Monday, June 8, 2015

Weekly Recap for Tuesday, 5 May 2015 from Progressive Christianity of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States

Weekly Recap for Tuesday, 5 May 2015 from Progressive Christianity of Gig Harbor, Washington, United States
How do you "Stumble Through" your mistakes? This Week's Recap makes it OK to Stumble! Enjoy and Share. Thank you for your support and interest!


Last Week At ProgressiveChristianity.org...
We delved into the topics of Worship, Migration, Stumbling Through and Neighbors.
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Worship Materials: PilgrimageWilliam L. (Bill) Wallace
From the Celebrating Mystery Collection, the Theme is The Endless Journey – The Heavenly Moment: Thoughts For Reflection.Worship Materials: Pilgrimage
From the Celebrating Mystery collectionby William L. (Bill) Wallace
THEME The endless journey – The heavenly moment
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
  1. Evolution is a law of life not just of biology.
  2. Only the mystery is permanent. All other apparent permanence is illusion.
  3. To move from trusting the known to trusting the unknown is the ultimate spiritual liberation. It enables the pilgrim to live lightly and not grimly.
  4. There are no degrees of enlightenment only frequencies of the experience.
  5. To move from the many to the One is the journey of integration. To view the many from the perspective of the One is to see the One in everything and every body. This is the journey of illumination.
  6. To dance lightly is far better than to march heavily.
  7. The most important guru to listen to is the one within your own heart.
  8. The way of two-ness (duality, either / or) is an unhelpful diversion from the main path.
  9. The easiest way to confusion is not to trust your own heart.
  10. The all powerful guru is an agency of dependency.
  11. True wisdom lies in mutual sharing not in a one way imposition.
  12. The marriage of power and spirituality can be destructive if it is not matched with humility.
  13. How enriched are those who embrace their spiritual pilgrimage with joy; for they shall find peace even in the midst of suffering, hope even in the midst of disaster and light even within their darkness.
  14. We may have to walk our pilgrimage alone but at the center we meet all things.
  15. It is far better to flow in the tearful stream of pain and joy than to attempt to build a ladder to Heaven out of self imposed crosses.
  16. To pilgrimage without rest is to consign oneself to a world of inner grayness.
  17. The journey is joy, the journey is pain, the journey is Christ. Alleluia!
  18. Pain and joy are twin sentinels of the journey but are not the journey itself.
  19. The first step on the spiritual journey is to be aware of and believe in your own spirituality.
  20. Wisdom invites us to discern where we are on our pilgrimage but warns us of the dangers of attempting to judge where others are on theirs.
  21. Travel with an open mind helps you realize how much you don’t know.
  22. The sufferings of the past are as nothing compared with the wonder of the divinity of the present moment which is an eternity of love and peace.
  23. Be gentle to your immaturities and they will dissolve. Be harsh on your immaturities and they will calcify.
  24. Wholeness lies in the quality of the journey not the pursuit of rewards at the end.
  25. At the end of each journey there can be a new beginning for those who refuse to be trapped by the past.
  26. The person who has never made a mistake has probably never made anything!
  27. To have travelled hopefully is better than to have arrived
  28. It is not a question of whether I have been somewhere,
  29. nor whether I shall get somewhere,
  30. but whether I am somewhere.
  31. Pain can be the beginning of liberation.
  32. Where you came from is not nearly as important as where you are going to.
  33. A major obstacle to pilgrimage is the belief that there is a future that we cannot change and a present that we must endure.
  34. When I turn my face from the Sun I become my own shadow and merely retread my past.
  35. God’s call is an invitation to become an explorer, a person who explores the heights and depths of love.
PRAYER.
O God of the pilgrims, Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph, may we look beyond the discomforts and adversities of our pilgrimage to the joys of your companionship and the knowledge that in the end all will be well.
HYMNS
An awakening is beginning. (BL)
God wake us from illusion. (BL)
Knock, knock, knock. (BL)
When we find beauty. (BL)
Spirit of all freedom. (BL)
What can the prophet Jesus teach us? (BL)
At each journey’s ending point. (BL)
When we have moved. (BL)
O God the great all-knowing one.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
The call of the Christ is to inner growth.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
O help us most loving.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
The Way of God.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
In the first stage of seeking.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Come, let us dwell.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
At the start of life’s great journey.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
From Nazareth to Calvary. (STS1)
The Inner Christ still questions us. (STS1)
The Way of the Christ. (STS1)
Enter the stillness. (STS1)
The Way of life. (STS1)
What is the pattern. (STS1)
What image shall I use? (STS2)
God now calls us each to seek. (STS2)
We follow the God of Noah. (STS2)
That of God within us all. (STS2)
Singing the Sacred Vol 1 2011, Vol 2 2014 World Library Publications
SONGS
We go forward and around. (BL)
I’m on the road to nowhere. (BL)
Which code can assist us? (SYSJ)
REFLECTION/POEMS
TO BE LINKED
To be linked with the past
is to be embossed with gold
and tainted with dross
for our heritage
is both
jewel and millstone.
PILGRIMAGE
From dependency to empowerment –
individualism to community –
puritanism to celebration –
captivity to liberation –
static to dynamic –
compartments to the whole –
square to circle –
straight line to curve –
mechanical to organic –
known to mystery.
THE PATTERN OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH
The Motivation: – Dissatisfaction / Confidence
The Information: – Sacred Texts e.g. The Bible, Institutions e.g. The Church, People, Nature.
The Reflection: – The Letting Go.
The Illumination:- Conversion / Awakening.
The Verification: – Action, Suffering, Awareness.
The Celebration: – Ecstasy, Unity.
A LIBERATING PILGRIMAGE
A liberating pilgrimage is
to be instead of longing,
to dance instead of marching,
till the puzzle becomes a mystery
and the mystery becomes our alleluia
the alleluia of our deepest being,
the alleluia of all space and being,
the alleluia beyond all space and being,
the alleluia beyond all alleluias.
So be it, ALLELUIA.
THE PILGRIMAGE OF LOVE
My beloved is myself – “selfish love.”
My beloved is another person – “romantic love.”
My beloved is God out there, Christ out there – “intervening love.”
My beloved is God within me, Christ within me – “interior love.”
My beloved is in all things and all people – “inclusive love, cosmic love.”
My beloved and I are one – “unitive love, mystical love
I HAVE TRAVELLED
I have travelled a long way in my mind
and sometimes my heart was left
far behind
but now
I observe my mind
from the sanctuary
of my heart,
the source of the hope
that is beyond
all understanding.
PAST PILGRIMAGE
There are two ways of viewing past pilgrimage.
One is destructive, the other empowering.
Filling one’s heart and mind
with painful memories of hurts and mistakes
condemns one to a life of debilitating misery,
a life that is imprisoned by the past.
On the other hand to treat failure as an opportunity for learning
is to embrace an evolving spirituality
that views all of the past,
both its constructive and destructive elements,
as being an apprenticeship which enables pilgrimage
to proceed with love and with hope.
A HEALTHY RELIGION
A healthy religion helps people to
Relate with joy, openness and reverence to
ourselves
other people
the Earth
all life
the mystery we call God.
Become more inclusive.
Focus on the journey rather than the arrival.
Value cooperation, sharing and community.
Be empowered rather than dependant.
Accept the reality of suffering and injustice but also motivates them to do all they can to alleviate these problems and to see within these experiences possibilities for personal and communal growth.
Be free from guilt, fear and denial of their sexuality. Develop flexibility and security based on awareness, silence and stillness.
ICE OR MELTDOWN
Flying over Siberia
In the Spring
I perceived
Through a chasm in the clouds,
A magic world of grey and white,
A world of frozen rivers
And partly snow-clad mountains.
It all seemed reminiscent
Of the world of human morality –
The black and white world
Of the frozen heart
Or the slushy freedom
of melting mores.
O God,
May I neither
Live a life of ice
Nor of chaotic moral meltdown
But gradually and purposefully
Move into a new ethical Springtime.
THE CALL TO PILGRIMAGE
As Christians we are called to pilgrimage, to growth. Sometimes we are called to move on from something that in destructive, at other times from things that are inadequate, sometimes from things that need something else to be added to them if we are to become more complete persons.
The goal of our pilgrimage is God, but people see God in different ways; so it can be said that “The God you worship is the person you will become.”
Here are some areas of growth which will enable us to become more Christ-like –
  • right belief to right attitude and action
  • right words to right celebration
  • morality to love
  • monopoly to sharing
  • guilt to graciousness
  • individual piety to cosmic worship
  • individual rights to global responsibility
  • isolationism to interdependency
  • arid puritanism to beauty and wonder
  • suffocating solemnity to Christ-like humor
  • authority to questioning i.e.
  • blind acceptance to perceptive analysis (Church, society and self)
  • certainty to faith
  • conformity to creativity
  • repression to responsible emotional expression
  • viewing the Bible from the perspective of the rich and powerful to viewing it from the perspective of the poor and powerless
  • life denial to life affirmation
  • self denial to self affirmation
  • We affirm ourselves and honor Christ when we
  • reverence our body
  • stimulate our mind
  • and nurture our spirit.
THE CONFUSED PILGRIM
There was within me once
a confused pilgrim
whom I hope I have outgrown –
Confused because I imagined
that the path to life
was the path of denial.
So sexuality and creativity
were bathed in black guilt
and the psyche warred against itself.
Confused because I laboured
under the destructive illusion
that denial removes the offending
part of personality!
How wrong I was
for denial only suppresses
what continues to be there
and guilt creates
depression’s suicidal night.
If only he had known
what I now know –
The way of letting go
Where the hell of disjunction
becomes the heaven of the present moment.
ELDERLY WISDOM
If you who are young were able
To look deeper than our elderly wrinkles
And with imagination bring to mind
Our diverse histories
You would be able to see
Within these aged frames
The parade
Of childhood inquisitive creativity
Adolescent experiments with love,
Parenthood joys and travails
And the skills some of us developed to survive
Through grief and ecstasy
And to rejoice in all of this.
Surely it would be easier
To tap into elderly wisdom
Than to have to reinvent
The psychological wheel
With all the struggle that involves.
I SAW THE MOON
I saw the moon floating on the dawn
Basking in reflected glory
And wondered whether my spirituality
Is but a reflection
Or whether it knows
The inner brightness
Of the cosmic radiance.
O God of the cosmic brightness
May I commit myself to the journey
From reflected divinity
To embracing the Inner Christ
In whom all daughters and sons/suns
Are one.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
What are the sociological and contextual factors which may act as a straight jacket for my pilgrimage? How easy do I find it to walk in the company of other pilgrims but also to be able to walk to the beat of my own drum? What compromises should I make without undermining my own integrity?
Where would I place myself within the process of spiritual development? (See section Worship, Mystery and our Cosmic Setting)
How do I relate to the previous levels which I occupied? Am I able to be charitable to them and accept that there are some things in them which I can incorporate into my current level? Can I also accept that at times I may revert in part or in whole to a previous level or levels?
Does our worship provide an environment which encourages people to accept those at other levels of spiritual development?

LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.
Text and graphic © William Livingstone Wallace but available for free use.

Migration Hymn Andrew Pratt
And where is God amid the swell
where tides still ebb and flow,
unfeeling of this loss of life,
as others come and go?Migration Hymn by Andrew Pratt
Idyllic beaches break the waves
as bathers line the shore
This view of peace is now disturbed:
an aftermath of war.
The ones who fled from lives they knew
have gone in fear and dread,
the ships that offered hope to them
are sunk with many dead.
And where is God amid the swell
where tides still ebb and flow,
unfeeling of this loss of life,
as others come and go?
The commerce of the world goes on.
Can we ignore the pain?
It is as though we’re blind to see
Christ crucified again.
The ones who drown are ones we own
as neighbours we should love,
how can we turn our eyes away,
avert our gaze above?
For when our politics conspires
to shut the door to grace
it is as though we turn away
from Jesus’ tortured face.
© Andrew Pratt 22/4/2015
Tune: ELLACOMBE (I Sing the Mighty Power of God)
The challenge of migration:
In response to reports of more than 800 people drowned off Libya’s coast on Sunday 19th April 2015, bringing the number of deaths this year to 1,750.

90 Second Sermon Diva Does Divinity Natalie Perkins
... after a stumble-through, you start to really see the shape and it’s true potential. And you know it only gets better from here. This blog will mostly be my observations during my stumble-through with God.90 Second Sermon Diva Does Divinity by Natalie Perkins
Diva Does Divinity
Natalie Perkins
https://divadoesdivinity.wordpress.com
About Natalie:
Singer. Actor. Dancer. Seminarian. Writer.
“As we stumble along….” –The Drowsy Chaperone
In theatre, a “stumble-through” happens after you’ve had your preliminary rehearsals. You’ve run the music. You’ve gotten all the choreography and blocking. It’s time to try to run the show from beginning to end without stopping. To put the show on its feet and let it try out its first wobbly steps.
During the stumble-through, mistakes are made. Lines are dropped, choreography is forgotten, and verses of songs get mixed up. However, everyone involved– from the cast, to the director, to the stage manager– is pushing together toward the finale. Then we can say, “Phew! Well, at least we made it through!”
I always get the best feeling after a stumble-through. Because then you start to really see the shape of the show and it’s true potential. And you know it only gets better from here. This blog will mostly be my observations during my stumble-through with God. Some stuff I’ll know, some stuff I’ll get wrong, aaaaand some stuff I’ll ruin completely. But the hope is that it’ll (that I’ll) get better from here. And that I won’t miss those moments when I get to sit back and admire the work of those around me and catch a glimpse of the overall shape of the Show.
My hope is that this blog will aid in giving permission for us all to stumble along together.

READ ON ...

Weekly LiturgyWeek of: Week of April 26, 2015
Who Is My Neighbor?
They asked, “Who’s my neighbor and whom should I love;
for whom should I do a good deed?”
Then Jesus related a story and said,
“It’s anyone who has a need, yes, anyone who has a need.”

Who Is My Neighbor?
Week of April 26, 2015 my neighbor? We teach the Sunday School to sing Jan Wesson’s hymn:
They asked, “Who’s my neighbor and whom should I love;
for whom should I do a good deed?”
Then Jesus related a story and said,
“It’s anyone who has a need, yes, anyone who has a need.”
But children watch what we do, not just what we say. Would children be able to tell from your actions whom you think your neighbor is?

Election Hymn
If we claim to love our neighbour
while the hungry queue for food,
are we prey to self deception?
Is perception quite so crude?

Election Hymn by Andrew Pratt
If we claim to love our neighbour
while the hungry queue for food,
are we prey to self deception?
Is perception quite so crude?
If we sit beside our neighbours,
begging for the things they need,
we might share their own injustice
in a world that thrives on greed.
If we punish those with nothing,
blaming them for where they stand,
is this love of friend or neighbour,
do we still not understand?
Love of neighbour is not easy,
cuts us till we feel the pain,
sharing hurt that they are feeling
till they find new life again.
Love of neighbour sets us squarely
in the place where they now sit,
till the richness God has given
builds a pearl around the grit;
till each person shares the comfort
of the love of which we preach,
till we live as fact the Gospel:
none can be beyond love’s reach.
© Andrew Pratt 28/3/2015 (Please include on your CCL return)
Metre 8.7.8.7.D
Tune: BETHANY (Smart)
Written during the Manchester & Stockport District Synod (in response to a Joint Public Issues presentation by Rachel Lampard & Paul Morrison). The hymn was sung at the close of Synod.

read more
Worship Materials: Justice and Peace
THEME Dreams and Harsh Reality
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
For the rich poverty is obscene. For the poor wealth is obscene. For God both are obscene.

Worship Materials: Justice and Peace From the Celebrating Mystery collection by William L. (Bill) Wallace
THEME Dreams and Harsh Reality
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
  1. For the rich poverty is obscene. For the poor wealth is obscene. For God both are obscene.
  2. Material poverty tends to unite. Material wealth tends to separate.
  3. If you have found all things within, you will not seek to accumulate all things without.
  4. Culture divorced from justice is an empty shell. Justice divorced from culture is a stone embryo.
  5. A society’s greatest wealth is its people.
  6. There is no peace without compassionate justice, no justice without perceptive analysis of the many ways in which the misuse of power, wealth and education can masquerade as charity. So it can be said that there is no justice without sharing.
  7. It is only in our separation from divinity, from God, from the I AM that we can possibly harbor the illusion that we are of superior value to another human being.
  8. Trust the market – it is on the side of the rich!
  9. Getting it right for the rich is normally getting it wrong for the poor.
  10. The economic trickle down effect from rich to poor does not occur significantly until the dams of power and privilege are breached.
  11. A popular prophet is a contradiction in terms.
  12. One of the sociological functions of religion is to legitimize the unjust acquisition of wealth and power.
  13. Love grows through sharing.
  14. A commitment to the cause of justice is likely to be purely academic unless it springs from the fire of anger at what injustice does to the oppressed.
  15. Peace on earth must be peace for the earth, as well as for the people of the earth.
  16. The divinization of particular human beings or particular human institutions can be a way of avoiding the need for radical social analysis. It can lead to the denial of the mysticism of Jesus and of the socialism of his initial followers.
  17. A revolution undertaken by people who do not have peace in their minds can go horribly wrong.
  18. Do not say that you can do nothing about changing the world. Major changes in the way people think and the way that society organizes itself have always been started by one person, or by a small group of people.
  19. Do not under-estimate the power of an idea whose time has come.
  20. The prosperity of the rich must be replaced by the prospering of all life.
  21. The blood of the prophets is the hope of the poor.
  22. To see all things as inter-related is also to discern the manipulative technique of the rich and powerful; therefore cling to the vision of oneness lest you allow your knowledge to corrupt you.
  23. Do not confuse ‘immoral’ with ‘illegal’. The two may coincide but equally they may not. Institutionalized injustice may be legal but it certainly is not moral.
  24. A humorless revolution is but a short step away from turning last year’s oppressed into this year’s oppressors.
  25. Prophets have always been called upon to expose the legitimization of unjust wealth and power. Clergy have often been expected to clothe it in beauty and rhetoric.
  26. Modern economic systems, be they Communist or ‘Free Market’, all spring from a distortion of spirituality in which the material and the spiritual, nature and humanity are separated.
  27. What good is individual freedom if it allows one to be poor, and without hope: That is simply tyranny masquerading as freedom.
  28. Christ’s third temptation was the temptation to acquire wealth and power (“all the kingdoms of the world”, Matthew 4/8-9). A contemporary example of the same temptation is rampant consumerism, regardless of the cost to other nations or future generations.
  29. The cloaking of violence in beauty does not make it any less profane.
  30. Thank God the prophets and the reformers did not believe they should have positive thoughts about all forms of human behavior and all social institutions.
  31. If we do not use our imagination, we will want to own all things. If we do use our imagination, we already do own all things.
  32. The golden thread of the tapestry of life is not made from gold in the bank but from that within one’s spirit.
  33. To break the cycle of hatred, violence and destruction is to join the circle of love.
  34. If you want to see the ugly face of the first world, pilgrimage to the third world and see what we have done to them through colonialism, imperialism and economic and ecological exploitation.
  35. Peace is not just the absence of war – it is being at home with the rhythm of one’s own spirit and the rhythm of nature. It is being at home with other people and accepting their rainbow diversity. All this is part of being at peace with God.
  36. The pursuit of positive thinking without a corresponding commitment to transformative action can lead people to disregard the severity of many of this world’s problems.
  37. Anger can be one of the greatest motivators for action but inappropriate vindictive anger can produce some of the most unjust results.
  38. Freedom of thought can only occur in a society where people are free to listen. It is only those who have listened who have earned the right to speak.
  39. The art of the few is the misery of the many.
  40. Wealth built upon a base of poverty is like a skyscraper without adequate foundations.
  41. The freedom of the market is the flexibility to manipulate.
  42. The gated, guarded and walled compounds of the rich are symbols of enforced injustice, the few who are chosen by Mammon and not by God!
  43. The poor who celebrate are richer than the affluent who don’t.
  44. What use is gold in the ceiling, gold in the heavens if there is no gold in the heart.
  45. Outside the walled cities of the rich dwell the poor and the marginalized where Christ dies again and again.
  46. Religion that claims to have nothing to do with economics becomes the agent of those very same economic policies.
  47. Economics can easily be corrupted to become the deification of human greed.
  48. When the wealth of the few replaces the welfare of the many economics becomes the enemy of the people.
  49. The miracle of the free market is its ability to disguise a Count Dracula as a Father Christmas.
  50. Dreaming of a better world can be little more than a debilitating illusion unless it is fortified with analysis of society’s unjust mechanisms and a willingness to participate in their replacement.
  51. To choose love is to choose sacrifice, to choose to stand up and be counted whatever the cost.
  52. Freedom of speech only occurs when people are free to listen.
  53. While anger suppressed can be destructive of our spirit anger informed and channeled can motivate us to work for justice and peace.
  54. It has been said that the one thing that we can learn from history is that we never learn from history. Certainly this is true of the mistaken belief that the contemporary rich will not abuse the power that wealth gives them in the way that most of the rich have repeatedly abused the poor in the past.
PRAYERS
God of liberation, whose will it is that the poor should be raised up, the captives freed and the impoverished nourished, help us to work with you for the nurturing of all the life of earth.
O God of both the fire and the stillness, enable us through the transforming power of your love, to lay to rest the anger that springs from hurt and fear. Direct our inner fire towards transforming the world in ways which are not destructive of other human beings or of the rest of nature.
O God, to whom all injustice is repugnant, help us to identify and transform the many ways in which we and our society deliberately or unwittingly oppress others. This we pray in the spirit of Jesus, the liberator.
O God who delights in the song of the human spirit, help us with courage and joy to sing your song of justice, justice for the people, justice for plants and creatures, justice for the Earth.
HYMNS
Deep in the human heart. (BL)
When the picture haunts my mind. (BL)
Aid will never save the world. (BL)
The meek shall inherit the Earth. (BL)
Holy Spirit as you speak. (BL)
Most noble of creatures on Earth. (BL)
Spirit’s golden fire. (BL)
Who maims life today? (BL)
The dough is rising. (BL)
What can we learn from war? (BL)
Within the shadows of our thinking. (BL)
Our hands O God. (BL)
We thank you God for history’s tales. (BL)
My desire for you my friend. (BL)
My spirit shall rejoice (a paraphrase of the Magnificat). (BL)
Repaying force with counter force. (BL)
The first are losers.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
I saw the gardener dancing.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
The Way of God.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
In the fields where rice is planted.
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
Help us, O Christ. (Peace Prayer)
www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife
One justice for land and people.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
What does our God require of us?
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
God of forgiveness.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Choose life.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
God gives the song.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
When the wall is broken.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Christmas is a mother.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
Wild wind of the holy spirit.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
May we all live as grains of rice.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
How can the people’s cries? (STS1)
Wealth and poverty. (STS1)
Many people die in anguish. (STS1)
Give joyful praise and honor. (STS1)
We call the wealthy rich. (STS2)
O Lazarus don’t beg beside my door. (STS2)
If my heart grows icy cold. (STS2)
Singing the Sacred Vol 1 2011, Vol 2 2014 World Library Publications
Sound a mystic bamboo song. (“Global Praise 2” The General Board of Global Ministries)
TEENS’ SONGS
How can the time of peace? (SYSJ)
There are times. (SYSJ)
Enough is enough.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling
SUNG RESPONSE
I don’t want your pity. (SYSJ)
POEMS / REFLECTIONS
REFLECTION ON THE PROPHETS
The prophets always seem to be ahead of the times, but that is only because most of us are unaware of the beginnings of a process and only notice it when it has gathered some momentum.
The prophets will always threaten us if we live in a static thought world. If we do live this way then our reaction to change will always be one of fear. It is fear of the future, fear of loss of our controlling position in society which leads us to stone the prophets in one way or another.
The prophets do not predict what will happen, come what may, they lay out the options and the consequences of our choices.
THE TOURIST
When you have had a second awakening,
rivaling the awakening of adolescent sexuality,
an awakening to Earth’s injustices,
you can never again become
a mere tourist
but always behind the pretty places
and pretty faces have to ask
‘who owns what?’
‘who controls whom?’ –
for poverty and riches
are no accident
but arise out of economic design,
greed and the brainwashing
of the people
THE PEOPLE TALKED
The people talked and the rain still fell,
The people talked and the leaves turned to gold,
The people talked and the poor still starved,
The people talked and the earth lay raped,
The resolutions reflected the people’s mind
But where was the people’s heart?
FEED THE POOR
“Feed the poor,
Aid the victims
But don’t ask questions”,
The rulers said.
“Don’t ask how they became poor,
Who benefits from their poverty
Or how the rich/poor gap widens.
“Remember”, the rulers said
“The economists are right!”
“The economists are right?” I said
“Right out!
Right out of their hearts!
Right out of their gut!
Right out of their minds;
For their minds have become
Disembodied,
Disemboweled,
And there is no connectedness,
No wholeness.”
Outside and inside of the Church
The Babel tower of the Market-Place
Is worshipped in the new temple
With the God-like face ‑
The temple of simplistic ideology
And economic fundamentalism ‑
The temple which offers the illusion
That the poor are the problem
Not the rich
“My God my God
Why have you forsaken me!”
Cry the poor
And God replies
“I have not forsaken you;
With you I hang on a cross
Made by politicians, economists
And multi-national executives
For at the moment
the devil
has two right wings.”
MIDDLE CLASS AFFLUENCE
Living in middle class affluence
It is easy to be oblivious
Of the forces that control
National and international
Economic systems.
Freed from the threat of perpetual poverty
And the daily struggle to preserve life
We can imagine that matters of social correctness
Are the central issues for morality.
But if we, ever so briefly,
Shared the lot of the poor
We would have a totally different perspective
On the world’s free market economic system
And discern how it benefits the rich
Who continue to exploit the poor.
Then perhaps we would see that robbery
Dressed up as altruism
Is still robbery!
FREE MARKET BEATITUDES
Blessed are those who are poor for they belong to the majority of the world’s population, and it is the will of the market that they remain so.
Blessed are those who mourn because they do not have enough;
they are the life blood of capitalism.
Blessed are those who know their place in life;
oppressors will rejoice in their attitude.
Blessed are those whose greatest desire is to succeed;
they will cease to be aware of all the people they trample on.
Blessed are those who treat all others as competitors;
they will be freed from the notion that all people are of equal value.
Blessed are those who see the free market as the only way;
they already know that personal riches are more important than community services and that Earth exists solely for the benefit of human beings.
Blessed are those who only concentrate on inner peace;
they will become oblivious to the injustices in the world.
Blessed are those who are condemned by the Prophets for their wealth;
they will pay no attention since they are convinced that life’s greatest reward is their bank balance.
A JUSTICE CELEBRATION
Let us celebrate the martyrs and
The prophets
All who have taken sides with the poor,
All who have been ostracized and marginalized,
Those who were fearless in their analysis
Of what was really happening,
Those who marched to a different drum
Than that played by the rich and the powerful,
All who gave their lives for the people’s cause.
FOCUS FOR ACTION
What would be the reaction of the Hebrew Prophets, especially Amos and Micah, to the satirical description in the Free Market Beatitudes of the destructive effects of extreme neo-capitalism? How does it fit in with the declaration of Jesus that it does not profit a person at all if he/she gains the whole world but loses their own soul?
It has sometimes been said that since the church operates under grace there is no issue of power and control in the church. However, whenever two or more people meet there is either power sharing or domination by one over the other, even though the method of domination may be ever so ‘peaceful’ and subtle. In what ways is power being used constructively and destructively within my congregation and denomination? How can I become a more effective agent of change?
What changes could we make to our political ideologies which would reduce the rich/poor gap? (Note: poverty forces the poor to cut down forests to meet their basic needs and encourages the rich to consume much more than their fair share of the world’s resources, especially resources situated in poorer nations).
What is your reaction to these words from St Augustine: “The person who possesses a surplus possesses the goods of another?”
Religion has often been used to legitimize violence and injustice e.g. claiming God is on our side in a war, or supporting governments which disadvantage the poor. It has also been used to divert the attention of the poor from grappling with the causes of their plight by promoting fatalistic ideologies which claim that what is happening is the will of God, or by focusing exclusively on other worldly spirituality. Can you think of examples of how religion is still being used in this manner?

LOGO NOTE: At the heart of the mystery all the separate boxes disappear and all is one, all is love.
Text and graphic © William Livingstone Wallace but available for free use.

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Let Justice Flow Down
For half the world’s population who have to live on less than £1 a day
All: Let justice flow down like a river

Let Justice Flow Down by Roger Courtney
For half the world’s population who have to live on less than £1 a day
All: Let justice flow down like a river
For all those suffering from malnutrition and treatable diseases
All: Let justice flow down like a river
For all those who experience discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, role, religion, beliefs, disability or sexuality.
All: Let justice flow down like a river
For all those who sleep rough; and those who have nowhere they can call home.
All: Let justice flow down like a river
For all those who have experienced physical, mental or emotional abuse, or domestic violence.
All: Let justice flow down like a river
For all those who are unemployed, or in employment that is dehumanising or degrading.
All: Let justice flow down like a river
For all those who are denied their basic human rights by military dictatorship or oppression.
All: Let justice flow down like a river
Justice is the currency of love in society.
All: Let us be instruments of justice in the world.
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Events and Updates
Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization
“Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization” focuses on big ideas for a thriving ecosphere and will feature up to 1,000 presenters over 80 areas of specialty.

Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization

“Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization” focuses on big ideas for a thriving ecosphere and will feature up to 1,000 presenters over 80 areas of specialty.
Plenary speakers include Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva, Sheri Liao, Wes Jackson, Herman Daly, and John B. Cobb, Jr.
The conference is organized around the idea that there is an alternative to modern industrial life, and that in order to avoid catastrophic conditions we must seize an alternative way of thinking and living. That “alternative” is an ecological worldview.
Four-Day Conference
Choose any one of twelve general Sections to attend, then select one specific Track offered within that Section. You are encouraged to stay with the Track throughout the conference, as you and other Track participants will form a working group. Each day of the conference opens and closes with a Plenary. For a complete list of the Sections and Tracks, click below.
Cost: $300 for full conference access (early registration price through May 15, $400 thereafter).
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Saturday Package
The Saturday Package offers the opportunity to sample conference events and opens with a 9:00 a.m. Plenary. Afterwards, you may attend one session per time slot: 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. There are breaks for lunch, dinner and networking. The day concludes with a 7:00 p.m. Plenary. For a list of the Saturday session choices and an overview of the day’s events, click below.
Cost: $29 for Saturday Package access.
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