This fall the Right Relations Committee (RRC) elected new leadership. First, we would like to thank the founders of the Right Relations Committee from the bottom of our hearts for all their service to East Shore. Louise Wilkinson has led this Board Committee ably and with unswerving dedication since it was established by the Board in May 2018. The other long-serving members include Mark Norelius, Mary Anderson, Jack Slowriver, Aisha Hauser and José García. Pam Orbach provided essential training and support to our team and to our community.
These pioneers gave East Shore the gift of a team focused on discovering and practicing constructive ways to engage in open dialogue within our community. The Right Relations charter purpose includes: “[To] introduce, maintain and practice right relations skills within ESUC to build a loving, trusting and healthy congregation.” The vision of RR has evolved since 2018 to involve mediation training and support, community circle discussions, a congregation-wide covenant, anti-racism work, non-violent communications, forming a RR Facilitation Team, and much more. A sign of the Team’s success is that many of these practices have been normalized in East Shore’s day-to-day practices.
Carrie Bowman and I (Doug Strombom) have been entrusted by the other current RRC members (Sue Yates, Jennifer Sumner, Mark Norelius, and Louise Wilkinson) to carry forward this innovative group as co-leaders. I am very enthusiastic about getting to work with Carrie, and we both are honored to be selected for this important role. Since September, we have been working closely with the broader Right Relations Facilitation Team to take a fresh look at our purpose, goals, practices and organization. Together we have surfaced many good ideas Carrie and I are excited about sharing with you in future communications.
by Doug Strombom & Carrie Bowman, co-chairs