Sangha Care Meeting – November 12th, 2018
Interbeing Sangha of Kingston held a Sangha Care Meeting on Sunday, November 12th, Dave & Janet Armstrong, Anne Coward, Dale Fainstat, Darcy & Keith Gawronski-McNinch, and Anne Graham attending.
Janet gave an update on our finances: dana collected from January to November 2017 totaled $1,772.35, of which $1,063.40 was given to KUF with the sangha’s remaining 40% portion is $708.95. (Post-meeting note: less than $100 of dana collected so far has been used, costs include material for floor cushion-making, and replacement beeswax candles).
Anne Graham gave an update on the library. A system has been created to keep track of books checked out, as well as a physical check-out book is now kept with the books in the new wooden chest (in the KUF library on top of the sangha cabinet). USBs have now been added with audio recordings of Thich Nhat Hanh’s dharma talks, all files can be copied onto your home computer and/or mobile devices, and returned.
Keith reported on inquiries into a location in Kingston for the regional retreat we are planning in conjunction with Ottawa Pagoda Sangha, to be led by the monastics of Blue Cliff Monastery on Mother’s Day weekend, Thursday, May 9th – Sunday, May 12th, 2019. Our needs include needing 3 nights accommodation for the monks and nuns who will be leading the retreat, as well as expected participants travelling from Ottawa and beyond. This a retreat as part of the monastics’ annual tour has been hosted every year in Ottawa for many years, with our sangha potentially rotating every other year hosting the retreat after this 2018. Ingrid Lacis, Booking Coordinator at Providence Spirituality Centre replied to our inquiry, explaining that the Sisters schedule their own events by about June for the following year, and then open up the remaining times to outside groups. There are 31 bedrooms for use by groups booking the Centre, all but 5 rooms are single occupancy, but there are 5 rooms that have 2 single beds. So, the space seems ideal, with plenty of room for the monastics and more for out of town participants. Brenda Vellino from Ottawa Pagoda Sangha has said that having tentative dates for a venue, and booking officiallky in the new year is acceptable; their sangha has done something similar with venues in the past, and may book officially about a year prior. The Sangha Care Team has asked Keith to request “actuals” from Brenda, on the up front costs that their sangha has needed to cover in the past when planning the annual retreat, and what costs to anticipate in the registration fee, that we might not have considered.
The group discussed our upcoming service on Sunday, February 25th, 2018 at Kingston Unitarian Fellowship. We will use our Sunday evening format as the model for the service, merging our traditions with the usual Sunday morning service format at KUF: examples include lighting the candles for Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha at the beginning when Unitarians light the chalice, and offering readings by Thay and community response as Dharma Sharing. Darcy will serve as service leader, and introduce aspects of our practice with which the audience may not be familiar. There will be several readings from Thich Nhat Hanh in the usual places we have readings (opening reading, guided meditation, closing reading) during Sunday service. We want to get volunteers from the sangha to share as many parts of the service as possible. Hoping to have some of the non-KUF members also as greeters. In place of a sermon, three sangha members will share short reflections (4-5 minutes each). Anne Graham will speak on Social Justice and Engaged Buddhism, Keith will talk about how compatible Thay’s teachings are with Humanism, and another person (Jane?)will speak about the conceptual similarity of the UU 7th Principle and Interbeing. We are hoping someone can lead children’s Pebble Meditation in place of the Children’s story (Stana?)