July 7, 2005
by John Sniffen

ABIQUIU, NM – Using examples drawn from his experiences on the high ropes course at Ghost Ranch, Rick Ufford-Chase said risk-taking demands that we act as a community and trust each other, that we be bold, practice, take small steps (when necessary) and be open to failure.

And it's fun, he added, when done for the right reasons.

In a speech on the final morning of the 25th anniversary Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference, Ufford-Chase, moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly, noted the rainy, breezy weather, which had participants scurrying for cover under the big meeting tent. "Those of us who live in the desert know that rain is a sign of God's blessing," said Ufford-Chase, who lives in Tucson, AZ. "It's not an accident that it is raining this morning."

The 40-year-old moderator and his wife, Kitty, and their son Teo, had spent the previous day with a group on the conference center's high ropes course, which is designed to promote teamwork and problem solving. Participants undertake physical feats on ropes and poles, protected from harm by their teammates, who also offer advice from the ground. His group was also accompanied by "people who knew what they were doing," who offered instruction and gave the participants confidence, he said.

"We learned from each other as we went along," Ufford-Chase said. And when a person on the ropes or a pole struggled to complete his or her task, teammates often offered advice that made it possible for them to finish.

"We could not do it alone," he said. "We needed one another."

At the end of each event, the participant often simply falls into the air, letting the people below "lower (them) down gently to the ground," the moderator said. "It takes trust to be involved in that kind of risk-taking."

He noted that one member of the team, instead of cautiously walking across a rope bridge like her teammates, ran across "like she was shot out of a cannon."

"If you're going to try something risky, sometimes the best thing to do is close your eyes and go for it," he said.

Ufford-Chase and his wife agreed that they wouldn't have faced the challenge of the cours earlier in their 14-year marriage. "But we've been practicing together, in our marriage and our lives, taking risks," he said, "and it gets easier as you try it more and more."

Their 8-year-old son, Teo, initially didn't want to participate, but eventually got interested. "He tried the wall and got about two-thirds of the way up, and said, ‘That's enough for today,'" his father said, "That's OK. ... It (risk-taking) comes in steps, friends. It doesn't just come overnight."

Ufford-Chase noted that risk-taking occasionally involves failure. "I climbed and perched on top of a pole. Then I was to leap for a trapeze and hang from it. I leapt, grasped it for a moment and then it slipped through my fingers," he said. "Sometimes we don't get it right the first time. ... Sometimes we're going to blow it, but those are learning experiences. We learn from them and move on."

He said risk-taking is fun when you do it for the right reasons. "What could be a better reason than the things we've been talking about all week (at the Peacemaking Conference)?" he said. "Doing God's work in the world. Building communities that are built on justice and compassion and love and caring for one another."

"The most powerful and empowering thing is to simply begin to act," he said. "Please don't wait until you have it all figured it out."

He told how he and his wife went into a partnership with a Guatemalan woman to open a restaurant in Tucson. Faced with the task of remodeling and cleaning up a greasy, messy building in three weeks, he sat down to make a list of things to be done. In the meantime, the Guatemalan partner came into the restaurant, took one look at Ufford-Chase, and went into a back room.

"An hour-and-a-half later, when I had finished my list, I went into the back æ and she had already finished three of the things on the list!" he said.

Ufford-Chase offered two "concrete" ways in which Presbyterians are taking risks for peace.

Last year. Presbyterians started accompanying Colombians in danger in that violence-torn land. So far, 17 pairs of "accompaniers" have gone there for a month each to be with their brothers and sisters there. "We're working on how to change the climate of violence – that work is critical and has to be done – but in the meantime the church has to be church. We go to work," the moderator said.

The other example was more recent. As they met at Ghost Ranch through the week, some participants, concerned about the use of torture on prisoners in the war on terror, decided to act. Plans are under way to educate the church and hold a public gathering, probably in Miami or "as close to Guantanamo Bay as they can get," Ufford-Chase said, to bring the issue to public attention.

"Let's get started," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. The church must be church. We must move beyond protest to become proactive."

The normally upbeat moderator admitted that he has "moments of great doubt."

"I doubt myself. Sometimes I doubt whether God is really invested," he said. "It seems so overwhelming. There are days when I wonder whether God really intends to use our denomination to work this new thing in the world."

He then quoted one of his favorite writers, E. B. White: "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

Said Ufford-Chase: "It's not that we are without doubts. It's that we overcome our doubts and our fear, and we go to work anyway æ because that is what an act of faith entails. To be faithful means that we put our feet on the ground and we go to work."

He concluded by reciting from 1 John 4:

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as God is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

We love because God first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from God is this: Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

John Sniffen is associate editor of Presbyterians Today magazine.

Presbyterian News Service