RIC Language of Affirmation Adult Forum

Hello Team,

Thanks for all who helped with this Sunday’s activity and thanks to those who were there with us in spirit.

This Sunday the primary take aways were not suggestions on the language of the statement (although we have seven we can discuss). Those in attendance continued the conversation regarding fears, concerns and what excites us about RIC. I was somewhat surprised by what needed to be explained and emphasized to this group today. We may need to have deeper discussions with the congregation in at least two areas:

Who is journeying with us and who are “we”? The RIC team understands the why, when and how of activities. There are those, not as closely connected with the discernment, in the group that met today who believe that given all the activity, our RIC team is pushing exclusively towards becoming RIC rather than focusing on RIC discernment and would override what the congregation wants.

Questions came up about the timing, (why come up with a draft Affirmation of Welcome now), other things we could be doing (inviting others with mental disabilities or those in different socioeconomic groups to tell their stories) and questioning if there were better things to focus on than RIC at Creator at present. Also whether we were following Pastor Dayle’s agenda on this came up again.

We addressed these questions in the group. If this needs to be brought to the congregation’s attention and how best to accomplish that are questions we need to answer as a team.

There were suggestions from the group about increasing the attendance at the activities and, as a result, engaging more of the congregation. One suggestion was for each of us to personally invite someone else.

What does being an RIC congregation mean? The group was not clear that to become RIC means the Affirmation of Welcome must explicitly welcome both gender identity and sexual orientation. We talked about why a congregation would become RIC. We probably need to explore this question more with those who are not on the team. Basically the question to be answered is:

If we passed an Affirmation of Welcome to welcome all rather particular groups isn’t that enough if it is all about Creator being welcoming as a community?


There were other areas but these are probably the main areas to address.

For those who were there please comment on anything I did not write about that we should address. I will write up the language suggestions in a different post.

We received some kudos as a team for our effort so far in the meeting. I pass them along and add the team continues to amaze me with the passion and effort you put into the RIC process at Creator.

Thanks,

Gary