DignityUSA - Dateline March 2001

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DignityUSA DATELINE

Volume 10, No. 3 March 2001

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Re-imagining Dignity Progress Report

Convention 2001 Countdown: Registration Packets on the Way!

Dignity on the Web

Dignity Goes to the Vatican for Close of Jubilee

Full-time Position For Executive Director

Happy Anniversary!

Re-imagining Dignity Progress Report

Most of the National Board of Directors meeting in January was devoted to the re-imagining Dignity process. Following discussion on the results of the Re-imagining Dignity questionnaires it was agreed to assign different parts of the process to each of the Board members.

Prior to their March Board Meeting in Chicago, the members of the Board will have prepared discussion points for each of the topics in the re-imagining process. At the same time a proposed set of bylaws will be worked on to present to the HOD at the July Convention in Chicago.

Response to the questionnaires was extremely good and the Board of Directors thanks all who took the time to respond and to share their thoughts and concerns about the future of DignityUSA.

Convention 2001 Countdown:
Registration Packets on the Way!

Members of DignityUSA should receive their registration packets by the end of February. Along with your registration materials you will also receive information about opportunities to lend further support to the convention and to DignityUSA by sponsoring individual speakers or workshops, liturgies, flowers or scholarships to attend the convention. The 2001 Convention Committee is looking forward to offering Dignitarians from across the country the opportunity to partake of a wonderful line up of speakers, a bevy of workshops, spirit filled liturgies, and the comforts of a fabulous hotel. It will be a time to renew friendships, make new friends, fill your soul, and lift your spirit.

For more information visit the Convention section.

Another great way to show your support is to place an ad or message in the Convention program. This is a wonderful opportunity for you, your chapter or your region to give additional support to DignityUSA and to convey good wishes for the national convention and to congratulate national officers for their service.

Full page (8x10) $300
Half page (8x5 or 5x8) $175
Quarter page (4x5 or 5x4) $90
Eighth page (2x4 or 4x2) $45

Submit camera-ready artwork with payment no later than April 1, 2001 to:

DignityUSA Convention
Program Advertising
7186 Cascade Rd. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Dignity on the Web

Membership in the Dignity News Service as of this writing was at 987 and growing weekly. Those interested in posing questions about the re-imagining Dignity process can join the Reimagining Dignity list service by sending an email to ReimaginingDignity-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The DignityUSA website continues to grow as well. Thanks to the dedicated service of our web manager, Chuck Provancher, we are increasing the value of our website by adding:

An archive section which includes such things as copies of historical documents (newsletters, programs, etc).
If you have visited the site lately you now know what your board looks like thanks to the addition of photos of the members of the board.
Highlights of Dignity's history can also be found on the website as well as a photograph of our founder Dr. Pax (Patrick) Nidorf.
Soon we will have a secure site which will enable all visitors to donate, join or renew memberships using a credit card.
In addition we hope to make available soon an on-line registration form for the convention to be held in July. In the meantime you can print a copy of the convention registration form from the website and mail it in.

Dignity Goes to the Vatican for Close of Jubilee

DignityUSA President Mary Louise Cervone, Past President Patrick Roche and Executive Director Marianne Duddy represented Dignity at a joint Pilgrimage to Rome Jan. 1-7, coinciding with the end of the Holy Year of Jubilee.

The theme of the Pilgrimage was "God's Gay Children Bring Gifts...Bless Them!" DignityUSA and Soulforce wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, seeking a meeting to discuss anti-gay Vatican policies and statements, and asking for a priest to be sent to bless gifts offered by the group. The correspondence was never acknowledged, and no meeting was held.

For three days, the two dozen pilgrims in the group stood before the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square holding gifts and toys that were to be given to orphans, people with AIDS and battered women and their children. They wore shirts declaring the Pilgrimage theme in English and Italian. No priest came to offer blessing. Police moved the group along after several minutes each day. The group then boarded buses to take the gifts for distribution at several sites around Rome.

On Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Pilgrims sought to lay photos of themselves, representing the gifts offered to the Church by GLBT people of faith, at the Nativity scene. However, police surrounded the group, and refused to allow access to the main part of St. Peter's Square. The Dignity and Soulforce members then held a peaceful, prayerful three-hour sit-in, the first ever by any GLBT group in St. Peter's. Between songs and prayers, members of the group told the hundreds of bystanders about our pilgrimage. Some witnesses briefly joined the group's circle for prayer, others made expressions of support or took Solidarity Sunday ribbons, and most just listened and walked on.

Mary Louise Cervone attempted to present an envelope marked "STOP SPIRITUAL VIOLENCE TOWARD GLBT CATHOLICS" and containing information about Dignity and a list of demands previously presented to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at Cardinal Ratzinger's Office. However, police prevented her from getting near the gate, and she flung the envelope to the ground, declaring, "If they won't let us present our demands to Cardinal Ratzinger there, we'll present them right here."

International media coverage of this event included numerous Italian newspapers, television and radio outlets, Dutch TV, BBC, AP International and Catholic News Service.

Vatican image courtesy www.soulforce.org

Full-time Position For Executive Director
Marianne Duddy	At their January 14 Teleconference the Board of Directors of DignityUSA unanimously agreed to restore the Executive Director to a full time position and to offer that position to Marianne Duddy. We are pleased to announce that Marianne accepted the offer and began her full-time status with Dignity effective February 1, 2001.