2010 Gathering Announced (May 12-14th in Nashville) Register Now!
This year’s event will focus on Leadership as a Mediating Presence in an Age of Anxiety. We are pleased that John Winn, Carole Cotton Winn and Craig Gilliam from The Center for Pastoral Excellence will be present with us. While John, Carole and Craig have deeply integrated spiritual formation and some of Edwin Friedman’s thoughts (e.g. family systems, self-differentiation, non-anxious presence), we have focused on the importance of role and being a mediating presence. From our initial conversations with a variety of persons, there seems to be a yearning for this area of conversation among contemporary leaders. Lay and clergy are ministering within increasingly hostile and anxious environments.
This will also be an opportunity for those of you who are committed practitioners in the JustPeace Network to engage one another and members of the JustPeace Board of Directors around ways to nurture and strengthen our relationships and our ministries.
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This year’s Gathering is the tenth annual event for the JustPeace movement – committed practitioners on the journey of the ministry of reconciliation. The Gathering is open to all. Click here to read about the themes of previous JustPeace Gatherings.
“Come experience mediation under the glaring light of systems thinking, the broadening dimensions of open space, and the deepening honesty of the circle process.
Think about a time when you, as a Mediating Presence actually made a positive difference. How about a time when it backfired?
Let us make this an adventure informed by the power of a non-anxious presence.”
- Carole, John & Craig
About the Presenters:
Dr. W. Craig Gilliam
Dr. W. Craig Gilliam is the Director of the Center for Pastoral Excellence for the Louisiana Annual Conference, UMC and is a member of the adjunct faculty at Perkins School of Theology, SMU, and has a private practice. He is an ordained Elder in the UMC, and serves as an educator, facilitator and consultant.
For more than 12 years Craig has ministered in this field working with religious communities and other organizations. The largest part of his ministry includes: 1) Leadership Training/Coaching, 2) Conflict Transformation/Intervention, 3) Visioning and 4) Community Building.
With which of these areas does he spend the majority of his time? Leadership Training/Coaching and Conflict Intervention are the areas where his skills and the world’s requests seem to meet most often.
Drs. Carole Cotton Winn and John Winn
- Rev. Dr. Carole Cotton Winn
After pioneering for twelve years as Co-Pastors, Carole Cotton Winn and John Winn broke new ground in the Louisiana Conference. In 1990 Carole was named by Bishop William Oden as the first woman District Superintendent in the history of the Conference. She was assigned to the Lake Charles District from 1990-1993 and the New Orleans District from 1993-1998.
At the same time John was given the responsibility of developing a model for the Conference that would deal with the whole range of ministry issues in a way that would help sustain pastoral excellence. The result is THE CENTER FOR PASTORAL EXCELLENCE, a joint venture of the Louisiana Annual Conference and its Board of Ordained Ministry. John was named Director, but that is probably the wrong title, for it is not an administrative post. It is a “hands-on” process of pastoral and spiritual formation for ministers in the midst of their active involvement in ministry. He is more like a “mentor” or “pastor to pastors.” Though still active on The Center’s Advisory Board, technically, John retired in 1998. In 2003 he was named “Mentor Emeritus” of The Center for Pastoral Effectiveness.
From 1978-88 Carole and John Co-Pastored First United Methodist Church in Houma, La., a unique church of over a thousand members in the heart of the “oil patch” and Louisiana’s Acadian culture. They developed innumerable patterns of collegial ministry, not the least of which was a penchant for Dialogue Sermons. Mostly, they alternated Sundays preaching, but on special Festival occasions of the Church Year, they would preach a Dialogue Sermon.
- The Rev. Dr. John Winn
In 1988 Bishop Ben Oliphint appointed them to the Aldersgate UMC in Slidell, La., just outside of New Orleans. Aldersgate is one the largest and fastest growing churches in the Conference. John and Carole felt they were at the beginning of another long-term pastorate, when Bishop Oden decided he wanted Carole on his Cabinet. She has been in the ministry in the Conference since 1970, has preached at numerous national events and Annual Conference Sessions, been a member of the General Board of Discipleship, served on the General Conference Committee on the Mission of the Church, and has been on five delegations to General and Jurisdictional Conference. In addition, she has served on the General Conference Commission, the group that plans the main conference of our denomination. In October, 1996, she presented the Walton Lectures at First United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In each of his four decades as a member of the Louisiana Conference, John, too, has served on the Conference Delegation. In addition, he has served twelve years as Registrar of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, eight years as Vice-Chair of Global Ministries, four years as Secretary of Church and Society, and on the Conference Board of Pensions. He has written numerous articles and church school studies. Though, now, he is actually “more retired” rather than “less retired,” a good deal of his time is spent as a consultant for other Annual Conferences who are interested in setting-up something like The Center for their own area. For over ten years John has maintained a denomination-wide network of people working in the area of Maintaining Ministers in Ministry (3M) that meets annually in New Orleans. It is jointly sponsored by The Center for Ministry of the Mississippi Annual Conference and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
In the last twenty-five years John and Carole have presented one of the Jackson Lectures on Worship at Ministers’ Week, SMU, preached Dialogue Sermons at several Ordination services, coordinated worship events for Conference and National convocations, and been a part of the training team for new District Superintendents at Lake Junaluska.
Upon completing her term as District Superintendent in 1998, Carole was appointed Director of Spiritual Renewal for the Louisiana Annual Conference. Since then she has created the Academy for Spiritual Leadership, which brings together laity and clergy who are serious about deepening their soul journey. The Academy has several tracks: Spiritual Leadership, Silent Retreats, and Training in Spiritual Direction. As a follow-up to her the Academy’s Training Process in Spiritual Direction Carole has developed Pilgrimages to some of the “Thin Places” like Chartres and Iona.
In 2002 John and Carole led a Louisiana Conference Team that was awarded a Lilly Foundation Grant for 2003-2007 to continue and expand their work. That grant has since been extended, leading to the development of the Discerners’ Academy, which is designed to help people who are discerning a call to ministry, seminary education, and ordination.
Their daughter, Lane, is the Associate Pastor at First UMC-Amite, LA. and is a member of the General Conference Commission. John’s daughter, Callie, is the Senior Pastor at Rayne Memorial UMC in New Orleans, LA.
John is an Arts and Science graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, majoring in Journalism, and Master of Divinity graduate of Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He has completed the Advanced Studies in Systems Thinking with Dr. Edwin Friedman. He has been a member of the Louisiana Conference since 1954.
Carole graduated from Centenary College in 1965, then served the General Board of Global Ministries as a U.S.-2. In 1970 she earned a Master of Divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She is also a Certified Spiritual Director. She has been a member of the Louisiana Annual Conference since 1970.
In June, 1992, John and Carole, were granted the Degree of Doctor of Divinity by Centenary College in what is believed to be the first time a clergy-couple has been so honored.
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Thanks! Sorry for the trouble!
This may not be the right place, but I am looking for an old friend. I know that he entered the ministry after we paerted ways.
Simple question: Did this John “grow up” In the Methodest Church of Algiers (New Orleans), Louisiana?
Would greatly appriciate a response of any sort.
Leon(Duck)Parrish
Leon,
You’ve found the correct John Winn and he wants to get in touch. Please email me your contact info at abray@justpeaceumc.org and I’ll pass along your contact info to John.
Thanks!
Adam