Ministry but not a recorded minister? Vocabulary

Conflict is a Gift of God Friend is asking Meeting to recognize his ministry and Meeting is having vocabulary  lessons.

One vocabulary lesson is about Faith and Practice, ministry, and how we have ministries under our care but do not record ministers. RantWoman is not prepared to interact about the history of the North Pacific Yearly Meeting (NPYM) Faith and Practice, but in the NPYM Faith and Practice, the term Released Friend is the only applicable concept.

 

Ah, but Friend from another Yearly Meeting insists we can only have a ministry under our care if we also have ministers.

 Um no.

Do we need theological excursions about "We are all ministers of God?" Will the word God derail the conversation, especially since the NPYM Faith and Practice and ongoing revision have all sorts of ways of working with that word?

How about the priesthood of all believers? RantWoman will be fine if someone is called to go there; RantWoman is clear for herself of need to go another direction in a separate post.

 RantWoman can cite a whole long list of documents introducing Friends and specific ministries done by NPYM Friends that do not use the term minister. RantWoman can cite these documents from memory; if someone wants to know exactly what wording is used , they are going to have to ask someone with better eyes and do research themselves, and on p-p-paper to boot!

 List of such documents in more or less reverse chronological order dating back at least to the 1980’s:

 --Two letters of support for people serving as hospital chaplains.

 --A letter of recognition for a Friend with a leading to work about homelessness in our area of Seattle.

 --At least two letters of visitation for specific Friends while incarcerated.

 --A letter of support for a Friend working against an anti-Gay rights initiative.

 --Multiple documents related to the Monroe Worship Group, the family worship connected with the Monroe Worship Group.

--The original process of establishing Alternatives to Violence in WA prisons.


RantWoman does not as of today's Light see a need to interact with all of these documents as part of the question of further care of a specific ministry, but MIGHT think to add such review to a to-do list for ongoing support of said ministry.

RantWoman does urge that Friends hold Business Meeting in the Light.

Latest especially upsetting police shooting. Prayers in order to ...

RantWoman files these links about the most recent LAPD shooting here with prayers and in remembrance. RantWoman prays and must tend to other things.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/graphic-footage-lapd-officer-shoots-homeless-man-after-responding-to-report-of-altercation/#.VPPeUexCbS0.twitter
(The Raw Story. Readers have to click an additional time to begin the footage. Extremely graphic. Repetitive profanity. Extremely loud, even after RantWoman thought she had adjusted the volumme.)

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82948390/


#blacklivesmatter

Jimmy Carter on Women's Rights from CNN

A powerful way to start National Women's History Month

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/world/carter-women-rights/index.html

Kids. Walking. Freedom

Facebook served up this juxtaposition.
RantWoman might or might not find time to riff.

Parent Like a German
http://time.com/3720541/how-to-parent-like-a-german/?xid=newsletter-brief#3720541/how-to-parent-like-a-german/

Parents investigated for letting 10 and 6 year old kids walk home a mile without parents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-couple-want-free-range-kids-but-not-all-do/2015/01/14/d406c0be-9c0f-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

Ten things creative people do differently.

RantWoman admits that too many internet lists just cause an allergic reaction. However, RantWoman is grabbing onto this list of 10 things highly creative people do differently.

https://designschool.canva.com/blog/10-things-creative-people-differently/#.VOkbYPkywAQ.twitter

Overachieving in C

Overachieving again, this time in a Facebook game.
C
Something I hate: conformity, Confusion
Something I love: Creativity, Cathedrals
Somewhere I have been: Cleveland, Cinncinnati, Columbus IN and Columbus MT but oddly not Columbus OH, Cortez Co,
Somewhere I would like to go: Cuernavaca
Someone I know: Cathy x about 5
Favorite Movie: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

As told

RantWoman’s Meeting is just not serving up enough popcorn (hah!) during Meeting for Worship these days and RantWoman is called to reproduce a couple moments which have made it out of her mouth in other worship settings.

Example of a popcorn kernel:

 Testimony, plus or minus what made it out of RantWoman’s mouth:

I guess what I am to speak of is that an estimated 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men have some direct personal experience with sexual assault. That would probably be true of our community whether or not our community also included offenders returning to society, and that truth is important to the life of our worshiping community.

The vast majority of people now incarcerated will return to society. As a worshipping community seeking to support this human restoration, my Meeting speaks openly of two known sex offenders who are part of our Meeting. The two people are individuals with different stories, both valued part of our community.  We continue to learn a great deal from walking both with survivors and with offenders and their safety plans.

 

Testimony 2, again plus or minus what made it out of RantWoman’s mouth:

One of the things I follow in my Twitter feed is voices of the brave young people involved in the #BlackLivesMatter protests. Honestly, some of the time I read these posts and think “Kids, kids, kids.” Then I remember that I probably sounded a little like that way back when…. As I tried to find my own words. Other times I reflect on facts in Twitter for DAYS before many media outlets noticed. And there is so much hope and concern and courage in these messages there is no choice but to forward, retweet. I hope we can think also of these young people as we go forth to lobby….

Example of a popcorn kernel:

 

Testimony 3: long and tangled about transportation and taxes, climate change and “internalizing externalities.” Belongs on RantWoman’s other blog.