PRINCIPLES, ACTIONS AND PRAYERS
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From: Sharon M.
Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2008, 11:38 AM
Subject: Principles, Actions and Prayers
Reply to: 265295
ID: 265297

Bruce:

I, personally, did notice that the censoring had quit and that the emails were going right through as this occurred with my last email.

The proof of this is when one's email is written, posted and it immediately goes out. Yhis is what women were looking for.

Warmly, Sharon

--- On Wed, Oct 15, 2008, in msg265295, Bruce Schuman wrote ---

Good morning, from Santa Barbara.

Yes, I am a little conflicted about replying here -- being "a man" -- and also being the person who actually built this system that has been seen in the light described in this email...

Karen, you did address your email to "all" -- so, I will take that as an invitation to respond. Since I work in the field of "dialogue" -- and am persuaded it is essential to "wisdom" -- particularly in a global or interfaith context -- I will do what I can to respond to your comments in dialogue format....

*

Karen: Thank you for your questions and comments regarding the Sophia Principles. I am one of the women mentioned who is disturbed by what I've experienced here, and have spoken up privately, but not publicly until now.

Bruce: I am sorry that this has not been a happy experience. Is there anything I can do to help improve this experience for you?

Would you be willing to cite exactly what it was that disturbed you? What actual experience created this feeling in you? Is it something that we could perhaps clear up?

Karen: Monday morning, I received an email from the founder of a women's organization in Denver who asked about the conference. I wrote her back this morning, sadly, to caution she NOT get her networks involved as I can not honestly vouch for the principles and agendas of this group.

Bruce: (sigh) This is hurtful, Karen -- as I think you would agree -- if it turned out to be true that your impressions were somehow not quite accurate. Wouldn't you agree?

Is it possible that there is simply a misunderstanding -- that has proven to be difficult to clear up by email? Maybe the problem -- is the low "bandwidth" of an email process. Things can get confused in an email system -- unless people are willing to step up, try a little harder, maybe get on the phone, and go to work on straightening things out.

Isn't that right?

Karen: I felt terrible to write this, but can not in good conscience encourage others to join as long as actions do not line up with words.

Bruce: Karen -- can you please be specific? Please show me an actual instance of this failing somewhere. For example, where have I personally failed to live up to these principles? I am sure you don't want to make broad-brush, vague and ungrounded accusations -- that injure the women's movement, and pull a cloud over a process that could be inspiring, brilliant, highly inclusive, and build critical bridges across very diverse paradigms and assumptions....

Karen: Shutting down women's voices and pushing out individuals who differ or disagree, especially your own founders, are serious violations of ethics in ANY group. Unless this is truly addressed and healed, rather than justified and forced under the rug, this will never be a project groups with a sacred center can participate in.

Bruce: Yes -- I can hear your concern here. This "leadership" issue -- has been tough, it's true. We have all felt it deeply -- and given so much energy to these questions. The fact is -- there have been some problems. Some decisions had to be made. Maybe those decisions were not introduced or explained very well, and yes, there has been some pain, some anger, some frustration, and some confusion.

But we have also poured a lot of energy into the possibility of keeping things open, fully inclusive, and totally accepting. The problems that arose were not about "disagreements on issues" or "an unwillingness to answer questions" -- they have to do with personal working style. This "Sophia Alliance" group -- is intimately related to the "Sophia 2010" group -- because many people are in both groups. Sophia 2010 has a slightly different underlying paradigm than this place. It seems to me -- that this should be ok with everybody.

This is an approach that I personally believe can "heal" these underlying divisions, and the leadership problems.

And let me just say, Karen -- as regards "groups with a sacred center" -- that I have been an interfaith worker for many many years.

I have worked with new consciousness groups, with women's groups, and with interfaith groups.

Just for your information -- I worked intimately with the CPWR to develop the 2004 "Parliament of World Religions" held in Barcelona. I was part of the "Assembly Design Group" that organized the leadership retreat of "400 world religious leaders" at Montserrat before the Parliament -- and I was a invited delegate to that retreat. I build the network system that coordinated 300 international volunteers that worked at the Parliament.

The Parliament of World Religions -- a ten-day international conference with 10,000 attendees -- might be roughly comparable to what people want to do in Sophia. But let me just say -- that the CPWR did not develop that conference as a grass-roots network, with wide-open feedback and input from all its participants. Far from it. That conference was entirely controlled and developed behind the scenes in a "strictly hierarchical" way by the CPWR. Yes, they listened to input from participants, and they were influenced by that input -- but they were not controlled by it, and they did not give that input an open internet voice. People played by their rules, or they didn't play.

Here, in this context -- we are doing something roughly comparable -- and we ARE giving the participants an open internet voice -- right here in this group. Anybody can walk in, anybody can post. I think what we might hear from the CPWR about why they don't do grass-roots-driven stuff -- is because they want to avoid the kind of confusion and contention that has emerged here.

I am pretty sure we can do better. But -- I think it would really help -- if everybody could step up into real wisdom, and be careful about the confusions that can arise in email...

Kay: Many have called for a dialog and better approaches women CAN support. I hear this is forthcoming, but have not seen anything to confirm. I am a person of faith but also believe actions speak louder than words.

Bruce: Kay -- I give you my personal pledge that I will do everything I can to support this concern, and would be happy to interact with you in any way you suggest, at your convenience.

Kay: Holding this group in prayer and hoping we will find a way that honors all womens voices.

Bruce: I hope we can do this too, and I also hold this group in prayer.

My own instinct is -- yes, it's been a little bumpy -- but the power of grace and vision is with us. We ARE listening. We CAN do this.

Just in case you might want to look at this, Karen, as an interfaith minister -- check out this statement I wrote a few months ago, about the spirituality of circles. See if you agree with this...

http://lightpages.net/lp/message.cfm?messageid=261457&login=463354&mo=1

Thanks for listening, Karen, and anybody. I think we can work this out, and emerge in beauty, brilliance, and grace.

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