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Nine denominations move forward to combat racism
Appeal to the churches To Seek God's Beloved Community
Church sees giving increase
Church ad campaign, Sept. 11 cause jump in new attendance
Expanded News Briefs
Nominations sought for new mission leader
Study committee embraces idea of weekly Holy Communion
Black church committee adds five resource centers
United Methodists to dispatch missionary to Mongolia
Church agency supports raising tobacco taxes nationwide
Estonian Methodists raise funds to build church in Tartu
UMNS National News Briefs
Jan. 22, 2002
Nine denominations move forward to combat racism
By M. Garlinda Burton
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UMNS) - After 40 years of conversation, leaders of United
Methodist Church and eight other Christian groups - representing some 22
million believers worldwide - joined hands Jan. 20, vowing to worship,
witness and work together from this day forward as Churches Uniting in
The nine member denominations of Churches Uniting in Christ also marked the
Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration with a public march and by
signing a pledge on behalf of their churches to take the lead in fighting
racism and white privilege in their communities, the nation and around the
After 40 years of dialogue about how to unify across denominational lines
(and after failed attempts in the 1970s to create one "superstructure"
church), the member churches of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU)
agreed to maintain their denominational identities and structure for now.
However, at their 19th Plenary in Memphis they declared their intent to move
from just consultation to tangible acts of cooperation, and so disbanded as
COCU and reconvened under the new name "Churches Uniting in Christ." Member
churches include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church; International Council of Community Churches;
Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); United Church of Christ; and
United Methodist Church.
For local churches, this means that they will be encouraged to do joint
mission, cooperate in new church development, and recognize and observe
common baptism and other worship celebrations. And local congregations of
the participating groups - including Methodists, Presbyterians,
Episcopalians and Disciples - may amend their church signs to reflect their
affiliation with the organization, such as "First United Methodist Church:
member, Church Uniting in Christ."
Most importantly, say leaders of the nine member churches, local Christians
will be challenged and encouraged to work together on what the uniting
churches have called their No. 1 moral agenda item: wiping racism off the
face of the earth.
"While each communion is retaining its own identity and decision-making
structures, we are pledging before God to draw closer in sacred things,
regular sharing of the Lord's Supper and mission work, especially a mission
to combat racism together," explained the Rev. Bruce Robbins, top staff
executive of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns in New York.
"Let it be recorded that, in a nation still deeply distorted by the sin of
racism, Christians gathered in Memphis to say, "In the name of Christ, this
must stop!" said the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, a professor at Eden Theological
Seminary in St. Louis and top executive of the Consultation on Church Union.
The Consultation on Church Union began in 1962, with four denominations
discussing possible union. Its original goal was to make unity tangible by
bringing participating churches together as one body. The effort at a
superstructure stalled, but nine denominations, including the United
Methodist Church, stayed the course and moved the talks in a new direction.
Unity of purpose replaced "organic" union as the goal.
With the involvement of three historically black Methodist denominations,
the consultation was further challenged to expand its notion of Christian
unity. How could churches unite across denominational lines, when their
ranks were torn by racism? As a result, the nine churches declared that the
first call to action as Churches Uniting in Christ would be aimed at
battling racism. At their 18th Plenary in 1999, the members adopted an
"Appeal to the Churches: To Seek God's Beloved Community." The letter was
signed during the 19th Plenary in Memphis.
For United Methodists, the call is particularly significant because the
three historically black Methodist churches in COCU-Churches United in
Christ began after racial segregation in the "mother" Methodist church led
some blacks to create their own denominations.
"Racism is one of the 'pinch points' for our church and for Churches Uniting
in Christ," said Bishop Fritz Mutti, head of the United Methodist Church's
Kansas Area, addressing United Methodist delegates and observers at the
Memphis gathering.
"If our church is unwilling to confront racism and white privilege, then we
will have failed at our primary reason for coming together (with other
denominations)," added Bishop Melvin Talbert of Nashville, Tenn., ecumenical
officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops.
In his address, Kinnamon said that, in fact, how the denominations deal with
racism in the future will be the "real test of how we live together."
However, when it comes to church polity and tradition, the symbolic and
tangible moves toward unity are not without their sticking points for some
participating communions. Two such sticking points are the role of bishops
and the order of ordained ministry. On one end of the spectrum,
Presbyterians do not have or recognize the office of bishop; on the other
end, Episcopalians count bishops as essential to their definition of a
threefold order of ordained ministry.
Still, while the battle over bishops was once feared as a threat to unity among the nine groups, they all agreed to move forward with reconciliation plans and have even added others to the dialogue. Joining the nine in Memphis as "recognized observers" or "partners in dialogue" were representatives from the Moravian Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Church USA and the Roman Catholic Church.
# # #
Burton of Nashville, Tenn., is editor of Interpreter magazine, a publication for leaders in United Methodist congregations.
APPEAL TO THE CHURCHES To Seek God's Beloved Community
This letter was signed at the inaugural ceremonies in Memphis, Tenn., on
January 21, 2002. Pastors and other church leaders are encouraged to share
it with their congregations.
Call to Christian Commitment and Action to Combat Racism
The following is a call to action from delegates to the Eighteenth Plenary
of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) to the nine member-churches.
Common witness and service are two marks of an ecumenical body. The COCU
member-churches have chosen to live this commitment especially by focusing
attention on the need to combat racism within and among the member-churches,
in all churches and in society.
The experience of the Consultation on Church Union makes clear that the
unity of the Church is God's gift expressed in creation and redemption. This
unity is given not only for the church but also for the whole human
community and all creation. It is the gift of God's own life offered to all
humanity. For this reason the church is called to be a sign and instrument
of the communion and justice God intends for all people.
This truth informs COCU's search for visible church unity in particular
1. It implies that there is an irrefutable link between the churches'
search for unity in faith, sacraments, and ministry and the struggle to
overcome racism in the churches and the human community.
2. It implies that authentic unity is inclusive and requires racial
justice within the life of the churches and of society.
3. It implies that our prophetic witness against racism and all the
powers of oppression is a primary test of the faithfulness of these
In combating racism, the Eighteenth Plenary Session of the Consultation on
Church Union calls upon the nine member-churches to commit themselves to a
unity that is liberating and reconciling, a unity offered in the Gospels,
yet not fully expressed in the life and structures of these churches. It is
in this context that the COCU churches, seeking to become Churches Uniting
in Christ, are making commitments to change ourselves and our society.
Something is seriously wrong with race relations in the United States. One
of the most prominent and pervasive evils in our national heritage and
cultural routines is racism--that is, biased assumption about the genetic or
cultural inferiority of certain racial-ethnic groups, and/or subordinating
practices that exclude persons or deprive them of their humanity because of
their racial-ethnic identity.
Racism so permeates our customs and institutions that none can escape
participation in it. Indeed, no member of a dominant group can fully avoid
benefiting from it, and no member of a subordinate group can avoid the
intention of oppression. Racism is finally about power -- abuses of power by
a dominant group intent upon preserving its economic social, political, or
ecclesiastical privileges and the resulting deprivations of opportunity
imposed on a subordinate group.
Unless significant initiatives are taken to counter current conditions
trends, racism -- especially white racism -- will continue to corrupt our
national and ecclesiastical aspirations for a society that incarnates
"liberty and justice for all." We, therefore, appeal to the peoples of our
nation and our churches for a renewed commitment to the sin of racism and
white privilege. The moral integrity and credibility of both our nation and
our churches are at stake in this struggle. For the churches in COCU
particularly, our quest for visible unity is irrelevant -- in fact,
fraudulent -- unless that unity embodies racial solidarity and produces a
vital public witness for racial equality and fairness. The churches seek to
embody this commitment together, through the Church of Christ Uniting
envisioned by the COCU member churches.
From the perspective of the Christian gospel whose mandate is reconciliation
of all God's children, racism is demonic and sinful. It denies the image of
God given each person in creation, and in the creation each person enters by
How then shall the member-churches of the Consultation on Church Union,
yearning to become Churches Uniting In Christ, combat racism? How shall we
make our vision of church truly catholic, truly evangelical, and truly
reformed, visible through our struggle against racism?
In view of what we discern that God is calling all the churches to be to do,
and in view of the present impediments to effective responses to that call,
this Eighteenth Plenary appeals to our member-churches to the following nine
strategic commitments, and to implement these commitments together:
1. Continue to make a compelling theological case against racism.
Racism must find no refuge in and no solace from the church. It is a denial
of the truth known in Christ, who breaks down the humanly constructed walls
that partition us into alienated communities of faith (Eph. 2:13-14). The
church cannot be "truly catholic" unless it is fully open to all people on
an equal basis. The church we seek to become, therefore, must be a model, a
prophetic sign of the unity in diversity of God's creation. Christians must
hear this affirmation regularly and convincingly.
2. Identify, name and share information with each other regarding those
concrete programs and initiatives in combating racism that already taking
place within our member churches. A consultative conference should be
explored to bring together this information and to take further action in
light of these learnings as a good faith first step anticipating the
inaugural liturgical celebration of Churches Uniting in Christ in 2002.
3. Claim Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances and similar appropriate
occasions for dialogue leading to systemic change. Encourage and enable
interracial dialogue within and among churches, as well as among members of
the whole community. When properly designed, such dialogue can be an
indispensable instrument of justice and reconciliation-- reducing fears,
suspicions and resentments, and enhancing mutual respect and understanding.
The connection between the date of Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance and
the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has important potential in forging
the concerns of addressing racism and pursuing our unity in Christ.
4. Take the discipline of social ethics seriously, because the careful
arguments and nuanced distinctions demanded by that discipline can save us
from the simplistic exhortations that hinder effective advocacy. An adequate
defense of some preferential forms of affirmative action, for example,
depends in part on sound and subtle interpretations of distributive and
compensatory justice. Social ethics can bring a necessary depth to a
strategy against racism.
5. Insure that worship is an intentional witness against racism, and
therefore reflects the fullness of the Gospel. Worship is sometimes an
instrument of racial separation and oppression. Not only is the eucharistic
table divided by theological barriers, but also by the racial separation
within and among the churches. As the member-churches of COCU seek a common
table, they must evaluate all liturgical resources and practices and insure
their racial sensitivity and inclusiveness.
6. Maintain a strong program of Christian education on the dynamics of
racism and the demands of racial justice. Educational resources, like
liturgical ones, need to be evaluated to insure that they are consistent
witnesses against racism and for racial equality, especially in relation to
family education.
7. Engage in rigorous institutional self-examinations, searching for
racism embedded in the structures, politics and programs of churches, and
set goals for measuring our progress. This self-auditing is imperative to
overcome racial offenses and advance racial reconciliation, while providing
targets for change. It is most effectively accomplished in a context of
mutual accountability, admonition, and affirmation among the churches.
8. Renew the churches' commitment to the struggle for equal human
rights through advocacy. In continuing the civil rights agenda, four
instruments of justice seem especially relevant for our time: 1) the
preservation and enhancement of federal civil rights laws, 2) the
continuation of key affirmative action initiatives to address imbalances and
deprivations caused by racism, 3) the defense of economic rights, such as
adequate housing, health care, nutrition, employment, and other essential
material conditions, and 4) reform of the criminal justice system.
9. Develop resources to address the issues related to racism in the
member churches' capacity and responsiveness to new immigrant and cultural
As a first step in this "Call to Commitment and Action To Combat Racism,"
the delegates to the Eighteenth Plenary Session have covenanted racism in
our churches and in our nation as an essential component in our pursuit to
become Churches Uniting In Christ.
Combating racism is a formidable task - and eradicating it will appear to
many as beyond realistic possibilities. It demands both the conversion of
individuals and the transformation of churches. Yet, we have good reasons
for hope and persistence in struggle - primarily because God is ever
creating new possibilities for racial solidarity.
The commitment by the COCU churches to overcome racism and live more
intentionally the unity and catholicity of Christ's Church is a promise and
a prayer. It will lead us into deeper understandings of the triune God, the
redemption offered in Jesus Christ, the nature of the Church and the world
as created by God. In this commitment these nine churches, seeking to become
the Church of Christ Uniting, will be a sign and foretaste of the unity of
the whole people of God.
Adopted by unanimous vote of the delegates of the nine member
to the Eighteenth Plenary of the Consultation on Church Union, January
1999, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Feb. 4, 2002
Church sees giving increase during difficult year
In the face of a recession and events related to the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, United Methodists increased their giving to the denomination's
general funds by more than $2.4 million, or 2.1 percent, in 2001, according
to the church's finance agency.
Giving to the seven general apportioned funds hit $114.7 million for the
year, according to the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA)
in Evanston, Ill. Local churches support the apportioned funds through
payments to the denomination's annual conferences, or regional units.
Beyond that amount, United Methodists gave $17.5 million to the church's
ongoing "Love in the Midst of Tragedy" offering, made in response to the
aftermath of Sept. 11.
Sandra Kelley Lackore, the denomination's treasurer and top staff executive
of GCFA, said she was "overjoyed" at the 2.1 percent increase in general
fund income, achieved despite an economic recession and a national tragedy.
"Our annual conferences and local churches have worked diligently," she said
on Feb. 1. "This is a remarkable demonstration of the faithfulness of our
The $114.7 million figure represents 90.1 percent of the denomination's goal
for the year, according to GCFA. That's down slightly from the 91.1 percent
level of support for 2000. However, the 2001 budget represented a 4.4
percent increase to the annual conferences compared with the previous year.
General Conference, the church's top lawmaking assembly, sets the budgets
and increases when it meets every four years.
The 4.4 percent represents the biggest yearly increase for the 2001-2004
quadrennium. The increase for 2002 will be 0.4 percent, according to Steve
Zekoff, communications officer for GCFA.
Three of the general funds received an increase in support. The biggest of
the seven funds, World Service, received a 5 percent increase for its work
supporting the church's program agencies. The Interdenominational
Cooperation Fund had a 28.7 percent increase, and the General Administration
Fund saw a 12.9 percent increase.
Receipts for the four other funds decreased slightly. The Africa University
Fund, supporting the United Methodist-related school in Zimbabwe, decreased
1.1 percent, and the Black College Fund dropped 1.6 percent. Giving to the
Ministerial Education Fund was down 0.8 percent, and support for the
Episcopal Fund dropped 1.0 percent.
Total giving for all general funds, including the apportioned ones, reached
$171.3 million, up from $153.9 million during 2000.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) received $32 million of the
giving beyond the apportioned funds. The $17.5 million for "Love in the
Midst of Tragedy" accounted for more than half of the giving to UMCOR, which
is administering the money.
Giving to all of the denomination's Advance Specials, which include "Love in
the Midst of Tragedy," was $49.2 million. Other denominational outreach
funds collected $807,396 in special gifts.
United Methodists also gave more to support the church's six Special Sunday
offerings, sending that total figure up 7.5 percent to $6.7 million.
Fourteen annual conferences paid 100 percent of their general fund
apportionment: Baltimore-Washington, Central Pennsylvania, Desert Southwest,
Detroit, Kansas West, Minnesota, Northern Illinois, North Texas, Oklahoma
Indian Missionary, Peninsula-Delaware, Red Bird Missionary, Western
Pennsylvania, West Michigan and Wisconsin. That number is a slight decrease
from the year before, when 16 conferences paid all of their apportionments.
Another six conferences paid 100 percent of their World Service commitment:
Illinois Great Rivers, West Ohio, Troy, Oklahoma, Rio Grande and North
Carolina. The autonomous Iglesia Metodista de Puerto Rico also paid 100
percent of its voluntary participation in the United Methodist Church's
general funds.
The United Methodist Church has about 8.4 million U.S. members and more than
1 million additional members in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Feb. 5, 2002
Church ad campaign, Sept. 11 cause jump in new attendance
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - New attendance at United Methodist churches in
five cities increased an average of 108 percent for the first month of the
denomination's national television ad campaign, a result not only of the
commercials but also of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The number of new attendees at the churches increased 55 percent during the
first week of September, when the denomination launched its national
television ad campaign, "Igniting Ministry," according to a survey prepared
for United Methodist Communications (UMCom). Nashville-based UMCom is
managing the campaign, which includes TV, radio and print ads.
During week two, the number of new attendees increased 218 percent, followed
by 81 percent and 77 percent in the last two weeks of the month,
respectively, according to the study, prepared by Prince Market Research. A
new attendee was someone visiting a church for the first time or who hadn't
been to the church in at least six months.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks encouraged local churches to work even harder
to become welcoming congregations, said the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston,
executive director of the initiative.
"There's been a synergy between the local church efforts around welcoming,
the national advertising and Sept. 11," he said. "Instead of Sept. 11 having
the possibility of defeating the campaign, it has encouraged and fed the
Prince conducted a national telephone survey of 1,256 non-United Methodists
in five test markets and also tracked attendance at 100 United Methodist
congregations, equally divided among the five areas - Baltimore,
Indianapolis, Portland, Ore., San Antonio and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Those
surveyed were between the ages of 25 and 54 - a key audience that the church
is trying to reach. The calls were made between Sept. 26 and Oct. 10. The
survey had a 2.8 percent margin of error.
Igniting Ministry already had purchased the time for its ads on the cable
television networks, giving it access to national media that no other
denomination had at that time. When the attacks occurred, UMCom pulled its
regular ads and instead placed a reworked ad on several of the channels,
including CNN, TNT and Lifetime. Its message: "We as a denomination are
praying with you."
"We got thousands of e-mails," Horswill-Johnston said. "... People were so
impressed that we were able somehow to have access to this media."
People also appreciated the message, which was not the traditional "come in
the door and buy our product" type of ad, he noted.
While CBS aired the ads during the opening week of the campaign, NBC and ABC
had not accepted any of the spots before Sept. 11. Now, both networks have
indicated they will accept the ads, and Horswill-Johnston believes that
change was dictated partly by economics but also by the content of the ads
The study is the first of what will be an annual look at the impact of the
ad campaign, Horswill-Johnston said.
Other key findings:
á More than one-third - 35 percent - of those surveyed reported an
overall favorable attitude toward the United Methodist Church. "Given that
this number is based on non-UMC members only, many of whom are confirmed
Baptists or Catholics, this is somewhat encouraging," the report stated.
á Less than 5 percent of the respondents had an unfavorable view of
the church, and 60 percent were neutral or had no opinion.
á Thirty-five percent expressed willingness to visit a local United
Methodist church, compared with 23 percent who were neutral and 39 percent
who were unwilling.
á In terms of both aided and unaided mentions, 14 percent of the
respondents recalled seeing the ads, compared with 18 percent for ads by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 12 percent for those by
Baptists, 9 percent for those by the Catholic Church and 6 percent for ads
by the Lutherans.
"The overall impression of the church ... is actually pretty encouraging,"
Horswill-Johnston said.
Improving the impression of the church will take years of commitment not
only to advertising but to becoming known for having welcoming
congregations, he said. "One year of advertising is not going to change
The survey also showed that the local United Methodist congregations support
continued funding for the campaign by the denomination. General Conference,
the denomination's top legislative body, approved about $20 million in
funding for the campaign from 2001 to 2004. Other funding is coming from the
denomination's annual conferences and local congregations.
Feb. 4, 2002
Nominations sought for new mission leader
The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries is seeking suggestions from
the denomination as a whole in selecting the agency's new staff leader.
Members of the search committee for the board's general secretary position
invite any United Methodist to nominate qualified men or women to succeed
the Rev. Randolph Nugent, who is expected to leave his post at the end of
the year. The application deadline is March 31.
Caucuses and organizations within the church are also encouraged to discuss
the future of the church's mission efforts and the leadership qualities that
will be required. The results of those discussions should be sent to the
Rev. Sally Dyck, 231 N. Buckeye, #C, Wooster, OH 44691.
The search committee plans to interview candidates this summer and to submit
a candidate for nomination at the board's annual meeting in October. The new
chief executive would begin duties on Jan. 1.
Inquiries and nominations can be sent to Bishop Joel Martinez, search
committee chairman, P.O. Box 781688, San Antonio, TX 78278-1688.
Jan. 31, 2002
Study committee embraces idea of weekly Holy Communion
A United Methodist Church committee that is studying issues related to Holy
Communion has agreed that one of its aims will be to affirm the value of
weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper.
The committee, however, will not seek church legislation mandating weekly
celebration of the Eucharist.
Members of the Holy Communion Study Committee supported the idea of a weekly
Eucharist during their Jan. 26-28 meeting in Seattle. The committee is
developing a comprehensive paper on the theology and practice of Holy
Communion under a mandate by the General Conference, the denomination's top
lawmaking body. Delegates to the 2000 General Conference identified "an
absence of any meaningful understanding" of those aspects of communion in
the church. The committee will present its paper to the 2004 General
Conference in Pittsburgh.
During its Seattle meeting, the group worked from a draft outline of the
questions and issues it needs to address. Though still in the early stages
of their work, committee members voiced support for the church embracing
weekly Eucharist.
"I think if the committee is supportive and committed to such an
affirmation, it needs to say so early in the process, so people have time to
have their first reactions and live with it for a while," said the Rev.
Bruce Robbins, top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on
Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, based in New York.
Past research and information from "listening posts" showed that many United
Methodists would like more frequent communion, according to the committee.
The committee affirmed that idea in a working statement that it adopted:
"Out of faithfulness to the Sunday worship encouraged by John Wesley and the
wider tradition of the Church, and believing that our United Methodist
worship life and fellowship will be enriched as we live into weekly
celebration of the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Day, the Holy Communion Study
Committee affirms the value of the United Methodist Church moving towards a
richer sacramental life, including weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper
as advocated by the general orders of Sunday worship in our United Methodist
hymnals and book of worship, while recognizing that not every service will
include Holy Communion."
The committee traveled to the Western Jurisdiction to listen to lay people
and clergy from the Seattle area and to hear responses to its initial draft
outline. Participants expressed appreciation for being included in the
process and emphasized that the committee's paper should reach the "highest
levels" of the church - the people in the pews. Bishop Susan Hassinger, who
leads the church's New England Annual (regional) Conference, guided the
listening session.
In addition to holding the listening post, the committee focused on five
issues: who is authorized to preside over communion; what are the
appropriate elements; the presence of Christ in the Eucharist; who receives
Communion; and what should be done with remaining elements after the meal.
The members divided into five groups to work with position papers on the
topics, then returned to the full committee with statements related to the
issues. Rather than voting on whether to adopt the statements, the committee
expressed levels of support for them.
The group's 20 members include five lay people, two leaders from central
conferences, two bishops, three top staff executives of general church
agencies - the Board of Discipleship, the Board of Higher Education and
Ministry, and Robbins' commission - ordained elders, a deacon, a young adult
and several seminary professors. The Rev. L. Edward Phillips of
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., is the chairman.
The committee plans to meet once in each of the church's five U.S.
jurisdictions to hold listening posts and to test responses to the paper as
the draft takes shape. The group also plans to engage the Council of Bishops
with an early and final draft.
The draft outline was written after the committee's first meeting last
September in Nashville. Its purpose was to summarize and organize points
raised in that meeting, said the Rev. Gayle Felton, principal writer for the
Through the Internet, the committee has received feedback on the draft
outline from the wider church, including local church leaders, annual
conference staff and bishops. Committee members have conducted listening
posts in seminaries and churches to learn about questions and concerns that
are most vital to youth, adult lay members and those preparing for ordained
The group will also go outside the United States by holding listening posts
in Africa, the Philippines and Europe. "It is essential that this committee
listen to the voices of United Methodists across the world," said the Rev.
Karen Greenwaldt, top staff executive of the Board of Discipleship, based in
Nashville, Tenn.
When it is ready, the first draft of the paper will be posted on the Board
of Discipleship's Web site, at www.gbod.org/worship/. In the meantime,
people can read the draft outline at the site.
Information for this report was provided by the Rev. Daniel Benedict with
the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn. Benedict is a
member of the study committee.
Jan. 30, 2002
Black church committee adds five resource centers
Five African-American congregations have been added to the 15-member roster
of churches that serve as Congregation Resource Centers for the United
Methodist effort known as "Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st
The centers will serve as places where black congregational leaders and
members go for help in providing more effective Christian ministry to their
The 15 Congregation Resource Centers are located around the United States in
urban, suburban and rural communities, with memberships ranging from 150 to
Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century is an initiative
approved by the 1996 General Conference and continued in 2000 for four more
years. It seeks to strengthen black churches in the United States by linking
growing congregations with partner congregations, and to revitalize the more
than 2,500 African-American congregations within the denomination. Its
governing committee develops programs and strategies to help predominantly
black United Methodist congregations become more effective in ministry.
Each of the five churches has ministries, gifts and vitality that will help
partner congregations "see the vision of God's potential for their
ministries in their communities," said Cheryl Stevenson, initiative
The "vital" congregations were selected because they:
The five United Methodist congregations were selected from two of the church's five geographic jurisdictions. With the names of their pastors, they are:
Northeast: Eastwick in Philadelphia, the Rev. Helen Stafford Fleming; Emory in Washington, the Rev. Joseph C. Daniels Jr.
Southeast: New Life Community in Jacksonville, Fla., the Rev. Candice Lewis; Ousley in Lithonia, Ga., the Rev. Michael McQueen; St. Thomas Charge in Huger, S.C., the Rev. Michael Taylor.
The churches will attend a March 8-10 congregation resource training event in Atlanta.
Jan. 30, 2002
United Methodists to dispatch missionary to Mongolia
The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries is dispatching its first missionary to Mongolia.
Helen Shepherd, who has worked as a missionary in Korea since 1992, is scheduled to arrive in the Eastern Asian country, lodged between Russia and China, on Feb. 7.
The Korean Methodist Church, which runs a clinic in Mongolia, had urged United Methodists to join its mission work there, said the Rev. David Wu, a Global Ministries executive. Shepherd, who had served at the College of Nursing, Yonsei University, in Seoul, Korea, is suited for the position because of her connection with the Koreans and her desire to work in Mongolia, he added.
Just what that work will include has yet to be determined. Part of her assignment, according to Wu, will be to identify a centrally located building for use as a mission center in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of about 2.5 million people. A library, reading room and space for youth activities already are planned.
Attention to youth will definitely be a focus. Wu, who accompanied the board's Youth Mission Chorale on its tour last year, said the musical group was well received by youth in Mongolia. He expects to send two youth mission volunteers to Mongolia this summer.
In an interview late last year, while she was on home assignment, Shepherd told United Methodist News Service that she expects to find many challenges in an economically depressed country with limited resources. One concern, she said, was that many children among Mongolia's nomadic population were not receiving an education.
She already has connections with the country. Mongolian doctors have been to Yonsei University, and Shepherd had the opportunity to travel there in 2000 to teach about hospice care. She returned the following year for a week's stay. "There's a lot of Korean connection with Mongolia," she added.
That connection extends to United Methodist Korean-American congregations in the United States that "are deeply interested in the Mongolian mission," Wu said.
Currently a member of the denomination's Missouri West Annual (regional) Conference, Shepherd is a native of Ann Arbor, Mich. She holds a diploma in nursing from Bronson Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Kalamazoo, Mich., and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Park College in Parkville, Mo. She also has a master's degree in social gerontology from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg.
Before her missionary assignment in Korea, Shepherd was the director of Heartland Home Hospice, Clinicare, in Kansas City, Kan., from 1989 to 1991. She worked as a home health staff nurse with Clinicare from 1980 to 1989 and as a nurse at the Spofford Home for Children in Kansas City, Mo., from 1975 to 1980. She also was head nurse in the psychiatric unit of Bethany Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., from 1973 to 1975.
Jan. 30, 2002
Church agency supports raising tobacco taxes nationwide
The United Methodist Church's social action agency is endorsing a campaign to raise cigarette taxes in every state, as part of an effort to reduce teen smoking.
"In partnership with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, we are already working with United Methodists across the country to promote the measure, which has proven a success in reducing teen smoking in the state of Maryland," said Jim Winkler, top staff executive of the Washington-based Board of Church and Society, in a Jan. 28 statement.
United Methodists in the Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional) Conference supported a 30-cent-per-package increase on cigarettes in Maryland in 1999, he noted. A survey released last year by the Maryland Department of Education showed a 30 percent decline in the smoking rate of 10th-graders and a 16 percent decline in adult consumption, he said. Maryland is proposing an additional 70-cent-per-package increase this year.
"If we can prevent just one teen-ager from picking up this life-destroying habit, our efforts will have been worth it," Winkler said. "The potential impact the United Methodist Church can make in mobilizing our grass roots on this issue across the country is enormous given the size and might of our church." Nationwide, the church has 8.4 million members.
The board has partnered with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids on many issues over the years, according to Lois Clinton, the board's director of drug and alcohol concerns.
The board's anti-smoking efforts are grounded in the United Methodist Church's longstanding opposition to the use of tobacco. The denomination's top lawmaking body, the General Conference, has adopted resolutions supporting measures to reduce smoking, especially among youth. The church has called for raising cigarette prices, suspending cigarette advertising on radio and television, and enacting legislation to better regulate the tobacco industry and the use of tobacco, according to the denomination's 2000 Book of Resolutions.
The Board of Church and Society supported national legislation that would have raised federal cigarette taxes in 1998, Clinton said, but that effort didn't pass.
The new campaign is a "very politically viable initiative because of the budget shortfalls that many states are facing," she told United Methodist News Service. Legislators are looking for new sources of revenue, she said.
The new initiative will have an educational aspect, as the board writes articles and meets with annual conference leaders around the country to promote the state tobacco tax, she said. The agency is also reaching out to other denominations and organizations for support, and the initiative has been endorsed by the American Federation of State, Municipal and County Employees, she said.
Meetings are already being planned for this spring with leaders of the North Central Jurisdiction and the New England Annual Conference to promote the tax initiative in those areas. The board plans to visit all the jurisdictions and U.S. annual conferences, Clinton said. "It's not going to happen in one year. We see this as a continual campaign."
Jan. 28, 2002
Estonian Methodists raise funds to build church in Tartu
By Cathy Farmer
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UMNS) - The Methodist Church in Tartu, Estonia, is holding on to a choice piece of land, and the Rev. H. Eddie Fox believes he knows God's will for the property.
God "intends for that land to house the Methodist Church of Tartu," said Fox, director of World Methodist Evangelism. He spoke at the annual meeting of the Friends of Estonia, an unofficial United Methodist group, Jan. 18-19 at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Tenn.
"It's a miracle that the Methodist congregation in Tartu still has the property," he said. During the previous century, the site was coveted by invading Germans and Russians, and then by the municipality of Tartu. After the Soviets left, the city tried to claim the property, but the Methodists went to court and won their case.
The property is across the street from the 375-year-old University of Tartu, where Estonia's future leaders are trained. A church there would fulfill the Methodist strategy of regional ministry while giving the congregation the high visibility it needs.
"The building will cost $400,000 to erect, and half of that has already been promised by laypeople from Georgia," Fox said. "Dunwoody UMC in Georgia pledged another $60,000. With money pledged by the Tartu congregation, we now have $290,000 in hand and need only another $110,000 to make it a reality."
When the land thaws, perhaps as early as March, the Methodist congregation plans to break ground. But in this former Soviet bloc country, no construction occurs on borrowed money.
"We need individuals or congregations to give us $5,000 or $10,000 or $15,000," Fox said. "We need commitments so that by Christmas, the building can be dedicated to the glory of God."
Fox isn't the first person to believe God wants a church built on the site. In 1926, Aleksander Kuum, a newly minted Methodist pastor appointed to the area, persuaded his bishop to pray for the money to buy the property for Tartu's fledgling congregation. Moving forward in faith, they signed a note and made a down payment. But the money ran out and they were about to lose everything.
In a journal written in 1931, Kuum described his wonder when desperately needed funds arrived from America after the congregation had fasted and held a weeklong prayer vigil.
"But with God, everything had been arranged," Kuum wrote. "What's meant for the church, the church will surely get."
Farmer is director of communications for the Memphis (Tenn.) Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
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(Empidonax flaviventris)
Indianapolis, Fall 2011
The approximately 425 species of New World Tyrant Flycatchers make up the largest family of birds found worldwide. Of these, 36 species breed in the US and Canada. Eleven of these are in the Genus Empidonax, the ìEmpidsî a term meaning "King of the gnats," Of these 11 species, 5 regularly occur in eastern North America, including the Acadian, Least, Willow and Alder Flycatchers.
During the breeding season, the "Empids" are relatively easy to identify by song and breeding habitat, but during migration, flycatchers in this group are particularly difficult and perhaps impossible to safely identify unless in the hand, and even then they can be a challenge. The song of each species is distinctive, however, so identifications can be made with vocal individuals. The song of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is ìchi-lek,î with the first note at a lower pitch than the second.
Most flycatchers feed by "sallying," where they sit on a perch, fly out to catch an insect, and then return to the same or another perch close by.
The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (Spanish name: Mosquero de vientre amarillois) is less commonly seen than the other Empids and in the spring, is the last Empidonax to migrate north in eastern North America.
This particular individual is a juvenile that was migrating with a small flock that stopped over in September at the Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park in NE Indianapolis. This individual was captured, banded and released unharmed to continue its journey to central and South America, where they spend their winters in semi-open habitats of Central America, including coffee plantations. Shade-grown coffee plantations have higher densities than sun-grown coffee plantations.
The flycatchers in this group are small and drab, with two pale wing bars and a light eye-ring. The individual shown here is an immature bird that does show some of the yellowish under parts and throat that separate the Yellow-bellied from the other fly catchers in this group that occur in eastern North America.
Figure 1 ñ Immature Young Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Figure 2 ñ Wing of Immature Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
The two pale wing bars are readily seen in this photo. Young birds have a yellowish wash, but adult birds show white in the wing bars. Also note the yellowish leading edges of the secondary and tertial feathers. These will also turn white when the flight feathers are replaced next summer.
The shape of the lower mandible is useful to separate the various species of flycatchers in this group. The Yellow-bellied has a relatively broad, short lower mandible. The dark region near the tip of the mandible indicates that the bill has not yet completely developed. Also note the rictal bristles around the mouth. These are specially modified sensory feathers characteristic of aerial insect-eating birds.
Figure 3 ñ Immature Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Figure 4 ñ Immature Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
This photo shows the white eye ring that is characteristic of this group of flycatchers. The rectal bristles around the mouth can also be seen here. These birds eat mostly beetles, bees, ants, wasps, tent caterpillars, moths, leaf rollers, flies, and spiders. Mountain ash berries and possibly other plant materials round out the diet.
The yellow on the throat is visible in this photo. The yellow throat is an important clue to separate this species from the other eastern Empids, all of which have white throats.
Figure 5 ñ Immature Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
gure 6 ñ Fall Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
The yellow wash on the feathers on the underside of this bird are seen here.
This photo shows a clear dark fault bar. Fault bars develop when the growth of feathers is affected by some disruptive physiological or environmental factor that slows the growth over a short period of time, such as the loss of a parent, or an extended weather phenomenon that prevents feeding of the young by the parents.
Dark regions develop during periods of slower growth, while faster growth results in lighter regions. When all feathers grow in at the same time, the dark bars will be lined up across the feathers as seen here. This occurs when the bird is growing in its first set of flight feathers, but can also occur if an adult bird loses all of its tail feathers and then replaces them all at the same time.
gure 7 ñ Fall Yellow-bellied Flycatcher tail feathers
Flycatchers in the Empidonax group are fussy about the habitat that they breed in. The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher prefers Spruce-Fir forests and bogs from the northern edge of the US north into Canada. A cup nest consisting of rootlets, weed stems, moss and grass built by the female is placed on or near the ground on a mossy hummock or among tree roots of a fallen tree. It is usually sunk into and hidden by moss. From 3 to 5 slightly glossy white eggs with speckles and blotches of brown, pink, buff cinnamon or purple are incubated by the female for about 15 days to hatch. The young are tended by both parents until they fledge nest in 13 days.
The records at the Bird Banding Laboratory show that from 1960 to 2011, 39,396 Yellow-bellied Flycatchers were banded and released. Of these, 6 have been encountered at locations away from the area where they were banded (foreign recaptures).
If you should recover a banded bird, please report the band number to the Bird Banding Lab by calling 1-800-327-BAND or online at the web site of the Bird Banding Lab. Your report will add valuable information to what is known about this species, and you will receive an attractive certificate confirming details of your report.
According to the USDA Forest Service Conservation Assessment for this species, trend data generated by breeding bird surveys conducted since 1966 for the North American meta-population of the yellow-bellied flycatcher has exhibited a positive trend in rate of increase in detections: +2.63 for the period 1966-1999 and +3.20 for the period 1980-1999. More populations have been on the increase than populations on the decrease throughout the breeding range. In Pennsylvania, Gross (1999) reported that the species successfully fledges young in sites where it is observed breeding and suggested that as additional potential nesting sites are explored the possibility exists that more nesting birds will be found.
Habitat loss on the breeding grounds seems to be the primary cause of population declines in some regions.
Baicich, P. J. and C. J. O. Harrison. 1997. A Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. 2nd Ed. Academic Press, Boston. 347 Pp.
David S. deCalesta, D. S., 2000. Conservation Assessment for Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris). USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region. Milwaukee, WI. 11Pp.
Gill, F. B., 2007. Ornithology, 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Company. 758 Pp.
Gross, D. A. 1992. Yellow-bellied flycatcher. Pages 198-199 in Brauning, D. W. (ed.). Atlas of breeding birds in Pennsylvania. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh.
Peterson, R. T. 2009. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. 1st Edition. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. 527 Pp.
Pyle, P. 1997. Identification Guide to North American Birds. Part I. Slate Creek Press, Bolinas, CA. 731 Pp.
Terres, J. K. 1995. The National Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Wings Books, NY. 1,109 Pp.
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 2009. Thayer Birding Software LLC. V5.0.2
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By Kathleen A. Waton
Marguerite Tirelli, RN-C, IBCLC, a nurse in the mother/baby unit at Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, teaches women hospitalized for high-risk pregnancies how to knit to keep hands and minds busy and fears at bay.
Nurses in the mother/baby unit care for 75 to 100 antepartum women annually. Some women may spend as long as a month in the hospital under doctor's orders to be monitored because of complications from asthma, diabetes, chronic hypertension or other problems.
If the women are in hospital more than a week, Tirelli recruits them for her antepartum knitting project, now dubbed "Mothers of Purl," after one of the two basic stitches in knitting.
A Diversion
"We're trying to give them a diversional activity," the certified lactation consultant said, "and the hope is someday to see whether this reduces post-partum depression."
The creative projects also build self-esteem and confidence in the women, Tirelli said. In the short-term, however, learning to knit is "just a fun project for the women to work on."
The women knit blankets for their babies "who often go to the NICU because they are usually early and then the baby goes home in the blanket," Tirelli said.
A mother in the hospital during the holiday season knitted scarves for all of her children - nine of them - including a baby.
While the women create scarves and blankets, they are momentarily distracted from concerns about their children outside of the hospital, bills to pay and pending home projects. Knitting also breaks up the tedium.
"The women get bored after they get things organized," at home and work, Tirelli said.
A left-hander who took up knitting about 5 years ago, Tirelli teaches the women the basic stitches.
"Everything is a combination of the knit stitch and the purl stitch. If you knit two and purl two, that creates a design. If you knit four and purl two, that's another design."
Fun for All
The patients make wonderful students. "It's amazing to see where the women take this skill they've just learned." Tirelli said, "and some of the blankets are just beautiful."
The process is fun for Tirelli, too, "because as I'm showing them, I get to sit for a few minutes and knit with them."
"This project wouldn't have gone anywhere if I didn't have great support from leadership," Tirelli said. "My manager and the director of nursing have been totally supportive. I'm very lucky because other places may not have supported this as much as they've done here."
Colleagues refer potential knitters to Tirelli. Sheila Robinson, RN, on evening shift, who Tirelli describes as a "wonderful knitter," will "pop in and see how [a new patient] is doing and maybe start them off knitting."
Tirelli is taking advantage of the renewed popularity of the craft.
"How to knit has become cool again," the Westchester County, NY, resident said. "Beautiful yarn shops have opened up and are thriving in Westchester and all sorts of knitting clubs are popping up in New York City."
Crafty Connections
The knitters at Montefiore Medical Center don't gather in circles like in clubs because they are on bed rest "and there are privacy issues," Tirelli said, but knitters spot each other in ultrasound, for instance, and make friends.
Personal stories unravel as the women knit and wait. One patient, who loved creative projects like scrap booking, had a mother who was a "phenomenal knitter," but had never learned to knit herself.
"When she learned how to knit," Tirelli said, "it joined her and her mother together and brought a whole new conversation between them, so that was good."
Knitting time is also good for education. "While we sit, some women talk about what's going on with them in their pregnancy. They talk about their fears about the baby and about themselves. Some of the women are pretty sick. They have lots of anxieties, concerns and unknowns. This gives us an opportunity to work through those, too."
The program sustains itself through donations, Tirelli said. Women's clubs conduct drives and donate yarn and needles.
"This is a very easy project to bring to patients," Tirelli said. "It does not involve a lot of overhead and the impact on the patient has been phenomenal. "
Kathleen A. Waton is a frequent contributor to ADVANCE.
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Gardening just got easier with this combination promotional folding seat and tool storage tote.
Inexpensive yet practical, the Custom Logo Circle Soft Key Tag!
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Get an overview of this hotelBeachfront hotel with calming spa services
Popular property highlights
This Podstrana hotel is on the beach, 1.1 mi (1.8 km) from Strozanac Marina, and within 6 mi (10 km) of Znjan Beach and Dugi Rat Beach. Bacvice Beach and Church of Saint George Perun are also within 6 mi (10 km).
Hotel Features
Guests of this beach hotel will appreciate convenient onsite amenities such as a fitness center and a sauna.
Room Amenities
All 17 rooms offer free WiFi and free wired Internet, LCD TVs with satellite channels, and comforts like pillow menus and down comforters. Other amenities available to guests include balconies, minibars, and room service.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Opens in a new window
Hotel Gala Split
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Simply step outside to unwind on the hotel's beach. Spend the day at the beach and work on your tan with sun loungers (chaise longues) or relax in the shade with umbrellas. After a day at the beach, enjoy amenities at Hotel Gala Split like an indoor pool, a fitness center, and a sauna.
Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast each morning. Dining options at the hotel include a restaurant and a coffee shop/café. Guests can unwind with a drink at one of the hotel's bars, which include a beach bar, a poolside bar, and a bar/lounge. Wireless Internet access is complimentary. Complimentary self parking is available on site.
Hotel Gala Split is a smoke-free property.
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Airport transportation (surcharge)
- ATM/banking
- Babysitting or childcare
- Spa treatment room(s)
- Conference space
- Express check-in
- Express check-out
- Fitness facilities
- Pool umbrellas
- Billiards or pool table
- Total number of rooms - 17
- Laundry facilities
- Number of floors - 3
- One meeting room
- Terrace
- Luggage storage
- On private beach
- Beach umbrellas
- Beach sun loungers
- Beach towels
- Free self parking
- Sauna
- Indoor pool
- Bar/lounge
- Coffee shop or café
- Free breakfast
- Elevator/lift
- Free WiFi
- Poolside bar
- Beach bar
- Porter/bellhop
- Restaurant
- Year Built 2011
- 24-hour business center
- Number of meeting rooms - 2
- Smoke-free property
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- On private beach
- Indoor pool
- Free Wi-Fi
- Laundry facilities
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi , Free wired Internet
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- Balcony
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Air conditioning
- Phone
- Daily housekeeping
- Private bathroom
- In-room massage available
- Minibar
- Satellite TV service
- Free wired Internet
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Shower only
- Room service (limited hours)
- Cribs/infant beds (surcharge)
- In-room safe
- Desk
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Free WiFi
- Down comforter
- Pillow menu
Where to Eat
A complimentary buffet breakfast is served each morning between 7 AM and 10:30 AM.
San Antonio - This beachfront restaurant specializes in Mediterranean cuisine and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Open daily.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Nearby Things to Do
Recreational amenities at the hotel include a private beach, an indoor pool, a sauna, and a fitness center.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Cross-country skiing nearby
- Sailing nearby
- Scuba diving nearby
- Water skiing nearby
- Windsurfing nearby
- Rafting nearby
- Snorkeling nearby
- Surfing/boogie boarding nearby
- Scooter/moped rentals nearby
- Mountain biking nearby
- Bicycle rentals nearby
- Parasailing nearby
Spa Services
- Number of treatment rooms 1
- Massages
If you have requests for specific accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
Check-in time ends at 6 AM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Cribs (infant beds) are available for HRK 75 per night.
- Pets allowed for an extra charge of HRK 230 per pet, per day
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- A tax is imposed by the city: HRK 5.50 per person, per night. This tax does not apply to children under 12 years of age.
Optional extras
- Airport shuttle fee: HRK 340 per vehicle (one way)
- Pet fee: HRK 230 per pet, per day
- Crib (infant bed) fee: HRK 75 per night
Hotel Name
- Gala Hotel Split
- Gala Split
- Gala Split Hotel
- Hotel Gala Split
- Hotel Gala Split Croatia/Podstrana
We should mention
Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms.


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What is Paideia?
The philosophy of Paideia is that because life is interconnected and interdependent, education must be integrated and interdisciplinary. It is an integrative educational model that supports students as they explore the complexity of real life problems – integrating multiple viewpoints and perspectives from engaging in rich, varied experiences. Paideia is not simply understanding based on "the sum of parts," rather it encourages students and faculty to explore beyond disciplinary boundaries toward new, unique interdisciplinary understandings of complex issues. Interdisciplinary teaching and learning offers a way to understand disciplines better: to see their assumptions, to critique their histories and investments, and identify points of connection.
Paideia is based on the belief that education must be intentional, that it centers on guided understanding of substantive issues or problems central to the human condition and posed as interdisciplinary, thematic questions. Paideia begins by approaching a problem from three different disciplines, then from an interdisciplinary perspective in a team taught seminar. This framing of the questions promotes flexibility, open mindedness and creativity in thinking and problem solving. Intercultural study and civic engagement further broaden and strengthen student and faculty ways of understanding – analyzing and solving - real life problems.
Courses across the disciplines are organized as Paideia Clusters around thematic questions, and each cluster has at least eight to ten courses associated with it. The Paideia Cluster courses help to make students more explicitly aware of the disciplinary considerations of the thematic questions. The Paideia Seminar creates the interdisciplinary space in which students and faculty collaborate together in exploring the thematic questions. Paideia moves students and faculty understanding beyond the disciplines and enhances the connections between in and out of the classroom learning experiences as they seek creative solutions to complex real world problems.
Americas: North by South
The Anthropocene - Questions for the "Age of Human"
Global Health
Investigating Identity
Mediterranean Mingling
Representing Gender
Situating Place
Interested? Want More Info?
Contact Sherry Adrian (email@example.com) .


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Kidsilk Haze Stripe Scarf by Marie Wallin
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Why did Chris Pratt steal clothes from the set of "Guardians of the Galaxy"???
Photo Credit - @Imgur
I've said it once and I'll say it again!! Chris Pratt is awesome!! The other day he spent time at CHLA and spent time with some kids!!
THIS IS THE CUTEST THING EVER @prattprattpratt YOU ARE THE CUTEST GUY IN THE WORLD AND I MIGHT HAVE STARTED CRYING pic.twitter.com/QDqw5LXABe
— faye (@evanstanss) August 22, 2014
Photo Credit - @evanstanss
Could @prattprattpratt get any more charming?: http://t.co/0gFsfhluUG pic.twitter.com/YMaVPQYsdW
— InStyle (@InStyle) August 22, 2014
Photo Credit - @InStyle
Chris confessed that he had some sticky hands on the set of "Guardians Of the Galaxy"
"I stole the jacket and some of the wardrobe so that, if this movie comes out and does what everyone hopes it can, I can… go visit kids," he said. "If it was a big enough movie, to where it would mean something to a kid who's sick in the hospital — for Peter Quill or Star-Lord to come visit them — I'll do that."


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On the Aug. 26 primary, I will cast votes for two Democratic candidates for the Vermont House to represent Middlebury. I will vote for Betty Nuovo and Donna Donahue.
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I am writing in support of Donna Donahue for Middlebury representative to Montpelier. I have listened to Donna and I come away with a respect for someone who recognizes that the issues are not simple nor are there simple answers.
We would like to apologize for an administrative error involving mistaken identity in the Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014, edition of the Vergennes Police Report. In an entry for the 1st of August, 2014, John R. Cole of Ferrisburgh, VT, was incorrectly identified as the individual charged in a possession of marijuana incident. The individual who was involved had a similar identity. We deeply regret any inconvenience this error has caused.
Chief George Merkel
Many of our nation's primary industries have been greatly diminished with some almost ceasing to exist. Foreign flags fly triumphantly over countless commercial center structures and prominent, formerly American, factories. Many high-skilled laborers are now employed by foreign-owned corporations.
Donna Donahue deserves your support on Aug. 26 in the Democratic Primary for one of Middlebury's representatives to the state House of Representatives. Donna will bring a unique balance of business concern with social responsibility. She served eight years on the board of the Better Middlebury Partnership, three of them as president, helping reinvigorate that organization. She will bring that same enthusiasm and passion for our local community to Montpelier.
ADDISON COUNTY — Vermont State Police made two trips to an Orwell residence during the first week of August in relation to an alleged assault.
Troopers went to Main Street in Orwell on Aug. 5 on a report of a possible assault. After a brief investigation, troopers arrested Justin B. LaFave, 29, of Orwell, cited him for domestic assault, and lodged him at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility where he was lodged for lack of $5,000 bail.
VERGENNES — Boys & Girls Club of Greater Vergennes Executive Director Mike Reiderer has been with the club for 14 of its 15 years and held his post for 13 years.
Reiderer has seen the club's ups — five of its members have been named Vermont Boys & Girls Clubs' Youths of the Year — and downs — a 2012 federal funding cut forced the club to shutter its elementary school program.
VERGENNES — After a recent meeting with Addison Northwest Supervisory Union officials, the Vermont Agency of Education has agreed, with conditions, to restore grant funding to ANwSU that has been withheld from the Vergennes-area school district because of accounting and reporting problems.
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Technical problems?
Special Feature
An Interview with the Producers of DOC and Sue Thomas: FB-Eye
"I was at the top of my career, making more money in a year than I thought I'd ever make in a lifetime. I had the respect of my peers and was included in one of the most elite clubs in the world—Hollywood. But still I wasn't at peace. I came home one night and said to my wife, 'I'm sick of Hollywood, of the lying, the cheating, the backstabbing. Let's leave the business, go somewhere and become missionaries.' She looked at me for a moment and said, 'Name one place on Earth that needs missionaries more than where you are right now."
So said film and television producer, David Johnson in a letter to his pastor in 1995, before he and his brother Gary Johnson made the decision to leave their work at companies like Dreamworks and NBC, to go to work for PAX, making shows like "Doc" and "Sue Thomas: FB-EYE." Shows that have won the Parents Television Council's highest awards, and have people like James Dobson and Steven Curtis Chapman singing their praises.
We trust you will enjoy this exclusive interview that Christian Spotlight brings to you from the Producers of "Doc." If you are not familiar with the show, please visit our "Doc" ratings & review page.


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So Long, See You Tomorrow (Vintage Classics) (original 1980; edition 2012)
by William Maxwell
Work details
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1980)
No current Talk conversations about this book.
Regret is a capricious instinct, like a devilish fairy sprinkling her dust where you'd least expect it, or want it. The big failings, the ones that would apparently change life's course, are easy to spot, even at the moment of their unfolding. But the small ones, the routine and seemingly trivial, are the ones that reach out from the past with a haunting vengeance.
William Maxwell, in [So Long, See You Tomorrow] dives headlong into such a shameful memory, looking at it from fifty years gone. The seminal event is a murder. But the story doesn't study the bloody, jealous act. Instead, the narrator excavates his guilt over how he treated the murderer's son, Cletus, a year and a half later. He had moved with his family to the big city by that time, having forgotten befriending the awkward outsider. When he sees Cletus in the halls of his new big-city high school, he doesn't speak to him, doesn't mention that he knows what happened or that he won't tell anyone about the scandal. Fifty years later, he is left to wonder what Cletus took from the snub. Did the boy assume he was marked with the guilt of what his father had done? Or that his burden was a dangerous contagion?
As these things are, it's difficult to explain. And Maxwell puts the story into the proper context, exhuming all the baggage, not the least of which is the narrator's own grief over the death of his mother at about the same time. The result is a tart slice of small-town Midwestern angst. Maxwell's spare, elegiac tone is masterful.
First appearing in The New Yorker in two parts, the story was published in book form in 1980. Maxwell had long been the fiction editor for The New Yorker, working with the likes of J.D. Salinger, John O'Hara, and John Cheever. But he had also distinguished himself with his own short stories and novels. This final book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the year it was published, likely a recognition of Maxwell's body of work as well as the power of the book itself
Bottom Line: Spare and elegiac; a tart slice of Midwestern angst.
5 bones!!!!!
Haunting, beautiful writing. When I finished I wanted to turn back to the beginning and read it all over again.
Slow paced and at some points beautifully written but,ultimately, it just drags. I couldn't make it to the end of this short novel.
'So Long, See You Tomorrow' is the second William Maxwell novel that I have read, last year I read 'They Came like Swallows' – a beautifully poignant book which Maxwell wrote in the 1930's. This novel, written when the author was in his seventies comes from the same place of raw grief. However, this novel is a work of far greater genius than that earlier novel (exquisite and well worth reading though it is). 'So Long, see you Tomorrow' is a novel written with the wisdom of age and the knowledge that those early griefs never do leave us.
Some novels are difficult to write about adequately. This is one such, it's a book I am in danger of buying for everyone I know who reads. So my thoughts about this book might be brief – because the story is simple – but what the author achieves with this astonishing novel is hard to put into words. It is a book which will almost certainly feature on my books of the year list.
"One winter morning shortly before daybreak, three men loading gravel there heard what sounded like a pistol shot. Or, they agreed, it could have been a car backfiring. Within a few seconds it had grown light. No one came to the pit through the field that lay alongside it, and they didn't see anyone walking on the road. The sound was not a car backfiring; a tenant farmer named Lloyd Wilson had just been shot and killed, and what they heard was the gun that killed him."
The setting is Lincoln, Illinois in the 1920's– just as in They Came like Swallows, the place where Maxwell grew up. There is definitely an autobiographical feeling to both novels, which draw heavily on the author's own experience of losing his mother during the flu epidemic of 1918/9. The novel concerns a murder, a suicide, an adulterous relationship, and the loneliness of two boys who come together briefly in the midst of a series of terrible events. When the narrator of So Long, See You Tomorrow, meets Cletus Smith, he has already suffered the greatest loss of his young life – the death of his mother. His father, is distant, marrying again, a gentle younger woman who tries in time to build bridges between her step sons and their father. Cletus is lonely, watching the destruction of his parents' marriage from the side-lines, but things are about to take a violent, shocking turn. (This is no spoiler – we know all that happens within four or five pages).
"My father represented authority, which meant – to me – that he could not also represent understanding. And because there was an element of cruelty in my older brother's teasing (as, of course, there is in all teasing) I didn't trust him, though I perfectly well could have, about larger matters. Anyway, I didn't tell Cletus about my shipwreck, as we sat looking down on the whole neighbourhood, and he didn't tell me about his. When the look of the sky informed us that it was getting along toward suppertime, we climbed down and said 'So long' and 'See you tomorrow,' and went our separate ways in the dusk. And one evening this casual parting turned out to be for the last time. We were separated by that pistol shot."
After that shot which rang out – and the events which followed, the narrator and Cletus don't meet again – although the narrator is haunted by a glimpse of Cletus eighteen months later – in the corridor of a large Chicago high school where coincidently events have taken both boys. For the rest of his life that damaged young boy carried with him into old age the feeling that he failed Cletus by not continuing their friendship in the wake of the murder. Now more than fifty years after those events, the narrator looks back on the story of Cletus' father Clarence and his former best friend Lloyd Wilson, while remembering his own difficult adolescence.
In the rural landscape of Illinois two neighbouring tenant farmer, Lloyd Wilson and Clarence Smith became great friends. Lending each other a hand whenever it was needed, they spent years in and out of each other's homes. In time jealously, adultery and ultimately betrayal took the place of friendship, and one man lies dead in his barn.
The last section of the novel is so moving, tenderly written – (and don't roll your eyes) told from the point of view of a loyal farm dog left behind in all the fracas. It shouldn't work – but oh my – it completely did for me.
Aware that I haven't done this book anything like the justice it deserves, all I can say to those of you who haven't already read it – is get a copy of this wonderful novel and read it
'People neither get what they deserve nor deserve what they get. The gentle and the trusting are trampled on'
By sally tarbox on 17 Jun. 2012
Format: Paperback
A beautiful little novel that tears at the heartstrings. Set in 1920s rural Illinois, the narrator recalls his bleak childhood, bullied at school and his mother dead. Then he makes a friend...but Cletus' family are about to become embroiled in a tragedy that wrecks two households and ends their friendship.
Maxwell writes with sparing prose, every word counts. I particularly loved his description of the broken-up family as seen from the perspective of their pet dog, now unwanted.
A true classic.
Told from the viewpoint of an old man who feels guilt about his broken connection to a high-school friend after the friend suffers a terrible trauma, the story is sad, primal, deeply American. The writing is as clear and sharp as grain alcohol.
References to this work on external resources.
Wikipedia in English (1)
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0679767207, Paperback)In this magically evocative novel, William Maxwell explores the enigmatic gravity of the past, which compels us to keep explaining it even as it makes liars out of us every time we try. On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers—one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy—has been shattered.Fifty years later, one of those boys—now a grown man—tries to reconstruct the events that led up to the murder. In doing so, he is inevitably drawn back to his lost friend Cletus, who has the misfortune of being the son of Wilson's killer and who in the months before witnessed things that Maxwell's narrator can only guess at. Out of memory and imagination, the surmises of children and the destructive passions of their parents, Maxwell creates a luminous American classic of youth and loss.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:07:02 -0400)
[In this book, the author] explores the enigmatic gravity of the past, which compels us to keep explaining it even as it makes liars out of us every time we try. On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers - one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy - has been shattered. Fifty years later, one of those boys - now a grown man - tries to reconstruct the events that led up to the murder. In doing so, he is inevitably drawn back to his lost friend Cletus, who had the misfortune of being the son of Wilson's killer and who in the months before witnessed things that Maxwell's narrator can only guess at. Out of memory and imagination, the surmises of children and the destructive passions of their parents, [the author] creates a [story] of youth and loss.-Back cover.… (more)
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Which New Food Bowl Design Is the Prettiest Innovation?
Pet Fashion Week's over 'til February, but New York Fashion Week starts soon! I can't get enough of the Lifestyle Innovation Awards from this event, and you may recognize several of the designs from past posts on the site (like Whiner and Diner, Tigrito, and Kevy K.). Even though, the grand prize winner, HugX, is stunning, if you had to choose with money as no object, which style best fits your home's décor?


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Multnomah University prepares students for meaningful careers that serve Jesus whether they're called to traditional ministry or the marketplace.
Stay connected to our community and help the next generation of Christian leaders become agents of positive change, whether they're serving across the street or across an ocean.
Attending any of these events qualifies you for our $500 Campus Visit Scholarship!
Multnomah's Preview is a free, two-day event that gives you a chance to get to know our university by attending chapel, dining in the cafeteria, sitting in on classes and meeting with professors. We also make sure to give you a first- hand look at dorm life by arranging for you to spend the night with our students in the residence halls. Multnomah Preview starts Thursday evening and concludes mid-afternoon on Friday.
Register Schedule
Our Mondays@Multnomah events are the perfect way for you to check out MU in just one day. Visit a class, learn about our academic programs, financial aid and admissions processes, worship with our students in chapel and enjoy a gourmet lunch in our cafeteria. Arrive around 8 a.m. and get it all done by 3 p.m.
During a personalized visit, you can sit in on a class, meet with current students and professors, talk with an admissions counselor and financial aid counselor and explore our campus.


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The United Kingdom's Experience with Lower Corporate Tax Rates
February 10, 2014
The U.S. corporate income tax should be reduced without lengthening asset lives, says Kyle Pomerleau, an economist at the Tax Foundation.
Currently, the corporate income tax rate sits at 39.1 percent. Proposals have emerged to reduce that rate. However, in exchange for such a reduction, some of these proposals have advocated for a change in asset depreciation schedules by lengthening the life of assets. Such proposals would offset the impact of a reduction in the corporate rate.
When businesses purchase assets, depreciation schedules determine how these capital investments are treated for taxation purposes, with the schedules identifying how much of those assets can be deducted from a business' taxable income each year. By lengthening these asset lives, corporate taxable income would increase, as businesses would not be able to deduct as much from their taxable income.
The United States should look to the United Kingdom's experience with lengthening asset lives. The United Kingdom has actually lowered its corporate tax rate by more than 25 percentage points over the last three decades, down from 52 percent in 1979 to 24 percent in 2012. But because it also lengthened its depreciation schedules, the nation did not reap the benefits that it expected from the lower rate.
- In the 1980s, the United Kingdom allowed a corporation to write off 95 percent of its capital investments. In 2008, that figure dropped to 47 percent of an asset's cost.
- The effective marginal tax rate on corporate investment has actually increased, despite the corporate tax rate decline, thanks to these depreciation schedule changes.
Lowering the income tax rate should boost investment, but the United Kingdom has not seen that boost, and in fact it had the lowest level of investment as a percentage of gross domestic product among all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations in 2012. The negative impact of lengthening asset lives has been especially apparent in the manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom, whose growth in capital stock was half the rate of average growth in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France and Japan.
Lowering the corporate income tax rate -- even substantially -- would not produce increased investment and other expected benefits if accompanied by a lengthening of asset lives. As the United Kingdom's experience indicates, such changes to depreciation schedules could result in serious harm to the economy, especially the manufacturing sector.
Source: Kyle Pomerleau, "Trading Longer Asset Lives for Lower Corporate Tax Rates in the United Kingdom," Tax Foundation, January 29, 2014.
Browse more articles on Tax and Spending Issues


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Mushkin will be expanding both their Stealth and Redline memory lines with new 2800 MHz kits. These
There is a simple fact that when a company launches its displays, it's not mandatory that all are b
When I hear the name MSI I mainly think of video cards and motherboards, but to many people's s


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Horsham, Australia (AFP) Jan 23, 2011
Marshall Rodda weathered Australia's decade-long drought, but as he recovers from record-breaking floods the seasoned farmer can't help thinking that when it rains, it pours.
Before the rains began in April, Rodda was among the thousands of Australian farmers struggling to make ends meet in the country's "Big Dry" -- 10 parched years marked by ruinous weather and blamed for many suicides.
The exceptional dry period, brought on by an intense El Nino weather pattern, primed the southern state of Victoria for "Black Saturday", an explosive firestorm which killed 173 people in February 2009, razing entire towns.
Two years later the state, along with an area larger than France and Germany combined in the country's northeast, is battling churning floodwaters that have filled Rodda's dams to bursting and wrecked his cereal and bean crops.
"I guess it's some of those old poems -- the land of milk and honey, rags to riches, floods and fires," Rodda, 60, told AFP from his 5,000-acre farm in Warracknabeal in western Victoria.
"You live out in the bush, you've just got to understand that that can happen to you at any given time.
"I mean we're still in the middle of summer, we're having a flood in Warracknabeal, but in a month's time or tomorrow there's enough grass that's dry that we could have a bushfire.
"I don't want to talk about the bad things but that's what happens in this country."
The vast island continent of Australia, with climate zones ranging from the tropical to the alpine, is characterised by extremes.
Its sheer size, location and the fact that it is surrounded by oceans make it especially vulnerable to the parching El Nino phenomenon and its cousin, La Nina, which brings cyclones and flooding rains.
One system tends to dominate for a number of decades and then give way to the other, said the National Climate Institute's Blair Trewin, explaining that the 1990s and 2000s were El Nino periods, while the 1950s and 1970s brought floods.
Many rural families have worked the land for generations and are used to swings in their fortunes, but Queensland farmer John Cotter said the severity of the most recent drought and floods had pushed some to breaking point.
"When you get 10 years or more of the worst drought on record followed by these horrendous events... the potential for some people to cope with that economically is, I think, more than a challenge," he said.
"It's really, I think, going to stress a lot of people economically past the point of survival."
Many areas in both Victoria and Queensland were expecting their first bumper harvest since the drought when the flooding hit, wiping out whole fields, orchards and plantations.
The excitement of finally emerging from drought made the deluge even more crushing for some, shattering what little reserves were left and resurrecting fears of debt and destitution, said National Farmers' Federation chief Jock Laurie.
"You've got a crop sitting there waiting to be harvested one day, and you turn around the next day and it's all gone -- you've lost all your hard work, all your income, all your investment. It's just gone," Laurie said.
Some farmers had already pre-sold their produce and spent the money, meaning they would have fight their way out of contracts empty-handed.
"The impact is not one dimension, it comes from all angles -- emotionally, financially, just really pulling the rug out from underneath them," he said.
Alex Livingstone, president of horticulture lobby group Growcom, said some growers had lost up to $10 million dollars in stock and suffered such extensive damage that it would be years before the land could be used again.
"They were born in 1950 and they were probably working on the farm before man walked on the moon," Livingstone said of the devastated farmers, whose average age is 60.
"They've been there that long, what do they go and do now?"
The weather bureau's Trewin said the "jury's still out" on whether the climate extremes were becoming more severe, but Laurie was in no doubt.
"Those are things that have never been seen in our lifetime and won't be seen in our lifetime again, we're talking extremes of events," he said of the most recent drought and floods.
Rodda knows the harshness of farm life all too well -- his neighbour hanged himself at the height of the drought and he has seen many young men walk away from the job.
But a love of the Australian bush, known here as the "sunburnt country", prevails through the droughts and flooding rains, says Laurie.
"It's amazing, the old human mind, it's got a great way of shutting things out, getting up and getting going again, and if people can do it financially then I think they'll try," he said.
"It's a wonderful lifestyle, it's a wonderful industry to be involved in. But it really does have its frustrating times."
earlier related report
Sandbagging was underway in some villages in Victoria, where weeks of floods have affected as much as one-third of the state, with swollen rivers overflowing in 75 towns and flooding some 1,770 properties.
"We know that this is the most significant flooding in the north west of Victoria since records began... about 130 years ago," a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service told AFP.
"We are still on alert for towns in the north of the state."
Floodwaters which national broadcaster ABC described as a moving "inland sea" covering an area 90 kilometres (56 miles) long and 40 kilometres wide, were threatening towns around Swan Hill, some 300 kilometres northwest of Melbourne.
"In the actual Swan Hill township itself, we are very confident that the levee system around the town is built to a very high grade and will protect the township," Mayor Greg Cruickshank told ABC radio.
But rural and outlying areas "will have significant amount of inundation through them," he said.
While thousands of people around the state have been urged to evacuate, emergency services warned that those people who choose to remain on their properties in the rural areas could be stranded by the floods.
"A number of these communities will be isolated for days as this huge amount of floodwater comes through," SES spokesman Kevin Monk said.
Eastern Australia has been lashed by torrential rains triggered by La Nina, a weather system associated with cyclones, which caused massive floods that devastated Queensland and spread south to New South Wales.
After surging torrents of dirty brown water flooded an area the size of France and Germany combined in Queensland -- killing more than 30 people and leaving a massive trail of destruction -- more floods developed in Victoria.
As the recovery and clean-up continues in Queensland, hundreds continued the search for the missing from violent flash floods which swept houses and cars into churning waters in the Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane.
Nine people are still missing after the floods which tore through towns such as Toowoomba and Grantham on January 10.
About 400 police were involved in search and clean-up efforts on Saturday and Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said the strain of the extended crisis was telling.
"I think people are tired now, they're fragile and there's a lot of issues in regards money and support," he told ABC.
The floods which shut down Brisbane, the country's third largest city, also dumped tonnes of debris -- including cars, parts of buildings, and boats -- into the Brisbane River which the navy was Saturday working to clear.
As the waters recede in many areas of Queensland, the 75,000-strong city of Rockhampton, which was almost entirely isolated by floods earlier this month, is expected to soon have its air link back.
Some three weeks after Rockhampton airport's runway disappeared under water, daytime flights will resume on Monday after all major repairs and fencing work has been completed, officials said.
But the floodwaters are expected to remain in much of Victoria for days.
"We are still experiencing river peaks so that's going to obviously increase the amount of time," the SES spokeswoman said. "But in low-lying areas where there is flood waters, they can hang around for weeks."
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Arteriors Wade Lamp
$ 1,920.00
This lamp provides the ultimate in lighting options. All five of the curved arms that have been inset into the thick white onyx base rotate. The metal shades are also on a 360 pivot so light can be directed in virtually any direction. On top of all that, it has a full range dimmer on a taupe cloth cord making it the epitome of versatility.
- Installation Environment: Residential, Contract
- Overall Shape: Rectangle
- Lamp Bottom: Closed Bottom No Felt
- Socket Quantity: 05
- Socket Type: Type A- E26, Keyless
- Socket Wattage: 25W
- Switch Color: White
- Switch Location: On Line
- Switch Type: Full Range Dimmer
- Cord Color: Taupe Fabric
- Cord Type: SPT-2
- Wire way position: Bottom of lamp body / back of lamp base
- Plug: 2-Prong, Polarized
- UL/CUL Approved: Yes
- Materials: Steel, Marble
- Overall Dimensions: 10"-48" w x 23"-40" d x 33.5"-40" h
- Base Dimensions: 10" w x 10" d x 2" h
- Cord Length (Exit): 8'
- Net Weight: 25 pounds
- Gross Weight (e-ship): 38 pounds


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Demand Peace Vigil: Saturday Vigil at 6:30 pm
Debra Reiger, Sacramento Area peace activist, asks you to demand peace now!
This Saturday, April 11, is the 2nd Saturday Art Walk in downtown Sacramento. There is a good free-speech corner at 20th and J Streets, and we have been using that corner to remind the community that peace is possible but much work is needed. That's why our event slogan continues to be 'DEMAND PEACE NOW!'
It's at 6:30. The weather should be nice, but maybe a little cool.
2nd Saturday is a very popular event in Sacramento and being there gives the peace community a chance to interact with people that we don't typically see in our daily activities. It's a good time to show what we believe and sometimes talk with passers-by who wonder what we are worried about. Or people who agree and stop to hold signs.
Parking is easier before 6:30. I can almost always get parking a few blocks north of J St. Lots of good restaurants, if you go early and eat before the event.
Use our signs or bring your own. If it gets dark while we are there I will hand out glow sticks. I hope to see you there.