Hello!
Many of you will soon be receiving or have already received a fabulous POWER Summit newsletter via email. If you didn't get one in your inbox and would like to start, or got one and wish you had not, send me an email at ebmoss@stkate.edu and let me know what's up.

Along with the newsletter updates, we want to keep you aware of various events happening in the CSJ community. You'll notice that many of these events have to do with the upcoming election. I can think of no better way to be an active peacemaker than to infrom your vote and encourage others to do so as well. These CSJ happenings are a great way to get started.

Also, I know many of you are getting involved in Get Out the Vote or other such organizations in your local communities. Tell us about it! You can use this blog or the facebook page to update the POWER Summit peace community about your own peace/election related goings on.
Here are the promised event updates:

Eco-Spirit ritual focusing on the element of water, Sunday, September 28, 4 p.m., Carondelet Center. All are invited to attend this family-friendly gathering centered on creation, compassion, and healing. After the ritual, we’ll move outside (rain site: Ad Center) to share a potluck meal together. [This ritual is an evolving gathering of people who are seeking a spiritual community to gather with on a monthly basis. The ritual will be shaped by the universe story/creation as sacred text revealing the divine and calling us to deep communion with earth and each other. We plan to incorporate the arts, movement, and great music. It will draw upon the world's wisdom traditions of indigenous as well as from the main religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It is a recognition of ancient sacred energy … that the Spirit has been moving long before human history but also in and through the very beginnings of human's understanding of the holy on up through today.]

The State of Minnesota and our Legislative Response to Climate Change, Tuesday, September 30th, 6:30-8:30 p.m. , Carondelet Center. Featuring Senator Ellen Anderson, along with J. Drake Hamilton and Sheila Bayle of Fresh Energy. Voter Registration with Legislative Advocacy Partners. Co-sponsored by the CSJ EarthPartners & Legislative Advocacy Partners.

Non-Partisan G et Out The Vote Rally, Monday, October 6, 7-9 p.m., Carondelet Center. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie as keynote speaker.

Election 2008: The Voting Challenge – Thursday, October 9, 7-8:30 p.m., Carondelet Center. This is a follow-up to the Convention for the Common G ood presented by G ina Webb, Joänne Tromiczak-Neid, Mary Ellen Foster, Joan Spence Wittman, Ann Redmond, and CSC students Rachel Toenjes and Holly Larson who attended the convention providing an opportunity to examine the tools to help us make an informed decision based on Catholic Social Teaching and to clarify our own thinking and raise questions.

Non-Partisan G et Out the Vote (NP G OTV) – NP G OTV has information available at the CSJ Ad Center and Carondelet Center, including voter registration materials, NETWORK presidential candidate position sheet, absentee ballot application forms, voter registration forms, and pins and bumper stickers (free through the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits).

Visiting Women's Communities of Faith – Saturday, September 27, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

Visit Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Benedictine Sisters, Franciscan Poor Clares, and Sisters of St. Joseph all in one day! Explore with a group of women, 20-40 years of age, who are also seeking. See where the Sisters live and pray. Enjoy a day of learning, praying, and talking with us. Limited to 12. Contact Jill Underdahl, junderdahl@csjstpaul.org , 651-696-2873 to register or for more information.

High school students! Youth Venture Minnesota wants you to know about a high school workshop they are piloting called the Dream It. Do It. Challenge . It will take place over a series of Saturdays starting in October and will be held at a recreation room at Green Central Gym Park at 3400 4 ^th Ave. south Minneapolis . The workshop is free to all participants and will include: A weekend retreat in the Minnesota woods (at a YMCA camp with a ropes course), many hands on activities, more opportunity for youth peer-to-peer interaction, and up to $1000 in seed funding for every community Venture that launches as a result of participation in the Challenge. For more information, contact Jess Kraft at jkraft@youthventure.org at 612.455.2007.

Peace,

Esther