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SECTION 5. Our Program History, 2002-2021 Season 2020 / 2021

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SECTION 5. Our Program History, 2002-2021 Season 2020 / 2021 SECTION 5. Our Program History, 2002-2021 Season 2020 / 2021 This Season was Produced Entirely on the Zoom App October 5, 2020 –Preparations for Caregiving and the Aging Process For those of us advancing to a ripe old age, as well as those who may be called upon to assist as the years progress, a significant issue presents itself: Have appropriate plans been made for these future years? This issue is of great importance to both the individual who is aging and those who may be called upon to help, and appropriate planning can make things much more comfortable for all. Although this can be a significant issue to discuss, discuss them we must. RECAP: In this first session we visited the topic in some detail, and hopefully helped to open the door to successful planning. We heard from an attorney specializing in elder planning, Attorney Rachel McCaw, who discussed health care law, health proxies, estate planning and much more. If these items are discussed and dealt with in advance, so many misunderstandings can be avoided, and the wishes of the aging person can be respected and honored. Attorney McCaw discussed what kind of planning needs to be done and at the same time made clear what is expected of potential caregivers or estate administrators. The evening was quite a success. With 36 Zoom Connections, Attorney McCaw presented a well thought out and informative outline of all the legal positions which would be most helpful to those close to one who is approaching advance age. We were aided by the efforts of an excellent moderator as the questions from the audience were sent to him via text using the Chat feature of Zoom. You can always tell when the speaker really engages her audience by the type of questions being asked. By that measure, it appears she definitely was an engaging speaker because the questions almost always clarified a point she was making. October 12, 2020 - The Caregivers Rabbi Judi Ehrlich, Chaplain at NewBridge on Charles, presented on caring for those who are care-givers. So many of us naturally step into the role of caregiver thinking we are the ones providing support and care for a family member or loved one, sometimes needing reminders that in fulfilling that role, we also require a different kind of support to assist us during the time we are the caregivers. RECAP: Rabbi Judi drew on her experience as chaplain, and care provider to care-givers, as well on the particular insights from her own faith tradition in the spirituality of providing care in the face of illness and uncertainty. Judi Ehrlich is the rabbi and chaplain at NewBridge on the Charles, Independent Living, in Dedham, where she has worked since 2009. She was ordained at Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Newton in 2008 and is a certified interfaith chaplain. Her first career was in Counseling Psychology. The evening went beautifully. She skillfully drew from the participants in the event those ways they can obtain some relief (or provide relief) from the burdens involved, including meditation, talking things through with a friend, and even conversing with the person being cared for. Talk of meditation included scanning the Psalms for helpful passages, and reciting the rosary. Rabbi Judi did not pretend to have all the answers, but rather aimed to convince us that we had some of the answers right there within us. The back-and-forth exchange utilizing Zoom worked extremely well and the result was a satisfying evening. Attendance numbered 37. October 26 – Father John Dear Fr. John Dear’s life has been one of singular dedication to the pursuit of peace following in the footsteps of the nonviolent Jesus. He is an activist in the cause of peace and justice, a writer, retreat leader and international speaker. As a result of his “consistent ethic of nonviolence” he has been arrested many times for acts of nonviolent resistance against war, injustice and nuclear weapons. He has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. John spoke to us addressing the themes presented in his newest book, “Praise Be Peace” - Psalms of Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of War and Climate Change. He joined us from California. Featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and more, he is the author of more than 30 books. A priest of the diocese of Monterey, California, Dear was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. RECAP: On Monday October 26 a dual event with Pax Christi was convened. To an audience of about 80, Fr John Dear delivered an impassioned plea for all of humanity to adhere to the radical non-violent call of the Gospels. Our new Zoom format seems to attract a somewhat larger audience, some from out-of-state, and preserve a lively exchange of questions and dialogue that have been hallmarks of our presentations. Even though his latest book, Praise Be Peace: Psalms of Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of War and Climate Change, often references the Psalms, he suggested anyone interested in truly hearing the Word of God read only the Gospels for 30 or 40 years before moving on to the rest of the Bible. Hyperbole? It does not appear, coming from Fr John, that it was intended as hyperbole. When he went on to explain how Gandhi himself was inspired to his radical non-violence by the Sermon on the Mount and read it daily, suddenly any argument of non-violence as being impractical lost its allure and substance. “Our God is the God of Peace” he continually emphasized and read for us excerpts from Psalms 33,34,46.65 and 83 to give credence to the naming of God as The God of Peace. Fr John is a speaker passionate about his cause, clear in his delivery and, with humor and humility, provocative as a teacher. I will leave you with one more quote from Fr John: “Any war fought in the name of God is blasphemy!” One can often tell how engaging a speaker is by the type of questions asked during a Q&A session. If that is any sort of yardstick, one would have to say our audience found Fr John very engaging indeed. The questions and comments were on point and revealed a genuine connection our AFF events aspire to engender. When asked for signs of hope, Fr John gave examples of how active today’s youth are in areas concerning racism, gun control, disarmament, social justice and climate chaos. Fr John wanted to be sure we knew about his new initiative which can be accessed via Beatitudescenter.org This is sure to be a wonderful resource going forward. November 9, 2020 – The Institutionalization of Racism While many of us were taught to understand racism in terms of individual prejudice, more recently, activists and scholars have been emphasizing how racism is written into the systems that govern our collective life. From policing to education to health care to faith communities, institutions that purport to support the health, safety, and well-being of the people were founded on white supremacy and continue to reproduce racial injustice into the present. This presentation takes a historical perspective to chronicle the white supremacist roots of some of our institutions before turning to consider what it means to take responsibility for our history in the present. RECAP: Our Speaker was Kimberly Humphrey. Ms. Humphrey is studying for her PhD in systematic theology at Boston College and is a graduate assistant at the Center for Teaching Excellence. Her work investigates the ways shame interrupts the capacity for Christians to remember dangerously and live justly, with a particular focus on the struggle for racial justice in a US Catholic Church that has been marked by white supremacy She earned her B.A. in Religious Studies and English Literature from Denison University and her M.T.S. from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. She is currently working on a dissertation in systematic theology on the intersections of shame, sin, and antiblack racism in the U.S. Catholic Church. She also supports and empowers survivors of sexual violence as a volunteer at the campus sexual assault crisis hotline. We had excellent attendance, with Zoom screens ranging from 56 to 65. We were fortunate to have a speaker with such an incredible depth of knowledge on the subject of Institutionalized Racism. She presented the information in a coherent way but because the issue is so complex, we were only able to scratch the surface in the time allotted. She started with some quick figures on the one-down position of the Black population in the US: a Prison and Parole rate s1ix times that for Whites; sizeable differentials in amount of wealth (Net Worth of the unemployed at $8.00), Maternal Death Rate, and Suspensions of students from school, all multiply in the negative. She then turned to a continuing cycle of Personal Sin, Social Sin, Cultural Sin and Systemic Sin, which continues to the current day as people, and ultimately institutions and governments, continue to tweak the racism so that Blacks continue as exploited and marginalized. She started with history going back to the original importing of slaves to America from Africa, and as pressures mounted to remove the worst of the horrors of racism/slavery, the continuing amendment of the laws and practices to virtually cancel out the improvements. As slavery was abolished it was rapidly replaced with Jim Crow, The Freedmen's Bureau set up after the Civil War ended up recommending that the freed individuals go back to work for their former slave owners.
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