I know many of you wanted to attend the RIC service last night. Mt. Carmel was packed. Ten of us from Creator were there out of a total of about 150 people.
The liturgy felt like a big "yes we can and will". We all enjoyed being gathered together. Pr. Susan Kitner, the assistant to the bishop, delivered the message and Robyn Hartwig, newly installed at St. Andrew in Beaverton, and Ron Nitz, pastor at Mt. Carmel in Portland, co-presided.
Kelly's Free To Be Me was a definite highlight. I know the Creator contigent was recognized. We clapped while we sang songs, quietly sang Hope for Resolution under our breath as their choir sang and were generally over-the-top in our enthusiasm for all that was happening. When Creator was announced as the newest RIC congregation in our local LCNA Chapter during the service it was a huge moment of joy we couldn't let pass without being boisterous in our cheers.
There were snacks and a couple of cakes afterwards, one spice cake for decorated for Robyn and a chocolate cake decorated with "Welcome Creator".
There were four congregations in our LCNA region who became RIC congregations yesterday. More celebrations in Washington: Seattle, Pullman and Shoreline.
I sign off with kudos to the team. I heard many compliments about the way we all worked with the congregation this past year. Many came up to me after the congregational meeting and said they had waited for this kind of affirmation of welcome for a long time.
Giving God Praise and Prayer for the day,
Gary
Below I will pass along congratulations to you from Christian:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW EXCITING, Gary! I am so thrilled for the Creator community and pleased that it is now officially an RIC congregation. Since I do not have everyone's email, can you please pass on my congrats to the RIC team and all who have been closely involved in the process?
This is a great news to be another welcoming and safe place for worship for lgbt people in the greater Portland area!
Peace, joy and blessings to you,
Christian
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Last Night's Council Meeting regarding RIC proposals
With one council member abstaining, all other council members voted yes on the two proposals presented by the RIC team last night.
The first proposal was that the council recommends passage on the vote to adopt the Affirmation of Welcome that would make Creator an RIC congregation.
The second proposal was that passage requires an 80% yes vote by voting members present at the congregational meeting.
The council recognized the team's work last night. There was thoughtful debate and questions, particularly around the percentage that required for passage. That both proposals were accepted by the council without substantive modification was a testimony to everyone's efforts.
Looking forward to Sunday's vote and the two worship services,
Gary
The first proposal was that the council recommends passage on the vote to adopt the Affirmation of Welcome that would make Creator an RIC congregation.
The second proposal was that passage requires an 80% yes vote by voting members present at the congregational meeting.
The council recognized the team's work last night. There was thoughtful debate and questions, particularly around the percentage that required for passage. That both proposals were accepted by the council without substantive modification was a testimony to everyone's efforts.
Looking forward to Sunday's vote and the two worship services,
Gary
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
RIC Team Meeting Agenda - January 8, 7:00 PM at Creator
We will have a meeting tomorrow and below is our tentative agenda:
Agenda
* Plans and preparation for Congregational vote. Specific language to the resolution to bring before the congregation December council presentation (currently requesting council recommendation for passsage).
* RIC Team Talk on Affirmation language
* Next newsletter article
* RIC Sunday - Promoting and volunteering for event at Mt. Carmel 515 SW Maplecrest Dr.
* Post congregational vote plans - Plans for presentation of certificate - Possiblity of Creator hosting 2010 RIC Sunday
* RIC Team transition after January
Agenda
* Plans and preparation for Congregational vote. Specific language to the resolution to bring before the congregation December council presentation (currently requesting council recommendation for passsage).
* RIC Team Talk on Affirmation language
* Next newsletter article
* RIC Sunday - Promoting and volunteering for event at Mt. Carmel 515 SW Maplecrest Dr.
* Post congregational vote plans - Plans for presentation of certificate - Possiblity of Creator hosting 2010 RIC Sunday
* RIC Team transition after January
Monday, January 5, 2009
Asking for Agenda Items for next RIC Team Meeting
Since we didn't meet on Thursday New Year's Day the first question is "Who could meet this Thursday?" If a meeting makes sense the next question would be "What is on the agenda?"
The council meeting was called on account of snow. There will be a council meeting prior to January 25th. We still plan to ask the council to recommend passage on the question of becoming an RIC congregation.
I sent our explicit welcome statement to LCNA who confirmed our statement would make us an RIC congregation.
Just to be up front in reactions from the congregation, someone is still suggesting we reword the statement. Her recommendation changes the punctuation of the explicit welcome and drops the youth's "come as you are, where you are and who you are". It is late to make changes, but since we did talk about the punctuation in the explicit welcome, I include her entire recommendation here:
Creator Lutheran Church welcomes you to join us in worship, fellowship, and ministry.
The Gospel reveals God's grace as an unconditional gift of love for all people. Ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical ability, mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status are not barriers to our invitation. As an inclusive community grounded in God's love, we follow Jesus' example and celebrate the diversity of God's creation.
There are agenda items for the meeting. Let me know if you have anything additional you think should be included.
Thanks,
Gary
The council meeting was called on account of snow. There will be a council meeting prior to January 25th. We still plan to ask the council to recommend passage on the question of becoming an RIC congregation.
I sent our explicit welcome statement to LCNA who confirmed our statement would make us an RIC congregation.
Just to be up front in reactions from the congregation, someone is still suggesting we reword the statement. Her recommendation changes the punctuation of the explicit welcome and drops the youth's "come as you are, where you are and who you are". It is late to make changes, but since we did talk about the punctuation in the explicit welcome, I include her entire recommendation here:
Creator Lutheran Church welcomes you to join us in worship, fellowship, and ministry.
The Gospel reveals God's grace as an unconditional gift of love for all people. Ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical ability, mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status are not barriers to our invitation. As an inclusive community grounded in God's love, we follow Jesus' example and celebrate the diversity of God's creation.
There are agenda items for the meeting. Let me know if you have anything additional you think should be included.
Thanks,
Gary
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Clare's letter
If there is any way this can be useful, I think Clare would be fine with sharing it:
Dear friends of the Creator community,
I have heard of your journey to explore as a congregation the possibility of becoming a Reconciled in Christ community. As a daughter of the church who lives in another place, and who gets to spend so little time as a part of your church family, I have been hesitant to add my voice to the conversation. However, in discussing both the progress and frustrations of this journey as related to me by my mother, I feel compelled to add my petition for your consideration; and I hope that it is not presumptuous of me to do so.
As I said, I've only had the privilege to worship with you a handful of times, but your quality of character and faith strikes me as that of a true and thoughtful community. I was warmed and delighted to hear that you are discussing being an RIC church. I feel that I can speak well and appropriately for both myself and my generation when I say that this is the direction we seek in the church. When recently asked, the youth of the ELCA has overwhelmingly supported RIC communities, as well as the right of gay male and lesbian ministers to have partners. It pains me when I see my sisters in faith and brothers in love -- your sisters in faith, your brothers in love -- who have been rejected and condemned by the greater society and often by their own faith communities because of their sexual orientation or identification. This is unjust and un-Christ-like.
In Matthew 25, Jesus says to the righteous that they have done rightly, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." When they ask in confusion when it was that they did these things, he replies, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." What is perhaps the most powerful thing about this story is in the people who do not understand Christ in others. They too asked, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?" His response is the same -- "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
Christ comes to us in people in whom we do not expect. To be reconciled in Christ means that we are receptive to the possibility of Christ in others. It means that we take seriously Christ's commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, to recognize that we are all created by the same God, loved by the same God, and embraced in the same family. We turn our back on Christ's message and vision as we find it in the scriptures when we, like the Pharisees, allow our arrogance and pride to win as we act as judge and jury, rejecting those whom we have made the "other," the "them," from God's Church.
Oregon, as a Synod, has announced its intention to be an RIC synod. The youth of our denomination have said that they are ready and intentional about being an RIC faith. The vast majority within Creator itself has said that we are ready to be an RIC community. Please heed these voices upon voices, pleas upon pleas for peace, justice, and reconciliation between broken sisters and brothers. Open the doors, your arms, and your hearts and let us bring everyone back home.
Love,
Clare Brauer-Rieke
Sister in Christ, Member of Creator Lutheran Church
Dear friends of the Creator community,
I have heard of your journey to explore as a congregation the possibility of becoming a Reconciled in Christ community. As a daughter of the church who lives in another place, and who gets to spend so little time as a part of your church family, I have been hesitant to add my voice to the conversation. However, in discussing both the progress and frustrations of this journey as related to me by my mother, I feel compelled to add my petition for your consideration; and I hope that it is not presumptuous of me to do so.
As I said, I've only had the privilege to worship with you a handful of times, but your quality of character and faith strikes me as that of a true and thoughtful community. I was warmed and delighted to hear that you are discussing being an RIC church. I feel that I can speak well and appropriately for both myself and my generation when I say that this is the direction we seek in the church. When recently asked, the youth of the ELCA has overwhelmingly supported RIC communities, as well as the right of gay male and lesbian ministers to have partners. It pains me when I see my sisters in faith and brothers in love -- your sisters in faith, your brothers in love -- who have been rejected and condemned by the greater society and often by their own faith communities because of their sexual orientation or identification. This is unjust and un-Christ-like.
In Matthew 25, Jesus says to the righteous that they have done rightly, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." When they ask in confusion when it was that they did these things, he replies, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." What is perhaps the most powerful thing about this story is in the people who do not understand Christ in others. They too asked, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?" His response is the same -- "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
Christ comes to us in people in whom we do not expect. To be reconciled in Christ means that we are receptive to the possibility of Christ in others. It means that we take seriously Christ's commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, to recognize that we are all created by the same God, loved by the same God, and embraced in the same family. We turn our back on Christ's message and vision as we find it in the scriptures when we, like the Pharisees, allow our arrogance and pride to win as we act as judge and jury, rejecting those whom we have made the "other," the "them," from God's Church.
Oregon, as a Synod, has announced its intention to be an RIC synod. The youth of our denomination have said that they are ready and intentional about being an RIC faith. The vast majority within Creator itself has said that we are ready to be an RIC community. Please heed these voices upon voices, pleas upon pleas for peace, justice, and reconciliation between broken sisters and brothers. Open the doors, your arms, and your hearts and let us bring everyone back home.
Love,
Clare Brauer-Rieke
Sister in Christ, Member of Creator Lutheran Church
Proposed resolution
Resolution To Adopt RIC Statement of Welcome
Creator Lutheran Church
January 2009
Background: In late 2007/early 2008, a grass-roots group of Creator members formed a Council-sanctioned team to help the congregation move through a year of discernment on becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation. The team members have included Gary Schulstad, Toni Hartung, Gretchen Brauer-Rieke, Mary Steinberg, Janice Edberg, Kelly Carlisle and Diane Mattox. Some team members took part in a multi-day national RIC training session in March, helping to provide a sense of structure for helping the congregation to examine the issue.
The RIC team has placed information articles in the newsletter each month as well as holding monthly sessions with the congregation – both as special sessions and as post-worship conversations – in order to help work through thoughts and feelings that inevitably result from this kind of change. With congregational input, the team crafted an explicit Statement of Welcome that is unique to Creator Lutheran Church – a large majority of the congregation surveyed in September said they approve of this statement. As stated at the 2008 Annual Meeting in January, the timeline has been to hold a congregational vote on our proposed Statement of Welcome at the 2009 Annual Meeting.
Proposed Statement of Welcome:
Creator Lutheran Church welcomes you to come – as you are, where you are, and who you are – and join us in worship, fellowship, and ministry.
The Gospel reveals God's astounding grace as an unconditional gift of love for all people, so ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status are not barriers to our invitation. Instead, as an inclusive community grounded in God's love and following Jesus' example, we celebrate the diversity of God's creation.
Implications: If this statement is approved by an 80% majority, Creator Lutheran will become officially recognized as a Reconciling in Christ congregation, joining the Oregon Synod, eight other Oregon ECLA congregations and 22 Washington congregations who also have approved explicit statements of welcome. Our statement will be placed on our website, in church bulletins, and in other media that may be read by the public. The RIC team is committed to remaining in place (in some form) to assist the congregation in carrying out the intent of open hospitality that our statement speaks of.
If the statement is not approved by 80% of the congregation, we will fall back to our charter statement which says that we “provide fellowship and loving support for each other, encouraging tolerance, inclusiveness, and unity…” - providing hospitality to those who enter our doors, but without the explicit nature of a public RIC statement.
Creator Lutheran Church
January 2009
Background: In late 2007/early 2008, a grass-roots group of Creator members formed a Council-sanctioned team to help the congregation move through a year of discernment on becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation. The team members have included Gary Schulstad, Toni Hartung, Gretchen Brauer-Rieke, Mary Steinberg, Janice Edberg, Kelly Carlisle and Diane Mattox. Some team members took part in a multi-day national RIC training session in March, helping to provide a sense of structure for helping the congregation to examine the issue.
The RIC team has placed information articles in the newsletter each month as well as holding monthly sessions with the congregation – both as special sessions and as post-worship conversations – in order to help work through thoughts and feelings that inevitably result from this kind of change. With congregational input, the team crafted an explicit Statement of Welcome that is unique to Creator Lutheran Church – a large majority of the congregation surveyed in September said they approve of this statement. As stated at the 2008 Annual Meeting in January, the timeline has been to hold a congregational vote on our proposed Statement of Welcome at the 2009 Annual Meeting.
Proposed Statement of Welcome:
Creator Lutheran Church welcomes you to come – as you are, where you are, and who you are – and join us in worship, fellowship, and ministry.
The Gospel reveals God's astounding grace as an unconditional gift of love for all people, so ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status are not barriers to our invitation. Instead, as an inclusive community grounded in God's love and following Jesus' example, we celebrate the diversity of God's creation.
Implications: If this statement is approved by an 80% majority, Creator Lutheran will become officially recognized as a Reconciling in Christ congregation, joining the Oregon Synod, eight other Oregon ECLA congregations and 22 Washington congregations who also have approved explicit statements of welcome. Our statement will be placed on our website, in church bulletins, and in other media that may be read by the public. The RIC team is committed to remaining in place (in some form) to assist the congregation in carrying out the intent of open hospitality that our statement speaks of.
If the statement is not approved by 80% of the congregation, we will fall back to our charter statement which says that we “provide fellowship and loving support for each other, encouraging tolerance, inclusiveness, and unity…” - providing hospitality to those who enter our doors, but without the explicit nature of a public RIC statement.
RIC Team Meeting Agenda for December 11th: 7 PM at Creator
Hi Team,
Here is the agenda for tonight. Let me know if there is an item you think we should add.
Agenda
* Debrief on December 7th Adult Education - New action items and ideas
* Susan's Talk to RIC Team
* Plans and preparation for Congregational vote. Specific language to the resolution to bring before the congregation December council presentation (currently requesting council recommendation for passsage)
* Posting Affirmation of Welcome for vote on RIC Bulletin Board for congregation's review
* RIC Team Talk from same page - Questions are coming up, particularly after last Sunday's activity, and we may want to decide on a standard team response to those questions.
* Determine January newsletter article - Deadline Monday, December 15th
* RIC Sunday - Promoting event at Mt. Carmel 515 SW Maplecrest Dr.
* Post congregational vote plans - Next steps on the journey:
LCNA normally turns around designation in two weeks but can do it faster if needed.
Paul and Karen LCNA Region 1 Regional Coordinators want to present certificate.
Publicity Plans
Here is the agenda for tonight. Let me know if there is an item you think we should add.
Agenda
* Debrief on December 7th Adult Education - New action items and ideas
* Susan's Talk to RIC Team
* Plans and preparation for Congregational vote. Specific language to the resolution to bring before the congregation December council presentation (currently requesting council recommendation for passsage)
* Posting Affirmation of Welcome for vote on RIC Bulletin Board for congregation's review
* RIC Team Talk from same page - Questions are coming up, particularly after last Sunday's activity, and we may want to decide on a standard team response to those questions.
* Determine January newsletter article - Deadline Monday, December 15th
* RIC Sunday - Promoting event at Mt. Carmel 515 SW Maplecrest Dr.
* Post congregational vote plans - Next steps on the journey:
LCNA normally turns around designation in two weeks but can do it faster if needed.
Paul and Karen LCNA Region 1 Regional Coordinators want to present certificate.
Publicity Plans
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