Witness Life Commission
May 3, 2008
Present: Jeanne Davis, Martha Phillips, Mark Wilson, Margaret Proctor, Marcia Charles, Bonnie Anderson
Guests: Victor Stanley and Lorie Whittemore
There were introductions around the table.
The minutes of the April 5 meeting were accepted.
Jeanne noted that applications for assistance to attend Annual Meeting were available on the table.
Jeanne reported that Edie Rasell director of Work Place Justice from the National Office will be at Annual Meeting. She will be hosting a display table and hopefully she’ll be able to attend our commission’s workshop.
The Maine Conference has just renewed its contract Maine Interfaith Power and Light (MIFPL) for another three years for all three properties at ten and a half cents per kilowatt hour (hydro rate).
Lorie Whittemore, coordinator of the Disaster Relief Program gave a report of her work and goals thus far. She is using the New Orleans relief program as a working model – a three- step process:
· Address the needs of the local clergy at the point of crisis – keeping in mind that the clergy may be experiencing his/her own trauma. The sense is that we help the clergy and the clergy will take care of his/her congregation.
· Identify resources of the local church
· Identify the niche that the local church fills in the community affected.
In the event of a disaster in Maine (we have just witnessed crisis flooding in the Fort Kent region of Maine) one of her jobs is to connect the local church to OGHS and FEMA grant money.
Lorie is part of an ecumenical clergy group that meets monthly for networking money, materials, and manpower.
Lorie will soon be attending a national conference. Lorie has only $200 available to her in the 2008 WLC budget, which she plans to use to prepare materials for local churches. WLC voted to fund $460 for Lorie’s plane ticket – this will come out of the Support Grants line of our budget (nothing has been spent of the $800 budgeted for 2008). Jeanne will notify Mark Schussler to release this to Lorie. Jeanne has submitted Lorie’s name to the Nominating Committee to fill the At Large vacancy on the Witness Life Commission to be voted on at the June Annual Meeting.
The Open and Affirming Resolution is now on the website with seven pieces of supporting materials.
Regarding the resolution against torture – the New England Conference Ministers have not met yet. David G. will up-date once they do.
Rev. Victor Stanley, pastor of the Somesville UCC, met with our commission to discuss the work he and his church are doing to create materials and a process for churches interested in becoming a Just Peace Church. He shared the Resolution Designating Sommesville Meeting House UCC As A Just Peace Church and the Background document supporting the resolution. Somesville has been asked by the UCC National Office to come up with a workbook that would guide congregations through a process. Victor hopes that there will be a workshop (maybe this fall) of churches from across the country who have already come through a Just Peace process, along with people from the National Office, who can do some brainstorming for such a resource.
Victor has a couple of people from his congregation who would likely be willing to be available for our workshop at Annual Meeting. Molly Lyman will be there as a delegate, and Margaret Burnette may be able to come (she did the Background document). Jeanne will post the Background document onto the Conference Website as a supporting document for our workshop. Victor made a couple of recommendations for our workshop: 1) come up with some general statements that describe what it would mean to be a JP Conference, and 2) come up with a resolution.
Jeanne reported that the Maine Conference has a history with having a JP Committee – she was on that committee back in the 70s – following the vote of General Synod to become a Just Peace Church.
David Gaewski discussed our 2009 (yes, 2009) proposed budget. The Finance Committee increased our National Basic Support/OCWM (line 127). It cut the Honduras Mission Director budget figure (not in the WLC budget, but line 225 of the Conference budget) from the requested $7882 down to $2000.
Question was raised: what do we do if we get National Grant dollars for disaster relief? David says that a designated line for disaster relief would go into the budget – Jeanne would submit a request to Mark Schussler requesting the designated line.
David also noted that several years ago a fund was created to address seminary debt; a little over $1000 is still in that fund (again, not in the WLC budget but in the Conference Budget). He has designated that money to come to WLC to go for seminary scholarships.
David reported that the Coordinating Council did a compilation of responses from the Town Meeting discussions (regarding the three Conference properties). The one thing that stands out is that nothing positive was noted about the Pennell Center. The consensus of opinion is that if the Conference builds something in the future it needs to be GREEN. Martha Phillips noted that the property next to the Waterville UCC is for sale…
David talked about Sacred Conversations on Race – sermons to take place in UCC churches nationally on May 18. Pastors planning to preach on race are asked to contact Sue Stevens at the Conference office. If funds become available, the Conference will run press releases in the major newspapers in Maine on 5/15. Jeanne will put a notice in ACE requesting pledges.
Marcia gave a Honduras Partnership report stating that the relationship with the E&R Church of Honduras is moving forward. The new President of the Synod, Carlos Ortega, along with the out-going President, Feliciano Rivera, came to El Junco while Marcia was there in January with the work teams from Franklin Association. Carlos Ortega spoke then of his long-time support of the Partnership and his renewed commitment to seeing the relationship and the work projects move forward into the future. The Maine members of the Partnership are encouraged and hopeful. This summer the Mission Council will meet and discuss projects for the next two-year cycle.
And speaking of mission trips…Lorie Whittemore will be proposing a Conference-wide adult mission trip to New Orleans for 2009 or 2010 – to connect with Beecher Memorial UCC. She’ll discuss this further when we reconvene in the fall.
Silver was unable to be with us at Saturday’s meeting as she had just been notified that her camp had been vandalized. She did, however, send in her Maine Council of Churches report – she writes: we have a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop a health care program that can be used in churches to stimulate conversation and awareness about this issue. The Toxics in Toys bill was passed and Cool Communities are developing nicely. With summer, the "Buy Local Foods" will pick up steam again. The Tribes, as you know, have said they will secede from ME and are actively pursuing that course. John Dieffenbacker-Krall has suggested interested folks attend the Episcopal Indian Committee meeting in Houlton or go to Indian Island to listen to the discussion. It seems nobody really knows what the next step will be. If anybody is interested enough to want to attend either of those, I have the dates on Anita's computer, the only one through which aol will speak to me. Go figure! Thanks, Silver, and we’re thinking of you as you deal with the camp matter.
Due to conflicts in schedules (lots of graduations), the other commissions voted to meet on May 31 instead of June 7. Since so many of us could not attend on that date OUR COMMISSION WILL NOT BE MEETING. However, one piece of business that will need to be taken care of is the granting of the seminary scholarships. Margaret will make a recommendation and we’ll deal with it via email…sometime after 5/15.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia Charles (in Silver’s absence)