Letter from the Board Chair

A letter from the Board chair to the Selah Community:

As many of you know, we have been in the process of discerning a sense of direction and leadership for Selah since John Kiemele let go of the helm and encouraged us to plot our own course. We wanted to make this course a community involved decision and we are grateful for so many of you who desired and committed to being involved in this process. It has been such a lovely experience because it has also drawn us closer together and increasing our love for what is among us.

The first meeting we had in this process helped us to see that there is a strong ethos to our community that we can begin to trust and let carry us into the next phase of Selah’s development. The second gathering helped us to see that there are many of us willing to step into creating, offering, and leading from their particular contemplative presence, interests, experiences, and events. There are a number of you that are leaning into this possibility with some hesitation and wonder and we want to support you in this. In the third meeting we explored our inspirations of what we would like to imagine Selah becoming. Each time our gatherings were lead by a different people or groups of people and we are excited about the shared potential that has been rising to our consciousness.

In the meantime, we contracted with Mary Pandiani to provide direction as the Interim Executive Director who needed to keep things running until a clear sense of direction and leadership emerged from listening into the community. Through this time and process it has become clear to the board that there is no one better suited to lead us into the next phase of Selah than Mary Pandiani and so we let her know that we would like to offer her the role of executive director starting in 2019 when her interim contract is finished.

This executive director role came with the caveat that we want the executive director role to look more like a team lead than a solo responsibility because we want these budding leaders to emerge and we are a dispersed community which may need more regional leadership support. Therefore the discernment process is not over. We are still looking for more clarity about our sense of direction and our team leadership strategy and structure. Therefore we want to continue to engage the community in discerning these things.

We hope that you are as encouraged as we are by the process and hope that you are inspired to continue down this discerning path with us. Mary, has helped me (Troy) see that our core value and the chore ingredient of our character as Selah is the capacity to listen. To listen to God, to each other, to silence, and the space between each of us. Shall we continue to listen with hope and gratitude for what continues to immerge.

Troy Fenlason