Board of Directors Meeting
Community of the Cross of Nails, USA
Church of Our Saviour
Silver Spring, Maryland
November 16, 2002
On the evening of November 15th the board met at the home of Mark & Leslie Pendleton for a spaghetti dinner and a time for “catch up.”
Present at the meeting were: James Diamond, Stephen Stanley, Connie Domino, Edna Smith, Tom & Randy Gross, Mark Pendleton, Matilda Dunn, William & Henny Hale, Sally Coulter, Van Kussrow, Jr., John McGuire, Jan Mortensen, Laura Poston, Anne Stevenson, Roger Smith. Scott Erickson arrived later Saturday evening.
Guests were: Donna Hicks, Pamela Gibbard (Webmaster), Susan Mann (Editor), Andy Dobelstein, Miriam Kussrow, Henny Hale & Dianna Clark.
I. Call to Order
President Diamond called the meeting to order at 9:08 AM on Saturday, November
16th, in the common room of Church of Our Saviour, Silver Spring, Maryland.
II. Opening prayer
Dean William Hale offered the opening prayer.
III. Approval of Agenda
The proposed agenda for the meeting was approved with a couple of minor
adjustments to the order of business and the addition of item
X. Committee Reports, Linkages.
IV. Approval of October, 2001
Minutes
The minutes of the October 2001 were approved with two corrections: page 2
paragraph five should read “Chapel of the Apostles” rather than “All Saints
Chapel”; page 3 line five needed the correct spelling of “Sierra Leone”.
The Report of the January 2002 Futures Conference was approved.
V. Report of the President
Dean Diamond spoke of the work done since the Futures Conference.
The membership information is now in one place on a CD.
Jim joined Andrew White on trips to Jerusalem, the Vatican, the German CCN, a second trip to Jerusalem, to England for the meeting of Alexandria Declaration group and to Germany and Poland.
Conversations have been held with Peter Eaton, Dean of the Cathedral in Denver, and it has been decided that Denver will receive a Cross of Nails in 2005.
Dean Diamond will travel to Minneapolis to do CCN training at the Cathedral in preparation for establishing a CCN group there.
Jim learned that the German CCN meets on a three-year cycle: the executive committee meets the first year; the board of directors the second year and in the third year there is a general meeting with elections. They sponsor several projects that are local, national and for support of Coventry.
Oliver Schuegraf is the new representative from Germany to Coventry. He is from Wurtburg where he works with a Cross of Nails prison ministry group.
The core relationship of the Community of the Cross of Nails is England/Germany. Jim noted that we need to establish a strong relationship between CCN-USA and the German CCN.
There will not be another youth conference for three years. At that next conference a number of spaces will set aside for Americans. We will need to apportion that number so that young people from various places in the U.S. can attend and perhaps we can sponsor and pay for young people from other countries to attend.
No stipend is given to people attending the German CCN meetings. We need to look at how we finance our meetings.
(At this point in the meeting Dianna Clark, a guest of Sally’s arrived and was introduced. She is the ethics facilitator for the Atlanta group.)
Dean Diamond commented on the confusion about the Institutional Membership category and asked if we are simply being used as a channel to pass money to Coventry? He noted that non-profit institutions could send money directly to Coventry. Donations from non-profits don’t need to pass it through our accounts, as individual donations do for the tax advantage.
Jim asked us all to send articles of two or three paragraphs about the work we are doing to Pam webmaster extraordinaire.
Someone made the suggestion that we need to be sure that we identify ourselves as CCN-USA to distinguish our work from the work of Coventry CCN.
VI. Executive Secretary’s Report
Edna Smith reported that she can tailor our stationery for individual
member’s use. She spoke of having membership detail on a database.
The question of what should be included in packets for new members raised the issue of editing the manual.
It was suggested that board members might contact new members to help with growth and the creation of new chapters. There was conversation about a quarterly report of the roster of paid members, with address in zip code order. Such a report could be sent by e-mail for this follow-up work by Board & Advisory committee members.
The President suggested we set a goal for each member of the Board to recruit ten new members in 2003.
Van moved the Board express it thanks to Edna and Kathy Noe (Christ Church Cathedral, Executive Assistant to Dean Diamond) for the work they have done in compiling the membership and financial records. The motion passed unanimously.
VII. Treasurer’s Report
Tom reported that he had received the
financial numbers, but he had not had time to reconcile them with figures from
the previous year. He said that Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati had
absorbed some of the expenses (such as phone costs). He suggested that the
treasurer be located in Cincinnati. Tom will mail a final report.
It was moved seconded and adopted that an Institutional Membership of a thousand dollars will give the institution membership but will include no individual memberships.
It was moved seconded and adopted that a new category of membership be established: Community Membership. A thousand dollars contribution would establish a Community Membership with thirty individual memberships.
VIII. Old Business
Advisory Board
Board members were asked to volunteer to move from the board to an Advisory
Board. The following people volunteered.
Randy Gross
Tom Gross
William Hale
Van Kussrow
John McGuire
Jan Mortensen
Laura Poston
Ann Stevenson
The following suggestions were made as possible tasks for the Advisory Board:
Write letters to new members
Redraft the by-laws
Have “Fun”
Maintain the oral history
Create & maintain Achieves
Make suggestions for membership enhancement (Common Discipline)
Conferences
Pilgrimages
Help mentor new centers
(Andrew White arrived and was welcomed)
It was moved, seconded and adopted that the size of the board be twelve.
It was moved seconded and adopted that we elect only two new members to the board at this time.
Those remaining on the board were nominated and reelected. They were then established into classes for remaining years of service as follows:
Jim Diamond, President 4 years Class of 2006
Stephen Stanley, Vice President 4 years Class of 2006
Connie Domino, Vice President 4 years Class of 2006
Scott Erickson, Treasurer 3 years Class of 2005
Edna Smith, Executive Secretary 2 years Class of 2004
Sally Coulter 3 years Class of 2005
Matilda Dunn 4 years Class of 2006
Mark Pendleton 3 years Class of 2005
Completed nomination forms were received for two new board members:
Joyce Roland
Henry Jesse
Spencer Simrill
Joseph Cunningham
Roland and Jesse were declared elected, and Jim Diamond indicated that he would write a letter of welcome.
Nominating Committee
It was moved, seconded and adopted that the nominating committee is made up of
four members of the advisory committee and any officers now will be going off
the board. Committee to submit slate by June 1, 2003.
Moved, seconded and adopted that we have a single slate to fill vacant places.
It was moved seconded and adopted that as of 2003 there will be no stipend for travel, etc. for Board Meetings.
IX. Publications
Prayer List was reviewed for corrections. Minor
corrections were referred to the Connie Domino for action.
CCN Manual to be edited and coordinated with brochure by January 31st. (Susan Mann)
Crossroads to continue three times a year.
X. Committee reports
Racial Reconciliation Committee Report distributed at meeting. (See
Appendix A)
Interfaith Relations Conference:
Sally reports that as liaison to Reconciliation NOW, that she and Deacon Thee Smith of the Atlanta CCN chapter have formed a task force with two other pastors of Reconciliation NOW. The task force is planning an Inter-Faith Reconciliation Pre-Conference Forum for October 27, 2003 at the Cathedral. The task force is now made up of representatives of the Atlanta Jewish Community, the Atlanta Faith Alliance (formed by the Mayor after 9/11); other priests, clerics, and pastors in their metropolitan area. The task force meets monthly and has commitments from about half of the speakers needed for the Forum. The faiths represented are Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Baha’i Faith. Members of the Cathedra CCN chapter and Reconciliation NOW are directly involved with the Forum.
Reconciliation NOW Conference is October 29/30th.Van reported on the plans for the Kanuga Conference Christianity & Islam: Peace Through Understanding January 29 – February 1, 2004. Goal is to have 50% Muslim and 50% Christian also to have 20 young people in attendance. He is attempting to get Martin Marty as a speaker. Other possible speakers: Dr. Khaled al Fadl, Raheel Raza and Richard Swder. We are looking for a one-page summary of these plans from Van.
It was moved seconded and adopted to grant Van Kussrow $2000 for expenses of the Christianity/Islam Conference.
Sexuality Conference scheduled for June 2004. We expect a one-page report about this conference from Scott Erickson.
Schools and Colleges
St. Paul’s School, Valparaiso, NYC John McGuire, Chapel, School of Theology,
University of South. ...Editorial comment- these schools & colleges were listed
but I have no further notes about them.
Andrew White is looking forward to organizing an international gathering of school and college folk in 2003.
Matilda distributed a report of the work at The School of Theology of the University of the South. (See Appendix B)
Linkages
Donna Hicks distributed a report on the linkage work that is being done.
(See Appendix C)
Moved seconded and adopted that we appoint a group to develop guidelines for linkages, to continuing dialogue and to gather information we already have in place. There are to be no expenses without pre-approval.
John McGuire and Ann Stevenson made parting remarks about their service as they leave the Board.
XI. International Reports
Andy Dobelstein and Steve Stanley showed a video of
their visit with students to Protea Village, South Africa. Their Report
distributed at meeting (See Appendix D)
It was moved, seconded and adopted to support the project of St. Paul’s Chapel for Protea Village as described in proposal distributed at meeting.
Andrew White reported that things are looking up at Coventry. The quality of the music has improved; a girls choir has been added. A new Presenter has been appointed. He is considered to be England’s brightest liturgist. Attendance is up. There is a new Youth Minister in residence; children are now coming to the Cathedral. There is a Post-Evensong charismatic service. There is a new office block where the JFK building was. 2012 is the goal for a new Center for Reconciliation. Andrew is living in a new house at 36 Morningside.
There are eighteen members on the staff of the Ministry of Reconciliation. One of the new persons on the staff will be handling administration. The staff is divided into four teams:
Conflict Prevention (A Roman Catholic Holy Rosary sister is team member)
Information
Funding and Development
Directors Office
There are new Centers in Holland and in Russia.
Andrew spoke of the fours years of work in Iraq. There are three centers there. The bone marrow transplant program is completed.
Israel and Palestine - Andrew spoke of the Alexandria Declaration and his back and forth trips between the Israeli government and Arafat. The Palestinians have suffered terribly. Arafat has on his desk a Cross of Nails and a piece of Rock from Coventry. He told Andrew that these give him hope.
Andrew was involved as a negotiator in the Bethlehem siege. Jim Diamond said the agreement was signed by the force of Andrew’s perseverance. Andrew created a safe place for people to meet and talk. These people could not be seen in the street together.
Andrew spoke of the peace treaty between Muslims and Christians negotiated in Kaduna province in Nigeria. The CCN has been asked to expand their work to another state.
Donna Hicks spoke about here experience in Hebron.
Connie Domino reported on Youth Work.
Matilda Dunn spoke about the work at Sewanee. There will be a Community Membership for the Seminary. Report as distributed at meeting.
Next meeting to be in Atlanta October 28 & 29th between the pre-Conference Forum, October 27th and the Reconciliation NOW Conference October 30th.
It was moved, seconded and adopted to elect Roger Smith as clerk for the coming year.
Andrew White gave the blessing.
Meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM.
Respectfully Submitted
Roger S. Smith Clerk
December 3, 2002