Important Administrative Work

Friends:

At this time of year we catch up on import work.
Yesterday it was the review of the By-Laws of the Consortium.

Task Force Chair Mary Brown, Trustee Clyde Taylor and I met for two hours yesterday to review the By-Laws and to draw up a list of changes to recommend to the full Board next October.

We also reviewed three proposed policy statements.

I am most appreciative of the time and energy of Mary and Clyde.
This rather unsung work of two Board members keeps the Consortium up-to-date in important corporate matters.

Peace,
John

The Boston Consortium

Friends:

Sorry to be absent for a few days.

I had a delightful mini-retreat this week at St. Anselm's Abbey on South Dakota Avenue NE.
I have gone their from time to time to make my annual retreat.
It is always good to pray with the monks, to have some quiet time and to do some spiritual reading.
I strongly recommend retreats!

Subsequently I had a few minutes to take a look a the Bulletin of the Boston Theological Institute, a Consortium like ours in many ways. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary.

I would note two things:

1. My counterpart, Dr. Rodney L. Petersen, Director of the BTI, has his usual interesting column.
What struck me about this one is the following:

"But the Zero-Sum option is no option for theological education: The Zero-Sum option says that it is impossible for one party to advance its position without the other party suffering a corresponding loss. This is theological prejudgment. A negative-sum solution says that the pie is shrinking and in the end, the gains and losses will all add up to less than zero. This, also, is not an option: Religion is, worldwide, a growth industry."

He goes on to say that the only option for theological education is positive-sum thinking.

We believe in divine grace.

2.In the same issue of the Bulletin is the 40th Anniversary Address give by Dan Aleshire, Executive Director of the Association of Theological Schools [ATS]. He notes that Consortia increase educational capacity at very modest costs. He says:

"Effective consortial structures are one of the greatest bang-for-the-buck investments theological schools can make, and most of the schools still have at least a buck."

This is as true here as in Boston.

A happy Memorial Day.

Peace,
John

"Believers in Christ, united in following in the footsteps of the Martyrs,
cannot remain divided."

Friends:

Today I was looking at the first paragraph of the famous 1995 Encyclical of John Paul II
Ut Unum Sint.

Here he cited the offering of Christian martyrs as a "powerful proof that every factor of division can be transcended and overcome in the total gift of self for the sake of the Gospel."

Now I have never thought of myself as 'having the character of the martyrs' though I admire them.
But I do think that I might learn a little about perseverance in our ecumenical call, despite the obstacle's that arise, from the courage of the Martyrs.

The power of the Spirit, alive in us, is stronger than our weaknesses.
I ask daily for the guidance of the Spirit for my work in the Consortium and for the ecumenical movement.

Peace,
John