News from the Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples Alliance

Contents: October 2006

News from the Open & Affirming Ministry Team Planning Retreat

The O&A Ministry Team held their annual retreat August 18-20 in the in the mountain home of one of the Northern California-Nevada Region’s elders in Calaveras County, California. The weekend consisted of times of worship, reflection on the work of the team in the past year, and looking towards the future.

Several members of the team have resigned recently and the team worked to ensure smooth transitions. 

The team wishes to express it's gratitude to these resigning members who have served us well:

• Matthew Chastain will be devoting more time to the GLAD Council.
• Anita Cadonau-Huseby offered her resignation based on transitions in her life.
• Sharon Hart agreed to continue the with some of the connections with inquiries until the end of the year.
• Ben Bohren has accepted the call of Christian Church in Northern California/Nevada as Regional Minister.
• Rachel Fry has moved to Chicago to plant a new O & A congregation, Wind of Peace. She is also serving a “tent maker” minister with the Interfaith Alliance there.
• Christy Newton has decided to focus on completing her PhD.

The O&A Team and GLAD Alliance has been blessed by these leaders who have done such an excellent work on our behalf. They helped us develop and successfully introduce a model of leadership within the O&A Team that serves us well, sharing the load among all who participate. It is with gratitude that we say THANK YOU for their spirit, vision, dreams and follow through in areas which will impact the future of our denomination for many years to come.

Current members of the O&A Ministry Team are

• Casey Williams, Liaison to the GLAD Council
• Kerry Armstrong, Representative to the Institute for Welcoming Resources Board
• Ann Canady, Recorder of Minutes, Process Reminder Person - “Nag”
• Gilbert Jones
• Pam Webb, Crossbeams contact, Covenant of Inclusion

The team is also excited that we may soon have available to us a quartertime staff person working in partnership with the Institute for Welcoming Resources.

The team will be spending some time recruiting new members and team leader(s).  If you have time and talent that may enrich this team, please contact Casey Williams (Team Member) or David Downing (Human Resource Team Leader) for more information.