Integration Conference Closing

On the final day of the conference the closing banquet was followed coincidentally by three pre-Mardi Gras parades which passed directly in front of our hotel entrance.



Judy Morely thanked the following for their participation:

Co-Chairs:
Rev. Andriette Earl
Rev. Emile Gauvreau

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Integration Conference: Young Adults' High Points, Vetura Papke Award

Young adults share their high points from the Integration Conference



Kim Kaiser receives the Vetura Papke Great Teacher Award




An afternoon in New Orleans

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Who Wants To Go To Bali? Summer airfares are making it possible

I'm personally excited that airfares to Bali are being offered for around $800 through Jim Omi Cramer's company.  It makes going to one of the worlds most beautiful islands affordable.  There are many inexpensive ways to travel in Bali - and if you like traveling in spiritual community, ask Jim about the upcoming Yoga Tour he has arranged with William Abel.  Or just contact William at wba31@yahoo.com to ask about his gentle yoga classes and the schedule for the tour in March.  The land portion of the tour was recently reduced.

I'm thinking of tagging along to Indonesia myself.  It's a place in the world where I feel truly peaceful.  I love the smells and tastes and sounds of Indonesia.  And the people are a trip!  I love them.

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Integration Conference: Evan Dow-Williamson

Evan Dow-Williamson tells about the impromptu Young Adult Group meeting at the Integration Conference in New Orleans.

Location:Chartres St,New Orleans,United States

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Cafe du Monde

Every day, twice a day, this lady plays the calliope on the steam boat Natchez right before the passengers line up to embark. Today on the way to Cafe du Monde we could hear the steam organ from blocks away.  Variation in volume is not possible, only rhythm and duration of notes.  The next day we took the two hour boat ride on the Mississippi 

Location:Decatur St,New Orleans,United States

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The French Quarter

Thank the heavens we got our voting all done yesterday. Now we are spotting delegate all over the french quarter.

Chris is mesmerized by live jazz at the market cafe

Old friends reunite in the lobby

Location:N Peters St,New Orleans,United States

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Dr. Kathy Hearn, Integration Conference 2012

Dr. Kathy Hearn, first and only elected Community Spiritual Leader of the reorganized United Centers for Spiritual Living recounts the history leading to this conference where the two ranches of our movement were finally united yesterday in an historic vote. Dr. Kathy succeeded Dr. Christian Sorenson, the last Community Spiritual Leader of the former United Church of Religious Science and is succeeded by Dr. Ken Gordon, first Spiritual Leader of Centers for Spiritual Living.

The newly-elected Leadership Council:

Ministers:
3 years: Heather Clark
2 years: David Alexander
1 year: Patrick Cameron

Practitioners:
3 years: Becky Moore
2 years: Deborah Gauvreau
1 year: Drew Johnson

Laity:
3 years: Walter Drew
2 years: Geoffrey Sindon
1 year: Eileen Flanigan

These 9, along with the Spiritual Leader (Ken Gordon), the President (John Waterhouse), and the 3 staff members (Steve Burton, Judy Morley, and Gregory Toole) comprise the first Leadership Council of Centers for Spiritual Living.
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Integration Conference New Orleans 2012

Who are these people?

Location:Common St,New Orleans,United States

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Centers for Spiritual Living Integration Conference New Oreleans 2012

It's starting.
Video coming shortly as well as notes from Dr. Kathy Hearn's address.

Location:New Orleans

Were you at this conference?
If you were, do you remember the excitement?

Do you recall who was there?

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The Grammarian Was a He, by Jessica Love

In The American Scholar, Jessica Love wrote a thought provoking article about gender neutral pronouns. I have often wondered what a solution might be and playfully imagined the invention of a pronoun like "shim" to accommodate both genders, Personally I try to work around pronouns by finding a way to avoid the issue. It's not always possible and I end up with the generally regarded clumsy he or she.

I thought that a practice so ancient in our language would not likely change easily until I read Jessica Love's article (which by the way I found on www.newtlist.com). Who knew that it was indeed changed from the generally accepted practice of using "they" as a gender neutral pronoun for both singular and plural subjects. "....prior to the 19th century, “they” was commonly—and uncontroversially—used as a generic singular pronoun.

Grammarians were the ones who inserted the generic “he” into English about 200 years ago in an effort to improve the language."

And delightfully one of the readers provided a comment which shows examples of ancient texts doing exactly this.

I don't recommend "they" in formal writing because...well, not every reader is up to speed with....oh never mind.

Jessica Love has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and is currently a postdoc at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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What's Going On Out There

On a day off like today, I look through my non work related emails to catch up with what is going on in our community and I have to say, what an abundance of fine and fantastic things we produce. I captured some and presented it below, and I know I’m missing things that slip by. A fellow can only absorb so much! Grin. I love hearing from our community and I love knowing what you’re up to and I love being able to share what is going on. I don’t always get the chance to, but today, I’m caught up with work, and I’m reveling in the creativity of our community.

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Sahar

Who knew that one of our favorite drummers, Sahar, is also a talented landscaper? His site says: It is a great joy to assist my clients in creating a garden that meets their needs, functionally and esthetically. Whether you are looking to create a drought tolerant garden or a tranquil paradise, I would be delighted to discuss your needs to determine if I can be of help.

Amazing.

http://www.saharpinkham.com/landscaping.html

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Melissa Phillippe

Melissa is well known to us as a eagerly anticipated substitute musician when our director, Chris Fritzsche has a week off. She does a fine, fine job and has a whole other world too. Here is what her site says: I am currently accepting 3 new Transformation Coaching clients.

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The Bhagavad-Gita For Beginners: The Song of God in Simplified Prose

Newt List is a new online ebook publisher specializing in gender neutral language updates of classic New Thought works. Lucky for me Newt List also has an Other section for original works and other works that have spiritual content. I submitted the text I created for the introductory class I teach about the Bhagavad-Gita and Newt List helped design and create my first ebook.

http://newtlist.com/other-newt-list-titles/bhagavad-gita-for-beginners/

There are many things about Newt List that I appreciate, not least among them the affordable prices of these updated texts and the convenience of having so much wisdom carried around on my iPad Kindle app. I'm increasing my e-library with a treasure of New Thought works from Newt List that have been almost forgotten in the New Thought publishing world.

Perhaps because the reading audience for New Thought literature is so small that larger publishing houses hold back from keeping these works in circulation. Maybe the literary styles do represent a true block to modern readers. Now they are available and in a rich contemporary, accessible format and I am loving reading them.

Newt List publisher Randall Friesen connected over our shared interest in contemporary language versions and gender neutrality in writing and I'm happy to say our collaboration helped bring The Bhagavad-Gita to the ebook world

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