Dear Members

 I write on December 1, in time to wish you and the Forum collectively a wonderful blessing from Christmas (don't forget our Christmas Celebration on December 19) and in 2010.

             I have for some months been wondering why, when given the choice between old-fashioned and modern language, how we fell into the habit of using the traditional Collect from the Scripture sheet in our liturgy, with its "thees and thous", and not the modern one. The choice is left with the worship leader, but may I urge you to consider using the modern version?

            A few weeks ago I attended the conference of the Association of Adventist Forums in California, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of Spectrum Magazine. (If you wonder whether there was a connection between the fact that this Forum chapter celebrated its 40th anniversary a year ago and the same anniversary now for our magazine, the answer is yes! And if you do not read and subscribe to Spectrum, I urge you to do both--the magazine depends on our subscriptions to survive and fulfill its tremendously important "fresh air" function among Adventists.) The theme of the conference was the generations of Adventism, especially the contrast between the generation of those of us who founded the Forums and current Adventist college students. To help us focus on this, on the first night there was a performance of an original play by students in the Drama Department and Society at Pacific Union College. Believe me this got us to focus! Its most mind-blowing aspect (to me) was its extensive use of dancing: it became obvious that PUC students love to dance and that they have no idea at all that dancing might be "wrong." In the discussion that followed several members about my ripe old age told how they had so much wanted to dance when young, but had never learned how to do so because of Adventist attitudes back then, and then, with great emotion, each added how much they regretted their loss. The result was that on Saturday night, after the scheduled program, the students conducted a dance class for as many of the older generation who were interested--and that turned out to be a large group. Everyone had an amazing amount of fun as a result. Adventism is changing!

             Please note that there is a change from our usual sequence of meeting locations in January. The week when we will meet with CityLights is January 2, rather than the usual 4th week of the month. We will meet at St Mary's on January 23, the 4th week.

                        ..Ron Lawson, President