Femailings — Naming Our Values

Femailings June 2007 — click here to read it!
Naming Our Values — Discussion Guide

General Questions from the Newsletter
In this issue we try to reclaim values that have shaped us as Brethren. In doing so, we are reclaiming our right to participate in naming what Brethren values are. Here, we explore the Brethren values of Love Feast, music, peace, simplicity, hospitality, and loving your neighbor.
· Are these important Brethren values to you? What other values do you hold because you are Brethren?
· What values set us apart as Brethren? What values do we share with other Christians?
· There is a lot of discussion in national politics about values: values voters, family values, moral values. Has the politicization of the discussion about values helped us live out our values or has it gotten in the way?
· Are discussions about what we value an effective tool for social change?

Naming Our Values, by Carla Kilgore
· Kilgore calls on us to name “our visions for Godde’s kin-dom on earth,” and to name “our values to build the kin-dom by.” What are your visions? What values do you hold to help bring about those visions?
· What is one ‘frame’ you would like to change at the national political level, to better represent your values?

Brethren Values: Simplicity, by Deb Jahnke
· How do you ‘continue the work of Jesus… simply’ in your own life?

The Values of the Hospitality Center at Annual Conference, by Audrey deCoursey
· In what ways do we live out our Judeo-Christian value of hospitality? How is exclusive and prejudicial treatment of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people contrary to values of hospitality?
· Did you attend Annual Conference in Cleveland in 2007? If so, did you visit the booth? What did you think of it?
· Do you think it was a good choice for Womaen’s Caucus to be present solely at the Hospitality Center there?

The Value of Peace: Following the Call to Love, by Susanna Farahat
· Being a peace church is one of the most distinguishing features of our denomination. Are we living up to this value as a denomination?
· How do you ‘continue the work of Jesus… peacefully’ in your own life?

Values Exemplified with Love Feast, by Cindy Weber-Han
· Is the Love Feast important to your identity as Brethren? What values does it enact for you?
· Have you shared a Love Feast with someone from another denomination or faith tradition who had never experienced it? What was that like?

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a project of
the Church of the Brethren
Womaen’s Caucus…
and you!

Do you have your own stories to share?
The Brethren Consciousness-Raising Group Curriculum Project hopes to serve as a network for groups, and invites you to create your own discussion curriculum, with videos, articles, and/or questions, for other groups around the country and world.

For more copies of this curriculum, for more information, or to submit your own discussion group curriculum, please contact: Audrey deCoursey, womaen at gmail.com.

Videos available online at www.womaenscaucus.org and www.youtube.com/Womaen