The Rev. Carol Howard Merritt: Your Invitation to UnCo

This year, I am again helping to host the unConference (#unco11)! It will be held at Stony Point Conference Center on May 16-18.

What is it?  The unConference will be three days of worship and open-space discussion on the church and its future. With an eye toward intentional diversity, we will be drawing from the wealth of knowledge at the gathering. The leaders, topics, and workshops will be harvested from the participants. During these discussions, we will share ideas about planting communities, writing liturgy, creating art, innovating technology, crafting wine, or wherever our passions and insights might lead us.

Who's going to be there?  Many interesting leaders will be there.... Presbyterians, DOC, Episcopalians, Anglicans, Emergents (and I would love that to grow. C'mon Methodists and Lutherans!) from the US and Canada. I hate to list people because I know I will leave fascinating and creative people out... but since we don't have a "keynote and workshop leaders" list,  I want you to get a sense of who's going to be around if you're interested in attending. If you're planning on being there, please leave a comment. Here's the Host list. Landon Whitsitt (Presby Vice-mod) and Shawn Plunkett of God Complex Radio will be there. HCX will be sponsoring, so we can bask in the goodness of their crew. The academics will be there Margaret Aymer Oget and Katie Mulligan. Of course, since it's at Stony Point, Rick Ufford-Chase will be around. Both the Friars and the Fool will be there (and I'm looking forward to finding out who the friars are and who the fool is....). There are people who are going into seminary, students, and those who have recently graduated. There are plenty of church leaders who are attending who are not ordained, and they're not even thinking about becoming ordained...

So, please, if you're a church leader, consider this your invitation. It would be lovely to connect with many of you in real life. If you have questions about how it will work, how you can explain this gathering to your church, or logistics, please let me know! (carol at godcomplexradio dot org)

[Taken with permission fromTribalChurch.org,the website of the Rev. Carol Howard Merritt. Originally posted 1/12/2011]