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Greetings in this New Year . . . Wherever you are right now, whatever you’re doing, stop . . . (Trust me or at least humor me for a moment.) Breathe deeply for a few breaths. Turn off the endless “to do” list reciting itself in your head. Extend your neck backward toward the center of your shoulder blades and feel the stretch. Focus on the little knot in your gut that’s holding all of the challenges and stress the day is bringing and loosen its threads with each exhale. If you’ve an opportunity to turn on some music (I’m listening to Dana Cunningham’s The Color of Light) do so and try to un-kink your muscles and joints by rolling, twisting and turning them. Stay aware of your breathing. Give yourself a gift of five minutes.I came downstairs to my home office this morning . . . freshly showered, sun streaming through the curtains, sandalwood candle lit, memorabilia from all of my trips abroad and photos of family and friends surrounding me, a cup of green tea abutting the keyboard. Sounds great, right? I should be able to move into my day of writing with ease, like sinking a foot in a well-worn fleece slipper, words flowing like water over smooth river stones . . .
Not! For in reality, I came down to my office this morning barely able to walk from back and knee pain, wanting to lasso and hogtie my two teenagers for being self-centered and unmotivated %@&$#%@&s (I’ll let you insert your profanity of choice), and feeling as if I had nothing positive to say, write or express in anyway to anyone in my maniacal mental state. My "to do" list was taller than I and the due dates were yesterday. Having recently become acquainted with chronic pain, I'd turned over all laundry duties to my kids. They’d waited until neither of them had a stitch of clean clothing then sorted it all around my office (which is next to the laundry room). I was surrounded by 9 piles of dirty stinky clothes – and of course, they’d left for the day. I could move my office chair about 4 inches in either direction before rolling over something. Then the insurance company sent a letter threatening to cancel my auto insurance for nonpayment and turn me into the DMV even though I’d paid that policy over two months ago. The CD drive on my computer began refusing to acknowledge any CD I inserted. I was on Day 3 of waiting for the doctor’s office to respond to my many left messages. So I stopped and gave myself five minutes – a detour from the Screaming Banshee Highway to Hell I’d started careening down this morning. If I asked you to visualize a fork in the road, you’d likely picture it emerging on your path from circumstances beyond your control and you’d be forced to choose a direction, not knowing the destination of either route. But I am learning that we can actually create our own forks – purposely placing a fork in our road as we sprint along on our habitual and sometimes dead-end course, creating a new path that has a purpose other than maintaining the status quo. If we stop, even momentarily, we can forge a detour and shift direction, and in doing so, get some fresh perspective and a view from a different vantage point. I knew that if I was going to accomplish any work today, if I was going to refrain from screeching death threats at my children, if I was going to have mercy on both the insurance company and the nurse returning my call, and if I was going to be spiritually in sync with God in any capacity today, then I was going to need to stop and redirect. Working with money issues as I do here at Ministry of Money and in my personal life, I find I make changes in my relationship with money in a similar fashion. God bless those who decide to make a change and !! PRESTO CHANGO !! it is forever made without ever looking back or grieving the loss. I am not one of those people. The journey for me continues to move incrementally forward by new forks in the road now and again – but always with a need to stop first, take an account of what’s actually happening, and then mapping a new branch off the current path. All around us are messages to buy and have more for ourselves – the culture, media, economy, politics and even some religious thinkers draw us down a slippery slope toward greed. But if I create a fork in my road, I’ll stop – then decide not to buy something or buy it elsewhere. I’ll stop – and write a more generous check to my church or an organization I believe in. I’ll stop – and move some of my saved or invested monies to more socially responsible funds. I’ll stop – then think about how an item I desire affects the environment, the impoverished near and far, or the lives of my future grandchildren. I’ll stop – then send a letter in support of or against legislature that produces or maintains economic injustice. I’ll stop – and feel grateful for and appreciate what I already have. Changing direction, perspective, and my mind - and tuning into the spirit of God - requires an act of not just slowing down, but coming to a stop. Whatever your reality, you have the power to create forks in your road that lead you to more conscious living, more conscious use of what you have. The start of the New Year is a transition period that allows us to focus on what we want to accomplish in the months ahead and what we believe God is calling us toward. We don’t have to wait around in hopes that a fork will magically appear in our road presenting an opportunity for us to make a change, although that has been known to happen on occasion. We have the ability to create a split in our path and veer off in a new direction right now. But first we must take a few moments to stop . . . May there be many forks in your road in 2007! Blessings, P.S. - The MoM Board and Staff wish Kevin Cashman, our former Director who recently left MoM to journey his own fork in the road, many blessings with his new endeavors.
India This Indian immersion experience provides exposure to both the history and culture of northeastern India. It also offers an immediate setting in which to experience the political, social, economic and spiritual dimensions of daily life in this impoverished region of the globe. A primary focus of a pilgrimage of reverse mission is to create opportunities for direct contact with the poor and marginalized and with programs that address the misery of their condition, as well to visit sacred sites and have opportunities to meet and share with Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs as we attempt to build bridges. This MoM trip includes visits to and occasional service at community-based social development projects - such as Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity homes for orphans and dying destitutes and The Cheshire Home. The group will also visit Bodhgaya, the birthplace of Buddhism and site of the Bodhi Tree under which Buddha gained enlightenment, and Varanasi - one of India's oldest and most sacred cities. Varanasi sits on the Ganges River and is home to numerous Hindu and Buddhist temples. Each day also includes prayer and reflection in order to process the experience, both individually and as a group. Jan Sullivan Dockter will be the trip leader. Other trips scheduled for later 2007 and early 2008
include: For information about any of the pilgrimages, please contact the MoM office at (301) 428-9560 or by email at office@ministryofmoney.org.
A Retreat on US Immigration Policy
A Money & Faith Retreat facilitated by Wellspring Conference Center Germantown, Maryland Immigration policy within the United States is a controversial and divisive issue that has people marching on the streets of our major cities. The issue divides the public, as it divides both major political parties. Global economic disparity, national security, trade policy, racism and militarism all play a role in the decisions being made by our government. But what are the spiritual components of this controversial topic? Jesus and Scripture have a lot to say about how we are to treat one another, how we are to treat the “strangers” in our lives. As people of faith, how are we to treat the immigrants arriving at our borders? Ministry of Money invites you to this special money and faith retreat focused on US immigration policy. Rick Ufford Chase, a panel of guests, and the MoM staff, together with the retreat participants, will explore the questions, challenges and possible solutions to this challenging topic. Rick Ufford-Chase, former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA, is now the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, an organization that has a sixty year history of supporting Presbyterians who take bold action for the cause of peace. Rick has worked on the US/Mexico border for twenty years where he founded and directed BorderLinks and worked in a variety of efforts to support migrants and refugees in the borderlands. He and his wife, Kitty, are reservists with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and they continue to live on the border and volunteer with to create humane border and migration policy. Rick and Kitty have a son, Teo, born in 1995 and they live in an intentional community in Tucson, AZ. Retreat Specifics: When - April 27-29, 2007Friday, April 27: Registration starting at 4:00 PM. Dinner and plenary session begins at 6:30 PM. Retreat concludes with lunch on Sunday, April 29. Where - Wellspring Conference Center, Germantown, Maryland (a northern suburb of Washington, DC). Cost - The total cost for each participant is $295 - which includes the registration, honoraria, 2-nights lodging and all meals.To Register - Download the retreat brochure, complete the registration form along with $100 deposit per person. Remainder of retreat fee due by March 15, 2007. Please register early!
Just Thinking About Money May Have an Effect, Study Shows - by Miranda Hitti, Nov. 16, 2006, WebMD Medical NewsHaving money, or just thinking about money, may affect behavior, a study in Science shows. "The mere presence of money changes people," says researcher Kathleen Vohs, PhD, in a University of Minnesota news release."The effect can be negative; it can be positive," says Vohs, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. Vohs' team studied nearly 300 undergraduates at the University of Minnesota and Canada's University of British Columbia. In nine experiments, the researchers reminded some students about money.For instance, some of those students received play money. Others sat in front of computers with money screen savers. For comparison, other students didn't get any play money. They sat at computers with screen savers showing landscapes or other scenes without money.Money Matters In every test, students who received or were reminded of money were more self-sufficient than those who weren't given or reminded of money.For example, the students in the money group worked longer by themselves on a task assigned by the researchers before asking for help. But when asked to help someone with another project, those students didn't help as much as those who weren't exposed to money.
Americans have gotten very attached to their stuff - by Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY, December 15, 2006 Stuff. Do you really need it or just want it?New research suggests we want lots of it and think we really need it. The number of consumer products Americans say are necessities has multiplied in the past decade, suggesting that items such as microwaves or air conditioning -- once considered luxuries -- are things we can't live without anymore, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday. "The more of these goods you have and the more available they are, the more you feel you need," says Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center. The results are based on telephone interviews
completed last month with 2,000 adults 18 and older.
They were asked to rate 14 consumer products, including
televisions, clothes washers and dryers and high-speed
Internet as either a necessity or a luxury.
- by David Janzen, The Mennonite, January 7, 2007 In his editorial (Oct. 3, 2006 in The Mennonite), Everett Thomas examines Mark 10:17-31, which begins with the rich young ruler, who is invited to give away his wealth, and ends with Jesus’ eye- popping promise to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or bothers and sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.” What is Jesus saying about wealth, Thomas wonders? Is it a blessing or a curse? We are tempted to take this passage to mean what we hope it means – that by giving up some wealth we can get it back a hundredfold and still retain God’s approval. Our individualistic assumptions and capitalistic context make it difficult for Western Christians to grasp what Jesus is saying. But Jesus’ teaching is no conundrum when seen from the communal perspective that he practiced and taught. In following Jesus and doing his words, the disciples gave up personal wealth (Luke 14:33). The wealth they received came by joining a new spiritual family dedicated to Jesus’ mission, through the hospitality and generous sharing of all God’s people who no longer claimed anything they had as their own. My wife, Joanne, and I first had our eyes opened to this Mark 10 passage when we served as secondary school teachers with the Mennonite Central Committee in the Congo in the late 1960s. Having given up homeland, family and some possessions (albeit just for three years), we discovered that we could go anywhere among the local churches and the MCC network and receive generous hospitality – houses, sisters and brothers a hundredfold – and whatever else we needed. Our new social setting liberated our imaginations to see what Jesus meant with his hundredfold economic promise.
"A quotation at the right moment is like bread in a famine." -The Talmud "Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought it or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little even." - Daniel Berrigan, SJ "Whether you and I and a few others will renew the
world some day remains to be seen. But within ourselves
we must renew it each day." "There is in us an instinct for newness, for
renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to
awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our
lives from within. And yet the same instinct tells us
that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest,
most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born
again is not to become somebody else, but to become
ourselves." "Another world is not only possible, she's on her
way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on
a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her
breathing."
How about we start with equality in and among nations, a social commodity — says a just- released UN think tank study — in grotesquely short supply. - by Sam Pizzigati, Too Much, December 7, 2006Some people, at year’s end, like to spread holiday cheer. The world might do better, suggests a landmark new report from the United Nations University in Helsinki, to start spreading wealth. The new study — the first ever to tally, for the entire world, all the major elements of household wealth, everything from financial assets and debts to land, homes, and other tangible property — finds some $125.3 trillion worth of wealth about in the world, as of the year 2000. If that wealth were divided in perfectly equal shares among all the world’s 3.7 billion adults, every adult on Earth would hold a net worth of just under $34,000 in U.S. dollars. In real life, says the new study from the United Nations University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research, half the world’s adults hold under one-tenth that modest sum, less than $2,161. The vast bulk of the world’s wealth, the study observes, sits “highly concentrated” in the pockets of a relative few. How concentrated? The richest 5 percent of the world’s adults — minimum net worth, $150,145 — hold 70.6 percent of the world’s wealth. The richest 1 percent — minimum wealth, $514,512 — hold 39.9 percent of the world's wealth all by themselves, 13,000 times more than the entire bottom 10 percent.
Dana Cunningham's New CD Dana Cunningham, longtime friend and musician for Ministry of Money events, has a new CD available entitled The Color of Light. I recently heard her play a few pieces from the new recording at a retreat in Indiana and they were incredibly beautiful. If you've enjoyed hearing her play at MoM events or already have her two earlier recordings, or if you're new to Dana's compositions but love contemplative music, I recommend this new album wholeheartedly! I've already ordered numerous copies for myself and holiday gift giving! - Jan Sullivan DockterThe Color of Light, produced by Will Ackerman, features Dana's new, original compositions and a select group of musicians on cello, English horn, violin, percussion and voice. Highlighted are several Grammy-winners, including cellist Eugene Friesen, percussionist Glen Velez, and Will Ackerman on guitar. Among her distinctively lyrical solo works are a number of pieces enhanced with instrumental textures, contemporary structures, and contrasts in sounds. The result, still within the contemplative nature of Dana's previous works, is a surprisingly powerful and evocative album. While the music of The Color of Light is more dynamic and passionate, the delicacy and nuance of Dana's playing are never lost. Like Dancing at the Gate and Silent Night, Dana's earlier recordings, it is an album that can be listened to over and over again.
On Faith - an interactive conversation on religion produced jointly by Newsweek and washintonpost.com. It is moderated by Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn of The Washington Post. My Path*TV - the largest collection of mind, body, spirit programming on the Internet. This unique Web destination has something for everyone and delivers it straight to your desktop. Our affordable plans allow viewers to access commercial-free programming in a full-screen TV-style format instantly, 24 hours a day, with new programs added weekly. Dollar & Sense - publishes economic news and analysis, reports on economic justice activism, primers on economic topics, and critiques of the mainstream media's coverage of the economy. The Social Edge.com - a monthly online social justice and faith magazine. Our goal is to provide our readers with a vibrant mix of articles, columns, commentary, editorials, book reviews, and interviews usually not found in the mainstream news media.We cover some of the most challenging issues of our times, including: the widening gap between rich and poor, child poverty, media concentration and environmental degradation.
Watch for the upcoming MoM printed newsletter. It will arrive in your mailbox by mid-February. The next MoM ezine will be sent to your email address in April 2007.
Retreats January 25-28, 2007 Covenant for Transformation Retreat Washington, DC Closed Event April 27-29, 2007 Giving With Joy A multi-age Money & Faith retreat for St. George Episcopal Church, Jacksonville, Florida Closed Event October 12-14, 2007 Pilgrimages Kenya Pilgrimage November 2007 Cost: $4,100 - $4,500 Registration Deadline: August 1, 2007 Upcoming Pilgrimages: For information about any of these events, please contact Ministry of Money at (301) 428-9560 or by email at office@ministryofmoney.org
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