Peacemaking in Our Streets March 2009

Peacemaking in our Streets
Rev. Howard Dotson

When our seminarians leave the ivory tower, many are ill prepared to confront the violence and despair so prevalent in our urban communities. Gang violence is an epidemic in cities across America. In our pastoral care and counseling courses, we do not receive adequate preparation to walk with the crime victim families after a violent tragedy.

As a Presbyterian pastor with four years of urban ministry, I have walked with forty families who have lost loved ones to gang violence. Again and again, I saw families experience isolation and a lack of emotional and spiritual support. As Christians, we must confront the gang-banger-stigma that blames the victim for this tragedy. No mother or father should have to bear being stigmatized on top of their grief and loss.

This urban peacemaking ministry began several years ago when three young adults in our community in West Los Angeles were shot and killed in just three days. This was a baptism by fire into the peacemaking ministry our urban congregations are called to be engaged in. Gang violence has placed far too many families into the darkest valley of grief and loss. In the summer of 2006, Anna Interiano was on her way home from summer school at Hamilton High when she was gunned down in an alley, just blocks from Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church.

While trying to help raise money for the family, I joined family and friends for some pizza across the street from their residence. I was not comfortable with how the kids were exposing themselves to the risk for robbery with these shoe boxes filled with money. My fears were warranted, William Alavos and Julio Perez, two of the guys I had just broke bread with were killed thirty minutes after I left.

This second shooting took place as Mayor Villaraigosa was approaching the residence to offer condolences to Anna’s family. He and his staff were evacuated because the shooting was just a few blocks away. All three grieving families went into hiding. Three gang-related homicides in three days, just blocks apart! We opened the manse of the church to literally be sanctuary for the Interiano, Perez and Avalos families. Here in an undisclosed location they could meet with elected officials who wished to extend compassion to these families.

It just so happened this was the same day we were to baptize Baby Jordan whose aunt, Kim Canedy is now an elder at Palms Westminster. Her sister, Dana Canedy, and baby Jordan flew in from NY, where Dana is a Senior Editor for the New York Times. Ordinarily, we do not baptize children who can not be regular participants in the life of the church, but these were special circumstances. Jordan’s father, Charles, was serving in Iraq as a commissioned officer in the US Army. This was a pastoral moment for a family making great sacrifices on behalf of us all.

It was a delicate situation to explain to Dana that we would need to make some adjustments for the worship service when we would baptize her baby. Two of the grieving families would be joining us for worship, along with the Mayor and Councilman Wesson and Councilman Weiss. As we learned on 9-11, when tragedy befalls a community we need to keep the doors of our sanctuaries open.

There were many layers to this worship service, we also prayed for Charles’ safety as he served in Iraq. Tragedy upon tragedy, Charles never made it back from Iraq. We lost another life to violence when an I.E.D went off beneath Charles’ Humvee. While in Iraq, Charles kept a journal for his son. These words of wisdom from a father to his son were compiled by Dana Canedy into a book, A Journal for Jordan. We see this movement again and again, how God is at work bringing hope out of a tragedy. The movie rights have been sold and Denzel Washington will play Charles in an upcoming movie. Charles has been able to provide for his baby son long after he is gone.
In the book released last December, Dana writes about the Sunday we baptized Baby Jordan. This was a very dramatic Sunday. Several police cars blocked the streets leading to the church to ensure that there would not be a repeat of what happened just a few days earlier. The word on the street was that the suspects for these three murders were African American gang members. So here we are gathered at the baptismal font with an African American family and two grieving Latino families just a couple pews away. This baptismal moment has transformed our understanding of what these sacramental waters truly mean. In these waters we are reconciled to Christ and to one another as one body.
After I baptized baby Jordan, Dana graciously placed him in the hands of the grieving Interiano and Perez families. Anna’s older brother, Christian, held Jordan as if this was the most fragile and precious gift from God. Christian, an angry young man, who had just been released from custody for smashing a police car windshield and resisting arrest is now holding our new brother in Christ with a sense of peace and reconciliation.
We have many Presbyterian churches in our urban centers where gang violence continues to traumatize the community. My hope and prayer is that more of our Presbyterian pastors and congregations will open their hearts and minds to this peacemaking ministry that is on their door step. We are called to walk with our brothers and sisters through these dark valleys of grief and despair. They need to know that God is with them. They need to understand that this tragedy says more about who we are as a society, rather than who God is or what God’s plan are. May these grieving families find a glimmer hope emerging from the tragedy. May our congregations embrace them in their wilderness journey, and together find ways to create meaning through our ministry of peace and reconciliation.

Rev. Howard Dotson
Founder and Director, Urban Peacemakers
Non profit agency in St Paul, MN that facilitates crisis intervention and gang intervention services in the Twin Cities Metro