[Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1) - Grace huddle?

Thu Feb 22 11:40:15 EST 2007

Thanks so much, Adam, 

We stand accountable. We did use most of the short courses, a Kaz liturgy
(via Shirley H. Snelling), a cosmic Namaste physical-exercise liturgy I
concocted, several Fifth City Preschool rituals, a host of RS-I and movement
songs (16 total), most short courses, original board images, original
papers, etc. Did not use full Daily Office, but a Geneva. We had the "full
and informed support" (and you and I have been in a few unorthodox RS-I's,
huh -- like my first time out with Buss as the lead pedagogue: I had never
heard one word of the "G-O-D lecture" he presented, nigh onto a couple of
hours -- Fred, I hope you're on this list -- how I do exaggerate(!), but not
too much) of a gaggle of us who helped prepare for it, and many others
who've given input over recent years. And rather than send a tithe of the
honorarium to who-knows-where, we are sending it to help in the future JWM
archives digitization and transition to some great university, hopefully.
($'s in the mail, George.)

Adam, glad your heart was warmed and lifted up (you've always reminded me of
a sober Dylan T.) and your depression is lessened ,

G & P - John

P.S. One participant, Carl Caskey, hired Vance Engleman for the Wesley
Foundation in OK. They sent bus loads of college students to Chicago for
courses, with the help of Jim Troxel and others. Carl's first RS-I was with
Jack Lewis and JWM in the '50's, he said; the movie was "Zorba." (There've
been many movies in this ongoing experiment, huh? Oh, and Adam, we did not
use "Requiem for a Heavyweight.")

  _____  

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Adam Thomson
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 10:24 AM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1) - Grace huddle?

>From Adam Thomson, Dover UK

It certainly warmed my heart and lifted me out of my acute depression (Bush,
unbridled capitalism, Blair, global warming, the Anglican Church - you name
it...) to see John Cock's posting re RS1 - still the life-changing event
that it was for me when I first took it in Caracas in 1971.

Whilst I myself wouldn't dare ever organising this evolving "RS1" event
without full and informed support (and paying for the privilege for using
the construct), I - and many others, I am sure - would love to hear more
details of this current construct as it develops. For instance, did you use
all the original stuff (short courses etc) on worship and rituals, including
introducing the full Daily Office?

It's my turn to gush a bit. Maybe I shouldn't be asking such questions at
this stage. But you can sense by this response and those from others that
there is a deep deep thirst, still, out there. The Anglican church is in
crisis - everyone knows that. Maybe some people in the UK will suggest that
it's past saving. But at the local level - MY local level, as I am finding -
I cannot help thinking there are possibilities for an event along the lines
that John has sketched out, for those who still "go to church" - relative
rarety in the UK. After all they are human beings too.

John's last line certainly resonated with me: "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."

Yup - I know I am still looking for the Messiah...

Thank you, John, for your posting on this.

G & P - Adam

At 14:43 22/02/2007, you wrote:

I just did the same thing, Myra. I think I pd. $1 and 3.50 s/h.
Glad you're on the list and that a few paragraphs did all that.

John

  _____  

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [
<mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net>
mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Myra Griffin
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 7:23 AM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1) - Grace huddle?

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>
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  <mailto:beretgriffith at charter.net> Griffith 

To: Dialogue at wedgeblade.net ; OE at wedgeblade.net 

Cc: 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).

_______________________________________________

Dialogue mailing list

Dialogue at wedgeblade.net 

http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

_______________________________________________

Dialogue mailing list

Dialogue at wedgeblade.net

 <http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net> 

http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

_______________________________________________
Dialogue mailing list
Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20070222/49e77c01/attachment-0001.html 