what is the right question these days?
Let's talk. Is it "How are we to live together and preserve this planet for the future?" ? In a message dated 6/29/2012 6:07:33 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, jfwiegel@yahoo.com writes: Ah, what is the right question these days? Right questions?? Jim Wiegel _Jfwiegel@yahoo.com_ (mailto:Jfwiegel@yahoo.com) “One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life’ s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” – Carl Jung Partners in Participation Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video _http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55_ (http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55) and website for further details. On Jun 29, 2012, at 0:11, "David Walters" <_walters@alaweb.com_ (mailto:walters@alaweb.com) > wrote: The problem with gathering Spong describes is just another event where people come together and talk and talk and always ask the wrong question. The one thing I learned during my time in the Order was the value of asking the right question, especially during those hot sweaty summers of the west side of Chicago. -David Walters --- _elliestock@aol.com_ (mailto:elliestock@aol.com) wrote: From: Ellie Stock <_elliestock@aol.com_ (mailto:elliestock@aol.com) > To: _dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net) , _oe@lists.wedgeblade.net_ (mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net) Subject: [Dialogue] 6/28/12, Spong: My Way into an Interfaith Future Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:57:06 -0400 (EDT) Sent from Chautauqua where Spong is speaking every afternoon. (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=5cbccc32ec&e=db34daa597) _Homepage_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=8759ecf410&e=db34daa597) _My Profile_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=e2fca43d7c&e=db34 daa597) _Essay Archive_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=7b52b41061&e=db34daa597) _Message Boards_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=2bc8fbbca8&e=db34daa597) _Calendar_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=82e06ca1fe&e=db34daa597) My Way into an Interfaith Future Last week I introduced you, my readers, to an interfaith “think tank” in which I shared recently at a conference center known as the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. Some fifty leaders from among all the major religious systems of the world gathered there to explore the common ground that might lead to deeper interfaith cooperation and appreciation. The goal seemed desirable and all of the participants came with hope and excitement. The need for interfaith cooperation is apparent all over the world. Where divergent religious systems confront each other, violence almost always ensues. One has only to look for documentation at the Jewish-Moslem conflict in the Middle East, the Hindu-Moslem conflict between Pakistan and India, the Christian-Islamic violence that cuts across Africa, the Catholic-Protestant tensions in Ireland or the Sunni-Shia conflict that keeps Islam divided in the Middle East. One could also look at Christian history to see the anti-Semitism of the ages, the violence of the Crusades directed against Islam, or the Thirty Years’ War in Europe that followed the Reformation as both Protestant Europe and Catholic Europe sought to impose its faith on the other. This reality forces us to ask what there is about religion in most of its forms that makes violence all but inevitable as it appears to be in religious history. At the Chautauqua conference it did not take long for this flaw to be revealed. Indeed, it became present and visible in the first presentation. This presentation was given by Dr. John Cavadini, a Roman Catholic Professor of Theology from Notre Dame. The Roman Catholic Church articulates its claim to supremacy quite overtly. The current pope has reiterated a position taken by his predecessor that there is but one true religion and that is Christianity and that there is only one true version of Christianity and that is the Roman Catholic Church! He went on to warn those Catholics engaged in ecumenical relations that they should never refer to other Christian traditions as “sister churches,” since that implies some legitimacy. When that point of view is publicly articulated there is a genuine embarrassment in the listening audience. Such an attitude makes any significant conversation aimed at unity a rather worthless activity. Professor Cavalini tried at our gathering, unsuccessfully I believe, to navigate these troubled waters by making a distinction between revealed truth and our understanding of this truth. The central Christian doctrine of the Incarnation was not subject to debate, he said, but the way we understand that doctrine is always unfolding. Lest the blame for interfaith failure be placed too heavily on Roman Catholic shoulders, let me hasten to say that almost every religious tradition makes similar claims to be the exclusive possessor of revealed and “saving” truth. Protestant fundamentalists assert that the Bible is the literal “ word of God” and those denying that claim are either to be condemned or subjected to conversion pressure. Protestant evangelicals believe that the prerequisite for salvation is that one must be “born again” or “accept Jesus as their personal savior.” Muslims make the Islamic claim that in the Koran the Word of God was dictated directly to the prophet Muhammad. Within Islam itself both the Sunnis and the Shia claim that theirs is the only true expression of that faith tradition. Other sacred writings from the religions of the East are similarly invested with claims of being vessels through which the absolute truth of God has come into human possession. These claims that ultimate truth is the possession of a particular religious system are what make interfaith conversation all but impossible. The attempt to be open, to understand or to appreciate another faith perspective is thus deeply threatening to every religious system. One of the things that every religious system seeks to do is to offer religious certainty and for that to be possible that religion must escape the quicksand of relativity. Relativity, at the same time, is almost always impossible to escape without falling into religious triumphalism. At the Chautauqua “think tank” these problems were quickly identified and named. We could not start without finding a new way into the interfaith issue. As I thought about this over the next few days I tried to discover that illusive new path. Let me try to outline it briefly. The first step in any interfaith process is to be conscious of the fact that these exclusive claims exist and that we must begin where people are, not with where we wish they were. No one speaks in a vacuum and no one listens in a vacuum. We need to listen to each other closely, the same way we want others to listen to us. Let me then begin this process autobiographically. I am a Christian. Any interfaith activity in which I am engaged must start with that fact. I am not apologetic about this self-identification, nor am I willing to jettison this definition of myself for the sake of interfaith unity. The deepest commitment of my life is my commitment to walk the Christ path as my doorway into the mystery of God. Christianity is of absolute importance to me. I want to explore its wonders as deeply as I possibly can. Yet, I do not think that God is a Christian, certainly not in any creedal way, and that insight opens me up to all kinds of new possibilities. Christianity, like every other religious system in history is clearly a human creation that has evolved over the centuries. The virgin birth, for example, did not enter the Christian tradition until the ninth decade of the Christian era. It was certainly not a part of primitive Christianity. Neither Paul nor Mark appears ever to have heard about such an idea. The ascension was a tenth decade addition. Surely a quick reading of Paul would reveal that Paul was not a Trinitarian. The doctrines of the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity were not worked out until the third and fourth centuries. Doctrines are always attempts to put rational forms onto a transformative experience. Doctrines, therefore, can never be ultimate, but the experience that made the development of the doctrine seem proper might well be. Can we then separate the God experience that we Christians believe we have met in Jesus from the explanations of that experience which form the content of our faith tradition? That is a crucial distinction. The Jesus experience might well offer me a doorway into that which is ultimate, but Christianity itself cannot be ultimate and it thus cannot be the final revelation of God. God can never be contained inside any human form or bound by any human words. This means that neither my understanding of God nor my Church ’s understanding of God can ever be ultimate. This realization does not, however, invalidate the truth of my experience. As a Christian, I walk the Christ path. My deepest hope is that if I walk the Christ path long enough and faithfully enough, I will discover that I inevitably will transcend the boundaries of my own religion. That reality thus becomes a religious inevitability. When I articulate the fact that this is true for me I discover that it also seems to be true for people in all other religious systems. The Muslim must walk the Islamic path; the Jews must walk the Jewish path; the Hindus and Buddhists must walk the Hindu or Buddhist path. All walk with the realization, however, that God is not a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu or a Buddhist. All religious systems are designed by human beings to help its adherents walk into the mystery of an unbounded God. If any of us walks our own faith path long enough and faithfully enough, we will discover that our walk carries us beyond the boundaries of our own religious systems, since God can never be limited by or exhausted in any thing that is a human creation, whether it be scripture, creeds, doctrines or dogmas. To say it boldly the God experience may well be ultima te, but the religious system through which we walk into the God experience can never be. The next realization comes when we discover that while we are walking our separate paths, we are also taking into ourselves the values and the treasures found in our own tradition. We hold these treasures close to our hearts; we do not want to lose them. I grasp joyfully the pearl of great price that Christianity gives me. Then I realize that my brothers and sisters in Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism are doing exactly the same. They must embrace the treasures of their religion and cling to the pearl of great price that they have received from their religious system. So perhaps the deepest and the common religious call to each of us is not to affirm our unique creeds so much as it is to explore our faith so deeply that we each transcend its boundaries and escape fear-laden limits. Then beyond the boundaries and the limits of the faith system that has nurtured each of us, but without sacrificing the pearl of great price that our own tradition has given us, we can turn and face in a new way our brothers and sisters who have walked a path different from our own. In that setting I can speak to them and say: “This is the essence of my faith. This is the treasure that I have received as I walked the Christ path and now I want to share this treasure with you.” Each of my interfaith pilgrims will in turn do the same. They will say to me: “This is the essence of Judaism, of Islam, of Hinduism, of Buddhism. This is the treasure, the pearl of great price that I have received by walking faithfully and deeply the path of my religion and I want to share it with you.” We each receive the treasure of the other. No one has to sacrifice the treasure of the system which has nurtured him or her. We all become enriched. We no longer have to protect our truth or play the familiar religious games of supremacy that we have so often played in the past. No one loses, everyone gains. The alternative to genuine interfaith cooperation may well be genocide. While we can assert that there is no relativity in the God experience, there can also be no triumphalism in the various explanations of that experience. No religion is therefore ultimate, but God is and God is met on many paths and our call is to walk our path faithfully. In that realization, the beauty of an interfaith future is born. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online _here_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=4b0d3ddbb8&e=db34daa597) . ____________________________________ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ce654567db&e=db34daa597) ____________________________________ Bishop Spong's Summer Session at the Pacific School of Religion! (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=77d824139c&e=db34daa597) _Re-Claiming the Bible in a Post-Christian World_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=eeb9c5bcaf&e=db34daa597) Instructor: _John Shelby Spong_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=c258e5eb17&e=db34daa597) Dates and Times: One week: July 16-20, 9am - 1pm Description: Can the Bible, written 2000-3000 years ago, speak in any meaningful way to the 21st century? If it cannot, then is Christianity at an end? If it can, will Christianity look anything like what we have known in the past? Since creeds and doctrines are all constructed on the basis of what was believed to be "Biblical Truth," can any of the current formularies stand? Since liturgy is based on biblical definitions of sin, salvation and God, none of which make much sense to 21st century people, can Christianity tolerate the revolution that it faces? This class will be taught by one who has been a priest and bishop for 56 years with one foot in the institutional church and the other in the academic world of new insights. It is specifically designed for clergy and questing lay people. Course Credits & Cost: 1.5 credits - $990; audit - $495; 2.0 CEUs - $350 Course Number: BS-2117 (credit); BS-0003 (CEUs) Required Text: John Shelby Spong, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, 2011 HarperCollins, San Francisco. Purchase _here_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b6e03da206&e=d b34daa597) . Syllabus: _Re-Claiming the Bible in a Post-Christian World_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=4a2ff54461&e=db 34daa597) _Register_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=30b7465219&e=db34daa597) Question & Answer The Rev. Stuart Maywood from Norwood, Mass., and Naples, Florida, writes: Question: What is the role or place of Christian Education in Church School? It seems to me that much of what is taught is watered-down material of questionable worth. As a former pastor this was always an issue and it is more so now. It seems to me that we need better educated adults to live fully and then let the children follow. Answer: Dear Stuart, Thank you for your letter and for sharing your experience. I concur with your observation. I remember only two things from the years I spent going to Sunday school and neither of them had anything to do with content. I remember being slapped by my fourth grade Sunday school teacher for misbehaving (I have no idea what my offence was) and I remember my fifth grade teacher who was instructing us on the Ten Commandments and he skipped from the 6th commandment against killing to the 8th commandment against stealing. Noticing that he had omitted commandment number 7, I raised my hand and asked, “Mr. Darrow, why did you skip the commandment about adultery? What does it mean to commit adultery?” Threatened, my teacher responded with irritation saying, “You will learn about that when you get older!” Otherwise Sunday school content did not appear to penetrate my mind. Yet by some process, I picked up the cultural fundamentalism. I assumed there was a real ark filled with animals, that the ascension really meant that Jesus went into the sky of a three-tiered universe and that miracles were simply part of Jesus’ life. Whether I would have been able to absorb a critical study of the Bible at that time in my life, I do not know. I only know that I never was given the opportunity to find out. I agree that most Sunday school material is of little value, contributing to a view of God, who like Santa Claus, will someday have to be abandoned because we have grown up. On the other hand, the most exciting thing I did as a parish priest was to teach an adult Bible class every Sunday morning for an hour prior to our service of worship. Adults came in large numbers, sometimes dragging their children with them for Sunday school. I know that in those classes, I taught them as if I were teaching in a graduate school attended by adults who were capable of learning anything I knew. I know they were excited about the Bible, capable of embracing the controversy and tension of modern scholarship. And, finally, I know that out of that class each year, I recruited Sunday school teachers who were eager to pass on to the children the things that they had learned. That experience convinced me that the key to Christian education was to teach the adults. Still good Sunday school material is a help. I have read many Sunday school curricula – some commercially produced, some denominationally produced and some inter-denominationally produced. My first rule is to “do no harm,” by which I mean do not teach anything that you the teacher do not yourself believe; and my second rule is to teach nothing that the child will someday have to renounce. The Center for Progressive Christianity has just begun to produce church school materials. They have now completed material for children 6-10 years. It is the best I have ever read. It is not religious pabulum, but offers a critical approach to scripture. I recommend it. If you would like to learn more about it, email _admin@progressivechristianity.org_ (mailto:admin@progressivechristianity.org) , and they will send you more information on it. They hope to expand this beginning initiative into a full church school curriculum in time. That is, however, a difficult and expensive process. I hope it succeeds. I trust that this addresses your concerns. ~John Shelby Spong ____________________________________ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b1c756fc1d&e=db34daa597) ____________________________________ Read what Bishop Spong has to say about _A Joyful Path Progressive Christian Spiritual Curriculum for Young Hearts and Minds_ (http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=33ed9288b7&e=db34daa597) : "The great need in the Christian church is for a Sunday school curriculum for children that does not equate faith with having a pre-modern mind. The Center for Progressive Christianity has produced just that. Teachers can now teach children in Sunday school without crossing their fingers. I endorse it wholeheartedly." 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Karen, you said: "Let's talk. Is it "How are we to live together and preserve this planet for the future?" ? sort of a combination of Rodney King (Can't we all get along?) and Gro Harlem Brundtland (Our Common Future report on sustainable development) (How do we meet our own needs without compromising the capacity for future generations to meet their own needs?) Pretty good, Karen . . . anyone else? Is this the right question? I found this list below . . . from a church consultant . . . KEY QUESTIONS FOR OUR TIMES In 2000 Bill Easum articulated these key questions for churches seeking to be missional, outward-focused, evangelistic at the commencement of the 21st century. Here are OUTWARD FOCUSED CHURCH we would be interested in your answers. We'll be sure they get forwarded to Bill. In 2000 I prepared a presentation for the Society for Church Growth in which I asked what I considered at the time to be some of the key questions of our time. In looking back over these questions I find they are still the key questions with which Western Christianity is wrestling. You be the Judge if they are. What is it about my relationship with Jesus my neighbor and the world can’t live without experiencing?How do I share my faith without coming off like a bigot?What will Christianity look like when it truly understands that North America is a mission field?What is the difference in being missional and doing evangelism?What is the difference in a being pastor and being a cross-cultural missionary?What does it mean to live in a world where one’s spirituality is more important than one’s credentials?Can we imagine doing evangelism that is not carried out within the context of conquest?How do leaders lead without control?What will authority look like in an out-of-control, anti-institutional, non-religious world?What will Christianity look like when it’s no longer defined by books? How do we transition from handing out data that informs to offering an experience that transforms?How will we help people grow their spirituality instead of just learning more about the Bible? What will Christianity look like when the church is missional and not institutional?How will we “be” the church instead of “go” to church? Jim Wiegel "The problem with quotes on the internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." Abraham Lincoln 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401 +1 623-363-3277 skype: jfredwiegel jfwiegel@yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details. --- On Sat, 6/30/12, KarenBueno@aol.com <KarenBueno@aol.com> wrote: From: KarenBueno@aol.com <KarenBueno@aol.com> Subject: [Dialogue] what is the right question these days? To: dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012, 11:50 AM Let's talk. Is it "How are we to live together and preserve this planet for the future?" ? In a message dated 6/29/2012 6:07:33 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, jfwiegel@yahoo.com writes: Ah, what is the right question these days? Right questions?? Jim Wiegel Jfwiegel@yahoo.com “One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” – Carl Jung Partners in Participation Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details. On Jun 29, 2012, at 0:11, "David Walters" <walters@alaweb.com> wrote: The problem with gathering Spong describes is just another event where people come together and talk and talk and always ask the wrong question. The one thing I learned during my time in the Order was the value of asking the right question, especially during those hot sweaty summers of the west side of Chicago. -David Walters --- elliestock@aol.com wrote: From: Ellie Stock <elliestock@aol.com> To: dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net, oe@lists.wedgeblade.net Subject: [Dialogue] 6/28/12, Spong: My Way into an Interfaith Future Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:57:06 -0400 (EDT) Sent from Chautauqua where Spong is speaking every afternoon. Homepage My Profile Essay Archive Message Boards Calendar My Way into an Interfaith Future Last week I introduced you, my readers, to an interfaith “think tank” in which I shared recently at a conference center known as the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. Some fifty leaders from among all the major religious systems of the world gathered there to explore the common ground that might lead to deeper interfaith cooperation and appreciation. The goal seemed desirable and all of the participants came with hope and excitement. The need for interfaith cooperation is apparent all over the world. Where divergent religious systems confront each other, violence almost always ensues. One has only to look for documentation at the Jewish-Moslem conflict in the Middle East, the Hindu-Moslem conflict between Pakistan and India, the Christian-Islamic violence that cuts across Africa, the Catholic-Protestant tensions in Ireland or the Sunni-Shia conflict that keeps Islam divided in the Middle East. One could also look at Christian history to see the anti-Semitism of the ages, the violence of the Crusades directed against Islam, or the Thirty Years’ War in Europe that followed the Reformation as both Protestant Europe and Catholic Europe sought to impose its faith on the other. This reality forces us to ask what there is about religion in most of its forms that makes violence all but inevitable as it appears to be in religious history. At the Chautauqua conference it did not take long for this flaw to be revealed. Indeed, it became present and visible in the first presentation. This presentation was given by Dr. John Cavadini, a Roman Catholic Professor of Theology from Notre Dame. The Roman Catholic Church articulates its claim to supremacy quite overtly. The current pope has reiterated a position taken by his predecessor that there is but one true religion and that is Christianity and that there is only one true version of Christianity and that is the Roman Catholic Church! He went on to warn those Catholics engaged in ecumenical relations that they should never refer to other Christian traditions as “sister churches,” since that implies some legitimacy. When that point of view is publicly articulated there is a genuine embarrassment in the listening audience. Such an attitude makes any significant conversation aimed at unity a rather worthless activity. Professor Cavalini tried at our gathering, unsuccessfully I believe, to navigate these troubled waters by making a distinction between revealed truth and our understanding of this truth. The central Christian doctrine of the Incarnation was not subject to debate, he said, but the way we understand that doctrine is always unfolding. Lest the blame for interfaith failure be placed too heavily on Roman Catholic shoulders, let me hasten to say that almost every religious tradition makes similar claims to be the exclusive possessor of revealed and “saving” truth. Protestant fundamentalists assert that the Bible is the literal “word of God” and those denying that claim are either to be condemned or subjected to conversion pressure. Protestant evangelicals believe that the prerequisite for salvation is that one must be “born again” or “accept Jesus as their personal savior.” Muslims make the Islamic claim that in the Koran the Word of God was dictated directly to the prophet Muhammad. Within Islam itself both the Sunnis and the Shia claim that theirs is the only true expression of that faith tradition. Other sacred writings from the religions of the East are similarly invested with claims of being vessels through which the absolute truth of God has come into human possession. These claims that ultimate truth is the possession of a particular religious system are what make interfaith conversation all but impossible. The attempt to be open, to understand or to appreciate another faith perspective is thus deeply threatening to every religious system. One of the things that every religious system seeks to do is to offer religious certainty and for that to be possible that religion must escape the quicksand of relativity. Relativity, at the same time, is almost always impossible to escape without falling into religious triumphalism. At the Chautauqua “think tank” these problems were quickly identified and named. We could not start without finding a new way into the interfaith issue. As I thought about this over the next few days I tried to discover that illusive new path. Let me try to outline it briefly. The first step in any interfaith process is to be conscious of the fact that these exclusive claims exist and that we must begin where people are, not with where we wish they were. No one speaks in a vacuum and no one listens in a vacuum. We need to listen to each other closely, the same way we want others to listen to us. Let me then begin this process autobiographically. I am a Christian. Any interfaith activity in which I am engaged must start with that fact. I am not apologetic about this self-identification, nor am I willing to jettison this definition of myself for the sake of interfaith unity. The deepest commitment of my life is my commitment to walk the Christ path as my doorway into the mystery of God. Christianity is of absolute importance to me. I want to explore its wonders as deeply as I possibly can. Yet, I do not think that God is a Christian, certainly not in any creedal way, and that insight opens me up to all kinds of new possibilities. Christianity, like every other religious system in history is clearly a human creation that has evolved over the centuries. The virgin birth, for example, did not enter the Christian tradition until the ninth decade of the Christian era. It was certainly not a part of primitive Christianity. Neither Paul nor Mark appears ever to have heard about such an idea. The ascension was a tenth decade addition. Surely a quick reading of Paul would reveal that Paul was not a Trinitarian. The doctrines of the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity were not worked out until the third and fourth centuries. Doctrines are always attempts to put rational forms onto a transformative experience. Doctrines, therefore, can never be ultimate, but the experience that made the development of the doctrine seem proper might well be. Can we then separate the God experience that we Christians believe we have met in Jesus from the explanations of that experience which form the content of our faith tradition? That is a crucial distinction. The Jesus experience might well offer me a doorway into that which is ultimate, but Christianity itself cannot be ultimate and it thus cannot be the final revelation of God. God can never be contained inside any human form or bound by any human words. This means that neither my understanding of God nor my Church’s understanding of God can ever be ultimate. This realization does not, however, invalidate the truth of my experience. As a Christian, I walk the Christ path. My deepest hope is that if I walk the Christ path long enough and faithfully enough, I will discover that I inevitably will transcend the boundaries of my own religion. That reality thus becomes a religious inevitability. When I articulate the fact that this is true for me I discover that it also seems to be true for people in all other religious systems. The Muslim must walk the Islamic path; the Jews must walk the Jewish path; the Hindus and Buddhists must walk the Hindu or Buddhist path. All walk with the realization, however, that God is not a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu or a Buddhist. All religious systems are designed by human beings to help its adherents walk into the mystery of an unbounded God. If any of us walks our own faith path long enough and faithfully enough, we will discover that our walk carries us beyond the boundaries of our own religious systems, since God can never be limited by or exhausted in any thing that is a human creation, whether it be scripture, creeds, doctrines or dogmas. To say it boldly the God experience may well be ultimate, but the religious system through which we walk into the God experience can never be. The next realization comes when we discover that while we are walking our separate paths, we are also taking into ourselves the values and the treasures found in our own tradition. We hold these treasures close to our hearts; we do not want to lose them. I grasp joyfully the pearl of great price that Christianity gives me. Then I realize that my brothers and sisters in Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism are doing exactly the same. They must embrace the treasures of their religion and cling to the pearl of great price that they have received from their religious system. So perhaps the deepest and the common religious call to each of us is not to affirm our unique creeds so much as it is to explore our faith so deeply that we each transcend its boundaries and escape fear-laden limits. Then beyond the boundaries and the limits of the faith system that has nurtured each of us, but without sacrificing the pearl of great price that our own tradition has given us, we can turn and face in a new way our brothers and sisters who have walked a path different from our own. In that setting I can speak to them and say: “This is the essence of my faith. This is the treasure that I have received as I walked the Christ path and now I want to share this treasure with you.” Each of my interfaith pilgrims will in turn do the same. They will say to me: “This is the essence of Judaism, of Islam, of Hinduism, of Buddhism. This is the treasure, the pearl of great price that I have received by walking faithfully and deeply the path of my religion and I want to share it with you.” We each receive the treasure of the other. No one has to sacrifice the treasure of the system which has nurtured him or her. We all become enriched. We no longer have to protect our truth or play the familiar religious games of supremacy that we have so often played in the past. No one loses, everyone gains. The alternative to genuine interfaith cooperation may well be genocide. While we can assert that there is no relativity in the God experience, there can also be no triumphalism in the various explanations of that experience. No religion is therefore ultimate, but God is and God is met on many paths and our call is to walk our path faithfully. In that realization, the beauty of an interfaith future is born. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Bishop Spong's Summer Session at the Pacific School of Religion! Re-Claiming the Bible in a Post-Christian World Instructor: John Shelby Spong Dates and Times: One week: July 16-20, 9am - 1pm Description: Can the Bible, written 2000-3000 years ago, speak in any meaningful way to the 21st century? If it cannot, then is Christianity at an end? If it can, will Christianity look anything like what we have known in the past? Since creeds and doctrines are all constructed on the basis of what was believed to be "Biblical Truth," can any of the current formularies stand? Since liturgy is based on biblical definitions of sin, salvation and God, none of which make much sense to 21st century people, can Christianity tolerate the revolution that it faces? This class will be taught by one who has been a priest and bishop for 56 years with one foot in the institutional church and the other in the academic world of new insights. It is specifically designed for clergy and questing lay people. Course Credits & Cost: 1.5 credits - $990; audit - $495; 2.0 CEUs - $350 Course Number: BS-2117 (credit); BS-0003 (CEUs) Required Text: John Shelby Spong, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, 2011 HarperCollins, San Francisco. Purchase here. Syllabus: Re-Claiming the Bible in a Post-Christian World Register Question & Answer The Rev. Stuart Maywood from Norwood, Mass., and Naples, Florida, writes: Question: What is the role or place of Christian Education in Church School? It seems to me that much of what is taught is watered-down material of questionable worth. As a former pastor this was always an issue and it is more so now. It seems to me that we need better educated adults to live fully and then let the children follow. Answer: Dear Stuart, Thank you for your letter and for sharing your experience. I concur with your observation. I remember only two things from the years I spent going to Sunday school and neither of them had anything to do with content. I remember being slapped by my fourth grade Sunday school teacher for misbehaving (I have no idea what my offence was) and I remember my fifth grade teacher who was instructing us on the Ten Commandments and he skipped from the 6th commandment against killing to the 8th commandment against stealing. Noticing that he had omitted commandment number 7, I raised my hand and asked, “Mr. Darrow, why did you skip the commandment about adultery? What does it mean to commit adultery?” Threatened, my teacher responded with irritation saying, “You will learn about that when you get older!” Otherwise Sunday school content did not appear to penetrate my mind. Yet by some process, I picked up the cultural fundamentalism. I assumed there was a real ark filled with animals, that the ascension really meant that Jesus went into the sky of a three-tiered universe and that miracles were simply part of Jesus’ life. Whether I would have been able to absorb a critical study of the Bible at that time in my life, I do not know. I only know that I never was given the opportunity to find out. I agree that most Sunday school material is of little value, contributing to a view of God, who like Santa Claus, will someday have to be abandoned because we have grown up. On the other hand, the most exciting thing I did as a parish priest was to teach an adult Bible class every Sunday morning for an hour prior to our service of worship. Adults came in large numbers, sometimes dragging their children with them for Sunday school. I know that in those classes, I taught them as if I were teaching in a graduate school attended by adults who were capable of learning anything I knew. I know they were excited about the Bible, capable of embracing the controversy and tension of modern scholarship. And, finally, I know that out of that class each year, I recruited Sunday school teachers who were eager to pass on to the children the things that they had learned. That experience convinced me that the key to Christian education was to teach the adults. Still good Sunday school material is a help. I have read many Sunday school curricula – some commercially produced, some denominationally produced and some inter-denominationally produced. My first rule is to “do no harm,” by which I mean do not teach anything that you the teacher do not yourself believe; and my second rule is to teach nothing that the child will someday have to renounce. The Center for Progressive Christianity has just begun to produce church school materials. They have now completed material for children 6-10 years. It is the best I have ever read. It is not religious pabulum, but offers a critical approach to scripture. I recommend it. If you would like to learn more about it, email admin@progressivechristianity.org, and they will send you more information on it. They hope to expand this beginning initiative into a full church school curriculum in time. That is, however, a difficult and expensive process. I hope it succeeds. I trust that this addresses your concerns. ~John Shelby Spong Read what Bishop Spong has to say about A Joyful Path Progressive Christian Spiritual Curriculum for Young Hearts and Minds: "The great need in the Christian church is for a Sunday school curriculum for children that does not equate faith with having a pre-modern mind. The Center for Progressive Christianity has produced just that. Teachers can now teach children in Sunday school without crossing their fingers. I endorse it wholeheartedly." Announcements Subscribers, please remember that your subscription is automatically renewed. You can unsubscribe at any time. Simply login to access your profile page and cancel your account. Login to be able to comment directly on the website. Join in the discussion! Look for Bishop Spong on Facebook and LIKE the Facebook page for ProgressiveChristianity.org! You can also follow Bishop Spong on Twitter. Thank you for taking this journey with us! 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The right question??? I believe the right question is "_How do I get you to change your mind and do what I think is right?_" If you don't believe this is the right question, then pray tell how do you resolve the purely local issues that these airy fairy theological question overlook? It's hard to disagree that the overarching theology that pervades most religions as some form of the Golden Rule. But "the devil is in the details." The first thing that came to me is how does the meeting of minds resolve a local issue such as how one person's religion allows stoning to death for adultery and another's abhors and condemns this action. But we don't have to go to outside of a single religion to discover unresolvable differences (and highly destructive differences in some cases) such as abortion, capital punishment, gun control, wars, homophobia, etc. Even within the same congregation such differences occur and sometimes can split the group. And each side has their authentic relationship to "GOD" that permits them to live as fully as their minds can comprehend. Jim Baumbach On 6/30/2012 4:07 PM, James Wiegel wrote:
Karen, you said: "Let's talk. Is it "How are we to live together and preserve this planet for the future?" ?
sort of a combination of Rodney King (Can't we all get along?) and Gro Harlem Brundtland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland> (Our Common Future report on sustainable development) (How do we meet our own needs without compromising the capacity for future generations to meet their own needs?)
Pretty good, Karen . . . anyone else? Is this the right question? I found this list below . . . from a church consultant . . .
KEY QUESTIONS FOR OUR TIMES
/In 2000 Bill Easum articulated these key questions for churches seeking to be missional, outward-focused, evangelistic at the commencement of the 21st century. Here are OUTWARD FOCUSED CHURCH we would be interested in your answers. We'll be sure they get forwarded to Bill./
In 2000 I prepared a presentation for the Society for Church Growth in which I asked what I considered at the time to be some of the key questions of our time. In looking back over these questions I find they are still the key questions with which Western Christianity is wrestling. You be the Judge if they are.
* What is it about my relationship with Jesus my neighbor and the world can't live without experiencing? * How do I share my faith without coming off like a bigot? * What will Christianity look like when it truly understands that North America is a mission field? * What is the difference in being missional and doing evangelism? * What is the difference in a being pastor and being a cross-cultural missionary? * What does it mean to live in a world where one's spirituality is more important than one's credentials? * Can we imagine doing evangelism that is not carried out within the context of conquest? * How do leaders lead without control? * What will authority look like in an out-of-control, anti-institutional, non-religious world? * What will Christianity look like when it's no longer defined by books? * How do we transition from handing out data that /informs to/ offering an experience that /transforms/? * How will we help people grow their spirituality instead of just learning more about the Bible? * What will Christianity look like when the church is missional and not institutional? * How will we "be" the church instead of "go" to church?
Jim Wiegel
"The problem with quotes on the internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." Abraham Lincoln
401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401 +1 623-363-3277 skype: jfredwiegel jfwiegel@yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com
Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details.
--- On *Sat, 6/30/12, KarenBueno@aol.com /<KarenBueno@aol.com>/* wrote:
From: KarenBueno@aol.com <KarenBueno@aol.com> Subject: [Dialogue] what is the right question these days? To: dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012, 11:50 AM
Let's talk. Is it "How are we to live together and preserve this planet for the future?" ? In a message dated 6/29/2012 6:07:33 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, jfwiegel@yahoo.com writes:
Ah, what is the right question these days? Right questions??
Jim Wiegel Jfwiegel@yahoo.com </mc/compose?to=Jfwiegel@yahoo.com>
"One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie." -- Carl Jung
Partners in Participation Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details.
On Jun 29, 2012, at 0:11, "David Walters" <walters@alaweb.com </mc/compose?to=walters@alaweb.com>> wrote:
The problem with gathering Spong describes is just another event where people come together and talk and talk and always ask the wrong question. The one thing I learned during my time in the Order was the value of asking the right question, especially during those hot sweaty summers of the west side of Chicago.
-David Walters
--- elliestock@aol.com </mc/compose?to=elliestock@aol.com> wrote:
From: Ellie Stock <elliestock@aol.com </mc/compose?to=elliestock@aol.com>> To: dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net </mc/compose?to=dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>, oe@lists.wedgeblade.net </mc/compose?to=oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> Subject: [Dialogue] 6/28/12, Spong: My Way into an Interfaith Future Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:57:06 -0400 (EDT)
Sent from Chautauqua where Spong is speaking every afternoon.
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My Way into an Interfaith Future
Last week I introduced you, my readers, to an interfaith "think tank" in which I shared recently at a conference center known as the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. Some fifty leaders from among all the major religious systems of the world gathered there to explore the common ground that might lead to deeper interfaith cooperation and appreciation. The goal seemed desirable and all of the participants came with hope and excitement. The need for interfaith cooperation is apparent all over the world. Where divergent religious systems confront each other, violence almost always ensues. One has only to look for documentation at the Jewish-Moslem conflict in the Middle East, the Hindu-Moslem conflict between Pakistan and India, the Christian-Islamic violence that cuts across Africa, the Catholic-Protestant tensions in Ireland or the Sunni-Shia conflict that keeps Islam divided in the Middle East. One could also look at Christian history to see the anti-Semitism of the ages, the violence of the Crusades directed against Islam, or the Thirty Years' War in Europe that followed the Reformation as both Protestant Europe and Catholic Europe sought to impose its faith on the other. This reality forces us to ask what there is about religion in most of its forms that makes violence all but inevitable as it appears to be in religious history. At the Chautauqua conference it did not take long for this flaw to be revealed. Indeed, it became present and visible in the first presentation. This presentation was given by Dr. John Cavadini, a Roman Catholic Professor of Theology from Notre Dame. The Roman Catholic Church articulates its claim to supremacy quite overtly. The current pope has reiterated a position taken by his predecessor that there is but one true religion and that is Christianity and that there is only one true version of Christianity and that is the Roman Catholic Church! He went on to warn those Catholics engaged in ecumenical relations that they should never refer to other Christian traditions as "sister churches," since that implies some legitimacy. When that point of view is publicly articulated there is a genuine embarrassment in the listening audience. Such an attitude makes any significant conversation aimed at unity a rather worthless activity. Professor Cavalini tried at our gathering, unsuccessfully I believe, to navigate these troubled waters by making a distinction between revealed truth and our understanding of this truth. The central Christian doctrine of the Incarnation was not subject to debate, he said, but the way we understand that doctrine is always unfolding. Lest the blame for interfaith failure be placed too heavily on Roman Catholic shoulders, let me hasten to say that almost every religious tradition makes similar claims to be the exclusive possessor of revealed and "saving" truth. Protestant fundamentalists assert that the Bible is the literal "word of God" and those denying that claim are either to be condemned or subjected to conversion pressure. Protestant evangelicals believe that the prerequisite for salvation is that one must be "born again" or "accept Jesus as their personal savior." Muslims make the Islamic claim that in the Koran the Word of God was dictated directly to the prophet Muhammad. Within Islam itself both the Sunnis and the Shia claim that theirs is the only true expression of that faith tradition. Other sacred writings from the religions of the East are similarly invested with claims of being vessels through which the absolute truth of God has come into human possession. These claims that ultimate truth is the possession of a particular religious system are what make interfaith conversation all but impossible. The attempt to be open, to understand or to appreciate another faith perspective is thus deeply threatening to every religious system. One of the things that every religious system seeks to do is to offer religious certainty and for that to be possible that religion must escape the quicksand of relativity. Relativity, at the same time, is almost always impossible to escape without falling into religious triumphalism. At the Chautauqua "think tank" these problems were quickly identified and named. We could not start without finding a new way into the interfaith issue. As I thought about this over the next few days I tried to discover that illusive new path. Let me try to outline it briefly. The first step in any interfaith process is to be conscious of the fact that these exclusive claims exist and that we must begin where people are, not with where we wish they were. No one speaks in a vacuum and no one listens in a vacuum. We need to listen to each other closely, the same way we want others to listen to us. Let me then begin this process autobiographically. I am a Christian. Any interfaith activity in which I am engaged must start with that fact. I am not apologetic about this self-identification, nor am I willing to jettison this definition of myself for the sake of interfaith unity. The deepest commitment of my life is my commitment to walk the Christ path as my doorway into the mystery of God. Christianity is of absolute importance to me. I want to explore its wonders as deeply as I possibly can. Yet, I do not think that God is a Christian, certainly not in any creedal way, and that insight opens me up to all kinds of new possibilities. Christianity, like every other religious system in history is clearly a human creation that has evolved over the centuries. The virgin birth, for example, did not enter the Christian tradition until the ninth decade of the Christian era. It was certainly not a part of primitive Christianity. Neither Paul nor Mark appears ever to have heard about such an idea. The ascension was a tenth decade addition. Surely a quick reading of Paul would reveal that Paul was not a Trinitarian. The doctrines of the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity were not worked out until the third and fourth centuries. Doctrines are always attempts to put rational forms onto a transformative experience. Doctrines, therefore, can never be ultimate, but the experience that made the development of the doctrine seem proper might well be. Can we then separate the God experience that we Christians believe we have met in Jesus from the explanations of that experience which form the content of our faith tradition? That is a crucial distinction. The Jesus experience might well offer me a doorway into that which is ultimate, but Christianity itself cannot be ultimate and it thus cannot be the final revelation of God. God can never be contained inside any human form or bound by any human words. This means that neither my understanding of God nor my Church's understanding of God can ever be ultimate. This realization does not, however, invalidate the truth of my experience. As a Christian, I walk the Christ path. My deepest hope is that if I walk the Christ path long enough and faithfully enough, I will discover that I inevitably will transcend the boundaries of my own religion. That reality thus becomes a religious inevitability. When I articulate the fact that this is true for me I discover that it also seems to be true for people in all other religious systems. The Muslim must walk the Islamic path; the Jews must walk the Jewish path; the Hindus and Buddhists must walk the Hindu or Buddhist path. All walk with the realization, however, that God is not a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu or a Buddhist. All religious systems are designed by human beings to help its adherents walk into the mystery of an unbounded God. If any of us walks our own faith path long enough and faithfully enough, we will discover that our walk carries us beyond the boundaries of our own religious systems, since God can never be limited by or exhausted in any thing that is a human creation, whether it be scripture, creeds, doctrines or dogmas. To say it boldly the God experience may well be ultimate, but the religious system through which we walk into the God experience can never be. The next realization comes when we discover that while we are walking our separate paths, we are also taking into ourselves the values and the treasures found in our own tradition. We hold these treasures close to our hearts; we do not want to lose them. I grasp joyfully the pearl of great price that Christianity gives me. Then I realize that my brothers and sisters in Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism are doing exactly the same. They must embrace the treasures of their religion and cling to the pearl of great price that they have received from their religious system. So perhaps the deepest and the common religious call to each of us is not to affirm our unique creeds so much as it is to explore our faith so deeply that we each transcend its boundaries and escape fear-laden limits. Then beyond the boundaries and the limits of the faith system that has nurtured each of us, but without sacrificing the pearl of great price that our own tradition has given us, we can turn and face in a new way our brothers and sisters who have walked a path different from our own. In that setting I can speak to them and say: "This is the essence of my faith. This is the treasure that I have received as I walked the Christ path and now I want to share this treasure with you." Each of my interfaith pilgrims will in turn do the same. They will say to me: "This is the essence of Judaism, of Islam, of Hinduism, of Buddhism. This is the treasure, the pearl of great price that I have received by walking faithfully and deeply the path of my religion and I want to share it with you." We each receive the treasure of the other. No one has to sacrifice the treasure of the system which has nurtured him or her. We all become enriched. We no longer have to protect our truth or play the familiar religious games of supremacy that we have so often played in the past. No one loses, everyone gains. The alternative to genuine interfaith cooperation may well be genocide. While we can assert that there is no relativity in the God experience, there can also be no triumphalism in the various explanations of that experience. No religion is therefore ultimate, but God is and God is met on many paths and our call is to walk our path faithfully. In that realization, the beauty of an interfaith future is born. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here <http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=4b0d3ddbb8&e=db34daa597>. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ce654567db&e=db34daa597 <http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ce654567db&e=db34daa597> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Bishop Spong's Summer Session *
*at the*
*Pacific School of Religion!*
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Question & Answer
The Rev. Stuart Maywood from Norwood, Mass., and Naples, Florida, writes:
Question:
What is the role or place of Christian Education in Church School? It seems to me that much of what is taught is watered-down material of questionable worth. As a former pastor this was always an issue and it is more so now. It seems to me that we need better educated adults to live fully and then let the children follow.
Answer:
Dear Stuart, Thank you for your letter and for sharing your experience. I concur with your observation. I remember only two things from the years I spent going to Sunday school and neither of them had anything to do with content. I remember being slapped by my fourth grade Sunday school teacher for misbehaving (I have no idea what my offence was) and I remember my fifth grade teacher who was instructing us on the Ten Commandments and he skipped from the 6^th commandment against killing to the 8^th commandment against stealing. Noticing that he had omitted commandment number 7, I raised my hand and asked, "Mr. Darrow, why did you skip the commandment about adultery? What does it mean to commit adultery?" Threatened, my teacher responded with irritation saying, "You will learn about that when you get older!" Otherwise Sunday school content did not appear to penetrate my mind. Yet by some process, I picked up the cultural fundamentalism. I assumed there was a real ark filled with animals, that the ascension really meant that Jesus went into the sky of a three-tiered universe and that miracles were simply part of Jesus' life. Whether I would have been able to absorb a critical study of the Bible at that time in my life, I do not know. I only know that I never was given the opportunity to find out. I agree that most Sunday school material is of little value, contributing to a view of God, who like Santa Claus, will someday have to be abandoned because we have grown up. On the other hand, the most exciting thing I did as a parish priest was to teach an adult Bible class every Sunday morning for an hour prior to our service of worship. Adults came in large numbers, sometimes dragging their children with them for Sunday school. I know that in those classes, I taught them as if I were teaching in a graduate school attended by adults who were capable of learning anything I knew. I know they were excited about the Bible, capable of embracing the controversy and tension of modern scholarship. And, finally, I know that out of that class each year, I recruited Sunday school teachers who were eager to pass on to the children the things that they had learned. That experience convinced me that the key to Christian education was to teach the adults. Still good Sunday school material is a help. I have read many Sunday school curricula -- some commercially produced, some denominationally produced and some inter-denominationally produced. My first rule is to "do no harm," by which I mean do not teach anything that you the teacher do not yourself believe; and my second rule is to teach nothing that the child will someday have to renounce. The Center for Progressive Christianity has just begun to produce church school materials. They have now completed material for children 6-10 years. It is the best I have ever read. It is not religious pabulum, but offers a critical approach to scripture. I recommend it. If you would like to learn more about it, email admin@progressivechristianity.org </mc/compose?to=admin@progressivechristianity.org>, and they will send you more information on it. They hope to expand this beginning initiative into a full church school curriculum in time. That is, however, a difficult and expensive process. I hope it succeeds. I trust that this addresses your concerns. ~John Shelby Spong ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b1c756fc1d&e=db34daa597 <http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b1c756fc1d&e=db34daa597> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Read what Bishop Spong has to say about A Joyful Path Progressive Christian Spiritual Curriculum for Young Hearts and Minds <http://tcpc.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=33ed9288b7&e=db34daa597>: "The great need in the Christian church is for a Sunday school curriculum for children that does not equate faith with having a pre-modern mind. The Center for Progressive Christianity has produced just that. Teachers can now teach children in Sunday school without crossing their fingers. *I endorse it wholeheartedly*."
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I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment? I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones. To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity. We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do. \\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
I appreciate what you've said, Wayne. My take: If it does not have something like "on behalf of a transformed Earth community" in the statement, it is the WRONG right question, moral issue, or vocation. John -----Original Message----- From: dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Nelson Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 12:19 PM To: Colleague Dialogue Subject: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days? I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment? I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones. To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity. We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do. \\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910 _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Wow, this has been an incredible conversation, with echoes that reach back to my First Great Awakening, when three questions were posed: Who am I? What do I? How be I? followed by intensive, continuous bottom-dropping-out experiences that made what I thought was my concrete life question at the time (conscientious objection or ministerial vocation) seem, if not trivial, then a little beside the point of a deeper issue. And somehow I ended up in the Order during that odd, in-between moment when the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Luke and Psalm conversations, scrubbing grave plots, The Way of the Pilgrim, The Journey to the East (dang, I knew I shouldn't have given up on playing the violin!), fasting and canonical hours (I was Methodist, for god's sake!), somehow made perfect sense alongside Global Research Assemblies (social process triangles to the ninth level) and Councils with people rising up to be accountable for Yellow Knife, among other far corners I never expected to see (but ultimately came pretty close). And of course, the fine wind, a wedgeblade inserted into time, with preschool children living in the Universe and Dancing to Life (or Bending History, which seemed somehow logically and satisfyingly interchangeable with Dancing to Life). And "we are the music makers, we are the builders of dreams; we are the earthbuilders and movers it seems" With our own somewhat stilted mythologies around the Bureaucratic Cog (FIRE the one who fails), the Underground Revolutionary (SHOOT the one who fails), and the Trans-establishment Self (RECONSTRUCT THE CONTEXT around the one who fails). And strangely, the answer that now comes to my mind in response to why I'm here, what I'm doing, and how I'm being is all "for the greater glory of G-O-D," and this from someone who long ago left behind Sunday services and any formal religious practice, and with full consciousness of all the political, economic, and cultural baggage this phrase entails. At the same time, I've witnessed how this language still animates and inspires profound community service in the most impossible situations (think: African American churches in, for example, Rainier Beach). The Journey is the context, with its quest for an ever-widening consciousness and participation in Wholeness. The Kingdom has always arrived and is always coming in power (honest, this unnerves me to throw around this language willy nilly, but I somehow blame RS-I for the fact that it makes any sense to me at any level). So whatever the question or calling that quickens the current action of my soul, lies a deeper affiliation with a Wholeness (beyond my imagining) that is being birthed and against an illusory fragmentation (around ego, tribe, or ideology) which may come clothed in a reasonable justification or accommodation for "what's possible." More about the flow than prematurely measured outcomes, more about the dance than bending history. Oops, now this is feeling more like the Earthrise witness that I've been meaning to offer, although still far short of what I feel I want to say. I am so profoundly grateful to have stood at the side of a people whose very presence, for a moment in time (that continues to this day), interrupts historical forces at the most personal level and invites "no one special" to an unexpected calling (preschool teacher, healthcare worker, fund raiser, Town Meeting orchestrator, business facilitator, yes, even mayor of the city of Indiahoma) as a pivot point for an emerging Wholeness, already present and coming in power. Ok, I kind of got wound up there; what was the question again? Thanks to all of you for all you have been and done, for all you continue to be and do, until "the end of Time." Ken Gillgren Milwaukee Metro, Amarillo, Indiahoma, Minto, Selawik Spud, Anchorage, Medan, Seoul, Cheong Ju, Tokyo, Seattle. On 7/2/2012 11:32 AM, John Cock wrote:
I appreciate what you've said, Wayne.
My take: If it does not have something like "on behalf of a transformed Earth community" in the statement, it is the WRONG right question, moral issue, or vocation.
John
-----Original Message----- From: dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Nelson Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 12:19 PM To: Colleague Dialogue Subject: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days?
I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment?
I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones.
To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity.
We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do.
\\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
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PLEASE ADD Stuart Hampton (shampton@hoovers.com) back to this list. TY! mary ________________________________ From: Ken Gillgren <kgillgren@igc.org> To: dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net; oe@lists.wedgeblade.net Sent: Mon, July 2, 2012 3:50:40 PM Subject: Re: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days? Wow, this has been an incredible conversation, with echoes that reach back to my First Great Awakening, when three questions were posed: Who am I? What do I? How be I? followed by intensive, continuous bottom-dropping-out experiences that made what I thought was my concrete life question at the time (conscientious objection or ministerial vocation) seem, if not trivial, then a little beside the point of a deeper issue. And somehow I ended up in the Order during that odd, in-between moment when the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Luke and Psalm conversations, scrubbing grave plots, The Way of the Pilgrim, The Journey to the East (dang, I knew I shouldn't have given up on playing the violin!), fasting and canonical hours (I was Methodist, for god's sake!), somehow made perfect sense alongside Global Research Assemblies (social process triangles to the ninth level) and Councils with people rising up to be accountable for Yellow Knife, among other far corners I never expected to see (but ultimately came pretty close). And of course, the fine wind, a wedgeblade inserted into time, with preschool children living in the Universe and Dancing to Life (or Bending History, which seemed somehow logically and satisfyingly interchangeable with Dancing to Life). And "we are the music makers, we are the builders of dreams; we are the earthbuilders and movers it seems" With our own somewhat stilted mythologies around the Bureaucratic Cog (FIRE the one who fails), the Underground Revolutionary (SHOOT the one who fails), and the Trans-establishment Self (RECONSTRUCT THE CONTEXT around the one who fails). And strangely, the answer that now comes to my mind in response to why I'm here, what I'm doing, and how I'm being is all "for the greater glory of G-O-D," and this from someone who long ago left behind Sunday services and any formal religious practice, and with full consciousness of all the political, economic, and cultural baggage this phrase entails. At the same time, I've witnessed how this language still animates and inspires profound community service in the most impossible situations (think: African American churches in, for example, Rainier Beach). The Journey is the context, with its quest for an ever-widening consciousness and participation in Wholeness. The Kingdom has always arrived and is always coming in power (honest, this unnerves me to throw around this language willy nilly, but I somehow blame RS-I for the fact that it makes any sense to me at any level). So whatever the question or calling that quickens the current action of my soul, lies a deeper affiliation with a Wholeness (beyond my imagining) that is being birthed and against an illusory fragmentation (around ego, tribe, or ideology) which may come clothed in a reasonable justification or accommodation for "what's possible." More about the flow than prematurely measured outcomes, more about the dance than bending history. Oops, now this is feeling more like the Earthrise witness that I've been meaning to offer, although still far short of what I feel I want to say. I am so profoundly grateful to have stood at the side of a people whose very presence, for a moment in time (that continues to this day), interrupts historical forces at the most personal level and invites "no one special" to an unexpected calling (preschool teacher, healthcare worker, fund raiser, Town Meeting orchestrator, business facilitator, yes, even mayor of the city of Indiahoma) as a pivot point for an emerging Wholeness, already present and coming in power. Ok, I kind of got wound up there; what was the question again? Thanks to all of you for all you have been and done, for all you continue to be and do, until "the end of Time." Ken Gillgren Milwaukee Metro, Amarillo, Indiahoma, Minto, Selawik Spud, Anchorage, Medan, Seoul, Cheong Ju, Tokyo, Seattle. On 7/2/2012 11:32 AM, John Cock wrote:
I appreciate what you've said, Wayne.
My take: If it does not have something like "on behalf of a transformed Earth community" in the statement, it is the WRONG right question, moral issue, or vocation.
John
-----Original Message----- From: dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Nelson Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 12:19 PM To: Colleague Dialogue Subject: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days?
I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment?
I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones.
To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity.
We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do.
\\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
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THE GREAT INVERSION, anyone read it? At least the review goes in some description of Chicago neighborhoods. Might be a generative backdrop for the 77 project. http://www.ssireview.org/book_reviews/entry/demographic_revision?utm_source=Enews12_08_09&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=sampson Imagine the New York Daily News blaring the headline: “Obama to Levittown: Drop Dead.” In the mid-1970s, of course, it was President Ford who was alleged to have written off New York City. The famous headline was only partially shocking—American cities in the 1970s were a mess, hemorrhaging jobs, people, fiscal integrity, and hope. The streets were grimy, crime was epidemic, and fear was in the air. Jim Wiegel Jfwiegel@yahoo.com “One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” – Carl Jung Partners in Participation Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details. On Jul 2, 2012, at 17:48, Ken Gillgren <kgillgren@igc.org> wrote:
Wow, this has been an incredible conversation, with echoes that reach back to my First Great Awakening, when three questions were posed: Who am I? What do I? How be I? followed by intensive, continuous bottom-dropping-out experiences that made what I thought was my concrete life question at the time (conscientious objection or ministerial vocation) seem, if not trivial, then a little beside the point of a deeper issue.
And somehow I ended up in the Order during that odd, in-between moment when the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Luke and Psalm conversations, scrubbing grave plots, The Way of the Pilgrim, The Journey to the East (dang, I knew I shouldn't have given up on playing the violin!), fasting and canonical hours (I was Methodist, for god's sake!), somehow made perfect sense alongside Global Research Assemblies (social process triangles to the ninth level) and Councils with people rising up to be accountable for Yellow Knife, among other far corners I never expected to see (but ultimately came pretty close).
And of course, the fine wind, a wedgeblade inserted into time, with preschool children living in the Universe and Dancing to Life (or Bending History, which seemed somehow logically and satisfyingly interchangeable with Dancing to Life). And "we are the music makers, we are the builders of dreams; we are the earthbuilders and movers it seems" With our own somewhat stilted mythologies around the Bureaucratic Cog (FIRE the one who fails), the Underground Revolutionary (SHOOT the one who fails), and the Trans-establishment Self (RECONSTRUCT THE CONTEXT around the one who fails).
And strangely, the answer that now comes to my mind in response to why I'm here, what I'm doing, and how I'm being is all "for the greater glory of G-O-D," and this from someone who long ago left behind Sunday services and any formal religious practice, and with full consciousness of all the political, economic, and cultural baggage this phrase entails. At the same time, I've witnessed how this language still animates and inspires profound community service in the most impossible situations (think: African American churches in, for example, Rainier Beach).
The Journey is the context, with its quest for an ever-widening consciousness and participation in Wholeness. The Kingdom has always arrived and is always coming in power (honest, this unnerves me to throw around this language willy nilly, but I somehow blame RS-I for the fact that it makes any sense to me at any level).
So whatever the question or calling that quickens the current action of my soul, lies a deeper affiliation with a Wholeness (beyond my imagining) that is being birthed and against an illusory fragmentation (around ego, tribe, or ideology) which may come clothed in a reasonable justification or accommodation for "what's possible."
More about the flow than prematurely measured outcomes, more about the dance than bending history.
Oops, now this is feeling more like the Earthrise witness that I've been meaning to offer, although still far short of what I feel I want to say.
I am so profoundly grateful to have stood at the side of a people whose very presence, for a moment in time (that continues to this day), interrupts historical forces at the most personal level and invites "no one special" to an unexpected calling (preschool teacher, healthcare worker, fund raiser, Town Meeting orchestrator, business facilitator, yes, even mayor of the city of Indiahoma) as a pivot point for an emerging Wholeness, already present and coming in power.
Ok, I kind of got wound up there; what was the question again?
Thanks to all of you for all you have been and done, for all you continue to be and do, until "the end of Time."
Ken Gillgren Milwaukee Metro, Amarillo, Indiahoma, Minto, Selawik Spud, Anchorage, Medan, Seoul, Cheong Ju, Tokyo, Seattle.
On 7/2/2012 11:32 AM, John Cock wrote:
I appreciate what you've said, Wayne.
My take: If it does not have something like "on behalf of a transformed Earth community" in the statement, it is the WRONG right question, moral issue, or vocation.
John
-----Original Message----- From: dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Nelson Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 12:19 PM To: Colleague Dialogue Subject: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days?
I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment?
I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones.
To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity.
We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do.
\\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
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Wayne and all, I think you are on to something. It may be that we need to look first at what are the warning signs of the destruction and endangerment of the entire human community. Then ask, what is the underlying question to be addressed and how it can be addressed. For example, we have been in an environmental crisis for decades now, we have watched our democracy get wrestled away from the people, we have witnessede the strangledhold of the financial institution on the total society, the rapidly expanding levels of poverty threathening nations stabilities, we have watched corporations demonstrate time and again their incompetence and waste of resources, we are bombarded with all kinds of religious solutions, we find racism as vigorous as ever, women as deprived as ever, war as ineffective as ever, and our young people as entrapped by the yoke of individual consumerism as ever. These are not new! These represent the inevitable collapse of civilization as we have known, yet it is as if all declarations of the reality of this situation are trivialized, watered down, muted as if it has not been pointed out. What we have been doing does not seem to be effective in making the truth clear. So, perhaps the question is: Why are people not being awakened to the clear, obvious truth of our crisis? Secondly, what methods must we develop or employ to radically reveal this all emcompassing truth? Just thinking...... Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wayne Nelson" <wnelson@ica-associates.ca> To: "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 11:19 AM Subject: [Dialogue] What is the right question these days?
I am wondering what are the pivotal moral issues of our moment?
I think there are likely to be several. Of course there are many, many but there are probably some major ones.
To reduce it to a single one makes it too abstract and denies the obvious complexity.
We all have to name 'the moral issue of our time.' There's not likely to be one for everyone. It's a job we all have to do.
\\/ - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc. Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas. In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty. By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching. It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US. Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life. \\/ Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
Thank you, Wayne for a fabulous story. There is great hope out there...it just rarely hits the news. Priscilla On Jul 4, 2012, at 10:06 AM, Wayne Nelson wrote:
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty.
By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching.
It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US.
Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested
We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life.
\\/
Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Priscilla H Wilson Pris@TeamTechPress.com 913-432-2107 www.teamtechpress.com
Yes, and a great treat to know the name of one more organizational leader who has made great things happen. Jim Wiegel Jfwiegel@yahoo.com “One cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” – Carl Jung Partners in Participation Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Sept 11-12, 2012 ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday- Sept 7, 2012 Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details. On Jul 4, 2012, at 8:28, Wilson Priscilla <Pris@TeamTechPress.com> wrote:
Thank you, Wayne for a fabulous story. There is great hope out there...it just rarely hits the news. Priscilla
On Jul 4, 2012, at 10:06 AM, Wayne Nelson wrote:
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty.
By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching.
It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US.
Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested
We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life.
\\/
Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Priscilla H Wilson Pris@TeamTechPress.com 913-432-2107 www.teamtechpress.com
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Hey Wayne! What a moving and wonderful story. Congratulations to Carolyn Acker. Charles Hahn On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Wayne Nelson <wnelson@ica-associates.ca>wrote:
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty.
By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching.
It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US.
Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested
We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life.
\\/
Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Hi Wayne, Thanks for this background...I knew she had been awarded the Order of Canada, but not the background to the story! Thanks Nan On 12-07-04 11:06 AM, "Wayne Nelson" <wnelson@ica-associates.ca> wrote:
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty.
By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching.
It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US.
Average youth participation rates of over 85%
High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled
High school dropout rates have declined by over 70%
The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300%
The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life.
\\/ <smb:///>
Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Thanks for sharing, Wayne. Congratulations to Carolyn--well done! Ellie -----Original Message----- From: Wayne Nelson <wnelson@ica-associates.ca> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Wed, Jul 4, 2012 10:06 am Subject: [Dialogue] Carolyn Acker is awarded the Order of Canada Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc. Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas. In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty. By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching. It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US. Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life. \\/ Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca - - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910 _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
Wayne, This is the living legacy we have so wanted to celebrate, and so we do. I often have said that the victories of others have been the food for my soul. I feel a great joy to have been connected with this global effort and give thanks for you and all the colleagues who have given so much of their lives to make miracles like this happen. Thank you, Grace & Peace, Jack On Jul 4, 2012, at 10:06 AM, Wayne Nelson wrote:
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty.
By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching.
It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US.
Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested
We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life.
\\/
Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
REPLICATION is such Good News! Congratulations to one and all, Ellen On Jul 4, 2012, at 6:25 PM, Jack Gilles wrote:
Wayne,
This is the living legacy we have so wanted to celebrate, and so we do. I often have said that the victories of others have been the food for my soul. I feel a great joy to have been connected with this global effort and give thanks for you and all the colleagues who have given so much of their lives to make miracles like this happen.
Thank you,
Grace & Peace,
Jack
On Jul 4, 2012, at 10:06 AM, Wayne Nelson wrote:
Sometime around 1990, Pat Tuecke and Gary Forbes did a workshop on strategic planning at an Organizational Development conference in Toronto. On the Monday following that event, I got a call from Carolyn Acker. She had been in that workshop and she wanted to talk with us. Carolyn was the Executive Director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre. Regent Park is a large neighborhood of subsidized housing. No commerce or anything of that nature - apartment buildings and social services. Like a London housing estate or a cleaner, low rise Pruitt-Eigo or Cabrini Green. Most residents on social assistance, gangs, teen pregnancy etc.
Duncan Holmes and I went to see her and Jo facilitated their strategic planning. It included everyone in the organization and was, over the next year, extremely successful. The whole organization changed and was enlivened. The place was brighter and more in tune with the community. We worked with Carolyn and the health centre for many years. Some events were focused on the planning - implementation cycle. Some were more specific. We facilitated the development of an early childhood development program led by parents. We did facilitator training with staff and board and in some of their program areas.
In one of the workshops, a brand new idea surfaced. Carolyn has always said that health clinics do not make a community healthy. They had been engaged in a great deal of malaise prevention and health promotion activities and had the clinic (a brand spankin' new one that was part of the planning) running really well, yet they felt that the situation in the community was still deteriorating. Carolyn looked at the "Determinants of Health", a framework that identifies the factors that contribute to healthiness in a population. They run all the way from air quality to a sense of empowerment to participate in shaping one's life. She looked and said there are two that are extremely obvious and basic that are in pretty bad shape around here - income level and education. Regent Park was at the bottom of both with all the down stream problems associated with poverty.
By the end of the workshop, the group drafted the initial image for the "Pathways to Education" program. It is a wrap-around program that helps kids get through school and get the best education possible. It engages students, parents and teachers in a focus on each student in the program. The program involves academic, social and financial support as well as 1 to 1 mentoring and coaching.
It has been massively successful and is being replicated across Canada and in the US.
Average youth participation rates of over 85% High school graduation rates among participants in the program have more than doubled High school dropout rates have declined by over 70% The rate of students going on to college or university has increased by 300% The program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested
We are deeply pleased to see Carolyn inducted into the Order of Canada. What an amazing contribution she has made. Perhaps Carolyn's key quality is her compassion and her powerful persistence in pursuing a vision. It was great to be there when the spark of 'I can see some allies' was lit for her. It has been amazing to work with the dizzzying variety of people in that community. It is great to be a part of something that is actually re-structuring a community and breaking the poverty cycle. There are a whole lot of people who can see their way into a more human life.
\\/
Visit - http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca
- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca O - 416-691-2316 M - 647-229-6910
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net
participants (14)
-
Bill Parker -
Charles Hahn -
Ellie Stock -
Jack Gilles -
James Wiegel -
Jim Baumbach -
John Cock -
KarenBueno＠aol.com -
Ken Gillgren -
mhampton＠att.net -
Nan Hudson -
RICHARD HOWIE -
Wayne Nelson -
Wilson Priscilla