Minutes:
May 23, 2009
Present: Stan Duncan; Dot Sime; Ruth Poole; Zilpha Gray; Marcia Sawdy; Cathy Turrentine; Eloise Clawson; Joseph Wadsworth; the Nice Waitress Person.
Lindsay and Peggy have sent regrets that they couldn’t make it. Helen wrote a note saying she was ill.
Updates:
CROP Walk…Cathy Turrentine
Date set will be October 4, 2009. It is also World Communion Sunday, and there are two other Walks going on in other parts of the Association the same day. An attempt will be made to yoke them together for publicity. Make this the “Regional Walk Sunday.”
So far the calendar is clear for that day. Stan checked with the Committee on Ministry to make sure they wouldn’t plan an ecclesiastical counsel or ordination on that day. Their response was that they don’t know this far in advance when they will be, but will try to target them around the CROP walk.
The walk will be
She also contacted Derek VanGulden about co-chairing the committee. He has some time conflicts, but will look into it.
Peace Event…Stan Duncan
Stan met with Deb Jones, the Association Treasurer who wants to bring in a nationally recognized speaker on peace, using some of the Paul Sinn Peace Fund money. The them would be a combination of spiritual peace and political peace. The key note speaker would ideally speak on how a life of prayer and spirituality draws us into the world to work for peace and justice.
One problem is that there are not many nationally recognized names any longer, as religion has continued to decline over the years. There are some people who would be excellent speakers, but would our people—who know very little about religious leaders and thinkers these days—know their names?
Suggestions: Peter Gomes, Walter Brueggemann, John Thomas. Deb had other suggestions.
New Business:
Forum on Abortion
Stan proposed the idea of our committee hosting a dialog on abortion for the association. It would not be a debate and strict guidelines would be laid down at the beginning to keep people from making angry comments at one another. Goals would be:
(1) Not changing the other, but understanding the other.
(2) Modeling what compassionate discourse could look like
The proposal was not well received by some of the committee. Some members said they simply did not want do such a thing. They said that if we hosted it they would stay home. Their minds were already made up.
No one counted the idea out altogether, however. Joe Wadsworth said that he liked the idea of treating the issue sacramentally, rather than politically. Some one else said that we should try to keep the dialog high, above the details of abortion, rise above the issues themselves. We should see common ground between the two sides on the issue. Someone said that there was not a common ground. Someone else noted that there actually were areas where both sides agreed: that ultimately abortion is something that neither side liked, that n a perfect world we would have a society in which few people would ever feel the need for an abortion, where women who were unable to support a baby could give it up for adoption with integrity and without shame. Someone else noted that that had also happened to be the position that President Obama had taken in a recent speech on abortion at
Another person said that what we could do would be to seek “not compromise, but common ground.” Dot said that this reminded her of her time in the Open and Affirming process in her church. She said the most important learning for her was not a new set of facts, but that she didn’t have enough empathy for people who had a different opinion from hers.
We agreed to bring the issue up at our next meeting.
Note: this conversation took place before the killing in
Next meeting date:
June 27, 2009, 8:30 a.m., Dee Ann’s Restaurant,
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