Good Shepherd Lambs - Episcopal Singles Ministry Newsletter

Our first Sharing Dinner on Saturday November 16th was a warm and friendly way to spend a sloppy, cold night. We had 11 hardy souls who braved the weather reports to spend some more time getting to know each other. We didn't coordinate our menu but wonder of wonders, there was no duplication, from antipasto, hot cheese dip, to scalloped potatoes & ham, meatloaf, various salads, and scrumptious desserts. We had such a good time chatting and getting to know each other that we didn't even get to the games and music we had planned, but that's what it's all about - getting together with friends.

Our next Tuesday's meeting on November 19, will not be our usual discussion group setting, except for newcomers. We will break into Interest groups to do some brainstorming on what we might do with that group, for instance - socialites might like to plan social events, current and future group leaders will pool ideas on what topics to cover in our group discussions and what materials to use - videos, books, etc. as well as suggesting speaker or First Tuesday special events, community minded people will work on whether we will have one special community interest, i.e. -the environment, or whether we should have different projects each month, and anything else that inspires them. Anyone for football gatherings? Or group night at Geva, or finding female images of God in the Bible, or volunteering at Meals on Wheels or Foodlink, or a musical jam session on Sunday afternoon, or doing a fundraiser singles dinner/dance, or having a special Liturgy to bless a divorced person's new singularity, or finding out if it's a sin to have sex before marriage (you might be surprised)?

At the end of the meeting, each interest group will make a short presentation of what they decided on and all ideas and suggestions will be combined in one package of ideas to publish in our Newsletter calendar and on our web site. Of course, we're looking for people to be volunteer coordinators, and participants, of things we plan to do. Working on projects together is probably the best way to cement friendships and have a lot of fun doing it.

Have you reviewed our Mission statement on what we're trying to do with this group? It may evolve as we go, but we think it covers what we want to do at this time. I was very interested in Bishop McKelvey's lesson in Congregation Building when he visited Good Shepherd recently. He had some very good points to make about what is an Effective Congregation and we could keep them in mind as we are building this new Singles Ministry. This project was actually a response to an article in our Episcopal Life national publication - 'Is There Seating for One in the Church?' at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/episcopal-life/Solo.html

In case you didn't catch Bishop's address at church, you can read the summary, and some of his jokes, on our site at Good Shepherd Lambs - Episcopal Singles Ministry

Come on over next Tuesday and let's get to know each other, and start turning our minority presence in church into the majority presence that we are in the general population. Having a bigger presence and a bigger voice in church will mean having more relevance for single people in church. Did you know singles are 51% and sometimes more, of the total population? Why not in the church too.

'with gladness and singleness of heart',

Betty Van Volkenburg