Annual Meeting of the MID Board: 2002
The annual meeting of the board of directors for MID took place from September 26-28, 2002, at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This year the twenty-one of us in attendance heard and discussed reports on Benedict’s Dharma (both the conference and the subsequent book of the same name that contains reflections of four Buddhists on the Rule of St. Benedict), on Gethsemani Encounter II and the book that is being prepared to bring the dialogue from that encounter to a wider audience, and on our various publications. We also approved a new set of by-laws and authorized the women on our board to invite nuns of Asian traditions who now live in North America to a dialogue on “Sustaining Spiritual Values in Western Culture.”
Fr. William Skudlarek, chairman of the board, kept the meeting on pace, but there remained ample time and space to meditate, celebrate Eucharist, visit with one another, and enjoy the beautiful grounds of the Fetzer Institute. The excellent accommodations and first-class food represented another first for the annual meeting of the board. As Sr. Sarah Schwartzberg said, “At first I was embarrassed, but then I decided just to enjoy it all!” On the day following the conclusion of the meeting we took a Sunday afternoon excursion to the Gilchrist Retreat and Conference Center (an initiative of the Fetzer Institute) and also accepted the hospitality of the nearby Episcopal Abbey of St. Andrew.
This was the first time in the twenty-four-year history of the board that the annual meeting was not held in a monastic house. We welcomed the invitation of the Fetzer Institute to meet at their headquarters in recognition of their partnership with us in producing both the Benedict’s Dharma conference and Gethsemani Encounter II, for the Fetzer Institute gave generous financial support of $107,000 for the two programs and their dissemination. One of the highlights of the meeting was the opportunity to use a state-of-the-art computer that was linked to our MID Website, thereby allowing us to view pictures, text, and commentary from those two programs.
The main topic of the business meeting was a thorough revision of our by-laws. This was needed because over the years various decisions were made that had shifted priorities and criteria for membership. A committee composed of Fr. William Skudlarek, Fr. Daniel Ward, Sr. Margaret Michaud, and Sr. Mary Margaret Funk provided a working document that got the entire board involved in determining some of the final details. One goal of the board is to have the business side of things as unobtrusive as possible so that the work of dialogue and hospitality stay clearly in focus.
In our review of current publications, the board discussed the MID Bulletin and its associated Website, and three MID-related books that are currently sold on the Web and in bookstores: Benedict’s Dharma, The Gethsemani Encounter, and Advice for Buddhists and Christians. Several translations of these works into other languages are in progress. The book that will emerge from the recent Gethsemani Encounter II, edited by Professor Donald Mitchell and Fr. James Wiseman, is to be published by Doubleday in the summer of 2003. Its tentative title is Transforming Suffering: Reflections on Finding Peace in Troubled Times.
Regarding the leadership of MID, Fr. William Skudlarek accepted a second term as chairman of the board and Sr. Mary Margaret Funk agreed to a further contract of three years as executive director. Much discussion followed concerning the need to provide adequate funding for the MID office and the events sponsored by the board. Member monasteries will be contacted once again and asked to give the necessary financial support, while foundations and friends will likewise be asked for generous donations.
Finally, three decisions were made that moved the board away from its internal affairs to the work at hand. First, in light of the threat of war with Iraq, the members agreed that each would dedicate his or her contemplative practice each day for peace through dialogue rather than war. This action was substantive. We see ourselves as contemplatives who work on behalf of compassionate peace, justice, and mercy through the channels of Christ’s redemptive love. As monastics we have a distinctive role to play on behalf of “action in the world,” following the model of our founding father, Thomas Merton.
A second initiative concerned the initiative on “Sustaining Spiritual Values in Western Culture” that was mentioned at the beginning of this report. The dialogue will be among women monastics from the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions and will be held from May 23-26, 2003 at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, California, near Los Angeles.
The third initiative was to hold a meeting in late January, 2003, to be attended by those directly involved in the print and electronic versions of this MID Bulletin, with the intent of assuring our readers of quality content and timely distribution. Board member Abbot Leo Ryska would host the meeting at the Interfaith Church Center in the Bronx.
Finally, it was agreed to hold the next annual meeting at Mepkin Abbey, near Charleston, South Carolina, over the Columbus Day weekend in October 2003. Among the topics on the preliminary agenda is the refining of our statement of mission and purpose. In evaluating the Kalamazoo meeting we felt that we not only talked about dialogue but actually did it. We want that spirit to pervade our future meetings as well.
Fr. William Skudlarek, chairman of the board, kept the meeting on pace, but there remained ample time and space to meditate, celebrate Eucharist, visit with one another, and enjoy the beautiful grounds of the Fetzer Institute. The excellent accommodations and first-class food represented another first for the annual meeting of the board. As Sr. Sarah Schwartzberg said, “At first I was embarrassed, but then I decided just to enjoy it all!” On the day following the conclusion of the meeting we took a Sunday afternoon excursion to the Gilchrist Retreat and Conference Center (an initiative of the Fetzer Institute) and also accepted the hospitality of the nearby Episcopal Abbey of St. Andrew.
This was the first time in the twenty-four-year history of the board that the annual meeting was not held in a monastic house. We welcomed the invitation of the Fetzer Institute to meet at their headquarters in recognition of their partnership with us in producing both the Benedict’s Dharma conference and Gethsemani Encounter II, for the Fetzer Institute gave generous financial support of $107,000 for the two programs and their dissemination. One of the highlights of the meeting was the opportunity to use a state-of-the-art computer that was linked to our MID Website, thereby allowing us to view pictures, text, and commentary from those two programs.
The main topic of the business meeting was a thorough revision of our by-laws. This was needed because over the years various decisions were made that had shifted priorities and criteria for membership. A committee composed of Fr. William Skudlarek, Fr. Daniel Ward, Sr. Margaret Michaud, and Sr. Mary Margaret Funk provided a working document that got the entire board involved in determining some of the final details. One goal of the board is to have the business side of things as unobtrusive as possible so that the work of dialogue and hospitality stay clearly in focus.
In our review of current publications, the board discussed the MID Bulletin and its associated Website, and three MID-related books that are currently sold on the Web and in bookstores: Benedict’s Dharma, The Gethsemani Encounter, and Advice for Buddhists and Christians. Several translations of these works into other languages are in progress. The book that will emerge from the recent Gethsemani Encounter II, edited by Professor Donald Mitchell and Fr. James Wiseman, is to be published by Doubleday in the summer of 2003. Its tentative title is Transforming Suffering: Reflections on Finding Peace in Troubled Times.
Regarding the leadership of MID, Fr. William Skudlarek accepted a second term as chairman of the board and Sr. Mary Margaret Funk agreed to a further contract of three years as executive director. Much discussion followed concerning the need to provide adequate funding for the MID office and the events sponsored by the board. Member monasteries will be contacted once again and asked to give the necessary financial support, while foundations and friends will likewise be asked for generous donations.
Finally, three decisions were made that moved the board away from its internal affairs to the work at hand. First, in light of the threat of war with Iraq, the members agreed that each would dedicate his or her contemplative practice each day for peace through dialogue rather than war. This action was substantive. We see ourselves as contemplatives who work on behalf of compassionate peace, justice, and mercy through the channels of Christ’s redemptive love. As monastics we have a distinctive role to play on behalf of “action in the world,” following the model of our founding father, Thomas Merton.
A second initiative concerned the initiative on “Sustaining Spiritual Values in Western Culture” that was mentioned at the beginning of this report. The dialogue will be among women monastics from the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions and will be held from May 23-26, 2003 at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, California, near Los Angeles.
The third initiative was to hold a meeting in late January, 2003, to be attended by those directly involved in the print and electronic versions of this MID Bulletin, with the intent of assuring our readers of quality content and timely distribution. Board member Abbot Leo Ryska would host the meeting at the Interfaith Church Center in the Bronx.
Finally, it was agreed to hold the next annual meeting at Mepkin Abbey, near Charleston, South Carolina, over the Columbus Day weekend in October 2003. Among the topics on the preliminary agenda is the refining of our statement of mission and purpose. In evaluating the Kalamazoo meeting we felt that we not only talked about dialogue but actually did it. We want that spirit to pervade our future meetings as well.
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Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, OSB, was the executive director of the MID board from 1989-2004. She was prioress at Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana and is the author of a number of books, including Thoughts Matter and Islam Is . . ..