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8/09/18. Progressing Spirit: Eric Alexander: How are your Church investments doing?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 09 Aug '18

09 Aug '18

View this email in your browser How are your Church investments doing? Column by Eric Alexander August 9, 2018 Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future of the Church. It is an institution I love, yet it is also one which I harbor frustration for because of its resistance to adapt. Now I do realize that I’m referring to the Church here as an it, as a single entity, as opposed to what it actually is, a large and diverse community of denominations, pastors, board members, lay leaders, parishioners, and infrastructure. Similar to the stock market, which is made up of individual stocks, investors, and trading floors, we often refer to psycho-social institutions like this as a single entity, “i.e., the market.” In fact, stock market investors are excellent parallels to church leaders. Much of Church leadership is like an investor who holds a bad stock, instead of selling that stock when they see the writing on the wall of its decline, they continue to hold the stock with false hope that it will suddenly turn around and gain a profit before they sell it; only to find that they have taken more and more losses on it. Many even hold the stock until it goes all the way down to zero. A collection of fear, pride, and plain mis-education doesn’t allow the investor to admit to the reality of the situation any earlier, and they end up losing it all. They would rather ride their stock down to zero than implement a new strategy to keep the portfolio viable. When it comes to the solvency of the Church there is almost a study per week that shows its membership in sharp decline. Besides some certain expressions and corner cases which I will discuss in a moment, by-and-large Churches are dying and being closed all around us at an extreme rate. While I believe that most studies and statistical conclusions need to be taken with a grain of salt, my own time in church leadership would agree with the general trend we are seeing in these studies. A recent PRRI study was shared with me by Ned Armstrong, who is a long-time subscriber of this publication. The findings illustrated the church being in steep decline among all ages, and especially the youth. It also showed a similar correlation to a decline in football watching interestingly. What we may be able to glean from this study is that our proverbial stock (the Church), is in steep decline, and it is not showing much trending or indicators that it will magically turn around without an intervention or bailout. So the question then becomes whether we can (or should) use this data to salvage something truly valuable? One of the current successful corner cases in the Church portfolio is the evangelical mega-Church. I know that so many of us are tempted to hold contempt for such churches, but they do hold some keys to survival which I want to look at openly and honestly. They also are examples of exactly what’s wrong with today’s Christian trend as well, and I want to look at that too. For some of the positive aspects, most mega-churches do a great job of quickly connecting people into relevant small groups, which from there create tight bonds of community and mission. These groups meet for meals, look out for each other’s children, go on mission trips, do local service projects, and organize community events. Of interest, one of the healthiest progressive Christian churches I know of does the same thing. During one visit Marcus Borg commented that while most churches will be closed in 20 years, that one wouldn’t, because he recognized the effect of their strong community focus and tight bonds within their very intentional member groups. Another component we see at many mega-churches is that the theology of the members is often superficially based on what they’ve been told, and not something they’ve rigorously and academically studied for themselves. The benefit of that more pedestrian style of theology is that members tend to focus on the high points of the scriptures and ask one another how it might apply in their lives today, which often provides fruitful and transformative discussion. This overall model is extremely transformational in group member’s lives. Even for myself, some of the most meaningful Church experiences I have ever had were being part of such small groups where the focus was on the message and not the historicity of the messenger. And of course, that simple theology also comes at a price, which I will get to in a moment. On the negative side of things, most mega-churches tend to suck the life out of other churches in their community. With lots of glitz and pomp, they attract many people under age 65 from many other churches in a town, which causes those other churches to lose economic viability. They pump a ton of their weekly financial intake back into professional caliber worship and arts. They pump a ton of money into youth facilities that would put many schools and daycare facilities to shame. They pump a ton of money and resource into charismatic pastors and staff who are highly trained to come across cool and relatable. And they pump a ton of money into advertising and marketing. In other words, they have found an equation to attract a lot of people -> take in a lot of money -> and re-invest it where the market is returning high growth rates. The main problem with these mega-churches though is their theology. If they were open and affirming maybe no one would be complaining? The small churches would still be upset, and it would deplete the community of much needed variety of expression and style, but like anything in a capitalistic market, hitting the sweet spot would be rewarded. But the theology is setting up a house of cards that is likely to fall later on. Their youth programs are highly focused on indoctrination around untenable messages such as a literal eternal hell and 7-day creation. Their mission trips are based around saving souls by accepting Jesus as one’s lord and savior – and all activities are ulterior motives for evangelization. And this would all be fine if the theology they taught could stand up to the scrutiny of education, logic, and science; but it will not. So these institutions are creating an army of young folks who are likely to become disillusioned if they begin to go deeper and start asking questions. With the aforementioned said, we tend to put a lot of focus on the youth when we discuss church studies and our future, but more should probably be gleaned by what the elders are doing. The trend we see from those over age 65 is quite different (notwithstanding some reading this publication of course). While there are exceptions to every rule, many over age 65 are tending to go down with the ship instead of make prudent investments. It’s not that they don’t care, but more specifically it is that they are often being led astray by poor investment advisors (i.e., their pastors). Many over age 65 are not just passive observers who don’t care about the future though. A subset of those folks are still passionately giving of their resources and legacy to keep the Church viable for future generations. But they are sometimes being led to believe that it can be turned around with mere copycat steps to the mega-church trends. These practices do not often work for growth. The main problem is again something I’m going to parallel in financial terms; it takes money to make money. These struggling churches can’t easily build a nice enough youth complex. They can’t easily hire more staff. They can’t easily remodel the sanctuary. They can’t easily assemble a professional sounding worship band. They can’t easily attract a pastor with incredible communication skills. They can’t easily attract the big givers and local celebrities. And they can’t easily become marketing machines. If they do somehow figure out how to put on such a show, they may have a chance to survive if they’ve chosen to offer the mega-church type product. But most will never get there and only drag out the inevitable by kicking the proverbial can of worms down the road. So what else can be done? Here are three general ideals that church-investors can consider about building a different kind of church that can hold its own within the portfolio by catering to the non-evangelical mega church crowd: Radical diversity of expression. While many mainstream church-goers are not ready for anything other than the liturgy they may have grown up with, there are many younger folks who don’t yet have a standard expectation baked into their paradigms – or they are yearning for something new and fresh. They are ready for impactful and relevant forms of worship, gatherings, study, teaching, social action and mission. It can still feel holy, reverent, and rooted though. In fact, when surveyed, many young people say that’s what they would like in a church experience. But it needs a shot of relevance too. It must feel right to them, which often means it won’t also feel right to the 65-year-old lifelong denominational churchgoer. Some churches seek to meet this need by holding traditional and contemporary services, but often the only difference between the two services is that the pastor removes his or her suit jacket and the organist picks up a guitar. That is not enough. For example, about a year ago some good friends of mine who happen to be conservatives caught on to a similar idea, and they began holding services in a mall. The service times are only on Saturday nights, and they give 25% of the congregation’s giving back to local community missions (most churches give 10% or less back to missions). Sometimes they even substitute the services to go out and personally serve the community during that time with their gifts and resources, so the attendees really see their giving at work. Other times during services they block out time to light candles and pray or reflect quietly for extended periods of time, just like meditation, noting that many under age 65 live unprecedentedly hectic lives in today’s society. Radical diversity of theology. It is not untenable to imagine a gathering where people of many theological beliefs gather for community and good purpose. One could view Jesus as an ontologically unique lord and savior, another could believe that Jesus was just a good man, and one could believe Jesus was just a myth. They could intentionally focus on the universal virtues of love, forgiveness, compassion, and service without getting hung up on their differences. And they could focus on the overarching moral of the Bible’s teachings and not become stifled by demanding common doctrinal creeds. This could take place in all denominations by simply throttling down the need for creeds, doctrinal unity, and rigid what-we-believe statements. Young people who weren’t raised in the church are extremely welcoming of this idea. Radical diversity of political views. This point can seem challenging to many progressive Christians. It has become a standard that evangelical churches these days align with Republican politics, while progressive or some mainline churches trend more Democrat. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Churches can utilize scripture and modern-day examples to reflect on what Jesus and other saints stood for and promoted, and members could decide which messages feel to be aligned with deep spirituality and universal morality. For example, studies show that the most successful way to win someone over isn’t through challenging their deeply held political affiliations, but rather by challenging their heart for the poor, weak, oppressed, and destitute. When the actual issues are investigated in light of the social teachings of Jesus there is often much less rationale for right-wing politics, or left-wing elitism. Peace, Eric Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Eric Alexander is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is a board member at ProgressiveChristianity.org, and is the founder of Jesism, Christian Evolution, and the Progressive Christianity and Politics group on Facebook. Eric holds a Master of Theology from Saint Leo University and studied negotiations at Harvard Law School, and and is author of Teaching Kids Life IS Good. Question & Answer Q: By Carl from Colorado Springs In a non-theist world is there a place for prayer? What is it? How does it look? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Carl, Everywhere I go to lecture across the world, your question is almost always the first question to be posed. I think that is for two reasons: 1. Prayer is an all but universal human experience. 2. Prayer is the ultimate link to the deity we yearn to have protect us in this vast and sometimes apparently empty universe. When I try to describe or point to a God-experience that does not fall inside the boundaries of the traditional God definition, many of my hearers seem to feel the angst of both loneliness and potential meaninglessness. The role of God, understood as a supernatural being who dwells somewhere beyond the boundaries of this earth, who intervenes to accomplish the divine purpose and who answers our prayers, is our bulwark against that vision of nothingness. So when this understanding of God wavers, so does our understanding of prayer. That, in turn, drives us, I believe, to seek assurance or reassurance. To begin to address this concern we must, first, examine what these assumptions say about both God and prayer. The God we speak of appears to be in our employ and can, therefore, direct our destinies. That inevitably means that the theistic God is bound to disappoint us for that is finally not the way the world works. Neither God nor prayer saves our loved ones from death in Iraq. Neither God nor prayer will reverse the progress of an inevitable death-producing disease. Neither God nor prayer will change the weather or cause mental illness to decline. Neither God nor prayer will cause one's stocks to rise or guarantee a victory in the lottery. Neither God nor prayer will enable a nation to defeat its enemy. A theistic understanding of both God and prayer has been dying since the writing of Isaac Newton. It was pushed into oblivion by the work of Louis Pasteur. The theistic God to whom people tend to pray began to fade when the size of the universe was discovered in the work of Copernicus and Galileo and God's dwelling place above the sky was obliterated. It was further pushed into decline by the work of Charles Darwin who demonstrated the power of natural selection above supernatural guidance in the evolution of life on this planet. It disappeared from view for man when Sigmund Freud revealed how neurotic most God talk is and when Albert Einstein reduced all talk, including God talk, to relativity. The question we need to ask, however, is this: When a long-standing human idea of God dies, does that mean that God dies? Of course not! It only means that one of our human definitions of God has proved to be so inadequate that this definition has died. Does this mean that prayer has become meaningless? No! It only means that a particular understanding of prayer has become inoperative. Only those who cannot envision God outside the categories of theism will have problems with prayer. God is so much bigger than our image of God, and prayer is far more than asking a divine Santa Claus for a favor. We have work to do in this area but to loosen the ties of past theological thinking is clearly the first step. It would take more space than a question and answer column can provide, but let me assure you that I believe in God deeply and I pray every day. How I understand both my belief in God and the way I pray, I tried to spell out in my book: A New Christianity for a New World. I wish you well on your journey. ~ John Shelby Spong Click here to read and share online Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Was Jesus a Feminist in a Patriarchal World? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December 7, 2005 If, as I have argued, organized religion is almost universally anti-female and even misogynistic, was Jesus different? Did he stand outside that pattern? Certainly, the religion developed by his disciples has historically made major contributions to the denigration of women. One only has to look at the church debates that have resulted in the exclusion of women from significant positions of power and authority within Christianity. Underlying these debates was a definition of women as less than human, not created in God’s image or as somehow impaired or defective. At one point in our history, women were even defined as “castrated males” and the menstrual cycle was viewed as the way the female body mourned monthly for its lost organ. Given what we know today about biology, these ideas are not only illogical, but they constitute irrational nonsense. Yet they have been in the past and are still today operating in the life of a church that never seems to be concerned about its own illogical assumptions. The question I want to raise, however, is about Jesus and not the church that his followers created. Was Jesus also an unenlightened sexist? Does the sexism that has marked the Christian church reflect the attitude of the one the church claims as its founder? If Jesus can be demonstrated to be guilty of the sexism that the church has so overtly manifested, then the central Christian claim that God has been met in him is in ultimate jeopardy. How though can we discover what Jesus actually taught did? Typically, the answer traditionally given has been to search the gospels. That does not always work since we now know that the gospels were written some forty to seventy years after the earthly life of Jesus came to an end. Forty to seventy years means that before the gospels appeared his followers had already interpreted Jesus, so that we are never sure that what we read is an authentic reflection of the man Jesus or these later interpreters. Seeking to discern Jesus’ actual attitude toward women in the gospels is thus not easy. Yet, despite this limitation, scholars still believe that if the gospels are examined deeply enough, both the echoes and the imprint of that incredible person who stands behind the Christian tradition can be discovered. Sometimes truth is located in the counter-intuitive nature of his words or actions, giving us clues to the authenticity we seek. Though this process is never an exact science, it is nonetheless the method we have to use. In this column I seek to probe this biblical content, opening it to my readers, for careful weighing. The first idea that must be engaged about Jesus’ attitude toward women is the obvious but neglected fact that Jesus had female disciples. The male-dominated church of the ages has made it almost impossible for us to see these women but they are there in the gospel texts and cannot be expunged. These women disciples do not become visible until the final scenes in the life of Jesus, namely at the time of his crucifixion and resurrection. The primary reason for this is that all of Jesus’ male disciples forsook him and fled when he was arrested, so the women, the only disciples left, are allowed to come into full view. The gospel writers then say, by way of identification, that these women had followed him from his days in Galilee (see Mark 15:41, Matt 27:55 and Luke 24:29). The image we have of Jesus wandering around Galilee with a band of twelve men is simply not an accurate picture. The Bible is quite clear that for his entire public ministry, Jesus had both male and female disciples. The assertion made by John Paul II, to justify denying ordination to women in the Roman Church, that Jesus did not choose any female disciples is thus not correct. Defenders of the Pope argue that what he meant was that Jesus did not select any women from among his followers to be included in ‘the twelve.’ The problem with this suggestion is that the idea that there ever were twelve male disciples is now for several reasons suspect in the world of biblical scholarship. First, there is no agreement in the gospels as to who constituted the twelve. Matthew and Mark have one list; Luke and Acts have another. John, who has no list, introduces disciples like Nathaniel whom none of the others mention. In Chapter 21, which is regarded as an appendix to the Fourth Gospel, John actually refers to seven not twelve disciples. Second, the number twelve itself appears to be shaped by later messianic expectations. It was said of Jesus that his messianic task was to build a new Israel. Since the old Israel was made up of twelve tribes who were identified as the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel, so twelve tribes must mark the new Israel. Matthew and Luke both say that Jesus intentionally appointed the twelve so that they might “sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes” of the new Israel. This suggests that the idea of twelve male disciples chosen by Jesus was a later interpretation of Jesus read back into the Jesus of history and needs to be understood that way. However, the fact is that Jesus, in a bold counter-cultural act, appears to have had male and female disciples. Pressing this insight more deeply, the gospels clearly indicate that the leader of these female disciples was Mary Magdalene. In almost every account of the women, Magdalene’s name is listed first just as Peter’s name is always first among the male disciples. Yet despite her gospel priority, Magdalene’s reputation was trashed by institutional Christianity with the suggestion that she was a prostitute. There is absolutely no evidence for that charge in the biblical story. Not only was the early church itself blatantly anti-female but as it moved into the Mediterranean world it confronted a body-hating, flesh-loathing, neo-platonic mentality that exacerbated this trend. By the second century anxiety grew, that in the gospel story a flesh and blood woman was at Jesus’ side in his life and that this same woman was pictured as the chief mourner at his tomb in his death. Threatened by this close proximity, traditional church leaders, decided to remove Magdalene by assassinating her character and replacing her with a more acceptable female figure. That is when the mythological portrait of the pure, spotless virgin mother of Jesus began her march into ascendancy. In the gospels themselves, outside the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, the mother of Jesus is portrayed negatively. Mark, Matthew and Luke all show her as thinking Jesus was out of his mind and seeking to take him away. John portrays Jesus as rebuking her for trying to force his hand at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. In recent years the idea, quite popular in the Middle Ages, that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus has re-emerged. I argued for this possibility in a 1991 book entitled, Born of a Woman. The popularity of Dan Brown’s 2003 book, The Da Vinci Code carried this idea into common awareness. Harvard Professor Karen King’s book on the Gospel of Mary Magdalene seeks to recover her historically as a central force in the Jesus movement. Magdalene is today escaping her ecclesiastical putdown. She was a major follower, a disciple of Jesus. Two other gospel stories merit notice as we seek to discern the attitude of Jesus toward women. One is told only by Luke (10:38-42) of Jesus’ visit to the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany. Martha is busily engaged in the kitchen preparing to serve her guest. She was doing the tasks associated with the role of women in that culture. However, her sister Mary had positioned herself at the feet of Jesus the teacher, assuming the role of a pupil, a learner, perhaps even a rabbinic student. In the process she was redefining the woman’s place in that society. Martha, irritated that her sister was not doing her share of the ‘women’s work,’ demanded that Jesus force Mary to abandon the inappropriate posture of a pupil and return to her proper place in the kitchen. Jesus refused to do so and defends Mary’s choice with the words, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” This can only be read, I believe, as a radical assault on the patriarchal value system of his day. Jesus appears to be a feminist! In the second episode, unique to the Fourth Gospel (John 4:1-30), Jesus violates the operative code of his culture, by engaging a woman in dialogue. Both she and Jesus’ disciples “marveled that he was talking with a woman (vs. 6, 27, 28).” Jesus and this woman discussed theology and liturgy, that is, who God is and how to worship. Such serious subject matter would not be discussed with a woman in that time. The prevailing cultural attitude was well described by Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (14:34-36) when he wrote, “Women are to keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but they should be subordinate, even as the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home.” Jesus clearly turned that cultural expectation on its ear. Sufficient biblical data suggest that Jesus was an exception to the rule that religion is almost universally negative to the legitimate aspirations of women for equality and full human dignity. The church, however, that grew from this Jesus all but universally opposed the feminist revolution that occurred in the 20th century. Yet that revolution gave women in the Christian world the right to university educations, job opportunities, the vote, and equal treatment before the law. In that same century in some churches women took on the male power structure to win the right to be pastors, priests and bishops. These victories for women were won with the aid of the secular spirit of world humanism fighting against the male forces of organized religion. I think the record of the gospels demonstrates that the sexism in the Christian church is far removed from the ideals and passions of Jesus, its feminist founder. If the church had listened to, observed and learned from the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth about women in both church and society, then the church would have led this fight rather than being dragged screaming and kicking into this new day. If, as John suggests, Jesus’ purpose is that all might have abundant life, then equality and respect for 50% of the human race becomes a compelling Christian necessity. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Gretta Vosper Lecture Series August 25th at University of North Georgia, Mountain Top Lectures presents the Rev. Gretta Vosper. Gretta is a highly regarded speaker and author who argues that Christian congregations should embrace everyone who is moved by Jesus’ message of love and compassion, even if they are atheists or doubters or seekers of any kind. Click here for more information/registration ...

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FW: More Jackfruit affirmations
by Lynda C 08 Aug '18

08 Aug '18

From: Chenoa Stock <chenoas(a)gmail.com> Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at 8:46 PM To: Lynda Cock <lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Jackfruit!! Hi Lynda! My mom recently sent me your email and the link to jackfruit! That was most definitely by favorite fruit when I lived in Kerala, India!!! It has the best flavor and texture and I was always told of its multiple benefits - this link proves it. It was always fun to watch the cooks cut it open too, as it was quite the process. In Kerala they had so many delicious preparations. I hope you get to try it at some point. I of course recommend the actual fruit, as its sweetness is the best. But the other savory options are probably good too! Enjoy if you ever come upon it! peace, Chenoa

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What Is Jackfruit? Everything You Need To Know About The Miracle Fruit
by Lynda C 08 Aug '18

08 Aug '18

https://foodrevolution.org/blog/what-is-jackfruit/?utm_campaign=frn18 For those of you who have lived in the tropics, or who are looking for new vegetarian options, or concerned about world hunger, you might be interested in how this often “shunned” jackfruit is gaining new attention. It apparently is beginning to show up in grocery stores. Be sure to watch the video before tackling this new project. Lynda Cock Remembering it from Indonesia but never thought of trying it!

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Global Buzz
by ICA International 07 Aug '18

07 Aug '18

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves And please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: August 2018 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-08-01.php ICAI Communications

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Invitation to ICA Archives Fall Sojourn Oct 21 - 27, 2018
by Wendell Refior 06 Aug '18

06 Aug '18

Creating The Future Of Our Past Inviting you to attend the GLOBAL ARCHIVES FALL SOJOURN October 21 – 27, 2018 JOIN US in transforming more than 50 years of programs, projects, methods and training by staff and volunteers – to an ICA Archives Website to be launched by the end of the year accessible to anyone in the world. Nine collections are revealing our foundational wisdom and experience: Toward STRUCTURAL REFORMULATION Toward CONTEXTUAL RE-EDUCATION Toward SPIRIT REMOTIVATION Community Development Changing Images Profound Engagement Social Change Processes Facilitation Methods Interior Life Community Forums Collaborative Networking Global Movement What areas would you like to assist us with as we make them visible to the world? We are currently working on these four areas: Social Change Process (New Social Vehicle); Changing Images; Facilitation Methods; Interior LIfe. Include your priorities in the registration information you email to jean.long512(a)gmail.com -see next page. The work of the Archives week will include: 1. Assessing what is going on in the world and in our work presently. 2. Searching the Archives to document past wisdom. 3. Creating web pages with photos, videos, articles, programs that will showcase the work of the past and present. Cheap flight sales are on now. No previous archive experience needed. Anyone who can -- come in early to help with prep (from Thursday, 10/18 on). For additional information, please call Jean Long (720-633-5008) or email jean.long512(a)gmail.com. (For registration information see next page.) PARTICIPANT PRACTICS: Dates: October 21 (Sunday arrival) * - October 27 (Saturday departure) Location: ICA Greenrise Learning Lab, 4750 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60640 Sleeping rooms on the 8th floor – Couples - $45.00; Singles – $30.00 (per bed) (Rooms across from the bathrooms go first.) Food - $30 per day for 3 meals (Monday through Friday) Parking fee - $7.50/day: $45.00/Sunday - Saturday Conference fee - $30.00 to cover conference materials and expenses Payment: Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, Check To register: e-mail Jean Long jean.long512(a)gmail.com ** **When you send in your e-mail registration to Jean Long - jean.long512(a)gmail.com please include the following information: 1. Name(s) address, e-mail and phone number of those registering. 2. Dates of arrival and departure 3. List two or three priority areas that you would like to work with while you are here. (Chart on the first page of this invitation.) *Anyone who can - come in early to help with prep (from Thursday 10/18 on). -- Thanks until later. "To believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius." - Emerson in "Self-Reliance" Wendell

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8/02/18, Progressing Spirit, Irene Monroe: Radical Inclusion Requires Moral Leadership - Part 3; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 02 Aug '18

02 Aug '18

View this email in your browser Radical Inclusion Requires Moral Leadership - Part 3 Column by Rev. Irene Monroe August 2, 2018 Moral leadership has never been consistent in my lifetime, and I presume for us all. Like most social issues that are shaped by our human actions or inactions, moral leadership has its ebbs and flows. Right now most people today would say that the world is sadly lacking in moral leadership as we listen to the news. As a nation, we are in a state of moral outrage because we have seen our public and religious leaders co-opt morality to push political agendas. We have seen them use moral arguments as a justification to maintain the status quo, the oppression of other people and to keep in place structural injustices. So, to tackle this topic I ask five questions: What is moral leadership? What have been examples of moral leadership in my lifetime? Who embodied or embodies it? What should moral leadership look like today? And, where should I look for it? Moral leadership, for me, is about service to others. It’s guided by core ideals deeply rooted in a praxis of justice and social change that addresses oppressions and its multiple causes and expressions. Motivated by a sense of shared purpose, moral leadership is collaborative and intersectional in building movements and not moments of justice. For example, I am reminded of the last clause in Isaiah 11:6 KJV which states, “…and a little child shall lead them,” as a recent show of moral leadership. This April was the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. It was sadly a searing reminder of unaddressed gun violence in America. And, because gun violence has gone unaddressed for half a century, future generations of children residing in a safer and healthier America MLK spoke about so dreamingly in his speeches now in 2018 live in fear of guns when they are not running scared for their lives from them. During the “March for Our Lives,” student-led demonstration demanding safer gun laws that took place in Washington, D.C., one of the surprise guest speakers was nine-year-old Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Like the hundreds of thousands of children and teens who came to the nation’s capital with the mission to end school shootings, Yolanda Renee King told the audience, “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of the skin, but the content of their character.” Standing on stage alongside one of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors, Yolanda continued sharing her dream with the crowd.“I have a dream that enough is enough. And that this should be a gun-free world, period.” As I watched King’s cherubic-looking granddaughter deliver her speech to a cheering crowd, I nearly cried realizing Yolanda never met her grandfather, because a bullet shortened his life leaving us all wondering how long he might have lived. In 2018, no one could have fathomed the number one issue all American school-age children face is an epidemic of school shootings- whether in wealthy suburbs like Newtown and Parkland or urban cities like Chicago and Baltimore. Gun violence is killing our children, and gun reform continues to be that hot-button issue as a country we can’t seem to budge on. Our moral leaders in this movement today are neither adults nor our elected officials but instead our school-age kids. Martin Luther King was an example of moral leadership. Martin Luther King’s civil rights activism began in the unwelcoming “Heart of Dixie” in 1955 when on a cold December evening Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a white passenger, birthing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott was the first of what would be many historic marches and protests that would catapult King onto a national stage. His acts of civil disobedience in the 1950’s and 1960’s helped elevate the country’s moral consciousness as Alabama struggled with hers. Sadly, in 2018 Alabama is still struggling. MLK showed moral leadership, but not many of his white brethren in the South did. As a proponent of the strategy of nonviolent resistance demonstrations, MLK riled the concerns of eight moderate white Alabama clergymen who published their disagreement in their Birmingham town paper. These clergymen lacked moral leadership because they felt racial injustice was better argued in their courts than expressed as public protests. However, MLK disagreed. In his famous 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King felt unjust laws were a moral responsibility not only to break but also to bring to the public’s attention: “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” Churches can be beacons of moral leadership. However, when they do not work these churches lose their moral leadership and they open themselves not only to the charge of inhospitality, but also to the charge of moral neglect. Theology in these churches, unfortunately, becomes merely ecclesiastical articulations of the status quo where the bible for them functions as their legitimate talking book. Religious intolerance masks their spiritual abuse, and patriarchal clericalism masks the structural oppressions within these churches so that these holy places of worship become sites of ritualized violence. For example, in the early 1980’s, when the AIDS epidemic was labeled as the “Gay Plague” that was thought to affect only white gay men in this country, the Black Church turned a deaf ear to this community’s laments for help. When African American gay men made it known that they too were affected by the disease, the Black church did not offer their sons sympathy or prayer. AIDS is the leading killer of African American gay men between the ages of 25 and 44 and it’s the second leading killer of African American heterosexual women of the same age. The Black Church now understands there is a problem but it nonetheless colludes in the death of our African American LGBTQIA people with its silence on the issue. As a faith community that rests on the theological premise that God is on the side of the oppressed, the Black Church must get the moral courage to rid itself of this demon- homo/transphobia- before it is too late. Or, else the Black Church will have participated in the genocide of its people. Seminaries grow moral leadership. However, seminaries lose their moral leadership when they address only the academy, or address only the institutional interests of their denominational churches. These seminaries may occasionally glance at the world, but never fully engage themselves in the world. Their effort to teach cultural and ethnic diversity- a diversity which is seldom reflected in their faculties or student bodies- mask, at best, their anemic attempt to be politically correct and, at worse, their academic arrogance to exclude from their folds the very people theological education ought to be about. Theology emerging out of these seminaries, unfortunately, becomes inauthentic expressions of the life of God’s people. For example, in 2016, to the shock of many of us LGBTQ people of faith was the Vatican’s decision in the document “The Gift of Priestly Vocation,” to ban gays from the priesthood. And to know that Pope Francis, our LGBTQ pope- friendly pontiff, approved the document have many of us in disbelief. We all recall Pope Francis’s remarks when flying home after a weeklong visit to Brazil in 2013 (which set off global shock waves) where the pontiff was queried about the much talked about “gay lobby” in the Vatican. “When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them?” Pope Frances’ more liberal-leaning pronouncements, however, don’t match his actions Another example, this May, Pope Francis hurled a directive to Italian bishops to block admission to gay males or perceived gay males from entering the seminary. Catholic News Agency reported Pope Francis stating, “If you have even the slightest doubt it’s better not to let them enter because these acts or deep-seated tendencies can lead to scandals and can compromise the life of the seminary, as well as the man himself and his future priesthood.” The problem in the Catholic Church is not its gay priests, and its solution to the problem is not the removal of them from church or seminaries. The problem in the Catholic Church is its transgressions against them. And I ask: Who will remove the church from itself? Scapegoating all gay priests as pedophiles is a cheap and easy solution. It gives the Catholic Church an easy escape hatch that allows the Church not own up to the reality that the reason the Catholic Church exists and will continue to exist in perpetuity is because of the gifts, and dedicated service of its gay priests. Right now, the Catholic Church and its seminaries stand in the need of prayer for moral guidance. And the Pontiff knows it. Francis aptly stated in his a December 2013 interview with 16 Jesuit magazines that “the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards” should the Catholic Church, in this 21st Century, continue on its anti-modernity trek like his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Within a Christian context, I have come to understand moral leadership as a type of leadership that is rooted in acts of helping others, and it is arched toward justice. It is a leadership that calls attention to the present-day social injustices and institutional ills that bring about particular people’s forced eviction from the Kingdom of God. Within a Christian context, moral leadership is a theology-in-praxis that looks at reality from an involved, committed stance in light of a faith that does justice. Within a Christian framework of moral leadership, God symbolizes for us a unified plurality that helps us create a multicultural society so that no one is left behind and every voice is lifted up. When I think of what moral leadership is it is leaders who have moral outrage that transforms into acts of moral courage. For example, had Rosa Parks, an unassuming black seamstress, not had the moral outrage to refuse giving up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 this nation would not have seen the moral courage of African Americans. Moral leadership is neither gender-specific nor centered around one person. Both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. were leaders in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, because had Rosa Parks not sat down, King could not have stood up. While moral leadership does not call us to be prophets, where one person leads and all others are to follow, it does call us to be prophetic in this particular time in the life of American democracy. Moral leadership can bring back our democracy. For example, taking a knee at NFL games is an act of moral leadership. However, the litmus test of American patriotism in sports these days is whether or not you stand for the national anthem, ignoring that the protest started as a statement against police brutality and systemic racism. However, since 9/11 the militarization of our sports culture has created a sports-military complex that now many white fans come not only for the entertainment but they come to display fidelity to police and the military, too. With Trump now having an opening to appoint a pro-life Supreme Court justice to the bench in the hope of overturning “Roe v. Wade” women’s reproductive justice issues will no longer be of serious consideration, impacting predominantly poor, disabled and women of color. There is already an erosion of LGBTQ civil rights under the guise of religious liberty. A new Trump Supreme Court justice will likely go after “Obergefell v. Hodges,” returning same-sex marriage to the states. And, while Trump bloviates his isolationist rhetoric to “Make America Great Again” our democracy hangs in the balance, revealing both its hypocrisy and its inhumanity. Many people working for justice today stand on the shoulders of Martin Luther King Jr because of his moral leadership and what he achieved in Alabama. But I believe King’s vision of justice is often gravely limited and misunderstood. Too many people thought then, and continue to think, that King’s statements regarding justice were only about race and the African-American community. We fail to see how King’s vision of inclusion and community is far broader than we might have once imagined. For King, justice was more than a racial issue, more than a legal or moral issue. Justice was a human issue. And this was evident in King’s passionate concern about a wide range of concerns: “The revolution for human rights is opening up unhealthy areas in American life and permitting a new and wholesome healing to take place,” King once told a racially mixed audience. “Eventually the civil rights movement will have contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial injustice.” Moral leadership is about the inclusion and involvement of all people, where people are part of a participatory government and movement that is working to dismantle all existing discriminatory laws that truncate full participation in the fight to advance democracy. Where then do we look for moral leadership? I offer two suggestions where you might begin to look for it. First, we must realize that looking for moral leadership only in one person is problematic because it maintains the belief that moral leadership is not out there in the world. However, if we look for moral leadership in brief instances in people ’s lives, in our own lives, we will see it more often. Second, I believe that when we use our gifts in the service of others, we then shift the paradigm of moral leadership from outside of ourselves to within ourselves, and only then can we realize that we are the moral leaders we have been looking for. Moral leadership played a profound role in the justice work that King did. Martin Luther King said there are two types of leadership. There are those who are thermometers, who measure the temperature in the room, and those who are thermostats, who change the temperature. Let’s improve this moral climate we’re in and be thermostats. Why? Because moral leadership provides a promising today as well as a promising future. And, in so doing, we fight until Hell freezes over, and then we fight on the ice, knowing that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Click here to read online and to share your thoughts. About the Author The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists (Boston) – Detour Monroe’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe. Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. Question & Answer Q: By A Reader Can Christian liturgies be made to reflect reality rather than nostalgia? A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin Dear Reader, It seems to me not all liturgy is “nostalgia.” There are many groups, like the Wild Goose Worship Group, that write more contemporary liturgies. Of course, there are parts of our religious history or “nostalgia” that have played an important role in getting us to where we are. Some have been healthier than others, but I'd argue they should not be forgotten. Maybe we just need to learn to not allow them to be the “end all be all.” I think it would be much more useful to allow our past to inform our future, but not dictate it. Simply use it as one of the many filters through which we now view our current realities. In the end, I think liturgies should fit the communities in which they reside. Some will be more traditional, and others will be more contemporary. The important part is for them to aid us in our acts of worship and spiritual growth. ~ Rev.Mark Sandlin Click here to read and share online About the Author Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press' Award of Excellence in 2012. His work has been published on "The Huffington Post," "Sojourners," "Time," "Church World Services," and even the "Richard Dawkins Foundation." He's been featured on PBS's "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly" and NPR's "The Story with Dick Gordon.” Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited How Religion defined Women as the Source of Evil Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 30, 2005 We began this series of columns by searching for the source of the almost universally negative definition of women that is held in religious circles. Somehow it has been imperative for men to portray women as weak, dependent wards, wrapping that portrayal in the garments of patriarchal religion. This definition used what they called God-given facts of themselves as the originators of life. They believed that they alone planted new life into the womb of the woman who was little more than fertile soil that nurtured the male seed to maturity. They took this analogy from the farmer planting his seed into the womb of Mother Earth. The woman, like Mother Earth, was not a contributor to life but a passive receptacle designed to sustain life. This biologically imposed inferiority was thought to have come from God, so to rebel against it was to rebel against God. Next we focused on the biblical story in the Judeo-Christian faith tradition to see how this ancient definition became incorporated into our own religious tradition. The Bible asserts in its oldest creation story, that the woman was created because the birds and the animals failed to satisfy the man’s need for “a helper fit for him.” This secondary status in turn set the stage for the woman to be considered the property of the man, which enabled polygamy to develop since, if women were property a man could have as many wives as he could afford. We noted how this definition actually got enshrined in the Ten Commandments (see numbers 7 and 10). This week I want to examine another biblical strand of our religion-based anti-female bias. It is the idea that the woman is the source of that evil which infects our common humanity. In the biblical story, after God had created the woman, she took her place as Adam’s “helpmeet” in the Garden of Eden. While tending that garden alone, the man had managed to obey the divine injunction not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on pain of death. Now, however, in this obviously male-authored story, through this weak, subhuman creature called woman, that injunction was destined to be disobeyed. In chapter three of the Book of Genesis, the story unfolds dramatically. Here we see the woman alone in the Garden of Eden. She is staring at the forbidden fruit, probably fantasizing about its taste, and perhaps wondering why it was prohibited. In this weakened state of brooding temptation she is approached by a remarkable snake, which appears to walk on two legs and to be able to speak perfect Hebrew since that would be the only language that Eve understood. Sensing a vulnerable target for this phallic-shaped creature, the serpent confronts the woman. A conversation ensues, “Eve, did God say you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” “Mr. Snake,” the woman answered, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of that tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.” The snake responded, “You shall not die! For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” The temptation was framed in such a way as to create in the human being a yearning for divine qualities. The temptation developed slowly. First, the woman’s fantasies convinced her that the fruit would be good for food. Second, she observed that this fruit was a delight to look at! Now she is told that it would also make her wise and enable her to transcend the boundaries of her humanity. The combination was something she could not resist. She took of this fruit and ate it. Then she gave it to her husband and, gullible and trusting as this stereotypical husband is portrayed as being, he also ate. According to the Hebrew myth, this was the moment when human awakening arrived. Later it would be described as “the Fall,” the cause of the brokenness of life, the source of “original sin.” In that moment, the writers of the Bible believed that everything changed. Perfection was destroyed. Shame and guilt entered the human mind. Our oneness with God was broken, to be replaced by a sense of alienation. God, who had once walked with the first man and woman in the garden as their friend, was now looked upon as their judge, the elicitor of their guilt. Armed with this primitive understanding of God, the first human couple sought to escape the divine presence by hiding among the bushes of the garden. Befuddled by their sudden absence, God calls out, “Where are you?” Confrontation ensues, “Have you eaten of that fruit?” “It was not I, Lord,” said Adam, “It was that woman, that woman you created, she gave me the fruit and I ate.” Turning to the woman, the divine interrogation continues. The woman claimed the snake had beguiled her. Blame and defensiveness enter the human arena. Punishment is handed out next. The snake is cursed. It will never again walk on two legs but must slither on its belly through all eternity, eating the dust of the earth. The woman is doomed to experience pain in childbirth but will never escape it because her “desire will always be for her husband.” Adam, whose sin is defined as listening “to the voice of your wife,” is condemned to scratch out a living from the hostile earth. The ground will bring forth thorns and thistles, making him sweat to have sufficient bread to eat. All of them would eventually die. Death was thus interpreted as punishment. Because all flesh died, it followed that all flesh must be sinful. Finally, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. From that moment to this, the Bible asserted, it would be the human destiny to live filled with guilt, shame and alienation somewhere “East of Eden” to borrow a phrase from John Steinbeck. All of this was blamed on that person, the woman, who was understood to be the weak link in creation. Male hostility to women was said to reside in the fact that the woman brought this pain, this sin and this degradation to the man, destroying if you will the perfect original image of God within him. That there is hostility and fear directed toward women by men is beyond doubt. Every religious system seems compelled to explain its origin. The battle between the sexes is a perennial conflict. In almost every culture, man has always sought to subjugate the woman. For most of western history, the woman has had few rights. The husband could quite legally abuse his wife, beat her, rape her, divorce her and even kill her without any threat of punishment. Yet his dominance over this creature was always threatened by her power over him. Her feminine power was based on the woman’s ability to tempt him with desire for her body. The dominant male felt powerless in that attraction. He felt vulnerable since after emptying his sperm into her womb he was left weak, exhausted and sleepy. Patriarchal society was thus organized to keep the male in his position of dominance. That is why the woman’s independence had to be prescribed by local customs. For centuries the woman was not allowed in the workplace. That did not mean that the woman was unemployed, but only that she was not compensated and thus was chronically dependent. She actually worked long and hard to make her family’s well-being possible. She not only bore the babies and nursed the young, but she also cooked the food, made the clothes and cleaned the house. In return she received the protection of her husband to whom she had to promise obedience. Later in history, however, driven by economic necessity, the woman was finally allowed to enter the work place but only as a source of cheap labor. She became the low-paid nurse helper to the male doctor, doing the bedpans the doctor did not want to do. She became the teacher of the children because the teaching profession paid so poorly that males no longer wanted to enter it except as the better-paid principals and superintendents who had authority over the women teachers. She was the dutiful secretary to the male executive, who did not want to do the routine work that business requires. Once outside the home she was always regarded as the potential temptress, who might lure gullible men into ‘sin.’ Sexual abuse in the workplace was so commonplace as to be expected. Males tended to divide women into the two categories of virgin and prostitute. Men sought virgins to be their wives and the mothers of their children, while viewing all other women as prostitutes or potential prostitutes, who were out to seduce them so that their indiscretions were not their own fault but the result of being unable to resist the evil spells cast by the feminine wiles of the opposite sex. It was a fascinating cultural explanation of the source of evil. Women have paid a tremendous price historically for being defined as such in the Bible. We have been very slow in coming out of this definition. Until very recently, spousal abuse was not a crime because a wife owed obedience to her husband. She had promised it in marriage. Rape was something the woman brought on herself by “provocative clothing.” Men kept women under economic control and no woman could own property in their own name until relatively late in western history. Women were not allowed to receive university educations until the 20th century so they could not achieve economic independence. All of these things arise directly or indirectly out of the cultural assumption, based on an ancient biblical story that women are dangerous to men, the source of potential male weakness and of sin. So to keep weakness and sin under control, women must be kept under control. That was thought to be the will of God. The feminist revolution in the last century therefore, has been traditionally viewed by men as anti-Bible, anti-Church and anti-Christian. Can the Christian Church ever escape its sexist past? That will be my topic next week. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Finding Common Ground: A Summer of Peace Summit Are you disheartened by the increasing division showing up around the world? Are you concerned for our future — and for the future of generations to come? Join 30+ of the world’s leading peacebuilders and changemakers — including Caroline Myss, Marla Maples, Sister Jenna, Shariff Abdullah, Chief Phil Lane, Jr., Robert Thurman, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Deborah Greene, Shamil Idriss, Khalida Brohi, Daryl Davis and so many more —for this 3-day event that will highlight change-makers and their personal stories of transformations that led them to authentic and powerful action. Finding Common Ground takes place August 7-9 online and it is Free! Click here for more information/registration. Copyright © 2018 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.

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Fwd: Global Archives Fall Sojourn Oct 21-27, 2018 Invitation
by Jean Long 01 Aug '18

01 Aug '18

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Wendell Refior <wendellrefior(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 10:09 AM Subject: Global Archives Fall Sojourn Oct 21-27, 2018 Invitation To: James Addington <InaRja(a)comcast.net>, Margaret Aiseayew < aiseayew(a)netins.net>, Rosemary Albright <ralbright.6400(a)gmail.com>, Dick Alton <richard.alton(a)gmail.com>, Bud Ames <jbames10(a)aol.com>, James Armour < jarmour(a)cinci.rr.com>, Ann Avery <annharrisonavery(a)btinternet.com>, Desmond Avery <desmond.avery(a)btinternet.com>, Marianna Bailey <wmbailey(a)charter.net>, Jack & Louise Ballard <ballardica(a)gmail.com>, Kevin Balm < kbalm(a)topfacilitators.com>, "Vera (Ariel) Barber" < barberarielwaggoner(a)gmail.com>, Zoe Barley <zbarley(a)earthlink.net>, Addi Batica <abatica(a)hotmail.com>, Elsa Batica <elsa.batica(a)gmail.com>, Alice Baumbach <abaumbach(a)new.rr.com>, Jim Baumbach <wtw0bl(a)new.rr.com>, Don Bayer <donbayer(a)hotmail.com>, Elsa Bengel <elsabengel(a)gmail.com>, John Bengel <johnwbengel(a)gmail.com>, Pam Bergdall <pbergdall(a)yahoo.com>, Terry Bergdall <bergdall(a)gmail.com>, Abid Bhatti <abid.bhatti(a)icab.be>, Bill Bigelow <williamlbigelow(a)hotmail.com>, Joyce Bonafield-Pierce < jcbonafield(a)yahoo.com>, Bob Booher <pmainc(a)stny.rr.com>, Marla Burton < marlaburton1996(a)gmail.com>, Sarah Buss <shbuss(a)icloud.com>, Roger & Maxine Butcher <rmxbutcher(a)dslextreme.com>, Jim Campbell <jimcampbell67(a)yahoo.com>, Salvatore Caruso <cplcaruso(a)igc.org>, Kitty Cole <colekitty(a)comcast.net>, Sandy Conant <sandy(a)mesoamerica.com>, Frank Cookingham < fm.cookingham(a)verizon.net>, Estermae Cox <missestermae(a)gmail.com>, Don Cramer <doncramer86(a)gmail.com>, Joshua Craver <joshuacraver(a)hotmail.com>, Susan Craver <craversf(a)gmail.com>, Marilyn Crocker <marilyncrocker(a)juno.com>, Mary Kurian D'Souza <marykdsouza(a)gmail.com>, Mark Davies < myadavies(a)gmail.com>, Bain Davis <bdavvv(a)yahoo.com>, Isabel Delamaza < isadelamaza(a)gmail.com>, Bruce Donnelly <rbrucedonnelly(a)gmail.com>, Mark & Jenelle Dove <markdove543(a)gmail.com>, Tim Dove <DovePHX(a)gmail.com>, Pat and Doug Druckenmiller <dpat23(a)msn.com>, Burna Dunn <bldunn1(a)gmail.com>, David Dunn <dmdunn1(a)gmail.com>, Betty Dyson <eudyson(a)comcast.net>, Leah Early < leahearly(a)comcast.net>, Lee Early <lees.mail(a)comcast.net>, Steve Ediger < steveediger(a)gmail.com>, Wayne Ellsworth <wayne(a)icajapan.org>, Ann Ensinger < ann.ensinger(a)yahoo.com>, George Ensinger <drkrmdr7(a)msn.com>, Walt Epley < wfepley(a)yahoo.com>, John Epps <jlepps39(a)gmail.com>, Sally Fenton < fentonaj40(a)gmail.com>, Susan Fertig-Dykes <susan(a)gmdtech.com>, Bob Fishel < thefishels(a)earthlink.net>, Ken Fisher <hkf232(a)gmail.com>, Carol Fleischman < cjfnola(a)bellsouth.net>, David Flowers <dwflowers(a)gmail.com>, Irina Fursman < irinafursman(a)gmail.com>, Kaze Gadway <kayehayesgadway(a)gmail.com>, Alan Gammel <agammel(a)ix.netcom.com>, Margie Gergen <margergen(a)yahoo.com>, Michael Gergen <mmgergen(a)att.net>, John Gibson <jgibson99(a)sbcglobal.net>, Ken Gilbert <kgg(a)volomail.net>, Ruth Gilbert <ruthhgilbert(a)gmail.com>, Jack Gilles <jackcgilles(a)gmail.com>, Herman Greene <hfgreene(a)mindspring.com>, Dianne Greenwald <diannegreenwald(a)yahoo.com>, Kathleen Gribble < kathg109(a)aol.com>, Murial Griffin <murielcgriffin2(a)hotmail.com>, Robert Griffin <ramgriffin(a)msn.com>, Beret Griffith <beretgriffith(a)gmail.com>, Bill Grow <billgrow(a)verizon.net>, Nan Grow <nangrow(a)verizon.net>, Charles Hahn <cfhahn30(a)gmail.com>, Doris Hahn <dshahn31(a)gmail.com>, Linda Hamilton < participationworks(a)verizon.net>, Milan Hamilton <delivery(a)smilebox.com>, Judy Hamje <jhamje(a)gmail.com>, Stuart & Mary Hampton <shampton(a)hoovers.com>, Bob Hanson <koshin(a)centurytel.net>, Bruce Hanson <dochanson(a)mac.com>, Mirja Hanson <mirjah(a)aol.com>, Sam Hanson <shanson(a)briggs.com>, Debra Harris < quantum1135(a)yahoo.com>, Shirley Henschen <sjhenschen(a)q.com>, Karl Hess < hesskw(a)att.net>, Betty Hill <elizabethhill(a)verizon.net>, Len Hockley < LenH(a)efn.org>, Phyllis Hockley <phyllish(a)efn.org>, George Holcombe < geowanda(a)earthlink.net>, Wanda Holcombe <wandah70(a)gmail.com>, Cheryl Hood < Cheryl.Hood(a)gmail.com>, Mary Hopkins <mwhop(a)aol.com>, Ellen & Dick Howie < rhowie3(a)verizon.net>, Robyn & John Hutchinson <rjhutchinson(a)optusnet.com.au>, Maureen Jenkins <maureen(a)imaginaltraining.com>, Dorothea Jewell < dj.jewell(a)comcast.net>, Marshall Jones <synergi(a)yahoo.com>, Mary Laura Jones <mljones2022(a)gmail.com>, Dilip Joshi <synerbuild(a)gmail.com>, Walt Kargus <wak3(a)wowway.com>, Marian & Fred Karpoff <fdmkarpoff(a)gmail.com>, Martha Karpoff <markapoff(a)aol.com>, Tim Karpoff <timkarpoff(a)msn.com>, Cheryl Kartes <Kartes(a)aol.com>, Frank Knutson <frankknutson2(a)gmail.com>, Joan Knutson <jfknutson(a)aol.com>, Sharry Lachman <sharrylachman(a)comcast.net>, Wesley Lachman <lachman(a)comcast.net>, Lynette Ladysmith <lynlady(a)aol.com>, Nancy Lanphear <nancy(a)songaia.com>, Stefan Laxdal <slaxmd(a)aol.com>, Sue Laxdal <sue.laxdal(a)igc.org>, David Lazear <dglazear(a)me.com>, Judy Lindblad < nj.lindblad(a)gmail.com>, Teresa Lingafelter <tlingafe(a)gmail.com>, Charles Lingo <clingojr(a)aol.com>, Larry Loeppke <larrydloeppke(a)mchsi.com>, Jean Long <jean.long512(a)gmail.com>, Terran Longacre <tel(a)telphoto.com>, Tim Lush <tlush2(a)gmail.com>, Angelo Magistro <cmagi4(a)aol.com>, Marianne & Clancy Mann <cjmamann(a)verizon.net>, Gene Marshall <jgmarshall(a)cableone.net>, Michael May <michael(a)interiormythos.com>, Diann McCabe <dm14(a)txstate.edu>, Jann McGuire <jannmcguire(a)gmail.com>, Maria & Richard McGuire < unfolding(a)smartchat.net.au>, Christine Mead <meadce(a)aol.com>, Joe Meinhart < jmeinhart(a)gmail.com>, Carmen Mendoza <Mendozaco3(a)gmail.com>, David Middleton <quietman(a)wi.rr.com>, John Miesen <johnmiesenhome(a)optusnet.com.au>, Marty Miles <mmilesconsulting(a)gmail.com>, Daniel Mittleman < danny(a)cdm.depaul.edu>, Mary Warren Moffett <marywmoffett(a)comcast.net>, Fran Moore <fcmoore2(a)cox.net>, Maynard Moore <emaynard8(a)yahoo.com>, Tom Morrison <2tjmorrison(a)gmail.com>, Jo Nelson <jnelson(a)ica-associates.ca>, Rebecca Nichols <rebeccajnichols(a)aol.com>, Paul Noah <noah.pnoah(a)gmail.com>, "A.M. Noel" <anthonymarianoel(a)gmail.com>, Ashleigh Norment <anorment(a)yahoo.com>, Vaughn OHalloran <vaughnskoad(a)yahoo.com>, Ken Otto <kenotto2(a)gmail.com>, John Oyler <johnoyler(a)cox.net>, Marilyn Oyler <marilynoyler(a)cox.net>, Elise Packard <kelisepackard(a)gmail.com>, George Packard <george.packard1(a)rcn.com>, Vinod & Kamala Parekh <vinodkamalaparekh(a)gmail.com>, Bill Parker < bparker1251963(a)gmail.com>, John Patterson <jpatterson(a)abbeynorth.ca>, Thea Patterson <pattersonthea(a)hotmail.com>, Evelyn Philbrook <joyful52(a)gmail.com>, Larry Philbrook <larry(a)icatw.com>, Marge Philbrook <margephilbrook(a)gmail.com>, Paula Philbrook <paula.philbrook(a)gmail.com>, Lewie Pierce < lhpiercedds(a)gmail.com>, Charlene Powell <cpowell37(a)aol.com>, Ike Powell < ikpwll(a)aol.com>, Bob Rafos <rafos(a)sympatico.ca>, Sandra Rafos < sandyrafos(a)gmail.com>, Ellen & David Rebstock <grapevin2(a)gmail.com>, Wendell Refior <wendellrefior(a)gmail.com>, Rod Ripple <rodrippel(a)cox.net>, Dorcus & Ken Rose <icatroy(a)verizon.net>, Bill Salmon <wsalmon(a)cox.net>, Janet Sanders <jansanders5(a)gmail.com>, Rosanne Sands < coevolutionacademy(a)juno.com>, Shizuyo Sato <shizuyo(a)icajapan.org>, Bill Schlesinger <pvida(a)whc.net>, Kay Schnizlein <joyfulkay(a)aspect1.net>, Paul Schrijnen <Pschrijnen(a)aol.com>, David Scott <drdscott72(a)gmail.com>, Margaret Scott <mardavscott(a)gmail.com>, Euncie Shankland < emshankland(a)comcast.net>, Sherwood Shankland <sherwoodshankland(a)comcast.net>, Lynette Shanklin-Flowers <Lginreach(a)aol.com>, Marie Sharp < Mbsharp71(a)gmail.com>, Michael Shaw <d.michael.shaw(a)comcast.net>, Molly Shaw <Mollyshaw(a)comcast.net>, Richard Sims <richardlsims(a)hotmail.com>, Louise Singleton <singltn(a)aol.com>, Harold Slater <hslatotrailwulf(a)aol.com>, James Slotta <jslotta(a)earthlink.net>, Olive Ann Slotta <OSlotta(a)earthlink.net>, Karen Snyder <karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com>, Jackie Speicher < speicja(a)earlham.edu>, Ray Spencer <raymond(a)spencer.tc>, Tina Spencer < tina(a)spencer.tc>, Jeanette Stanfield <jstanfield(a)ica-associates.ca>, Bill Staples <bstaples(a)ica-associates.ca>, Ilona Staples < istaples(a)ica-associates.ca>, Wendell&Shirley StJohn <tseminars(a)aol.com>, Carl Stock <carletonstock(a)aol.com>, Ellie Stock <elliestock(a)aol.com>, Jim Stovall <J_stovall(a)site.net>, Elaine Stover <Greenschemes(a)bellsouth.net>, Nelson Stover <fnelsonstover(a)gmail.com>, Martha Talbott <mltalbott(a)att.net>, Joe Thomas <jrthomas42(a)aol.com>, Adam Thomson <adam.thomson(a)pobox.com>, Judith Tippett <jdtippett2(a)aol.com>, Mike Tippett <mbtippett2(a)aol.com>, Geraldine Tolman <gdtolman(a)comcast.net>, Nancy Trask < nancytrask(a)rocketmail.com>, Jim Troxel <jtroxel49(a)gmail.com>, Pat Tuecke < ptuecke(a)gmail.com>, Jaime Vergara <Jrvergarajr2031(a)aol.com>, Dharmalingam Vinasithamby <dvinasithamby(a)yahoo.com>, Mike Vosler <mvuccoef(a)earthlink.net>, Nancy Vosler <nancyrvo(a)wustl.edu>, Harry Wainwright < h-wainwright(a)charter.net>, Sunny Walker <sunwalker(a)comcast.net>, Carol Walters <clwalters44(a)gmail.com>, David Walters <walters(a)alaweb.com>, George Walters <m.george.walters(a)gmail.com>, Larry Ward < Larry(a)thelotusinstitute.org>, Jean Watts <jeanwatts(a)cox.net>, Patricia Webb <silencefoundation(a)cox.net>, Susan Wegner <susan(a)tswegner.net>, Tim Wegner < tim(a)tswegner.net>, Catherine Welch <catherine(a)welchbox.com>, Mark Welch < mark(a)welchbox.com>, Dick West <rwestica(a)gmail.com>, George West < westgeo(a)yahoo.com>, Bill Westre <wwestre(a)comcast.net>, Sheela Westre < swestre(a)comcast.net>, Jim Wheeler <jimandjo(a)sbcglobal.net>, Judi White < sophiacircle(a)gmail.com>, Clare Whitney <cla9ken8(a)ecentral.com>, Jim Wiegel < jfwiegel(a)gmail.com>, Judy Wiegel <judithwiegel(a)yahoo.com>, Randy Williams < rcwmbw(a)yahoo.com>, Pricilla Wilson <pris(a)teamtechpress.com>, Ann Wood < AWOODEWM(a)aol.com>, Rob Work <warkers(a)msn.com>, Ted Wysocki < TWysocki(a)ica-usa.org>, David Zahrt <4deezee(a)gmail.com>, Linda Zahrt < 4linderz(a)gmail.com>, Donna & Dallas Ziegenhorn <DonnaWZ(a)aol.com> * Creating The Future Of Our Past Inviting you to attend theGLOBAL ARCHIVES FALL SOJOURN October 21 – 27, 2018JOIN US in transforming more than 50 years of programs, projects, methods and training by staff and volunteers – to an ICA Archives Website to be launched by the end of the year accessible to anyone in the world. Nine collections are revealing our foundational wisdom and experience:TowardSTRUCTURALREFORMULATIONTowardCONTEXTUALRE-EDUCATIONTowardSPIRITREMOTIVATIONCommunity DevelopmentChanging ImagesProfound EngagementSocial Change ProcessesFacilitation MethodsInterior LifeCommunity ForumsCollaborative NetworkingGlobal MovementWhat areas would you like to assist us with as we make them visible to the world? We are currently working on these four areas: Social Change Process (New Social Vehicle); Changing Images; Facilitation Methods; Interior LIfe. Include your priorities in the registration information you email to jean.long512(a)gmail.com <jean.long512(a)gmail.com> -see next page. The work of the Archives week will include: 1. Assessing what is going on in the world and in our work presently. 2. Searching the Archives to document past wisdom.3. Creating web pages with photos, videos, articles, programs that will showcase the work of the past and present.Cheap flight sales are on now. No previous archive experience needed. Anyone who can -- come in early to help with prep (from Thursday, 10/18 on). For additional information, please call Jean Long (720-633-5008) or email jean.long512(a)gmail.com <jean.long512(a)gmail.com>. (For registration information see next page.)PARTICIPANT PRACTICS:Dates: October 21 (Sunday arrival) * - October 27 (Saturday departure)Location: ICA Greenrise Learning Lab, 4750 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60640 <https://maps.google.com/?q=4750+N.+Sheridan+Rd.,+Chicago,+IL+60640&entry=gm…>Sleeping rooms on the 8th floor – Couples - $45.00; Singles – $30.00 (per bed) (Rooms across from the bathrooms go first.)Food - $30 per day for 3 meals (Monday through Friday)Parking fee - $7.50/day: $45.00/Sunday - SaturdayConference fee - $30.00 to cover conference materials and expensesPayment: Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, CheckTo register: e-mail Jean Long jean.long512(a)gmail.com <jean.long512(a)gmail.com> ****When you send in your e-mail registration to Jean Long - jean.long512(a)gmail.com <jean.long512(a)gmail.com> please include the following information: 1. Name(s) address, e-mail and phone number of those registering. 2. Dates of arrival and departure3. List two or three priority areas that you would like to work with while you are here. (Chart on the first page of this invitation.)*Anyone who can - come in early to help with prep (from Thursday 10/18 on).* -- Thanks until later. "To believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius." - Emerson in "Self-Reliance" Wendell

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On behalf or the Roberts Family
by Paula Philbrook 01 Aug '18

01 Aug '18

*Dear ICA Family it is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the passing of Sharyn Marie Roberts in Asheville NC, on July 19th. Born September 7th, 1944 in Jackson Michigan, Sharyn graduated from St. Marys High School in Lansing MI, and later earned a degree in Journalism from Michigan State University. After working as a reporter for the Lansing State Journal, Sharyn moved to Detroit to teach high school Journalism teacher at the height of the civil rights movement, where she played an active role in helping students voice their concerns, both in the classroom and on the streets. Sharyn joined the ICA in 1970 while in Detroit, where she met her husband of 45 years, Alvin Roberts. From 1974 - ‘76 the two were deployed to Samoa, before moving to Alaska, for four years, living first in Anchorage, and later in the Athabaskan village of Minto. In 1980 Sharyn and her family moved to Rochester NY and then on to Chicago. In 1982, their final deployment took Sharyn and her family to Nairobi Kenya, and ultimately to a development project in Mugumoini. In 1984 they returned to Chicago, and eventually left the ICA in 1986 to start a retreat and conference center in Western Michigan called The Haven. Sharyn is survived by her husband Alvin, and their children, Helen, Jean, Wayne, Jeff, Dan and Andrew. A funeral and memorial service is scheduled for Sat. Aug. 11th at 11:00 am. Saints Cornelius and Cyprian Church in Leslie, MI. Cards and Condolences can be sent to : Alvin Roberts20 Mt. Pisgah Church Rd.* *Candler, NC 28715*

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8/11/16, Spong: The Unlikely Honored Guest at the Democratic National Convention
by Ellie Stock via OE 01 Aug '18

01 Aug '18

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} .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateContainer,.aolReplacedBody .aolmail_bodyContent{ background-color:#ffffff; } .aolReplacedBody .aolmail_bodyContent div a:link,.aolReplacedBody .aolmail_bodyContent div a:visited{ color:#4487cf; }</style><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none;margin: 0;padding: 0;background-color: #ffffff;width: 100% !important;" class="aolReplacedBody"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" id="aolmail_backgroundTable" style="margin: 0;padding: 0;background-color: #ffffff;height: 100% !important;width: 100% !important;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="aolmail_templatePreheader" style="background-color: #ffffff;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_preheaderContent"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"><div style="color: #505050;font-family: Arial;font-size: 10px;line-height: 100%;text-align: left;"> </div></td> <td valign="top" width="190"> <div style="color: #505050;font-family: Arial;font-size: 10px;line-height: 100%;text-align: left;"><a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: none;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…"><img style="border: none;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;height: auto;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/print.png"></a></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="aolmail_templateContainer" style="border: 1px solid #4487cf;background-color: #ffffff;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="aolmail_templateHeader" style="background-color: #D8E2EA;border-bottom: 0;"> <tbody><tr> <td class="aolmail_headerContent" style="color: #202020;font-family: Arial;font-size: 34px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;padding: 0;text-align: center;vertical-align: middle;"> <img alt="" border="0" style="margin: 0;padding: 0;max-width: 600px;border: none;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;height: auto;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/newsletter_he…"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_headerNavigation"> <h5 style="color: #202020;display: block;font-family: Arial;font-size: 12px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 15px;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;text-transform: uppercase;"> <a style="color: #4487cf;text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Homepage</a> <a style="color: #4487cf;text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">My Profile</a> <a style="color: #4487cf;text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Essay Archive</a> <a style="color: #4487cf;text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb2…">Message Boards</a> <a style="color: #4487cf;text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Calendar</a></h5></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="aolmail_templateBody"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_bodyContent" style="background-color: #ffffff;"> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h1 style="color: #003d4a;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 34px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">The Unlikely Honored Guest at the Democratic National Convention</h1> <p>He was seated in the VIP box at the Democratic National Convention, held during the last week of July, 2016, in Philadelphia. He was surrounded in that reserved and exclusive seating area by the power-elite of the Democratic Party: A former President, the sitting Vice-President and the “second lady,” the spouses and children of the nominees, as well as those especially invited guests, who were uniquely and politically related to the convention’s eventual nominee. This unlikely guest was in his own way quite unique. He was a Republican, one who had been elected to a state-wide office as a candidate of the opposition party. He served as the governor of Virginia from 1970 – 1974 and was the first Republican governor of Virginia since 1869 in the last days of reconstruction. Later he sought his party’s nomination to the Senate of the United States, losing to another Republican, John Warner, who served with distinction from 1979 until he retired in 2008. The name of this mystery quest is Abner Linwood Holton. He is now, and has been since the day I first met him, an extraordinary man. People, unaware of the history of the Democratic Party in Virginia, find it strange that the man I regarded as the best governor of Virginia during the years I lived in that state would be a Republican. Let me tell you his story.</p> <p>Linwood Holton was born in 1923 in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a town deep in the heart of Appalachia. He was a Republican from the moment of his birth. He was also bright and ambitious. Being a Republican in Virginia in those days was to be part of a distinct minority, perhaps even an endangered one! The Democrats of Virginia were the only cohesive political force in the state. This majority party was run by Virginia’s senior United States Senator, Harry Flood Byrd, who after serving a term as governor from 1926 to 1930, effectively ran the state until he died in 1966. It was said of Harry Byrd that he and a few of his closest political advisors would sit on the porch at his home in Berryville, Virginia, and pick the candidates for every political vacancy in Virginia from governor on down. The electorate was deliberately kept small by poll taxes, which effectively discouraged both blacks and poor whites from voting. A Byrd loyalist was in every county seat in Virginia to run the party. Racism was deep and “States Rights” was a holy slogan designed to make racism seem socially acceptable. Virginia was a one party state. Frequently the Republicans would not even nominate candidates and, even when they did, no one paid much attention to them because whoever won the Democratic primary seldom even campaigned in the general election, since Republicans simply did not win in this state! Linwood Holton made it his life’s ambition to establish two-party politics in Virginia.</p> <p>He graduated from Washington and Lee in Lexington, Virginia, and then entered the law school at Harvard University. Along the way he married a Roanoke girl, named Virginia Rogers, who went by the name of Jinks. She was the daughter of Frank Rogers, an upright, but ultra-conservative, successful and well-connected Roanoke citizen, who was the grandson of the first Episcopal Bishop in Southwestern Virginia. In his mind, the two greatest virtues were to be a conservative Episcopalian and a loyal Byrd Democrat. Jinks, the more rebellious of Rogers’ two daughters, chose to marry a Republican and a Presbyterian! Supported by this remarkable woman, Linwood began his life’s task of strengthening Virginia’s Republican Party. This party’s base, such as it was, had always been in the mountains of the western part of Virginia. As a force in opposition to Byrd Democrats, the Virginia Republican party tilted slightly leftward. There was no room to the right of the Byrd machine. The Virginia Republicans were known for their party’s efforts to improve education statewide and to develop better state mental health facilities. Linwood’s organizational efforts were so successful that in 1965 he was the Republican nominee for governor opposing the Southside, Virginia, Byrd Democrat, Mills Godwin, who had emerged as the new leader of the Democratic Party. The sickness, retirement and subsequently the death of Senator Byrd meant that the torch of party leadership had to be passed to the next generation. It is interesting that Harry Byrd, Jr., always known as “Little Harry,” who was appointed to succeed his father in the Senate, did not succeed him in the leadership of the statewide Democratic Party. Holton was defeated in that first run for the governor’s office, but he garnered a respectable total of votes and succeeded in introducing himself to the state. The day after the defeat, he began planning for his second run in 1969. The governorship in Virginia, we need to note, is limited by the Constitution to a single term.</p> <p>National issues soon began to erode the Byrd majorities. Poll taxes were declared unconstitutional in 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 opened the ballot to people of color. The feminist movement began to galvanize women into an effective political force. A national- thinking Virginia Democrat, named Henry Howell, began to build a liberal political base made up of labor unions, blacks, women and young people. His challenge to the Byrd machine resulted ultimately in his election as Lt. Governor in 1971, but he could go no farther. He remained anathema to Byrd Democrats. In the Democratic Primary of 1969, the Byrd candidate, William Battle, the son of former Governor John Battle, defeated Henry Howell in a bitter contest. The party could not heal this division, so in the General Election, Linwood Holton, supported by many of Howell’s still angry voters, rode to victory with a 65,000 vote majority.</p> <p>In his inaugural address, Holton called for an end to Virginia’s pattern of racial discrimination and its racist politics. No Virginia Governor had ever uttered such words before. Words, however, were not enough. People looked for actions. They would follow soon.</p> <p>In the most dramatic step imaginable, the new governor and his wife made the decision not to put their children in the church-related or independent private schools of Richmond, where all governors’ children had previously attended, but to enroll them in Richmond’s public schools which were at that time about 80% black. It was such a startling action for a Virginia politician that the New York Times covered it with a front page story and a picture of Virginia’s Governor Holton escorting one of his daughters into a school surrounded by a host of black faces smiling broadly. In a state where the official response of the ruling Democratic machine to “Brown vs. the Board of Education,” had been to call for “massive resistance to the law of the land,” a state in which some counties chose to close their public schools rather than to integrate them, here was the highest elected official in the state escorting his children into the majority black public schools of Richmond, Virginia. No action could have announced better that a new day was dawning in what had once been the capital of the Confederacy. One of those Holton children entering those public schools on that day was their oldest daughter, Anne.</p> <p>The white population of Virginia was shocked. They believed and stated that their new governor was sacrificing his children on the “altar of integration.” Many suggested that the “inferior education” that his children would receive in those heavily black schools would cripple them for life. It was a strange argument that gave the lie to the previous white claim that all of its racially segregated schools were “separate, <em>but equal</em>.” Anne, in her early teens, would be an exemplary student. She received a fine education and upon graduation from high school would be admitted to Princeton University, from which she graduated <em>magna cum laude</em>. She seemed not to have been penalized at all in her educational achievements. After Princeton she was accepted into the class of 1983 at the Harvard Law School, from which she now holds a doctor of Jurisprudence degree. From there she went into a legal career that in time would include being a domestic relations judge and Virginia’s Education Secretary.</p> <p>While at Harvard she met, fell in love with and married a fellow law student, who was born in Minnesota and educated at the University of Missouri. His name was Tim Kaine. She lured him back to Richmond, where his earlier life experiences, including his Jesuit high school education, his year as a volunteer missionary to Honduras and his mastery of the Spanish language, prepared him to begin his Richmond law practice as a civil rights attorney. Then responding to an expressed community need, he entered politics at the most local of levels, running for a seat on Richmond’s nine-member City Council. In a majority black city, Tim not only won that seat, but was also later elected by that majority-black city council to be Richmond’s Mayor. Two years later, in 2001 he moved to the state level, being elected Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor. In 2005, he won the governor’s office. His wife, Anne Holton, became the first person to be at one time living in the governor’s mansion as the child of a Republican governor and then a second time as the state’s first lady and wife of a Democratic governor. In 2012, Tim Kaine won a seat in the United States Senate. In 2016, with two years remaining in his first term as senator, he was chosen by the presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, to be her vice-presidential running mate. Anne Holton was there with him, waving to the crowd on the final night. As Hillary Clinton raised Tim Kaine’s hand high, former president Bill Clinton was at her side and Anne Holton was at Tim Kaine’s side. The crowd roared with approval.</p> <p>In the VIP section of that vast Philadelphia arena sat the former Republican Governor Linwood Holton, now 92 years old, with his wife Jinks, both still vibrant and attractive, watching their daughter being introduced to the nation. There is sometimes a reward for integrity. Linwood and Jinks Holton, who would not allow their lives to be twisted by the prejudice of racism, challenged the distorting and debilitating social structures of his generation in Richmond, Virginia. Doing what is right sometimes carries with it intimations of transcendence and even immortality. To this day he remains one of my heroes.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong</p> <p>Read the essay online <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb2…">here</a>.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h2> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Alberto Mejia Aguilera from Mexico writes via the internet:</span></p> <h4 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 22px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;"> Question:</h4> <p>I am from Mexico and I would like to know your opinion about Liberation Theology. Do you think that this theology is still an inspiration for the struggle against the social injustice?</p> <h4 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 22px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Answer:</h4> <p>Dear Alberto,</p> <p>Liberation theology was, I believe, was born in Latin America, so you should be especially proud of it. I associate the name of Leonardo Boff, primarily, with it, but there were others like the murdered Bishop Oscar Romero. It was born in an attempt to apply the principles of the gospel not just to individuals, but also to the structures of our society, which so often drive the masses into poverty. It identifies God with the poor. For those reasons it tended to be resisted in ecclesiastical circles, especially by the leaders of the Roman Catholic during the years of Popes John Paul II and Benedict, both of whom were so politically conservative that they saw it as another manifestation of Communism. I think they were both wrong in this judgment. Liberation theology, I believe, constituted a call to Christianity to see that its alliance with power, both in Europe and the new world, had corrupted the essential justice that Christianity requires.</p> <p>Christianity was born among the poor and the outcasts. It rose to dominate society and so became the religion of kings. Liberation Theology was a necessary correction.</p> <p>I wish you well.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Read and Share Online Here</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Announcements</h2> <div style="text-align: center;color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb2…"><img align="none" height="262" style="width: 350px;height: 262px;margin: 0px;border: none;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;display: inline;" width="350" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/e67ac6a0-334…"></a></div> <h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:26px"><span style="color:#000000">Bishop Spong at the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan September 10th & 11th</span></span></h2> <strong>Schedule:</strong> Saturday, September 10, 2016 1:00 pm at the Reynolds Recital Hall, Northern Michigan University 7:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Marquette Sunday, September 11, 2016 2:00 pm at the Memorial Union Building , Michigan Technological University At each location, there will be an opportunity for Q&A and book signing.</div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></center><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" id="aolmail_canspamBarWrapper" style="background-color:#FFFFFF; border-top:1px solid #E5E5E5;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></center></div> </div> <style type="text/css">#AOLMsgPart_2_1c149769-41d3-4c3b-8300-eaccdde19ae7 td{color: black;} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td{font-size:14px !important;} .aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td a{display:block !important; margin-top:10px !important;} } </style>

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On behalf of the Roberts Family.
by Paula Philbrook 31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18

*Dear ICA Family it is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the passing of Sharyn Marie Roberts in Asheville NC, on July 19th. Born September 7th, 1944 in Jackson Michigan, Sharyn graduated from St. Marys High School in Lansing MI, and later earned a degree in Journalism from Michigan State University. After working as a reporter for the Lansing State Journal, Sharyn moved to Detroit to teach high school Journalism teacher at the height of the civil rights movement, where she played an active role in helping students voice their concerns, both in the classroom and on the streets. Sharyn joined the ICA in 1970 while in Detroit, where she met her husband of 45 years, Alvin Roberts. From 1974 - ‘76 the two were deployed to Samoa, before moving to Alaska, for four years, living first in Anchorage, and later in the Athabaskan village of Minto. In 1980 Sharyn and her family moved to Rochester NY and then on to Chicago. In 1982, their final deployment took Sharyn and her family to Nairobi Kenya, and ultimately to a development project in Mugumoini. In 1984 they returned to Chicago, and eventually left the ICA in 1986 to start a retreat and conference center in Western Michigan called The Haven. Sharyn is survived by her husband Alvin, and their children, Helen, Jean, Wayne, Jeff, Dan and Andrew. A funeral and memorial service is scheduled for Sat. Aug. 11th at 11:00 am. Saints Cornelius and Cyprian Church in Leslie, MI. Cards and Condolences can be sent to : Alvin Roberts20 Mt. Pisgah Church Rd.* *Candler, NC 28715* <https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1538.Stephen_R_Covey>

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