Friday, November 17, 2006

St Joe Gregorian chant index

For those of you working with Gregorian Chant, I've posted some materials at:

http://homepage.mac.com/mhettinger/StJoeGregorian/index.html

umm...it's not the same format as I see in other places, but I'm swimming in the ocean of the people around me. There's a reason for everything, and my goals for rendering chant are always authenticity and meaning.

I'm very interested in your reactions.

pax,
maggie

Friday, September 29, 2006

The Vow of Nonviolence

Recognizing the violence in my own heart, yet trusting the goodness and mercy of God and the universe, I vow or solemnly affirm that I will strive to live a life of nonviolence:

*striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;
* showing love, compassion and forgiveness to everyone I meet;
* accepting suffering in the struggle for peace and justice rather than inflicting it;
* persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;
* living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;
* striving to treat the natural world not as a resource but as a beloved member of my family, and
* working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.

Lord, I trust in your sustaining love and believe that just as you gave me the grace and desire to offer this, so you will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

PSYCHOLOGY: Close Encounters

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSYCHOLOGY: Close Encounters
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Gilbert
J. Chin

The effect of contact between groups on prejudice has been a topic of
research at least as far back as the middle of the 20th century. Since
then, there have been a very large number of studies and many reviews of
this literature. Pettigrew and Tropp have conducted a meta-analysis of what
has become known as intergroup contact theory. They (and their dedicated
research assistants) have combed through published papers and unpublished
dissertations, using a methodological (rather than topical) basis for
inclusion; the final data set covers 515 studies, containing over 700
independent samples representing a quarter million individuals spread over
38 countries. The summary finding is that intergroup contact reduces
prejudice.

Their statistical analyses reveal that this cannot be ascribed to
self-selection by the participants, or to a publication bias toward
positive results, or to the rigor of the research (methodologically
stronger studies yielded larger effect sizes). Roughly half of the studies
focused on nonracial and nonethnic groups (as described by sexual
orientation or physical or mental disability, for example), and the effect
sizes seen within this subset were the same as that for the racial/ethnic
targets that stimulated the historical development of intergroup contact
theory. Furthermore, it appears that the effects on individual attitudes
can generalize to other members of the outgroup and even to other
outgroups.

How is this mediated? They find that Allport's four features (common goals,
intergroup cooperation, equal status, and official sanction) contribute
significantly to the reduction of prejudice but are not essential, and that
the last of the four conditions may be the most important one. Greater
contact may reduce feelings of uncertainty or discomfort that might
otherwise coalesce into anxiety or perceived threat, which might in turn
harden into prejudice. Yet these ameliorative shifts may not survive in the
absence of normative or authoritarian support, and studies of why contact
fails to curb prejudice are needed. -- GJC

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 90, 751 (2006).

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Five essential elements of leadership "as leadership":

Leadership

Guides the way
Speaks truth
Creates, nurtures, or protects group identity,
perhaps by naming and eliminating the enemy
Acts decisively
"and it's got to make you glad to be alive."