Sojourners Community

It was an unusual sight--40 people walking through our neighborhood, from house to house, carrying forks. It was Sojourners Community's first "progressive dinner" (that's "progressive" as opposed to "stationary" rather than "progressive" as opposed to "conservative"). The occasion was the celebration of Sojourners' 15th anniversary.

We began with nachos and guacamole at our Harvard Street house, moved to 13th Street for bread and salad, shared enchiladas on Euclid Street, and ended the feast with a vast array of desserts on Fairmont Street. Then we made our way to the Sojourners Neighborhood Center, where a collection of memorabilia awaited us.

One wall was devoted to material from the Sojourners archives, including the first "manifesto" of the Peoples Christian Coalition (forerunner to the Post American, which was forerunner to Sojourners)--a statement of opposition to the Vietnam War, racism, sexism, and every other bad thing in 1971. Also included were Jim Wallis' "letter of resignation" from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, citing a conflict of interest and time between seminary studies and putting out a magazine, and various news clippings about the trouble this "radical band" was stirring up at the conservative seminary.

Another wall was plastered with snapshots from 15 years of community life-- demonstrations, parties, moves, our children, worship. On the third wall were pictures that each of us had contributed of ourselves "from around 1971," when Sojourners came to birth. This wall generated the most laughs, as we saw each other as junior high school students, soccer players, and young brides and grooms, among other things.

Pulling ourselves away from the pictures, we gathered for some storytelling. Memory is an important part of every community's life, and we wanted to put our collective memory to work and tell together the story of Sojourners. A hat circulated, filled with slips of paper bearing phrases such as "neighborhood event," "talent show act," "birth," "household vacation," "car," "party," and "household pet." We drew slips of paper and shared stories about our most vivid memory for each category.

We remembered poignant moments, such as Claire Sabath's birth upstairs in one of our community households while most of the community gathered downstairs in prayer, and Timmy McLaughlin's equally eventful birth during Washington's worst snowstorm of 1983. We laughed as we remembered holding Sunday morning worship in our day-care center, among a host of guinea pigs and a screaming parrot. We also laughed about the household beach trip when we forgot one of the tents, and it rained all weekend, and the fancy loaves of bread that Judi Floyd had spent two days baking were put in the ice chest and sank, water-logged, to the bottom. And the time Tricia Spivey hid in a neighborhood tree, playing Zacchaeus, while all the Sunday school children paraded by. And when the pope came to Washington, D.C., and we threw our own "papal party," with Danny Collum appearing as Pope John Paul George and Ringo.

Stories were offered from all around the circle, until it grew late. Fortunately, in just two weeks, we were headed off to the country for our annual community Thanksgiving retreat, where there was an entire weekend to do more remembering.

JIM WALLIS BEGAN our retreat by telling the story of how Sojourners came to be. In the fall of 1971, a group of students at Trinity Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois, began to imagine a new vision for the church. That vision included both strong opposition to the violence and racism of the times, particularly as evidenced in the Vietnam War, and also a hope for a vibrant and renewed community life in the church.

In addition to publishing the Post American, the group convened an "open university," holding seminars on topics such as biblical feminism and Christian pacifism. A curriculum unearthed from a seminar on community posed the questions, "Why is community important?" and, "Is it practical?" The latter was the source of a few chuckles around the room.

The students also had an evangelistic ministry to local teenagers, weekly offering what they called "God parties." One of the appeals of these events was the music, the most popular song being one by the rock group Three Dog Night called "Joy to the World." For those who don't remember, this version of "Joy to the World" began "Jeremiah was a bullfrog...." Jim reported that he was once called into the office of a seminary official (this happened frequently) who told him, "You won't believe what people are saying about your group; they say you even sing about bullfrogs!"

After Jim finished, each of us had a chance to tell our own story, recounting the paths that had brought us to Sojourners and the part of the vision that most drew us to its life. After listening to one another, we felt a deep sense of gratefulness for the richness of our experience and for God's goodness to us through the years, giving us a story around which to gather.

On the second day of our retreat, Danny Collum offered an insightful and compelling vision of where we are and what may be ahead. Again each of us spoke, this time about our expectations and visions. Our time was marked by a sense of hope and joyful anticipation of all that lies ahead for us.

Our retreat culminated Sunday morning with communion. We brought to the communion table all the gratitude and hope we had experienced through our remembering and looking ahead.

Since it was the first Sunday of Advent, it was appropriate to end our worship with a Christmas carol. Martha Kincannon announced that our closing song was "Joy to the World."

An odd smile came over her face, and when the musicians started to play, the chords sounded all wrong. Most of the room looked momentarily puzzled, until a small chorus at the front belted out, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog...." A few of the community's newer members, who had reconstructed the song from memory and practiced into the wee hours of the morning after everyone else had gone to sleep, carried the song while the rest of the room burst into laughter and cheers.

The word is out. We plan not to be surprised if sometime in our next 15 years, someone approaches us and says, "You won't believe what people are saying about your group; they say you even sing about bullfrogs!"

Joyce Hollyday was associate editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.