Summer 2015

Circle of Trust Retreat ®

Registration Procedure:

• ALL retreat participants, whether or not you want to receive academic credit, must complete the Registration Form by August 14, 2015 to allow us to prepare for you. Registration is limited to 35 students. SKSM students have first priority.
  http://www.sksm.edu/circle-of-trust-registration-form/

Course Credit is optional. To receive 1.5 units of course credit:

• Fill out the PIN Request Form to receive the registration PIN number for the Circle of Trust Retreat.
• You must register a 2^nd time by August 14 to receive credit:
  • Entering SKSM students: As you are not yet matriculated, please register as a “Special Student” here: http://www.sksm.edu/academics/how-to-register-for-a-starr-king-school-course/#summer
  • Continuing SKSM degree students: enroll in the course through GTU Colleague Web Advisor.
• Required reading: A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life by Parker J. Palmer. ISBN 978-0-4704-5376-6
• Required Paper: After the retreat, write and submit a 2-3 page reflection paper, emailed to Rev. Lindi Ramsden, lramsden@sksm.edu by September 10, 2015.
• Grading/Evaluation: This course is being offered on a Credit/No Credit basis (grade recorded in the GTU system as P/F)

Learning Objectives: Students will learn principles and practices utilized by the Center for Courage and Renewal through which to:

• explore the intersection of one’s inner life and emerging role as a religious leader in a changing world
• build more trustworthy and compassionate relationships
• ask honest, open questions
• listen deeply to others and to the voice of the sacred within
• embrace paradox in the face of the challenges and complexities of religious leadership
• join “soul” and “role” by leading from a place of wholeness, and
• discern one’s call in times of personal, professional and organizational change.

Learning Format: A two day retreat, using large and small group dialogues, evocative texts and questions, silence, solitude, journaling and stories from our own lives.

Retreat Co-Facilitators:

Nancy Edmundson has been working as a Facilitator through Parker J Palmer’s Center for Courage & Renewal® since 2012, with a focus on clergy and faith communities. She served as the Director of Administration for the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara for 10 years, and consulted with congregations in a leadership development since 1991, and currently serves on the UUA Pacific Western Region Ministerial Transition Team. In 2012 she was honored with the Distinguished Service award to the Pacific South West District of the UUA. Nancy has worked as a physical therapist, in community organizing for alternative education, and has been instrumental in the development of an interfaith countywide Warming Center program for unsheltered homeless in Santa Barbara County, California. She serves on several non-profit boards, including PFLAG SB.

Rev. Alicia Roxanne Forde serves with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) as the Professional Development Director, Ministries and Faith Development. Rev. Forde embodies a commitment to growth and learning and as such, places a high priority on “formation as a life-long vocational practice” in her ministry. She frequently partners with the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association and various UUA staff members in the areas of Health and Wellness, Mentoring, Intercultural Competence, Leadership Development, and Retirement.

A significant portion of her recent work has been focused on working with clergy whose congregations include a history of sexual misconduct. Through this work, she has developed a profound appreciation for ministerial authority, self-care, boundaries, and the crucial importance of collegial connections in establishing sustainable and healthy ministries.

Her previous role with the UUA brought her in contact with congregations seeking to deepen their multicultural ministries. She has led numerous workshops on anti-racism/anti-oppression/multiculturalism, with Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Rev. Forde identifies as a queer, cis-gender woman of the global majority. She currently lives in Longmont, Colorado.
Attendance & Participation: Attendance and active participation is required for all sessions of the retreat. Please do not text, email, or surf the Internet for personal reasons during the retreat. There will be adequate breaks to check in on-line. If you are waiting for an important call (e.g. as a chaplain or family emergency), please notify the instructors and sit where it is not disruptive to take the call.

For further information: contact Rev. Lindi Ramsden, lramsden@sksm.edu

Core Intensive: Theology and Ethics for UU Ministerial Leadership: How to Be a Minister: Ethics, Accountability and Calling

This required core intensive, M.Div course focuses on the theological foundations and habits of mind necessary to be a self-defined leader among Unitarian Universalists, either in congregations or in other UU settings. Students will have the opportunity to test their current skills in a series of real-world challenges likely to be faced in parish or community settings.  The goal is to allow student the chance to confront possible issues while the stakes are low.  Role playing, small group work and reflection papers will be required.  Prerequisite readings will be announced.

This is a required course for the M.Div. program.

 

 

ECO-Core Intensive: Educating to “Create Just and Sustainable Communities”

Educating to “Create Just and Sustainable Communities that Counter Oppressions” (“ECO”) is a core goal of Starr King’s M.Div. and M.A.S.C. degree programs. In this required core intensive, M.Div. and M.A.S.C. students’ work together to form a framework for counter-oppressive spiritual leadership. We will ask: how can spirituality, ministry, and religious activism respond to the multiple and intersecting realities of injustice, suffering, and oppression in our lives and our world? What models of justice and sustainable community invite our commitment? Drawing on Unitarian Universalist and multi-religious sources, we will explore how in the midst of a world marked by tragedy, sorrow and injustice there remain abiding resources of beauty and grace that nourish resistance, offer healing and call us to accountability and community building. Reading and writing assignments to be completed before the course. This course will include Moodle as a resource to share material, resources and ideas before and after the residential week in Berkeley.

The 2015 ECO Core Intensive will have a special focus on poverty and racial injustice.

Mujerista & Latina Feminist Theology

This intensive seminar surveys the rich contributions of Mujerista and Latina Feminist scholars to theologies of liberation. We will explore Latin@ / Hispanic ethnic identity formations; consider the impact of transnational identities in the global North and global South to this work; engage the formative writings of Ada María Isasi-Díaz, María Pilar Aquino, Ivone Gebara and others; and acknowledge their interconnections to Womanist thought.  There will be some advanced reading for this course, but there will not be a final paper. Grades will be determined primarily through class participation.

Symposium

Starr King’s fourth Symposium will be held on September 2, 2015.

• This urban retreat is an annual gathering of our entire student body, faculty, staff and trustees for day of learning, ritual, celebration, food, music, community-building and service.
• This 2015 Symposium is led by Provost, Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé in collaboration with other SKSM faculty and community leaders. Starr King students are requested to enroll by following the above two-step process.
• Graduates are warmly invited to participate.
• Several public events in connection with the Symposium are open to all.
• This is a required course for all SKSM students. Students please go to the Symposium Leaders tab and select “Recommended Reading” section of this website to see what reading is required before Symposium.
• 1.5 units of credit will be given to students who are currently enrolled in a degree program.
• In order to obtain credit, students must read all required readings before Symposium, SIGN the attendance roster for each event, and be active in large and small group discussions.
• In addition, students are asked to work at least ONE work shift before or during Symposium. Making certain that you are signed in is the student’s responsibility.
• * Everyone is required to complete the Registration Form on the www.sksmsymposium.org website, so we can prepare for your presence and address any special needs.
  • For further information, please contact Dee Ward, Coordinator of Academic Programs (dward@sksm.edu).