This year the Board of the Directors for the Community of the Lamb decided not to send out our usual annual appeal letter. Instead of asking for donations and pledges, we want simply to give you a report of our activity and ministry during the last year as a way to express faithful accountability in the stewardship of the gifts give to the Community of the Lamb. While acknowledging the current economic situation, I am happy to announce that, as usual, the financial support received for this ministry has met all expenses and has provided a modest salary of $1,200 for the year of 2008 for the Executive Director.
During this last year our activities have included the ongoing group in Shoreline and intermittently an Eastside group meeting in Bellevue, as well as spiritual direction for individuals. I led a Columbia Region clergy retreat in Longview, held a short workshop at the Cathedral, led two Lenten programs in Everett and on Mercer Island, gave a presentation at the spring Ministry Resource Day, held a summer retreat at St. Dunstan, Shoreline, and led weekend retreats for the Total Common Ministry congregations and for Church of the Apostles.
Prayer beads were also sent to a new congregation in Sacramento starting up after most of the Episcopal churches in that diocese disassociated from the rest of the Episcopal Church. These were sent as an expression of prayer support not only for continuing Episcopalians grieving the loss of their diocese and church buildings, but also for those who were now feeling free to join the Episcopal Church and enter into a faith community that welcomed diversity of theological perspective within the faith of Jesus Christ.
Most significantly during the last year I have been going twice a month to the Monroe Correctional Complex and providing instruction in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb for some 25 men in the Twin Rivers Unit. This is a major outreach ministry for the Community of the Lamb that I have been able to offer because of your contributions, since this is not a service for which I receive direct donations from the participants, nor am I paid by the prison. After a year now of working with these men I have observed how their motivation for meditation is significantly different from others I have worked with, how the prison environment presents challenges in how to carry out daily practice, and how I should direct instruction about meditation. There is much less talk filled with theological or churchy sounding words, and definitely no room for anything that might sound like easy platitudes, but instead pragmatic reality checks and compassionate listening, and a lot of reflection on the themes of escape, truth and faith. I continue to learn along with the men.
So thank you very much for making this ministry possible and for your role in nurturing faith development and increasing realization of Light, Life, Way and Truth as revealed through Yeshua. And with your support I look forward to the coming year in which we will have a major presentation of the Basic Introductory Seminar accompanied by the 12 Week follow up course beginning in February. I also look forward to continuing to build on the foundation now firmly laid at the prison in Monroe, to continue with those in spiritual direction, and to offer more quiet days, retreats and workshops. I feel that this is all possible because of Yeshua’s faithfulness in mercy and grace and great compassion working through many beings open to his love.
Along with my thanks I want to encourage you to continue in the spiritual practice of the Prayer of the Lamb, offering intercession for our environment, our stewardship of resources and deepening faith. Meditate every day. Mediate every day, because meditation is a form of fasting from all the ways in which we limit God’s mercy and grace that would operate within us. When we fast from our own assumptions and expectations about how we think life should work, then we provide the space for the great liberating Truth, the reality of the Reign of God, making its advent in our awareness and realization. Keep meditating!
Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly
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