CARLA is the
Charleston Area Religious Leaders 'Association'
(*)
We are a trust-building / social-capital-building group for ministers
and religious leaders from all faith traditions in our area.
We meet on a monthly basis to
get to know each other better
and to provide support to each other in our various forms of ministry.
To view our current schedule of meetings:
click here
For our current CARLA News:
http://carlawv.blogspot.com/
If you are looking for a
Gospel centered Christian Clergy Association in Charleston,
we highly recommend the Charleston Black Ministerial Alliance.
Click here for more information.
To read more about
social capital,
click here.
If you would like to be added to, or removed from, our email list,
click here.
Typical CARLA meetings
KPCC currently coordinates the meetings
for the CARLA group.
CARLA: Charleston Area Religious Leaders
'Association'
Items of Consensus as of Feb 22, 2004
CARLA is intended to be a group that is
inclusive of all clergy and religious leaders* from all faiths, religions, and
denominations in the Charleston, WV, area.
(*) By
"association" we mean to say only that we are associated with each other. We are
not incorporated, have no official members, no officers, no board of directors,
and by design, take no votes on issues of internal governance nor external
politic.
Our meeting location change each month, as do our hosts for each meeting.
By “religious
leader” we mean those who function in a role similar to what the protestant
Christian tradition calls a “pastor” or “ordained clergy.”
We are trying to find an inclusive term that can be used to refer to
specifically trained congregational leaders across many different faith
traditions.
[For reference-- WV
Secretary of State defines those authorized to perform a weddings as:
“certified” as shown by a “certificate or ordination papers from a church or
religious organization of which you are in regular communion” or with “a letter
signed by two members of a church or religious organization of which you are in
regular communion”]
Interested clergy and religious leaders* are encouraged to read through our
items of consensus and to join us in our meetings if they are interested.
Consensus around our goals
for meeting
- To know each other better: our names, our faces,
our stories
- To develop friendships
- To be an example to the community of
collegiality and trust and mutual respect, and mutual support
- To get to know each other’s traditions
- To be a forum for conversation for theological,
moral, and intellectual topics (“iron sharpens iron”)
- To seek the welfare of the city
Consensus around our
logistics
-
We will have morning meetings from 9-10:15
rotating the days between Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays
- We will start with a small gathering, and expand
the group latter, once goals and parameters are clearer
- We will have some structure to the gatherings,
to include an ice breaker, a sharing of a person’s personal journey, a
sharing from a tradition, a time for sharing concerns or struggles
Consensus around our norms, how we are
together
- We expect that we will not agree on all matters.
We do agree to work together for the common good.
- We agree to share "air time," to help everyone
get a fair hearing, to seek first to understand, and then to be understood.
- We encourage each person will speak for him or
her self, and not for others, or for the group.
- If someone is offended, he or she will say so,
and say why, and say it directly to the person
- We will not walk out or stop coming out of
anger. If anyone is offended or hurt or angered in a meeting, he or she will
talk about it and will return to the next meeting before deciding to stop
altogether.
- We respect the privacy of the members of our
gathering. Members may ask the group for extra measures of confidentiality
around specific items.
Those in attendance at CARLA meetings have included
Rev Monty Brown
Fr Karl Ruttan
Rev Eileen Dumire
Fr Olof Scott
Fr Ed Sadie
Rabbi Victor Urecki
Rev Braxton Broady
Rev Sky Kershner
Rev Rose Edington
Rev Mel Hover
Fr Bill Thomas
Rev L Allen Hill
Imam Jamal Daoudi
Rev Randy Flanagan
Rev Perry Jennings
Rabbi Helen Bar Yaacov
Rev Dennis Sparks
Rev John Davis
Rev Frank Mansell
Rev Doug Minerly
Rev Ron Schlaht
Rev Mathew Watts
Bishop Bill Grove
Sr Rose Ann Hefner
Rev Bob Newman
Rev Dean Thompson
Rev Mark Lampley
Rev Reggie Rowell
Fr Wayne Rollins
Rev Barry Moll
Rev AD Ellison
Rev Liddy Holter
Fr Fred Shehan
Rev Bob Newman
Rev Joyce Wilkinson
Rev Lynne Wood
Rev Dick Neeley
Rev. Bill McCoy
Chaplin Mike Jarret
Deacon Chapin Engler
Rev. Ken Blundell
Please consider joining us!
Thanks!
Sky
Click here to read
about the history and founding of CARLA
St Peter had his doubts, St Thomas his incredulity, Elijah in
the wilderness his despair, Christ on the Cross his feeling of being
forsaken by God. Not one of us has so much faith that we have no doubts; not
one of us has such purity that we have no darkness. Within every human
attribute there hides somewhere its opposite.
We usually ignore this truth; we insist upon a one-sided
personality, and then become its victim. Chief among these victims is the typical
American minister today, who is constantly in danger of falling prey to preconceived ideas
of what a clergyperson is like. I should know, for I am one myself"
-- John Sandford, "Dreams, God's Forgotten Language", p. 18.
More information regarding
The Charleston Black Ministerial Alliance
www.charlestoncbma.org
CBMA MISSION STATEMENT
The Charleston Black Ministerial Alliance Inc. is
a covenanted, interdenominational, interracial union of ministers of the Gospel
who are committed to exercising their gifts for ministries to edify the Church
as the Body Of Christ and to follow His example of Servant Leadership to service
human needs, embrace the human family and for the improvement of the human
community in the African-American context.
www.charlestoncbma.org
Membership Meetings Second Saturday of
each Month 9am-11am
CBMA Events Calendar,
click
here
Charleston Black Ministerial
Alliance Inc.
1343 Lewis Street
Charleston, WV 25301
304-344-8661
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Kanahwa Pastoral Counseling
304-346-9689
