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Creating Change: Reflections from the EDM

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Creating Change: Reflections from the EDM

My wife and I want to change our eating habits. We cannot keep cookies in the house! We are creating a more minimalist space; our toddler doesn’t so much love purging toys or art. “Where is my hand-painted unicorn bank?” she asked the other day.

“I want to keep every picture,” she said of the 72 coloring pages she completed (72 isn’t much of an exaggeration!).

Melissa’s daughter colors picture number 72.

Which drawings and pieces of art do we hold onto? Will I really create quilts for my kids from their baby clothes?

Changing our patterns and practices is proving meaningful — and full of difficult reevaluation of our priorities. What stuff holds meaning? How will we maintain meaningful change with our food choices and (re)commitment to well-being? How do our choices impact our neighbors and Creation?

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Council Members RJ Robles, Nadia Tavera, and I will be representing AllianceQ at the February 17-21 Creating Change Conference, “the nation’s foremost political, leadership, and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ movement” hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force. We’ll be sure to share what learn and unlearn.

At General Assembly this summer, the Alliance will explore how art — and drag! — can create change. AllianceQ is showing up and bringing you a great show.

Colors of Hope explores change — how hope is transformational, how hope as resistance helps shape a brighter, more just future. The devotional journal calls us to wonder, resist, embody, create, hope, stretch, and share. I won’t quote each of the authors’ invitations to create, but a few.

A few prompts to consider how we and our faith communities can create change:

What does it look like to build a community that offers an alternative to persecution and mistreatment? Who is involved in shaping it? Picture your own role in creating that type of community, and who is building it with you. (from the chapter on Pink + Sex by Sandhya Jha)

The author described healing as a process: resolution, regeneration, repair, and restoration. What needs immediate resolution and how can you begin that process? (from the chapter on Orange + Healing by Andrew Deeb)

How will you “open the circle of humanity wider,” creating harmony beyond your own circle? (from the chapter on Blue + Harmony/Serenity by Brendan Y. Boone)

What color do you think of when you imagine yourself in your most carefree state of being? Why that color? Create a space that integrates your color to be enlivened by it often. Buy a piece of clothing in that color at a second-hand shop or store and go ahead and wear it! (from the chapter on Purple + Spirit by Allen V. Harris)

These prompts — and the many others in the book — are for personal growth and collective change. The color-space-and-clothing-question is probably for you, not your congregation. We know changing paint colors or carpet in our church buildings can be… complicated.

But really, how are you and your faith communities creating change?

Thank you for growing with us as we strive with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to be a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.

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As your Executive Director + Minister, I must draw your attention to our need for additional support to meet our budget and fulfill our mission of creating a just and inclusive church.

This ministry is primarily funded by gifts from individuals and congregations, by you.

Along with your gifts, AllianceQ receives one major grant from the Carpenter Foundation. Due to “unsettled economic conditions and the depressed state of the stock market, the Foundation substantially reduced grant awards and did not fund grants that under different circumstances would have been funded.” We are so very grateful that AllianceQ will receive $20,000 for 2023, but this is only half of our award in 2022.

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of our church’s resolution to “Become a People of Welcome and Grace to All” (GA-1327). It has been four years since GA-1929, “An Invitation to Education for Welcoming and Receiving the gifts of Transgender and Gender Diverse-People.” We are renewing our commitments and taking action to build up the kindom of God within us and among us. And this year will be a full year! Expenses are greater because of the General Assembly and our growing ministry.

Will you maintain–or increase–your annual giving and contribute to our spring special appeal? “Make a Difference by Making Up the Difference” seeks to raise $20,000 that was previously contributed by the Carpenter Foundation. We hope you will increase your support in 2023.

There are many ways you can make a difference and support the Alliance:

  • Increase your individual or household giving;
  • Maintain your annual giving and make a one-time or quarterly contribution to the “Make a Difference by Making Up the Difference” special appeal;
  • Invite a friend, family member or church member to donate to AllianceQ;
  • Urge your faith community to include AllianceQ in its annual giving;
  • Collect a special offering from your church or small group;
  • Participate in our activities;
  • Share our news and activities within and through your networks;
  • Pray for our ministry, for Disciples Justice Ministries, and for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

We honor the range of resources within our diverse community and emphasize that you are a gift. Every body in this Body is a gift. Thank you for all the ways you support AllianceQ and embody God’s expansive love.