Exciting WISDOM News

Dear WISDOM Sisters:



Last weekend the WISDOM Board of Directors had an incredibly energetic all day retreat at the Muslim Unity Center, and we came away with some very exciting ideas about WISDOM for 2009-2010. I would like to share some of these ideas with you, and then ask you to let me know if you would like to get more involved with WISDOM by either joining us in the planning of these events, or nominating yourself or someone else to serve on the WISDOM Board of Directors. Below is the WISDOM nomination form, along with the letter that describes the mission of WISDOM and the responsibilities of Board members. We look forward to hearing from you. Our WISDOM Board concluded our retreat on a spiritual high and with charged energy and strengthened friendships! We look forward to bringing in new WISDOM Sisters on our board and on our committees!! Our annual dinner and installation ceremoney is going to be May 7th. We hope to hear from our interested WISDOM Sisters by the beginning of March.



We at WISDOM are going to plan for:



A WISDOM Book Club

A Speaker's Bureau for other Houses of worship, colleges, universities, clubs

Habitat for Humanity Builds

Putting together an Interfaith Calendar

Setting up Guest Visits at different houses of worship for WISDOM

Planning an Educational Day about Christianity

Planning an Annual International Dinner/Concert as our Fundraiser and Signature Event

Putting together an April 26th Stewardship of the Earth event, involving high school and college students as part of Global Youth Service Day

Writing a third volume of Interfaith Heroes with our own stories of our interfaith journeys

Starting a Young Adult division of WISDOM

Setting up a WISDOM Group on Facebook (this is already started - check it out on Facebook!!)

Partnering with other organizations that share our mission

We are excited to hear from you, if you have the passion to help us further our WISDOM mission!!

Peace, Shalom, Salaam, Shanti!!

Gail Katz

WISDOM President

WISDOM
WOMEN’S INTERFAITH SOLUTIONS FOR
DIALOGUE AND OUTREACH IN METRODETROIT
2009 BOARD OF DIRECTORS NOMINATION FORM

I propose myself or the following individual(s) for consideration by the Nominating Committee for service as a member of the WISDOM Board of Directors. I understand that this information will be kept strictly confidential and that because of the limited number of vacancies, there is no guarantee of election to the Board.

Name of Nominee _________________________________________________________

Address _________________________________________________________________
Street City Zip

E-mail Address ___________________________________________________________

Home Phone _________________________ Alternate phone _____________________

Occupation ______________________________________________________________

Faith-based Tradition ______________________________________________________

Place of worship __________________________________________________________

Please list up to three affiliations, organizations, and/or volunteer community activities (please include title or position where appropriate):

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

If the nominee has served on a WISDOM committee, please list committee(s). and year(s) served.

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Please use the space below to indicate why you believe that you or this person would be a valuable asset to the WISDOM Board.









Name of person submitting this form ________________________________________

Organization ____________________________________________________________

Phone ____________________________ e-mail ________________________________


Please return the completed form to:

WISDOM
NOMINATING COMMITTEE
P.O. BOX 525
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303

OR FAX to:
248-332-6653

Or E-mail to:
wisdom@interfaithwisdom.org









WISDOM BOARD MEMBER DESCRIPTION

WISDOM invites nominations of potential outstanding board members from around the Metropolitan Detroit area who represent the diversity of the many faith based traditions in our community.

The mission of WISDOM (www.interfaithwisdom.org) is to:

Provide concrete modeling of women from different faith traditions working together in harmony for the common good
Empower women to take a more active role in furthering social justice and world peace
Dispel myths, stereotypes, prejudices, and fear about faith traditions different from our own
Nurture the growth of empathy and spiritual energy that result from our projects and interfaith dialogue

The responsibilities of WISDOM Board Members include:

Being an ambassador of WISDOM’s work and values to the community
Actively serving on at least one standing committee
Attending board meetings, committee meetings, and WISDOM programs and events, including the annual installation dinner.
Asking questions and requesting information and participating in making decisions on issues, policies and other board matters
Making a donation each May that is substantive and meaningful to the financial stability of the organization
Actively supporting WISDOM development to further sustain the organization whenever possible by identifying prospective funding sources (individuals, businesses and foundations) and facilitating meetings when appropriate.
Recruiting friends and colleagues for WISDOM membership
Identifying prospective board members

An Inaugural Prayer for President Barack Obama — and All of Us

Dear WISDOM Sisters:
This is so beautiful!!
Gail

An Inaugural Prayer for President Barack Obama — and All of Us

An Inaugural Prayer for President Obama and UsBy the Rev. Marsha M. Woolley (Senior pastor of Newburg United Methodist Church in Livonia, Michigan.)

CREATING GOD OF LANDS AFAR AND MINE… On tiptoe we stand…expectant, eager, hopeful, anticipating…peering over the edge from what has been and on the threshold of what is to come; longing for, yearning for a better way, a more holistic way, a more gracious way of living in this country and in the world. It seems the whole world is holding its breath, daring to believe that the mess we’ve created is not permanent; that you have indeed raised up in our midst one who can lead us in ways that will restore the values and character upon which this land was once established.

In this inaugural time, O God, we hold our breath…praying that the good identified in Barack Obama will be used to turn around the hollow systems that have led us down selfish paths, to mend the broken bureaucracies that have led to inertia and inaction, to discard the worthless wasting of precious resources, and to pave new avenues of liberty and justice for all people. Yet, keep us from holding our breath… as if this one appointed man can or should — or is even expected to — heal this country alone. Indeed, keep us all breathing and alive and active as agents of the change so desperately needed, as aides in the healing process, and as willing participants in the necessary sacrifices required of us all.

As we breathe in the hope and anticipation of this new beginning, let us exhale and rid ourselves of the well-learned skepticism we hold for government and our leaders. As we breathe in our desire for affordable health care and living wages for all, let us exhale and rid ourselves of the sense of entitlement and selfish greed that consumes so much of how we live. As we breathe in and hold up this new First Family, let us exhale and rid ourselves of any too-high expectations we have for them to “fix” this country. As we inhale and realize our desire to know all about them and to watch them at all times, let us exhale, and respect their need for privacy, and grant them the gentle times of family togetherness. As we inhale and confess our expectation that this new President will be wise and powerful and able to live up to the promises of his campaign, let us, in our exhaling, come to understand that he will only be as wise and powerful as we allow him to be; that the only change that will happen is the change we all choose to make happen together. Indeed as we breathe in, recognizing that we are inspired and motivated by what we’ve heard from this elected one, let us also slowly breathe out and realize that what we have really heard is a voice being given to the stirring of our own hearts.

Oh, it’s true, O God, we are on tiptoe…as expectant as anyone can be…praying that you might be able to create in our midst a new way of living that better honors your creation, that more fully respects your desire for community, that more urgently works for peace and justice for ALL.

To that end, we dare ask that your hand of blessing be upon President Obama — chosen not for the color of his skin but for the content of his character — that he might guide and lead us in the ways You would have us go. Thru him and with him, make us all agents of good…in our homes, in our communities, in our country and in this world. Gracious God, for all the possibilities, promise and privilege of the freedom we enjoy and celebrate this day, we humbly offer our thanks, not only with our lips, but also with our lives. In earnest hope that a new day has indeed been inaugurated in our midst, we pray.

Amen.

Important Religious Events for January

Dear WISDOM Sisters:

1) Sunday, January 18th is World Religion Day for the Baha’is, an observance that began in 1950 to address the need for religious unity. World Religion Day was initiated by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, the U.S. Baha’i governing body.

It is observed the third Sunday in January by Baha'is in the United States and increasingly by people around the globe. The day is celebrated by hosting interfaith discussions, conferences and other events that foster understanding and communication among the followers of all religions.
The purpose of World Religion Day is to call attention to the harmony of the various religions’ spiritual principles and to emphasize that religion is the motivating force for world unity.
As stated in the Baha'i writings, “Religion should be the cause of love and agreement, a bond to unify all mankind for it is a message of peace and goodwill to man from God” and “Religion is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.”

World Religion Day has spread to many other countries. In 1985, the government of Sri Lanka issued a postage stamp in commemoration of the day.

2) It’s also the start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a century-old observance among Christians.

Since the 18th century, proponents for Christian Unity have advocated common prayer. In 1907, an Episcopal priest and an Anglican vicar explored the possibility of prayer for Christian Unity. The Rev. Spencer Jones, Anglican Vicar of Moreton-on-Marsh, England, wrote to the Rev. Paul Wattson, an American Episcopal priest, suggesting that a day of prayer for Christian Unity might be observed each year on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29). Wattson proposed instead an eight-day octave observance of prayers, sermons and conferences between the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter (formerly on January 18th) and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25th.

The Reverend Wattson and Mother Lurana White, co-founders of the Society of the Atonement, a small group of Franciscan Sisters and Friars, founded the Church Unity Octave the very next year in 1908. They publicly dedicated January 18 to 25 to prayer for Christian unity in the Sisters' Our Lady of the Angels Chapel, Graymoor, Garrison, N.Y. Mother Lurana later wrote in her diary: "I often think if the Society of the Atonement had never done another thing, this alone is a great work of God, so far reaching in its effects as to baffle our weighing its influence either now or in the days to come."

The Sisters and the Friars, along with thirteen lay associates, entered the Roman Catholic Church in 1909. Pope Pius X shortly thereafter gave his official blessing to the Octave and in 1916 Pope Benedict XV encouraged its observance throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church. In the 1930s, the name was changed to the "Chair of Unity Octave" to emphasize the centrality of the Petrine ministry.

Meanwhile, other movements for Christian Unity were also being promoted. In 1921, a committee of Protestant Church leaders for the World Conference on Faith and Order declared that a special octave of prayer for Church Unity would be held each year ending on Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday). In 1935, a Roman Catholic priest, Abbé Paul Couturier, from Lyon, France, advocated a Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January that would foster a "unity that Christ wills, as he wills, and when he wills." In 1941, the Commission on Faith and Order moved its Pentecost observance to January with the hope that Protestants and Catholics might pray together for the unity that they so earnestly sought.

In 1964, the bishops at the Second Vatican Council issued the Decree on Ecumenism, calling prayer "the soul of the ecumenical movement." Because the ideas of Abbé Couturier emphasized a more common basis upon which every Christian Church could pray together for unity, representatives from the Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches agreed in 1967 to jointly observe a time of prayer called the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Since 1968, the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have collaborated annually in selecting scriptural themes and helpful materials to promote prayer for the unity of the Christian Churches. As a worldwide observance seeking "unity in diversity" (words taken from the Preface of the Mass for Christian Unity), the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity focuses upon the shared yearnings of all Christians "that all may be one" (Jn. 17:21) according to the will of Christ.

In January 2008, the Society of the Atonement will mark one hundred years of consistently praying and working for the unity of the Christian Churches.

3) And Sunday, January 25th at 4:00 – 6:00 PM at Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills is theTenth Annual World Sabbath of Religious Reconciliation!! www.wsdayofpeace.org
Have a great week!!

Gail