January 27, 2008

The Bishop Wilke Event committee met after church Sunday to debrief about the event.  We talked about the survey and the whole mornings activities.  On the whole we believe we did a good job of advertising, designing the survey, and hosting last Sunday.  We're pleased.  The survey Totals ought to be in next week's bulletin insert, if all goes well.  Copies of the comments will be available in the church office for anyone who is interested.  They will be on the counter by sometime tomorrow (Monday). Most comments are very positive; some are still not or are wondering why we are even discussing this subject.  So, take a look and email Carol A. if you want to comment on the comments.

This group decided that based on the positive results from the survey that we need to proceed with helping the church to adopt an inclusive statement that will help our members think about their own inclusivity and to let visitors know that ALL are welcome at First Church, including all GLBT.  We recommend proceeding in two directions:

1.  Encourage many RH's to attend the church's visioning meeting on March 8 to "lobby" for inclusiveness in whatever statement evolves there.

2.  Ask a small group to begin designing a welcoming statement that fits our church, which we will present to the Administrative Board sometime this spring. We will probably have to go through the hoops again, i.e. ask for your approval, take a statement to Mission and Justice and then take it to Administrative Board.

    Margo Gordon and Carol Abrahamson will begin gathering materials for the small group to study.

    BUT, we need others to be willing to help us design a proposed statement to present to the rest of RH's for their input before it is sent up the "hoop" chain.

SO, reply to this email if you are willing to be part of designing a statement.

Carol Abrahamson