I want to start by saying my family is grateful beyond measure that neither we nor our homes were harmed by the Labor Day fires that swept the state of Oregon. But I think we– a collective we that includes our entire city– are still reeling from the triple whammy: our continuing Level 1 Covid reopening status, ongoing protests condemning police brutality against Black, indigenous, […]
I’ve been writing about leading a communications committee that’s working on moving a community church into the digital age. A Tentative Beginning This week, we concluded the third session of our Zoom “retreat.” When I first posed the idea that it was time for a retreat and said I envisioned a six to eight hour process, I got more pushback than I’d ever expected. I […]
I ended my last post with two questions: How do [teachers, other leaders] design virtual spaces that lead to not only the expected outcomes, i.e., academics or prayer, but to the deeper opportunities [afforded by digital tools and spaces]? And how do we, the ones experienced with these spaces, inspire them to begin? The past weeks have seen a flurry of activity and, with that, […]
When is a Twitter battle about Bitmoji Classroom like church unrest about worship via Zoom? This is the unlikely question that came to me recently, as I scrolled through my Twitter list of educators. The #BitmojiClassroom Wars I was taking a breather from news of the Portland protests. For 60+ days, the Portland pro-#BLM and anti-federal protests have woven an intense and terrifying narrative, punctuated […]
No, the theme for the new programmatic year won’t be a beloved community, at least, not by conscious design. “Beloved Community” was seen as a potential co-optation of Martin Luther King’s vision. Also problematic for some was the deep emphasis on nonviolent protest and action, which was not the intention of the general idea of environmental and human justice that had been proposed. Several of […]
It’s coming to the time of organizing the next step of work of Communications Committee, AKA ComCom. In this time of turmoil, fear, and new ways of being, ComCom has grown and teeters on a cusp of new possibilities, as well as new realities. Interesting how new realities and new possibilities come together. The new realities: ain’t no physical gathering happening any time soon. The […]