Committee on Native American Ministry
Chairperson: Sherry Wack/Sandi Ciancuilli
Report submitted by: Sherry Wack
Email: shefish222@yahoo.com
Phone: (484) 868-2044
Date submitted: 04/19/2019
Recent Events & Activities
November 2018 Native American Worship Service at Camp Innabah featured a report by Rev Dennis Keen of Nantmeal UMC on his trip to Dupree School on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.
March 2, 2019 Double class at Tools for Ministry on Advocating for Native American Women and Children
March 2019 CONAM submitted a resolution: Relating to government and corporate interests violating Native American land rights
Upcoming Events & Activities
April 25 Committee trip to Carlisle Barracks for the opening of Jim Thorpe Days with guest speaker Representative Deb Haaland (NM) who is one of 2 first Native Americans elected to congress.
April 28 Spring Worship service at Camp Innabah highlighting the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. We will have an installation of the REDress Project started by Canadian artist Jaime Black.
May Two churches will be having their first Native American Ministries Sunday:
- May 5 – Linwood HeightsUMC – Sarah Fernsler from CONAM will be speaking.
- May 19 – Christ UMC in Lansdale – Sherry Wack from COANM will be speaking.
June 22 Native American Arts Festival at Grove UMC featuring Native art, crafts, food and social dancing.
Summer Sandi Ciancuilli will work with historian Darvin Martin to localize the Blanket Exercise (formerly known as The Loss of Turtle Island), featuring Native American tribes from our area. Rev Suzanne Duchesne and Rev Cheryl Trent will work on Methodizing the Blanket Exercise.
Sherry Wack will try using Mission Insight to locate Native Americans in our conference with the goal of getting more Native representation on our committee.
Fall Once we have the Blanket Exercise customized we will rent a space and teach it to members of the NEJ NAMC.
Additional Information
We usually meet on the 4th Thursday of the month.