Communities Listing Community for Students & Campus Ministry seeks to provide support for students in undergraduate, graduate and seminary life and empower them to be a progressive Christian voice in their communities. We will help students explore their vocational calling, nurture holistic growth and engage their faith through social justice and service opportunities. Additionally, we will seek to strengthen connections between colleges, seminaries and local congregations directly and indirectly affiliated with the Alliance. Contact Eric Cain.
Creative and Collaborative Worship Community Worship services that creatively celebrate inclusivity and the diversity that make up our congregations are a joy for all participants and worthy of our Creator. How we develop such worship experiences is the question. This community is for dreamers, people who stretch the boundaries of the traditional 11 AM hour on a Sunday morning. Let’s develop a clearinghouse of ideas and how-to’s for building creative and collaborative worship experiences. Contact Mary Jo Crawford. This theme arose from our meeting in convocation at Asilomar, which is set in a forest on California’s Monterey Bay where earth, sea and sky come together in mostly unspoiled natural harmony. Many of us have had similar experiences and insights in other settings that bring together great natural beauty, strength and inspiration. Many of them are under increasingly serious threat because of global warming and related causes. So are many other places, perhaps not so scenic or clearly meaningful, but where tens of millions of people live, work, play and experience community with one another and with G-d*. Contact John Shippee.
*Dash used to recognized the infinitude and undefiniabily of the De-ty. Homelessness, addiction, and hopelessness are chronic and ever present issues in our society and in our world. I believe that one of our challenges is to also remember the need for laughter and joy. As a chaplain working with the homeless, I need/want to remember that joy, laughing together, and sharing hope is also the spirituality of the homeless as is it the spirituality of all of us. Contact Mary Bradley. Pastoral Leadership Community is for those men and women currently serving in a pastoral role in an Alliance congregation. We will seek ways to provide support, fellowship and professional development for clergy. Contact Mike Castle. Women in the Church Community will gather around the themes of supporting, promoting and connecting women. I envision the community functioning as a patchwork quilt of support and encouragement through an increased network of fellow women in church. Also, I hope for it to be a practical help for those women engaged in church life. The community will also be deliberate about the work of promoting the role of women in church life and leadership. Contact Mandy England Cole. Cuba Community Given the Alliance’s commitment to its partnership with the Fraternity of Baptists in Cuba and to improving US policy toward Cuba, this community will promote and support the establishment of more partnerships between the churches of both countries. It will facilitate communication and collaboration among Alliance churches that have existing sister churches in Cuba. Additionally, the community will serve to inform the wider Alliance community about US policy issues affecting Cuba, its people and US citizens and encourage active participation when appropriate. Contact April Baker. Are you passionate about the stories of the Alliance of Baptists? Do you enjoy writing? Are you skilled at editing? Is photography something in which you take pleasure? If you answered yes to any of these questions, join us as we tell the stories of the Alliance. Contact Laura Mayo. Community for Justice in Palestine & Israel will seek to follow the model of 1st Century Jesus by “speaking truth to power” in 21st Century Palestine and Israel. The pursuit of justice will be based on building meaningful relationships between and among all people, using the definition given to us by Martin Luther King Jr.: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” This community will work for justice in Palestine and Israel by raising awareness about the current situation there, sponsoring trips/pilgrimages to the Holy Land, networking with other likeminded faith-based groups, and advocating the pursuit of justice with elected policy makers. We believe that if justice exists, peace will be found. Contact GJ Tarazi or Dona Smith-Powers. Clergy Recognition Community is made up of lay and clergy persons for the purposes of supporting Alliance clergy as they move through the Clergy Recognition Process. Clergy Recognition confirms that a clergy person is in good standing with the Alliance and provides them with a professional denominational identity. It also allows clergy to be a part of the Search and Call Process. Members of the community will work closely with the Minister for Leadership Formation to support and connect recognized clergy in creative and evolving ways and encourage their on-going participation and accountability in the life of the Alliance. Contact Leah Lonsbury. Community for Sustaining the Alliance through Time, Talent and Treasure will work toward financial and volunteer service to sustain the Alliance. We will share the good news of the Alliance through cards, calls and visits. We will meet and encourage new folks through email, Facebook and Twitter. We will send cards of appreciation to folks who support the Alliance. We will donate our creativity for revenue enhancement — art, poetry, music, pottery, quilting, woodwork and the list is limitless …We are the folks who are passionate about financial viability of our faith community for the sustaining of ministries and missions around the world. Contact Ann Charles-Craft. Spiritual Life Community For a spiritual life is simply a life in which all that we do comes from the centre, where we are anchored in God: a life soaked through and through by a sense of God’s reality and claim, and self-given to the great movement of God’s will. —Evelyn Underhill
We will be searching for the personal and communal stories toward the spiritual life. How do you embrace the spiritual life? Are you in a community that fosters the spiritual practices? What does the community look like? What are you reading? What are you practicing? Who is with you on this journey? How has your life changed? How has the world around you changed? What is your spiritual friendship factor with Jesus? Join our community. Offer your story. Contact Ken Meyers. Peace & Justice Community Can "advocacy" in the political world be a spiritual practice? For some of us, the work of advocacy is our response to God’s call to discipleship. The Peace & Justice Community will work with many ecumenical and interfaith groups that advocate for peace and justice on Capitol Hill. We will share our information with Alliance members through the ClearVoice network and other resources. Join us in working for those whose voices are not heard in our political discourse; or to help the Alliance lift its voice for peace & justice; or to work ecumenically for justice in our land and in our time. Contact Carol Blythe. We will develop and communicate resources, opportunities, and guidelines to enable congregations to reach out to other religious communities to develop relationships of understanding and appreciation, draft statements on issues of religious freedom and respect for all, ensure that the Alliance voice is heard in inter- religious dialogues, and continually prove ourselves neighbor to all. Contact Andrew Kille. To foster ongoing conversations within the Alliance community where initial questions and concerns can be raised and responded to. Then, at Alliance meetings a series of workshops can assist congregations in learning about available models for responding to this issue as well as developing new ones. Finally, out of the above efforts, this emerging community of reconciliation can share what we’ve learned with the larger Alliance. Contact Stephen Price.
We have initially organized ourselves so that we can participate in the Ohio Council of Churches (OCC). American Baptists Churches of Ohio were longtime members of this organization but withdrew their support, leaving many ecumenical minded and progressive Baptists without a structural way to participate in this mainline ecumenical organization. We are now members of the OCC and have contributed our “fair share” financially. There are approximately 40 of us so far. We gathered formally at University Baptist Church in February and informally in Mansfield at a restaurant. Our purpose is to provide mutual support in faith and fellowship, share a meal periodically, laugh, and pray. We have been getting to know one another all over again. Our circle keeps growing, especially as new folks to Ohio and folks new to the Alliance join us. We are able to support each other through some of the more difficult transitions in Baptist life such as being “dis-fellowshipped“ from the Ohio region and offer welcome to pastors new to the region. So far we have several churches participating, clergy including pastors and chaplains, at least one seminarian, and one social justice organizer (also clergy), members of several congregations, and a few youth! We are keeping touch primarily through email and Facebook, but can also accommodate regular mail. Please be in touch if you are in Ohio or near to Ohio! We hope to gather frequently in various places in the state so that there are many opportunities to make a day trip to see each other and we are off to a great beginning. Contact Kim Keethler Ball. This Community will focus on working with congregations to increase their care and welcome to people who struggle with mental illness and their families by providing information and support. Contact Roy Moritz.
This Community will focus our work on two specific items - (1) A consideration of the current statement on marriage equality from the Ohio convocation and a review of the statement from the Charlotte convocation in hopes of penning a new and stronger statement on marriage equality for the 2012 Convocation in Austin, TX. (2) We will work on understanding and developing avenues to achieve a critical mass in each state to help move the Marriage Equality Act to positive national recognition. Folks will choose which of the two foci will be their primary and secondary work. Many folks will be needed for this community as we move out towards grassroots efforts for the achieving of a national Marriage Equality Act. Contact Ann Charlescraft. This community will seek to draw upon the knowledge and resources of Alliance of Baptists members to discern ways for us as individuals, as congregations, and as the Alliance to end the scandal of hunger in our nation and around the world. We will seek to influence policymakers to make wise and beneficial decisions that will help our poor neighbors feed their families and make their way out of poverty. Contact Bob Turner. | |
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