RantWoman thoroughly enjoys this item about Clean Questions.
Looking up more info aboutthe practice is on RantWoman's mean to get to list.
RantWoman also approves considerably more of this speakers sartorial and couture standards than the other item
posted below.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
TEDxSaltLakeCity - Rachael Herrscher - What?: Asking the Right Questions
Sort of interesting take on asking questions.
RantWoman apologizes for being a catty bitch, but both the dishrag hair and the braless under too tight shirt top severely annoy RantWoman.
RantWoman apologizes for being a catty bitch, but both the dishrag hair and the braless under too tight shirt top severely annoy RantWoman.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Society: a different state
RantWoman posts this blog as filing cabinet item because of its treament of questions about membership and sex offenders.
This is about the State of Society report for Multonomah Monthly Meeting in Portland OR. Readers who want the actual text of the report should look either at the Multonomah website whch RantWoman is too lazy to look up or eventually, RantWoman thinks at npym.org
The blog link:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2014/04/state-of-society.html
Recorded membership is one of many practices Friends engage in to signify their loyalty to the Religious Society of Friends.
Unlike the Tallahassee Friends, who according to our documents see becoming a member as a kind of detailed vetting, an integrity test, almost an initiation or hazing, I look for a willingness, an eagerness, to publicly identify as a Friend in a way that deserves the backing of some Monthly Meeting. The meeting will not disavow so-and-so when they publicly proclaim to be a Friend. That's the social contract.
We do not hire expensive Internet services to study the public record, as we might if you want to work in the children's program as one of two supervisory adults, as required by our insurance company (another item of business during the same meeting). As a third adult in the room, you would not need a background check or social security number.
No, that's not how the process works, in the case of something routine like membership.
We're encouraging people to come forward as Friends and deal with the consequences in the aftermath (for the rest of their lives perhaps).
However, we do not certify, as a meeting, that so-and-so has met a lot of deeply spiritual criteria. Presumably so-and-so wrote a letter to Oversight and a clearness meeting was convened. We do not require any criminal background checks, e.g. we are not assuring the public that Y is not a child molester. We hope not, and will be surprised if so, but let us not mislead the general public into thinking a member has somehow been through some thorough quality assurance program in order to "come out" as a recorded member.
This is about the State of Society report for Multonomah Monthly Meeting in Portland OR. Readers who want the actual text of the report should look either at the Multonomah website whch RantWoman is too lazy to look up or eventually, RantWoman thinks at npym.org
The blog link:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2014/04/state-of-society.html
Recorded membership is one of many practices Friends engage in to signify their loyalty to the Religious Society of Friends.
Unlike the Tallahassee Friends, who according to our documents see becoming a member as a kind of detailed vetting, an integrity test, almost an initiation or hazing, I look for a willingness, an eagerness, to publicly identify as a Friend in a way that deserves the backing of some Monthly Meeting. The meeting will not disavow so-and-so when they publicly proclaim to be a Friend. That's the social contract.
We do not hire expensive Internet services to study the public record, as we might if you want to work in the children's program as one of two supervisory adults, as required by our insurance company (another item of business during the same meeting). As a third adult in the room, you would not need a background check or social security number.
No, that's not how the process works, in the case of something routine like membership.
We're encouraging people to come forward as Friends and deal with the consequences in the aftermath (for the rest of their lives perhaps).
However, we do not certify, as a meeting, that so-and-so has met a lot of deeply spiritual criteria. Presumably so-and-so wrote a letter to Oversight and a clearness meeting was convened. We do not require any criminal background checks, e.g. we are not assuring the public that Y is not a child molester. We hope not, and will be surprised if so, but let us not mislead the general public into thinking a member has somehow been through some thorough quality assurance program in order to "come out" as a recorded member.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Brokenness and Barriers
How Quakerism drove me to madness and bipolar recovery
http://aholyandabrokenhallelujah.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/how-quakers-drove-me-to-madness/
Full of mysticism and worship and spiritual nurture
How Medicaid keeps people with disabilities poor
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/22/how-medicaid-forces-the-disabled-to-be-poor/
Full of policy wonk terms and concrete references to specific legislation.
What a pair.
http://aholyandabrokenhallelujah.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/how-quakers-drove-me-to-madness/
Full of mysticism and worship and spiritual nurture
How Medicaid keeps people with disabilities poor
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/22/how-medicaid-forces-the-disabled-to-be-poor/
Full of policy wonk terms and concrete references to specific legislation.
What a pair.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Transgender Activist Christopher Lee's Death Certificate
RantWoman at the moment is both curious and honestly alittle flummoxed about questions of dender transition. So for at least a spell, RantWoman will occasionally dumpe informational items on her blog without any more expectation than to be present with the story. RantWoman can just start in data geek mode, reflecting on all the ways that data may or may not reflect reality.
http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2014/04/18/male-in-life-female-in-death-the-story-of-christopher-lees-death-certificate/
http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2014/04/18/male-in-life-female-in-death-the-story-of-christopher-lees-death-certificate/
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Annotations
RantWoman humbly offers some annotations from her very own
blog to the sex offenders paragraph from her Meeting’s official penultimate draft
2014 State of Society report. RantWoman invites readers to compare this paragraph to the final version and to meditate on differences. There are small but VERY important differences. RantWoman is pointedly NOT speaking of the titles on the torturous path to these differences. Please hold the saga in the Light bearing in mind that fog and blur in RantWoman's head also impeded clear paths ....
RantWoman offers these ramblings in full brain dump, fraught with digressions mode and reminds her readers that her model of blogging is more Quaker journal than anything that aspires to be more polished. Please Hold RantWoman in the Light, especially if it seems like RantWoman is telling too much of the truth. (A)
For more than a decade, UFM has been openly addressing
people's needs around the topic of sexual violence. We committed ourselves to a
triple ministry: safety for our children, support for adult survivors of sexual
abuse(A1), and spiritual support for known sexual offenders in our community. One
person completed his sentence this past year, and developed his own Lifetime
Safety Plan, which the Meeting then adopted for our use as well. (B) An archive
of our Meeting's walk with this offender is available at http://www.scn.org/friends/sexual_abuse_report.pdf
(C). As part of UFM’s overall plan, we
charged the Education Committee with the ongoing responsibility for the safety
of children (including annual education for adults) (D) and the Care and
Counsel Committee with support for adult survivors, recognizing that this is a
very challenging area. We are grateful for this ongoing opportunity for
enhanced understanding of the histories, sorrows, challenges, and growth of all
our members. (E)
RantWoman mentions this problem while holding in the Light Friend Whose Title RantWoman keeps Pointedly Omitting, recalling a conversation that went something like
"I am not hearing from survivors..."
"Well, you are not hearing from survivors about (The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet" but you should not assume you are not hearing from survivors."
RantWoman, speaking only for herself does not consider tormenting the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet necessary to her own sanity. More importantly, RantWoman frankly is really tired of fussing about the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet and not being able to have space:
(A1)
Only sexual abuse? What about other abuse? What about trauma????
RantWoman offers these ramblings in full brain dump, fraught with digressions mode and reminds her readers that her model of blogging is more Quaker journal than anything that aspires to be more polished. Please Hold RantWoman in the Light, especially if it seems like RantWoman is telling too much of the truth. (A)
(A)
For the record, among many threads of RantWoman’s yucky topics
festival life story, one of the RantSiblings was victimized by a serial
molester who targeted kids whose parents were too religiously uptight to help
them learn to negotiate sexual boundaries, kids whose parents figured if they
prayed hard enough, nothing bad would happen, and in the RantFamily case,
parents who did NOTHING that would have been appropriate afterward like get the
kid help!
RantWoman is posting this bluntly all over her blog. And
STILL, RantWoman would be grateful if those in this community who know members
of the RantFamily would observe the following confidentiality practices: if
RantWoman brings something up in front of you and family members, it’s fair
game. If a question comes up about life at this Meeting and you feel able to
answer in the general case, feel free.
RantWoman has begun saying that trauma recovery in this particular
faith community is a little like the cat having kittens in your bed. Must she?
Yes, and those around RantWoman are supposed to be gratified because that makes up for every
single clueless obtuse silencing and just plain aggravating thing anyone in
this community has done to fry RantWoman’s nerves about everything to do with
the topic.
Furthermore, RantWoman has been massaging the value for
others of the different schedule regimens used over the history of the Safest
Sex Offender on the Planet’s DoC supervision. Some Friends do find it meaningful. Some Friends who do not speak up in public just wonder why the level of fussiness about the whole issue. RantWoman is unclear whether this category includes anyone--besides herself--who identifies as a survivor of abuse / sexual abuse.RantWoman mentions this problem while holding in the Light Friend Whose Title RantWoman keeps Pointedly Omitting, recalling a conversation that went something like
"I am not hearing from survivors..."
"Well, you are not hearing from survivors about (The Safest Sex Offender on the Planet" but you should not assume you are not hearing from survivors."
RantWoman, speaking only for herself does not consider tormenting the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet necessary to her own sanity. More importantly, RantWoman frankly is really tired of fussing about the Safest Sex Offender on the Planet and not being able to have space:
--For a certain committee to do Worship Sharing about what
it means to be in the famous bulletin announcement.
--Has anyone ever been told something they do not know how
to deal with and who do they turn to?
(B)
The offender applied for and has been welcomed into
membership. RantWoman personally is glad he is part of the community for many
reasons besides what he is best known for. Some years our Meeting mentions
counts of new memberships, transfers in and out, deaths, births; some years
not. This year, not.
(C)
RantWoman Cross reference to the historical archive:
RantWoman began this blog in 2009.
There is considerable Commentary on themes related to this ministry. For dates
of interest from the archive, readers will frequently find blog entries in the
same time frame referring to RantWoman opinions, suggestions for the Meeting
announcement, suggestions for other resource list.
Steve1 in the archive = The Safest
Sex Offender on the Planet
Steve2 in the archive = The Friend
with the Remarkable Story
The Child Ministry tag contains
all kinds of things including resources, accounts of childrearing….
RantWoman has spent a few minutes
desultorily looking for the answers to two questions and has not found anything
satisfactory. The questions:
--What was the original charge of
the Subcommittee on Interpersonal Violence? (Corrollary question: what was the
original thinking behind having one member from Oversight, one from Worship and
Ministry, and one at-large.—Rantwoman does not have to think very hard to
observe some reasons but no one several years on could tell RantWoman.)
RantWoman remembers that the charge involved helping the Meeting develop
resources. RantWoman likes the archive here just fine as a historical snapshot but
would REALLY like some materials upon which to have shared conversation
including brief intro things she might refer others to.
As this archive
was being cleaned up for presentation to the wider world, RantWoman asked a
personal f/Friend about the longer document vs shorter resources issue. It
became clear that personal f/Friend was very, very attached to this historical
record and had no thought of anything else. Personal f/Friend is also at a
stage in life where she is ready to detach from many things so she has a tendency
to pat others on the head and suggest they do not need to worry their pretty
little heads either. RantWoman, to say the least, finds this patronizing.
Sometimes RantWoman has also felt trapped! RantWoman is kind of peeved that Personal f/Friend has not gotten the point that RantWoman needs both resources in certain formats AND a pool of other people who have maybe encountered the same concepts / language resources. No one else has gotten this point either and RantWoman has only now dragged away enough conceptual clutter to say the point cleanly.
RantWoman holds
Personal f.Friend’s stories very tenderly. RantWoman honors Personal f/Friend’s
need to tell some pieces over and over. And one day after the n zillionth
recitation, RantWoman sent Personal f/Friend an email with the following
questions:
Who do you need to forgive?
Who do you need to forgive you?
What do you need to forgive / be
forgiven for?
What do you need to forgive
yourself for?
Personal
f/Friend called RantWoman a few days after the email and admitted to being pretty
affronted at first. At first.
Anyway, RantWoman STILL thinks it
would be AWESOME if there were a committee she could draw resources from. Half
the reason RantWoman stores random Blog as Filing Cabinet items she comes
across is precisely to have some kind of resource bank. RantWoman has offered
for multiple years to serve on such a committee. RantWoman stood aside from
laying down the committee exactly because she still sees a need. Click on the
Charm School tag for numerous indications, at least to RantWoman’s febrile
brain about this.
--Did we in fact charge Oversight
/ Care and Counsel with care of adult survivors? What preparation do they
undergo? Said committee, whatever they call themselves, is presently comprised
of people with Personnel work experience, a couple people in helping
professions,. In the first place, they would be idiots to accept such a charge
without any training. In the second place, RantWoman specifically had an
argument about a very key point from a threshing session: a speaker, not a member of Care and Counsel, asked “How
can we help survivors if we do not know who they are?” This got recorded in the
minutes as “how can we help survivors if they do not identify themselves to Oversight
/ now Care and Counsel?
Can anyone who has read this rant
imagine some reasons people might hesitate to identify themselves to Care and
Counsel?
More to the point, if Care and Counsel works confidentially, how would anyone else know of someone needing help? OR what would one do if someone's experience found their friend instead of going straight to Care and Counsel?
More to the point, if Care and Counsel works confidentially, how would anyone else know of someone needing help? OR what would one do if someone's experience found their friend instead of going straight to Care and Counsel?
(D)
“As part of UFM’s overall plan, we charged the Education
Committee with the ongoing responsibility for the safety of children (including
annual education for adults)”
RantWoman recalls a conversation with Friend Whose Title
RantWoman Pointedly Omits:
RantWoman: “When I
was in high school, if anyone had been willing to talk, there would have been
things to hear.”
Friend Whose Title ... “Go talk
to your counselor.”
RantWoman offers the following items from her blog where “the
safety of children” fell partly or completely outside the realm of education
committee.
--A teenager who came to worship with his father and whom
several adults described as having the “deer in headlights” look one might
expect from being around a parent’s mental illness. Son was present in another room when, according both to a firsthand telephone conversation and to secondhand info which for RantWoman aligns fromseveral directions, a clearness committee for membership went rather badly. Where would Education Committee have been when father and son went home after this event?
--A teenager whose mother gave a message in public Meeting
for Worship about an incident in their household that meets, to RantWoman’s
non-lawyerly ear, the legal definition of domestic violence.
--A younger child with a severe disability in another
Meeting who suffered physical abuse and was criticized by someone in the family’s
Meeting for saying that the abuser was “mean.” (RantWoman has permission to speak of the word "mean. RantWoman learned of this
situation over time at a series of Quaker gatherings. ONE thread of the larger
community conversation involved insistence that RantWoman “did not know when to
quit” about service dogs, the most public face of this family's situation. RantWoman notes the identity of the person who made the "not know when to quit" comment with concern because of a sense that Friend communicated of being entitled to know. RantWoman felt NO obligation to labor with said Friend and is now, for a new reason, seasoning what to do with her concern. Hold that issue in the Light, PLEASE)
--A recent email exchange with Worship and Ministry and the
clerk of education committee. RantWoman sometimes gets triggered around small
children running about uncontrolled. RantWoman will explain the RantParent childrearing
practices and RantFamily vision issues behind the problem another time. The
point is RantWoman gets triggered and would prefer approaches other than
RantParent methods and unrealistic behavior expectations. RantWoman for the
record does not identify as a direct survivor of sexual abuse but anyway,
RantWoman fears that if she had approached Care and Counsel the problem would
have gotten lost in months of fog and would have emerged months later with, say
a phone call, “oh we are wondering…”. The issue occurs in Meeting for Worship
and involves children, the worship experience, and the physical safety of all
kinds of people.
When RantWoman addressed Worship and Ministry, the first suggestion
she got back was just that she go worship somewhere else. The author of this suggestion, while often dear and weighty, is already firmly planted on RantWoman's "I forgive you in advance" list. Fortunately for the
future of the RSoF, there are no Meetings without children within RantWoman’s “I
will ride one bus” radius. RantWoman wrote back mathematically. About 1/3 of
the problem is something no one can fix and will y’all please just hold
RantWoman in the Light. 1/3 is practicaly safety concerns for the tottery, the
aged, the low vision, as well as our bountiful and energetic children. And 1/3
is well, what do we want our children to be learning about behavior in worship?
RantWoman has indications that she has been heard, at least to a degree, about this point .
(E)
RantWoman DEEPLY appreciates many people's efforts, highly imperfect as some of them have been. RantWoman hopes others have also found healing, at least a degree of safety or adjustmment or new Light. And RantWoman has also still found reason, in private email to use the phrase “orgies of
self-congratulation.” Hold RantWoman and those around her in the Light about
this point, PLEASE.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Giving Things Up on Behalf Of: Grab the Blind Person and Bless Them with Variations
RantWoman is trying to get the hang of this give things up for Lent. RantWoman sort of understands that there is some point of forgiveness; RantWoman needs to sit with that issue for one thing because even including forgiving, RantWoman would like NOT to have to repeat the forgiving!
RantWoman offers the following list of behaviors she would be ecstatic to give up on behalf of other people.
Grab the Blind Person and bless them.
Grab the Blind person and drag them into really scary traffic
Grab the Blind person and drag them into really scary traffic while ignoring protests and demands to STOP.
See for instance:
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2012/07/grace-as-laugh-riot-and-blindness.html
This one from awhile ago: Grab the Blind person and drag them into really scary traffic while ignoring protest and demands to STOP in private while baying in public about fitness to serve on a certain Meeting committee.
Failing to feed back to RantWoman that anyone gets the dimensions of abuse involved in the previous item.
Lecturing RantWoman about how painful it is to watch public conversation while being unavailable / unwilling to attend to the private issue of getting dragged into traffic.
Turning down REPEATED requests by RantWoman to come address a whole certain committee. RantWoman is barely capable of holding the person unavailable to listen in the Light and is utterly clear that holding a one-on-one conversation with said person is beyond her Light. Hence only ONE of several reasons RantWoman has requested...
Please hold this circus in the Light.
Sincerely,
RantWoman
RantWoman offers the following list of behaviors she would be ecstatic to give up on behalf of other people.
Grab the Blind Person and bless them.
Grab the Blind person and drag them into really scary traffic
Grab the Blind person and drag them into really scary traffic while ignoring protests and demands to STOP.
See for instance:
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2012/07/grace-as-laugh-riot-and-blindness.html
This one from awhile ago: Grab the Blind person and drag them into really scary traffic while ignoring protest and demands to STOP in private while baying in public about fitness to serve on a certain Meeting committee.
Failing to feed back to RantWoman that anyone gets the dimensions of abuse involved in the previous item.
Lecturing RantWoman about how painful it is to watch public conversation while being unavailable / unwilling to attend to the private issue of getting dragged into traffic.
Turning down REPEATED requests by RantWoman to come address a whole certain committee. RantWoman is barely capable of holding the person unavailable to listen in the Light and is utterly clear that holding a one-on-one conversation with said person is beyond her Light. Hence only ONE of several reasons RantWoman has requested...
Please hold this circus in the Light.
Sincerely,
RantWoman
Sunday, April 13, 2014
State of Society 2014
RantWoman is humble: someone else proposed a factual change RantWoman does not perfectly remember. RantWoman said what is on her mind in Business Meeting. The room was silent for a LONG time. RantWoman said she thinks she can make a small edit. Here is what emerged.
University Monthly Meeting, Seattle WA
State of Society Report 2014
With three meetings for worship per week, and a plethora of activities and groups thriving under our roof, our Meeting House can be a very busy place. We are continually challenged to seek a balance of community involvement, political interaction, financial needs, and time for quiet attention to the leadings of Spirit. In addition, we must honor the very different needs and life circumstances of beloved elders, parents and growing families, and younger adults just getting established.
Many of our elders are confronting challenging changes in health, or needed shifts in housing. Walking through these changes together is spiritual work; through Care Committees our community provides spiritual support for people experiencing calamities and infirmities. A member of our Care and Counsel Committee adjusted the assisted listening system in our worship room so that everyone can hear the vocal ministries of worship. An attender also organized several sing-alongs for a dear Friend who is struggling with serious illness. These moments of shared grace were special and uplifting.
We are happy to be able to report that our children’s programs are thriving. Families with children take turns with monthly visits among Meetings, and are rewarded with expanded fellowship and children’s activities. Junior Friends also continue their prior tradition of gathering monthly with teens from other meetings. Our Young adults meet regularly for potlucks and even extend their definition of “young adult” to include, say “frequently the youngest person at Adult Religious Education.”
We still have difficulty bridging the gap between college age and older adults. However, our Adult Religious Education program thrives weekly as a rich forum for exploringinterests of community, spirit, society, and science, and sometimes gets quite moved by Spirit. We are grateful for this added opportunity to “go deep” outside of the main meeting for worship, and to discover our connection in this intimate setting.
One high point of community involvement was a threshing session about meeting for Worship for Business. Friends considered ideas from a variety of suggested readings and continued worshiping while ministering to our building and grounds.
Many of our individuals, as always, carry their ministries out into the world, working for peace and justice, acting as officers and leaders in Quaker organizations. We recognized one member’s travels in the ministry in Latin America twice this year. In addition, our Jr Friends are preparing for upcoming ministry in Guatemala, and need all the support we can offer, spiritually, financially, and logistically.
New fundraising initiatives also reflect deep community engagement. For a number of months Friends seasoned options for cutting expenditures but were unable to come to unity about any specific plan. Instead, Friends in Business meeting came to unity to conduct active fundraising. Finance committee recommended that cuts in programs and activities could be avoided if our giving pattern reached 60% of our annual budget by the end of the second quarter of our fiscal year. Friends responded enthusiastically- Finance Committee agreed to add fundraising to its charge- and that goal was reached!
The quiet of our worship room remains a prized sleeping option for SHARE, the self-managed 20 member homeless community we have shared space with every night for several years. UFM’s Subcommittee on Homelessness, which for a time narrowed its focus to managing UFM’s relationship with thisSHARE, reached out to raise awareness of other issues related to homelessness, like the need for affordable housing, and dramatic changes on the horizon in our neighborhood. Of more immediate impact, since the Meetinghouse lacks regular eating facilities for SHARE to use, the subcommittee installed two permanent picnic tables (with seats) in the lower courtyard of the building for use in good weather.
For more than a decade, UFM has been openly addressing people's needs around the topic of sexual violence. We committed ourselves to a triple ministry: safety for our children, support for adult survivors of sexual abuse, and spiritual support for known sexual offenders in our community. One person completed his sentence this past year, and developed his own Lifetime Safety Plan, which the Meeting then adopted for our use as well. An archive of our Meeting's walk with this offender is available athttp://www.scn.org/friends/sexual_abuse_report.pdf. As part of UFM’s overall plan, Education Committee administers background checks for our child safety protocols and Education and Care and Counsel committees from time to time offer educational and other supportive events aimed at children and adults. Survivors’ experiences can be very challenging. We are grateful for this ongoing opportunity for enhanced understanding of the histories, sorrows, challenges, and growth of all our members.
University Meeting will always be changing, and as result, needs to take time regularly to refocus our efforts or re-evaluate our goals, but we happily find our community life both centering and challenging and try to rise in the Light to live as Quakers together.
University Monthly Meeting, Seattle WA
State of Society Report 2014
With three meetings for worship per week, and a plethora of activities and groups thriving under our roof, our Meeting House can be a very busy place. We are continually challenged to seek a balance of community involvement, political interaction, financial needs, and time for quiet attention to the leadings of Spirit. In addition, we must honor the very different needs and life circumstances of beloved elders, parents and growing families, and younger adults just getting established.
Many of our elders are confronting challenging changes in health, or needed shifts in housing. Walking through these changes together is spiritual work; through Care Committees our community provides spiritual support for people experiencing calamities and infirmities. A member of our Care and Counsel Committee adjusted the assisted listening system in our worship room so that everyone can hear the vocal ministries of worship. An attender also organized several sing-alongs for a dear Friend who is struggling with serious illness. These moments of shared grace were special and uplifting.
We are happy to be able to report that our children’s programs are thriving. Families with children take turns with monthly visits among Meetings, and are rewarded with expanded fellowship and children’s activities. Junior Friends also continue their prior tradition of gathering monthly with teens from other meetings. Our Young adults meet regularly for potlucks and even extend their definition of “young adult” to include, say “frequently the youngest person at Adult Religious Education.”
We still have difficulty bridging the gap between college age and older adults. However, our Adult Religious Education program thrives weekly as a rich forum for exploringinterests of community, spirit, society, and science, and sometimes gets quite moved by Spirit. We are grateful for this added opportunity to “go deep” outside of the main meeting for worship, and to discover our connection in this intimate setting.
One high point of community involvement was a threshing session about meeting for Worship for Business. Friends considered ideas from a variety of suggested readings and continued worshiping while ministering to our building and grounds.
Many of our individuals, as always, carry their ministries out into the world, working for peace and justice, acting as officers and leaders in Quaker organizations. We recognized one member’s travels in the ministry in Latin America twice this year. In addition, our Jr Friends are preparing for upcoming ministry in Guatemala, and need all the support we can offer, spiritually, financially, and logistically.
New fundraising initiatives also reflect deep community engagement. For a number of months Friends seasoned options for cutting expenditures but were unable to come to unity about any specific plan. Instead, Friends in Business meeting came to unity to conduct active fundraising. Finance committee recommended that cuts in programs and activities could be avoided if our giving pattern reached 60% of our annual budget by the end of the second quarter of our fiscal year. Friends responded enthusiastically- Finance Committee agreed to add fundraising to its charge- and that goal was reached!
The quiet of our worship room remains a prized sleeping option for SHARE, the self-managed 20 member homeless community we have shared space with every night for several years. UFM’s Subcommittee on Homelessness, which for a time narrowed its focus to managing UFM’s relationship with thisSHARE, reached out to raise awareness of other issues related to homelessness, like the need for affordable housing, and dramatic changes on the horizon in our neighborhood. Of more immediate impact, since the Meetinghouse lacks regular eating facilities for SHARE to use, the subcommittee installed two permanent picnic tables (with seats) in the lower courtyard of the building for use in good weather.
For more than a decade, UFM has been openly addressing people's needs around the topic of sexual violence. We committed ourselves to a triple ministry: safety for our children, support for adult survivors of sexual abuse, and spiritual support for known sexual offenders in our community. One person completed his sentence this past year, and developed his own Lifetime Safety Plan, which the Meeting then adopted for our use as well. An archive of our Meeting's walk with this offender is available athttp://www.scn.org/friends/sexual_abuse_report.pdf. As part of UFM’s overall plan, Education Committee administers background checks for our child safety protocols and Education and Care and Counsel committees from time to time offer educational and other supportive events aimed at children and adults. Survivors’ experiences can be very challenging. We are grateful for this ongoing opportunity for enhanced understanding of the histories, sorrows, challenges, and growth of all our members.
University Meeting will always be changing, and as result, needs to take time regularly to refocus our efforts or re-evaluate our goals, but we happily find our community life both centering and challenging and try to rise in the Light to live as Quakers together.
Mr. JAWS manages email
Eureka?
RantWoman wishes to unveil a new approach to email management.
Meet Mr. JAWS, RantWoman's screen reader. Mr JAWS is usually set for American English albeit at a considerably faster reading rate than normal human speech. The reading speed tends to vex people who are not used to this.
RantWoman's first line of defense for certain categories of email: make Mr. JAWS read EVEN FASTER in US English.
RantWoman's second line of defense is to force Mr. JAWS to think the text is in say, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese, or Finnish.
RantWoman feels blessed that an offer to hold the author of much venting in the Light along with mention of this approach generated much mirth.
RantWoman feels blessed to have another fresh supply of "Go away" droppings for her spiritual compost heap which she is likely to handle the same way.
RantWoman just is not sure WHAT to do with all these blessings.
RantWoman wishes to unveil a new approach to email management.
Meet Mr. JAWS, RantWoman's screen reader. Mr JAWS is usually set for American English albeit at a considerably faster reading rate than normal human speech. The reading speed tends to vex people who are not used to this.
RantWoman's first line of defense for certain categories of email: make Mr. JAWS read EVEN FASTER in US English.
RantWoman's second line of defense is to force Mr. JAWS to think the text is in say, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese, or Finnish.
RantWoman feels blessed that an offer to hold the author of much venting in the Light along with mention of this approach generated much mirth.
RantWoman feels blessed to have another fresh supply of "Go away" droppings for her spiritual compost heap which she is likely to handle the same way.
RantWoman just is not sure WHAT to do with all these blessings.
Confidential? Not Confidential? More Giving things up on Behalf Of
RantWoman disclaimer: objects in blog may be closer or further away than they appear. They may be less wobbly around the edges or more clear. This is a RantWoman eye view of the world. RantWoman reminds her readers that this view may be subject to all manor of fog, blur, double vision, grow your own lava lamp effects, and general blotchiness.
RantWoman recognizes that some readers may be shocked, schocked and horrified at the thought of a starring role in RantWoman's give things on behalf of list; relax. You are in good company. RantWoman apologizes for thinking to whistle the big from Tom Lehrer about "try to convince.. that your sin's original..."
RantWoman thinks it would be a good idea to TRY AGAIN to talk in person about some of these points. Please hold that need in the Light.
Among RantWoman's list of behaviors she is giving up on others' behalf for lent:
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality instead of having a two-way conversation.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality on a collossal scale and not being able to articulate specific instances RantWoman can address.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality after previously being unable to hold conversations more sophisticated than "do what someone else says and don't argue."
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality when RantWoman and the person doing the lecturing have different implied promises of confidentiality because of different relationships to a specific person.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality when a situation is so serious that relevant authorities are already in the picture and it would be reasonable to season what needs to be said.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality when, even though there is a strong "oh yuck" flavor to the info in question, there is some good "spirit of love and truth" reason to hold a matter in the Light.
RantWoman recognizes that some readers may be shocked, schocked and horrified at the thought of a starring role in RantWoman's give things on behalf of list; relax. You are in good company. RantWoman apologizes for thinking to whistle the big from Tom Lehrer about "try to convince.. that your sin's original..."
RantWoman thinks it would be a good idea to TRY AGAIN to talk in person about some of these points. Please hold that need in the Light.
Among RantWoman's list of behaviors she is giving up on others' behalf for lent:
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality instead of having a two-way conversation.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality on a collossal scale and not being able to articulate specific instances RantWoman can address.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality after previously being unable to hold conversations more sophisticated than "do what someone else says and don't argue."
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality when RantWoman and the person doing the lecturing have different implied promises of confidentiality because of different relationships to a specific person.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality when a situation is so serious that relevant authorities are already in the picture and it would be reasonable to season what needs to be said.
--Lecturing RantWoman about confidentiality when, even though there is a strong "oh yuck" flavor to the info in question, there is some good "spirit of love and truth" reason to hold a matter in the Light.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
Blurted; not Blurted
RantWoman continues her intractable "tell toomuch of the truth" leading.
Blurted out on a conference call having nothing to do with Quakers:
"No Latinos on the soccer team (at the high school in question) probably does not mean there are no latinos interested in soccer."
Not blurted out in Adult Religious Education:
"If you would like to get to know more people of color, consider riding the bus or, gasp, eating fast food."
Not blurted out in another meeting where RantWoman was a highly functional bystander:
"Well, yeah, there are a handful of African American Friends in our Yearly Meeting. And there are quite a few bicultural families or grandparents with bicultural grandchildren. More to the point, shouldn't all the nice white (presumptively white; RantWoman is not opining about "nice") be working on our OWN issues, not waiting around for others to lead us?"
Memo to self: try to nudge Peace and Social Concerns, FCWPP to speak clearly in our modest Quaker, kind of afraid to toot our own horn, heaven forbid the message should be unambiguous and not subtle way about how we think what we do addresses racism, racial disparities.....
Also note, some individuals are quite powerfully and consistently engaged and so waht if the person reporting from our Meeting bounced over that..?
Blurted out on a conference call having nothing to do with Quakers:
"No Latinos on the soccer team (at the high school in question) probably does not mean there are no latinos interested in soccer."
Not blurted out in Adult Religious Education:
"If you would like to get to know more people of color, consider riding the bus or, gasp, eating fast food."
Not blurted out in another meeting where RantWoman was a highly functional bystander:
"Well, yeah, there are a handful of African American Friends in our Yearly Meeting. And there are quite a few bicultural families or grandparents with bicultural grandchildren. More to the point, shouldn't all the nice white (presumptively white; RantWoman is not opining about "nice") be working on our OWN issues, not waiting around for others to lead us?"
Memo to self: try to nudge Peace and Social Concerns, FCWPP to speak clearly in our modest Quaker, kind of afraid to toot our own horn, heaven forbid the message should be unambiguous and not subtle way about how we think what we do addresses racism, racial disparities.....
Also note, some individuals are quite powerfully and consistently engaged and so waht if the person reporting from our Meeting bounced over that..?
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Worse Auntie Attempts Customer Service: Sermons
Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Keeps Pointedly Omitting"
Thinking over your concern about length of vocal ministry during concerns last month some more, a couple thoughts come to mind:
--I think my customer service function is broken. Either that or I need to fire my customer service manager which I am reluctant to do because that leaves only the RantWoman School of Tact and Diplomacy, and not even any God as personal Butler model to guarantee the desired attention. Anyway, what were you HOPING to hear in response to your observations?
--What topic have I talked about in some way or another almost every month for quite a few months running?
--At this point I hope I have conveyed, among other things:
--I know from sermons and if God tells me to deliver one, I will deliver it, to the best of my ability interruptions notwithstanding.
(sundry digressions available as stories from my paternal grandfather, Righteous Reverend RantGranddad ... with a radio show and a job as a Sunday School Missionary doing dog and pony Shows for God in some of the finer Wyoming oil country community halls after their Saturday night beer bashes; with MT and WY on my mind for all kinds of reasons including booking things related to the recent NPYM meeting.)
--If someone has an issue about the sermon issue in general or any perticular moment, please help facilitate them talking to me directly. Please DO NOT feel obliged to act as an intermediary or try to decide for me or someone else what needs to be said / heard. Frankly I can hold lots of people in the Light just FINE, thank you very much but I have NO freaking idea how to have conversations with...
--A point I have not conveyed because it was on my list to speak of in a group conversation: One person on Care and Counsel keeps telling me I am supposed to "be mindful." Peculiarly, I keep hearing that as "read my mind and deliver only what is palatable and to my taste."
Again, may we all invoke the limited experience with God as personal Butler issue, hold the issue in the Light and consider where we are led from there?
In the Light.
RantWoman
Thinking over your concern about length of vocal ministry during concerns last month some more, a couple thoughts come to mind:
--I think my customer service function is broken. Either that or I need to fire my customer service manager which I am reluctant to do because that leaves only the RantWoman School of Tact and Diplomacy, and not even any God as personal Butler model to guarantee the desired attention. Anyway, what were you HOPING to hear in response to your observations?
--What topic have I talked about in some way or another almost every month for quite a few months running?
--At this point I hope I have conveyed, among other things:
--I know from sermons and if God tells me to deliver one, I will deliver it, to the best of my ability interruptions notwithstanding.
(sundry digressions available as stories from my paternal grandfather, Righteous Reverend RantGranddad ... with a radio show and a job as a Sunday School Missionary doing dog and pony Shows for God in some of the finer Wyoming oil country community halls after their Saturday night beer bashes; with MT and WY on my mind for all kinds of reasons including booking things related to the recent NPYM meeting.)
--If someone has an issue about the sermon issue in general or any perticular moment, please help facilitate them talking to me directly. Please DO NOT feel obliged to act as an intermediary or try to decide for me or someone else what needs to be said / heard. Frankly I can hold lots of people in the Light just FINE, thank you very much but I have NO freaking idea how to have conversations with...
--A point I have not conveyed because it was on my list to speak of in a group conversation: One person on Care and Counsel keeps telling me I am supposed to "be mindful." Peculiarly, I keep hearing that as "read my mind and deliver only what is palatable and to my taste."
Again, may we all invoke the limited experience with God as personal Butler issue, hold the issue in the Light and consider where we are led from there?
In the Light.
RantWoman
Worse Auntie gets eldered about Ministry at Length
Bad Auntie, readers will remember, sets a bad example unintentionally; Worse Auntie says things like "You're Darn Right I did and here's why!"
Lord have Mercy! At least RantWoman has not started out hearkening back to those glorious days of yore, before Youtube and television and the incredible shrinking human attention span when sermons might last....TWO HOURS.
The RantWoman side of a recent email exchange. RantWoman is still batting 1000 in the vexatious department:
Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Specifically Keeps Omitting
As to your concern about my comments during concerns in last month's Business Meeting
--Thank you for your sense of something meaningful, along I gather with something that you did not understand.
--Counting your comment, there were THREE people who told me in private they heard something meaningful. That to me at least balances the three people who interrupted.
--Is there something it might be helpful to speak more of? I would be happy to answer questions about things you did not understand. I generally think that worship is an act of faith but that not every message might be meant for me. I also have a pretty layered screen before I will rise to speak and generally do so when I have faith that enough of what is one my mind will make it out of my mouth in form understandable to others AND that the room can hear it.
I believe I promised less than two hours and closer to two minutes. I believe that is what I delivered. Even if I was over 2 minutes, I was definitely A LOT less than two hours.
Re interruptions:
One Friend we both talk to regularly said after one of Eye Roller Friend's more eruptive weeks, "when someone is speaking out of Worship, in concerns, they are speaking from the Light and you should not interrupt them." I am seasoning how to have a conversation about this topic with one of the people who interrupted me.
Considering the fact that I got interrupted THREE TIMES and can still remember the outline of where I was going, I am more confident of my Light even if it did not quite arrive to others.
But may we please hold some repetitive themes:
--awhile ago you called me about doing half the talking at a certain part of a retreat.
--we identified a bunch of accessibility concerns which had been only partly addressed.
--I identified some other concerns I had not exactly articulated related to the ones I had previously called out.
--I said "Well, NO, I would notnecessarily notice if I were doinghalf of all the talking because when i do consecutive interpreting doing half of all the talking is my job.
--I did not say what might have been most direct: a speaker was propounding a concept of eldering that I assume works for him but does not match my experience or concept of the issue.
--This time my excuse is the sundry protestant congregations of my youth.
--No I still cannot see people squirming and rolling their eyes. Oh well.
--Sermons run 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes they are full of all kinds of metaphors. Sometimes they lasted up to about 20 minutes, though if that happened on, say superbowl sunday, there would be mutiny.
Anyway
NO, I would not necessarily think 2 minutes is excessive. In FACT, some people give such boiled down messages that I do not get very much out of what is said,though if I am not going to get much out of something brevity might be appreciated.
--I remember an email to you and "RantWoman I am not interested in your Thought Processes Friend alluding basically to the fact that people use all kinds of different metaphors for things in their spiritual life. That Friend had given a message about communion in mass and I flippantly wrote something about "who, what wine, disaster crackers?" The email did not generate a response and I note it now only in the sense of NO, you are not guaranteed automatically that I will rid my life of metaphors. I invite you to sit with and see what rises for you from that.
I am sorry if this all just seems argumentative, but may we please hold the problem in the Light.
Sincerely,
RantWoman
Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Specifically Keeps Omitting
Thank you for interacting some more with the topic of vocal ministry including my message during Concerns last month in Business Meeting:
--I am sorry YOU have trouble following long spoken messages. Pretty much between reading with a screen reader and not being able to refresh my memory visually a lot of the time, I do not have any choice about trying. I wish I could say I have any instant words of wisdom about listening without losing one's train of thought. But retention and capacity to sort does improve with practice. And yes, my mind also wanders.
--As you might expect from the above, No, I am not automatically sympathetic with other people's short attention spans either though I DO have concerns as to balanced use of community time.
--I actually did not think my message during Concerns held together as well as I would have wished. structurally, it had 3 parts:
--a really blunt one about a versatile God who works with all kinds of raw material: I see things differently than Conflict is a Gift of God Friend
--an example of seeing things differently referring to the Mayan spirituality presentation from Adult Ed which was rich and about which there had already been two messages during worship before Business Meeting. I remember talking about the 3 axes, the day, a person's life, and the up and down heaven and earth one. I also remember talking about the blind chicken, a beetle actually. If there is not enough organic matter in the soil, the blind chicken eats all the corn roots. A mayan elder came to this light by thinking about the beetle in the dark for a whole day.
I am not sure where interruptions started but I definitely remember being interrupted when talking about words from far away and what they mean close to us. I KNOW this last part the connections got a little tenuous and i have been trying to craft a blog post but I might not get there.
So that was one message, but may we think of it in context of Meeting for Worship in general?
--A wonderful young Friend who introduced himself a few weeks ago after FLGBTQC and I and another person had an interesting conversation about to my ear really boiled down messages and messages where the room has to work at them or where things are not perfectly tied together.
talked about one person in his home Meeting who says 'I wish people would get the message clear before they rise to speak." I understand that wish, but sometimes it really is the process of the
room working with something where richness comes. I KNOW that is a minority view. And...?
Anyway, I would welcome comments. Also, please do not feel you must be an intermediary or gatekeeper. If someone complains to you, it's possible I will be much better able to interact with their concerns if I hear them in their own words and I have LOTS of suggestions about how you might facilitate that.
Thank you for reading this and for any thoughts.
In the Light.
RantWoman
And if you need a sermon, here is a lovely one from NWYM Superintendent Becky Ankeny based on Psalm 119
http://reconciliationpapers.blogspot.com/2014/03/psalm-119-relationship-not-rules.html
Lord have Mercy! At least RantWoman has not started out hearkening back to those glorious days of yore, before Youtube and television and the incredible shrinking human attention span when sermons might last....TWO HOURS.
The RantWoman side of a recent email exchange. RantWoman is still batting 1000 in the vexatious department:
Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Specifically Keeps Omitting
As to your concern about my comments during concerns in last month's Business Meeting
--Thank you for your sense of something meaningful, along I gather with something that you did not understand.
--Counting your comment, there were THREE people who told me in private they heard something meaningful. That to me at least balances the three people who interrupted.
--Is there something it might be helpful to speak more of? I would be happy to answer questions about things you did not understand. I generally think that worship is an act of faith but that not every message might be meant for me. I also have a pretty layered screen before I will rise to speak and generally do so when I have faith that enough of what is one my mind will make it out of my mouth in form understandable to others AND that the room can hear it.
I believe I promised less than two hours and closer to two minutes. I believe that is what I delivered. Even if I was over 2 minutes, I was definitely A LOT less than two hours.
Re interruptions:
One Friend we both talk to regularly said after one of Eye Roller Friend's more eruptive weeks, "when someone is speaking out of Worship, in concerns, they are speaking from the Light and you should not interrupt them." I am seasoning how to have a conversation about this topic with one of the people who interrupted me.
Considering the fact that I got interrupted THREE TIMES and can still remember the outline of where I was going, I am more confident of my Light even if it did not quite arrive to others.
But may we please hold some repetitive themes:
--awhile ago you called me about doing half the talking at a certain part of a retreat.
--we identified a bunch of accessibility concerns which had been only partly addressed.
--I identified some other concerns I had not exactly articulated related to the ones I had previously called out.
--I said "Well, NO, I would notnecessarily notice if I were doinghalf of all the talking because when i do consecutive interpreting doing half of all the talking is my job.
--I did not say what might have been most direct: a speaker was propounding a concept of eldering that I assume works for him but does not match my experience or concept of the issue.
--This time my excuse is the sundry protestant congregations of my youth.
--No I still cannot see people squirming and rolling their eyes. Oh well.
--Sermons run 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes they are full of all kinds of metaphors. Sometimes they lasted up to about 20 minutes, though if that happened on, say superbowl sunday, there would be mutiny.
Anyway
NO, I would not necessarily think 2 minutes is excessive. In FACT, some people give such boiled down messages that I do not get very much out of what is said,though if I am not going to get much out of something brevity might be appreciated.
--I remember an email to you and "RantWoman I am not interested in your Thought Processes Friend alluding basically to the fact that people use all kinds of different metaphors for things in their spiritual life. That Friend had given a message about communion in mass and I flippantly wrote something about "who, what wine, disaster crackers?" The email did not generate a response and I note it now only in the sense of NO, you are not guaranteed automatically that I will rid my life of metaphors. I invite you to sit with and see what rises for you from that.
I am sorry if this all just seems argumentative, but may we please hold the problem in the Light.
Sincerely,
RantWoman
Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Specifically Keeps Omitting
Thank you for interacting some more with the topic of vocal ministry including my message during Concerns last month in Business Meeting:
--I am sorry YOU have trouble following long spoken messages. Pretty much between reading with a screen reader and not being able to refresh my memory visually a lot of the time, I do not have any choice about trying. I wish I could say I have any instant words of wisdom about listening without losing one's train of thought. But retention and capacity to sort does improve with practice. And yes, my mind also wanders.
--As you might expect from the above, No, I am not automatically sympathetic with other people's short attention spans either though I DO have concerns as to balanced use of community time.
--I actually did not think my message during Concerns held together as well as I would have wished. structurally, it had 3 parts:
--a really blunt one about a versatile God who works with all kinds of raw material: I see things differently than Conflict is a Gift of God Friend
--an example of seeing things differently referring to the Mayan spirituality presentation from Adult Ed which was rich and about which there had already been two messages during worship before Business Meeting. I remember talking about the 3 axes, the day, a person's life, and the up and down heaven and earth one. I also remember talking about the blind chicken, a beetle actually. If there is not enough organic matter in the soil, the blind chicken eats all the corn roots. A mayan elder came to this light by thinking about the beetle in the dark for a whole day.
I am not sure where interruptions started but I definitely remember being interrupted when talking about words from far away and what they mean close to us. I KNOW this last part the connections got a little tenuous and i have been trying to craft a blog post but I might not get there.
So that was one message, but may we think of it in context of Meeting for Worship in general?
--A wonderful young Friend who introduced himself a few weeks ago after FLGBTQC and I and another person had an interesting conversation about to my ear really boiled down messages and messages where the room has to work at them or where things are not perfectly tied together.
talked about one person in his home Meeting who says 'I wish people would get the message clear before they rise to speak." I understand that wish, but sometimes it really is the process of the
room working with something where richness comes. I KNOW that is a minority view. And...?
Anyway, I would welcome comments. Also, please do not feel you must be an intermediary or gatekeeper. If someone complains to you, it's possible I will be much better able to interact with their concerns if I hear them in their own words and I have LOTS of suggestions about how you might facilitate that.
Thank you for reading this and for any thoughts.
In the Light.
RantWoman
And if you need a sermon, here is a lovely one from NWYM Superintendent Becky Ankeny based on Psalm 119
http://reconciliationpapers.blogspot.com/2014/03/psalm-119-relationship-not-rules.html
Mean to Read list: Jesus is Better Than You Imagined
One of the things RantWoman esteems about Quakers is a fierce realism even about issues that are complicated. The book Jesus is Better Than You Imagined is about abuse and the author's questioing of his own sexuality. RantWoman has not read the book but files this item here as a nudge on the Mean-to-Read list.
http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/03/31/why-i-shared-my-sexuality-story?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sojourners%2Fgods-politics+%28Sojourners+God%27s+Politics+Blog%29
author of Jesus is Better Than You Imagined
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/april/jonathan-merritt-thread-called-grace.html?paging=off
http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/03/31/why-i-shared-my-sexuality-story?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sojourners%2Fgods-politics+%28Sojourners+God%27s+Politics+Blog%29
author of Jesus is Better Than You Imagined
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/april/jonathan-merritt-thread-called-grace.html?paging=off
Monday, April 7, 2014
Releasing Ministry Stories
RantWoman notes the following project that is not quite a project, request for stories, and specific queries and has exactly cribbed text from the project website:
http://releasingministry.org/
Call for Stories
We are seeking stories about your personal experiences of supporting ministry.
•500 - 600 words
•Include a photo (optional)
•Email to vonn.new@gmail.com
Please respond to any of these queries:
•If you carry a concern, how have you financed your ministry?
•What has worked well, not so well?
•If you have supported a ministry, what was it like to have that leading?
•What ways opened or barriers did you encounter in providing or receiving support?
•If the ReleasingMinistry project were up and running, how do you envision using it?
http://releasingministry.org/
Call for Stories
We are seeking stories about your personal experiences of supporting ministry.
•500 - 600 words
•Include a photo (optional)
•Email to vonn.new@gmail.com
Please respond to any of these queries:
•If you carry a concern, how have you financed your ministry?
•What has worked well, not so well?
•If you have supported a ministry, what was it like to have that leading?
•What ways opened or barriers did you encounter in providing or receiving support?
•If the ReleasingMinistry project were up and running, how do you envision using it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
