Gathering together and drawing wider circles with diaconal sisters and brothers
The Central Committee of Diakonia of the Americas and Caribbean (DOTAC) met this month in Vancouver. DOTAC is both an international and ecumenical organization that connects and gathers those engaged in diakonia. Check them out here http://dotac.diakonia-world.org/.
Diaconal Gathering at Carey Hall, UBC, Thursday, November 9, 2017
Shout out to Ted Dodd and other members of the Central Committee of DOTAC gathered at Regent College’s Carey Hall at UBC recently and who intentionally drew the circle a little wider making room for local diaconal colleagues and friends to join them for an evening of interdenominational reflection, refreshment and renewing conversation.
Also welcoming us into community for the evening were Michelle Owens, Principal at the Centre for Christian Studies and Cari Copeman Haynes, President of B.C. Conference who each spoke briefly to the topic of imagining church differently in a time of transition.
Thanks are also due Jan Cherry, President of DOTAC and Palm Nesbitt, Treasurer of DOTAC for informing our learning around World Diakonia Past, Present, and Future and the call of St Francis whose own self emptying love for the gospel reminds us that his story is our story!
In between times, Ted updated us on the overarching theme of the upcoming World Diakonia Conference set to take place at UBC, in Vancouver, August 14-20, 2019.
The DOTAC planning committee members have already been hard at work brainstorming the underpinnings of the conference entitled “Respecting Covenant, Risking the Journey to Reconciliation.”
If memory serves there were even sign up sheets available for our perusal and our suggestions for all manner of things ranging from airport pickup to touring the town to recommending names of leaders with relevant and related skills.
In between gnoshing on yummy treats provided by local caterers, catching up with old friends, and making some new ones as well, it was an evening that did my diaconal heart good.
With thanks and blessing for the many expressions of ministry we are called into sharing in the name of the Holy One, alleluia and blessed be!
Liz Bowyer
Liz Bowyer is a graduate of CCS currently living in Vancouver.
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