The Cornerstone Forum
September 2009 -- Message from Gil Bailie
Gil Bailie Dear Friends,

I apologize for the long delay since our last newsletter. Randy and I have indeed been busy, working under the hood, so to speak, to adjust to our economy-related reduced resources by turning to some new (to us) digital and internet technologies which we feel will allow us to carry out our mission more efficiently. Over the next few weeks we will send out newsletters highlighting each of these new tools.

With this newsletter, however, I would like to do three things:

First, I want to thank all those who helped us meet the $10,000 matching grant this summer. The grant came at a most critical moment, and we are sincerely grateful to those who helped us.  Secondly, I want to report on a luncheon honoring Rene Girard and San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer that Randy Coleman-Riese and I attended in August. Thirdly and finally, I would like to highlight this week's new tool, which is hardly new, but slightly re-focused, namely our weblog. .

A CATHOLIC SYNTHESIS:
Theology and Anthropology

Rene & Archbishop

Ren� Girard and Archbishop George Niederauer

I was asked to make a few brief remarks at the luncheon and afterward encouraged to expand on them, which I have done. It is entitled: "Nothing Remains Intact Without Effort," a quotation from Henri de Lubac. 

As we did with the talk I gave in London this summer, we have put a streaming audio file of the expanded version of my talk on our website, here. Again, as we did with the London talk, the CD and MP3 audio file made of my expanded remarks,  can be purchased from our website.  As a token of our gratitude, our Sustaining Donors (monthly donors of $25 or more and those contributing $300 a year or more) are being sent a complimentary copy of this CD (and all future CDs we produce in a 12 month period) as well as the text of the talk in a booklet form.

If you would like to become a Sustaining Donor, you can do so easily by going here. Of course one-time donations are also very much appreciated. The secret to happiness, I constantly reiterated to my children when they were young, is prayer and gratitude. The Cornerstone Forum lives by that maxim.

NEW TOOLS FOR NEW TIMES:

We recognize that there is something unavoidably experimental about our use of the digital and internet tools we will be deploying as we go forward, but we trust you will bear with us as we try to master these tools. We welcome your advice and any suggestions you may have about how we might better fulfill our mission.

OUR WEBLOG:

We hope to make better use of the "Faith and Culture" weblog which I have only intermittently maintained over the last few years. To that end, I have tightened the focus of the blog to reflect evolving cultural realities, giving it a new theme and sub-theme: "Easter in the Meantime: Faith in the Crossfire." The juxtaposition of the quiet joy of faith and the often clamorous effort to defend that faith and preserve its moral and cultural blessings in today's public square are not easy to combine in one image. The left-hand image below captures the former reasonably well, while the image on the right better betokens the cultural resistances to the faith. This latter image may need some explanation. I posted something about it on the weblog here.

So torn between the two images am I that I would like to ask you to tell me which of the two you would prefer as the banner icon for the weblog. Go here to vote. Thank you for your suggestions.  

Easter       Arrest
Abbey before Lauds                                Caravaggio's "Arrest"

Thanks to all who have inquired about my health following my surgery in June. Prayers for the restoration of my health have been answered abundantly. If you will, just redirect them to the fruitfulness of the Cornerstone Forum's mission.

As I said, we will be sending out more frequent newsletters for the next few weeks as we have more news to convey about the progress we're making in putting new tools to work. Thanks for your patience, your prayers, and your friendship.

Sincerely,

Gil Bailie