Communion

I wanted to ask everyone what Communion means to them. Yesterday was the first time I've ever experienced it. Actually, I take that back, when I was a child I remember going to church with friends and getting bread and grape juice in little cups, but to say I participated in Communion then would be a stretch. I understand the basic idea that we do this ritual to remember Christ and what he did for us, but I'm sure that's not all there is. As a relative newbie to Christianity the experience was exhilarating but I'm ashamed to admit it also felt a little weird, and I want to understand it better

Emerging Conference - Webcast Kickoff

That's funny - we we're just discussing this, and lookie loo, right there in my email! I would offer our house as a place to set up the webcast (2.5 weeks from now) and just a reason to do a BBQ we've been kickin' around, but I don't want to make everybody drive out here. Volunteers? Or, just say you'll come down (Germann & Recker -ish) and we'll do it here!

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Dear Friend,

On behalf of the Center for Action and Contemplation I invite you to join us as our guests on November 8 for a very important and exciting webcast by Fr. Richard Rohr entitled: What is The Emerging Church ?

I hope you have felt the excitement that something fresh and dynamic is emerging in the Christian community. Seemingly independently, there is new energy among Roman Catholics, Mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and other Christians for what we’re starting to call the “emerging church.” Now, the Center for Action and Contemplation is hosting this webcast in November as well as the first large gathering of Christian denominations in March 2009, so that we can explore this emergence and convergence together.

During the November 8 webcast, international author and spiritual teacher, Richard Rohr, OFM, will offer his evaluation, his own questions, and his hopes for this movement of the Holy Spirit that is taking place in both Europe and North America. Fr. Richard’s talk will be followed by a question and answer session where he will respond to e-mailed questions from webcast viewers around the world.

This is an exciting new step in the development in the Emerging Church movement and we invite you, your friends and colleagues to join us free of charge on November 8.

To register for the webcast please see the attached HTML invitation. To receive your free log on password, please contact me at ---@--- or alternatively you can phone me at -------

The webcast will be followed in March 2009 by a major international conference entitled, The Emerging Church: Conversations, Convergence and Action. Please visit: www.cacradicalgrace.org for more information on the conference.

I hope that you will be able to join us on November 8 and I look forward to assisting you with this.

Peace,

Catherine Dowling

CAC Programs Work Intern

Upcoming Gathering: A Heart & Mind for Social Justice

Hey all,

I just wanted to give everybody a quick heads-up regarding next Sunday's gathering. A number of weeks ago, Justin Narducci (a very close friend to me and many others in the cohort) asked if there would be a date in October that he could come spend some time with our Emerging Desert community to talk about ideas surrounding social injustice. Justin and his wife, Erin, (both AZ natives) moved their family to California last year as Justin took the USA Country Director position for the non-profit organization, Life In Abundance International [LIA]. To put it simply, LIA's work centers on addressing the physical & spiritual needs of the poorest and most vulnerable communities across Northeast Africa.

I thought it would be a great fit, given the nature of many of our cohort conversations over the

past months, for Justin & Erin to come back and join us in wrestling with these issues... so we targeted October 26th. Coincidentally (providentially?:-), the next chapter that we will be discussing in Frost's Exiles just happens to be chapter 9, Restless with Injustice.

So, that's the scoop. I'm looking forward to building on the sentiments behind the recent posts & comments made by many of you here on the blog as we collectively seek to become more informed, and ultimately more loving as we try to build the Kingdom.

the least of these...

"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40 TNIV

I would like to start a discussion where we can share ideas on how our everyday choices affect the world around us. In our global community even the purchase of a can of soda can impact people all over the world not to mention the environmental costs of the production and left over can or bottle. We’ll start with a few websites that came out of Michael Frost’s book that we are currently reading.
1. Responsible Shopper
2. CorpWatch
I like Responsible Shopper, plus the main website, Co-op America, has links to many environmental resources. CorpWatch is a little harder to follow but the cartoons are great.
What is your response to these websites or are there others you’ve looked at? How does this information make you feel? I can easily feel overwhelmed which then leads to apathy. How far are you willing to go?