shared resources and sustainable practices. Nevertheless, an invitation and a question linger: How might we — today,  tomorrow and in the years ahead — continue  to awaken a new spirit of communal vitality?

Prayer and expanding our understandings of what it means to be with and for one another in ways that reflect God’s love are essential to innovative and enduring communities. Another way to attend to the Spirit’s work across the street, the country and the globe is to connect with denominational agencies, projects and programs. The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, as one example, serves the prophetic calling of the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by providing the General Assembly with careful studies of pressing moral challenges [Resolution on Race, Reparative Justice and the PC(USA)], media for discussion and discernment of Christian responsibilities (Gun Violence, Gospel Values) and policy recommendations for faithful action (Investing in a Green Future: A Vision for a Renewed Creation). If there are policies that you think might awaken a new spirit of community, we invite you to submit topics to the committee directly.

Dhawn B. Martin, Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy

Today’s Focus: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Hery Ramambasoa, Mission Coordinator II, Asia & Pacific Office, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Ed Ramsey, Network Support Engineer, Information Technology, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)  

Let us pray

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, open our hearts, minds and bodies to your work in and through the world. Illumine those practices and policies that nurture the common good, that reflect your goodness, that address pressing problems in ways that bind up what is broken and heal what is wounded. Amen.

Minute for Mission: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

September 4, 2023

What does it mean to labor…to work…to earn or make a living? Whether in a period of inflation, stagflation, or a robustly resilient economy, it’s reasonable to equate labor with a job—or the lack of one. And yet consolidating what it means to “make a living’’ with what may or may not provide a living wage, risks devaluing both the dignity of all created beings and the Gospel promise of “life abundant’’ (John 10:10). Mindful that our faith calls us to an expansive understanding of life, labor and love, A New Social Creed for the Twenty-First Century (2008) sets our living-making within the creative justice, deep relationality and restorative movements of the Triune God. For economies that thrust communities into subsistence-existence are counter to the commonwealth of God.  

The New Social Creed builds not only upon the vast history of social witness by peoples of faith, but also on the “Social Creed’’ of 1908, a statement issued by the Federal Council of Churches. The original creed attended to the crushing realities of life in a rapidly industrializing world: unchecked exploitation of workers, rampant and cruel child labor abuses, and lack of regulation over workplaces ensuring health, safety and welfare. The New Creed continues to emphasize human rights and dignity, centering the “infinite worth” of all creation, equitable access to the necessities of food, health care, housing and meaningful vocation, along with peacemaking diplomacy across the globe and equitable practices for planetary sustainability. In short, the 2008 creed invites communities of faith to “commit to a culture of peace and freedom that embraces non-violence, nurtures character, treasures the environment, and builds community, rooted in a spirituality of inner growth and outward action.”

If a spirituality of inner growth and outward action speaks to you, read the New Social Creed! And why stop there? The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) serves the prophetic calling of the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by providing the General Assembly with careful studies of pressing moral challenges [Resolution on Race, Reparative Justice and the PC(USA)], media for discussion and discernment of Christian responsibilities (Gun Violence, Gospel Values) , and policy recommendations for faithful action (Investing in a Green Future: A Vision for a Renewed Creation). If there are policies you’d like to see ACSWP address, we invite you to submit topics to the committee directly.

Dhawn Martin, Coordinator of ACSWP, Compassion Peace & Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Brad Levy, Production Clerk, Presbyterian Distribution Center, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Amy Lewis, Mission Specialist I, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer,
Pour out your grace upon all our labors. Heal what is broken in our hearts, hearths, and economies. Inspire our living-making that we might foster life abundant for all creation. Renew our energies when the needed tasks overwhelm. Bless the work of our hands that we might embody the justice, shalom, and connectedness of your commonwealth. Amen.

Minute for Mission: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

Labor Day

September 5, 2022

“That all may have life … and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

Of all the economic indicators this year, it seems that the “labor numbers” are pretty good. Even though prices have been rising, unemployment is at an almost record low. People are working again, but interestingly a labor shortage persists. Jobs are still available everywhere. “Help wanted” signs are hanging in merchant windows. Employers continue to offer better wages and benefits and flexible work hours, all with the hope of attracting workers to fill needed jobs. The labor numbers may be good, but labor is still a problem.

Labor problems aren’t new to the U.S. or to the world.  In the late 1880s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worked 12-hour days, seven days a week just to get by. Children as young as 5 or 6 years old worked in mills, factories and mines earning a fraction of adult wages. Many workers faced unsafe working conditions and unfair labor practices. In 1908, in response to these labor challenges, U.S. churches adopted a short, pithy “Social Creed” that called for fair employment practices, safe working conditions, rights to organize and an end to poverty. 

One hundred years later, in 2008, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined the National Council of Churches in adopting an updated social creed for the globalized age of the 21st century. The Social Creed for the 21st Century states: “In our era of globalization we offer a vision of a society that shares more and consumes less … seeks compassion over suspicion and equality over domination … and finds security in joined hands rather than in massed arms.”

The creed makes for great reading. It is brief and beautifully written and, in an era of division and discord, it speaks in a non-doctrinal fashion to many matters of social justice upon which we can all agree. It calls us as individuals, congregations and denominations to seek the common good by working for a fairer society and a healthier world, to treat all people equally and to care most deeply for the weakest among us. I encourage you to make the reading of the creed a part of your Labor Day “practice.” You’ll be glad you did.

Carl Horton serves as coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and interim coordinator for the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy in the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministry area of the Presbyterian Mission Agency in Louisville.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Simon Doong, Mission Associate II, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Jhanderys Dotel-Vellenga and Ian Vellenga, Mission co-workers serving in Nicaragua, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

O God, on this Labor Day, help us remember the work that Jesus did and the ways that we can be the “help needed” to ensure that your world is a just, fair, inclusive and equitable one for all people. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Labor Day; A Social Creed for the 21st Century

September 6, 2021

“That all may have life … and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

Riviera Presbyterian Church Jesus Art Series (Photo credit: Martha (Missy) Shiverick, Riviera Presbyterian Church)

It seems that everywhere we turn there are “help wanted” signs displayed in merchant windows. Employers are offering enticements like higher wages, better benefits and flexible work hours, all with the hope of attracting workers to fill needed jobs. As our country moves away from COVID-19-related lockdowns and opens up again for business, many employers seem to be having a labor problem.

Labor problems aren’t new to the U.S. or to the world. In the late 1880s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worked 12-hour days seven days a week just to get by. Children as young as 5 or 6 years old worked in mills, factories and mines earning a fraction of adult wages. Many workers faced unsafe working conditions and unfair labor practices. In 1908, in response to these labor challenges, U.S. churches adopted a short, pithy “Social Creed” that called for fair employment practices, safe working conditions, rights to organize and an end to poverty.

One hundred years later, in 2008, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined the National Council of Churches in adopting an updated social creed for the globalized age of the 21st century. The Social Creed for the 21st Century states: “In our era of globalization we offer a vision of a society that shares more and consumes less, seeks compassion over suspicion and equality over domination, and finds security in joined hands rather than in massed arms.”

The Creed makes for great reading. It is brief and beautifully written and, in an era of division and discord, it speaks in a non-doctrinal fashion to many matters of social justice upon which we can all agree. It calls us as individuals, congregations and denominations to seek the common good by working for a fairer society and a healthier world, to treat all people equally and to care most deeply for the weakest among us. I encourage you to make the reading of the Creed a part of your Labor Day “practice.” You’ll be glad you did.

Speaking of social statements, I was recently contacted by Riviera Presbyterian Church in Miami about a social justice art project they are doing this year. It is a series of five large canvases, each depicting a different social justice ethic of Jesus. They have a “Love Jesus,” a “Peace Jesus,” an “Earth-Keeping Jesus,” a “Justice Jesus” and an “LGBTQ Jesus.” The finished products will hang in the church and I think these images of Jesus for the 21st century would be good companions to the words of the Social Creed for the 21st Century. Maybe they could hang them in the church’s windows with the caption “Help Wanted.”

Carl Horton serves as coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and interim coordinator for the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy in the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministry area of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Bryan Taylor, Administrative II, Presbyterian Foundation
Nancy Taylor, Executive Director, Presbyterian Historical Society

Let us pray

O God, on this Labor Day, help us remember the work that Jesus did and the ways that we can be the “help needed” to ensure that your world is a just, fair, inclusive and equitable one for all people. Amen.

Minute for Mission: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

 September 7, 2020

The green dove was designed by Patty Chapman of Stone Soup Marketing in Ossining, New York.

What’s the use of the Social Creed for the 21st Century? Yes, the Social Creed gets cited in books that deal with ecumenical social ethics, but how many read those after they leave seminary? Well, actually, Cynthia Rigby’s book “Promotion of Social Righteousness” (2010) did get broader circulation, and it reprints the Social Creed as the key illustration of what the church stands for in its social witness. Her title is one of the six “Great Ends of the Church” and it means both social justice and public integrity.

And yes, the Social Creed for the 21st Century (2008) gets cited by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC) and its member churches in some of their public statements. The NCC is rooted in the Federal Council of Churches, which started in 1908. One of its first actions was to adopt a short, non-doctrinal Social Creed of the Churches, which focused on the needs of workers and the goal of ending poverty. It called for safe working conditions, rights to organize, and what became Social Security — nearly three decades later!

So, the Social Creed of 2008 was adopted for the 100th anniversary of the first Social Creed, to remind the 35 denominations of their heritage. It includes human rights, marks of a just society, peace and environmental sustainability, with a biblical vision and clear Christian values. [The Social Creed provides a basis for the broad set of concerns in the revived Poor People’s Campaign, for example.]

But Sunday schools are among the biggest users of the Social Creed, and they often post the kids’ version poster on a bulletin board. This is partly because the Scarborough Press, a small curriculum publisher in a church in New York State, produced placemats that promoted the Creed for kids’ ethical learning. But it may also be because the kids’ poster has bright colors and a fun green dove of peace.

Rev. Christian Iosso, former Coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Robyn McEvilla, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
John McFayden, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

A Prayer in the Spirit of Matthew 25 and the Social Creed:

Indwelling God, we pray for employers to pay more of what the Social Creed (2008) calls a “family-sustaining” wage. This would be a living wage, but not just for one individual, for we are called to raise children of your covenant, people who will worship, witness to and share in your care for creation. To raise children, and to partner each other, we need more time than working two jobs allows. Be with us when we stand up for our rights, and when we oppose even the artfully outsourced oppression of others.

God, we remember that Jesus was a working man, and know that we meet him by your Spirit in the workplace today. Help us with these questions:

When did we pay you fairly, above a cruelly frozen minimum wage?
When did we honor your picket line?
When did we insist you get benefits and a full pension?
When did we give you pay equity?
When did we give you maternity or family leave?

Great God, just as Jesus worked in his day to the fullest, let us work while it is yet day. And let us be part of your economy of salvation, where labor is never simply a commodity, and where no one works for cash alone, but out of genuine desire to serve. Amen.