NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

As we welcome 2017, some of us will consider the need for transformation in our personal lives (resolutions) and others will act to change our society (revolution, perhaps). Releasing Ministry Alliance and the ministries we feature intend to advance the full spectrum between resolution and revolution, in Spirit-led ways, for the uplift of all.

Ministries – including those featured in our e-newsletters, on our preliminary website, and on our website (under development) – require prayer support, eldering, financial support, and opportunities to offer ministry. Huge thanks to you who have contributed prayer, time, or treasure to Releasing Ministry Alliance or the ministries among us.

While national and world events unfold in unprecedented ways, Releasing Ministry Alliance continues our work. In recent months we've partnered with others to offer program in U.S. northeastern yearly meetings (NEYM and PhYM), to coordinate the Quaker Women in Public Ministry gathering, and to continue construction of our new Releasing Ministry Alliance website featured in the following informal website video tour. Future programming is planned.

You can explore 1) listing the ministry you carry or 2) partnering with Releasing Ministry Alliance in another way by contacting Viv Hawkins at friendviv2 (at) gmail (dot) com   We'd love to hear from you!
 

Valerie Brown - Retreat & Pilgrimage

Valerie Brown is an international retreat leader, writer, and Principal of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, specializing in application and integration of mindfulness in daily life (www.leadsmartcoaching.com).  She transformed her high-pressure career as a lawyer-lobbyist, representing educational institutions and nonprofits, to human-scale work with leaders and teams to foster trustworthy and authentic connections.  Valerie's books include, The Road that Teaches:  Lessons in Transformation through Travel (QuakerBridge Media, 2012) and The Mindful School Leader:  Practices to Transform Your Leadership and School (Corwin, 2014), named one of the ‘best books on courage’ in 2014 by the Center for Courage & Renewal.  She has studied and practiced mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition since 1995 and was ordained in the Order of Interbeing by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003.  Valerie is a member of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and a certified Kundalini yoga teacher.

As you read this, Valerie’s Open Heart, Peaceful Mind: A Retreat for Rest & Reflection at Pendle Hill, an annual event to celebrate the New Year, www.pendhill.org is fully subscribed and waitlisted. Her Center for Courage & Renewal’s Academy for Leaders at Pendle Hill, a 6-month leadership program,  www.couragerenewal.org/academy, was also at capacity.

Valerie’s upcoming retreats include:

• The Soul Never Forgets:  Leading from Your Deepest Values:  A Courage & Renewal Retreat at Ghost Ranch, https://www.ghostranch.org/retreat/soul-never-forgets-leading-deepest-values/
• Walk in Beauty:  Pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago, Spain, October 2017.  More details at www.leadsmartcoaching.com/events

 

Eileen Flanagan's On-line Course on
How to Take Effective Action

In this time of tumult, fear, and hatred, the world needs the gifts that you were born to share. You may not be sure where to use them. where to use them. You may not know how to use them to greatest effect, or even if you can make a difference at all, but you know you need to do something to work for a more just and loving world. You are not alone! 
 
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting member Eileen Flanagan will be offering a five-week online course for those who want to take action but are not sure where to start. She will share some of what she’s learned leading Earth Quaker Action Team, combined with discernment tools she learned teaching Discerning Our Calls at Pendle Hill for many years. Please visit her website to register or for more information.