Witness =
Life
Commission Report to the Coordinating Council: February 22, 2008=
&nb=
sp;
- On February 2 the Commission m=
et
with Bill Walsh to receive his report about the Transgender Ministry
Conference he attended at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. (The Commission had assisted =
with
his travel costs.)
The
Conference included transfolk and allies: a cross-section which included
ordained ministers as well as lay members of the church. Faith communities represented incl=
uded
United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Metropolitan Commun=
ity
Church, Lutheran, U=
nited
Methodist, Roman Catholic and Reformed Jewish. Handouts were distributed and disc=
ussed.
- Bill said that there is a curr=
ent
conversation within the Maine Conference GLBT Coalition to bring Rev. =
Malcolm
Himschoot (featured in the film, “Call Me Malcolm”) to do =
some
workshops. Bill is incor=
porating
transgender issues into conversations he holds with churches undertaki=
ng
the O&A process.
&nb=
sp;
- Motion
was made and seconded: for the WLC to authorize the creation of a task
force to prepare a resolution to bring to the Conference Annual Meetin=
g in
June 2008 asking for the Maine Conference to begin a process to become=
an
Open and Affirming Conference. Bill will convene the task fo=
rce by
contacting churches who have been through the O&A process. The resolution will come from=
the
task force and can be endorsed by other O&A churches as well as WL=
C.
&nb=
sp;
- The Commission agreed to have =
the
Chair send an alert from Maine Equal Justice Partners which draws atte=
ntion
to proposed cuts in the State budget to our JAPNet list. Also the Commission members a=
greed
to the distribution of postcards provided by Jubilee USA Network, an
advocacy group working to cancel debts from poorer nations per the
Millenium Goals adopted by the UN.
&nb=
sp;
- For a list of peace vigils acr=
oss
the state go to www.peaceactionmaine.org.
&nb=
sp;
- Maine Council of Churches will=
hold
a commemoration of the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq at the Samantha Smith statue at =
the
State Library in Augusta<=
/st1:place>,
date and time TBA. Many =
events
are planned throughout the state and a website will be available soon.=
&nb=
sp;
- Connie Insley presented a draft
budget for 2009 and discussion followed. Jeanne will contact those
organizations receiving funding in the WLC budget to ask for requests.=
Further discussion is planned=
on
March 1.
&nb=
sp;
- David Gaewski, Sara Bigney, Ka=
ren
Nielson and Jeanne Davis will attend the New England Conferences Peace=
and
Justice meeting in MA on 2/23/08.
&nb=
sp;