TRAVELOGUE

Heartland knows heartbreak of domestic violence,
Omaha experts tell L.A. guests

Nebraska hospitality enriches travelers as
Hands in Healing trek moves across nation;
next stop Chicago, May 2-6

By Bob Williams

(Omaha, April 28, 2002) ­ As a victim of domestic violence and abuse for more than 21 years, a local Episcopalian says she is elated about breaking that cycle and starting a new life for herself. "Thursday is my birthday," Sally (not her real name) told the Southern Californians who joined Nebraska Episcopalians this weekend in speaking out against violence ranging from sexual assault to terrorism. "I¹m going to make something very positive out of something very negative," she said, beaming with the realization that free from the threat of attack, "I will be in my own house with my stuff on my birthday."

Omaha teens voiced their agreement with violence-prevention facts set forward by L.A. peers in Sunday-morning and Saturday-afternoon forums hosted by Trinity Cathedral here as part of the six-week, cross-country anti-violence trek launched April 19 by Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno to counter domestic violence, child abuse, hate crimes and other forms of aggression.

Katie Anderson, 15, who attends services at Trinity Cathedral, said she was motivated by the perspectives on sexual abuse and date-rape prevention points outlined by Sara Clinehens, parishioner of St. Stephen¹s, Hollywood, and a youth advisor on the staff of the Diocese of Los Angeles. "Sara¹s story helped me to realize that I want to be a lawyer and actually go through all the hard work to help a person who people think is guilty but really isn't," Anderson said after Saturday's forum that blended presentations from local experts and the Hands in Healing travelers.

Using the Hands in Healing "Violence Prevention Guide" and companion PowerPoint presentation, the travelers offered modules on curbing gang activity, elder abuse, gun violence, and terrorism, in addition to domestic violence, child abuse and hate crimes. (An upcoming companion report will carry coverage of forum content, which cited such local incidents as the death of a 13-year-old Omaha boy beset by abusive conditions, and the recent defacing with graffiti of a local synagogue.)

Sara Andrews, 14, also from Trinity Cathedral, said she agreed with the comments on child-abuse prevention offered by Anne Warnock of All Saints, Long Beach. "Anne's speech reminded me that I knew a girl whose mother abused her with her high heels when she got bad grades," Andrews said. "She (the mother) seemed so normal and so nice, but it turns out her behavior was horrible."

"Let us open our eyes and see that God is calling us to be proactive and creative catalysts for change," Bishop Bruno said in his sermon during the cathedral's choral Eucharist this morning, also reminding the large congregation that such work is best accomplished "in community with one another."

Bruno said the travelers were to him an example of the transformation that can occur when a common mission is shared by a community of faith. Healing is needed not only after violent acts, but also after disappointments and so-called failures in life, the bishop said. "There is no such thing as perfection," he said after recalling some of the ways in which he overcame personal challenges such as reading difficulties in school and the serious elbow injury that prevented him from further successes as a football player. The experiences aided him as a coach, to be an example for young people as "someone who had felt weak, and pain, just as they had."

The bishop also recounted the healing that has come to him since the day when, as a Burbank police officer acting in the line of duty, he shot and killed a man who pulled a gun on his police partner and himself. "I was able to move on in life after I made my confession," the bishop said. "I took a life with these hands that God intended for healing."

Bishop Bruno was welcomed to the Omaha pulpit by Dean Thomas Hurley of Trinity Cathedral, a stunning Gothic edifice consecrated in 1883 and illuminated by brilliant stained glass windows, one of which memorializes the establishment of Arbor Day by J. Sterling Morton, an early vestry member and Nebraska City civic leader. In the context of its consistently traditional Rite I liturgies, the cathedral community welcomed Bishop Bruno on the eve of the second anniversary of his ordination to the episcopate, and the 10th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Both the Saturday and Sunday forum gatherings at Trinity Cathedral were organized and hosted Omaha Episcopalian Kim Roberts, Trinity Cathedral¹s director of health ministry and its parish nurse. L.A. Hands in Healing travelers who made presentations during the Omaha forums were -- in addition to Clinehens and Warnock ­ Jardine Bruce (St. Clement's by-the-Sea, San Clemente), Luis Garibay Jr. (Cathedral Center Congregation, Echo Park); Lester Mackenzie (Advent, Los Angeles); Frances Moodie (St. John's, Los Angeles); Luke Jan Perido (Holy Trinity and St. Benedict's, Alhambra); Heather Roberts (St. Cross, Hermosa Beach); Joel Vanderveen (St. Stephen's, Hollywood); and Mark Wills (St. Andrew's, Fullerton). Other travelers, some currently taking school exams in Southern California, will re-join the trek May 2 in Chicago.

Also sharing in the journey, and leading theological reflections for the travelers, is Cathedral Center staff member Michael Cunningham, who is also a mentor-teacher with the national Education for Ministry program. Bound today for May 2-6 presentations in Chicago by way of Iowa City, the Hands in Healing van will bring travelers to Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York, Newark and Philadelphia before arriving in Washington, D. C., for Memorial Day weekend when Bishop Bruno will preach at 11am on Sunday, May 26, in the National Cathedral. For full itinerary on-line, visit Hands in Healing National Itinerary.  Among the travelers, Garibay, who is both a vestryman and staff member of L.A.'s Cathedral Center, reminded Omaha forum participants of the power of their own two hands: "Take a look at your hands," said Garibay, who lost one brother in a gang-related shooting and another to suicide. "Look at the back of your hands, then the front. These two hands can inflict pain; they can comfort pain. They can hug and embrace someone, or they can pull a trigger. But these hands can save some lives and help people to heal."

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