ALEPH Alliance Communities Council
About the ALEPH Alliance Communities Council
The ALEPH Alliance Communities Council is made up of representatives from across the ALEPH Alliance. The group will be moderated by ALEPH staff to provide information about how ALEPH can be of further help to communities, how communities can support each other, and how we can together advance the work of Renewal. The Council will serve as a conduit for information flow and among Alliance members, and also as a mechanism for supporting ALEPH as the institution beneath whose ethics jurisdiction all Alliance members are covered.
What Kinds of Things Will the Communities Council Work On?
Our hope is that this group will do a variety of different things, including:
- Exploring what Alliance members need most from the Alliance and from ALEPH;
- Discerning what Alliance members can give to one another, and what kinds of resources, programs, and ideas Alliance members can share;
- Creating good conduits for information flow between and among Alliance members, figuring out how best to tap wisdom across the Alliance and how best to keep the whole Alliance informed of what the Council is doing and thinking;
- Connecting ALEPH Alliance members with existing resources within ALEPH — resources relating to community ritual and davenen (prayer), music / song / chant, personal spiritual practices, liturgies for unique circumstances, practices both traditional and new, and educational resources for a variety of age groups;
- Developing and sharing new resources in areas such as congregational consulting, interim clergy support, best practices for clergy contracts, working with boards, etc.
- Supporting ALEPH as the institution beneath whose ethics jurisdiction all Alliance members are covered.
These are our initial thoughts — which we offer with full awareness that as the group coalesces and discerns needs and opportunities, other things are likely to arise. This will be a “bottom-up” enterprise, not a “top-down” one.
Who Makes Up the Communities Council?
The Council will consist of between 12 and 20 people appointed by their communities.
