- OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

What Happens After We Die? (Gene Marshall, Paul Tillich, Parker Palmer--& ChatGPT--Weigh In)
by David Marshall 18 Nov '25

18 Nov '25

We've witnessed quite a few Order alumni passing away this year. As most of you know, my father, Gene Wesley Marshall, died in August at the age of 93 after a short struggle with lung cancer. A couple weeks before Dad died, I sent him an email asking if his beliefs had changed as he got closer to his physical body shutting down, especially since he had written so much about consciousness and the spirit dimension. By that time, he was not able to converse with me directly, but I was able to piece together what he might have said through dialogue with other family members. I published a Substack article on this conversation yesterday, in which Paul Tillich looms large. I welcome your thoughts after you read it. Thank you. David Marshall https://open.substack.com/pub/marshallbooks/p/what-happens-after-you-die?r=…

1 0

way finding
by W. J. 18 Nov '25

18 Nov '25

A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at Sea | | | | | | | | | | | A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at Sea Scientists and Indigenous sailors in the Marshall Islands are studying seafaring and the human brain. | | |

2 1

Re: [Oe List ...] Obituary for Jim Baumbach
by James Wiegel 17 Nov '25

17 Nov '25

I had forgotten Jim’s remarkable good looks. My, what a life and what a partnership with Alice! I am deeply grateful for his life and so fortunate to have journeyed a while with Jim and Alice. Jim Wiegel “…the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk“. The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver > On Nov 17, 2025, at 3:51 PM, Karen Snyder via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > > Alice Baumbach is sharing information about Jim Baumbach’s death last Friday, November 14. His obituary (https://www.wichmannfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/james-baumbach-phd) reminds us of the work he and Alice did with the Ecumenical Institute/Institute of Cultural Affairs: > > He met his wife, Alice (née DesJardins), at Michigan State University and they were married in Warren, MI in 1962. In 1969 they joined the Order Ecumenical and the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Chicago, IL, whose mission was to teach religious and cultural courses across the country and build models of community reformulation that could be replicated around the world. Except for one year on the north side of Chicago, they lived on the west side in a ghetto community. While Jim worked at Nalco, Alice worked in-house with the preschool and the community center. One member of each family was assigned to work out so that the project could be funded. All of those who worked out donated their salaries. Both Jim and Alice felt this was the most empowering work of their life. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

1 0

Obituary for Jim Baumbach
by Karen Snyder 17 Nov '25

17 Nov '25

Alice Baumbach is sharing information about Jim Baumbach’s death last Friday, November 14. His obituary (https://www.wichmannfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/james-baumbach-phd) reminds us of the work he and Alice did with the Ecumenical Institute/Institute of Cultural Affairs: He met his wife, Alice (née DesJardins), at Michigan State University and they were married in Warren, MI in 1962. In 1969 they joined the Order Ecumenical and the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Chicago, IL, whose mission was to teach religious and cultural courses across the country and build models of community reformulation that could be replicated around the world. Except for one year on the north side of Chicago, they lived on the west side in a ghetto community. While Jim worked at Nalco, Alice worked in-house with the preschool and the community center. One member of each family was assigned to work out so that the project could be funded. All of those who worked out donated their salaries. Both Jim and Alice felt this was the most empowering work of their life.

1 0

Fwd: Maasai
by Richard Alton 17 Nov '25

17 Nov '25

*The Smoke That Thunders* The ICA has tried to have a global conference in Africa for many years and now we have finally done it. People from 20 countries (10 from Africa) gathered in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to look at how we all are responding to the times we are living in. At these conferences one is always shocked by the people one meets and the projects one visits. Although the Falls, the smoke that thunders, is amazing. I was struck on the first day by a Maasai women fully dressed in her tribal garb. We broke into our working groups, and I found we were in the same group, Climate Change. Her name was Josephine Ndirias from Kenya. She turns out to be the Executive Director of the *Mukogodo Girls Empowerment program*. It turns out she is from Nanyuki, Kenya. I had been to Nanyuki to visit the ICA Canada project, ilnqwesi, and had lunch with one of the Maasai leaders, Saaya, who turned out to be Josehine’s cousin. “My goodness, what a small world.” It turns out that Josehine’s work is the continuation of the Maasai work started by by Asha Spencer and Miriam Patterson many years ago. Asha and Miriam were there in Nanyuki for a year. We spend the next couple of days chatting about people we knew- Josehine’ still talks with Miriam Patterson on a regular basis. And we went through all the people I use to know: the late Vice President Biwott who use to demand money and vehicles from ICA if we cared about our lives. I was totally startled by Josphine and our meeting. We could have spoken together for the whole Conference. Conferences do that for you- the people you meet! Over 100 people to meet in person. Wow, 4 from China and one from Hong Kong plus 15 from Nepal. But not only the people but the projects you visit! We visited *Ele Collection* (www.elecollection.co) whose purpose is to Remove all Plastics. They have women plastic bottle collectors all over the Town/Park collecting bottles. They pay them by the pound. The Ele-Collections says its goal is to clear Victoria Falls and the National Park of Plastics. Ele processes the plastic bottles into building and road material which they sell. This all came about from the owner and a friend walking in the National Park and being attacked by an elephant. The owner’s friend was killed. They finally killed the elephant. When they opened the elephant’s stomach, they found it was full of plastic bottles. No wonder the elephant was mad! Ele Collection is about saving the animals from the scourge of plastics. Ele is a business who gets a lot of support from local companies and is constantly expanding. We were all struck by the methodology and skills shown. They claim they are the only local plastic re-cycling system in the world. We had to come all the way to Victoria Falls to find them. On the way to Victoria Falls I read two books. Just finished Paul Kingsnorth book, *Against the Machine, on the Unmaking of Humanity*. He points out that we are facing “increasingly impossible lives in the high-tech globalized world that has resulted from the consumer economy”. We are slowly being capture by a world that is unreal and losing a sense of being human. This second book, *Inspiring Transformative Change*, is on image shift and its focus on enabling group processing is what will allow us to rediscover the real world of personal interaction and human consciousness. The *Change* book is written by Elise Packard and Jane Stallman. It will come out in early 2026. Great Conference- the people and projects were worth it. Conferencing is an amazing way to find the Human Element in Global Development! Go Africa, where we all find our roots! Dick Alton, lives with ICA’s Greenrise Community, helps manage ICA USA’s Global Fund and way too involved in the Methodist Church’s Net Zero by 2050. Getting ready for his 84th birthday. *Southern Africa is gifted with * On Sun, Nov 9, 2025 at 10:29 AM Richard Alton <richard.alton(a)gmail.com> wrote: > -- Richard H. T. Alton ICA Global Fund United Methodist Creation Care The Last Chapter T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 Won't you be my neighbor?

5 4

Ike Powell
by E. Caperton 15 Nov '25

15 Nov '25

Julie Powell Bertram asked me to share that Ike Powell is now in hospice care in San Diego. I’ll forward any comments to her.

5 4

Re: [Oe List ...] OE/EI/ICA in Bangladesh?
by Richard and Maria Maguire 15 Nov '25

15 Nov '25

Hi everyone who might see this- Sorry, this comes to you much later than intended- it stayed in Drafts unnoticed for a long time. Sorry! This turned out longer but we have no time now to sharpen or clarify it, unfortunately. Maria and I have been in Bangladesh 5 times for several weeks, between 2007 and 2012 (twice in 2007, then 08 following the Takayama Conference, 2011 and 2012 after the Nepal Conference to help with training, program development and planning. Hutchinson's had been there for the same purpose at least once before we went and possibly others. We had planned to go only once, but the caring and dedication of the members of ICA Bangladesh as well other Bangladeshis we met and the needs of the organisation and the country/society/people led us to decide to put in more effort. They already had many positive contacts with other organisations and we helped them extend them, including possible guardians. We helped with organising and teaching trainings to enable members to do more themselves. We worked with them in their community development project in Ghoramara, close to Chandpur in a recently resettled community of different tribes and dialects. We led a big community event in Open Space there and guided the Bangladeshi trained colleagues to teach a course there including with illiterate people. We went there every time, supported many visits and projects there, along with ICA colleagues from other nations. We also supported their Children's Program in Dhaka in various ways and membership drives, as well as funding efforts. We, ICA Australia and other ICAs such as Taiwan and Japan or Canada. We kept in contact over the years , heard of some impressive actions. Unfortunately in the later visits the national director/CEO seemed to not stimulate leadership in the team, neither in decision making nor in teaching. We continued our efforts and were impressed (as were many other people) at how many people from Bangladesh attended the ICA conference in Takayama, Japan. However it turned out that many didn't seem to have had much connection with ICA Bangladesh. To our surprise the director left for Canada before our visit in 2011. He stated beforehand that he wanted us to "teach a public course" to teach members and others who supposedly "were not ready yet" to participate in the teaching. There was no course and other programs set up when we arrived. We spent the time training the members further in ToP and they seemed eager to learn and do more themselves. We encouraged them to clean up and design or intentionalise their ICA office space. It turned out to be a quite energising and also discouraging experience. In the course of that action, we discovered bookkeeping which showed that a very large amount of ICA money had been transferred to an ICA Associates account, and from there into the personal account of one person. We and others were surprised that an "ICA Associates" even existed. The possibility had been floated, but we had not heard that it had been organised. We asked at least a dozen of the members what they knew about it, and they stated "only the idea of it". The flow of the money was the opposite of that in other countries. In Canada and probably elsewhere, ICA Associates earn money through programs and pass some of this to the national ICA. Here the flow was the other way round, from ICA to ICA Associates and then to a certain member of the board. We could not find any record of Board decisions in all of this, and when we later inquired further, including with Kevin Balm on line, the evidence became that neither the creation of ICA Associates nor the money transfers had been known to or authorized by anyone, apart from him and his wife who had since left Bangladesh. We were also concerned about contradictory stories about the funding and work of their local development efforts in Ghoramora, many stories about the break-down and selling of the community sowing machines when it turned out they had been transferred to a private business. There also were negative stories about the animosity of the Madrasa Schools to the ICA project which we did not find o to be the case when we visited there with several of them. It pained us when we checked with other colleagues from other places that they felt we were doing injustice to the project and ICA Bangladesh with our concerns and did not want anyone to hear about it. We visited one more time in 2012 following the ICAI Nepal conference and again found the members willing and eager to do things, but there was no overall leadership, guidance or encouragement. One of the members contacted a Bangladesh businessman whom we met in Nepal and he set up a basic ToP course in hjis office space. We encouraged members to lead the course and supported them in the preparation and fcilitation. We felt they did an excellent job and they were quite pleased about it. we also heard some voices of people who had withdrawn commenting that it often hapens in Bangladeh that people set up an organisation and the leader manages to use it and any money for their advantage and then "take off" and that they hoped the ICA was not one of them. After our visit in 2012 we decided that we could not do much more for Bangadesh ICA from Australia because of the time and expense. We kept up correspondence with them for a while. Over time many of the members left. We checked the website often but did not see any evidence of ICA program activity, especially in the village project or teaching/facilitation. ICA Bangladesh sent a proposal for funding to ICA Australia in 2013. It was rejected because it was about* "*keeping a program going", with no evidence of how this program would promote human development. A couple of other ICA members' took on supporting the development of a few individuals but we have not heard what the results were. On reading the correspondence on the O:E list we checked on ICA Bangladesh. They are still on the ICA International website as Associate Members, but no mention of activities. When attempting to visit the ICA Bangladesh website the message in Firefox, Chrome and Nortong came up that the site was dangerous and on a URL*blacklist*. We are very sad about the way things have gone in Bangladesh. We felt that the people we met were motivated and caring and hard working. They deserved better. And in the midst of hurricanes and political corruption, stalemates and some unpleasant Islamic attempts there always were many caring and committed people and leaders in permaculture or small loans for example, such as Muhamad Yunus who got the Sydney Peace Prize here in 1989 and still tries to play a major role in rebuilding democracy in Bangladesh given the current disturbing developments. Recent events in Bangladesh show how much they and others of similar spirit have to contend with and depend on trustworthy leaders for renewal. We are glad you raised the question and hope that some other people from inside and outside the country have energy to help them move forward together, however many people are left there to care for the whole- we are worn out and too engaged still here and quite challenged healthwise these days (at the age of 83 + 84 years). ICA still is and was amazing and has much story/history, wisdom and a practical legacy to pass on everywhere, we believe. All the best for all of you and all who keep caring for a common, just and sustainable future for all, Richard and Maria --

2 1

Being Global
by Richard Alton 11 Nov '25

11 Nov '25

*The Smoke That Thunders* The ICA has tried to have a global conference in Africa for many years and now we have finally done it. People from 20 countries (10 from Africa) gathered in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to look at how we all are responding to the times we are living in. At these conferences one is always shocked by the people one meets and the projects one visits. Although the Falls, the smoke that thunders, is amazing. I was struck on the first day by a Maasai women fully dressed in her tribal garb. We broke into our working groups, and I found we were in the same group, Climate Change. Her name was Josephine Ndirias from Kenya. She turns out to be the Executive Director of the *Mukogodo Girls Empowerment program*. It turns out she is from Nanyuki, Kenya. I had been to Nanyuki to visit the ICA Canada project, ilnqwesi, and had lunch with one of the Maasai leaders, Saaya, who turned out to be Josehine’s cousin. “My goodness, what a small world.” It turns out that Josehine’s work is the continuation of the Maasai work started by by Asha Spencer and Miriam Patterson many years ago. Asha and Miriam were there in Nanyuki for a year. We spend the next couple of days chatting about people we knew- Josehine’ still talks with Miriam Patterson on a regular basis. And we went through all the people I use to know: the late Vice President Biwott who use to demand money and vehicles from ICA if we cared about our lives. I was totally startled by Josphine and our meeting. We could have spoken together for the whole Conference. Conferences do that for you- the people you meet! Over 100 people to meet in person. Wow, 4 from China and one from Hong Kong plus 15 from Nepal. But not only the people but the projects you visit! We visited *Ele Collection* (www.elecollection.co) whose purpose is to Remove all Plastics. They have women plastic bottle collectors all over the Town/Park collecting bottles. They pay them by the pound. The Ele-Collections says its goal is to clear Victoria Falls and the National Park of Plastics. Ele processes the plastic bottles into building and road material which they sell. This all came about from the owner and a friend walking in the National Park and being attacked by an elephant. The owner’s friend was killed. They finally killed the elephant. When they opened the elephant’s stomach, they found it was full of plastic bottles. No wonder the elephant was mad! Ele Collection is about saving the animals from the scourge of plastics. Ele is a business who gets a lot of support from local companies and is constantly expanding. We were all struck by the methodology and skills shown. They claim they are the only local plastic re-cycling system in the world. We had to come all the way to Victoria Falls to find them. On the way to Victoria Falls I read two books. Just finished Paul Kingsnorth book, *Against the Machine, on the Unmaking of Humanity*. He points out that we are facing “increasingly impossible lives in the high-tech globalized world that has resulted from the consumer economy”. We are slowly being capture by a world that is unreal and losing a sense of being human. This second book, *Inspiring Transformative Change*, is on image shift and its focus on enabling group processing is what will allow us to rediscover the real world of personal interaction and human consciousness. The *Change* book is written by Elise Packard and Jane Stallman. It will come out in early 2026. Great Conference- the people and projects were worth it. Conferencing is an amazing way to find the Human Element in Global Development! Go Africa, where we all find our roots! Dick Alton, lives with ICA’s Greenrise Community, helps manage ICA USA’s Global Fund and way too involved in the Methodist Church’s Net Zero by 2050. Getting ready for his 84th birthday. *Southern Africa is gifted with exquisite** wilderness and its cr on the entire KAZA Region.* -- Richard H. T. Alton ICA Global Fund United Methodist Creation Care The Last Chapter T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 Won't you be my neighbor?

1 0

Doris Hahn Memorial Service
by Shelley Hahn 09 Nov '25

09 Nov '25

For those who have asked, there will be a livestream of Doris's memorial service this Sunday (2 pm EST). The service will be recorded, and the same link can be used to watch the recording at a later time. https://youtube.com/live/mByGgrAMGEU?feature=share Fond regards Shelley and Marsha

3 2

Jean Smith's health
by Terry Bergdall 06 Nov '25

06 Nov '25

As requested. Begin forwarded message: > From: Jean C Smith <jeancsmithco(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Jean Smith's health > Date: November 4, 2025 at 15:11:30 CST > To: Catherine Welch <catherine(a)welchbox.com>, Burna Dunn <bldunn1(a)gmail.com>, David Dunn <dmdunn1(a)gmail.com>, Jim Lockhart <jlock(a)datawest.net>, Kristin Skoog <kristin(a)wildconnections.org>, Alison Gallensky <agallensky(a)gmail.com>, Misi Ballard <misi.ballard(a)gmail.com>, Terry Bergdall <bergdall(a)gmail.com>, Marge McManus <margemcm414(a)gmail.com>, Michael Rogers <michaelloveswilderness(a)yahoo.com>, Carol Stansfield <carol.stansfield(a)juno.com>, Lee Patton <lee_patton(a)hotmail.com>, Tod Bacigalupi <TodB1893(a)gmail.com> > > All, > > I'm sending this to just a few people in my circle of Wild Connections, ICA and neighbors. All are cherished, but my energy is limited. I would appreciate it if you shared this more widely. > > I've been in the UCHealth Anschutz hospital for several days. I have Acute Myloid Leukemia, common in older people. There are treatments, but as a family, given my age, I will let the end of life progress. > > I will be moving to an advanced medical facility that can provide 24/7 care. > > I expect a couple of months to close out my apartment, continue Vickie's probate and get my own affairs in order. > During that time I am hoping to have you and others come for brief visits. I'll let you know > when. > > Right now cards, emails or text messages are welcome, but please *No* phone calls. > > Thank you, grace and peace, > > Jean > ............................................... > Jean C Smith > jeancsmithco(a)gmail.com <mailto:jeancsmithco@gmail.com> > 719-339-6739 > Jean Smith > c/o Val Wainwright > 604 So Laredo Cir > Aurora CO 80017

3 3