DATE: March 5, 2002
TO: Members of Deaf Ministries Committee and Other interested persons on the mailing list
FROM: The Rev. Beth Lockard, Coordinator
RE: DMC Annual Meeting 2002
Grace and peace be with you! This packet brings information on the Deaf Ministries Committee annual meeting which will take place April 18-20, 2002 at Holiday Inn BWI, in the middle of the Baltimore - Washington corridor and a few minutes from the national BWI airport in Baltimore. We will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday and finish the business meeting Friday with dinner. This will be followed by a keynote speaker Friday evening and workshops on Saturday.
I apologize for the late publicity although many of you already knew the dates a year ago. Because we are using a new site, we need to give the hotel a rooming list by March 20. Please contact me by March 10 to let me know if you are able to attend and the accommodations needed. We sincerely hope that this is possible. If you need additional time to secure funding to attend, I still need to know your attendance plans so that the proper number of rooms can be reserved and meals arranged. A fax, e-mail, or phone call would be great!
Enclosed you will find:
The theme of this annual meeting is "Opening Church Doors: Deaf Gay & Lesbian Community." Our devotions and the leadership training workshops following the business session will be focused on this theme. We are asking you to come with your experiences and ideas of inclusion of this particular minority group within the Deaf Community. If you have any pertinent readins that would be helpful for the group, please get permission to copy and bring along. We realize many denominations are focusing on this same issue at the current time and we hope to have information from different denominational and nondenominational support groups available.
The Planning Committee is pleased to have the Rev. Paul W. Egertson, Bishop Emeritus (Southern California, ELCA) as our keynote speaker on Friday night. Bishop Egertson brings the experience of having a gay son now in the seminary and the perspective of a church leader in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which is still studying related issues.
On Saturday, two other Deaf Californians will be leading workshops, Ms. Judy Gough (UCC) and Mr. Don Rosenkjar (ELDA). We will close with a panel of Deaf people from different faiths. Please see the flyer for information and share this with people living in the Baltimore and Washington DC area.
Our denominational/organizational reports this year will be distributed but NOT read during the meeting. Pease see these report forms and send yours in if you cannot attend. These reports can be read in full later by participants and will also be shared with the NCCC's Ministries in Christian Education annual meeting in January 2003. You will also be able to have display space and sell items related to Deaf ministry.
If you are new to this group, we welcome you with open arms! We want to include all those working with Deaf Ministry! I hope you can attend and look forward to seeing you in April. God bless your journeys
http://www.geocities.com/fjbourn/dmc/BethLetter.htm
Last time updated: April 2, 2002