In preparation for continuing Acts of Repentance and Healing Towards Indigenous People by The United Methodist Church, Love Prevails invites the Council of Bishops, Connectional Table and United Methodists anywhere to join us in the following reading and learning program. Our hope is that these bodies will also share with us the preparation they are doing for November 2014 meetings in Oklahoma City, OK. Love Prevails will join the Council of Bishops (11/02–11/06) and Connectional Table (11/07–11/09) for on-going witness for “radical hospitality” within the denomination.
We invite you to join us in reading one of three books (listed at the beginning of the syllabus) and to follow and share as much of the study plan as you can, which will also be shared through our Facebook page. As you do so, please let us, the Council of Bishops, and Connectional Table know your thoughts and prayers that “all” really means “all”.
Love Prevails 
Thank you for this fine effort. I have begun reading “Mankiller: A Chief and Her People.” What a powerful witness Wilma is. The reference to “the trail of tears” made me sick to my stomach in a new way. This summer I read part of “Minong..the Beautiful Place.” Minong is the Ojibwa name for Isle Royale – a National Park in Lake Superior. (I camped there for four days earlier this month…gorgeous, and NO CELL PHONE TOWERS. YEAH!) There is a cedar tree on a hill at the edge of the bay from which the Ojibwa would paddle their large canoes out to Isle Royale, a 22 MILE PADDLE!!! On Lake Superior, no less The Ojibwa call that point on the shore the Spirit
Tree, blessing them on their journey across the waters. Enter the Europeans…who named it, “The Witch’s Tree.” So I have much to discover and receive from this rich Native tradition. I heard an Ojibwa man speak about their wigwams, very interesting. One comment: “Our legends never talk about the place from which we came. We have always just been here.” And so the trail of tears becomes so horrific, ripping people from where they have always been.
To the syllabus question: I think I am in the place of just begin in the midst of all of this, no “action to take” for now other that being present to this experience.
Again, thanks. Janet Ellinger