The Bartimaeus Covenant Investment Community

“
We read the Gospel as if we had no money, and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the Gospel.” -- John Haughey, SJ

The Bartimaeus Covenant Investment Community (BCIC) grew out of two financial planning retreats during 2003 that brought together BCM donors, board members and staff. We are seeking to fundraise in a way that is relational, covenantal and strategic, and that keeps discipleship central to our partnership (for more background, see below).

Here is a Master Calendar for events related either specifically to BCIC or generally to Sabbath Economics for 2006. We hope you will consider attending one of them:

  • March 11:
    • BCIC follow-up local meeting with Peg Rosenkrands, Portland, OR.
    • Ched and Matt at Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles for an all day workshop on faith and labor.
  • March 24-25: Peg and Ched in Detroit, MI for a two day retreat with "Household of Jesus" group.
  • April 11: Peg, John Parker and Barbara Zelter in Raleigh, NC for a follow-up local meeting.
  • May 19-20: Ched in New Hampshire with a Methodist Economic Justice Group.
  • June 1-3: Sabbath Economics Collaborative conference in Chicago on Community Investing.
  • Sept 12-15: Peg and Rick Zemlin in Washington DC for follow up visits.
  • Oct 12-15: BCIC Basic and Follow-Up Retreat with Peg Rosenkrands, Andy Loving and John Parker, Raleigh, NC.
  • Oct 28-31: The Social Investment Forum annual conference in Colorado Springs, SRI in the Rockies.
  • Nov. 2-5: BCIC Basic Retreat with Ched Myers, Peg Rosenkrands, Steve and Christine Clemens, Minneapolis, MN.


About BCIC:


Ched Myers has done many workshops on Sabbath Economics over the last 10 years around North America to try to build an alternative consciousness around the “economy of grace.” We are now also offering this work to our donors, to see whether we can bring this powerful process of biblical nourishment, economic analysis and spiritual challenge to the task of building long-term financial partnerships for BCM.

These small, strategic and intensive gatherings have three goals:

  1. To nurture the economic discipleship of BCM donors by offering teaching, resourcing and competence-building concerning faith & discipleship (including Biblical visions of the economics of grace, a critique of the reigning market cosmology, and a theological framework of addiction and recovery) and basic economic literacy (including structural disparities in the current economy, alternatives and forms of economic justice organizing).
  2. To facilitate a community of persons committed to Sabbath Economics through the vehicle of a Sevenfold Household Economy Covenant, which includes accountable practices of social investment; debt reduction; planned giving; environmentally responsible lifestyle; just consumption; solidarity with marginalized people; and Sabbath-keeping.
  3. To enable better BCM financial planning and stewardship by mentoring a community of “investor”-partners making three-year pledge commitments.
We held three inaugural retreats in 2004, and another four in 2005. As part of these weekends we held a public event one evening to discuss equitable and sustainable household economics with the wider community. The leadership team along with Ched includes:

 

  • Peg Rosenkrands, from Detroit, MI, and has worked with Ecumenical Theological Seminary, Ministry of Money and the Michigan McGehee Interfaith Loan Fund (see her article). To learn more about Peg, go to Moving Money for Social Change.

  • John Parker, director of GOOD WORK, Inc. in Durham, NC, helps strengthen the economic lives of working people and build community by providing business skills training, financial education, and ongoing support for working families and community entrepreneurs. Formerly with the Self-Help Credit Union, the second largest community-based credit union in the country, John has a wide knowledge of community development financial institutions.

  • Andy Loving, based in Louisville, KY, is a licensed investment advisor specializing in socially responsible and community investing through First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC. A member of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, and is particularly interested in helping people of faith to ask “not only what the financial return on our capital is, but what the capital itself is doing,” and to realize that “capital deposited in any financial institution is a measure of power we must exercise.”

  • Rick Kidd, a marriage and family counselor in Los Angeles, and very active in Twelve-Step work, and president of the BCM board. He is concerned about the relationship betwen Sabbath Economics and addiction/recovery work.

  • Steve Clemens, an activist in Minneapolis, MN, and part of the Community of St. Martin there. He has been deeply involved in nonviolent witness at the School of the Americas and at Alliant Techsystems. He also travelled to Iraq to be part of the Iraq Peace Team just prior to the recent war. Steve works with a family trust to do strategic giving.
  • Faith Wilder, a former corporate consultant, lives in Seattle. She serves on several non-profit boards, and brings a broad background in organization-building and a deep spirituality.