January 2001
Dear Friends of Wisdom,
I work as a Director of Children’s Ministries in a Presbyterian congregation. Throughout Advent, the after-school program children and I created a nativity scene out of multi-colored clay. It was a delight-full experience: we had blue sheep, purple people, and lots and lots of baby Jesus’s, one of whom was bigger than his parents. When we first started working on our nativity scene, one girl kept saying, “But there can only be ONE baby Jesus, and don’t you know that SHEEP AREN’T BLUE??” Yet that was what made it so much fun: the point of the activity was to create the kind of nativity scene that WE wanted to have, not simply replicate the kinds that are on display in stores and churches. We created ours to look and feel the way we wanted it to. Pretty soon, that one little girl caught the spirit, and I saw her busily at work on a family of multi-colored caterpillars to add to the nativity.
Now, shift gears somewhat. We’re no longer talking about creating a nativity scene at an after-school program. We’re talking about creating a body within the Presbyterian Church (USA) that offers a fresh glimpse of who God is and what God’s dream is about. We’re talking about Voices of Sophia. In your own wildest dreams, what would Voices of Sophia look like? What would Voices of Sophia feel like? What do we need to do to create that body together?
The core leadership team of Voices of Sophia is called the Central Team. The Nominating Committee is searching for people who will consider serving on the Central Team. We want our Central Team to be a group that incarnationally hints at what Voices of Sophia can look and feel like as a body. While “diversity” entails more than age and skin color and sexual orientation, the Nominating Committee is especially seeking persons who are under the age of 35, and/or persons who belong to a racial ethnic minority group, and/or persons who are lesbian/bisexual/transgender.
Attached to this letter is a nomination form that lays out the responsibilities of Central Team members. As Voices of Sophia, all of us need to dream and work in order to help make our community the way we want it to be, the way we sense God wants it to be. Consider whether Sophia is calling you to serve on the Central Team. Consider others you know whom you could invite to serve on the Central Team.
Thanks for your help with this. May we continue to dream and work together,
Beth Beall, Nominating Committee Chair
View the Central Team Nomination Form
View the Central Team Job Description
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