Chum’s 50th Anniversary — A Reflection Offered at the Service of Thanksgiving on June 4, 2023
When I moved to Duluth in 1991 to be the lead pastor of Peace Church I heard right away about Chum. My first thought though was what a weird name for a social service organization. When I hear the word chum I first think about shark bait. I don’t think that’s what Jesus told us we’d be fishing for. But I soon learned that Chum stood for Central Hillside United Ministry. Chum was started by a group of churches in the Central Hillside of Duluth, housed at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and started by John Hawley, a member of Peace Church. His memorial service would be the last one I would officiate before retiring.
Trudy Vrieze, an incredible local story teller interviewed John before he died. In that interview. John said this about his alternative service during the Vietnam War, “I suggested to the draft board that I would be searching for alternative service projects in the Minneapolis area and they said, no – you have to be 150 miles away from here. That was about 1971. Duluth was 150 miles away so that satisfied my draft boards requirements. I worked in a school downtown for about a year and a friend said listen, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church is looking to hire somebody, you’d be a good candidate. It was to provide services for people in the central hillside area. I said, ok, I can do that.
After working there for a while, I found out that a young woman was working with about four Catholic churches. We were attempting to do the same thing. So I drew the Catholic churches and some other churches together. First Lutheran, Peace, First Methodist, Messiah Lutheran, and Gloria Dei. I organized a dinner (On June 4, 1973) for representatives of 10 churches. I told them that we should be working together and so we did, and created Chum.“
Chum continued to grow and expand well beyond the boundaries of the Central Hillside. Many, many more churches joined in the work so the name changed to Churches United in Ministry. The circles of care continued to grow. Chum grew to include the Unitarian Congregation, Temple Israel and the Twin Ports Islamic Center. With these additions, Chum dropped the Church altogether and decided to just be Chum.
A better definition for Chum is: a close friend, friendliness, to spend time with someone as a friend. Yes, we are Chums. The Chum staff, volunteers and guests are friends. They care for one another deeply and so they are chums to one another. Chum echoes Jesus’ words in John 15, “ I call you friends. “. Chum has had so many good friends these last 50 years including board members, volunteers, guests.
What an incredible staff has shaped and continues to shape this organization. People who show up over and over again to be Chums to those most in need of a friend, of food, of housing, of hope. Staff like Steve O’Neil whose favorite verse was Micah 6:8, “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” He did that every day and helped to shape Chum’s advocacy work. Steve worked with Liz Olson , now Rep. Olson in this justice work with our congregations. Steve was also the impetus behind the Rhubarb Festival.
Chum has also had amazing executive directors like Lee Stuart. Lee gave Chum’s advocacy teeth. She pushed hard and got stuff done, especially during the Covid pandemic. It is incredible all the work that was done with St. Louis County to make sure vulnerable people were housed and fed during that scary, scary time. Lee followed Jim Soderberg who led with quiet compassion. And now Chum is led by John Cole with his many gifts.
Yes, Chum has had Such incredible staff – Deb, Kim, Meg, Greg, Ellen, Scott, and so many other dedicated folks. Staff like Emily Larson who was a social worker with Chum long before she was our mayor. She worked with five of our congregations to start the Gabriel Project, a fund to help people with things like birth certificates, gas vouchers, and bus tokens. We named it the Gabriel project because her first child Gabe had just been born; he’s now an architect. But we chose that name also because of the angel Gabriel’s words to those outcast shepherds on the hillside who were the first to hear of the birth, “Behold I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people.” Chum has always been about bringing good news for all people, especially those out on the margins, out on the hillside.
I close with one last story. Peace and Glen Ave Presbyterian Churches for a very long time have taken turns bringing breakfast on Wednesday mornings to the guests at the Drop In Center. After breakfast, Robin Weaver and I would stick around and do a short bible study with anyone who was interested.
One Wednesday morning I opened our time with a question about naming. Who named you? How do you feel about your name? People’s responses were powerful and deep. One young native man said how his name was Christopher, but he never used it. He called himself Chris. For him, Christopher had too many images of Columbus and the conquering of native people. Another man shared about how he grew up in school with the name Leslie and was often teased. Now he was known as Les, but that name didn’t fit him either. He said it made him think less of himself, and that maybe because of the help he had gotten at Chum he would go with the name More. More.
That is what Chum is, a place where people can be more. Here’s to so many MORE years of Chum. Peace friends,…I mean Chums.
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