[Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1) - Grace huddle?
Myra Griffin
mrgriff at eos.net
Thu Feb 22 07:22:34 EST 2007
Your report had given me a chance to reflect on and relive my first RSl.
Thank you.
I recently found a second hand copy of DHL at Amazon.com since my copy
is falling apart.
Too bad that version is out of print.
Myra Griffin
John Cock wrote:
> Thank you much, Janice. You're too kind.
>
> Here's a quick response to your questions, plus. Excuse me if I gush a
> bit.
>
> 30 min. Grace Huddles/Pleno: after presentation/Tillich para. 12, we
> hand out "Life-changing Events" sheet for individ. reflection of 10
> events, and some marked with "G," for grace; then, in grps. of 5-6,
> each shares a "grace" event (very powerful), and as group they
> write big sentence on dyn. of grace . . . "We experience grace when .
> . ." to be read at Grace Pleno. They get it in spades. This
> huddle/planary is the breakthrough of the weekend, only to be matched
> by the church session, where we emphasized "When have you been on the
> point?" and "When next?"
>
> Something like that. We are working ind-reflect/sub-group-sharing
> dynamic into the four main sessions. This construct is less rational
> (more focus on sentinel paragraph[s]) and more about grounding and
> sharing experience . . . so they will never, never forget they all
> HAVE experienced the deeps . . . and will never forget that fact.
>
> Found fine new translation of Bonhoeffer's "Freedom." Old papers
> contexted (and less emphasis), still fine; more a "retreat" and less a
> "studies" weekend. Exciting to see the ToP participants respond so
> enthusiastically this weekend. Weekend at least as powerful as
> ever. Fine participants' manual with design, loads of songs, rituals,
> Geneva, reading list, the papers, etc., thanks to Beret and Ron (and
> our borrowing much from Shirley Heckman Snelling's resources), as well
> as their excellent prep, decor, and orchestration. Movie, "As Good As
> It Gets," got them clear that "transformation flows through
> TWLI"; Sun. morning most understand that Melvin, Carol, and
> Simon could well crash and burn without a community of faith, though a
> few were trying to dub Carol a saint (shades of Miss Miller) -- talk
> about the blind leading the blind (in the movie). We will pass out
> five pages of quotes from the web next time. Never has a movie had so
> many great and hilarious one-liners. My favoirte, by Melvin: "I can't
> get back into my old life. She has evicted me from my life."
>
> Beret/Ron/Lynda/I are doing some sig. reworking after this MN
> experiment. Maybe what we need to do is call a meeting to present
> reworked RS-I's folks have done (whatever we name it, if we do) and
> then corporately work on construct, pedagogy, and marketing. If we
> meet and can't get a consensus (blocked by tradition or untradition)
> we can go our ways and do our best with gusto and meet again sometime,
> maybe.
>
> God, it's good to watch people come alive before your eyes, especially
> when cynicism ("the living dead") is trying to eat us alive these days,
>
> G&P,
>
> John
>
> P.S. Best resonating poetry line: "If only, most lovely of all, I
> yield myself and am borrowed/ By a fine, fine wind that takes its
> course through the chaos of the world." Worth it all just to read the
> poetry again, out loud, in public. I told them I have placed these
> poems by DHL and the paragraphs by the four theologians in my 3rd
> Testament (1st = OT, 2nd = NT), which drew a sharp admonition from a
> traditional Lutheran theology professor (who, in measured tones, said,
> "Paragraphs from Luther would have been richer" [maybe we could look
> there]) -- the group bowed to him as they affirmed my comment. Whole
> lot of bowing and laughing going on this weekend -- and some
> old-fashioned attacks -- "very good to know."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
> [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Janice Ulangca
> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:28 PM
> To: Colleague Dialogue
> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1) - Grace huddle?
>
> Beret, congratulations to you, the Northfield UMC team, and to John
> Cock (and also Lynda) for such a life-changing event. John was
> always a powerful pedagogue. It was a marathon, but I can see why he
> needed to do it himself. He didn't have time to train a team to lead
> with anything like his ability. (Remember the Pedagogy courses, and
> the years of mentoring?!) The decor and "blackboard" sound fabulous.
>
> Please say some more about the Grace Huddle! And anything else you
> can share about the spirit exercises.
>
> Many of us can testify that this kind of event will reverberate
> through lifetimes.
>
> With gratitude for this contribution to history,
>
> Janice Ulangca
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Beret Griffith <mailto:beretgriffith at charter.net>
> To: Dialogue at wedgeblade.net <mailto:Dialogue at wedgeblade.net> ;
> OE at wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE at wedgeblade.net>
> Cc: rgriffith at charter.net <mailto:rgriffith at charter.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 2:00 PM
> Subject: [Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1)
>
> Dear Colleagues on the Journey,
>
> Here in Minnesota where the snow is melting we just completed a
> forty-four hour weekend with forty people. The pastor at the United
> Methodist Church in Northfield is an Academy graduate and last
> winter, about this time, he pushed hard to offer an Ecumenical
> Institute course for the congregation. He asked me to talk to the
> Adult Education Committee to see if there would be interest in
> sponsoring a retreat. I'd heard that John Cock had taught an RS-1 in
> Hilton Head and had done some rewriting for the course. John and I
> talked. He was interested. I briefed the committee, and got the
> go-ahead to form a team to move forward.
>
> A team of five worked for the next year to pull it off. We first
> wanted it in the fall of 2006. The Mount Olivet Retreat and
> Conference Center where we wanted to hold the retreat books at least
> a year out and was not available. We then reserved space there for
> the weekend of February 16-18, 2007. It is about thirty miles south
> of Minneapolis.
>
> The Spirit Journey Retreat: Empowering Our Faith (RS-1) was
> outstanding. There were forty people including John and Lynda Cock.
> John led the WHOLE weekend. With his additions to the weekend of
> small group work (we even had a Grace Huddle - a highlight for nearly
> everyone), reflection time on Saturday afternoon, songs, rituals and
> spirit exercises, it even had a slightly spacious feel. We did start
> at 7:00 am on Saturday and Sunday and nearly everyone showed up first
> thing in the morning. It reaffirmed our understanding of the
> contentlessness of the story and its relevance to current time.
> John's leadership was outstanding and must have been exhausting,
> recalling the days when four people taught the weekend. Lynda worked
> with me on practics and took care of selling John's books. Work on
> the space created a fine container for spirit work.
>
> About a third of the folks were from outside the congregation and
> included four people who are experienced ToP trainers and
> consultants. One works for a consulting firm and another for a large
> foundation that does leadership training throughout the area. The
> profiles of participants were interesting and ranged from
> conservative to liberal, evangelical to progressive, somewhat
> educated to highly educated. Several people who teach and work in
> business had theological backgrounds. Discussions were animated, deep
> and grounded.
>
> The G.O.D. rock (petrified tree), owned by Sue and Stefan Laxdal and
> present at all RS-1 courses ever done in Minneapolis, proudly took
> its place at the center of the room during the last session. It was
> preceded by a dinosaur bone, a very large crystal and a large fossil.
> The earth flag hung at the front of the room. We used a portable wall
> designed by ToP trainer Cheryl Kartes' husband Patrick. It was
> designed for the ToP crew and creates twelve feet of free standing
> wall. It was the best wall ever. We used six feet of the wall,
> covered it with a sticky wall and put four flip chart pages up for
> every session. John had never had such a blackboard.
>
> Sleeping in a motel type room at the conference center with an
> abundance of food at meals was good. It did make me a little
> nostalgic for spaghetti on Friday and the sound of mice roaming the
> pantry while sleeping among the food stores in a church basement - on
> an army cot.
>
> Spending time with John and Lynda, with whom we had never formally
> worked, was a time not to be missed. Ron and I had a dinner on
> Thursday so they could both meet the team and get properly welcomed
> before divining into the intensity of the weekend. Afterwards we
> managed some celebratory eating, drinking and great conversation.
>
> Thank you to John and Lynda and to all who have gone before on this
> journey. Those folks who had the original vision, the nerve and
> persistence to create the RS-1 course and then to gather a body of
> people who were insistent on getting it out to people are to be
> remembered. Cyber hugs all around dear colleagues.
>
> Beret and Ron Griffith
> on behalf of our local team: Faye Caskey, head of Adult Education at
> the church (her husband Carl hired Vance Engleman in Oaklahoma); Clay
> Oglesbee, Pastor (Academy grad); Ron Griffith (first took RS-1 in
> 1968), Bill Ostrem (environmental activist in Northfield).
>
>
>
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