Weekly Recap for Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - ProgressiveChristianity.org of Gig Harbor, Washington, United StatesFree Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week.
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We delved into the topics of The Reason for Christmas, Faith, Man vs Earth and Worship.
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All I Want for Christmas Is an AK-47
John Bennison
"When the Reason for the Season Goes Missing"The morning news cycle yesterday made passing reference that — among the brisk Black Friday holiday shopping spree sales last week — Americans snatched up more guns for gifts than in any previous year. Only a few hours later, news broke of another mass shooting spree, this time in San Bernardino.
The media predictably descended on that community, just a few miles from where my daughter, her husband and our 2-year old granddaughter live. Camera crews were close on the heels of swat teams in armored vehicles; with scenes that bore the resemblance to embedded reporters accompanying boots on the ground in foreign lands. Except this was the Inland Empire in Southern California.
Immediately the same questions and futile search for answers emerged, and all the worn and weary arguments about gun control waited in the wings to make their various, detached pitches for background checks, better mental health screening procedures, the ineffectiveness of terror watch lists, or second amendment rights of the 37% of all Americans who own and love their guns.
But regardless of whatever facts emerge in the aftermath of what has happened once again, people are already puzzled and perplexed in the vain search for explanations. This was no lone, crazed gunman. This was an American couple in their twenties, who left behind a six-month old child who is now an now orphan. According to first reports from baffled family members and friends, no one saw this coming. And as we all know, if you can’t see it coming – even if you yourself are armed to the teeth — how can you dodge a bullet?
But the plain truth is that’s the wrong question, based on a false assumption and illusory myth. Good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns. Except, in the vast majority of cases, only after the damage is done. In classic terms, it is once again the violent response to the myth of redemptive violence. On our behalf, law enforcement becomes entangled in a tragic pas de deux with the perpetrator.
With every perpetrator, there is one common denominator. We usually don’t know why they did it, at least initially. But we always do know how they did it. And we can say that for whatever reason they did what they did, it was an act intended to express something. Whether that something was to advance a cause or redress a grievance, it was intentional. And, in this case, the means used to express that something in such a lethal way was with legally acquired weapons that provided the means to commit those violent acts. Whether or not this scenario fits our predisposed opinions, those are simple, plain and undeniable facts. But lest the reader think this is just another editorial debate ….
This is the season Christian faith communities of every sort prepare in one way or another to observe the nativity of something deemed to be holy and salvific. We recall ancient prophecies that foretell a “prince of peace, and wonderful counselor” comes around each year with a message to save us from ourselves. (Isaiah 9:6)
Once born into a world of violence and terror not unlike our own, the message remains unchanged. Regrettably, so too has been the obstinate ways in which we have collectively refused to live with one another in response to that message.
We recall ancient prophecies that foretell a “prince of peace, and wonderful counselor” comes around each year with a message to save us from ourselves. Once born into a world of violence and terror not unlike our own, the message remains unchanged.
And while we seem to remain deaf to what is obvious, that message is not simply for the few individuals who – for whatever reason – are unable to hear that message. It is for every law-abiding gun-totin’ citizen; as well as the two-thirds majority of our citizenry who do not possess a firearm. It’s not about the few that can’t hear or won’t listen. It’s about the rest of us who can.
It was just over two years ago that a place called Sandy Hook Elementary School dominated the news cycle for a period of time [see “We Love Our Guns More”]. And there have been a numbing number of similar mass shootings since, in what we proudly call the “land of the free.”
At a recent charity event at a shooting range near Atlanta, Georgia, kids got to pose with Santa and an AK-47.
But we are hardly free from the self-inflicted violence that is a plague on all our houses. As a society and a nation, we worry and wage war on terrorism abroad, while remaining intransigent to the kind of terror we blindly and willfully inflict upon ourselves. Time and again we shoot ourselves in the foot with the weapons we hold in our hands.
I have long thought the lack of any reasonable restrictions we have when it comes to guns is rooted in their obvious appeal; leading to their preponderance in staggering numbers in a culture that allows utter unreasonableness to pose under the guise of individual rights.
At the same time, I’m convinced we will not simply legislate our way out of this morass of violence through reasonable debate, a half-baked compromise, or a better argument. We live under a fundamental fallacy that violence is an acceptable response. It is a false myth, perpetuated by current social standards and norms. It is only exaggerated by those who uncontrollably and unpredictably fall off the grid of what poses as normalcy.
Yet the totally impractical, unrealistic and prophetic message of Christmas remains undeterred; with a nagging question that comes around every year, as we prepare for this holiday in the midst of carnage and chaos. We have erred so long on the side of doing nothing, might it not be time to err instead on the side of doing something, regardless of its possible ineffectiveness?
When my spouse asked the other day what I wanted for Christmas, I replied I already had everything I needed. I’ve since changed my mind. I want an AK-47, dismantled and rendered inoperable. I don’t care if such a gesture will only be an insignificant and inconsequential drop in the bucket of unprecedented U.S. arms sales this holiday season.
As I recollect it, the reason for the season began with a voice crying in the wilderness; a place where we seem to still remain. But the echo of that voice still remains as well. It is something like, “Prepare the way of the one would be the lord of life.” (Isaiah 40:3)
As I recollect it, the reason for the season began with a voice crying in the wilderness; a place where we seem to still remain. But the echo of that voice still remains as well.
© 2015 by John William Bennison, Rel.D. All rights reserved.
This article should only be used or reproduced with proper credit.
To read more commentaries by John Bennison from the perspective of a Christian progressive go to
http://wordsnways.com
http://thechristianprogressive.comREAD ON ...
Can you explain faith in the way Jesus spoke about it?
Eckhart Tolle
When you see the power of life within you and can fully be who you are in your essence, explains Eckhart, that is faith in action.
When you see the power of life within you and can fully be who you are in your essence, explains eckhart, that is faith in action.
Eckhart is a spiritual teacher and author who was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of 29, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada. Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.
Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violence on our planet.READ ON ...
Man vs Earth
"When the Reason for the Season Goes Missing"The morning news cycle yesterday made passing reference that — among the brisk Black Friday holiday shopping spree sales last week — Americans snatched up more guns for gifts than in any previous year. Only a few hours later, news broke of another mass shooting spree, this time in San Bernardino.
The media predictably descended on that community, just a few miles from where my daughter, her husband and our 2-year old granddaughter live. Camera crews were close on the heels of swat teams in armored vehicles; with scenes that bore the resemblance to embedded reporters accompanying boots on the ground in foreign lands. Except this was the Inland Empire in Southern California.
Immediately the same questions and futile search for answers emerged, and all the worn and weary arguments about gun control waited in the wings to make their various, detached pitches for background checks, better mental health screening procedures, the ineffectiveness of terror watch lists, or second amendment rights of the 37% of all Americans who own and love their guns.
But regardless of whatever facts emerge in the aftermath of what has happened once again, people are already puzzled and perplexed in the vain search for explanations. This was no lone, crazed gunman. This was an American couple in their twenties, who left behind a six-month old child who is now an now orphan. According to first reports from baffled family members and friends, no one saw this coming. And as we all know, if you can’t see it coming – even if you yourself are armed to the teeth — how can you dodge a bullet?
But the plain truth is that’s the wrong question, based on a false assumption and illusory myth. Good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns. Except, in the vast majority of cases, only after the damage is done. In classic terms, it is once again the violent response to the myth of redemptive violence. On our behalf, law enforcement becomes entangled in a tragic pas de deux with the perpetrator.
With every perpetrator, there is one common denominator. We usually don’t know why they did it, at least initially. But we always do know how they did it. And we can say that for whatever reason they did what they did, it was an act intended to express something. Whether that something was to advance a cause or redress a grievance, it was intentional. And, in this case, the means used to express that something in such a lethal way was with legally acquired weapons that provided the means to commit those violent acts. Whether or not this scenario fits our predisposed opinions, those are simple, plain and undeniable facts. But lest the reader think this is just another editorial debate ….
This is the season Christian faith communities of every sort prepare in one way or another to observe the nativity of something deemed to be holy and salvific. We recall ancient prophecies that foretell a “prince of peace, and wonderful counselor” comes around each year with a message to save us from ourselves. (Isaiah 9:6)
Once born into a world of violence and terror not unlike our own, the message remains unchanged. Regrettably, so too has been the obstinate ways in which we have collectively refused to live with one another in response to that message.
We recall ancient prophecies that foretell a “prince of peace, and wonderful counselor” comes around each year with a message to save us from ourselves. Once born into a world of violence and terror not unlike our own, the message remains unchanged.
And while we seem to remain deaf to what is obvious, that message is not simply for the few individuals who – for whatever reason – are unable to hear that message. It is for every law-abiding gun-totin’ citizen; as well as the two-thirds majority of our citizenry who do not possess a firearm. It’s not about the few that can’t hear or won’t listen. It’s about the rest of us who can.
It was just over two years ago that a place called Sandy Hook Elementary School dominated the news cycle for a period of time [see “We Love Our Guns More”]. And there have been a numbing number of similar mass shootings since, in what we proudly call the “land of the free.”
At a recent charity event at a shooting range near Atlanta, Georgia, kids got to pose with Santa and an AK-47.
But we are hardly free from the self-inflicted violence that is a plague on all our houses. As a society and a nation, we worry and wage war on terrorism abroad, while remaining intransigent to the kind of terror we blindly and willfully inflict upon ourselves. Time and again we shoot ourselves in the foot with the weapons we hold in our hands.
I have long thought the lack of any reasonable restrictions we have when it comes to guns is rooted in their obvious appeal; leading to their preponderance in staggering numbers in a culture that allows utter unreasonableness to pose under the guise of individual rights.
At the same time, I’m convinced we will not simply legislate our way out of this morass of violence through reasonable debate, a half-baked compromise, or a better argument. We live under a fundamental fallacy that violence is an acceptable response. It is a false myth, perpetuated by current social standards and norms. It is only exaggerated by those who uncontrollably and unpredictably fall off the grid of what poses as normalcy.
Yet the totally impractical, unrealistic and prophetic message of Christmas remains undeterred; with a nagging question that comes around every year, as we prepare for this holiday in the midst of carnage and chaos. We have erred so long on the side of doing nothing, might it not be time to err instead on the side of doing something, regardless of its possible ineffectiveness?
When my spouse asked the other day what I wanted for Christmas, I replied I already had everything I needed. I’ve since changed my mind. I want an AK-47, dismantled and rendered inoperable. I don’t care if such a gesture will only be an insignificant and inconsequential drop in the bucket of unprecedented U.S. arms sales this holiday season.
As I recollect it, the reason for the season began with a voice crying in the wilderness; a place where we seem to still remain. But the echo of that voice still remains as well. It is something like, “Prepare the way of the one would be the lord of life.” (Isaiah 40:3)
As I recollect it, the reason for the season began with a voice crying in the wilderness; a place where we seem to still remain. But the echo of that voice still remains as well.
© 2015 by John William Bennison, Rel.D. All rights reserved.
This article should only be used or reproduced with proper credit.
To read more commentaries by John Bennison from the perspective of a Christian progressive go to
http://wordsnways.com
http://thechristianprogressive.comREAD ON ...
Can you explain faith in the way Jesus spoke about it?
Eckhart Tolle
When you see the power of life within you and can fully be who you are in your essence, explains Eckhart, that is faith in action.
Eckhart is a spiritual teacher and author who was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of 29, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada. Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.
Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violence on our planet.READ ON ...
Man vs Earth
Prince Ea
Are these the final seconds of mankind?Are these the final seconds of mankind?
Prince Ea – Richard Williams, better known by his stage name Prince EA, is an American rapper, spoken word artist, music video director and rights activist from St Louis, Missouri. His goal for this channel is to make people laugh, cry, think, and love with the ultimate goal to evolve.
Are these the final seconds of mankind?Are these the final seconds of mankind?
READ ON ...
Weekly Liturgy
Weekly Liturgy
Week of: November 29th, 2015
Worship
Worship is a ‘receipt’ given to God in return for the divine gifts of life which we receive….
Worship is a ‘receipt’ given to God in return for the divine gifts of life which we receive…. It is an artful response to our awe and wonderment at the miracle of creation which surrounds us….. It is creative inspiration to live out the law of love in our church community and wider world. Worship centers us, grounds us, and uplifts us, reminding us of who we really are and of what we are called to become. Through it we can prayerfully share truth as God reveals it to us in our emotions and intentions. From “A Guide to Worship at College Heights Church” by Jim Burklo
A Guide to Worship at College Heights Church
Written January 2002 by Jim Burklo
Worship is a ‘receipt’ given to God in return for the divine gifts of life which we receive…. It is an artful response to our awe and wonderment at the miracle of creation which surrounds us….. It is creative inspiration to live out the law of love in our church community and wider world. Worship centers us, grounds us, and uplifts us, reminding us of who we really are and of what we are called to become. Through it we can prayerfully share truth as God reveals it to us in our emotions and intentions.
Our church employs the rich traditions of Christian liturgy (a Latin word meaning “work”—the holy effort of worship). We recognize that ours is but one of many valid and helpful languages of prayer and praise, so we aim to use our Christian symbols and rituals in ways that are as respectful as possible toward the religious heritages of others. To remind ourselves of the infinite number of ways that God can be named and glorified, we occasionally use liturgical elements from religions other than Christianity, such as chants or readings. We are a congregation of the United Church of Christ, which is part of the Reformed Protestant heritage, and this history influences the shape of our worship. At the same time, we are a church that from its beginning about 40 years ago has had a unique calling to do worship in fresh and original ways that have inspired other churches. College Heights’ worship is shaped by a monthly gathering called “Worship and Arts”, at which we plan our upcoming services. (Any member or friend of the church is welcome to attend this meeting.) This guide reflects our usual form of worship as it happens today – but this can and will change as the Spirit moves us to worship in ever-changing ways.
The Sanctuary: Our Place to Worship
Our sanctuary was built in 1965. It was intended for use as our social hall, with a sanctuary to be built later at the site where the condominiums are now located next door. (That parcel was sold later to pay off the remaining debt on our property.) The building was remodeled and repainted in 2001.
Our ‘sanctuary’ is just that – a safe and sacred place. It is an environment that is set apart for worship, but also is set apart for living out the good news of the gospel, even if that means standing against the “powers and principalities” (Ephesians 6: 12) of the world. This is a place that we sincerely believe to be under an authority higher than that of governments or other social forces, for purposes that transcend even those of our church as an organization. We are committed to protecting this space for the work of advancing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and for protecting human life and dignity, at all costs.
On the wall of the church you will see a cross made of tree branches. The cross is a powerful focus for worship in most Christian churches. Some churches, particularly Catholic parishes, have crucifixes with images of Jesus on them, focusing on his sacrificial death. Others, mostly Protestant churches like our own, show an empty cross, emphasizing the resurrection. Either way, the cross is much more than a decoration. It is a profound statement of faith that can be understood and interpreted at many levels. The cross was intended by the Romans as a symbol of state power – a reminder of the terrible death that would come to anyone who defied it. Jesus, and the early Christians, turned that meaning inside out and upside down. For the early church, the cross was transformed into the sign of salvation, of the victory of life over death. It demonstrated the weakness of the Roman Empire and the strength of the Kingdom of Heaven. Think of all the ways that nations today try to frighten or threaten their citizens, or other nations, into obedience. The cross reminds us that there is a higher power than the state – a divine power that calls us to civil disobedience against this kind of brutality and war-mongering.
Suggestion: A Meditation on the Cross
In Numbers 21:9, Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole in order for the people of Israel to gaze on it and be cured of snake bites. Jesus said in John 3:14 “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up… ” The snake on the pole (reminiscent of the caducous, the snakes on the pole that form an ancient symbol of medicine) was an example of homeopathy, an ancient form of medicine that exists today. Homeopathy is the idea that a dose of that which ails you is the cure -vaccination might be thought of as a homeopathic remedy. A dose of the snake – a confrontation with its image – was the cure for the bite of the snake in the biblical legend. Likewise, Jesus suggested that a dose of evil and death – delivered by gazing at the cross – was the cure for the human condition of suffering. It is a paradox, but despite its seeming contradiction, it works! Healing and reconciliation begin with an honest, direct encounter with pain and its sources. But so much of the time, we avoid pay ing real attention to this pain. Instead, we buy into the culture around us, which tells us that pain is to be avoided, masked, drugged, denied. We buy into the culture around us that tells us that life is about bigger and better things – the upward trail of progress. Meanwhile, the cross tells us something completely different: that human life is about loving each other through the inevitable suffering that is our human condition.
Gaze at the cross on the wall of the church, and focus on its center – the place of the heart of the suffering Christ. Notice your own sufferings as well as the sufferings of others around you and of people in the -wider world Name them -pain, unfulfilled desire, existential emptiness, frustrated ambition, anger, resentment, fear – oppression, poverty, pestilence, war — as you gaze squarely at the intersecting point of the cross. This is your reality, and the reality of the human race of which you are apart. This is the reality of the crucified Christ. You are not alone. Jesus suffered with you. The Christ – the human encounter with God- is fully and compassionately present in every pang of misery that you and other human beings experience.
When you are fully conscious of the true extent of your suffering and that of others, pull back your gaze and notice the cross as a -whole. Its arms point out in the four directions. It is empty – the Christ has risen. There is life on the other side of suffering and even death This, too, is the human condition – to go through suffering, and to find an eternal kind of life beyond it. Receive that life now as you gaze at the empty cross…..
Art and Photography at College Heights
As Madeleine L’Engle in her book Walking on Water, puts it: “If I cannot see evidence of incarnation in a painting of a bridge in the rain by Hokusai, a book by Chaim Potok or Isaac Bashevis Singer, in music by Bloch or Bernstein, then I will miss its significance in an Annunciation by Franciabigio, the final chorus of the St. Matthew Passion, the words of a sermon by John Donne.” (p 450) Art is not Christian because the person who made it is a Christian, or because the artist intended it to depict a Christian subject. The connection between Christianity and art is in the eye of the beholder: a person who sees the world through the lens of the gospel will find signs of the Christ in all kinds of creativity, whether or not this was the conscious intention of the artist.
It is in this spirit that the walls of our church are graced with paintings, drawings, and photographs, in an ever-changing display. The displays are a worshipful celebration of the divine gift of vision and skillful creativity. Much of the art on the walls is the product of our creative members and friends. Some displays make an obvious statement about matters spiritual, while others require the exercise of prayerful imagination. Some of the art is for sale (the church is given 20% of the proceeds of such sales): look in the entryway for further information about the displays.
The Eucharist: Focus of Worship
Worship at College Heights is centered in our monthly celebration of Eucharist. The Eucharist (a Greek word meaning “good gift”), or ‘communion’ or ‘Lord’s Supper’, is the ritual of sharing bread and wine. From the very earliest days of the church, it has been the focus of Christian worship. It recalls the moment (Mark 14: 22-25) when Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples before his death. Some churches (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and others) celebrate the Eucharist every week, but most Reformed Protestant churches, including ours, perform it monthly (in our case, on the first Sunday of every month). We also offer the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday evening as part of our remembrance of the Passover meal of Jesus and his disciples during Passion (Easter) Week, and on Easter Sunday morning, remembering the resurrection story in which Jesus reappeared to his disciples when he broke bread with them (Luke 24: 13-34). Usually we celebrate Eucharist at the end of our worship, in our closing circle around the altar. We wait till all are served with bread and then eat it together, and we wait till all have been served the wine or water in little cups before drinking together (except for those who choose to come forward to drink from the common cup of wine or of milk and honey, which represents the milk and honey of the Promised Land of Israel and the promised Kingdom of Heaven). The Eucharist has as many meanings as there are members of our church – and more! It is a physical expression of the spiritual reality that we need each other, and we need God, as much as we need food and drink, in order to survive, body and soul. For some of us, the bread and wine are the body and blood of Jesus, offered up to God as a sacrifice to cleanse us of our sins. For others, the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine are a breaking open and pouring out of the love that is God, through the Christ who dwells in each of us. For others the ritual is simply a moment of deep bonding and sharing with the other members of our community. As we share the bread and the wine, so we also share the many different meanings that the Eucharist has for us
All people – young and old, traditional believers and friendly skeptics, baptized and unbaptized – are welcome to share in the Eucharist at our church. But if for any reason you do not wish to take the elements (the bread and wine), you need not be embarrassed to refuse them as they are distributed – we will commune with you simply by being present with you in the circle!
Our communion table is the visual and physical focus of all our worship services, reminding us always that the Eucharist is the central moment of our worship life. It was built especially for our church as a memorial to Bill Kelley, an early member of our church. We also call it our “altaf*.
The earthenware goblets and plates used in our Eucharist were made by our member, Susie Stone. The bread used in the service is often made by members. We follow an ancient tradition of the church by offering the leftover bread to our children after worship. What they don’t consume, adults are welcome to enjoy during the “coffee hour”!
Suggestion: A Way to Celebrate Eucharist
So much of the time, we eat and drink mindlessly – -we don’t pay that much attention to how it tastes or feels. We don’t spend much time savoring it -focussing our attention on the food itself, rather than on conversation or on other things that are on our minds. The communion ritual offers a chance to mindfully eat bread and drink wine. One meditation to employ awing the ritual is to pay attention to everything about the bread- its texture, flavor, sweetness or sourness, yeastiness, saltiness. Then pay attention to the wine. We don’t use fancy wine for our communion ritual, but the cheap -wine of today is still vastly better in flavor to the rotgut beverage that people drank in the first century! (There was no clean drinking water, so almost everyone drank bad wine every day – the alcohol in it killed the microorganisms that were otherwise present in the public water supplies.) So savor the flavor, the aroma, and the consistency of the cheap but good communion wine, paying real attention to the experience at every level of your senses. And meditate for a moment on the work of the people who made the bread (often our own members) and the wine. Then, as the chants are sung and the little glasses are collected back into the trays, pay attention to the human beings that surround you in the circle. Savor their presence: notice the beauty in each of them, all ages, all sizes, all shapes, all ways of living and being — open your heart to them. Commune with them with as much attention and intention as you put into communing with the bread and wine. Then, as the chants continue, imagine the millions of human beings who have eaten the bread and wine with attention and intention over the past 2,000 years of Christianity. Imagine that vast community of faith being culminated in this very moment. Imagine that you have eaten bread and drunk wine not just for yourself, but for all of those who have gone before, and for all who will come after you.
The Communion Table: Preparing the Altar
The appearance of the Eucharist table at College Heights changes from week to week, and the position of it moves with the seasons, as well. In the rainy season, the congregation faces northeast, and in the dry season, it aims southwest, so that we can enjoy the play of light shining into the sanctuary. The decoration of the altar by members who sign up to do so is a form of worship in itself… a loving offering of beauty to God, a creation which will be seen today and gone tomorrow. The altar itself reminds us of the transitory nature of our physical existence, the temporality of our gifts and our achievements. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount to “consider the lilies” in the grass of the field which “is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in tile oven”. “Even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” (Matthew 6: 25-33) Everything we achieve and produce will wither and fade, just as the flowers and other altar decorations grace our lives for only a short time. Our lives are like decorating an altar for an hour on Sunday – an opportunity to worship God with the care and creativity and intentionality we can bring to every big and little task that we do, accepting its fleeting nature. Some of us decorate the altar with a beautiful stark simplicity, others with flair and drama, others with nothing but items from nature, celebrating God’s creativity. The altar celebrates God’s creativity in giving each of us a unique way of expressing ourselves.
The altar is placed near the walls but far enough away from it that we can gather around it during our closing circle. But at Christmas and Easter, we place it in the middle of the sanctuary, to set apart these special moments in our liturgical calendar.
Suggestion: The Altar
To prepare for worship, and to prepare for volunteering to decorate our altar, take care each evening to decorate your dinner table -with flowers, objects, cloths, candles, or anything else that is meaningful to you and your family. Take the time and trouble to do this, changing it daily or periodically. And when you remove the table decorations, do it •with as much loving attention as you took in placing them, meditating on the transitory nature of all beauty and creativity.
The Order of Our Worship
The service begins with the ringing of the bell that hangs in one comer of the sanctuary. This bell is a brass artillery shell salvaged from a junkyard. It reminds us of the hopeful promise in Isaiah 2: 4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Christian faith is a bold assertion that death shall not have the final word. The bell awakens us to the presence of God and invites us to hear and see and share the Gospel once again.
After the opening bell, we share news of the church, greet each other, and sign in on the clipboards. If you would like to get our monthly newsletter by email or snail mail, put your address on the clipboard. You can also jot comments or even draw pictures on the clipboard sheet, in addition to signing your name. (Some of these doodlings wind up becoming the art on the covers of our worship bulletins! If you have some art you’d like to have used for this purpose, or have an inspirational quote for the back of the bulletin, feel free to propose them to the minister.) Signing your name helps all of us to learn and remember each other’s names as the clipboard goes around, and is very helpful to the minister in getting to know people in the church.
After another sounding of the bell, we listen to an offering of music – usually instrumental. Then comes a call to worship – a poem or a short line from the Bible -followed by the first hymn. We use an eclectic mix of hymns and songs in worship, ranging from folk to jazz to traditional Protestant church hymns. The black book. The New Century Hymnal, is used by many United Church of Christ congregations nationwide. Some of its hymns are old standards which have been slightly (and sometimes extremely!) modified to reflect the evolution of our values away from sexism and away from religious chauvinism. It also includes more modem hymns from many different musical traditions worldwide. We have our own home-made songbook as well, which contains some hymns written by our own members, and also a book of chants which we often use in worship. And we sometimes use the little green Catholic folk-mass hymnal. Exult.
The hymn is followed by prayer. Prayer is introduced with a time when anyone in the congregation can share a name or a concern or celebration upon which we can focus in the time of silence. The Tibetan bowl is struck three times to begin silent prayer and meditation. After a while of silence, the chant begins – a short piece of music which we repeat meditatively. Our congregation has learned at least 60 chants – a very important and continually developing part of our worship tradition. Several – such as the Pilgrim Chant and the Awakening Chant by Jim Garrison – were written by members of our congregation. Silent prayer and meditation is a very important part of the life of our church, and of the lives of many of our members. For a look at our church’s Guide to Meditation and Prayer, have a look at the brochure on the entry table, or read it online at www.openchristianity.com.
Suggestion: How to Pray
Some Christians have a supernatural conception of prayer – that it is communication with an all-powerful being that literally hears our verbal prayers or literally reads out minds when we think a prayer. Others, including a lot of us at College Heights, look at it differently: as a discipline of direct connection with God. One form this can take is the following meditation:
During the time of silence, and through the time of chanting, pay attention to your thoughts and feelings – both mental and physical. What is going on in you, body and soul? What are you thinking about? What are you sensing within and around you? After a while of observing yourself, you may notice that you take on the role of the observer rather than that of the observed. This inner observer of yourself is God. Continue to lovingly observe yourself and the environment and people around you. If you have a judgment about yourself or others around you, observe it – but release your identification with it. Notice your attachments and your desires, your sentiments and your resentments, but identify with the One who lovingly observes them, rather than just with the one who is wallowing in them. Focus this love and acceptance on others, as well – notice your intentions toward other people. What can you be or do for them? How can you translate your best wishes for others into concrete actions that can be helpful to them?
As the chant continues, any and all are welcome to come forward to the altar to light candles as a way of focusing attention and intention in prayer. It is also a time for those who wish to come forward for anointing with oil on their foreheads with the sign of the cross, as a way of amplifying intention on the healing of body or soul. Anointing with oil is a very old Christian tradition, and it is a physical way of experiencing the Christ (the word “christos” in Greek means “the anointed one” – the early kings of Israel were ‘crowned’ by having their heads anointed with oil). We rub the oil, or “chrism” as the Catholics call it, on the forehead just above the line of the eyebrow – in many world religious traditions this spot is considered the location of the “third eye” of insight. Quite apart from any esoteric understanding of this spot, most people love it when they get massaged on the forehead between the eyes – especially with a dab of soothing olive oil! The early Christians anointed the sick with oil (James 5: 14), and this ritual became one of the sacraments of the Catholic tradition. All the oil used in this ritual has been blessed in a special ritual in worship at College Heights, infusing it with the intentions of the whole congregation for the purpose of being a means of healing and wholeness.
Suggestion: Anointing
If you wish to be anointed, come forward and receive the anointing with oil on your forehead. Relax your face, your head, your neck, and your whole body as you receive the massage in the sign of the cross. Remember that you have a body, and remember that it is a divine temple — a dwelling place for a soul that is of the same essence and substance as God. Remember that you want and need to be whole – complete, in body and soul. Remember that you not only want to be healthy and whole, but you deserve it as much as any other human being. Pay attention to the part of you that needs healing – a body part, a place in your soul. Consciously and clearly focus your attention on your desire to be complete and whole, to be relieved of suffering, and to find spiritual peace in the midst of suffering. Ask for healing and wholeness, with your heart open to the many forms that this healing might take. For some, it might mean full restoration of the body or soul. For others, it might mean finding peace and fulfillment in the course of an incurable condition.
The Word: Scripture and Sermon
The prayer time ends with the ringing of the Tibetan bowl. Then it is time for the reading of the scripture, which usually is a passage from the Hebrew texts or from the New Testament. Different members of the church volunteer to be readers, and often add a few words of their interpretation or sense of the context of the passage before they do the reading. It is a reminder that the scripture is raw material for the imagination: there are an infinite number of meanings to be found in each passage. Our church is grounded in the Bible, but not bound by it. We take the Bible seriously because we don’t always take it literally. We understand that while some of it is factual, much of it is mythical and poetic – but we take myth and poetry very seriously! Sometimes the myths and poetry of scripture are more truthful than cold, hard facts. The unfathomable riches of the Bible keep being revealed to us week after week as we open up our big, heavy pulpit Bible and read it to each other afresh every Sunday. Very occasionally, we will use the scriptures of other religions for the reading.
This is followed by the sermon. Our church is a descendant of the Reformed Protestant worship tradition in which the purpose of the sermon is to interpret the Bible, edifying the congregation with ways that it should be followed in everyday life. While this is certainly part of what happens in our sermons, it isn’t the only thing that happens! Our sermons are completed by the congregation in a conversation after the preacher is finished talking. The fact that the sermon will be completed by the whole church has a big effect on the kinds of sermons that you will hear at College.Heights — bringing them down to earth, focusing them on how life actually is, as opposed to how some theologian might say life should be! The conversation also shapes future sermons, giving the preacher ideas about issues that matter to the congregation. As a result, the sermon is always part of a larger and longer conversation, a reflection of the ongoing spiritual growth and development of the congregation.
Worship continues with another hymn, followed by the offering. If you are a visitor to College Heights for the first time, you are our guest – feel no obligation to contribute in the plate as it passes while we chant. Our members and other “regulars” at College Heights contribute to the church in many ways – with regular pledges of money mailed to the church or put in the plate (ask the minister if you would like to have a pledge card or a copy of the church budget), with occasional or designated gifts of money, and most of all with love and time and effort. This church is ‘congregational’ – the members and friends of our church are completely responsible for its finances and staff and facilities. All financial and policy decisions are made democratically – through a Church Council elected by our membership. Major decisions are made by vote of the whole membership in ‘congregational meetings’. Most of what happens in our church is the result of volunteer efforts by our members – ministering to the sick or lonely, conducting groups and classes, and even doing the maintenance andjanitorial work on the buildings and grounds. You are invited to be part of this community, to give and to receive as one of us…. We belong to the wider United Church of Christ, a liberal Protestant denomination, and make a financial pledge to it from our budget. Some of this money is used to do ministry and service worldwide.
Suggestion: A Meditation During the Offering
The gifts we make to the church are important, but even more important are the ways we live our lives. We vote -with our money every day. Some of it goes to items and enterprises that help to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and some of it goes to things and to corporations that are working against the Kingdom. As the plate circulates among the congregation, meditate on this: how can I spend my time and effort and money this week toward the end of building the community of love, dignity, beauty, equality, democracy, and realization of human potential? As a resident of the most powerful and rich nation on earth, what can I do—as a voter and as a consumer — to reduce global warming and pollution, increase the sustainable development of poor nations, and advance the causes of justice and peace in the world? My involvement in the church is just the tip of the iceberg. The effects my gifts have on the church are just a microcosm of the effects my way of life ana my financial and time commitments have on the •world around me. The offering is a time to contemplate prayerfully the choices I want to make that affect those around me.
Gathering in Our Circle
As the offering chant continues while the plates are placed on the altar, we gather around the altar table for our closing circle, standing (as we are able) and holding hands. We take time to share briefly what is happening in our lives – good news, hard news, matters on our hearts. We share about ways we can serve our community and influence our government and society for good ends. Then we recite the Lord’s Prayer together, starting with the words “Our Creator” and using the word “debts”. This prayer is the response that Jesus gave to his disciples when they asked him how they should pray- As such, it is not just a prayer in and of itself, but also might be thought of as a ‘template’ for prayer – a way of prayer that focuses on reconciliation, on an awareness of our spiritual and physical needs, on the transcendent but also close, personal nature of our relationship with God, and on the alignment of our own free will with God’s purposes in the universe. Sometimes we sing the Lord’s Prayer, but usually we simply recite it.
Then we sing a closing chant, and are dismissed with a benediction (Latin for “good saying”). Worship in the sanctuary is over, and the worship of God through our actions in the next week has just begun,
We hope you will remain for “coffee hour” – that all-important time when we meet and greet each other, learn more about what is happening in our lives, and offer support and assistance to each other through all of life’s changes. This is a time to ask the minister or any of the members for more information about our church.
You are invited to our Wednesday Watch silent prayer/meditation group on Wednesdays at 6:30-8 am for silence followed by breakfast at the church. Women are also invited to our weekly Women’s Spirituality Group on Monday nights at the church at 7:30 pm. See our newsletter for our monthly Spirit Quest music and speaker events – programs that bring body and soul together, followed by a social time with a view of the glittery lights around the San Francisco Bay.
Special Worship Services
Baptisms at College Heights
Baptism in our church is done for infants, children, and-adults: talk to the minister if you are interested in this ritual. Usually it is performed during the closing circle in Sunday morning worship, but other arrangements can be made. The ritual has many meanings and functions. It recalls the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John. The purpose of John’s baptism was repentance – to ritually cleanse people of their sins, .as a sign of intention to repent and be reconciled with God and with other people. It marked the moment when Jesus began his ministry: when he came up out of the water, he had a direct encounter with God in the form of an experience of the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. In ancient Christian tradition, baptism is the ritual by which a person becomes a Christian and joins the universal church. (The Catholic church, for instance, while it claims to have the only valid Eucharist ritual, recognizes the validity of baptisms performed in other Christian churches.) Our church, unlike many others, does not require that a person first be baptized before becoming a member of our congregation. But for many of us, this ritual is an important turning point, the moment when a person comes to belong to the wider church. A person can be baptized more than once: for some, it is an important ritual marking a fresh kind of commitment to the way of the Christ.
For young children, the ritual both welcomes the child into the wider church as well. as our local congregation. It is a blessing and a promise that the child will be raised with the unconditional love that is God. And for many families it is also the time of “christening” – the ritual of giving the child its “Christian” name.
In our church, baptism consists of a meditation on its meanings, the offering of the blessing on the child (or adult), the naming (of the child), and the passing of the baptismal bowl. The bowl was made by our church member and potter, Susie Stone. Each person in the circle touches the water as it passes, and offers a silent or spoken blessing on the person being baptized. Then the minister touches the water with the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead, invokes the names and presence of God, and in the case of infants, lifts up and presents the child to the community.
Seasons and Celebrations in Worship at College Heights
Day of the Dead (All Saints Day)
Our church worships in a special way on the Sunday closest to Halloween. All Hallow’s Day, or All Saints Day, or Day of the Dead, is November 1, the day after Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve), according to the traditional church calendar – but we celebrate.it on the nearest Sunday. The Catholic church honored 364 saints, one for each day on the calendar – except for All Saints Day, which honored all the other saints not on the calendar. We use this day to honor all our “saints” – friends, relatives, or others we admire who have died. We usually decorate the altar and sanctuary in a manner reminiscent of the way Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico – with pictures and mementos of our dear departed ones, offerings of food and drink and flowers for the dead, and “calacas” – playful images of skeletons — on the altar table. It is a time to mock death and to celebrate life – thanking God for the gift of the lives of these people who mean so much to us.
Advent and Christmas
Advent is the four-week period culminating with Christmas and Christmas Sunday. Our church begins this time with a potluck and “Hanging of the Greens” party on the Friday evening before the first Sunday of Advent, when we decorate the church for the season. Each Sunday in Advent, we light one of the four Advent candles in the hanging wreath -symbolizing Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy, the spiritual gifts of Christmas. The scriptures for these four Sundays illuminate or tell parts of the Christmas story, and the sermons usually focus on these themes. The last Sunday before Christmas Day (or the Sunday of Christmas, if it falls on that day) is Christmas Sunday – our choir performs special music, and the Christmas story is read from scripture. On Christmas Eve, we gather for a special worship at 10 pm, singing carols, listening to the “lessons” of the story of Jesus’ birth from the gospels, and lighting candles.
Lent and Easter
The season of Lent (from the “lengthening” of the days in late winter and early spring) marks the forty days leading up to Easter. The forty days symbolizes the length of time that Jesus spent in the desert, meditating and praying, before beginning his ministry. This period also recalls the forty years that the people of Israel wandered in the desert before coming to their Promised Land. It begins with Ash Wednesday. We celebrate this ritual at our 6:30 am Wednesday Watch silent meditation group, to which all are welcome. We keep silence for half an hour, then ashes are put on the forehead with the sign of the cross, reminding us that we come from and return to ashes and dust, and calling us to humility and repentance as we begin the meditative, reflective time before Easter.
Our church usually offers special Bible or other study groups during Lent, as a way of deepening in faith and focusing on the meanings of the Easter season. We also have a display on the walls of the church, inviting us to meditate in a non-traditional way on the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross – the biblical and legendary points along Jesus’ way to his crucifixion. A Stations of the Cross pilgrimage through the streets of San Mateo has been created by our minister – photos and texts of the pilgrimage route are on the web at www.openchristianity.com.
Palm Sunday, marking the entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem a week before his crucifixion, marks the beginning of Passion Week: the sanctuary is decorated with palms, reminding us of the festive way that people greeted Jesus by putting branches in front of the ass he rode into the city. Maundy Thursday is celebrated at CHC at 7 pm with a service of Eucharist and the washing of feet, as Jesus did for his disciples. It is followed by a potluck meal, reminding us of Jesus’ last supper with his followers.
Easter Sunday worship at 10 am is a celebration of resurrection- that found in the gospel stories, as well as that found in our lives. Our choir performs, with other special music offered, and communion is served.
College Heights Church
1150 W. Hillsdale Blvd
San Mateo CA 94403
www.collegeheights.us
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Worship Materials: Other Worship Resources
From the Celebrating Mystery collection by William L. Wallace
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
Give me warmth (BL)
Congregational alleluias. (BL)
Prayer / Meditation responses. (BL)
Intercessory responses. (BL)
Shalom. (BL)
May the fire. (BL)
We believe in a mystery we call God. (BL)
To you O God we offer. (BL)
May the peace of God.
Singing the Sacred, Vol 2 2014 World Library Publications
WORSHIP AS COSMIC LIBERATION
Liberation from alienation.
Liberation from the negative energy of some human beings.
Liberation from destructive actions towards the Cosmos and its processes.
Liberation for healing.
Liberation for cooperation.
Liberation for celebration
THE PROCESS OF WORSHIP
A+B=Eucharistic Worship A only=Non Eucharistic Worship
A 1. THE APPROACH. The Motivation. Getting in touch with our confidence and our dissatisfaction. Preparing, relaxing, re-awakening our sense of wonder. Adoration, Confession, Assurance of Forgiveness.
2. THE WORD. The information. Bible, Church, People.
3. THE RESPONSE. The Reflection. The Internalizing. The Letting Go. The wider Vision – Intercession. The Commitment –The Offering.
B 4. THE COMMUNION.
a. The Offertory (the bread, our flesh, all of nature). Seeing God in all things
b. The Eucharistic Prayer. Celebrating God and Life. Remembering Jesus.
c. The Breaking of the Bread. Coping with and transforming pain.
d. The Sharing. The Unitive action. Consuming Bread and Wine. Exploring One-ness. God and I are one.
Notes 1) One or other of these elements could be focused on more than the other in a particular service, preferably in a planned sequence.
2) Since energy is the primary reality, all worship should aim to facilitate the flow of positive energy through physical movement, through singing, through use of images. Imageless people are only half alive as are people enslaved by images. We need a dynamic dialectic.
INVITATIONS TO WORSHIP
1. We come to celebrate the mystery that is both beyond and within, the mystery that is beyond all words
yet reflected in a thousand images
and all the cultures of this earth.
2. O God, may our encounter with you
heighten our sense of wonder,
increase our experience of awe,
deepen our awareness of what lies beyond and within ourselves.
And may our journey be along your WAY of affirmation, delight, wholeness and meaningful sacrifice.
AFTER PRAYERS OF SELF-AWARENESS
1. Leader: In forgiving others, we open our hearts to the mercy of God.
All: IN LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES, WE FIND NEW LIFE.
2. Leader or Assurance of Forgiveness
2. All: GOD HAS MERCY HAS MERCY ON US ALL, ALLELUIA.
CHRIST HAS MERCY ON US ALL, AMEN.
GOD HAS MERCY ON US ALL,
GOD HAS MERCY ON US ALL, ALLELUIA.
(for music see Singing the Sacred Vol1 World Library Publications)
4. Leader: Hold up your head, pick up your life and go forward with God.
BEFORE THE BIBLE READING
Listen with imagination to the words of scripture.
Select with discrimination what speaks to you.
BEFORE OR AFTER THE BIBLE READING
May the words break into images
and the Spirit’s fire touch our hearts.
AFTER THE BIBLE READING
May these words help us to learn from the past and listen for God’s word today.
AFFIRMATION OF AWARENESS
In the white light
we glimpse the colors of the rainbow –
In the darkness
we see the hues of our spirit ‑
In our encounter with emptiness
we discover the patterned fullness of the vast inner and outer world
In the intermingling of tears of sorrow and joy we find wholeness of life-
In entering the sorrows of another
we find healing for our own grief –
For the totality of compassion
is immeasurably greater
than the sum of all destructive suffering ‑
In stepping aside from the self that we can see
we discover the unseen self,
the spark that links us with all other sparks of that divinity
which sets the world alight.
And in allowing ourselves to be embraced by the mystery we discover our heart’s delight.
A PARAPHRASE OF PART OF THE PEACE PRAYER OF ST FRANCIS
O loving Christ may I become an instrument of your peace:
Grant that I may learn
To strive but not compete,
To be empowered without seeking to oppress,
To stand tall without looking down on others,
To be aware of my inner wisdom
Without attempting to inflict it on anyone else.
For it is in letting go that we find peace,
In abandoning arrogance that we find truth
And in taking risks that we find love.
A PARAPHRASE OF THE LORD’S PRAYER
O God of Sky and Earth
We reverence your presence
Both within us and beyond
May what we eat sustain us
In the Way of compassionate sharing.
Help us to be forgiving –
Forgiving others, forgiving ourselves.
Liberate us from guilt
That learning from our mistakes
We may move beyond self-centeredness
To that depth of being
In which we are one with all things.
This Way of love, peace and justice
Is for the Earth, for human beings and for all living creatures
Both now and forever. AMEN.
A COSMIC CREDO
I believe in the Cosmos and its processes as a reflection and embodiment of the Mystery within and beyond it, the nameless Mystery which I dare to call God.
I celebrate the creative, transforming and empowering processes and discern these both in the life and death of Jesus Christ and in the continuing celebration of his existence.
I believe that forgiveness is of the essence of love,
that change is of the essence of life,
and that the individual only finds complete fulfillment in community.
I see death as part of a process of the recycling of life and the transformation of memory and the unity of energy as part of the heaven of the eternal NOW.
This is the way which I seek to walk with courage, compassion and with a song in my heart.
SO BE IT.
AN AFFIRMATION
We affirm
that we are part of a wonderfully mysterious universe,
that all life is inter-related in one vast web,
that our role lies in co-operating with and nurturing all life and the planet itself,
that human being are genetically one family and of equal value,
that every human being has the right to the basic necessities of life and to their form of culture and religion,
that each of us is on an evolving spiritual journey,
that we are all called to work to create a world of justice and peace, compassion and respect.
AN AFFIRMATION OF THE WAY
In walking the Way
we open our minds to the wisdom of God,
we open our spirits to the delight of God
and our whole being to the love of God.
ANOTHER AFFIRMATION OF THE WAY
As followers of the Way of Jesus we acknowledge our place in the wonderful web of nature and delight in the mystery of God who is in all and through all. We seek to live a life that is characterized by respect, compassion and loving kindness
for the Earth,
for all living creatures,
for other people and
for ourselves.
We are committed to building a better world – a world of peace and justice, wholeness and healing, and of the sharing of power and wealth.
We seek to achieve these goals through awareness, reflection and action, through cooperation and solidarity with others, through sharing the stories of the heart, and through working to create supportive challenging communities.
Our attitude to life will be one of hopeful participation in the processes of nature, openness to new possibilities, acceptance of change and delight in creativity. It will involve a willingness to attempt to resolve situations of conflict, through listening, forgiving, compromising, celebrating diversity and practicing inclusiveness in cooperation with all who share these goals.
We affirm the essential goodness of all human beings offering them acceptance and affirmation despite their immaturity and destructiveness. However we determined to follow Jesus in being willing to identify those people and groups in society who are not working for the benefit of ordinary people but who represent those who seek to use their wealth and power to control others. We aim to be both prophetic and sensitive choosing the right time to sound a word of warning or to protest against injustices. Beyond this, as our conscience allows, we will support those whose aim is to establish new evolving participatory communities and institutions.
With Christ we will seek to walk the Way, delight in the Presence and abide in the wonder of loving kindness. To achieve this goal, we will embark on the pilgrimage of developing our own spirituality through prayer and meditation, through exploration of the wisdom of sacred books including the Bible and through the shared stories of other people’s spirituality. In all this we will aim to place our lives in the hands of the God of love, in the manner of Christ and through the power of Spirit.
Note: This Affirmation could be used in five sections with space for reflection in between each section.
AFFIRMATION OF LIFE STYLE
The style of living which we seek to adopt is one in which we reverence and enjoy God’s mystery of life, a mystery that is greater than any image or ideology.
We will seek
to respect everything that lives,
to honor the needs of all the forms of life within the frame-work of the processes of nature,
to nurture and care for ourselves and other human beings without being manipulative, possessive or evasive,
to balance the rights of the individual against the needs of the community,
to flow with the seasons of nature and the seasons of the human heart,
to accept death as a part of life
to hold together work and play, activity and stillness and
with openness and compassion be a responsible
participant in the activities of the evolving Cosmos.
AN AFFIRMATION OF INCLUSIVENESS
I believe in the divine mystery that is beyond all definition yet reflected in a thousand images.
I believe in the expanding and recycling processes of nature and of the cosmos as a whole, epitomized in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I believe in the energy of spirit in all its creative, destructive and empowering activities.
I believe that the journey of forgiveness can free people from the power of past hurts.
I believe that everything is interconnected and interwoven and that in living this awareness lies the fullness of life.
I believe in the experience of eternity that comes through silence, wonder and love to transform the present moment.
I believe in my own value as a child of God and seek to see God in all other human beings.
I accept my role as a co-worker with God in the processes of the evolving Universe and determine to work for justice, peace and reverence for the whole of creation.
This is my resolve and I will seek to accomplish this through cooperation with all who share these goals; in the strength of imagination, compassion and wonder.
AFFIRMATION OF BELIEF
We believe
that all life is holy and interdependent;
that Earth is our sacred home to be nurtured and reverenced and not exploited;
that life is for Celebration – not denial;
that there is no place in love for fear or guilt;
that the divine mystery has many names but is always compassionate and just and delights in each of us;
that all human beings have the right to peace and justice;
that co-operation not competition, manipulation or dependency is our hope and destiny;
that despite all the destruction, ugliness and pain in the world, life is fundamentally good and beautiful and that in the end all will be well;
and that the interior journey is the most important enterprise that any human being can embark upon, for without inner peace we are unable to effectively contribute to the healing of the world.
COMMANDMENTS FOR TODAY (A Reflection)
deeper than the searching is the knowing
and deeper than the grieving is the mystery
in which darkness and light are ONE.
RESPONSES FOR PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
(for music, see “Boundless Life” Intercessory Responses on this website)
1. Leader: Creator God to you we pray ‑
All: HELP US HEAR YOUR CHILDREN’S CRY.
Leader: Most joyful God to you we pray
All: HELP US SHARE YOUR CHILDREN’S JOY.
Leader: Most loving God to you we pray –
All: HELP US SHARE OUR WEALTH WITH ALL.
Leader: O just and freeing God we pray –
All: HELP US STAND WITH ALL THE POOR.
Leader: O liberator God we pray –
All: HELP THE PEOPLE OWN THEIR POWER.
Leader: O living God to you we pray –
All: HELP US REVERENCE ALL OF LIFE.
2. Leader: In sharing compassion with others,
All: WE DRENCH OUR LIVES WITH THE LOVE OF GOD.
3. Leader: Holy Spirit
All: TURN OUR WORDS INTO ACTIONS.
4. Leader: We pray:
All: HELP US TO CARE FOR ALL OTHER LIVING CREATURES.
5. Leader: Wisdom comes from the fire of pain,
All: HEALING FROM THE WATERS OF OUR TEARS.
6. Leader: In the mystery of love,
All: LIFE SPRINGS OUT OF DEATH.
7. Leader: We give thanks,
All: HELP US REJOICE IN ALL THAT LIVES.
PRAYER / MEDITATION RESPONSES which do not seek God’s intervention
(For music see Prayer / Meditation Responses in Boundless Life Hymns)
1. In silence now we join to pray
LISTENING TO THE GOD WITHIN.
2. May rich discernment shape our prayers
AS WE LEARN FROM COSMIC LAWS.
3. As love’s compassion grows within
WE SHALL HEED THE PEOPLES’ CRIES
4. With all the poor we join to pray
MAY EARTH’S WEALTH BE SHARED BY ALL.
5. Empowered by justice, filled with hope
WE SHALL JOIN WITH EARTH’S OPPRESSED.
6. Aware how humans wound this Earth
WE RESOLVE TO SAVE ITS LIFE.
7. In meeting pilgrims’ varied ways
WE FIND TRUTH TAKES MANY FORMS.
8. When faced with life’s diversity
WE VIEW MYSTERY AS BUT ONE.
9. Through praying we transform our mind
TILL ALL LIFE BECOMES A PRAYER.
Verse 1 Alternative response:
“Listening to our Inner Voice” or “Guided by the Light Within.”
AFTER PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
Leader: True self-consciousness lies in awareness of others.
AN ACT OF COMMITMENT
We commit ourselves to build a better world ‑
a world in which people relate with reverence to nature
and to each other;
a world where pollution is eliminated
and our natural heritage of wildlife, plants and open space is preserved.
We shall work to create a better community ‑
a community where people are more concerned
for the welfare of others than for themselves;
where special attention is given to the needs of the less dvantaged;
where each person shares in the decision making;
where no one is deprived of friendship or acceptance;
a community where individuals of diverse race and culture
live in harmony, with mutual respect.
To this end we will seek to identify and control those forces in our society which produce injustice, disharmony and selfishness
and to support all that promotes
beauty and happiness, health and community.
This is the world we long to build.
We will seek to
FORGIVE, LOVE,
SHARE,
and GROW as persons,
so that these DREAMS
and HOPES may come true.
COMMITMENT TO ACTION
As followers of the Way we seek to translate our commitment into action through the creativity of God the nurturer, the example of Jesus the Holy One and in the power of life-giving Spirit.
OFFERTORY PRAYER
(for music for Shalom see Liturgical Resources in “Boundless Life” on this website)
All: TO YOU, O GOD, WE OFFER OUR LIFE-FORCE.
YOUR DIVINE ENERGY WITHIN US. UNITED IN FREEDOM
WE SING YOUR AGELESS SONG BEAUTY, JUSTICE, PEACE.
and/or SHALOM, SHALOM, SHALOM, SHALOM. (sung)
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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Where Are You? by Richard Holdsworth
Where are you, my Comfort?
In fears, apprehensions
Disruptions, grief, delays
Where are you, my Good?
In failures and temptations
Vengeance with malicious ways
Where is compassion when we need it?
It’s easier to turn away
And trust seems to abandon us
On stressful days
What took my peace?
Who stole your faith?
What happened to all beauty, style, elegance and grace?
I feel frazzled, anxious, I’m a mess, I admit it, OK?
Leave me alone
I can’t take it
Go away!
Where is Comfort?
Where is Good?
It is here:
I just forgot to bring it
I didn’t pack it for the race
I expected it to pop up
On demand
But I must nurture healing powers
To keep them close at hand
---------------------
READ ON ...
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Worship
Worship is a ‘receipt’ given to God in return for the divine gifts of life which we receive….
Worship is a ‘receipt’ given to God in return for the divine gifts of life which we receive…. It is an artful response to our awe and wonderment at the miracle of creation which surrounds us….. It is creative inspiration to live out the law of love in our church community and wider world. Worship centers us, grounds us, and uplifts us, reminding us of who we really are and of what we are called to become. Through it we can prayerfully share truth as God reveals it to us in our emotions and intentions. From “A Guide to Worship at College Heights Church” by Jim Burklo
A Guide to Worship at College Heights Church
Written January 2002 by Jim Burklo
Worship is a ‘receipt’ given to God in return for the divine gifts of life which we receive…. It is an artful response to our awe and wonderment at the miracle of creation which surrounds us….. It is creative inspiration to live out the law of love in our church community and wider world. Worship centers us, grounds us, and uplifts us, reminding us of who we really are and of what we are called to become. Through it we can prayerfully share truth as God reveals it to us in our emotions and intentions.
Our church employs the rich traditions of Christian liturgy (a Latin word meaning “work”—the holy effort of worship). We recognize that ours is but one of many valid and helpful languages of prayer and praise, so we aim to use our Christian symbols and rituals in ways that are as respectful as possible toward the religious heritages of others. To remind ourselves of the infinite number of ways that God can be named and glorified, we occasionally use liturgical elements from religions other than Christianity, such as chants or readings. We are a congregation of the United Church of Christ, which is part of the Reformed Protestant heritage, and this history influences the shape of our worship. At the same time, we are a church that from its beginning about 40 years ago has had a unique calling to do worship in fresh and original ways that have inspired other churches. College Heights’ worship is shaped by a monthly gathering called “Worship and Arts”, at which we plan our upcoming services. (Any member or friend of the church is welcome to attend this meeting.) This guide reflects our usual form of worship as it happens today – but this can and will change as the Spirit moves us to worship in ever-changing ways.
The Sanctuary: Our Place to Worship
Our sanctuary was built in 1965. It was intended for use as our social hall, with a sanctuary to be built later at the site where the condominiums are now located next door. (That parcel was sold later to pay off the remaining debt on our property.) The building was remodeled and repainted in 2001.
Our ‘sanctuary’ is just that – a safe and sacred place. It is an environment that is set apart for worship, but also is set apart for living out the good news of the gospel, even if that means standing against the “powers and principalities” (Ephesians 6: 12) of the world. This is a place that we sincerely believe to be under an authority higher than that of governments or other social forces, for purposes that transcend even those of our church as an organization. We are committed to protecting this space for the work of advancing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and for protecting human life and dignity, at all costs.
On the wall of the church you will see a cross made of tree branches. The cross is a powerful focus for worship in most Christian churches. Some churches, particularly Catholic parishes, have crucifixes with images of Jesus on them, focusing on his sacrificial death. Others, mostly Protestant churches like our own, show an empty cross, emphasizing the resurrection. Either way, the cross is much more than a decoration. It is a profound statement of faith that can be understood and interpreted at many levels. The cross was intended by the Romans as a symbol of state power – a reminder of the terrible death that would come to anyone who defied it. Jesus, and the early Christians, turned that meaning inside out and upside down. For the early church, the cross was transformed into the sign of salvation, of the victory of life over death. It demonstrated the weakness of the Roman Empire and the strength of the Kingdom of Heaven. Think of all the ways that nations today try to frighten or threaten their citizens, or other nations, into obedience. The cross reminds us that there is a higher power than the state – a divine power that calls us to civil disobedience against this kind of brutality and war-mongering.
Suggestion: A Meditation on the Cross
In Numbers 21:9, Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole in order for the people of Israel to gaze on it and be cured of snake bites. Jesus said in John 3:14 “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up… ” The snake on the pole (reminiscent of the caducous, the snakes on the pole that form an ancient symbol of medicine) was an example of homeopathy, an ancient form of medicine that exists today. Homeopathy is the idea that a dose of that which ails you is the cure -vaccination might be thought of as a homeopathic remedy. A dose of the snake – a confrontation with its image – was the cure for the bite of the snake in the biblical legend. Likewise, Jesus suggested that a dose of evil and death – delivered by gazing at the cross – was the cure for the human condition of suffering. It is a paradox, but despite its seeming contradiction, it works! Healing and reconciliation begin with an honest, direct encounter with pain and its sources. But so much of the time, we avoid pay ing real attention to this pain. Instead, we buy into the culture around us, which tells us that pain is to be avoided, masked, drugged, denied. We buy into the culture around us that tells us that life is about bigger and better things – the upward trail of progress. Meanwhile, the cross tells us something completely different: that human life is about loving each other through the inevitable suffering that is our human condition.
Gaze at the cross on the wall of the church, and focus on its center – the place of the heart of the suffering Christ. Notice your own sufferings as well as the sufferings of others around you and of people in the -wider world Name them -pain, unfulfilled desire, existential emptiness, frustrated ambition, anger, resentment, fear – oppression, poverty, pestilence, war — as you gaze squarely at the intersecting point of the cross. This is your reality, and the reality of the human race of which you are apart. This is the reality of the crucified Christ. You are not alone. Jesus suffered with you. The Christ – the human encounter with God- is fully and compassionately present in every pang of misery that you and other human beings experience.
When you are fully conscious of the true extent of your suffering and that of others, pull back your gaze and notice the cross as a -whole. Its arms point out in the four directions. It is empty – the Christ has risen. There is life on the other side of suffering and even death This, too, is the human condition – to go through suffering, and to find an eternal kind of life beyond it. Receive that life now as you gaze at the empty cross…..
Art and Photography at College Heights
As Madeleine L’Engle in her book Walking on Water, puts it: “If I cannot see evidence of incarnation in a painting of a bridge in the rain by Hokusai, a book by Chaim Potok or Isaac Bashevis Singer, in music by Bloch or Bernstein, then I will miss its significance in an Annunciation by Franciabigio, the final chorus of the St. Matthew Passion, the words of a sermon by John Donne.” (p 450) Art is not Christian because the person who made it is a Christian, or because the artist intended it to depict a Christian subject. The connection between Christianity and art is in the eye of the beholder: a person who sees the world through the lens of the gospel will find signs of the Christ in all kinds of creativity, whether or not this was the conscious intention of the artist.
It is in this spirit that the walls of our church are graced with paintings, drawings, and photographs, in an ever-changing display. The displays are a worshipful celebration of the divine gift of vision and skillful creativity. Much of the art on the walls is the product of our creative members and friends. Some displays make an obvious statement about matters spiritual, while others require the exercise of prayerful imagination. Some of the art is for sale (the church is given 20% of the proceeds of such sales): look in the entryway for further information about the displays.
The Eucharist: Focus of Worship
Worship at College Heights is centered in our monthly celebration of Eucharist. The Eucharist (a Greek word meaning “good gift”), or ‘communion’ or ‘Lord’s Supper’, is the ritual of sharing bread and wine. From the very earliest days of the church, it has been the focus of Christian worship. It recalls the moment (Mark 14: 22-25) when Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples before his death. Some churches (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and others) celebrate the Eucharist every week, but most Reformed Protestant churches, including ours, perform it monthly (in our case, on the first Sunday of every month). We also offer the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday evening as part of our remembrance of the Passover meal of Jesus and his disciples during Passion (Easter) Week, and on Easter Sunday morning, remembering the resurrection story in which Jesus reappeared to his disciples when he broke bread with them (Luke 24: 13-34). Usually we celebrate Eucharist at the end of our worship, in our closing circle around the altar. We wait till all are served with bread and then eat it together, and we wait till all have been served the wine or water in little cups before drinking together (except for those who choose to come forward to drink from the common cup of wine or of milk and honey, which represents the milk and honey of the Promised Land of Israel and the promised Kingdom of Heaven). The Eucharist has as many meanings as there are members of our church – and more! It is a physical expression of the spiritual reality that we need each other, and we need God, as much as we need food and drink, in order to survive, body and soul. For some of us, the bread and wine are the body and blood of Jesus, offered up to God as a sacrifice to cleanse us of our sins. For others, the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine are a breaking open and pouring out of the love that is God, through the Christ who dwells in each of us. For others the ritual is simply a moment of deep bonding and sharing with the other members of our community. As we share the bread and the wine, so we also share the many different meanings that the Eucharist has for us
All people – young and old, traditional believers and friendly skeptics, baptized and unbaptized – are welcome to share in the Eucharist at our church. But if for any reason you do not wish to take the elements (the bread and wine), you need not be embarrassed to refuse them as they are distributed – we will commune with you simply by being present with you in the circle!
Our communion table is the visual and physical focus of all our worship services, reminding us always that the Eucharist is the central moment of our worship life. It was built especially for our church as a memorial to Bill Kelley, an early member of our church. We also call it our “altaf*.
The earthenware goblets and plates used in our Eucharist were made by our member, Susie Stone. The bread used in the service is often made by members. We follow an ancient tradition of the church by offering the leftover bread to our children after worship. What they don’t consume, adults are welcome to enjoy during the “coffee hour”!
Suggestion: A Way to Celebrate Eucharist
So much of the time, we eat and drink mindlessly – -we don’t pay that much attention to how it tastes or feels. We don’t spend much time savoring it -focussing our attention on the food itself, rather than on conversation or on other things that are on our minds. The communion ritual offers a chance to mindfully eat bread and drink wine. One meditation to employ awing the ritual is to pay attention to everything about the bread- its texture, flavor, sweetness or sourness, yeastiness, saltiness. Then pay attention to the wine. We don’t use fancy wine for our communion ritual, but the cheap -wine of today is still vastly better in flavor to the rotgut beverage that people drank in the first century! (There was no clean drinking water, so almost everyone drank bad wine every day – the alcohol in it killed the microorganisms that were otherwise present in the public water supplies.) So savor the flavor, the aroma, and the consistency of the cheap but good communion wine, paying real attention to the experience at every level of your senses. And meditate for a moment on the work of the people who made the bread (often our own members) and the wine. Then, as the chants are sung and the little glasses are collected back into the trays, pay attention to the human beings that surround you in the circle. Savor their presence: notice the beauty in each of them, all ages, all sizes, all shapes, all ways of living and being — open your heart to them. Commune with them with as much attention and intention as you put into communing with the bread and wine. Then, as the chants continue, imagine the millions of human beings who have eaten the bread and wine with attention and intention over the past 2,000 years of Christianity. Imagine that vast community of faith being culminated in this very moment. Imagine that you have eaten bread and drunk wine not just for yourself, but for all of those who have gone before, and for all who will come after you.
The Communion Table: Preparing the Altar
The appearance of the Eucharist table at College Heights changes from week to week, and the position of it moves with the seasons, as well. In the rainy season, the congregation faces northeast, and in the dry season, it aims southwest, so that we can enjoy the play of light shining into the sanctuary. The decoration of the altar by members who sign up to do so is a form of worship in itself… a loving offering of beauty to God, a creation which will be seen today and gone tomorrow. The altar itself reminds us of the transitory nature of our physical existence, the temporality of our gifts and our achievements. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount to “consider the lilies” in the grass of the field which “is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in tile oven”. “Even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” (Matthew 6: 25-33) Everything we achieve and produce will wither and fade, just as the flowers and other altar decorations grace our lives for only a short time. Our lives are like decorating an altar for an hour on Sunday – an opportunity to worship God with the care and creativity and intentionality we can bring to every big and little task that we do, accepting its fleeting nature. Some of us decorate the altar with a beautiful stark simplicity, others with flair and drama, others with nothing but items from nature, celebrating God’s creativity. The altar celebrates God’s creativity in giving each of us a unique way of expressing ourselves.
The altar is placed near the walls but far enough away from it that we can gather around it during our closing circle. But at Christmas and Easter, we place it in the middle of the sanctuary, to set apart these special moments in our liturgical calendar.
Suggestion: The Altar
To prepare for worship, and to prepare for volunteering to decorate our altar, take care each evening to decorate your dinner table -with flowers, objects, cloths, candles, or anything else that is meaningful to you and your family. Take the time and trouble to do this, changing it daily or periodically. And when you remove the table decorations, do it •with as much loving attention as you took in placing them, meditating on the transitory nature of all beauty and creativity.
The Order of Our Worship
The service begins with the ringing of the bell that hangs in one comer of the sanctuary. This bell is a brass artillery shell salvaged from a junkyard. It reminds us of the hopeful promise in Isaiah 2: 4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Christian faith is a bold assertion that death shall not have the final word. The bell awakens us to the presence of God and invites us to hear and see and share the Gospel once again.
After the opening bell, we share news of the church, greet each other, and sign in on the clipboards. If you would like to get our monthly newsletter by email or snail mail, put your address on the clipboard. You can also jot comments or even draw pictures on the clipboard sheet, in addition to signing your name. (Some of these doodlings wind up becoming the art on the covers of our worship bulletins! If you have some art you’d like to have used for this purpose, or have an inspirational quote for the back of the bulletin, feel free to propose them to the minister.) Signing your name helps all of us to learn and remember each other’s names as the clipboard goes around, and is very helpful to the minister in getting to know people in the church.
After another sounding of the bell, we listen to an offering of music – usually instrumental. Then comes a call to worship – a poem or a short line from the Bible -followed by the first hymn. We use an eclectic mix of hymns and songs in worship, ranging from folk to jazz to traditional Protestant church hymns. The black book. The New Century Hymnal, is used by many United Church of Christ congregations nationwide. Some of its hymns are old standards which have been slightly (and sometimes extremely!) modified to reflect the evolution of our values away from sexism and away from religious chauvinism. It also includes more modem hymns from many different musical traditions worldwide. We have our own home-made songbook as well, which contains some hymns written by our own members, and also a book of chants which we often use in worship. And we sometimes use the little green Catholic folk-mass hymnal. Exult.
The hymn is followed by prayer. Prayer is introduced with a time when anyone in the congregation can share a name or a concern or celebration upon which we can focus in the time of silence. The Tibetan bowl is struck three times to begin silent prayer and meditation. After a while of silence, the chant begins – a short piece of music which we repeat meditatively. Our congregation has learned at least 60 chants – a very important and continually developing part of our worship tradition. Several – such as the Pilgrim Chant and the Awakening Chant by Jim Garrison – were written by members of our congregation. Silent prayer and meditation is a very important part of the life of our church, and of the lives of many of our members. For a look at our church’s Guide to Meditation and Prayer, have a look at the brochure on the entry table, or read it online at www.openchristianity.com.
Suggestion: How to Pray
Some Christians have a supernatural conception of prayer – that it is communication with an all-powerful being that literally hears our verbal prayers or literally reads out minds when we think a prayer. Others, including a lot of us at College Heights, look at it differently: as a discipline of direct connection with God. One form this can take is the following meditation:
During the time of silence, and through the time of chanting, pay attention to your thoughts and feelings – both mental and physical. What is going on in you, body and soul? What are you thinking about? What are you sensing within and around you? After a while of observing yourself, you may notice that you take on the role of the observer rather than that of the observed. This inner observer of yourself is God. Continue to lovingly observe yourself and the environment and people around you. If you have a judgment about yourself or others around you, observe it – but release your identification with it. Notice your attachments and your desires, your sentiments and your resentments, but identify with the One who lovingly observes them, rather than just with the one who is wallowing in them. Focus this love and acceptance on others, as well – notice your intentions toward other people. What can you be or do for them? How can you translate your best wishes for others into concrete actions that can be helpful to them?
As the chant continues, any and all are welcome to come forward to the altar to light candles as a way of focusing attention and intention in prayer. It is also a time for those who wish to come forward for anointing with oil on their foreheads with the sign of the cross, as a way of amplifying intention on the healing of body or soul. Anointing with oil is a very old Christian tradition, and it is a physical way of experiencing the Christ (the word “christos” in Greek means “the anointed one” – the early kings of Israel were ‘crowned’ by having their heads anointed with oil). We rub the oil, or “chrism” as the Catholics call it, on the forehead just above the line of the eyebrow – in many world religious traditions this spot is considered the location of the “third eye” of insight. Quite apart from any esoteric understanding of this spot, most people love it when they get massaged on the forehead between the eyes – especially with a dab of soothing olive oil! The early Christians anointed the sick with oil (James 5: 14), and this ritual became one of the sacraments of the Catholic tradition. All the oil used in this ritual has been blessed in a special ritual in worship at College Heights, infusing it with the intentions of the whole congregation for the purpose of being a means of healing and wholeness.
Suggestion: Anointing
If you wish to be anointed, come forward and receive the anointing with oil on your forehead. Relax your face, your head, your neck, and your whole body as you receive the massage in the sign of the cross. Remember that you have a body, and remember that it is a divine temple — a dwelling place for a soul that is of the same essence and substance as God. Remember that you want and need to be whole – complete, in body and soul. Remember that you not only want to be healthy and whole, but you deserve it as much as any other human being. Pay attention to the part of you that needs healing – a body part, a place in your soul. Consciously and clearly focus your attention on your desire to be complete and whole, to be relieved of suffering, and to find spiritual peace in the midst of suffering. Ask for healing and wholeness, with your heart open to the many forms that this healing might take. For some, it might mean full restoration of the body or soul. For others, it might mean finding peace and fulfillment in the course of an incurable condition.
The Word: Scripture and Sermon
The prayer time ends with the ringing of the Tibetan bowl. Then it is time for the reading of the scripture, which usually is a passage from the Hebrew texts or from the New Testament. Different members of the church volunteer to be readers, and often add a few words of their interpretation or sense of the context of the passage before they do the reading. It is a reminder that the scripture is raw material for the imagination: there are an infinite number of meanings to be found in each passage. Our church is grounded in the Bible, but not bound by it. We take the Bible seriously because we don’t always take it literally. We understand that while some of it is factual, much of it is mythical and poetic – but we take myth and poetry very seriously! Sometimes the myths and poetry of scripture are more truthful than cold, hard facts. The unfathomable riches of the Bible keep being revealed to us week after week as we open up our big, heavy pulpit Bible and read it to each other afresh every Sunday. Very occasionally, we will use the scriptures of other religions for the reading.
This is followed by the sermon. Our church is a descendant of the Reformed Protestant worship tradition in which the purpose of the sermon is to interpret the Bible, edifying the congregation with ways that it should be followed in everyday life. While this is certainly part of what happens in our sermons, it isn’t the only thing that happens! Our sermons are completed by the congregation in a conversation after the preacher is finished talking. The fact that the sermon will be completed by the whole church has a big effect on the kinds of sermons that you will hear at College.Heights — bringing them down to earth, focusing them on how life actually is, as opposed to how some theologian might say life should be! The conversation also shapes future sermons, giving the preacher ideas about issues that matter to the congregation. As a result, the sermon is always part of a larger and longer conversation, a reflection of the ongoing spiritual growth and development of the congregation.
Worship continues with another hymn, followed by the offering. If you are a visitor to College Heights for the first time, you are our guest – feel no obligation to contribute in the plate as it passes while we chant. Our members and other “regulars” at College Heights contribute to the church in many ways – with regular pledges of money mailed to the church or put in the plate (ask the minister if you would like to have a pledge card or a copy of the church budget), with occasional or designated gifts of money, and most of all with love and time and effort. This church is ‘congregational’ – the members and friends of our church are completely responsible for its finances and staff and facilities. All financial and policy decisions are made democratically – through a Church Council elected by our membership. Major decisions are made by vote of the whole membership in ‘congregational meetings’. Most of what happens in our church is the result of volunteer efforts by our members – ministering to the sick or lonely, conducting groups and classes, and even doing the maintenance andjanitorial work on the buildings and grounds. You are invited to be part of this community, to give and to receive as one of us…. We belong to the wider United Church of Christ, a liberal Protestant denomination, and make a financial pledge to it from our budget. Some of this money is used to do ministry and service worldwide.
Suggestion: A Meditation During the Offering
The gifts we make to the church are important, but even more important are the ways we live our lives. We vote -with our money every day. Some of it goes to items and enterprises that help to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and some of it goes to things and to corporations that are working against the Kingdom. As the plate circulates among the congregation, meditate on this: how can I spend my time and effort and money this week toward the end of building the community of love, dignity, beauty, equality, democracy, and realization of human potential? As a resident of the most powerful and rich nation on earth, what can I do—as a voter and as a consumer — to reduce global warming and pollution, increase the sustainable development of poor nations, and advance the causes of justice and peace in the world? My involvement in the church is just the tip of the iceberg. The effects my gifts have on the church are just a microcosm of the effects my way of life ana my financial and time commitments have on the •world around me. The offering is a time to contemplate prayerfully the choices I want to make that affect those around me.
Gathering in Our Circle
As the offering chant continues while the plates are placed on the altar, we gather around the altar table for our closing circle, standing (as we are able) and holding hands. We take time to share briefly what is happening in our lives – good news, hard news, matters on our hearts. We share about ways we can serve our community and influence our government and society for good ends. Then we recite the Lord’s Prayer together, starting with the words “Our Creator” and using the word “debts”. This prayer is the response that Jesus gave to his disciples when they asked him how they should pray- As such, it is not just a prayer in and of itself, but also might be thought of as a ‘template’ for prayer – a way of prayer that focuses on reconciliation, on an awareness of our spiritual and physical needs, on the transcendent but also close, personal nature of our relationship with God, and on the alignment of our own free will with God’s purposes in the universe. Sometimes we sing the Lord’s Prayer, but usually we simply recite it.
Then we sing a closing chant, and are dismissed with a benediction (Latin for “good saying”). Worship in the sanctuary is over, and the worship of God through our actions in the next week has just begun,
We hope you will remain for “coffee hour” – that all-important time when we meet and greet each other, learn more about what is happening in our lives, and offer support and assistance to each other through all of life’s changes. This is a time to ask the minister or any of the members for more information about our church.
You are invited to our Wednesday Watch silent prayer/meditation group on Wednesdays at 6:30-8 am for silence followed by breakfast at the church. Women are also invited to our weekly Women’s Spirituality Group on Monday nights at the church at 7:30 pm. See our newsletter for our monthly Spirit Quest music and speaker events – programs that bring body and soul together, followed by a social time with a view of the glittery lights around the San Francisco Bay.
Special Worship Services
Baptisms at College Heights
Baptism in our church is done for infants, children, and-adults: talk to the minister if you are interested in this ritual. Usually it is performed during the closing circle in Sunday morning worship, but other arrangements can be made. The ritual has many meanings and functions. It recalls the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John. The purpose of John’s baptism was repentance – to ritually cleanse people of their sins, .as a sign of intention to repent and be reconciled with God and with other people. It marked the moment when Jesus began his ministry: when he came up out of the water, he had a direct encounter with God in the form of an experience of the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. In ancient Christian tradition, baptism is the ritual by which a person becomes a Christian and joins the universal church. (The Catholic church, for instance, while it claims to have the only valid Eucharist ritual, recognizes the validity of baptisms performed in other Christian churches.) Our church, unlike many others, does not require that a person first be baptized before becoming a member of our congregation. But for many of us, this ritual is an important turning point, the moment when a person comes to belong to the wider church. A person can be baptized more than once: for some, it is an important ritual marking a fresh kind of commitment to the way of the Christ.
For young children, the ritual both welcomes the child into the wider church as well. as our local congregation. It is a blessing and a promise that the child will be raised with the unconditional love that is God. And for many families it is also the time of “christening” – the ritual of giving the child its “Christian” name.
In our church, baptism consists of a meditation on its meanings, the offering of the blessing on the child (or adult), the naming (of the child), and the passing of the baptismal bowl. The bowl was made by our church member and potter, Susie Stone. Each person in the circle touches the water as it passes, and offers a silent or spoken blessing on the person being baptized. Then the minister touches the water with the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead, invokes the names and presence of God, and in the case of infants, lifts up and presents the child to the community.
Seasons and Celebrations in Worship at College Heights
Day of the Dead (All Saints Day)
Our church worships in a special way on the Sunday closest to Halloween. All Hallow’s Day, or All Saints Day, or Day of the Dead, is November 1, the day after Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve), according to the traditional church calendar – but we celebrate.it on the nearest Sunday. The Catholic church honored 364 saints, one for each day on the calendar – except for All Saints Day, which honored all the other saints not on the calendar. We use this day to honor all our “saints” – friends, relatives, or others we admire who have died. We usually decorate the altar and sanctuary in a manner reminiscent of the way Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico – with pictures and mementos of our dear departed ones, offerings of food and drink and flowers for the dead, and “calacas” – playful images of skeletons — on the altar table. It is a time to mock death and to celebrate life – thanking God for the gift of the lives of these people who mean so much to us.
Advent and Christmas
Advent is the four-week period culminating with Christmas and Christmas Sunday. Our church begins this time with a potluck and “Hanging of the Greens” party on the Friday evening before the first Sunday of Advent, when we decorate the church for the season. Each Sunday in Advent, we light one of the four Advent candles in the hanging wreath -symbolizing Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy, the spiritual gifts of Christmas. The scriptures for these four Sundays illuminate or tell parts of the Christmas story, and the sermons usually focus on these themes. The last Sunday before Christmas Day (or the Sunday of Christmas, if it falls on that day) is Christmas Sunday – our choir performs special music, and the Christmas story is read from scripture. On Christmas Eve, we gather for a special worship at 10 pm, singing carols, listening to the “lessons” of the story of Jesus’ birth from the gospels, and lighting candles.
Lent and Easter
The season of Lent (from the “lengthening” of the days in late winter and early spring) marks the forty days leading up to Easter. The forty days symbolizes the length of time that Jesus spent in the desert, meditating and praying, before beginning his ministry. This period also recalls the forty years that the people of Israel wandered in the desert before coming to their Promised Land. It begins with Ash Wednesday. We celebrate this ritual at our 6:30 am Wednesday Watch silent meditation group, to which all are welcome. We keep silence for half an hour, then ashes are put on the forehead with the sign of the cross, reminding us that we come from and return to ashes and dust, and calling us to humility and repentance as we begin the meditative, reflective time before Easter.
Our church usually offers special Bible or other study groups during Lent, as a way of deepening in faith and focusing on the meanings of the Easter season. We also have a display on the walls of the church, inviting us to meditate in a non-traditional way on the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross – the biblical and legendary points along Jesus’ way to his crucifixion. A Stations of the Cross pilgrimage through the streets of San Mateo has been created by our minister – photos and texts of the pilgrimage route are on the web at www.openchristianity.com.
Palm Sunday, marking the entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem a week before his crucifixion, marks the beginning of Passion Week: the sanctuary is decorated with palms, reminding us of the festive way that people greeted Jesus by putting branches in front of the ass he rode into the city. Maundy Thursday is celebrated at CHC at 7 pm with a service of Eucharist and the washing of feet, as Jesus did for his disciples. It is followed by a potluck meal, reminding us of Jesus’ last supper with his followers.
Easter Sunday worship at 10 am is a celebration of resurrection- that found in the gospel stories, as well as that found in our lives. Our choir performs, with other special music offered, and communion is served.
College Heights Church
1150 W. Hillsdale Blvd
San Mateo CA 94403
www.collegeheights.us
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Worship Materials: Other Worship Resources
From the Celebrating Mystery collection by William L. Wallace
THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION
- Ceremonies are points of cohesion beyond the boundaries of reason, a journey into the shadowy mystical world of the human spirit where truth reaches beyond the logical and the literal, yet they must not violate our rational intelligence or our world view.
- If God is like the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, then instead of asking God to forgive us, we should be concentrating on accepting God’s forgiveness and offering our forgiveness to others.
- If our objective is to become self-authenticating, empowered human beings, then in our prayer of intercession we should be asking God to help us do things, rather than asking God to do things that we ourselves are capable of doing.
- Since the most effective method of communication is interaction not lecture, we should turn many of our sermons into dialogue occasions.
- If the stories of the people are the most effective way of strengthening spirituality, we should make time in worship to hear some of them.
- To sing the mystery is to sing the songs of the earth, the songs of the people and the songs of the WAY.
- Worship should seek to create a balance between conservation and innovation.
- Worship in the era of the new cosmology needs to become more symbolic, more mystical, more of a dance of imagination than a march of dogma.
- The temple of God is not confined to something crafted by human hands, nor is it only human bodies but it is the whole of the magnificence of this vast Cosmos.
- To invoke the presence of God is to deny God’s omnipresence. Instead worship should help us to be in touch with our life-force and enhance its connectedness with the Earth, the Cosmos, other people and with that great mystery we call God.
- True contextualization is not so much about decorating our worship with indigenous fauna and flora but rather emphasizing the centrality of our relationship with the Earth and with the processes of the Cosmos.
- The fullness of worship does not come solely from words and music from Western sources but also from the earthed spiritualities of indigenous peoples, the dancing spirituality of Africa and the meditative spirituality of the East.
Give me warmth (BL)
Congregational alleluias. (BL)
Prayer / Meditation responses. (BL)
Intercessory responses. (BL)
Shalom. (BL)
May the fire. (BL)
We believe in a mystery we call God. (BL)
To you O God we offer. (BL)
May the peace of God.
Singing the Sacred, Vol 2 2014 World Library Publications
WORSHIP AS COSMIC LIBERATION
Liberation from alienation.
Liberation from the negative energy of some human beings.
Liberation from destructive actions towards the Cosmos and its processes.
Liberation for healing.
Liberation for cooperation.
Liberation for celebration
THE PROCESS OF WORSHIP
- THE IMMERSION in the processes of the universe including outlining the processes.
- THE AFFIRMATION. We are children of God who have come of age,
- coworkers with God within the processes.
- THE WILDERNESS. The transformation of the self, facing our complexity, achieving focus, orientation. Breaking the chains within our mind, moving from denial to acceptance, retribution to forgiveness, moving from the victim, rescuer, oppressor triangle.
- THE INTERACTION with wisdom (sacred texts) from the past, from the present and from each other.
- THE IMAGINATION (prayers for other life)
- THE STRATEGY. The implementation.
- THE SYMBOLIC RE-ENACTMENT
- THE GIFTING as receivers and givers.
- THE RECYCLING. Birth, life, death and rebirth.
- THE ASCENSION within and beyond – a vision of inclusiveness, all life is sacred. The suffering of breaking and pouring.
- THE COMMUNAL EPIPHANY. Absorption and individuation.
- THE ENERGIZING. The nurturing of hope through blessing.
A+B=Eucharistic Worship A only=Non Eucharistic Worship
A 1. THE APPROACH. The Motivation. Getting in touch with our confidence and our dissatisfaction. Preparing, relaxing, re-awakening our sense of wonder. Adoration, Confession, Assurance of Forgiveness.
2. THE WORD. The information. Bible, Church, People.
3. THE RESPONSE. The Reflection. The Internalizing. The Letting Go. The wider Vision – Intercession. The Commitment –The Offering.
B 4. THE COMMUNION.
a. The Offertory (the bread, our flesh, all of nature). Seeing God in all things
b. The Eucharistic Prayer. Celebrating God and Life. Remembering Jesus.
c. The Breaking of the Bread. Coping with and transforming pain.
d. The Sharing. The Unitive action. Consuming Bread and Wine. Exploring One-ness. God and I are one.
Notes 1) One or other of these elements could be focused on more than the other in a particular service, preferably in a planned sequence.
2) Since energy is the primary reality, all worship should aim to facilitate the flow of positive energy through physical movement, through singing, through use of images. Imageless people are only half alive as are people enslaved by images. We need a dynamic dialectic.
INVITATIONS TO WORSHIP
1. We come to celebrate the mystery that is both beyond and within, the mystery that is beyond all words
yet reflected in a thousand images
and all the cultures of this earth.
2. O God, may our encounter with you
heighten our sense of wonder,
increase our experience of awe,
deepen our awareness of what lies beyond and within ourselves.
And may our journey be along your WAY of affirmation, delight, wholeness and meaningful sacrifice.
AFTER PRAYERS OF SELF-AWARENESS
1. Leader: In forgiving others, we open our hearts to the mercy of God.
All: IN LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES, WE FIND NEW LIFE.
2. Leader or Assurance of Forgiveness
2. All: GOD HAS MERCY HAS MERCY ON US ALL, ALLELUIA.
CHRIST HAS MERCY ON US ALL, AMEN.
GOD HAS MERCY ON US ALL,
GOD HAS MERCY ON US ALL, ALLELUIA.
(for music see Singing the Sacred Vol1 World Library Publications)
4. Leader: Hold up your head, pick up your life and go forward with God.
BEFORE THE BIBLE READING
Listen with imagination to the words of scripture.
Select with discrimination what speaks to you.
BEFORE OR AFTER THE BIBLE READING
May the words break into images
and the Spirit’s fire touch our hearts.
AFTER THE BIBLE READING
May these words help us to learn from the past and listen for God’s word today.
AFFIRMATION OF AWARENESS
In the white light
we glimpse the colors of the rainbow –
In the darkness
we see the hues of our spirit ‑
In our encounter with emptiness
we discover the patterned fullness of the vast inner and outer world
In the intermingling of tears of sorrow and joy we find wholeness of life-
In entering the sorrows of another
we find healing for our own grief –
For the totality of compassion
is immeasurably greater
than the sum of all destructive suffering ‑
In stepping aside from the self that we can see
we discover the unseen self,
the spark that links us with all other sparks of that divinity
which sets the world alight.
And in allowing ourselves to be embraced by the mystery we discover our heart’s delight.
A PARAPHRASE OF PART OF THE PEACE PRAYER OF ST FRANCIS
O loving Christ may I become an instrument of your peace:
Grant that I may learn
To strive but not compete,
To be empowered without seeking to oppress,
To stand tall without looking down on others,
To be aware of my inner wisdom
Without attempting to inflict it on anyone else.
For it is in letting go that we find peace,
In abandoning arrogance that we find truth
And in taking risks that we find love.
A PARAPHRASE OF THE LORD’S PRAYER
O God of Sky and Earth
We reverence your presence
Both within us and beyond
May what we eat sustain us
In the Way of compassionate sharing.
Help us to be forgiving –
Forgiving others, forgiving ourselves.
Liberate us from guilt
That learning from our mistakes
We may move beyond self-centeredness
To that depth of being
In which we are one with all things.
This Way of love, peace and justice
Is for the Earth, for human beings and for all living creatures
Both now and forever. AMEN.
A COSMIC CREDO
I believe in the Cosmos and its processes as a reflection and embodiment of the Mystery within and beyond it, the nameless Mystery which I dare to call God.
I celebrate the creative, transforming and empowering processes and discern these both in the life and death of Jesus Christ and in the continuing celebration of his existence.
I believe that forgiveness is of the essence of love,
that change is of the essence of life,
and that the individual only finds complete fulfillment in community.
I see death as part of a process of the recycling of life and the transformation of memory and the unity of energy as part of the heaven of the eternal NOW.
This is the way which I seek to walk with courage, compassion and with a song in my heart.
SO BE IT.
AN AFFIRMATION
We affirm
that we are part of a wonderfully mysterious universe,
that all life is inter-related in one vast web,
that our role lies in co-operating with and nurturing all life and the planet itself,
that human being are genetically one family and of equal value,
that every human being has the right to the basic necessities of life and to their form of culture and religion,
that each of us is on an evolving spiritual journey,
that we are all called to work to create a world of justice and peace, compassion and respect.
AN AFFIRMATION OF THE WAY
In walking the Way
we open our minds to the wisdom of God,
we open our spirits to the delight of God
and our whole being to the love of God.
ANOTHER AFFIRMATION OF THE WAY
As followers of the Way of Jesus we acknowledge our place in the wonderful web of nature and delight in the mystery of God who is in all and through all. We seek to live a life that is characterized by respect, compassion and loving kindness
for the Earth,
for all living creatures,
for other people and
for ourselves.
We are committed to building a better world – a world of peace and justice, wholeness and healing, and of the sharing of power and wealth.
We seek to achieve these goals through awareness, reflection and action, through cooperation and solidarity with others, through sharing the stories of the heart, and through working to create supportive challenging communities.
Our attitude to life will be one of hopeful participation in the processes of nature, openness to new possibilities, acceptance of change and delight in creativity. It will involve a willingness to attempt to resolve situations of conflict, through listening, forgiving, compromising, celebrating diversity and practicing inclusiveness in cooperation with all who share these goals.
We affirm the essential goodness of all human beings offering them acceptance and affirmation despite their immaturity and destructiveness. However we determined to follow Jesus in being willing to identify those people and groups in society who are not working for the benefit of ordinary people but who represent those who seek to use their wealth and power to control others. We aim to be both prophetic and sensitive choosing the right time to sound a word of warning or to protest against injustices. Beyond this, as our conscience allows, we will support those whose aim is to establish new evolving participatory communities and institutions.
With Christ we will seek to walk the Way, delight in the Presence and abide in the wonder of loving kindness. To achieve this goal, we will embark on the pilgrimage of developing our own spirituality through prayer and meditation, through exploration of the wisdom of sacred books including the Bible and through the shared stories of other people’s spirituality. In all this we will aim to place our lives in the hands of the God of love, in the manner of Christ and through the power of Spirit.
Note: This Affirmation could be used in five sections with space for reflection in between each section.
AFFIRMATION OF LIFE STYLE
The style of living which we seek to adopt is one in which we reverence and enjoy God’s mystery of life, a mystery that is greater than any image or ideology.
We will seek
to respect everything that lives,
to honor the needs of all the forms of life within the frame-work of the processes of nature,
to nurture and care for ourselves and other human beings without being manipulative, possessive or evasive,
to balance the rights of the individual against the needs of the community,
to flow with the seasons of nature and the seasons of the human heart,
to accept death as a part of life
to hold together work and play, activity and stillness and
with openness and compassion be a responsible
participant in the activities of the evolving Cosmos.
AN AFFIRMATION OF INCLUSIVENESS
I believe in the divine mystery that is beyond all definition yet reflected in a thousand images.
I believe in the expanding and recycling processes of nature and of the cosmos as a whole, epitomized in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I believe in the energy of spirit in all its creative, destructive and empowering activities.
I believe that the journey of forgiveness can free people from the power of past hurts.
I believe that everything is interconnected and interwoven and that in living this awareness lies the fullness of life.
I believe in the experience of eternity that comes through silence, wonder and love to transform the present moment.
I believe in my own value as a child of God and seek to see God in all other human beings.
I accept my role as a co-worker with God in the processes of the evolving Universe and determine to work for justice, peace and reverence for the whole of creation.
This is my resolve and I will seek to accomplish this through cooperation with all who share these goals; in the strength of imagination, compassion and wonder.
AFFIRMATION OF BELIEF
We believe
that all life is holy and interdependent;
that Earth is our sacred home to be nurtured and reverenced and not exploited;
that life is for Celebration – not denial;
that there is no place in love for fear or guilt;
that the divine mystery has many names but is always compassionate and just and delights in each of us;
that all human beings have the right to peace and justice;
that co-operation not competition, manipulation or dependency is our hope and destiny;
that despite all the destruction, ugliness and pain in the world, life is fundamentally good and beautiful and that in the end all will be well;
and that the interior journey is the most important enterprise that any human being can embark upon, for without inner peace we are unable to effectively contribute to the healing of the world.
COMMANDMENTS FOR TODAY (A Reflection)
- Above all else reverence and enjoy the mystery of life (God)
- Acknowledge that the mystery is incapable of being contained in any one image or ideology.
- Affirm life both in your thoughts and in your actions.
- Flow with the seasons of nature and the seasons of the heart. Balance work and play, activity and stillness. Accept death as a part of life.
- Respect and promote good human relationships.
- Respect everything that lives and seek to balance the needs of all life within the framework of nature and its processes.
- Nurture and care for yourself. Nurture and care for other people without being manipulative, possessive or invasive. Analyze what is happening in society and identify who seeks to control whom and how that process works. Support the oppressed, the marginalized and all who suffer injustice at the hands of rich and powerful institutions or individuals.
- Seek to balance the needs of the individual and the needs of the community so that all may enjoy fullness of life.
- See yourself in other people, other people in you and God in both. Accept and utilize your ability to control your thoughts and actions. Trust your common sense and your intuition. Seek to make friends with those who regard you as an enemy.
- Believe in your own spirituality and find within it your source of security. Acknowledge and learn from your inadequacies. Believe in your potential. Be open to the wisdom of others and know that it is in the letting go that we find life
deeper than the searching is the knowing
and deeper than the grieving is the mystery
in which darkness and light are ONE.
RESPONSES FOR PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
(for music, see “Boundless Life” Intercessory Responses on this website)
1. Leader: Creator God to you we pray ‑
All: HELP US HEAR YOUR CHILDREN’S CRY.
Leader: Most joyful God to you we pray
All: HELP US SHARE YOUR CHILDREN’S JOY.
Leader: Most loving God to you we pray –
All: HELP US SHARE OUR WEALTH WITH ALL.
Leader: O just and freeing God we pray –
All: HELP US STAND WITH ALL THE POOR.
Leader: O liberator God we pray –
All: HELP THE PEOPLE OWN THEIR POWER.
Leader: O living God to you we pray –
All: HELP US REVERENCE ALL OF LIFE.
2. Leader: In sharing compassion with others,
All: WE DRENCH OUR LIVES WITH THE LOVE OF GOD.
3. Leader: Holy Spirit
All: TURN OUR WORDS INTO ACTIONS.
4. Leader: We pray:
All: HELP US TO CARE FOR ALL OTHER LIVING CREATURES.
5. Leader: Wisdom comes from the fire of pain,
All: HEALING FROM THE WATERS OF OUR TEARS.
6. Leader: In the mystery of love,
All: LIFE SPRINGS OUT OF DEATH.
7. Leader: We give thanks,
All: HELP US REJOICE IN ALL THAT LIVES.
PRAYER / MEDITATION RESPONSES which do not seek God’s intervention
(For music see Prayer / Meditation Responses in Boundless Life Hymns)
1. In silence now we join to pray
LISTENING TO THE GOD WITHIN.
2. May rich discernment shape our prayers
AS WE LEARN FROM COSMIC LAWS.
3. As love’s compassion grows within
WE SHALL HEED THE PEOPLES’ CRIES
4. With all the poor we join to pray
MAY EARTH’S WEALTH BE SHARED BY ALL.
5. Empowered by justice, filled with hope
WE SHALL JOIN WITH EARTH’S OPPRESSED.
6. Aware how humans wound this Earth
WE RESOLVE TO SAVE ITS LIFE.
7. In meeting pilgrims’ varied ways
WE FIND TRUTH TAKES MANY FORMS.
8. When faced with life’s diversity
WE VIEW MYSTERY AS BUT ONE.
9. Through praying we transform our mind
TILL ALL LIFE BECOMES A PRAYER.
Verse 1 Alternative response:
“Listening to our Inner Voice” or “Guided by the Light Within.”
AFTER PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
Leader: True self-consciousness lies in awareness of others.
AN ACT OF COMMITMENT
We commit ourselves to build a better world ‑
a world in which people relate with reverence to nature
and to each other;
a world where pollution is eliminated
and our natural heritage of wildlife, plants and open space is preserved.
We shall work to create a better community ‑
a community where people are more concerned
for the welfare of others than for themselves;
where special attention is given to the needs of the less dvantaged;
where each person shares in the decision making;
where no one is deprived of friendship or acceptance;
a community where individuals of diverse race and culture
live in harmony, with mutual respect.
To this end we will seek to identify and control those forces in our society which produce injustice, disharmony and selfishness
and to support all that promotes
beauty and happiness, health and community.
This is the world we long to build.
We will seek to
FORGIVE, LOVE,
SHARE,
and GROW as persons,
so that these DREAMS
and HOPES may come true.
COMMITMENT TO ACTION
As followers of the Way we seek to translate our commitment into action through the creativity of God the nurturer, the example of Jesus the Holy One and in the power of life-giving Spirit.
OFFERTORY PRAYER
(for music for Shalom see Liturgical Resources in “Boundless Life” on this website)
All: TO YOU, O GOD, WE OFFER OUR LIFE-FORCE.
YOUR DIVINE ENERGY WITHIN US. UNITED IN FREEDOM
WE SING YOUR AGELESS SONG BEAUTY, JUSTICE, PEACE.
and/or SHALOM, SHALOM, SHALOM, SHALOM. (sung)
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.
---------------------
Where Are You? by Richard Holdsworth
Where are you, my Comfort?
In fears, apprehensions
Disruptions, grief, delays
Where are you, my Good?
In failures and temptations
Vengeance with malicious ways
Where is compassion when we need it?
It’s easier to turn away
And trust seems to abandon us
On stressful days
What took my peace?
Who stole your faith?
What happened to all beauty, style, elegance and grace?
I feel frazzled, anxious, I’m a mess, I admit it, OK?
Leave me alone
I can’t take it
Go away!
Where is Comfort?
Where is Good?
It is here:
I just forgot to bring it
I didn’t pack it for the race
I expected it to pop up
On demand
But I must nurture healing powers
To keep them close at hand
---------------------
READ ON ...
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The Future is Calling Us to Greatness with Michael Dowd
This historic series of 30-60 minute Skype interviews showcases the work of many of today’s leaders and luminaries regarding what to expect in the decades ahead ...
The Future is Calling Us to Greatness with Michael Dowd
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A worldwide movement is emerging at the nexus of science, inspiration, and sustainability. Beliefs are secondary. What unites us is a pool of shared values and commitments—and the vision of a just and healthy future for humanity and the larger body of life. This historic series of 30-60 minute Skype interviews showcases the work of many of today’s leaders and luminaries regarding what to expect in the decades ahead, what’s being done—what still needs to be done—and how to be in action despite enormous challenges. These 55 experts represent a veritable Who’s Who of prophetic inspiration.
Learn more about each speaker and their session!
Your Host – Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd is a bestselling evolutionary theologian and evangelist for an honorable relationship to the future. His bridge-building book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, notedskeptics, and by religious leadersacross the spectrum. His ministry has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on CNN, ABC News, and Fox News. Michael and his science-writer wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to nearly two thousand groups across North America since 2002. Their passion is showing how a deeply meaningful and fully evidence-based view of reality can inspire people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs to live in joyful integrity and cooperate in service of a just and thriving future for all. (Michael’s two TEDx talks and other video, audio, and text publications can be accessed here / His wikipedia page, here.)
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These sessions are now available for purchase and preview:
Monday, Jan 26
11:00am PT
Inspiring ‘Green for All’ Justice
with Nikki Silvestri
12:00pm PT
The 350.org Message and Movement
with Bill McKibben
1:00pm PT
The Largest Social Movement in the World
with Paul Hawken
2:00pm PT
Integral Wisdom for Challenging Times
with Ken Wilber
Tuesday, Jan 27
11:00am PT
Bringing Climate Science to Evangelicals
with Katharine Hayhoe
12:00pm PT
Speaking Prophetically in the U.S. Senate
with U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
1:00pm PT
Winning the Story Wars by Calling People to Greatness
with Jonah Sachs
2:00pm PT
Saving the Grandchildren of All Species
with James Hansen
Wednesday, Jan 28
11:00am PT
The Great Disruption and Realistic Hope
with Paul Gilding
12:00pm PT
Nature Means Business: A Positive Vision
with Amy Larkin
1:00pm PT
Peak Everything as a Blessing
with Richard Heinberg
2:00pm PT
The Future of God and Human Flourishing
with Deepak Chopra
Thursday, Jan 29
11:00am PT
Igniting a Generation of Young People
with Barbara Jefferson
12:00pm PT
Transition Culture, Transition Network
with Rob Hopkins
1:00pm PT
The Promise of Collective Intelligence
with Tom Atlee
2:00pm PT
Gracefully Navigating the Long Emergency
with James Howard Kunstler
Friday, Jan 30
11:00am PT
Giving Prophetic Voice to Climate Science
with Joe Romm
12:00pm PT
The Promise of Conscious Evolution
with Barbara Marx Hubbard
1:00pm PT
The Prophetic Political Role of Spiritual Progressives
with Rabbi Michael Lerner
2:00pm PT
Living Purposefully with Death in Mind
with Carolyn Baker
Saturday, Jan 31
11:00am PT
The Archdruid Report on the Big Picture
with John Michael Greer
12:00pm PT
Telling the Climate Story to Inspire Action
with Susan Joy Hassol
1:00pm PT
The Power of Social Change 2.0
with David Gershon
2:00pm PT
How Business Can Help Green the World
with Chris Henderson
Sunday, Feb 1
11:00am PT
Global Wisdom and the Pro-Future Mission of en*theos
with Brian Johnson
12:00pm PT
The Sacred Side of Science
with Nancy Ellen Abrams & Joel Primack
1:00pm PT
Sacred Economics and the Rebirth of a Beautiful World
with Charles Eisenstein
2:00pm PT
The Art of Planetizing the Movement
with Drew Dellinger
Monday, Feb 2
11:00am PT
Climate: The Greatest Moral Issue in History
with Kathleen Dean Moore
12:00pm PT
Why Science Literacy is Essential
with J. Marshall Shepherd
1:00pm PT
Re-Localizing What Matters Most
with Michael Brownlee
2:00pm PT
Change the Story, Change the Future
with David Korten
Tuesday, Feb 3
11:00am PT
Integral Practice as a Blessing to Future Generations
with Terry Patten
12:00pm PT
Generation Waking Up
with Joshua Gorman
1:00pm PT
The Only Thing Future Generations Care About
with Derrick Jensen
2:00pm PT
Resisting Violence to Women, the Planet, the Future
with Lierre Keith
Wednesday, Feb 4
11:00am PT
Evidential Mysticism: The Art of Creation Spirituality
with Matthew Fox
12:00pm PT
The Sacred Wild Within and Without
with Bill Pfeiffer
1:00pm PT
Evolutionary Lessons from a Living Planet
with Elisabet Sahtouris
2:00pm PT
The Climate Meme Project
with Joe Brewer
Thursday, Feb 5
11:00am PT
Breakthrough Communities, Breakthrough Possibilities
with Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel
12:00pm PT
Our Greatness is Expressed in Our Collective Conduct as a Species
with Duane Elgin
1:00pm PT
Evolving Wisdom in Service to a Healthy Future
with Craig Hamilton
2:00pm PT
Earth Honoring Faith
with Larry Rasmussen
Friday, Feb 6
11:00am PT
Project Drawdown
with Amanda Joy Ravenhill
12:00pm PT
Bidder 70, Peaceful Uprising, and Climate Justice
with Tim DeChristopher
1:00pm PT
The Shift Network: Promoting Personal and Planetary Transformation
with Stephen Dinan
2:00pm PT
Peak Prosperity, the Crash Course, and Helping Others Prepare
with Chris Martenson
Saturday, Feb 7
11:00am PT
How Chaos Catalyzes Emergence
with Peggy Holman
12:00pm PT
Emerging Faith for Emerging Challenges
with Brian McLaren
1:00pm PT
The ManKind Project and Gift Community
with Bill Kauth
2:00pm PT
Permaculture as Right Relationship to Reality
with Peter Bane
Sunday, Feb 8
11:00am PT
This Sacred Earth: Faith, Science, and the Future
with Philip Clayton
12:00pm PT
It’s Time for an Integral Islam
with Amir Ahmad Nasr
1:00pm PT
Global Dark Green Integrity
with Bron Taylor
2:00pm PT
Reality Is Lord! — Science, God, and Evil on a Rapidly Overheating Planet
with Michael Dowd
Symposium Overview
Now available for purchase individually or the complete set!
We each have experienced times of trouble that threaten to overwhelm our individual lives. In such times, a vision of possibility is essential. The same holds for the punctuations in history when whole societies face troubles of an immense and uncharted variety. Truly, we have arrived at such a time. Humans, unwittingly, have become a planetary force. We are changing irreversibly the very climate of our world. Henceforth, any actions we take as individuals and societies will be done in the new light of climate change. What vision will carry us forward and inspire us to work together? What vision will charge us with a sense of heroic purpose that the future is indeed calling us to greatness?
“How can we face the large-scale challenges of our time with hearts of gratitude, passion for life, and inspiration to be in action in service to the future?” This and related questions are explored in this Virtual Conference with some of the world’s most helpful voices regarding the challenges and opportunities we can expect in the coming decades, what is currently being done and what still needs to be done, and how, as individuals and groups, we all can participate in the Great Work of co-creating a just and healthy future for humanity and the larger body of life.
A related goal of this Skype interview series is to lift up a worldwide movement that has been emerging for decades at the nexus of science, inspiration, justice, and sustainability. Beliefs are secondary. What unites tens of millions of the religious and non-religious alike is a pool of common values, priorities, and commitments for living in right relationship to reality and working together to foster a thriving future for all. We feel our moment in the arc of history, such that, “The past is rooting for us and the future is calling us to greatness.”
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Start:
January 26, 2015
End:
February 8, 2015
Location:
wherever you are!
online
virtual conference
Contact:
Contact Our Support Team
Website:
https://www.entheos.com/The-Future-is-Calling-Us-to-Greatness/?c=progressive-christianity
Email:
support@progressivechristianity.org
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ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Pt. Fosdick Dr. NW#80
Job Listings
FacebookTwitterWebsiteEmailYouTubeOur mailing address is:
ProgressiveChristianity.org
4810 Pt. Fosdick Dr. NW#80
Gig Harbor, Washongton 98335, United States
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