[GREN-Exec] (no subject)

Fri Mar 24 16:56:14 EDT 2017

I cancelled the film with The Princess. Too many obstacles to do it justice while I’m still in school.

Susan K 

From: Executive [mailto:executive-bounces at gren.ca] On Behalf Of Susan Koswan
Sent: 24 March 2017 15:06
To: Gregory C. Michalenko
Cc: 'GREN Executive'
Subject: Re: [GREN-Exec] green burial documentary

Profit! I am laughing so hard, Greg! 

I am in this for the cause to make this a real option. There is no profit for me. And further discussions with The Princess would entail me losing money. 

The option on the table now is to pay for the screen information fee, and he waived the rental and takes the door proceeds. 

My goal is to have a prototype, professional CAD drawing that can be handed over to be built by someone else and purchased by funeral professionals. 

Susan K

On 24 Mar 2017 13:54, "Gregory C. Michalenko" <gcmichalenko at uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

Dear Susan, 

Some thoughts:

1.  Personally, I don't think GREN should officially sponsor this.  I recognize the spectacular success of past shows and campaigns that you have organized (pollinators, seeds, dandelion celebrations, pesticides).  This one is a bit different, and I note that it has a for-profit element in building the prototype of a human composter.  That said, I think GREN should help in its usual ways to publicize it.

2.  I think you should include a theologian in the panel.  A good theologian could elucidate some of the profound questions  enmeshed in the complex spiritual and religious issues of life and death,rebirth or renewal, environment and ecology. 

 I landed in some of this myself when my cousin in eastern Ontario died.  She had fled from Alberta where 95% of our relatives live, because of her violently abusive father. Now she was dead at age 52 and cremated.   I was contacted by her Ontario-born husband to help arrange for a funeral and burial of her ashes at the little country church in Alberta that our grandfather had  built.  A problem immediately presented itself:  the Ukrainian Orthodox church believes that the actual corpse will arise on judgement day and head off to heaven.  So a funeral and burial were out of the question.  I persisted and waded through a lot of secular and spiritual politics and managed to get a resolution.

I taught a course in environmental thought and included a week on religion and the environment.  Strangely enough, this was the only time in 4 years when students in our department got to think about religion.  One year Jim Profit, the Superior from the Jesuit Centre just north of Guelph, which strongly supports the environment, addressed the class.  He emphasized that the strongest link between the environment and religion was through ecofeminism and its revelations about learning to be at peace with the world and living on earth as if it were home.  At that point a subversive bunch of evangelical students (I was wondering why the class was so full that day) staged a walkout condemning "relativism".  Profit took this as meaning that we were getting down to serious talk, which is a good thing.  Full disclosure:  I'm an agnostic.

A good alternative to a theologian would be Christina Vanin of Conrad Grebel college who teaches a course on environment and religion.

3.  A got a thank you letter from one of the Seed event panelists who said she was very grateful to be on a panel where they had a good chance not just to reply to questions, but respond to each other.  I was quite unconscious that I was guiding the discussion in that way, but it sounds like a good outcome to keep in mind for this prospective event.

- Greg

  _____  

From: Executive [executive-bounces at gren.ca] on behalf of Susan [susankoswan at execulink.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:38 PM
To: 'GREN Executive'
Subject: [GREN-Exec] green burial documentary

Hi GREN Exec,

On my mission to compost the dead, I am making the first public step. Would GREN be interested in being a sponsor for this? I’d like a few community group logos.

See below for details I just forwarded to the Unitarians. 

Susan K 

I just got the final confirmation today from John Tutt at The Princess to show the documentary A Will for the Woods on Thursday May 11 @ 6:30 pm and we’ll also have panelists for Q & A afterwards. Same format as SEED. It will be open to the public, regular Princess admission fees. http://www.awillforthewoods.com/

So I need to quickly firm up the panelists and sponsors. I will pay for the theatre rental and will be taking the proceeds of the door to start a fund for a prototype human composter, starting with a mock-up CAD drawing of it. 

I have confirmed either Mark or Ellen or both from the Green Burial Society, and John, my composter manufacturer, so far.

The GBS connected me with Marion Wilms, a departure nurse in Guelph who runs regular death cafes there who would like to participate. I was hoping to have Bryce, the cemetery manager from the city of Waterloo to talk about the new green burial sites, but he will be out of town that week. 

Bryce connected me with Matthew Bailey-Dyck, but he has never responded to my email. He had a number of coffee in the cemetery events last year and shared his thoughts with Bryce about green burials. 

Would you or Jessica be interested/willing to be on the panel? Would GRUC be interested in being a sponsor? No money needed – just a partner in the event. 

Susan 

From: Michele Cadotte [mailto:mrcadotte at gmail.com] 
Sent: 23 March 2017 21:42
To: 'Susan'
Subject: FW: green burial?

Hi Susan,

I received the message below from our minister, Jess. 

Have you made a decision about whether or not you would like to put something together if we offer you the space (which we would!).

Unfortunately Susan, I’m now working 5 days a week until May and can’t commit to anything more right now – I’m sorry!

I hope your course (& composting the dead) and all is going well!

Michele

From: Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela [mailto:jprodela at uuma.org] 
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 4:20 PM
To: Michele Cadotte
Subject: green burial?

hiya-- I'm putting together quest material for the newsletter -- any decision on whether or not a GREEN BURIAL forum/discussion/meeting might take place?  If likely but no date yet, even a 'teaser' blurb would be good .  Cheers, Jess.

-- 

 In faith,  Rev. Jess
GRAND RIVER UNITARIAN CONGREGATION

“Enthusiasm is a form of social courage” (Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/executive_gren.ca/attachments/20170324/39f8390c/attachment.html>