Aanii (Hello) and thank you for welcoming me here. My name is Dawn Moneyhan, S.C. and I am celebrating my 6 month anniversary to the ministry today!
I am working to build my new church, literally, but struggling, admittedly. I found this forum link in an anniversary email from ULC today and am grateful. Chi Miigwetch (Many thanks) ULC! I prayed last night for a solution to my many roadblocks and the email was waiting for me when I woke up. It was the only new email today.
I am Native American and started my new church back in September 2021. The original plan was to build a cultural teaching camp, until I got into the IRS forms, haha. We didn't fit anywhere in the basic public charity boxes they have for options because our cultures are all spiritually based. Our cultures are our spirituality, our spirituality dictates our cultures. Every few paragraphs it told me "except for churches" so I started over and found our rightful place.
I have a Wicca friend who was ordained through ULC about a decade ago and she had been pestering me to do it too. I hadn't received my calling yet so I celebrated her experiences with her and was content. A couple of yrs ago my life changed drastically, and through my journey I received my calling. I had never understood what someone meant when they told me they had received their calling, but I do now. Spirit has made it impossible for me to deny what has happened, what it meant, what is being asked of me.
I am a teacher, an aquatic specialist with a specialty in aquatic medicine, a wife, mother, grandmother, indigenous musician & singer, and an enrolled member of The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. I am a traditionalist as much as modern society allows off reservation lands, a believer in science, and that science & the spirit world go hand in hand, and have a goal of changing the world while teaching others our indigenous ancestral skills, lifestyles, and the reasons for them (our beliefs) that have been held in secret for hundreds of years. I see the desperate need for another way of life on this planet, a healthier, more sustainable way to live... the ways of my ancestors.
I am grateful to ULC for allowing me an opportunity to break through a glass ceiling, allowing our indigenous cultural ceremonies to stand legally on their own merit, without the required inclusion of Christian or civil ceremony components that we have lived with since the colonization of North America. Being ordained through ULC allows me to perform the ceremonies of our people as they should have been all along, equal to all others.
I am also here seeking help. Spirit has filled me with so much light, so many goals and tasks to perform, that I feel overwhelmed and like I am spinning my wheels in the mud. (not that there's anything wrong with mud!) Building my new church means funding that I can't seem to find anywhere. I have specialized needs for what I am building, as it is a working homestead, open to the public to come learn how by working alongside of us, all Native American traditional lifestyle, right down to the bison and elk herds for food, on their own schedules. And I must do this within 2 hrs of my husband's job, as we need his income to survive while we get started.
My assistant clergy, Dr Delia Ross, and I presented a diversity class for American Family Insurance back in November 2021, right after our incorporation and only weeks after we were both ordained through ULC. After the presentation, that went extremely well and brought a wonderful turnout and critique afterward, we received a call a couple of weeks later asking if we were prepared to write a grant proposal. They understood what we are building and wanted to help us get started. (their explanation at the time) We offered them incentives, such as the recognition as our founding sponsor for our wigwam village, among many others. I added a free day event just for them once we are ready to open and then potted sweetgrass plants for their office desks and counters with the knowledge about the plants and how to care for them. We are almost into April now and we are still waiting for them to do anything at all. They made a mess of it all! They offered us a $1000 donation off the top but then sent it to our tribe instead of to us. Our church has no connection to our tribe aside from Delia and I are both enrolled members. I was forced into a corner and filed an ethics complaint with their company. We are still awaiting the new $1000 check they promised would be here last week.
So our hopes of moving and getting started with our building in time for this planting season have been flushed. I am attempting to use my less than 1/2 acre yard to compensate but I surely can't keep bison and elk here, have no space for a wigwam village, and currently only have 1 tipi.
My team is expecting me to guide them forward through these difficult times and I have been stressed about it. Last night while I smudged and prayed I was given an answer. I need to use what is available to me... so I have mapped out the things needed to work from here as much as possible until we get "there". We can work toward funding for each project, use the projects as the classes we would be giving at our camp, just MUCH smaller scale and from my yard. We can build the cob ovens, but again, fewer of them and much smaller scale. And if we pour a concrete slab we can put up a screen tent for a classroom and add a brick/stone kitchen to the side of the slab, providing a wonderful teaching area where I can put chairs and tables. We are searching for grant monies to cover these project expenses so we don't miss our growing season.
We noticed along the way that grant monies are not available to purchase property. (at least not here and not for us) I am wondering if anyone has advice that can help us raise the large amount of funding we need for property?
We have found 1 single place that would meet our needs. It is currently a B&B on 120 acres with a price tag of $2.2 million. I went into this believing we could raise that via grants and fundraising activities, but we are still waiting for our IRS letter of determination for the 501c3 and can't register for any fundraising programs or even apply for donations from the tribes or write most grant proposals without it. Since the IRS is backed up to April 2020, we could be waiting for quite some time. I am out of personal funds now and not sure how to sustain us until that letter arrives. We currently have no congregation. Our intentions were to be a church teaching camp rather than a church entity.
I feel lost... and Spirit has offered me a "you figure it out" answer. So I'm here asking for help in figuring this out and extending an invitation to all of my fellow clergy here in WI to come join me for a prayer ceremony & music circle this spring, when the weather is more conducive to being outdoors. (I hold ceremonies out back around my fire pit)
Chi Miigwetch (Many Thanks) for letting me get that all out. I am feeling desperate for help that I can't seem to find anywhere else.
Blessings,
Dawn