From Pam Oliver to Java & Jesus participants on Sunday mornings at 9 am:

The end of this email asks you to email [email protected] if (1) you are willing and able to be trained on how to turn on the Owl Camera and launch Zoom, and/or (2) you are willing and able to help with J&J facilitation during the summer (see below for more details)

During the summer, Java & Jesus will focus on the Phoenix Affirmations. We decided to do this because the pastors will be preaching on them during the summer and we want to keep the J&J community going during the summer in a low-maintenance way. There is an online study guide available that offers discussion questions. We believe these will prompt the kind of open-ended J&J discussions participants have come to know and enjoy.

I, Pam Oliver, have agreed to help us put together a low-effort coordination team for the summer and hope some of the regulars can help. (1) I’d like to train as many people as possible who are J&J regulars about how to turn on the Owl camera in the Swan Room and open the Zoom meeting so we are not dependent on just one or two people. John Lemke has set up instructions on the laptop that make this pretty painless. (2) It would be helpful to have a designated facilitator each week to help the discussion move along by quickly summarizing the main points from the study guide for people who have not read it and keep track of who wants to talk. The designated facilitator could optionally select a portion of the Eric Elnes’ book The Phoenix Affirmations — A New Vision for the Future of Christianity, or some other source to supplement the week’s theme, but this is not required. We hope all the regulars make a point of welcoming new people and making sure they are invited to share their thoughts as they wish.

Please send email to me [email protected] if (1) you often attended J&J in person and are willing and able to be trained on how to set up the Owl and Zoom or already know how to do this, and/or (2) you are willing and able to commit to being a facilitator for one, two, or three weeks during the summer, in which case let me know which weeks you would or would not be available. Diane Dulin and Tom Beilman will be providing programming for July 16, 23, and 30 on Palestinian Justice and there will be no J&J on those Sundays. We will be doing Phoenix Affirmation programming during J&J on June 4, 11,18 25, July 2, 9, and August 6, 13, 20, 27.

Thanks in advance for your interest and responses!

Pam Oliver

PS for your reference, List of Phoenix Affirmations by content:

1. Walk fully with Jesus, don’t deny other faiths
2. Prayer, meditation, scripture
3. Celebrate creation
4. Worship includes art
5. Engage people authentically across diversity
6. Stand with poor and oppressed
7. Separate church and state
8. Walk humbly with God, seek to understand enemies
9. We and all people are loved
10. Sacredness of minds and hearts, doubt and belief
11. Care for bodies, time for rest, reflection, recreation
12. Meaning and purpose, discernment of calling