hReconciling Hearts—Planning Session—January 23, 2007

Members Present: Patricia and Bill Mayhew, Judy and Jerry Niebaum, Rowena Pine, Rose and Gary Schmidt, Emily Reeves, Bob Shelton, Neva Merriman, Sue Morgan, Carol Abrahamson, and Margaret Gordon

The group examined the paper, “Reconciling Congregations—How to get started” which came from Reconciling Ministries Network. Most in the group decided that we are at the stage where we are planning educational activities, contacting other churches doing similar work, and trying to expand the circle of knowledge so that members never feel “railroaded”, about in the middle of the process.

The group also examined the paper, “Where Do You Stand?” which comes from the booklet Claiming the Promise. It is a continuum of possible attitudes and understandings people might have within our church.

Most who expressed themselves believed that they were on the more enlightened end of the spectrum, levels 5-8, but that the church as a whole is probably at levels 4 and 5…i.e. It’s no one else’s business, etc. and there should be civil rights but my interest stops there.

Some ideas that we believed needed to be shared with the congregation include:

1. knowledge about the UM official positions

2. considering printing or conducting video interview for groups to watch and discuss

3. invite a homosexual person to share the pulpit at some point

4. use the dialogues DVD to stimulate discussion

5. invite members to use the continuum “Where Do You Stand?” and discuss the results

6. invite Bishop Mutti to speak with a group

7. that sexual orientation should not be the main label for persons; homosexuals are ordinary persons who may differ on just one characteristic from what is considered normal in our society.

8. the question is “Where Are We As a Congregation”

We explored Tom Brady’s idea:

1. have one or two sermons about inclusiveness that are more specific than Jan.’s sermon

hat mentions difficult categories;

2. encourage the congregation to sign up for small group discussions as follow up in the manner of Purpose Driven Life studies. Have many groups lead by two individuals each trained in small group management skills and the basics of the issues. Have a chair and a note taker to give us guidance later about where folks in our church stand.

3. identify and train a large number of persons as described above; consider adult SS classes

4. use information for future planning.

5. set up subgroups for planning around the topics of Timeline; Curriculum; and Recruitment of Group Leaders.

The idea was discussed. Before long it became apparent that this planning will take a while; we need to continue educational activities while we do our grand planning. Two opportunities might be a special session with Sandy Vigil Cruz and Gwen Bartlett; or workshops with Forrest Swall.

To facilitate planning the following persons took certain responsibilities:

1. Carol Abrahamson will contact RMN to run our ideas by their person to get special helps;

2. Carol Abrahamson will contact Forrest Swall;

3. Carol Abrahamson will contact Gwen and Sandy;

4. Tom Brady will work on a timeline; i.e. how his idea might flesh out time wise;

5. Rowena Pine will contact Bishop Mutti to determine his availability

6. Sue Morgan will talk with Plymouth Congregational about how they got their congregation on board;

7. Jerry Niebaum agreed to order the DVD, “Can We Talk”, and when it arrives, to invite this committee to his home to view parts of it to determine its usefulness.

Our next full-group planning meeting will be at the church on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007. Meanwhile, persons doing research can work on theirs and possibly email the results to us for our perusal before the meeting.