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The Mastery Foundation - September 2005 |
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This is the third issue of a quarterly newsletter designed to keep you
up-to-date on the work of the Mastery Foundation. We try not to send unwanted email.
If you would like to be taken off the email list for this newsletter,
just click on the Unsubscribe button at the bottom of the page.
If you would like to update your record with us, you can either
click on the Update Profile button below, or send an email to information@masteryfoundation.org.
Every email we receive is personally read.
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Interfaith
Each newsletter, we share a story from one of the participants in our interfaith work. One of the foundational commitments of the Mastery Foundation is empowering religious leaders - both clergy and laity.
Ministry, like community, is about caring for the whole, and even for the most devoted, it is a daunting commitment. Because it challenges the status quo and the limitations we place on ourselves, because it
empowers deeper questioning rather than providing answers, the Making a Difference workshop is one of the most powerful and valuable experiences available for those rebels and mystics among us who are called
to minister and to bring God present for others.
Steve Rozelle is the rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He first participated in the Making a Difference workshop in November 1984.
To read more, click here.
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Community Empowerment
The last week in August was an extraordinary time for the Mastery Foundation to be in Mississippi.
As Hurricane Katrina traveled up the far side of the state – Clarksdale would only get some high winds and rain –
local citizens gathered for the fourth consecutive year to continue their conversation about
transforming their community. The gifts of the Clarksdale and Mississippi Delta community were never more visible –
from its culture and art, to its great Southern cooking, to the the extraordinary culture of hospitality extended
equally to strangers from around the country and displaced brothers and sisters from the Mississippi Gulf coast
- community empowerment.
Click here
to read the full report.
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Peace and Reconciliation
Our July trip to Israel by volunteers Allan Cohen and Michael Johnston and executive director Ann Overton was organized around offering new ideas and approaches to leadership – that is,
to making something happen that was not already going to happen. We had the opportunity to do some follow-up work with the Lokey Academy at the Leo Baeck Education Center and to offer
programs through the Rabin Center for Arab educators and students from Jaffa and the Bedouin city of Rahat. We also began planning for our next visit and the programs we will offer
in the first quarter of 2006.
Click here
to read about the programs.
In September, we were in Northern Ireland for the seventh program to challenge and empower grassroots community leaders there. We will return in November for a follow-up workshop
and report on both programs in the December issue of the newsletter.
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Sponsors Make a Difference
Each year, between 10 and 20 individuals make the work of the Mastery Foundation possible by becoming Sponsors. Their contributions of $10,000 or more not only fund the work we do, they are often among our best
volunteers and program leaders. In 2005, Sponsors have traveled with us to Israel, Northern Ireland, and Mississippi. Here is what Nancy Juda and Jens Brasch had to say about their experience:
"Being sponsors and knowing how big a difference our money makes has been deeply satisfying. Personally, we appreciate getting to know a community and its citizens when we are there with The Mastery Foundation
in a way we never would on our own. We have met people in Northern Ireland and Mississippi and had conversations that we will never forget. In Clarksdale, we witnessed the building of face-to-face relationships
between people who have historically been separate and alienated from each other. One result of the conversations there was an agreement by the participants to gather bimonthly for a potluck dinner. This may
sound small, but the separation has been so systemic that the community members rarely find themselves in a room together. That they will be meeting and creating together over dinner is a real and tangible
blossoming of local leadership that is revolutionary and limitless."
If you would like to join the Sponsor community, please send an email to information@masteryfoundation.org.
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