Rev. LoraKim Joyner - Wildlife Veterinarian and UUA's Multi Species and Entreprenuerial Ministry member making an impact from the U.S to Central America.
 
Multi Species Minisitry
How to take care of the many and what does that mean. Seeking to change the First principle to include multi species inside the inherent worth and dignity of all.
First Principle Project:
It takes 15 congregations or 1 distict to have a vote come to the GA floor. It would become a by-law change in the UUA. The vote has it be referred to a study committee as a 2 year process for discussion, study and  reflection, to then bring it back with suggested revisions/changes.
Currently there are 6 sponsoring congregations and 4 sponsoring organizations. She is confident that there will be the number needed by General Assembly 2016 and no later than 2017.
Entrepreneurial Ministry
The UU Ministers Association has created a program called Beyond the Call. Approximately 30 UU ministers, rabbis, and UCC ministers are part of a 2 year training in entrepreneurial ministry which is about thinking outside the box and  beyond the church walls and how do we reach out to others that may not look like typical congregations.

Bio:
Rev. LoraKim Joyner is a Unitarian Universalist minister, having served in parish ministry for 10 years in North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, and Florida. Currently she serves as a community minister in Multispecies Ministry and Compassionate Communication, affiliated with the Community Unitarian Church at White Plains. She draws on her training as a Certified Trainer in Nonviolent Communication to serve the UU Metro NY District as Right Relations Consultant. In addition she is the Director of One Earth Conservation and Ministry, where she works as a wildlife veterinarian and human dimension consultant in Latin American avian conservation. Currently she has projects in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Paraguay. When at home, she serves as the First Principle Project Facilitator.
Her  favorite quote:
Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves
Tell me about despair, your, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.

 
Bonus Quotes/poems:
A shorter one is adapted from William Blake:

They who bind to themselves a joy
Do the winged life destroy;
But they who kiss the joy as it flies
Live in eternity's sun rise.

From the movie The Thin Red Line: One man looks at a dying bird and thinks there's nothing but unanswered pain. That death's got the final word, it's laughing at him. Another man sees that same bird, feels the glory, feels something smiling through it.

 

 

Links:

Contact LoraKim at amoloros@gmail.com

First Principle Project - www.firstprincipleproject.org

 Conservationists Way Youtube Video

One Earth Conservation - http://www.oneearthconservation.org












Lafeber - http://lafeber.com/conservation/ (conservation blog)


































Nurturing Nature: Yours, Ours, Theirs, the Earth's