SLT Meeting Minutes from July 17, 2021

In attendance: Elena Andrews, Linda Dollins, Parth Domke, Diane Langworthy, Kathy Mendoza, Diane Oldfield, Jan Simpson, Susan Wheeler, Mary Williams, Joan Thompson.

The Zoom meeting began at 9:32 with ten minutes of Centering Prayer.

COSD UPDATE: MARY WILLIAMS

COSD's current leadership is looking to step back by the end of this year. They are asking members to discern possibly taking over leadership. Keep our sister chapter in prayer with these changes.

PRAYER GROUP FACILITATOR SUPPORT: MARY

Facilitator gatherings will be happening on Zoom to share formation materials.
• Parth will do the next one on August 28 at 9:30 am
• Kathy Agnew will do another on October 23.

Mary sent an email to all facilitators re: how they are continuing to meet - looking also for any changes that might need to be updated on the website. She’s heard back from 11,12 groups. People are considering meeting in the fall and considering hybrid structures: a mixture of in-person and Zoom. Mary noted some of the groups and how they are currently meeting. With the uptick in COVID among the unvaccinated, meeting (and continuing to meet) on Zoom in some fashion will be probable.

• Hybrid Centering Prayer Group Meetings: Diane Langworthy

Her group has been together for over 14 years. They wanted to meet in person and not lose anyone who couldn’t make it in person. Their objective: to keep it a contemplative experience and to keep everyone together. They had 12 people attend in person; 12 on zoom. Successful! Diane will write this all down in detail to share with us. (Click here to read Diane's detailed suggestions on hosting hybrid meetings).

Some key points from Diane L. on using Zoom with in-person:
• Need good microphone (For example: omni style).
• Asked unvaccinated person to keep mask on.
• If San Diego goes back to mask wearing, they will all be back on Zoom.
• Reflection time most challenging: worked well because group is used to not interrupting and listening as another speaks.

EVENTS: RECENT, UPCOMING, AND POTENTIAL

• “The Wisdom and Teachings of Fr. Keating with Chris Hagen”: Linda Dollins

Linda noted that the video creation was very successful. Chris thinks he can do better with improving his eye contact on the camera. Almost 100 people signed up. There was concern if there might be more than 100 people and so Linda sent out an email to confirm attendance: some people who signed up said they wouldn’t make it, which opened seats. About 70% of those who signed up showed up. Mary recorded the talk and it was an excellent video after Mary did some editing. Mary recorded it to her computer and then uploaded it to YouTube. She took a little bit off from the beginning and end to make it more concise. Mary has an account on YouTube which eliminates ads from appearing. Linda suggested that the chapter pay for part of Mary’s YouTube costs. Linda is using it with her prayer group. She shows 15 minutes at a time.

(Mary: on the blog, the recording is available along with Chris’ outline of the video. Also available on the website under the Events tab and Highlights tab).

• Possible Future Presentations with Chris : Linda

Possible “False Self/True Self” presentation on Zoom; "Transformation of Consciousness: Becoming the Word of God" (which Chris would like to do at St. Bart’s - maybe in the spring of 2022). We should be at least 2 months ahead of in-person presentation dates in terms of when we advertise; 6 weeks ahead if on Zoom.

• Upcoming CP Intro Program on Zoom: Mary

Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. Patti Smith and Mary Williams will be the presenters. There are new slides now available for the introductory presentations. They’ll be working on a flyer for the event. How to manage registration? One option: use the email of one of the folks on the Intro Team. (Diane Oldfield or Jan Simpson). Perhaps do this for any Intros on Zoom rather than using the chapter’s consd.cal@gmail.com address for registration. Intro team meeting will be on Saturday, July 24.

• November Retreat: Elena

Elena: doesn’t have anything right now, but will stay in touch with Linda on this. Perhaps the retreat will be on Zoom; perhaps in person.

Parth will talk to St. Bart’s re: church’s direction being taken in terms of the possibility of holding a retreat in Chapel/Sanctuary.

• Prince of Peace Abbey Retreat for October 15-17, 2021

Mary contacted the Abbey a month ago: any idea when they will open? Brief answer. August, possibly.
• Option for prep: start building a waiting list of who might want to attend. Mary will be getting a flyer out on it for building the waiting list.
• (Holy Spirit is now having retreats in person for vaccinated persons. During meals at the July 7 - 14 retreat, people wore masks in the buffet line and sanitized hands beforehand. Large round tables with social distancing. In actual circles, they were sitting close. 14 retreatants.)

• Fr. Carl Arico on Aging: Kathy Mendoza and Linda

In the beginning stages of developing this. Kathy heard an insightful and entertaining video by Fr. Carl on aging. Full of humor and joy. “Race to Transformation before Senility” suggested by Diane L. as possible title. 😁
• Maybe start working on it for January, beginning of 2022. January is a good time for a retreat, before Lent. Maybe later in the month of January - 3rd Saturday?
• Kathy M. has this in mind as a Zoom event since it doesn’t eliminate people at a distance. Perhaps a hybrid event? The talk is on YouTube.

•  Rev. Michael Battle’s “Reconciliation as Christian Mysticism”: Mary

This would most likely be for next year. Presented by Shalem Institute. They have an annual Gerald May Seminar with different speakers; one now with Michael Battle (Episcopal priest, professor, and former chaplain for Desmond Tutu, whom he considers a living mystic). In several talks over 2 days, he looks at the three traditional stages of the Mystical Journey, how it is a form of Christian Reconciliation, and he uses Tutu’s life and events in South Africa to illustrate the 3 stages. Battle is a heartfelt and eloquent speaker. CO has purchased this recording and we have permission to use it - as a retreat or event or however we’d like. The Q&A segment is excellent. (e.g., “What are contemplative approaches to dealing with our collective trauma over the past year?”) He answered these kinds of questions beautifully. This could be something different for us: exploring someone living now who approaches life and its challenges with a contemplative mindset. The speaker also has a new book out (Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Autobiography of South Africa’s Confessor). Mary signed up for it as CO and will receive the recording of the event in a few days. Linda had the wonderful idea to use this as an in-person retreat at Prince of Peace Abbey.

• “God is Love at the Heart of the Cosmos” CO Retreat: Mary

CO, Ltd. has been offering this retreat. One was at Burlingame; another at Holy Spirit Center. Mary attended the Holy Spirit retreat and loved it. Involved CP and videos which are not on CO website, but are available as CDs. It seems like the final parts of the Spiritual Journey series. Mary listed some of the themes: cosmology and Centering Prayer, spiritual evolution, the intuitive level of consciousness, deepening from consent to surrender in prayer, contemplative service. They also did Visio Divina; Lectio Divina; journaling; daily Eucharist for all led by Fr. Stephen Coffey. Can be offered as a retreat or talks. Mary urged us on the SLT to attend this.
• Mary spoke with Stephen Coffey about coming again to San Diego, and he seemed amenable to that. He is busy. Hopefully, he might be able to come here. Probably a good idea to contact him sooner than later considering his busy schedule. Maybe contact San Luis Rey as a retreat site for this?
• Diane: San Luis Rey is already open for retreats. They were accommodating to people and very hospitable.

FINANCIAL REPORT: LINDA

We had some expenses: $566.69. We’ve always had our website on Chris Hagen’s son's site. Some technical issues came up and we now have moved to the Hostgator server at a very low rate. It gives us more bandwidth.

• Received a very generous $5000 gift from a kind donor.
• We now have $14,819.86.
• Linda: Mary is constantly growing our chapter as a leader and is constantly finding new and wonderful resources for us. Linda made a motion that “we support Mary financially in ways that enhance her growth in spiritual development and retroactively to include her retreat at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center”. Jan seconded the motion. Motion approved by all.
• Linda: supporting our leadership helps to attract and encourage new leadership - especially younger folk.
• Mary: scholarships are available for other CP practitioners for CONSD and COSD and other retreats/events.
• Diane L: if Susan Komis came to SD to lead The Deepening retreat, scholarships could help people be able to attend.
• Parth: suggested creating an email for facilitators to share this info (Mary’s gift; scholarships) with prayer groups.

COMMUNICATIONS (WEBSITE & NEWSLETTER): MARY

A problem that existed with bandwidth on moving the website has been solved. Still have one more step in this transition process. Mary wants to make sure we have the latest version of Wordpress.

• Next newsletter coming out in August.

REGISTRATION: SUSAN WHEELER

No new updates on the registration site. Susan thanked Linda for helping when she was unable due to health issues. The possibility of a designated website for registration was suggested by Susan.
• Susan thanked Mary for all her wonderful leadership!

OTHER CONCERNS: ALL

Contemplative Outreach International Conference: September 16-19, 2021: Hybrid event at one of the Denver Airport hotels. Google Conference 2021 at CO website to find out more. (Mary later sent more information on this to SLT via email). If anybody wants to go, Mary suggested supporting them.
• Linda: if you go in person and share a room, the cost of the hotel would be free through CO. (sponsored by The Trust for the Meditation Process, a charitable organization that gives $3000-5000 grants for events that have to do with meditation and contemplative prayer. ) Perhaps this might be another resource to check out for our Chapters!
• Diane L: Is it 1-day or several day conference? We should support Mary going to this conference. (It is a several-day conference).
• Diane L: Is it more of a business meeting of CO rather than a retreat for participants? Is there a spiritual formation aspect to it?
• Mary: Her preference is to attend on Zoom.
• Kathy M: When we have a longer retreat, maybe we could use this resource
 (The Trust for the Meditation Process) as a cushion for a weeklong retreat for
 many.

CALENDAR ITEMS
 

• Next SLT meeting: October 2, 2021.

The meeting ended at 11:20 with a closing prayer read by Kathy Mendoza.

       Respectfully submitted,

       Parth Domke