If you’ve been thinking about donating to Feast of Love, but weren’t sure you wanted to go through the trouble of writing a check and mailing it to us, we now have an online donation option available!
You can donate to Feast of Love from right where you are – in front of your computer or even on your smartphone! It doesn’t get much easier than that. Even small donations can make a big difference as we’re working to get this movement off the ground.
Thanks for your support!
National Young Adult Conference is coming up soon, and it’s sure to be a great opportunity to connect with other progressive young people from across the country and the denomination. Because young adults have been and will continue to be an important part of the Feast of Love movement, we’re sending Elizabeth Ullery, one of our four young adults on our Interim Organizational Team!
Elizabeth will be at NYAC to connect with people who are interested in being a part of the Feast of Love, to listen for the ways that young adults are already at work helping to build the church of the future, and to support and empower emerging young leaders who are poised to make a difference in the church and the world.
Feast of Love will be sponsoring a workshop at NYAC, titled Young, Progressive, and BRETHREN! It will be a panel discussion between several young, progressive leaders discussing why being Brethren is important to them, where they see the church heading, and how we can all be a part of creating the beloved community Christ is calling us to be.
Feast of Love has reached an important milestone in the development of our organization. Starting now, we are searching for candidates to provide an ongoing Leadership Board which will help continue our shared vision, set direction, and insure the carrying out of grassroots-empowered programs. As Feast of Love continues to grow, hired staff will also be sought to manage this movement. The Leadership Board will team with staff in supporting and encouraging progressive ministries, communities, and individuals within the Church of the Brethren.
The Interim Organizational Team especially hopes that our diverse movement of young adults, women, GLBTQ, ethnic and geographic backgrounds will consider sharing your names or the names of others you sense could provide the needed discerning and leadership skills desired for this seven-member board.
Please realize that the members of this board will need to be able to contribute the skills needed on any major organizational board as well as significant amounts of time to continue creating and expanding the Feast of Love. We plan for this new board to be selected and begin functioning prior to the meeting of Annual Conference this year in St. Louis.
If, after prayerful consideration and a discernment process with persons you trust, you sense a call or a willingness to serve, or you know of persons you think we should consider calling to be board members, please download and fill out the board member application/nomination form. Completed forms or requests for further information can be sent to the Interim Planning Team at info@feastoflove.org.
In order to meet our goal of having a full and functioning board by Annual Conference, all applications and nominations should be made by April 25, 2012. Update: The deadline for board candidates has been extended until May 2. Please contact us ASAP if you are interested in being a potential board candidate.
When an Interim Organizational Team was called in October, 2011, their task was to help coalesce the initial, widespread Feast of Love conversations into a bona-fide movement with vision and direction towards the future. As interim leadership, the goal they were given was to accomplish this task and start moving towards the next phase of Feast of Love’s existence by Easter, 2012.
Five months later, Easter is just around the corner. The organizational team has been hard at work building relationships and creating partnerships with other organizations, congregations, leaders, and individuals. Drawing on numerous conference calls, social media interactions, and direct communications they have helped create a framework that will nurture and support the Feast of Love as it continues to emerge and grow into a far-reaching, vibrant, inclusive body that will energize, connect, and empower individuals and communities to put their faith into action.
In addition to the mission and vision statements released at the 2011 Progressive Gathering, the team has also created plans for creating a leadership board, building up our constituency, and hiring a staff person.
Arrangements are being made for Feast of Love to be represented and active at National Young Adult Conference and Annual Conference, as well as helping with the planning of the 2012 Progressive Gathering in La Verne, California.
Feast of Love has also recently begun an emerging, transformational partnership with Voices for an Open Spirit. While FoL and VOS leadership are continuing to work out the details of what this partnership will entail, VoS will now be handling incoming donations for Feast of Love.
In line with their original calling, Easter marks the hinge point at which the Interim Organizational Team will transition from planning and preparation towards the calling of long-term leadership. More details will be posted soon, but the team will be asking all individuals and groups who have been part of the movement thus far to help with discerning and calling out our next leaders. If there is someone you think would be an excellent fit to help lead and guide Feast of Love into the future, send their name and why you think they’re a good choice to info@feastoflove.org.
Please continue to hold the interim team in your prayers as they listen, discern, and respond to the ways the Spirit is moving within and beyond the Feast of Love!
The date, location, and theme of the annual Progressive Brethren Gathering have been announced! Feast of Love will be working together with Voices for an Open Spirit, the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests, and Womaen’s Caucus to make this an excellent time of fellowship, learning, worship, and action. Please make note of the following information, and stay tuned for more details in the coming months:
Theme: Holy Work: Becoming the Beloved Community
Date: 26-28 October 2012
Location: La Verne Church of the Brethren, La Verne, California
In line with the theme of waiting during this season of Advent, we know that you’re likely expectantly anticipating news about what is developing within the Feast of Love movement!
It’s been just over three weeks since the Progressive Brethren Gathering in Elgin, where the Interim Organizational Team presented our ideas and plans to those gathered there. If you weren’t able to travel to Elgin for this event, you can watch the recorded webcast at Progressive Brethren Online. The initial Feast of Love presentation begins at 55 minutes into this video.
Several important developments emerged out of the Elgin gathering:
First off, we were incredibly encouraged by the support we recieved from a broad array of people. It was very clear to us (and to others) that this is an idea whose time has come. We were also excited to see how our ideas meshed with and supported many of the other proposals presented.
Another important happening was the invitation for representatives from Feast of Love to join with other leaders from BMC, Womaen’s Caucus, and VoS to create a new committee with the purpose of working together on collaborative projects, such as the Progresive Gathering, and to help support emerging projects and action ideas. This kind of collaborative networking is a big part of our long-term hopes for connecting progressives and other similarly-minded folk within the Church of the Brethren.
Our conversations and interactions in Elgin gave us the opportunity to continue expanding the conversations that have brought Feast of Love to where we are today. From the initial whisperings following last year’s Annual Conference, to small-group discussions in congregations and coffeeshops across the country, to Manchester, to Elgin, and beyond it has been a process of deeply creative, Spirit-led, Christ-centered discernment and dialogue that has helped the Feast of Love take shape.
Some things we’ve learned from all of our conversations so far:
Since Elgin we’ve continued our weekly conference calls and we’ve begun more in-depth networking with other Progressive Brethren leaders. We’re also continuing to work on issues surrounding funding, non-profit status, and future leadership structures. Lastly, we’re putting together a comprehensive communications plan for the coming months, so expect to start hearing updates more frequently.
Togther we await the in-breaking of Christ into the world, not waiting idly by, but by actively creating and becoming the church Christ is calling us to be.
The Feast of Love interim organizational team is excited to be presenting as part of the 2011 Progressive Brethren Gathering in Elgin, IL. The team’s ideas will be shared alongside several other exciting and hopeful ideas for how to move forward as progressives within the Church of the Brethren.
If you’re interested in seeing and hearing from our team you can view the webcast through Progressive Brethren Online. Idea and action plan presentations will take place from 10:30am – noon (Central) on Saturday, November 12, with Feast of Love presenting during the latter portion of the morning.
As fall swept vibrant colors through the trees of Northern Indiana, sixteen curious souls gathered to discern the emerging shape of the Feast of Love movement.
We lamented the brokenness in ourselves and our family of faith, and celebrated the call we feel to move forward in faith and love. We sang and prayed in the cozy home of Kathy & Paul Fry-Miller, and beneath the stars on the banks of the Kenapocomoco River. Thanks to the Fry-Millers and to Everylight, Inc and Voices for an Open Spirit for providing food and housing for this gathering.
We discussed priorities for our communities of faith: women in leadership, lgbtq inclusion, calling and credentialing justice, building cultures of peace, creation care, and collaboration in all things.
Using formal consensus and Spirit-filled discernment, we considered the shape Feast of Love will take, and an interim organizational team to lead Feast of Love’s continued emergence. We envisioned the formation of an organization that would encourage Jesus’ community.
Feast of Love will empower progressives within and beyond the Church of the Brethren to nurture their faith communities and new faith communities. We will energize and connect people with one another, through gatherings and conferences, sharing stories, and mutual accountability and mentorship. We will gather individuals and communities in celebration of Divine movement within and among us, for celebration and action.
We will continue to pursue options for calling and credentialing of ministers, including exploring the possibilities through existing districts and organizations, and develop a healthy and inclusive process within one year.
The original vision and passion of Anna Lisa Gross and others was celebrated, as was her eagerness to turn leadership over to a fresh group. An interim organizational team has been called and their names will be announced tomorrow – stay tuned! This small, focused team will faithfully develop the goals and organizational model of Feast of Love throughout the next few months, working with all who are interested, collaborating with VOS, BMC, Womaen’s Caucus, OEP, etc. The interim organizational team will present their work at the Progressive Brethren Gathering in November, and are eager for your contributions along the way!
Please continue your own conversations and communions around the Feast of Love – in your local communities, on Facebook, in your church and district meetings, and in your own sacred soul. Please hold the organizational team and the Feast of Love movement in prayer. We are building the church of our hopes and dreams, together.
Present:
Anna Lisa Gross, Common Spirit CoB
Anne Ott, Beacon Heights CoB
Elizabeth Alexander-Ullery, Lacey Community Church and Oregon/Washington District
Janet Mitchell, Beacon Heights CoB
Jennie Ott, Beacon Heights CoB
Josh Brockaway, Highland Ave CoB, Director of Spiritual Life Ministries for the CoB
Josih Hostettler, LaVerne CoB
Josie Tolton, Richmond (IN) CoB and Midland CoB
Kathy Fry-Miller, Manchester CoB and Everylight, Inc.
Ken Kline-Smeltzer, Burnham CoB
Madalyn Metzger, On Earth Peace and Goshen City CoB
Paul Fry-Miller, Manchester CoB
Roger Eberly, Turkey Creek CoB
Roger Schrock, Cabool CoB
Tom Coursen, Beacon Heights CoB
Turner Ritchie, Richmond (IN) CoB and Manchester College
*Please Note – while this page and the attached discussion guide remain on our site as part of our history, please read through our more recent news updates to learn how the Feast of Love movement has continued to grow, change, and mature since these resources were published in August 2011.
The place to begin your involvement with Feast of Love is a discussion with members of your local community. The Feast of Love Discussion Guide is ready for download, complete with a slide presentation, liturgy, and discussion questions. Once you have completed the discussion guide we would love your feedback.
For those of you eager to volunteer and get something done, send an email to volunteer@feastoflove.org with some skills you might contribute and we will try to get you plugged in with a working group. You could also start your own group, and let us know what you are doing.
For those of you looking for more information we are working new avenues for you to keep up on the latest from the Feast of Love leadership circle. We have created an email list for you to join. If you want to receive these emails signup for our mailing list using the form in the right sidebar.
