David C. Duncombe
Combining Pastoral and Prophetic Ministry
-- for Global Debt Relief
INTRODUCTION -- "Why I Am Fasting" A Statement of Faith and Intention
A Ministry of Prayer and Fasting Becoming a Faithful Follower
Merging Pastoral and Prophetic Ministry "Its Commitment That's Important"
Postscript
There are two reasons that I am fasting. The first is quite personal and based on my religious faith. As I have grown older and have seen the world in a broader perspective, it has become increasingly apparent that we have fundamentally undermined God's will for Creation. God has given us a world of great abundance to share with one another, and we have not shared. Instead there is hunger and starvation among many of God's people, so I must share in that. I have lost the desire to eat when others cannot eat, and the will to benefit from their poverty.
The second reason I am fasting is rather public. It is to put a living face on starvation.... I am in my starvation, representing millions of faceless, voiceless and powerless people, thousands of whom are dying each day.... I am no statistic hobbling into their [U.S. Congressional] offices. I cannot be dismissed and forgotten as a meaningless number. I am a person, and will remain a person, to whomever tries to put me out of their mind or memory.
So wrote Pastor David Duncombe about his ministry of prayer and fasting in 1999 for global debt relief for highly indebted countries.
Combining faith with action led him to work with Bread for the World (BFW), a U.S. ecumenical group working to eliminate hunger, and later to join the Jubilee USA Network movement to eliminate the debilitating global debt of impoverished nations. His ministry of prayer and fasting with/for members of Congress in Washington, DC, took shape to support a BFW sponsored bill, The Debt Relief for Poverty Reduction Act of 1999. This fast was inspired in part by the Rolling Fast, sponsored by the Religious Working Group on the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank. As part of this communal witness (during the 100 days prior to January1, 2000), 30,000 people throughout the U.S. fasted one day or more to call for definitive debt cancellation.
Three weeks into the fast, he began "to see again how important a life of prayer is -- in itself and to what I am trying to do here. It is also easier to see how prayer and fasting have gone together traditionally. Prayer supports fasting and fasting enhances prayer."
During this fast, Duncombe "discovered that by fasting myself to starvation, I personalized the reality of world starvation for some members of Congress and their staffs. Walking into their offices, week after week, I could not be dismissed as a meaningless number, as are millions of starving people around the world. They had to gaze at a wasted frame and sunken cheeks, shake a cold and bony hand, and hear a starving person say their name and ask for help.
Some responded, others didn't; but for even those who didn't, I have hope.... Congress is not soulless. Words and figures may not always touch the soul, but fasting can. That a person is willing to starve, so that others may not have to, can speak powerfully to the soul."
Since his body recovered well following his 45-day fast and since debt relief seemed stalled in the halls of Congress, Duncombe began another fast in 2000. He witnessed the effects of the Spirit moving in Congress. "Sometimes prayer and fasting seem to have no effect at all on Congress. And at other times, what happens seems unbelievable!" One amazing example for him was Senator Helms, who was originally perceived "as the biggest road block we would have to encounter to passage of debt relief." Moved by Duncombe's witness, Helms led his committee in an unanimous vote in March 2000 to authorize $600 million for multilateral debt relief.
In his "Farewell Address" for his 50-day fast, Duncombe shared these observations:
- The first is my utter amazement that a human body -- my body --
can go without food for a month and a half and still function moderately well. [That his body was fully restored 6 months after his 1999 fast convinced him that] it was my practice of prayer...and of all who were praying for me, that enabled the Holy Spirit to literally feed and nourish my body during this time.
- The second thing that strikes me is the power of personal witness to a moral and religious commitment....
- Finally, I am impressed with what one person can do to bring about change....
Born in 1928 and raised north of New York City in a farming community, Duncombe was the middle child of three children. After high school, years of military service were interspersed with undergraduate studies. In 1952, he graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in political science. Wanting further study with Reinhold Niebuhr, a leading theologian and political scientist of the day, he enrolled in Union Theological Seminary. At the time, Duncombe hadn't been baptized, nor was he attending any church.
Following years of pressure from their respective families to meet each other, he and Sally finally agreed to meet, fell in love, and were married in 1958. They had three children, Betsy, Jane, and Steve.
While he had applied for a teaching position, he was hired as a chaplain at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut. Challenged to become a minister, since he was already doing the work, Duncombe went back to Yale Divinity School where he earned his Ph.D.
During these years, there were short-lived forays into political activism: via a masters' thesis on the espionage bill which was drafted, when the Rosenburgs were accused of and later killed for spying; via efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of McCarthyism; and via volunteer work with FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation).
In the 1960s, he supported the civil rights movement. Being a chaplain with military background, he was invited to lead the security detail for Martin Luther King's historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Throughout his life's journey, the Spirit has spoken powerfully to Duncombe's soul via many people, including:
- James Dittes, his doctoral mentor at Yale, who created a job for him at Yale -- one of the first chaplaincies at a U.S. medical school.
- Henri Nouwen, a teaching colleague at Yale, who invited him to visit monasteries and to make directed retreats.
- Thomas Merton, whose life and writings helped him to address the tension he felt between pastoral and social justice ministry.
- Charlie Liteky, the only Congressional Medal of Honor recipient to return it in opposition to U.S. military operations in Central America, who invited Duncombe to fast and to take costly social justice stands.
While his training and avocation led him to chaplaincy, counseling, spiritual direction, and to CPE (clinical pastoral education), Duncombe struggled with this question: "How then to we live in the world as Christians and be faithful ministers?"
When his friend, Charlie Liteky decided to fast to protest military aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, Duncombe thought Liteky was crazy to risk his life as a family man, with no guarantee that it would do any good! Also, Duncombe noted that he had "chosen a pastoral ministry and Charlie had chosen a prophetic one. I was a counselor and teacher and he was a demonstrator -- and, as everyone knows, you can't do both!"
Following his first arrest in then Senator Pete Wilson's office in California, Duncombe learned that he "could do CPE and demonstrate for social justice, on separate days, that is." A year later, he was scared to death when Liteky invited him to fast and to stand, as part of Nuremberg Actions, in front of an armaments train leaving Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) in California. The train did not stop. Duncan Murphy and Duncombe were able to clear the tracks; Brian Willson was nearly killed.
While still fasting, Duncombe began his fall CPE program and found his students very supportive and wanting to be engaged in the issues. Through shared experiences, students and teacher learned how CPE and social justice ministry fit together, complementing and reinforcing one another.
This learning was strengthened for Duncombe during jail time, the result of nearly 100 arrests in a seven-year vigil at CNWS. Perceiving that shame was (is) the "underlying malady of inmate culture," Duncombe talked with inmates and was drawn into an "odd mixture of prophetic and pastoral ministry there in the holding tank."
After weighing the pros and cons with his spiritual director and his wife Sally, Duncombe began his second 40-day fast while in jail. What was totally unexpected was the response of the inmates, which moved from disbelief and curiosity to engagement. Duncombe found that "I was simply a vehicle for a fasting body, the sight of which touched the souls of others, eliciting their caring and challenging them to reevaluate their lives.... For me, it was one of those rare experiences of life and ministry where in the unlikeliest of places and circumstances, seemingly opposites come together and a fuller ministry takes shape. It happens perhaps because the pastoral and the prophetic become one only under grace."
When he had learned that a fully funded and implemented debt relief bill could save "tens of thousands from death by starvation each day" in just 40 impoverished countries, Duncombe was so affected "that I could think of little else.... It became the reason why I continued on when it became so difficult...."
Faith-based awareness continues to lead this inspirational person to deep, ongoing commitments to issues. Despite the costs. For example, he missed his family and friends even more than food and longed to return to them as soon as possible. His family accepts his fasting with a mixture of resignation and understanding, for they, like thousands of others, are inspired by and in awe of his kind of personal commitment.
Duncombe feels called as a Christian. "[T]hat's the way I read the Gospel, to take up our cross. And if our cross is fasting, that's one way, if it's demonstrations, if it's legislation, those are other ways, but it's commitment that's important and not to be swayed by political or social concerns."
Pictures -- thanks to David Duncombe and Jubilee USA Network
Top David Duncombe in front of U.S. capital.
Second from top U.S. Senator Murray (D-WA) with David.
Second from bottom Jubilee 2000 rally for global debt relief
on steps of U.S. capital.
Bottom Sally and David Duncombe.
Grateful Acknowledgements
Material for this story (particularly the quotations) is from the Jubilee USA Network web site
and from two articles by David Duncombe in the Journal of Pastoral Care:
"From Yale to Jail: A Journey to Ministry" and
"Prayer and Fasting in the Halls of Congress: A Pastoral Approach to Lobbying."