Reconciling Hearts steering
committee minutes 7-11-06
Thanks to those who were
able to be at our first Steering Committee meeting. I understand that
summer trips caused many to miss. However, we did get a lot done.
This message is an update so you know what's going on.
We confirmed that providing
information to the congregation is an important goal, particularly about
the matter of "choice" and also beginning to convince
people that this is an important effort, i.e. joining with Reconciling Ministries
Network sooner rather than later.
I have attached the paper I
provided to help guide our thinking and conversations.
We decided the following:
1.
Begin to develop a series of "52" short blurbs that would be
published one at a time in the goldenrod sheet in each Sunday's bulletin, on
the Powerpoint scroll, and in First Edition that would
alert the congregation to our efforts and reasons for it, possibly connected to
a
the RMN graphic symbol of the rainbow flame.
a. Carol will get with Candace about how that
might be done.
b. Carol will begin
assembling informational bits/bytes, but will need help.
c. We thought Abby would be a good one to help
work on this. Are you willing Abby?
2.
We will ask our
a. Carol will send a survey
to the email list to gather that info.
b. Carol will compile the
info after it comes in to select our next dates to meet; anyone want
to help with this?
3.
We will have another Steering Committee meeting after the next item is further
along.
4.
We decided to sponsor an after church session once a month, Sept, Oct., and
Nov., with a light lunch. We will need to decide whether to
offer a nursery.
Carol will inquire about that.
September would be parents of gay children. Linda
Penny has already said yes; another has been asked to think about it.
October would be an expert talking about Human Sexuality; an
email has been sent but I haven't heard back yet; he's out of town.
November might be a showing of a DVD exploring the
scientific info that explains why homosexuality is not a "choice".
The
a. Sara Wentz thinks that the lunch should be a
signup with tickets to avoid losing money.
b. Those not wanting to eat could come later for
the program, say by 12:15.
c. Someone
would need to volunteer to explore the cheapest way to do the lunch and take
care of that part.
d. Sara Wentz
needs basic information for the fall brochure by July 24.
e.
Carol has found out that other groups are planning fall sessions that will
supplement our effort, i.e. a short-term Sunday School class
that would include sessions on "our" subjects; Tom Brady is planning
a Sunday Night Live series on United Methodism that would
deal with discussions on controversial subjects; and another item that I don't
have info on yet.
5.
We will start thinking about our brochure, what it should say and how it might
be distributed.
a. Carole Peters will work with Carol on this.
We welcome input.
b. It would be nice to have this by the end of August.
c. We thought having quotes from church members would be
helpful in the brochure. Anyone want to provide one?
6.
Carole Peters is working on a RMN symbol for the John Wesley class room
door. Perhaps we can think of ways/places to
replicate this.
7.
Building up a fund of $$$
a. Carol will
talk to Tracy Kihm about whether we can have a line
to keep our donations.
b. At each meeting
of
8.
We brainstormed about potential names for our group as
a. Open Hearts
b. Open Doors
c. Open Arms
d. Accepting All
e. Using the GLBT
as an acronym for God Loves... whatever... (Don will work on this one.)
f. Acceptance
Ministry
g. AMEN as an
acronym for Accepting Many; Excluding No One (Tom's brainchild)
If I left anything out,
please let me know.
Carol Abrahamson