Present: Linda Dollins, Mary Williams, Jan Simpson, Diane Oldfield, Susan Wheeler, Elena Bertran, Vicki Rehkopf, Parth Domke, Joan Thompson, Kathy Mendoza, Chris Hagen
9:30 AM —Opening Prayer and 10 minutes of Centering Prayer
We read and reflected on
our Vision and Mission statements and Core values:
● Vision statement (from website): "CONSD is a local ecumenical network of individuals and small faith communities committed to living the contemplative dimension of the Gospel in everyday life through the practice of Centering Prayer. We identify with the Christian contemplative heritage. While we are formed by our respective denominations, we are united in our common search for God and the experience of the living Christ through Centering Prayer. We affirm our solidarity with the contemplative dimension of other religions and sacred traditions, with the needs and rights of the whole human family, and with all creation."
● Mission statement: "Our mission is to
present the method of Centering Prayer, build a
Christ-centered community, and support the contemplative life."
● Core values: Christ-centered, Humility, Utmost Charity, Community, Encourage and Support.
Reflections and Comments:
● In reaching out to those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious, how do we honor those within and without our tradition. Mary sees more happening in contemplative events with people outside Christian religious traditions and more outreach to those younger as well.
● Linda: Is it okay to put less emphasis on
religious Christian language as we use
language that reflects inclusivity of other traditions?
Discussion ensued on the universality of the word "Christ"; understanding the language of different religious and non-religious traditions being used to express universal spiritual realities.
● Elena: how do we reach those people more
steeped in a religious stance that is uncomfortable with “New Age” language?
Linda: using the term Higher Power as used in AA helps provide a unifying point while respecting diversity of beliefs.
● Mary commented on the multigenerational and interdenominational aspect of the Centering Prayer Summit (presented by Keith Kristich and Jana Rentzel).
● Kathy M: Someone was asking the question, Did Thomas Keating outgrow Christianity? What we are doing in CP is of healing value in its inclusivity.
● Jan: how to incorporate the above-mentioned discussed viewpoints in the Intro workshops? As Chris said, using the term Christ as meaning Anointed. Chris also pointed out that Jesus preached and lived “love your neighbor” in a non-judgmental and unbiased way.
● Parth: Quoted Keating - “Humanity as a whole needs a breakthrough into the contemplative dimension of life. This is The Life at the heart of the world. There the human family is already one. If one goes to one’s own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else, and all in the heart of the Ultimate Mystery.”
Reports:
• COSD Update: Upcoming events with COSD
Karen Downs: Intro presentation, Jan 21.
From CONSD website:
Local Event (COSD): Introductory Workshop on Centering Prayer.
--"Sign up with presenter Karen Downs at kdowns2@san.rr.com. On Zoom, Saturday, Jan 21 at 9:00 to 12 Noon, Pacific Time. One-hour prayer and formation sessions will follow on subsequent Saturdays."
April 17-23 COSD
retreat. Mary says they are trying to
keep the group small.
From CONSD website:
Diane Langworthy is stepping down from our team; busy with NAACP work. Enjoyed working with us, and she doesn’t want special thanks. She is still willing to help with articles for the newsletter.
• Media Library: Diane
Oldfield & Rick Martin.
Diane - Rick has CDs and DVDs. Diane is also stepping down from the Intro Team, but will remain librarian. She had done mostly registration work. Thank you, Diane, for your service. She helped with transition into Zoom for our Intro workshops. Linda: was involved with Intro’s - she got Diane involved with Intro’s and Diane was so faithful and was the face that everyone met when they came in. Also good recordkeeper; but mostly she provided the warm, welcoming presence with her sparkling personality.
• Facilitator Enrichment:
Upcoming events with CO, Ltd.
Mary: upcoming events from CO International - Enrichment gathering for facilitators on Sat, Feb 11 - 8:30-10:30am on zoom. Global outreach event good for facilitators to attend to talk about the vision for CO international. Mary, Parth, and Nicola worked on some; perhaps we as a chapter might work more on some of our own.
Parth: have more regular Facilitator Zooms to share, support, encourage each other. Maybe 3 times a year. Mary will coordinate another discussion for her, Parth, and Nicola to discuss future chapter events for facilitators.
• Registration: Susan
Wheeler
Susan is trying to make things more efficient on zoom for registration purposes. Mary has created a new email address for our chapter: CONSDinfo@gmail.com. People could email this address to ask questions, while Susan's consd.cal@gmail.com can be used specifically for automated registrations.
Diane suggested Rick Martin as a possible helper for registration.
Susan will refine the registration to say to “check your spam folder” when looking for email confirmation automatic response.
Jan: Will Susan be handling registration for Intro workshops? First that Susan has heard of this. Mary: other events have larger response than Intro’s; Intro team will handle the registration work for the Intro events. Susan happy to talk with Jan about how she might help.
• Financial Report: Linda
Dollins; Mary W.
Since our last meeting:
We have $16406.65 available balance; and,
$225 in donations;
The chapter gave $300 in scholarships.
Total $2822 for the event with Fr. Pizzuto –
--63 people attended;
--$1655 collected in donations at the event;
--The difference for the total cost came out of the CONSD
account.
Some unexpected expenses - Kathy A couldn’t host (got RSV) and
the chapter put up Fr. Pizzuto up at a hotel.
Comments on event: Excellent event! Mary was the hostess with
the mostest!! Food was all donated through Virginia’s “posse”.
Fr. Vincent got COVID afterwards; believes he caught it on airplane. Don’t know if anyone at the Pizzuto event got it; received no reports of it from attendees or St. Peter's.
Mary: Linda helped coordinate hospitality and helped in the
kitchen during the event.
Fr. Pizzuto would love to come back - he will be traveling only between March through September. This may be a good protocol for us to consider when hosting events within the current COVID environment.
• Communications: Mary W.
Feb. newsletter forthcoming. Mary is always open for ideas and articles to include in the newsletter.
Might add a donation button to the website using PayPal. Susan W. has a church friend available to help with that installation.
Events
/ Workshops, recent and future:
Recap on late 2022 events
Elena’s Advent event: Mary: It was lovely; addressing the four pillars of Advent; contained lectio divina, visio divina, chanting, body movement, and 2 CP sessions. Wonderful feedback. All on Zoom. Open, comfortable, relaxing contemplative time together. Linda loved the format; suggested it would make a great template for events like it in the future. She mentioned that it had a lovely flow to it. Susan W. remarked that Elena was inspiring as a presenter.
• Chris Hagen: “Seek and
You Will Find” retreat on June 17, 2023.
The Holy Spirit is still working on it, slowly. It will be ready, Holy Spirit willing! Mary: Will it be on Zoom or in person? Chris: Zoom would probably be better because of his decrease in vision capabilities. He prefers in person, because it’s harder to feel the participants; but, he is tethered to Zoom because of his vision decrease.
• Prince of Peace Retreat
on Oct 20-22.
It has been reserved for the second or third weekend in October. Linda is not able to go. She hopes Mary will recruit someone to help Mary with the logistics of the event. Linda would feel relieved (as would Mary) if someone helps her as a second set of hands. Susan W. offered to help Mary. Linda needs to have some of the stuff at her house stored elsewhere with someone helping with the event. Need someone physically able to help with the ‘stuff’.
• Mary mentioned the 2023 Centering Prayer Summit.
From the CONSD website:
"Hosted by Closer Than
Breath, this is a teachings and practice event that will include these
presenters: Cynthia Bourgeault, Fr. Carl
Arico, Carl McColman, Mary Dwyer, Colleen Thomas, Phileena Nikole, Adam Bucko,
and Nhien Vuong. Presentation titles include: “The Mystical Roots of
Centering Prayer”, “What the Heck is Divine Therapy and Why Should We Want
It?”, “Obstacles to Grace in Centering Prayer,” “From Prayer to Protest: On
Being an Engaged Contemplative in the World,” and more. On Zoom, January 21-22,
2023. For more information and to
register, click here."
• Global Conversation for the Contemplative Outreach Community.
From the CONSD website: "This is an opportunity for Contemplative Outreach volunteers–and all others who are interested– to connect and converse in a Zoom meeting with breakout rooms. You are welcome to propose conversation topics in advance to Marie Howard at mrhfamlife@aol.com .This event will be offered two times to accommodate various time zones. On Zoom, Friday, Jan 27 and Saturday, Jan 28. For more info on time zones and to register, click here."
• Intro Workshops.
Lot being offered on Zoom through CO National. If people come to us seeking an Intro, and we
don’t have anything available locally, we can send them to CO Nat’l website.
Jenny Shreve located in Temecula. She is contacting her pastor to see what
dates might be good for them to host in person Intro. Perhaps the Intro team could talk with her
about any other potential dates.
Mary: maybe have another Intro during the Easter season? Lent? Mary will be gone at the beginning of Lent. Easter on April 9. Lent begins in late February. Maybe have a zoom Intro in the spring.
• More Ideas for 2023?
March 3-4: United in
Prayer Day. Each hour a different prayer group takes
over. Mary: if CONSD wants to
participate, Mary wants someone else to do that hour instead of her.
From CONSD website:
Mary: Linda has suggested we host a day of prayer at the Mission San Luis Rey. Linda has asked Kathy M. to do a morning of prayer. Diane L. has taken her prayer group out to the Mission. Could we rent a room there, have lunch, and some prayer event? Linda will explore the options at the Mission some more. Mary: the Mission has something called Silent Mondays where each person gets their own room, lunch included. Perhaps we could make our event with both individual quiet time as well as group sharing. Mary says they have large rooms for events and have good food. It would be a nice thing to do for an in-person gathering that offers spaciousness and time. Their setup lends to easy setup. Parth: when reserving, ask who else will be there in terms of noise levels.
Mary: a lot more being offered in terms of contemplative offerings because of Zoom availability.
Calendar
Items:
* Next SLT meeting, April 8. [update: Need to change to after Easter!]
Calendar for 2023 (to be updated) available here: https://bestillconsd.blogspot.com/2020/01/consd-calendar-for-2020.html
• Other Concerns /
Miscellaneous: All
Mary: last year, CO Ltd. was trying to find someone to be on their international presenter formation team. CO Ltd. offers mentoring for chapters if we want to do Presenter formation trainings.
• Closing Prayer: Diane
Oldfield
Respectfully submitted,
Parth Domke
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