Center for the Working Poor House Journal
By Paul Engler
The Center for the Working Poor (aka the Burning Bush Community) is continuing to live in our balance of communal life, serving the poor, prayer and meditation, and organizing a non-violent movement. Paul Engler has been much busier than is normal—and our jokes about his obsessive desire to plan the non-violent revolution have increased, considering the immense amount of time he has spent pacing the floors while speaking on the phone, coordinating non-violence trainings for Occupy LA, and his daily coffee meetings with activists. He has been spending a few days a week working at a mental health center called the Relational Center. It is a dream job for Paul, for it allows him to focus on developing better training for community organizing and building healthy and democratic affinity groups (aka small groups) to support the Occupy movement. Paul has been juggling this explosion of activity, while continuing to deliver food to the impoverished families in our network that have been fired for being whistleblowers.
We have a new full-time volunteer named Elise Whitaker who has joined to help with organizing at Occupy LA. Most of all her time has been spent camping out at the tent city around City Hall, and participating in long consensus meetings there. Our good friend, and former Board member at the Center, Paulina Gonzalez, who is now executive director of SAJE, a local tenet rights organization, has been stopping by the house recently in our meetings to help to organize with the Occupy movement.
Sam Pullen has shown up at Occupy LA with members of his church to deliver food and participate in interfaith services with Clergy and Laity for Economic Justice. He has been instrumental in running the house, and he coordinates a project training for members of La Placita Catholic parish to do community organizing around immigrant rights. We saw dozens of leaders from La Placita Catholic Church at our yearly Labor Day celebration with the families we serve. There is an easy consensus that everyone loves Sam and his work at the Church, especially his cameo appearances as the famous Gringo Mariachi. It’s hard to believe that most of Sam’s time has been spent being a 2nd year seminarian at Claremont School of Theology. In addition, he has been working as a ministry intern at First Congregational Church in Pasadena, where he has helped to launch a new progressive worship called Aspire (www.aspireucc.org). Last but not least, we are so happy that Sam announced his engagement to his lovely fiancée, Elizabeth Gonzalez. We wish them blessings as they prepare for their life together.
As usual, we have had several people move in and out of the house. Elizabeth Griswold, a pastor of a progressive UCC church in Irvine, got engaged and moved out of the house to be with her fiancée. We are also sorry to see our long time community member Shoshana Raskas move out but happy that she is moving into a home with her fiancée Pablo in Temecula. While studying feverishly as a masters student at USC, Shoshana has contributed in many ways to our community, and she is reputed to be the best cook of our communal house meals.
New to our community is Stephanie Kimec. She works as a missionary doing immigrant rights work and provides services for the local immigrant community at Echo Park United Methodist Church. Stephanie is so nice and good-hearted that the rest of us feel like jerks in comparison.
We are also pleased that veteran community member John Breckenfeld has returned, who we know well from his volunteer service during our 22 day fast for immigrant rights in 2008 and his participation in our weekly Centering Prayer group. John is a dedicated nonviolent soldier who always does his duty, whether in his job as a fourth grade teacher at a local Catholic School, or in his chores at the house, which include cleaning out the dish rack (thanks, John!).
It seems that the Center is an incubator not only for the nonviolent revolution, but also for healthy relationships, considering the number of our members who have gotten engaged within the last year! (Kevin, Christy, Elizabeth, Sam, and Shoshana—who is next?) We pray that we may continue to make a better future possible by living according to God’s will in the present moment. Come join us for a free smoothie (our special form of communal love) the next time you are in our neighborhood!
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A Moment of Hope for a New Movement: Update from the Center for the Working Poor →
Paul Engler Update: The Story Which Needs To Be Told
December 23rd, 2009
I apologize for the long wait for an update about myself and the Center for the Working Poor, the Burning Bush community. We have been very busy. This year we are serving more families than ever due to the economy, … Continue reading
December 15th, 2009
On Thursday, Sam Pullen was arrested at the Los Angeles offices of the insurance giant Blue Cross. He refused to give his information to police and vowed to remain in prison until Blue Cross agreed to hear demands that it … Continue reading
December 12th, 2009
Sitting in for Healthcare A new group takes the fight for a single-payer system directly to insurers—and politicians. By Diana Novak November 16, 2009 Since September 29, when Mobilization for Health Care for All organized its first sit-in at health … Continue reading
46 Million Reasons for Health-Care Reform
December 5th, 2009
The moral imperatives for change. by Jim Wallis, John DiIulio Jr., Carol Keehan, E.J. Dionne Jr., Janelle Goetcheus, Rose Marie Berger, Tom Sine, and Arthur Waskow printer-friendly version For the Healing of the Nation: 46 million reasons for health-care reform … Continue reading
What the Catholic Worker Believes
December 1st, 2009
What the Catholic Worker Believes The Catholic Worker believes in the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism. The Catholic Worker believes in the personal obligation of looking after the needs of our brother. The Catholic Worker believes in the daily practice … Continue reading
Starting The Center for the Working Poor: Don’t Mess With God’s Crazy Plan
November 22nd, 2006
By Paul Engler The Summary I still run the Center for the Working Poor, delivering food to impoverished workers, writing, speaking at churches, and supporting living wage boycotts. While doing this, the House of Representatives passed a law designed to … Continue reading