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Releasing Ministry Alliance #19
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Progress Continues toward Launch

Releasing Ministry Alliance's website development, illustrated in the screen shot above, continues. So does publicity for the project. And our exchange with the founder of Faithify, the Unitarian Universalist’s crowd-funding initiative, will help us stream-line the services we will offer.

People following leadings of the Spirit: To have a ministry included on the newly-designed website when we launch, either click on "Sign up to Stay informed or Get Involved" here or at ReleasingMinistry.org

Beyond the website development, our work continues to support ministries in various ways including publishing on topics of accountability and administration, organizing a new yearly meeting group to support individual calls to ministry, and planning workshops and gatherings to support ministries.

A May 12 post to "Quakers" Facebook group asked, "Why do [many] Friends think it's okay to pay little or nothing to Quaker ministers for their ministry?" In response, more than 74 comments addressed a wide range of topics related to ministry among Friends, reimbursement of expenses incurred while traveling in the ministry, compensation for ministry, in-kind support, and sundry other topics. That thread shows that launching the newly-designed site is one of several steps in fuller support for ministry.
 
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FEATURED MINISTRIES
 

Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change:
Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples

by Paula Palmer
 
Honoring Those Known Only to God memorialWith spiritual support and traveling minutes from Boulder Monthly Meeting and Intermountain Yearly Meeting, I have been traveling around the country offering workshops called, "Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change: Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples." In these workshops, as Friends and Native people together consider what “right relationship” would look like, participants realize we need to start with truth-telling. Knowing and acknowledging the truth of our shared history is the first essential step in building right relationship.
 
Truth-seeking led me to research the role that Quakers played during the era of the Indian boarding schools. In four months of research at Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges’ Quaker history collections, I learned that Friends were instrumental in promoting and carrying out the federal government’s policy of forced assimilation of Native children. Over a 200-year period, Friends operated more than 30 Indian schools. We need to learn this history, acknowledge it, understand its consequences for Native children and their families, and consider what it asks of the Religious Society of Friends today.
 
I am seeking opportunities to present my research to Friends and begin a process of collective reflection, as a step toward building right relationship with Native peoples. My slide presentation, “The Quaker Indian Boarding Schools: Facing our History and Ourselves,” runs one hour, and is followed by worship sharing. I hope to post a video of the talk soon, and I am developing articles for Friends Journal, Western Friend, and a Pendle Hill pamphlet.
 
The Toward Right Relationship ministry is full-time, deeply challenging and rewarding work, and donations to Boulder Meeting’s restricted fund are my only means of support. To learn more, please see my quarterly and annual reports and information on how to make tax-deductible donations. I’d be happy to hear from you via paulaRpalmer(at)gmail(dot)com.
 

Support FUM'S Ministry

FUM photo collage
Friends United Meeting has been nominated to share in Everence’s 2016 Rebate for Mission award. Help FUM receive one of two $16,200 grants. Click here and cast your vote for FUM today. Voting ends on June 17.
The two organizations with the greatest number of votes receive an award. Please help FUM be one of them! You can only vote once—but you can pass this along to your Friends! - Colin Saxton

 
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In "Introducing Releasing Ministry Alliance" video,
some Friends describe ministry, releasing ministry, and Releasing Ministry Alliance.
Copyright © 2016 Releasing Ministry Alliance, All rights reserved.


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