Wednesday, November 01, 2006
DIOCESAN ACTIVITIES IN CLEVELAND
Thanks to a reader who sent in a link to the Cleveland Diocesan Memorandum for November 2006, a pdf file.
Some highlights in no particular order...
-- The Appreciative Inquiry Ecumenical Network will be presenting a workshop entitled "Framing the Questions: The Questions You Ask Determine the Change You Get" for clergy, parish staff and lay leaders on Saturday, 11 November from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm at Montrose Zion United Methodist Church located in Fairlawn just off I-77 at Ghent Rd. The workshop is jointly sponsored by the East Ohio United Methodist Program in Pastoral Care, The Presbytery of the Western Reserve, the Northeastern Ohio Synod - ELCA, the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio and the Pastoral Planning Office of the Diocese of Cleveland.
Do you suppose they will allow the question, "Have we all become Protestants now?"
If you've read Lee Penn's book FALSE DAWN, you will know why I get belligerent when Appreciative Inquiry turns up. It's a brainwashing technique that will not allow inconvenient questions to be asked. It owes its popularity to United Religions Initiative. AI put URI on the world stage. AI was developed in a Cleveland university. URI was its first project and a rousing success. AI is the basis for Vibrant Parish Life. I saw it in operation during the Vibrant Parish Life "town meeting" at the parish I was attending until recently. I managed to ask the inconvenient question there which concerned the necessity of priests, but it was an uphill battle to do it. AI is BAD news.
-- Father [J. Glenn] Murray made it known to Bishop Pilla and his Provincial Superior that he would be open to being reassigned upon the retirement of Bishop Pilla. Father Murray's Provincial Superior, Father Timothy B. Brown, S.J. being informed of Bishop Pilla's retirement and remembering Father Murray's willingness, has requested that Father Murray return to the Maryland Province (for a Jesuit assignment).
Those of you who have followed the sexual abuse scandal in Cleveland know how often Fr. Murray's name came up, and not favorably. He was part of the system that shut out victims and protected abusers.
-- The Diocesan Vibrant Parish Life - Phase II Committee is now deeply engaged in reviewing all proposals and discerning an overall summary of proposed clusters to be made available to parishes. Individual parish proposals will remain confidential within the Committee. Both the reader who sent in the link and I would like to know why these proposals "will remain confidential within the Committee." What's the big secret?
-- A concert series is beginning (or has already begun) at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland. The Sunday, November 12, 3 p.m. event will feature "Dr. Samuel Gordon director" of "Simple Gifts: Music from America's Heart" which will include hymns, spirituals and Gospel songs by American composers: Stephen Paulus, Moses Hogan, Andre Thomas, Carol Barnett, Joshua Shank and Ernani Aquiar. There is another concert event scheduled for Friday, December 15, at 7:30 p.m. which will feature the Ohio BoyChoir.
This process of turning cathedrals into concert halls began, I think, at the New York Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and was part of the activities of Lindisfarne Associates there. It seems to be spreading like wildfire. I trust Bishop Lennon will have the good sense not to bring an elephant to the cathedral like the folks at St. John the Divine did.
-- Pastors who know of a young man or a group of young men who might consider the priesthood are encouraged to invite them for supper and conversation in the rectory with the Coordinator for Vocations to Diocesan Priesthood. (Why do stories of sexual abuse come to mind when I read this announcement in the Diocesan Memorandum? Oh wait, must be because boys who have been sexually abused by priests in the past have been invited to the rectory for dinner and conversation afterwards with their patron priest who tended to hold those conversations in his bedroom.)
-- The interfaith section of the Memorandum includes "Methodist-Roman Catholic Dialogue: The Road Traveled and the Look Ahead", a lecture scheduled for John Carroll University with Duke University School of Divinity's Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright. Duke is ringing some sort of faint warning bell, but I can't recall why.
-- A "Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam" series of meetings will take place at the Tolerance Center of Notre Dame College which looks to be another exercise in wishful thinking, while placing all three religions on an equal playing field. One of the topics to be covered is Sharia-Halaka. Let's hope those of a certain religious persuasion leave their swords at home.
-- My own particular favorite headliner is "'Will our faith have children? Together we can be sure' - an evening of reflection". Maybe they should check to see if Faith is pregnant?
-- A youth conference scheduled for November 2007 in Columbus, Ohio is headlined "Discover the Way". And which "Way" would that be?
Transition of authority in Cleveland seems to be moving ahead with minimal interruption. Is that a good thing?
