Present: Chris Hagen, Jan Simpson, Diane Oldfield, Deborah Lewallen, Nichola Riggle, Vicki Rehkopf, Rick Martin, Susan Wheeler, Parth Domke, Kathy Mendoza, Elena Bertran, Joan Thompson, Diane Langworthy, Mary Williams, and Linda Dollins.
Mary Williams opened the meeting at 9:30 with a 10-minute period of Centering Prayer, a pause, and then continued silence for those who are ill or having difficulties.
Reports:
COSD
Update: Events planned are the following: Silent Saturday, Sat., July 23,
2022, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM on Zoom with Kathy Di Fede; Silent Saturday,
Sat., Dec 10, 2022, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM on Zoom with Karen Downs; and an Introductory Workshop, Sat. Sept. 24,
2022, from 9:00 to 12:00 noon on Zoom to be followed by (6) 1 hr. prayer &
formation sessions on subsequent Saturdays with Karen Downs. Mary will be including this information in
our Events advertising (and on our “Events” tab on the CONSD website).
Media Library: Diane O. and Rick Martin: Rick reported that the anticipated CONSD YouTube channel with our library materials on it could not be implemented due to copyright laws. He then contacted CO Ltd. and was guided to their YouTube offerings which are quite extensive. We will still have our own media library, but it can’t be launched onto YouTube.
Mary offered that she found a few additional YouTube resources at CO Ltd.’s website (available thru CO's “Resources” list – click “Volunteer Resources” at the bottom of the drop-down list) that are not currently available in CO’s YouTube offerings. She also has created a link to CO Ltd.’s YouTube channel in the Blog under the "Resources" tab.Rick has offered to cross check our resources with those on CO Ltd.’s list and include that information in our CONSD Media listing. Diane will send out the revised list to facilitators.
Facilitator Enrichment Team: Mary announced that Parth, Kathy Agnew, Nichola, and herself are on this team. On Saturday, July 16, there will be a facilitator gathering on Zoom, and we will discuss faith sharing challenges, technical issues, and resources.
Chris asked what do we do to nurture new members after the basic formation? He reminded us that having “open prayer groups” vs. “closed prayer groups” was one answer in the past to meet the elementary needs of new members without shortchanging the growing needs of experienced members.His question prompted an extended discussion with the following contributions:
Deborah: With their new members in mind, they are reading Open Mind, Open Heart, a few pages at a time lectio style. Experienced group members are enriched by the revisit.
Chris: Years ago, he developed a packet with information on centering prayer, CO Ltd documents, the structure of CO Ltd., etc. especially for new members.
Parth: Using Chris’s packet, she asks newcomers to meet with her either at church or a separate meeting on Zoom. She added that she had difficulty getting people to go to the recent Intro. She suggested having a trained CONSD presenter make a short presentation to prayer groups who are interested in promoting an Intro Workshop to their group.
Nichola: New people who appeared at her prayer group but didn’t continue were hard to connect with because she didn’t have their information.
Diane L.: She will be writing an article on our last Intro for the Newsletter. Her group is doing The Cloud of Unknowing which, she finds, is very similar to the material in the Intro Workshop. Four from her group attended the workshop, but Diane thought it helped that she also attended the workshop. “God prepared their hearts to be with us.”
Diane O.: Having a “soul sister” has been helpful to her. Someone, not necessarily the facilitator, could be a centering prayer buddy or coach.
Mary: Have a designated person in the prayer group to introduce a new person/people to the prayer. This topic is also a great suggestion for a future prayer group facilitators’ gathering.
Chris: What happened to the more updated version of the Intro follow-up materials with Gail Fitzpatrick and Carl Arico? Linda said we still have two copies in DVD form. They’re not available on YouTube.
Joan: One-to-one contact is important to new
people.
Financial
Report: Linda said that since April 9, 2022,
we have had donations of $75.00, expenses of $381.73 and a total available of
$19,492.01. In May, Mary, Joan, Susan,
Kathy M, and Linda met to discuss criteria for scholarships. The scholarship document is on the Be Still Blog with
the request information. Linda is
authorized to grant scholarship requests under $500 and Mary over $500. No one has requested a scholarship yet. [Later:
Mary remembers now that one has been requested for the October Prince of Peace
retreat].
Communications:
Mary is updating the
content of some of the pages on the CONSD website and showed us the new landing
page which now explains who we are and has links to key resources. It’s also graphically much more attractive. Her website program is sometimes difficult to
work with, but she wants to make more changes. The Aug 2022 Newsletter is forthcoming, to
include articles on CONSD’s recent Intro and David Frenette’s online course on
Heart Intention prayer, a complementary practice to centering prayer. Diane
Langworthy is writing an article on our last Introductory Workshop and
suggested that one of the participants and one of the Intro Team could also
write short articles to give a different view of the Workshop. Jan volunteered and may use anonymous survey
responses to the workshop as well.
Events:
Chris
Hagen, Becoming the Whole Self, April 23:
Diane O. said
that seeing his presentation again on video in our prayer group in 15-minute
segments and then discussing each segment had been enriching for her. He will be speaking to the Escondido prayer
group soon, and Diane encouraged other groups to ask Chris to come to their
group as well.
Intro
Program: June 4-July 2 Via Zoom: Jan said they had a nice gathering of
wonderful people. Eleven came to the
workshop and 7-8 attended the follow-ups.
The refreshers were helpful to the Intro and follow-ups, and she and
Mary learned a lot about Zoom. Both Jan
and Rick facilitated the follow-ups.
Rick said he was impressed with the Fr. Keating videos even though they
were heavy. He wondered what the
impression of the videos was on the newcomers—are they over their heads or enriching
and said it may be OK to be stretched.
Facilitator
Zoom Gathering: July 16. (See discussion under “Facilitator
Enrichment Team”)
Prince of
Peace Fall Retreat: October 14-16: Mary said we have $3900.00 on hold with Prince of Peace. We will see how things evolve with the
pandemic. She is thinking that 20 or
fewer rooms would be wise to create more space in the (well-ventilated) prayer room. Masks will be required inside the retreat center, but not in personal rooms or (of course) while eating. COSD held
a retreat there and it was smaller in size, which worked for them. We will probably ask for $100.00 for the
weekend, which is half-price.
Fr.
Vincent Pizzuto: November 12: Nichola Riggle and Mary: Fr. Vincent has agreed to giving a service at 5:00 after his
presentation is over. It will be based
on a Celtic Rite service he does at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church. Kathy Agnew has offered to host Fr. Vincent,
and Virginia Erickson will create the flyer.
We will need hospitality volunteers since Joan Thompson is not available. We are grateful to Nichola who has made all
the reservations for use of space with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. St. Peter’s has given us the kitchen, Parish
Hall, sanctuary, and parking lot. Kathy Mendoza, Linda, and Vicki have all volunteered to help. The technician needed
for streaming will cost $50 an hour. A small service team dedicated to this event can meet in coming weeks and months as plans continue to develop.
Elena
Bertran’s Retreat: Elena
said that she will be able to do a retreat the first weekend of December.
Chris
Hagen’s Presentation: Chris would like to reserve June 2023
for his next presentation.
Misc.: Susan Wheeler said that Randy Singh and another member of her
prayer group had attended a worthwhile presentation in Atlanta on Zoom. Mary reminded us that any events we would
like to share with the community are welcome and to contact her.
CONSD Survey:
Mary asked what we thought about the results of the
survey. Diane O. said that the prayer
seemed related to our developmental stage.
Susan thought Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward also confirmed that
centering prayer is more appealing to those in the second half of life. Deborah commented on how busy her grown
children are with their lives and struggle to find time. Rick said that his journey when younger was
influenced by the cultural interest in the mystical, the Beatles, and the
Maharishi. He practiced TM but his meditation
was hit or miss. He said that when
you’re younger, your lifestyle gets in the way.
The mystical Christian tradition in centering prayer was, for him, a
great aha.
Closing: The meeting ended at 11:35 AM, with Diane
O. reading a Celtic circle prayer that began, “Circle me, Lord.”
Next
Meeting: October 8, 2022.
Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Dollins
No comments:
Post a Comment