Service Project (Tuesday, September 29, 2009)

This week we will be preparing sandwiches for Daily Bread. If possible, please contribute $10 each toward the cause. We will meet in the Great Hall kitchen at the usual time. We welcome you in this time of fellowship and service.

Service Project (September 29, 2009)

Daily Bread soup kitchen is now serving sack lunches at New Covenant Fellowship while they find dedicated space. The following are opportunities for us to help them on Tuesday, September 29.

OPTION 1: Sandwiches (Feed 70)

• Sandwiches with lunch meat and cheese. No toppings. (A packet of mustard or mayo is served with each one.) Place each in a sandwich bag.
• The food should be prepared in Wesley’s kitchen and everyone should wear plastic gloves while handling food. When completed, pack them back in the bread wrappers and deliver them to Ellen McDowell’s house to be refrigerated overnight.

OPTION 2: Fruit, Salty Items, Desserts (Feed 70)

• Fruit, of course, does not have to be packaged.
• All these items, if donated, should be packaged: cookies, candy, small bags of chips, Fritos, etc.
• Bottled drinks: gal size punch, juice, cider, etc. We can use nothing that has been opened.

OPTION 3: Hygiene items (travel size)Shampoo

• Deodorant
• tooth brushes
• tooth paste
• razors
• shaving cream
• soap
• packages of men's socks.

We will fine tune all the details on September 22. If you have any thoughts beforehand, please post them below.

Convergences in Feminism and Process Theology

Discovering a Common Humanity

At first viewing of the upcoming video on the convergence of process theology and feminism, I was inclined to say we were discussing feminism primarily. However, after watching it a second and third time, I am more aware that Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki wants us to think about what it means to be human, and how that might inform and possibly transform how we see people of the opposite gender.

As you might imagine, the next video then is very dense. So I would like you to be a bit familiar with a couple terms before she lays them out late in the video. There are two kinds of creativity in a process-relational perspective:

concrescence creativity

creativity that takes what is given and turns it into the decisive reality of who we are in a given moment

transitional creativity

creativity that takes who we are and offers it to the whole universe

Suchocki says that these creativities form the rhythm of the universe.

As we watch the video and discuss the worldviews of feminism and process-relational theology, consider questions you have and also these:

• Is the vision for human beings consistent with those imagined in our previous process discussions? What are the nuances?
• What nuances brought to the table by feminist thought and process thought expand and enhance a vision of a common humanity? Is anyone excluded due circumstances unrelated to gender?

You are invited to join us this Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 8:30pm in Wesley's Watseka Lounge.

2009 Wesley Fall Lecture

"Religion, Violence, and the Global Searches for Peace"

Presented By

Martin E. Marty, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Modern Christianity and the Committee on the History of Culture, The University of Chicago Divinity School

The public is invited to attend. A reception, given by the Wesley United Methodist Women, will be held in the Watseka Lounge for Professor Marty following the lecture.

Prayer: Openness to God, to the World, to the Future

Preview of Tuesday, September 15, 2009

This week we will hear Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki's meditation on prayer. She asserts prayer matters to God and to the future of the world. We will delve deeper into some of the challenges we discussed last week and explore other questions, such as:

• What ways of praying are most meaningful for you?
• What are roadblocks in prayer life?
• What are the practical implications of a process view of prayer for the life and relationships of the one(s) praying?
• Is "prayer without ceasing" possible? Even if you don't believe it isn't, is working toward it desirable? If so, how might one go about doing that? What are its fruits?

Help Stop Hunger

Hunger is a pressing problem in the world and in our local community. Make a real difference.

1. Come by the Etc. Coffeehouse at Wesley Sunday, September 6 between 12:30 and 2:30pm and help us make 10000 Crosses.
2. Help us at our display on the Quad this Wednesday, September 9 (First 20 volunteers get T-shirts.)
   8-9a Setup the crosses on the Quad out in front of Lincoln Hall. Everyone is welcome to come plant the crosses.
   9-11a Host Table
   11a-1p Host Table
   1-3p Host Table
   3-5p Host Table
   4 Clean up

A number of Campus Ministries across the state of Illinois will be setting up displays on campus' highlighting how many persons die of hunger every day. Approximately 25,000 persons die of hunger and hunger related causes every day (Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO). We will have a display set up on the quad with 9,000 little tombs (popsicle stick crosses, stars and crescents) representing the number of persons who died "Last Night as you were Sleeping." The goal of the display is three fold:

1. To raise awareness about the extent of hunger in the World, in the United States and in Champaign County.
2. To "Rethink" the root causes of hunger primarily war (international) and financial distress (US, often brought on by sudden job loss or medical crises.)
3. Invite students, faculty and staff to make positive steps to alleviate hunger.

We will be passing out fliers that on one side will share statistical information about hunger and its causes and on the other side will suggest practical steps that persons can take to make a real difference.

Still working on the list but it will be something like:

• Write your congressman or representative to support "The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004" that will be up for renewal this coming session of congress AND sign up on Feeding America http://www.hungeractioncenter.org to support future hunger initiatives. Find your representatives at congress.org!
• Sponsor a child through an agency. Such as World Vision, Compassion International or Holt Child Services.
• Help at a local food pantry with contact information for Salt and Light, TIMES Center and Wesley Food Pantry.
• Volunteer information will be available for the Wesley Foundation Food Pantry on the 3rd Thursday each month (It's right on campus and serving over 1000 persons each month.
• Create a fund raiser to support a Food Pantry or Soup Kitchen.
• Or Volunteer or attend the Haunted House for Wesley Food Pantry
• MULTIPLY YOUR EFFECTIVENESS. AFTER YOU CHOOSE TO HELP IN SOME WAY RECRUIT AT LEAST TWO OTHER PERSONS TO HELP.

The list is still in process but I want real hands on things that students can commit to.

Session 1: Relationships Matter

For theologian Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki relationships are core to her process-relational worldview. In the video, "Heart of Process Theology", Suchocki defines and unpacks what she means by that worldview:

1. "Reality is relational;
2. "Relations are internal to who we are, not external; and
3. "That which is true of us is true of all existence."

She then delves into the implications for this worldview when we think about God's presence in and interactions with the world.

Hope you will join us for this week's conversation at the intersection of God, faith, and relationships.

Related Links

• Process & Faith
• Introductions to Process Theology