Crest to Coast Currents

2021 PNW United Methodist Women Spiritual Retreat

What we Need is Here: Practicing the Heart of Christian Spirituality

March 19- 20, 2021                          Via ZOOM

WHY ATTEND: Are you looking for an ever-deepening relationship with God? Are you finding challenges to growing spiritually? Plan to attend and let God be your Teacher in discovering the “givens” which will demonstrate how Jesus is enough. It offers just what you need to flourish in your life with God! Your days will include laughter, sharing, presentations, reflection, and worship. Take this time to retreat and find exactly what you need to draw nearer to God.

SPIRITUAL LEADER:  Rev. Brenda Tudor -- “I credit the development of my church leadership skills to the UMW units and faithful who encouraged me to become an ordained elder. My passion is for social justice, education, and improving the lives of all people.” 

The book for required reading is: What We Need is Here, Practicing the Heart of Christian Spirituality, by L. Roger Owens. It is available for purchase from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.  Contact Janice Catrell, our Program Resource Secretary Coordinator, if you are having difficulty getting a book. Her E-mail is: jcatrell@yahoo.com and her phone# is 360-223-5938.

You may also contact Judy Dirks, Inland District President. She has four books available for sale through her district. Her E-mail is: judydirks@meadowcrk.com and her phone# are 208-267-3859h 208-661-9752c

Harriet Jane Olson, CEO of UMW, will be joining us on Saturday morning.

YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR FROM HARRIET JANE.

Bio

Harriett Jane Olson has served as chief executive officer of the United Methodist Women’s national administrative and policymaking arm since 2007. United Methodist Women is a nearly 800,000-member organization within the United Methodist Church in the United States.

United Methodist Women members give about $15 million a year for work with women, children and youth in the United States and around the world. UMW operates and/or owns the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City, a retirement home for deaconesses and missionaries in North Carolina, a publication and distribution network, and a series of mission education and leadership development events annually. Through these events and our connections around the world, UMW staff and members are inspired, prepared, encouraged and celebrated for their direct service and advocacy for justice.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Ms. Olson practiced real estate and environmental law (1983-96) at a N.J. law firm that is now part of Day, Pitney, before working for the church full-time. From 1996-2007, Ms. Olson was senior vice-president for publishing, editor for church school publications and United Methodist Church book editor at the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, TN.

Ms. Olson has a bachelor's degree from Houghton College in Houghton, N.Y., where she serves on the board of trustees.

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PNW Conference UMW 2021 Spiritual Growth Retreat

“What We Need Is Here”

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM

And Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 8:45 AM - 11:00 AM

Spiritual Leader: Rev. Brenda Tudor

Special Guest Speaker: Harriet Jane Olson, CEO of UMW

 

Prior to the retreat, please read the book,

“What We Need is Here” by L. Roger Owens

Available through Amazon or Barnes & Noble

 

Registration Form for Zoom Spiritual Growth Retreat

Name_____________________________________________________________________

Address___________________________________________________________________

Phone _________________________E-mail______________________________________

District____________________Church________________________UMW Officer Y__N __

Please list local/District office.  Local___________________District__________________

 

Registration Deadline: March 12, 2021

Email Registration form or information to: 

Susan Chamberlain at susancchamberlain@yahoo.com

Or Phone: 360-859-3740

 

Susan will send you the link to the Zoom Retreat after you register.

The Rule of War and Violence

The story of Jephthah and his daughter is such a tragedy that the Women and girls in Israel held an annual lament ritual lasting four days in memory of Jephthah's daughter. They went out and mourned aloud how this unnamed daughter was sacrificed unnecessarily in the cause of war.  This practice / ritual has been revived in some Jewish communities, sometimes practiced over the winter solstice, which according to medieval Jewish tradition is the date on which Jephthah's daughter died.

This happened near the end of Judges as the Israelites were slipping farther and farther from the ways of the Lord. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute who had been forced out of Gilead by the other young men. When the Ammonites attack Israel, they ask Jephthah to lead them in battle.  His agreement is a bargain - "If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head."

Even with the Spirit of the Lord upon him, he makes a rash battle vow to sacrifice "whatever" comes out of his front door when he arrives home. He sticks to his vow even though what comes out of his door first is his daughter, singing and dancing him home in welcome. 

He did not trust in the Lord enough to consider the implications of his actions.

 

A Daughter's Response

Understanding what her father's vow demanded, the daughter asks for some time away with her female friends. Even though Jephthah and the patriarchal structures of war and leadership made the daughter into collateral damage, Jephthah actually accuses her of being responsible for bringing trouble upon him.

Her action of taking time away in lament passes judgment on him for being willing to exchange another life for his personal glory. 

Today, United Methodist Women continues to pray and take action against unjust structures that trap women and girls, keeping them from living abundant lives. One of the issue priorities for United Methodist Women is interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Access to education for girls who were marginalized was one of the very first programs Methodist women organized for mission and is an urgent need in the United States today.

Facing the violence against women and girls in our society can be difficult. Facing the unresolved violence against women and girls in scripture can be unsettling. We can learn from what Jephthali's daughter and her friends did.  First, they gathered in prayer, to lament and cry out to god. Those who have suffered were named.  We can go a step further. Use the KNIT acrostic to guide your prayer.

K - kneel, acknowledging humanity's need of God's grace

N - name the girls and women aloud who have suffered.  You can research #SayHerName to find ones that you don't know.

I - Identify the sins and problems in your comunity and in or world. Say them out loud.

T - transformation - pledge yourselves to work for justice and righteousness, seeking God's guidance as you work for an end to violence against women.

Resources from the program book

Book of the Month

The Program book recommends reading the New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness  (Social Action 2012) as a follow up to this month's program.  If you have already read it, I would recommend reading Building a Movement to End The New Jim Crow. (Social Action 2017)  Below is the "teaser" from one of the distributors of Building a Movement.

****************************

In answer to The New Jim Crow's bold call to action, this accessible organizing guide puts tools in your hands to help you and your group understand how to make meaningful, effective change.

Learn about your role in movement-building and how to pick and build campaigns that contribute towards the growing national movement to dismantle the largest penal system in the world.

This important resource offers examples from this and other movements, time-tested organizing techniques, and vision and inspiration to challenge, encourage, and motivate.

Date Reminders

CALENDAR 2020 - these are tentative and subject to change as circumstances change.

These are the dates from the Conference Calendar:

 

2021 PNW UMW Conference Calendar

  • February 11, 2021 WA Interfaith Advocacy Day Zoom (register to receive the link at https://fanwa.org/interfaith-advocacy-day/)
  • February 23-24, 2021 Idaho Legislative Event Boise FUMC Boise, Idaho
  • March 19-20, 2021 Spring Spiritual Day Apart Zoom meeting - details to follow.
  • June 10-13, 2021 UMC Annual Conference TBD
  • July 28-29, 2021 Summer Conf. UMW Exec Meeting Selah UMC, WA (?)
  • July 29-August 1, 2021 Mission u Wesley UMC, Yakima, WA
  • September 2021 Puget Sound Missional District TBD Annual Meeting
  • September 2021 Crest to Coast Missional District TBD
  • Annual Meeting
  • September 18, 2021 Inland Missional District Annual Mtg. TBD
  • September 18, 2021 Seven Rivers Missional District Chelan, WA   Annual Meeting
  • September 2021 SeaTac Missional District TBD
  • Annual Meeting
  • October 14-15, 2021 Fall Conf. UMW Exec Meeting TBD
  • October 15-16, 2021 Conf. UMW Annual Meeting TBD
  • May 20-22, 2022 Assembly Orlando, FL
  • 2024 Western Jurisdiction Quadrennial Mtg. TBD

If you have any other information that you want me to put here, please let me know by calling (360) 609-0503 or emailing me at lmilner2016@gmail.com .

Final Thoughts

Keep working on your "knit together" project, whatever you (or your group) chose to work on.

As you work on your project(s), reflect on how the loops of yarn are joined together to make a larger and stronger piece.  A strand of yarn on its own can be beautiful but when knit together with other yarn, it becomes stronger but remains flexible. 

As your Knit Together project grows, pray that you may be made strong to learn about institutional racism and to have the courage to speak out for justice.

Crest to Coast District Program Resources

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