Attendees: Mary Williams, Brian Curry, Nichola Riggle, Jan Simpson, Ardy Woodmansee, Susan Wheeler, Kathy Mendoza, Elena Bertran, and Linda Dollins
9:33 -- Opening Prayer with a few minutes of silence.
Updates
Status of our Chapters merging into
COSDC: Mary
Mary has begun the process of changing
our name to COSDC with the state of California.
We are an Unincorporated Association in California (UNA), and she has
sent in a completed form and the appropriate fee. At the SLT meeting in June, we voted to
change our name to COSDC and appointed two additional treasurers, Brian Curry
and Parth Domke, to replace Linda Dollins. Voting on the action was necessary
to complete the name change form.
Visioning Day Report and Discussion of
the Visioning Team
Mary opened the discussion by thanking
the Visioning Team volunteers for their efforts for COSDC’s “That We May Be One”
Visioning Day on June 27.
She also explained that food handling regulation
changes are occurring. Currently, churches
are in the process of addressing how they will respond. Mary discovered just two
days before our Visioning Day, that St. Peter’s required an official Food Handler
Certificate in hand for our gathering.
She completed the online course for the certificate, so we were in
compliance. Joan Thompson, hospitality,
wasn’t able to attend the Visioning Day and does have a certificate. Mary suggested that more team members acquire
a food handler certificate.
Mary then summarized Visioning Day attendee responses to the four questions that were on the colored cards.
1. What supports your prayer practice?
Prayer groups in person and on Zoom, recordings and podcasts, retreats, the Centering Prayer app, the CONSD website, 12-Step outreach, the Newsletter, COL’s Word of the Week and the Meditation Chapel. A suggestion from the SLT: using the Newsletter and Website, let more people know what Word of the Week and the Meditation Chapel are.
2.
and 3. What are our changing needs?
In-person gatherings to help keep community intact, CP library—books and videos, more occasions involving body movement, nature and art, more hybrid gatherings (Zoom and in-person), continue 30-day centering prayer opportunities during Advent and Lent, more occasions for prayer group facilitators to share, centering prayer carpools, transformation practices from Open Mind Open Heart, opportunities to hear experts from other fields, 3-Centered Awareness (Cynthia Bourgeault’s teachings). Brian Curry said COSD gave hard copies of materials to men in a prison who did not have access to computers.
4. If you had a magic/miracle wand, what would you make happen?
Teach young children to value quiet, have CP youth events, have CP meet and greet events, offer cinema divina—movie night with discussion, a longer silent retreat with hiking, a 10-day intensive retreat visio and audio divina events, arts and contemplative practice, well-known speakers like Vincent Pizzuto and Cynthia Bourgeault, ministry to the vulnerable, prison ministry, inter-spiritual gatherings, Ignatian spiritual practice, week-long Wisdom School, Taize services.
A
general discussion about the Visioning Day followed:
Mary suggested Heather Ruce as a possible
future presenter. Her contemplative
website offers access to 30 minutes of daily group prayer on Zoom at 8:00am.
We also could have a follow-up to
Visioning Day with prayer group facilitators and their invited guests,
especially if the guest attended the Visioning Day, to encourage more
participation in leadership.
Ardy said COSD used to have an in-person
quiet day or half-day of prayer for facilitators to get to know each other, to be
silent, and for training.
Linda said including an invitation in our
church bulletins to our Centering Prayer group might encourage new people in
our churches to experience centering prayer.
Nichola suggested that the clergy or
pastors mention centering prayer occasionally in church.
Ardy said that the 30 days of Centering
Prayer she hosted on Zoom was a good church stimulus.
Regarding recruiting more servant
leaders or helpers, Kathy said that opportunities to serve need to be expanded and
detailed, so volunteers understand what their responsibilities are.
Susan wanted to know more about Cynthia Bourgeault’s Wisdom Schools. Mary said that these schools incorporate three-centered awareness: mind, heart, and body – and thus include presentations, silent prayer, chanting, and sacred dance / body movement. Cynthia’s Wisdom Schools are partly inspired by the teachings of GI Gurdjieff, the twentieth-century Armenian-Russian mystic who re-introduced the Enneagram to the modern world. Locally, Susan Latimer, a retired Episcopalian priest who was mentored by Cynthia, is a source.
Treasurer’s Report: Linda
As
of July 11, the COSDC account total is $25,743.05
Deposits:
$12,245.30 ($12,030 from COSD)
Withdrawals:
$2,107.89
Communications Report: Mary
Mary
said to see the new COSDC website, use COSDC.info. The CONSD website is still up but now
includes hyperlinks to the new COSDC website.
Kathy asked about the procedure for requesting scholarships. Mary said the new treasurers will be Parth Domke and Brian Curry. New requests for scholarships should be made to cosdc.info@gmail.com (our new email address). For now, all requests for scholarships go through Mary.
More information about our new website is in the Visioning Day folder as is a list of COSDC’s 46 prayer groups. Check to be sure your prayer group info is correct.
Linda said the latest flyer from Mary went to her Spam folder. Mary’s and Jan’s went to their “Promotions” list on Gmail. Kathy read instructions for Android users to redirect Spam to their inbox: “Open your Junk Email folder, right-click the email, and select Junk > Not Junk (or Mark as not junk). Click OK to confirm. This immediately moves the email back to your Inbox and adds the sender to your Safe Senders list so future emails won't be flagged.”
Mary said our new mailing address is: Contemplative Outreach of San Diego County, P.O. Box 718, San Marcos, CA, 92079 (Note: SDCCU, our credit union, said that COSDC needs to be spelled out on correspondence for security purposes.)
At our last meeting on June 5, the motion to elect Parth Domke and Brian Curry as treasurers was seconded, but we failed to note the person who seconded the motion. It was Ardy Woodmansee.
Upcoming Events
“Space for Grace” at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Poway is on 8/15. Barbara Hamilton and Avril Bland will be leading the morning Centering Prayer and chanting and humming as a spiritual practice.
“Space for Grace” will be at San Rafael Catholic Church in Rancho Bernardo. Facilitator Pat Kilzer is exploring a date in October or November.
A former member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church who now attends St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church wants to have a brief presentation about Centering Prayer after their church service on 9/20. Her hopes are to start a weekly prayer group there. Mary will be the speaker. [This date was later changed to 10/11].
“Being the Image of God When It Isn’t Easy” with Chris Hagen is on 9/26. Chris will present his talk with slides and
also allow time for breakout sessions.
Other Thoughts
Jan thanked the group for covering for her at the Visioning Day. Her back is much better.
Mary said she learned that attendees appreciated help with registration at Visioning Day even though the information to self-register was posted. Lucinda Parsons had volunteered to assist in any way needed, so she became the ad-hoc event registrar – explaining the sign-in process and answering questions. Mary now thinks that having someone at the registration table is important, especially at events with more than 20 people. Susan volunteered to do that, as did Jan.
Mary thanked Kathy for making the coffee. Even though Mary took a few photos, she would like Jan (or other volunteers) to do that if possible. Ardy brought gorgeous flowers which we all appreciated. Kathy suggested that at the next SLT meeting (or a Visioning Day follow-up), we could develop a list of tasks for in-person events.
Mary closed the meeting with prayer at 11:00.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Dollins
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