Weekly Recap for Tuesday, June 21, 2016 from ProgressiveChristianity.org in Gig Harbor, Washington, United States "Never underestimate the power in human beings to do evil to their fellow human beings. This and more in our Free Weekly Recap of our most viewed and new resources from last week."
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We delved into the topics of: Orlando Tragedy, Atheists, Seekers and Summer Solstice.
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"The Tragedy of the Orlando, Florida Massacre"
John Shelby Spong
I love my country I grieve that so many of my fellow citizens today feel such fear, anxiety and insecurity that they can respond to the politics of hate.READ ON ...
I grieve deeply over these attacks. I grieve even more when one of our candidates for the presidency of this nation seeks to use this tragedy to score political points. I am amazed to hear not only innuendo from one of them, but also actual hints that the president of the United States is either so weak and inept as to be helpless in the face of this threat, or is actually in collusion with these terrorists, thus revising the charges this candidate once made that our president was not born in the United States, but in Kenya, and is really a Muslim. As lawyer Joseph Welsh once said to Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin when he was on a witch hunt for communists: “Have you no sense of decency?” Those words are once more totally in order to be spoken in our national life at this time.I love my country I grieve that so many of my fellow citizens today feel such fear, anxiety and insecurity that they can respond to the politics of hate.READ ON ...
I also grieve that terrorism is now linked with homophobia, which makes one of America’s most oppressed minorities newly vulnerable. I recently learned from members of the Orlando gay community that the Orlando killer had himself not only been to this gay club on a number of occasion, but that he also had contacted some of his victims previously through a gay dating app, presumably seeking to line up sexual encounters. I recall well that some of my church’s most homophobic clergy turned out to be self-hating and deeply repressed gay men. If repressed homosexuality turns out to be a factor in this tragedy then I fear it will once again open the floodgate of hostility toward the LGBT community. It makes me want to march once again in the New York City Gay Pride Parade in an act of solidarity.
This nation’s rising consciousness about homosexuality will not be suppressed or turned around, but mentally sick people will make others their victims, before this prejudice joins other such shameful moments in our nation’s history as the witch hunt of Salem, Massachusetts. A dying prejudice can sometimes be a lethal force in our society. I never want to underestimate the power in human beings to do evil to their fellow human beings.
The gun laws in this country will also once more be debated. The ratio of guns to American citizens is the highest in the world—eighty guns for every hundred Americans. Despite the political rhetoric that suggests that the 2nd Amendment is about to be repealed, I know of no candidate for president who calls for such an action. What has been called for is the banning of the sale of assault weapons that have no purpose being in the hands of anyone except those in the Armed Services fighting to keep this nation free. There is nothing in the 2nd Amendment that should permit an individual to own an assault weapon with a magazine holding thirty bullets. No one hunts with such a weapon. No one needs such a weapon to protect his or her safety. It is a nothing other than a weapon of war. If individual citizens can legally own an assault weapon then why not sell them a tank or a canon? Gun laws can be made sane, safe and sensible under the terms of the 2nd Amendment. The current political rhetoric that suggests the contrary is irresponsible, ignorant and profoundly dangerous.
I love my country I grieve that so many of my fellow citizens today feel such fear, anxiety and insecurity that they can respond to the politics of hate. We will honor the victims of the Orlando killings by building a nation based on hope for a better tomorrow for all Americans, not on vengeance, exclusiveness and the fear of those who are “not like us.”
John Shelby Spong.
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"Wolf Blitzer Learned that there are Indeed Atheists in Fox-holes! ..."
Rev. Dawn Hutchings
The antidote to the creeds is to stop debating how Jesus is like God and to ask ourselves, how is God like Jesus?
READ ON ... This Trinity Sunday sermon owes much to John Shelby Spong’s book a “New Christianity for a New World” You can listen to the sermon here then watch the tail end of the Wolf Blitzer interview mentioned in the sermon.
In the midst to the devastation and debris that was left of the town of More, Oklahoma, it was all to clear that the power of the tornado that whipped through such a heavily populated area had left behind the kind of destruction that tears not only the foundations of buildings but also of lives. In living rooms around the world millions of people watched as the news media descended on what was left in the wake of nature’s wrath. One particular news report is still reverberating around the Internet. I had just come from my office where I had spent the afternoon, reviewing the Doctrine of the Trinity in order to write this sermon. My wife Carol was in the kitchen cooking supper and I sat down to catch up on the news events of the day. I tuned into CNN and there amidst the rubble of More Oklahoma was the familiar face of Wolf Blitzer. It was the day after the tornado and the big name newscasters had been rushed to the scene in time to provide color-commentary on the evening news. Wolf was interviewing a young mother named Rebecca Vitsmun who was holding a squirming her 19 month old, toddler Anders in her arms. The young mother gave a blow-by-blow account of her narrow escape from. All afternoon Rebecca was paying attention to the weather reports. Rebecca was not from More, but rather from New Orleans and so she was not used to tornado warnings. She’d grown up with Hurricane warnings and so her first instinct was to evacuate the area. But her husband and neighbours had told her that the safest thing to do would be to take shelter. Six-teen minutes before the tornado struck the weather service issued a warning to take shelter. As Rebecca’s husband raced home from work, this young mother grabbed her laptop, a mattress and her toddler and took shelter in the bathtub. Huddled in the tub covered by a mattress she anxiously watched the reports on her laptop. Tracing the path of the tornado, Rebecca realized that the tornado was headed straight for her street. Rebecca’s New Orleans’ instinct kicked in and with her baby in her arms she jumped into her car and without taking time to put her baby in the car seat, she drove as fast as she could out on to the freeway where she pulled over and put Anders into his car seat and then drove some more. After the tornado, Rebecca reunited with her husband, and they headed back to what was left of their home. The bathtub was so full of debris that it was clear to them that Rebecca’s instincts had saved her life.
After telling her harrowing tale, Wolf Blitzer congratulated Rebecca for saving her baby’s life and then said to this young woman, “You gotta thank the Lord.” Rebecca was clearly taken aback by the comment and hesitated. I held my breath, annoyed as hell at Blitzer for asking such a stupid question. Rebecca’s hesitation gave Blitzer the opportunity to move on, but no he just had to have an answer, and so he persisted. “Do you thank the Lord?” Rebecca gave Blitzer the kind of look that says, “Are you kidding me?” Then Rebecca gave Blitzer an answer that he sure wasn’t expecting from an American from the heartland of Oklahoma; Rebecca smiled as she answered, “I’m actually an atheist.”
As Rebecca laughed awkwardly, I cheered so loudly that Carol came into the room to see what was going on. I was so proud of that young woman for not going along with Blitzer’s nonsense. Who in their right minds would believe in a Lord who would pluck one family out of a bathtub and let seven children die in an elementary school? I mean, if this Lord that Bilitzer is so willing to give credit too is such a great rescuer, why didn’t this Lord change the twister’s path and send it out over the cornfields where the only damage it could do would be to crops?
I know they say there are no atheists in fox-holes, but I for one think that that bathtub Rebecca was hunkered down in was indeed a fox-hole and I’m delighted that when all was said and done, she and little Anders were saved by her instinct for survival. As for this Lord of Blitzer’s, well, judging by the awkwardness that Blitzer exhibited after Rebecca stood her ground, I can only guess that this reporter misjudged the situation. Blitzer a city-slicker from New York, assumed that all the local yokels must be bible-thumping Christians, and he probably thought that his question would have received a mindless ra, ra, yeah God, kind of response from all Oklahomans. I trust he won’t make that mistake again. I kind of feel sorry for him, because after all it only took a few hours before some televangelist’s were suggesting that God did indeed send the tornado to teach people a lesson. According to some bible-thumpers, if people prayed hard enough they would have been saved. Some even went so far as to suggest that the tornado was punishment for gay marriage.
I’ve got to say, that I’d love to find a way to send Rebecca a cheque to help her recover from the devastation. If I could, I’d send her a note thanking her for her honesty and telling her that this particular pastor would rather be an atheist than believe in Mr. Blitzer’s version of the Lord. If his portrayal of God’s interference in the world is the best our culture can offer, I suppose we only have ourselves to blame. For far too long now too many churches and too many Christians have allowed an image of God to stand tall; an image that no thinking person could ever believe is anything more than an idol of someone’s sick and twisted imagination. So, I don’t blame Wolf Blitzer for his faux pas. In fact, judging by the amount of media coverage his interview has received, I’m actually grateful to him, for beginning the kind of conversation between atheists and believers alike that should continue until we can finally put the idol we have made of God to rest once and for all on the dung heap of history.
It’s long past time for us to revisit the old images and imaginings and cast the idols out from our midst. I know that it’s Trinity Sunday and today, I’m supposed to be explaining the doctrine of the Trinity to you and you know that I would if I could, but I can’t.
So me tell you another story. It’s a story right out of the last chapter of Jack Spong’s book“A New Christianity for a New World.” The chapter is entitled: “The Courage to Move Into the Future.” In it Jack tells the story of a student he had at Harvard, who was pursuing a Master of Divinity Degree. Kathrin Ford, like many women who have taken on the task of preparing themselves for a career in the church, was struggling with the constraints of a patriarchal institution that the church has become and was wondering if the church, as she had experienced it, would ever be open to the direction she felt compelled to travel.
Jack describes the experience of being in class listening to her preach a sermon like this: “She stood before us quite still, quite silent, then she began. Slowly at first, she painted with words the picture of a town facing a major flood. The rains came with such relentlessness and over such a long period of time that the river rose dangerously. The people formed sandbag brigades to protect the tings they valued. The sandbag walls rose, but the floodwaters rose faster. Soon water covered their fields, drowning first the wheat, then the canola, then the onions. The people, seeking safety inside their homes, watched with a sense of helplessness as their livelihoods were destroyed before their eyes. They wanted to flee, but their roots were too deeply planted; they were so totally attached to the values enshrined in their farms and town that they felt they could not leave. Still the river kept rising. It now covered the first floor of their homes. As they watched their family photographs—symbols of their past—curl up and float away on the water, they felt they were losing the very meaning of their lives. Soon their physical sustenance was so endangered: the floodwaters covering their town began to seep into the ground, contaminating their ground-water. Their homes were becoming unlivable. If they stayed in this place, they would surely die. Yet something powerful and relentless inside themselves continued to urge them to remain where they were. Rationally they knew they had to leave, but emotionally they were immobilized.
Katie Ford described this scene with evocative images that kept her classmates raptly attentive. Yet they had no idea where she was going with the image or this theme, nor did Jack. Then with all of them caught up in her symbolic description of a killing flood, she began to speak the words of the Christian creed, beginning with the phrase, “I believe in God, the Father almighty.” This creed, she said, like that flooded town, “has become for me an unlivable place.” She then described the history of creedal formation. The creeds were “a response to debate,” she said, “designed to tell who was an insider in the Christian faith and who was not. A creed is a border-maker,” she added, fashioning her developing definition. No Christian creed is “a full statement of faith,” she continued. It is only the Christian community’s ecclesiastical “response to arguments.” All the undebated issues, she said, have been left out. That is why in the creeds “there is no mention of love, no mention of the teachings of Jesus, no mention of the kingdom of God being present in our bodies and souls, no mention of God as the ground of life.” The creeds have fallen on us, she asserted, like the rain over the centuries. They have been repeated endlessly, shaping our minds and our souls to the point where we cannot think of God outside the forms they affirm, or the boxes they create. They have permeated our land, shaped our values and yes, even entered the intimate assumptions of our living space. “Drop by Drop,” she said, our religion, as it come to be embodied in our creeds, has given us “a profoundly dangerous doctrine of God.” It has covered our fields, she said, and destroyed the very crops that Christians are supposed to harvest as their livelihood. It has contaminated our groundwater. “We have been drinking in the Father God our whole life.”
“This creed,” she argued, “has, like that flood, rendered our traditional religious dwelling places no longer habitable.” Yet this creed, and the definitions that arise from it, are so powerfully present in our emotions that even when we judge it to be a destructive document that is killing our very souls, still it whispers, “You cannot leave. You will be lost if you wander. You must stay where you are.” But we cannot stay. The price is too high.
These creeds have give us a God, she said, “Who caused the death of his son, the damnation of disbelievers, the subordination of women, the bloody massacre of the crusades, the terror of judgment, the wrath toward homosexuals, the justification of slavery.” She went on to delineate that God of history: “The Father almighty God embodied in the creeds is a deity who chooses some of the world’s children while rejecting others. He is the father who needs a blood sacrifice, the father of wrath, the father of patriarchal marriage, the father of male ordination and female submission, the father of heterosexual privilege, the father of literal and spiritual slavery.” She examined and dismissed the ways various church people have tried to address the “unlivability” of the creeds, the no-longer-belivable quality of the Father God as traditionally defined. Some do it, she said, by nibbling or tinkering around the edges of reform. Making God-language less masculine and more inclusive is a positive step, she conceded, but it does not go deep enough. The real issue, she continued, “is that God is not a person. God is not a being. God is Being itself.” There was stunned silence in the room as Katie drove her conclusion home. This God, who is “Being itself, is not the father of life,” she countered. “This god is life.” Our creeds, she concluded, have now made it impossible for us Christians to continue to live in the place to which these creeds have taken us.”
That story mirrors my own dilemma. These are exciting times in which to live in the church. I believe that we are living smack dab in the middle of a reformation. I’m not alone in that belief. Reformations may be exciting but they are not the most comfortable places to be. I confess that there are days when I long for the Blessed Assurance of a bygone era. But the rains began to fall a long time ago and the waters have been rising and it’s time to go. This old boat might have sprung a leak or two, and there are quite a few souls who’ve felt the need to abandon ship. But she can still float. I believe that it’s up to those of us who are still aboard not to scuttle her, but to begin to bail her out. Fortunately there’s still enough of us left and if we start bailing know we just might be able to trough enough water over-board to get us where we need to go.
The God we tried to capture in the creeds with doctrine of the Trinity is too small. God is not a person. God is not a being. God is Being itself. This God who is Being itself, is not the father of life. This God is life. This God who is life, is reflected by a rainbow in the sky; a rainbow that shines forth even as the rains continue to fall, a rainbow that promises that there is nothing in life that can separate us from God; not even our carefully crafted, held and recited creeds. While the nostalgia for a simpler time might make us reach for the familiar, and the creeds, like old movies and popular songs from a bygone era, just might let us return momentarily to our childhood, we have lives to live. There are people to meet, places to see, new worlds that beckon, worlds full of people pondering the mysteries of the cosmos, worlds full of people trying to explain their encounters with the Divine, worlds that refuse to be held captive to creeds or dogmas, worlds where people are eager to explore the wonders of creation and speculate on the nature of our Creator, worlds beyond our abilities to imagine.
At our best we Christians are a resurrection people who are more resilient than our institutions. We can confront our questions and doubts and live. The antidote to the creeds is to stop debating how Jesus is like God and to ask ourselves, how is God like Jesus? Perhaps then we can begin to understand that the more we live like Jesus the more we can recognize God in us. Perhaps then we will rediscover the truth Jesus exemplified, and live as Jesus taught us to live, loving God and loving our neighbours.
I’m pretty sure that there are millions and millions of people out there who do not know the creeds and who couldn’t care less about learning about our creeds and doctrines. But I’m very sure that there are also millions and millions of people out there who do know about Jesus, and I’m pretty sure they are interested in getting to know people who embody the teachings of Jesus.
This ship may indeed be old, and she may have more than one or two leaks, but her timbers are sound, and she’s brought us a long way, I think she’s up to the task of sailing beyond the boundaries of our safe harbour, out there into the vast unknown, where there are such wonders waiting to be discovered. Sailing upon the turbulent seas of a new Reformation is about as unsettling as life in tornado alley. These uncharted waters upon which we sail may frighten us from time to time, but the new lands they will lead us too promise to be lush enough to support life. I for one can’t wait to explore these new territories.
Benediction: God is not a person.
God is not a being.
God is Being itself.
This God who is Being itself,
is not the father of life.
This God is life.
life that
lives and breathes
in with and through us.
now and forever. Amen.
Shadow and Substance is a great Hymn of the Day for Trinity Sunday: view it here
Visit Pastor Dawn’s Website Here
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"What it Means to be a Seeker"
The antidote to the creeds is to stop debating how Jesus is like God and to ask ourselves, how is God like Jesus?
READ ON ... This Trinity Sunday sermon owes much to John Shelby Spong’s book a “New Christianity for a New World” You can listen to the sermon here then watch the tail end of the Wolf Blitzer interview mentioned in the sermon.
In the midst to the devastation and debris that was left of the town of More, Oklahoma, it was all to clear that the power of the tornado that whipped through such a heavily populated area had left behind the kind of destruction that tears not only the foundations of buildings but also of lives. In living rooms around the world millions of people watched as the news media descended on what was left in the wake of nature’s wrath. One particular news report is still reverberating around the Internet. I had just come from my office where I had spent the afternoon, reviewing the Doctrine of the Trinity in order to write this sermon. My wife Carol was in the kitchen cooking supper and I sat down to catch up on the news events of the day. I tuned into CNN and there amidst the rubble of More Oklahoma was the familiar face of Wolf Blitzer. It was the day after the tornado and the big name newscasters had been rushed to the scene in time to provide color-commentary on the evening news. Wolf was interviewing a young mother named Rebecca Vitsmun who was holding a squirming her 19 month old, toddler Anders in her arms. The young mother gave a blow-by-blow account of her narrow escape from. All afternoon Rebecca was paying attention to the weather reports. Rebecca was not from More, but rather from New Orleans and so she was not used to tornado warnings. She’d grown up with Hurricane warnings and so her first instinct was to evacuate the area. But her husband and neighbours had told her that the safest thing to do would be to take shelter. Six-teen minutes before the tornado struck the weather service issued a warning to take shelter. As Rebecca’s husband raced home from work, this young mother grabbed her laptop, a mattress and her toddler and took shelter in the bathtub. Huddled in the tub covered by a mattress she anxiously watched the reports on her laptop. Tracing the path of the tornado, Rebecca realized that the tornado was headed straight for her street. Rebecca’s New Orleans’ instinct kicked in and with her baby in her arms she jumped into her car and without taking time to put her baby in the car seat, she drove as fast as she could out on to the freeway where she pulled over and put Anders into his car seat and then drove some more. After the tornado, Rebecca reunited with her husband, and they headed back to what was left of their home. The bathtub was so full of debris that it was clear to them that Rebecca’s instincts had saved her life.
After telling her harrowing tale, Wolf Blitzer congratulated Rebecca for saving her baby’s life and then said to this young woman, “You gotta thank the Lord.” Rebecca was clearly taken aback by the comment and hesitated. I held my breath, annoyed as hell at Blitzer for asking such a stupid question. Rebecca’s hesitation gave Blitzer the opportunity to move on, but no he just had to have an answer, and so he persisted. “Do you thank the Lord?” Rebecca gave Blitzer the kind of look that says, “Are you kidding me?” Then Rebecca gave Blitzer an answer that he sure wasn’t expecting from an American from the heartland of Oklahoma; Rebecca smiled as she answered, “I’m actually an atheist.”
As Rebecca laughed awkwardly, I cheered so loudly that Carol came into the room to see what was going on. I was so proud of that young woman for not going along with Blitzer’s nonsense. Who in their right minds would believe in a Lord who would pluck one family out of a bathtub and let seven children die in an elementary school? I mean, if this Lord that Bilitzer is so willing to give credit too is such a great rescuer, why didn’t this Lord change the twister’s path and send it out over the cornfields where the only damage it could do would be to crops?
I know they say there are no atheists in fox-holes, but I for one think that that bathtub Rebecca was hunkered down in was indeed a fox-hole and I’m delighted that when all was said and done, she and little Anders were saved by her instinct for survival. As for this Lord of Blitzer’s, well, judging by the awkwardness that Blitzer exhibited after Rebecca stood her ground, I can only guess that this reporter misjudged the situation. Blitzer a city-slicker from New York, assumed that all the local yokels must be bible-thumping Christians, and he probably thought that his question would have received a mindless ra, ra, yeah God, kind of response from all Oklahomans. I trust he won’t make that mistake again. I kind of feel sorry for him, because after all it only took a few hours before some televangelist’s were suggesting that God did indeed send the tornado to teach people a lesson. According to some bible-thumpers, if people prayed hard enough they would have been saved. Some even went so far as to suggest that the tornado was punishment for gay marriage.
I’ve got to say, that I’d love to find a way to send Rebecca a cheque to help her recover from the devastation. If I could, I’d send her a note thanking her for her honesty and telling her that this particular pastor would rather be an atheist than believe in Mr. Blitzer’s version of the Lord. If his portrayal of God’s interference in the world is the best our culture can offer, I suppose we only have ourselves to blame. For far too long now too many churches and too many Christians have allowed an image of God to stand tall; an image that no thinking person could ever believe is anything more than an idol of someone’s sick and twisted imagination. So, I don’t blame Wolf Blitzer for his faux pas. In fact, judging by the amount of media coverage his interview has received, I’m actually grateful to him, for beginning the kind of conversation between atheists and believers alike that should continue until we can finally put the idol we have made of God to rest once and for all on the dung heap of history.
It’s long past time for us to revisit the old images and imaginings and cast the idols out from our midst. I know that it’s Trinity Sunday and today, I’m supposed to be explaining the doctrine of the Trinity to you and you know that I would if I could, but I can’t.
So me tell you another story. It’s a story right out of the last chapter of Jack Spong’s book“A New Christianity for a New World.” The chapter is entitled: “The Courage to Move Into the Future.” In it Jack tells the story of a student he had at Harvard, who was pursuing a Master of Divinity Degree. Kathrin Ford, like many women who have taken on the task of preparing themselves for a career in the church, was struggling with the constraints of a patriarchal institution that the church has become and was wondering if the church, as she had experienced it, would ever be open to the direction she felt compelled to travel.
Jack describes the experience of being in class listening to her preach a sermon like this: “She stood before us quite still, quite silent, then she began. Slowly at first, she painted with words the picture of a town facing a major flood. The rains came with such relentlessness and over such a long period of time that the river rose dangerously. The people formed sandbag brigades to protect the tings they valued. The sandbag walls rose, but the floodwaters rose faster. Soon water covered their fields, drowning first the wheat, then the canola, then the onions. The people, seeking safety inside their homes, watched with a sense of helplessness as their livelihoods were destroyed before their eyes. They wanted to flee, but their roots were too deeply planted; they were so totally attached to the values enshrined in their farms and town that they felt they could not leave. Still the river kept rising. It now covered the first floor of their homes. As they watched their family photographs—symbols of their past—curl up and float away on the water, they felt they were losing the very meaning of their lives. Soon their physical sustenance was so endangered: the floodwaters covering their town began to seep into the ground, contaminating their ground-water. Their homes were becoming unlivable. If they stayed in this place, they would surely die. Yet something powerful and relentless inside themselves continued to urge them to remain where they were. Rationally they knew they had to leave, but emotionally they were immobilized.
Katie Ford described this scene with evocative images that kept her classmates raptly attentive. Yet they had no idea where she was going with the image or this theme, nor did Jack. Then with all of them caught up in her symbolic description of a killing flood, she began to speak the words of the Christian creed, beginning with the phrase, “I believe in God, the Father almighty.” This creed, she said, like that flooded town, “has become for me an unlivable place.” She then described the history of creedal formation. The creeds were “a response to debate,” she said, “designed to tell who was an insider in the Christian faith and who was not. A creed is a border-maker,” she added, fashioning her developing definition. No Christian creed is “a full statement of faith,” she continued. It is only the Christian community’s ecclesiastical “response to arguments.” All the undebated issues, she said, have been left out. That is why in the creeds “there is no mention of love, no mention of the teachings of Jesus, no mention of the kingdom of God being present in our bodies and souls, no mention of God as the ground of life.” The creeds have fallen on us, she asserted, like the rain over the centuries. They have been repeated endlessly, shaping our minds and our souls to the point where we cannot think of God outside the forms they affirm, or the boxes they create. They have permeated our land, shaped our values and yes, even entered the intimate assumptions of our living space. “Drop by Drop,” she said, our religion, as it come to be embodied in our creeds, has given us “a profoundly dangerous doctrine of God.” It has covered our fields, she said, and destroyed the very crops that Christians are supposed to harvest as their livelihood. It has contaminated our groundwater. “We have been drinking in the Father God our whole life.”
“This creed,” she argued, “has, like that flood, rendered our traditional religious dwelling places no longer habitable.” Yet this creed, and the definitions that arise from it, are so powerfully present in our emotions that even when we judge it to be a destructive document that is killing our very souls, still it whispers, “You cannot leave. You will be lost if you wander. You must stay where you are.” But we cannot stay. The price is too high.
These creeds have give us a God, she said, “Who caused the death of his son, the damnation of disbelievers, the subordination of women, the bloody massacre of the crusades, the terror of judgment, the wrath toward homosexuals, the justification of slavery.” She went on to delineate that God of history: “The Father almighty God embodied in the creeds is a deity who chooses some of the world’s children while rejecting others. He is the father who needs a blood sacrifice, the father of wrath, the father of patriarchal marriage, the father of male ordination and female submission, the father of heterosexual privilege, the father of literal and spiritual slavery.” She examined and dismissed the ways various church people have tried to address the “unlivability” of the creeds, the no-longer-belivable quality of the Father God as traditionally defined. Some do it, she said, by nibbling or tinkering around the edges of reform. Making God-language less masculine and more inclusive is a positive step, she conceded, but it does not go deep enough. The real issue, she continued, “is that God is not a person. God is not a being. God is Being itself.” There was stunned silence in the room as Katie drove her conclusion home. This God, who is “Being itself, is not the father of life,” she countered. “This god is life.” Our creeds, she concluded, have now made it impossible for us Christians to continue to live in the place to which these creeds have taken us.”
That story mirrors my own dilemma. These are exciting times in which to live in the church. I believe that we are living smack dab in the middle of a reformation. I’m not alone in that belief. Reformations may be exciting but they are not the most comfortable places to be. I confess that there are days when I long for the Blessed Assurance of a bygone era. But the rains began to fall a long time ago and the waters have been rising and it’s time to go. This old boat might have sprung a leak or two, and there are quite a few souls who’ve felt the need to abandon ship. But she can still float. I believe that it’s up to those of us who are still aboard not to scuttle her, but to begin to bail her out. Fortunately there’s still enough of us left and if we start bailing know we just might be able to trough enough water over-board to get us where we need to go.
The God we tried to capture in the creeds with doctrine of the Trinity is too small. God is not a person. God is not a being. God is Being itself. This God who is Being itself, is not the father of life. This God is life. This God who is life, is reflected by a rainbow in the sky; a rainbow that shines forth even as the rains continue to fall, a rainbow that promises that there is nothing in life that can separate us from God; not even our carefully crafted, held and recited creeds. While the nostalgia for a simpler time might make us reach for the familiar, and the creeds, like old movies and popular songs from a bygone era, just might let us return momentarily to our childhood, we have lives to live. There are people to meet, places to see, new worlds that beckon, worlds full of people pondering the mysteries of the cosmos, worlds full of people trying to explain their encounters with the Divine, worlds that refuse to be held captive to creeds or dogmas, worlds where people are eager to explore the wonders of creation and speculate on the nature of our Creator, worlds beyond our abilities to imagine.
At our best we Christians are a resurrection people who are more resilient than our institutions. We can confront our questions and doubts and live. The antidote to the creeds is to stop debating how Jesus is like God and to ask ourselves, how is God like Jesus? Perhaps then we can begin to understand that the more we live like Jesus the more we can recognize God in us. Perhaps then we will rediscover the truth Jesus exemplified, and live as Jesus taught us to live, loving God and loving our neighbours.
I’m pretty sure that there are millions and millions of people out there who do not know the creeds and who couldn’t care less about learning about our creeds and doctrines. But I’m very sure that there are also millions and millions of people out there who do know about Jesus, and I’m pretty sure they are interested in getting to know people who embody the teachings of Jesus.
This ship may indeed be old, and she may have more than one or two leaks, but her timbers are sound, and she’s brought us a long way, I think she’s up to the task of sailing beyond the boundaries of our safe harbour, out there into the vast unknown, where there are such wonders waiting to be discovered. Sailing upon the turbulent seas of a new Reformation is about as unsettling as life in tornado alley. These uncharted waters upon which we sail may frighten us from time to time, but the new lands they will lead us too promise to be lush enough to support life. I for one can’t wait to explore these new territories.
Benediction: God is not a person.
God is not a being.
God is Being itself.
This God who is Being itself,
is not the father of life.
This God is life.
life that
lives and breathes
in with and through us.
now and forever. Amen.
Shadow and Substance is a great Hymn of the Day for Trinity Sunday: view it here
-------
"What it Means to be a Seeker"
Jason Silva
To be a seeker is to want to know the world. To be a seeker is to question dogma, is to rage against the darkness.
READ ON ...
“To be aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” – Walker Percy
Join Jason Silva as he freestyles complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses the truth and beauty of science in a form of existential jazz.
“To be a seeker is to have fire in the belly. To be a seeker is to want to know the world. To be a seeker is to question dogma, is to rage against the darkness.
To be a seeker is to want to scramble the self and reconstitute. To be a seeker is to never let go of what pulls us, what beckons.”
Watch More Shots of Awe on TestTube http://testtube.com/shotsofawe
-------
"Liturgy Selection"
To be a seeker is to want to know the world. To be a seeker is to question dogma, is to rage against the darkness.
READ ON ...
“To be aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” – Walker Percy
Join Jason Silva as he freestyles complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses the truth and beauty of science in a form of existential jazz.
“To be a seeker is to have fire in the belly. To be a seeker is to want to know the world. To be a seeker is to question dogma, is to rage against the darkness.
To be a seeker is to want to scramble the self and reconstitute. To be a seeker is to never let go of what pulls us, what beckons.”
Watch More Shots of Awe on TestTube http://testtube.com/shotsofawe
-------
"Liturgy Selection"
Summer SolsticeMidsummer… summer solstice… longest day of the year… our celebration of the earth, abundance and light at this time of year has ancient origins in many cultures’ spirituality.
Midsummer… summer solstice… longest day of the year… our celebration of the earth, abundance and light at this time of year has ancient origins in many cultures’ spirituality. We reaffirm our connection to the earth and our place in creation when we keep these celebrations too.
READ ON ...
"Prayer for creation" by Jim GarrisonCreator God, may we live in harmony with all of creation.
“As the swift seasons roll,”
May we daily heal our world,
both her peoples
and all that share life upon her.
And in healing,
may we help create the universe as You intend it.
Amen.-------
"Feast of the Common Table" by Curran JefferyA small table with an unlit candle
sits in the center of an open space.
Those who have come to The Feast
form a circle around the table.
HOST: (Check-in is optional depending on the occasion)
We gather together
To celebrate this day—
Let us share our concerns—
both joys and sorrows
that we bring to this Table.
(A moment of sharing followed by a moment of silence.)
IN UNISION:
For all that has been said and all that has been left unsaid,
We offer our blessing our hope and our prayers.
Amen.
HOST:
We light this candle to declare this space—
a sacred place.
IN UNISON:
We come to this table leaving for the moment the
world behind us.
We bring our successes and our failures, our virtues
and our transgressions,
We bring the lives we have lived
and the future we seek.
HOST:
We stand before the mystery and power of creation—
The power and majesty of life in all the ways
It manifests in our lives and in the world.
We look to the warmth of the sun,
The life giving rain and the bounty of the earth
For nourishment and sustenance.
IN UNISON:
We gather at this table ever mindful
Of the infinite forces that sustain
All of creation.
We acknowledge
The seen and the unseen,
The known and the unknown.
STEWARD:
We bring to this table the Bread of life.
As our ancestors entered the journey of history,
They learned to bake bread that all might fed
We bring to this table the Grail of Wisdom.
As our ancestors entered the journey of history,
They drank from the Water of life.
We began the difficult
And dangerous journey
Of wisdom and knowing.
HOST:
We honor the lives of all who have gone before—
That their lives may be remembered
In the great tapestry of being.
We bring to this Table
Their sacred memory.
(The departed may be remembered in silence,
by speaking their name or telling their story)
IN UNISON:
May their lives inspire us in the living of our own.
We celebrate the cycle of life.
We celebrate the triumph of being alive.
HOST:
We are the heirs of all that has gone before.
We look to the wise men and the wise women—
In our own journey for wisdom and knowledge.
We hear the voice of… (the readings.)
IN UNISON:
(An appropriate song, hymn or prayer)
STEWARD:
We gather at this table to celebrate our communion
Our feast is sanctified by the blood and spirit
Of those who have gone before.
Come to this feast in silence—
Bringing your greatest need and your greatest virtue
That your life may be blessed
In ways that pass all understanding—
Knowing that you are not alone.
Behold the Bread of Life.
As the earth has fed us,
Let us feed each other.
(The bread is passed)
Behold the Water of Life.
Let us drink from the Grail of Wisdom.
(The cup is passed.)
(A moment of silent meditation)
We have been fed at the Common Table.
IN UNISON:
May our lives
Be blessed
By the mystery of grace.
May we live our lives
In the spirit of peace
And the work of love.
HOST:
For our future
And for the future
Of all generations
Let us return to the world—
Our lives strengthened and nourished.
May our failures not hinder us.
May our success not tempt us.
IN UNISON:
May the Spirit of Life
Continue to bless us
And nourish us.
(sung in unison)
Go now in Peace
Go now in Peace
Say the spirit of love surround you
Everywhere, everywhere
You may go
READ ON ...
"Prayer for creation" by Jim GarrisonCreator God, may we live in harmony with all of creation.
“As the swift seasons roll,”
May we daily heal our world,
both her peoples
and all that share life upon her.
And in healing,
may we help create the universe as You intend it.
Amen.-------
sits in the center of an open space.
Those who have come to The Feast
form a circle around the table.
HOST: (Check-in is optional depending on the occasion)
We gather together
To celebrate this day—
Let us share our concerns—
both joys and sorrows
that we bring to this Table.
(A moment of sharing followed by a moment of silence.)
IN UNISION:
For all that has been said and all that has been left unsaid,
We offer our blessing our hope and our prayers.
Amen.
HOST:
We light this candle to declare this space—
a sacred place.
IN UNISON:
We come to this table leaving for the moment the
world behind us.
We bring our successes and our failures, our virtues
and our transgressions,
We bring the lives we have lived
and the future we seek.
HOST:
We stand before the mystery and power of creation—
The power and majesty of life in all the ways
It manifests in our lives and in the world.
We look to the warmth of the sun,
The life giving rain and the bounty of the earth
For nourishment and sustenance.
IN UNISON:
We gather at this table ever mindful
Of the infinite forces that sustain
All of creation.
We acknowledge
The seen and the unseen,
The known and the unknown.
STEWARD:
We bring to this table the Bread of life.
As our ancestors entered the journey of history,
They learned to bake bread that all might fed
We bring to this table the Grail of Wisdom.
As our ancestors entered the journey of history,
They drank from the Water of life.
We began the difficult
And dangerous journey
Of wisdom and knowing.
HOST:
We honor the lives of all who have gone before—
That their lives may be remembered
In the great tapestry of being.
We bring to this Table
Their sacred memory.
(The departed may be remembered in silence,
by speaking their name or telling their story)
IN UNISON:
May their lives inspire us in the living of our own.
We celebrate the cycle of life.
We celebrate the triumph of being alive.
HOST:
We are the heirs of all that has gone before.
We look to the wise men and the wise women—
In our own journey for wisdom and knowledge.
We hear the voice of… (the readings.)
IN UNISON:
(An appropriate song, hymn or prayer)
STEWARD:
We gather at this table to celebrate our communion
Our feast is sanctified by the blood and spirit
Of those who have gone before.
Come to this feast in silence—
Bringing your greatest need and your greatest virtue
That your life may be blessed
In ways that pass all understanding—
Knowing that you are not alone.
Behold the Bread of Life.
As the earth has fed us,
Let us feed each other.
(The bread is passed)
Behold the Water of Life.
Let us drink from the Grail of Wisdom.
(The cup is passed.)
(A moment of silent meditation)
We have been fed at the Common Table.
IN UNISON:
May our lives
Be blessed
By the mystery of grace.
May we live our lives
In the spirit of peace
And the work of love.
HOST:
For our future
And for the future
Of all generations
Let us return to the world—
Our lives strengthened and nourished.
May our failures not hinder us.
May our success not tempt us.
IN UNISON:
May the Spirit of Life
Continue to bless us
And nourish us.
(sung in unison)
Go now in Peace
Go now in Peace
Say the spirit of love surround you
Everywhere, everywhere
You may go
-------
"Summer Solstice Ritual: Honoring Nature’s Abundance; Remembering Celtic Spirituality" by Louise A. RasmussenCalling the Circle
Light the altar candles
White candle in the center:
While lighting the center white candle, say
Mother of all life, soul of our being, center of all our longing,
who shines for all and flows through all,
be with us, guide us, now and always
Candles representing the four directions:
As we light the candle of the east, we remember that it represents the
element of air, morning, spring, and birth.
As we light the candle of the south, we remember that it represents the
element of fire, noon time, summer and adulthood.
As we light the candle of the west, we remember that it represents the
element of water, evening, autumn, and maturity.
As we light the candle of the north, we remember that it represents the
element of earth, night time, winter, and old age.
The circle is open, where night and day, birth and death, joy and sorrow meet as one.
Seasonal Reading
This is the time of the summer solstice in our hemisphere,
When the light part of the day is at its longest.
In our part of the earth, Life reaches Her fullness.
She spreads Her radiance; Her greenness peaks.
She fills to capacity; opens completely.
And so She turns back toward the dark…
We celebrate Her radiance, a fullness of being
And the generous pouring forth of it.
And we raise energy for healing remembering
We are open channels for the moving energies of life.
Adapted from Glenys Livingstone, Starhawk
Check in time
Share what we brought to the altar, or a life story.
Centering time (15 minutes)
Into the quiet with a reading; out of the silence with chimes
It is a difficult
lesson to learn today,
to leave one’s friends
and family and deliberately
practice the art of solitude [and meditation]
for an hour or a day or a week.
For me, the break is most difficult….
And yet, once it is done,
I find there is a quality
to being alone that is
incredibly precious.
Life rushes back into the void,
richer,
more vivid,
fuller than before!
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Celtic Daily Prayer
Ritual: The Four Paths and Celtic Spirituality
Creation Spirituality recognizes that all of creation exists within cycles, rhythms, and seasons of growth. Just as there are four seasons, four winds, four geographical directions, so too are there four paths of spirituality. Understanding these paths helps us find our place in our spiritual journey and in the larger scheme of things. (Matthew Fox)
Each of the four paths will be honored in the following manner:
•candle lighting
•reading
•short silence
•chant/drumming:
Via Positiva
Awe and wonder… These are the joyful, ecstatic moments in our lives when we are filled with praise and thanksgiving for the beauty and grandeur of life. (Matthew Fox)
•Light the small yellow candle
•In Praise of Air by John O’Donohue
Let us bless the air,
Benefactor of breath,
Keeper of the fragile bridge
We breathe across.
Air waiting outside
The womb, to funnel
A first breath
That lets us begin
To be here,
Each moment
Drawn from
Its invisible stock.
Air: vast neighborhood
Of the invisible, where thought lives,
Entering, to arise in us as our own,
Enabling us to put faces on things
That would otherwise stay strange
And leave us homeless here.
Air, home of memory where
Our vanished days secretly gather,
Receiving every glance, word, and act
That fall from presence,
Taking all our unfolding in,
So that nothing is lost or forgotten.
•(moment of silence)
•drumming
Via Negativa
Letting go…These are the lonely, quiet moments in our lives when we are asked to sink into darkness and nothingness, to let pain be pain, and accept the mysteries of life. (Matthew Fox)
•Light the small black candle
•For Suffering by John O’Donohue
May you be blessed in the holy names of those
Who, without you knowing it,
Help to carry and lighten your pain.
May you know serenity
When you are called
To enter the house of suffering.
May a window of light always surprise you.
May you be granted the wisdom
To avoid false resistance;
When suffering knocks on the door of your life,
May you glimpse its eventual gifts.
May you be able to receive the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and protect you
With the hard-earned light of past travail;
To remind you that you have survived before
And though the darkness now is deep,
You will soon see approaching light.
May the grace of time heal your wounds.
May you know that though the storm might rage,
Not a hair of your head will be harmed.
•(moment of silence)
•drumming
Via Creativa
Creativity…These are the fertile moments in our lives when we find creative expression and outlet for all the joy and suffering of our existence. Freeing creativity helps us move beyond our sorrow or stagnation.
•Light the small green candle
•In Praise of Water by John O’Donohue
Let us bless the grace of water:
The imagination of the primeval ocean
Where the first forms of life stirred
And emerged to dress the vacant earth
With warm quilts of color.
The well whose liquid root worked
Through the long night of clay,
Trusting ahead of itself openings
That would yet yield to its yearning
Until at last it arises in the desire of light
To discover the pure quiver of itself
Flowing crystal clear and free
Through delighted emptiness.
The courage of a river to continue belief
In the slow fall of ground,
Always falling farther
Toward the unseen ocean.
The river does what words would love,
Keeping its appearance
By insisting on disappearance;
Its only life surrendered
To the event of pilgrimage,
Carrying the origin to the end.
Seldom pushing or straining,
Keeping itself to itself
Everywhere all along its flow…
Let us bless the humility of water,
Always willing to take the shape
Of whatever otherness holds it,
The buoyancy of water
Stronger than the deadening,
Downward drag of gravity,
The innocence of water,
Flowing forth, without thought
Of what awaits it,
The refreshment of water,
Dissolving the crystals of thirst.
Water: voice of grief,
Cry of love,
In the flowing tear.
Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.
Blessed be water,
Our first mother.
•(moment of silence)
•drumming
Via Transformativa
A time of befriending new creation….These are the prophetic moments in our lives when we are called to share our talents and gifts with the hurting, fractured, dysfunctional aspects of our society. In so doing, we honor our connection to all of creation. (Matthew Fox)
•Light the small purple candle
•In Praise of the Earth by John O’Donohue
…Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.
Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.
The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed’s self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.
The humility of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.
Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.
Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.
•(moment of silence)
ªdrumming/chanting
Concluding the Ritual:
Join in a circle for a circle dance, ending with this reading:
(From Anam Cara by John O’Donohue)
Old age is a second time of innocence. There is the first innocence when we are children; but that innocence is based on naïve trust and ignorance. The second innocence comes later in your life, when you have lived deeply. You know the bleakness of life, you know its incredible capacity to disappoint and sometimes destroy. Yet notwithstanding that realistic recognition of life’s negative potential, you still maintain an outlook that is wholesome and hopeful and bright. That is a second kind of innocence. It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there. That light is innocent; it is not inexperienced but rather is innocent in its trust in the good and the true and the beautiful. Such a gaze from an old face is a kind of blessing.
"Summer Solstice Ritual: Honoring Nature’s Abundance; Remembering Celtic Spirituality" by Louise A. RasmussenCalling the Circle
Light the altar candles
White candle in the center:
While lighting the center white candle, say
Mother of all life, soul of our being, center of all our longing,
who shines for all and flows through all,
be with us, guide us, now and always
Candles representing the four directions:
As we light the candle of the east, we remember that it represents the
element of air, morning, spring, and birth.
As we light the candle of the south, we remember that it represents the
element of fire, noon time, summer and adulthood.
As we light the candle of the west, we remember that it represents the
element of water, evening, autumn, and maturity.
As we light the candle of the north, we remember that it represents the
element of earth, night time, winter, and old age.
The circle is open, where night and day, birth and death, joy and sorrow meet as one.
Seasonal Reading
This is the time of the summer solstice in our hemisphere,
When the light part of the day is at its longest.
In our part of the earth, Life reaches Her fullness.
She spreads Her radiance; Her greenness peaks.
She fills to capacity; opens completely.
And so She turns back toward the dark…
We celebrate Her radiance, a fullness of being
And the generous pouring forth of it.
And we raise energy for healing remembering
We are open channels for the moving energies of life.
Adapted from Glenys Livingstone, Starhawk
Check in time
Share what we brought to the altar, or a life story.
Centering time (15 minutes)
Into the quiet with a reading; out of the silence with chimes
It is a difficult
lesson to learn today,
to leave one’s friends
and family and deliberately
practice the art of solitude [and meditation]
for an hour or a day or a week.
For me, the break is most difficult….
And yet, once it is done,
I find there is a quality
to being alone that is
incredibly precious.
Life rushes back into the void,
richer,
more vivid,
fuller than before!
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Celtic Daily Prayer
Ritual: The Four Paths and Celtic Spirituality
Creation Spirituality recognizes that all of creation exists within cycles, rhythms, and seasons of growth. Just as there are four seasons, four winds, four geographical directions, so too are there four paths of spirituality. Understanding these paths helps us find our place in our spiritual journey and in the larger scheme of things. (Matthew Fox)
Each of the four paths will be honored in the following manner:
•candle lighting
•reading
•short silence
•chant/drumming:
Via Positiva
Awe and wonder… These are the joyful, ecstatic moments in our lives when we are filled with praise and thanksgiving for the beauty and grandeur of life. (Matthew Fox)
•Light the small yellow candle
•In Praise of Air by John O’Donohue
Let us bless the air,
Benefactor of breath,
Keeper of the fragile bridge
We breathe across.
Air waiting outside
The womb, to funnel
A first breath
That lets us begin
To be here,
Each moment
Drawn from
Its invisible stock.
Air: vast neighborhood
Of the invisible, where thought lives,
Entering, to arise in us as our own,
Enabling us to put faces on things
That would otherwise stay strange
And leave us homeless here.
Air, home of memory where
Our vanished days secretly gather,
Receiving every glance, word, and act
That fall from presence,
Taking all our unfolding in,
So that nothing is lost or forgotten.
•(moment of silence)
•drumming
Via Negativa
Letting go…These are the lonely, quiet moments in our lives when we are asked to sink into darkness and nothingness, to let pain be pain, and accept the mysteries of life. (Matthew Fox)
•Light the small black candle
•For Suffering by John O’Donohue
May you be blessed in the holy names of those
Who, without you knowing it,
Help to carry and lighten your pain.
May you know serenity
When you are called
To enter the house of suffering.
May a window of light always surprise you.
May you be granted the wisdom
To avoid false resistance;
When suffering knocks on the door of your life,
May you glimpse its eventual gifts.
May you be able to receive the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and protect you
With the hard-earned light of past travail;
To remind you that you have survived before
And though the darkness now is deep,
You will soon see approaching light.
May the grace of time heal your wounds.
May you know that though the storm might rage,
Not a hair of your head will be harmed.
•(moment of silence)
•drumming
Via Creativa
Creativity…These are the fertile moments in our lives when we find creative expression and outlet for all the joy and suffering of our existence. Freeing creativity helps us move beyond our sorrow or stagnation.
•Light the small green candle
•In Praise of Water by John O’Donohue
Let us bless the grace of water:
The imagination of the primeval ocean
Where the first forms of life stirred
And emerged to dress the vacant earth
With warm quilts of color.
The well whose liquid root worked
Through the long night of clay,
Trusting ahead of itself openings
That would yet yield to its yearning
Until at last it arises in the desire of light
To discover the pure quiver of itself
Flowing crystal clear and free
Through delighted emptiness.
The courage of a river to continue belief
In the slow fall of ground,
Always falling farther
Toward the unseen ocean.
The river does what words would love,
Keeping its appearance
By insisting on disappearance;
Its only life surrendered
To the event of pilgrimage,
Carrying the origin to the end.
Seldom pushing or straining,
Keeping itself to itself
Everywhere all along its flow…
Let us bless the humility of water,
Always willing to take the shape
Of whatever otherness holds it,
The buoyancy of water
Stronger than the deadening,
Downward drag of gravity,
The innocence of water,
Flowing forth, without thought
Of what awaits it,
The refreshment of water,
Dissolving the crystals of thirst.
Water: voice of grief,
Cry of love,
In the flowing tear.
Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.
Blessed be water,
Our first mother.
•(moment of silence)
•drumming
Via Transformativa
A time of befriending new creation….These are the prophetic moments in our lives when we are called to share our talents and gifts with the hurting, fractured, dysfunctional aspects of our society. In so doing, we honor our connection to all of creation. (Matthew Fox)
•Light the small purple candle
•In Praise of the Earth by John O’Donohue
…Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.
Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.
The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed’s self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.
The humility of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.
Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.
Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.
•(moment of silence)
ªdrumming/chanting
Concluding the Ritual:
Join in a circle for a circle dance, ending with this reading:
(From Anam Cara by John O’Donohue)
Old age is a second time of innocence. There is the first innocence when we are children; but that innocence is based on naïve trust and ignorance. The second innocence comes later in your life, when you have lived deeply. You know the bleakness of life, you know its incredible capacity to disappoint and sometimes destroy. Yet notwithstanding that realistic recognition of life’s negative potential, you still maintain an outlook that is wholesome and hopeful and bright. That is a second kind of innocence. It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there. That light is innocent; it is not inexperienced but rather is innocent in its trust in the good and the true and the beautiful. Such a gaze from an old face is a kind of blessing.
-------
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Events and Updates
Common Dreams Conference 2016
“Progressive Spirituality: New Directions”
September 16 - 19th, South Brisbane, Australia
The conference will allow you to explore future expressions of faith and spirituality as well as eco-theology, inter-faith dialogue, and indigenous spirituality. Key speakers: Dr Diana Butler Bass, Fred C. Plumer, Dr Val Webb, Michael Morwood and others.
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Common Dreams Conference 2016 – “Progressive Spirituality: New Directions”“For the last five decades, western religion has been undergoing a profound shift away from once familiar, institutionally organized forms of faith and theology towards experiential understandings and personal appropriations of the sacred made manifest in the lives of everyday people. A distinctive language has grown up around this shift – the word “religion” typically signifies religious organizations (like denominations and churches) and he word “spiritual” typically refers to encounters with God (if one is a theist), the ineffable, awe, or wonder (such as experiencing he Divine on a hike or in a sunset). Increasingly religions and spirituality have often been pitched at odds.”[Diana Butler Bass]
The 4th Common Dreams Conference will bring together a large number of people with an interest in progressive religion and it follows on from successful earlier conferences in Sydney (2007), Melbourne (2010) and Canberra (2013). The theme of the conference – Progressive Spirituality: New Directions – will allow participants to explore future expressions of faith and spirituality as well as eco-theology, inter-faith dialogue, and indigenous spirituality. A series of lectures, keynote addresses and electives by a distinguished panel of International and Australian speakers will examine Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Aboriginal expressions of spirituality.
Prominent among the speakers is the well-known American writer and researcher on progressive subjects, Dr Diana Butler Bass, Professor Pamela Eisenbaum (also from USA) and the outstanding Australian theologian and writer Dr Val Webb who will give major public addresses on the evenings of the conference. These addresses will be delivered as memorials to Marcus Borg, Nigel Leaves and Ian Mavor who have all passed away since the2013 conference; each of these significant figures was a good friend and supporter of Common Dreams.
Keynote presentations will be delivered by Michael Morwood (Aus), Fred Plumer(USA), Jana Norman (Aus), Saara Sabbagh (Aus), Graeme Mundine (Aus), andDiana Butler Bass. A panel of three speakers, Lorraine Parkinson (Aus), Margaret Mayman (NZ/Aus), and Pam Eisenbaum will give reflections on spirituality with this session to be structured so as to give the audience opportunities to interact with the speakers. The electives will expand on the themes introduced in the plenary sessions through workshops, interactive discussions, and lectures; each elective will be repeated so that you won’t have to agonise over which one to select if you find there are two topics of equal interest.
For the first time, a special program for emerging generations aimed at GenYs and Millennials will be held concurrently with the main program on the Saturday afternoon of the conference. It will be led by two of Australia’s most dynamic young clergy, Matt Cutler and Lucas Taylor, together with Cassandra Farrin and Deshna Ubeda who are prominent in efforts aimed at the same demographic in USA.
A pre-conference seminar, Introduction to Progressive Religion and Common Dreams, will be offered on the Friday afternoon. This will be particularly suited to those who are at an early stage of their progressive journey or to those who have not attended earlier conferences and wish to learn more about Common Dreams.
Each morning will begin with an optional period of Reflections in the Somerville House Chapel led by Jana Norman.
A new feature has been introduced by having an Artist in Residence (Alexandra Sangster) who with others will give, at appropriate points during the conference, commentary on proceedings as poetry, drama, and song.
Click on these links for full details of the Program, Speakers and Presentation Extracts.
Images
Keynote presentations will be delivered by Michael Morwood (Aus), Fred Plumer(USA), Jana Norman (Aus), Saara Sabbagh (Aus), Graeme Mundine (Aus), andDiana Butler Bass. A panel of three speakers, Lorraine Parkinson (Aus), Margaret Mayman (NZ/Aus), and Pam Eisenbaum will give reflections on spirituality with this session to be structured so as to give the audience opportunities to interact with the speakers. The electives will expand on the themes introduced in the plenary sessions through workshops, interactive discussions, and lectures; each elective will be repeated so that you won’t have to agonise over which one to select if you find there are two topics of equal interest.
For the first time, a special program for emerging generations aimed at GenYs and Millennials will be held concurrently with the main program on the Saturday afternoon of the conference. It will be led by two of Australia’s most dynamic young clergy, Matt Cutler and Lucas Taylor, together with Cassandra Farrin and Deshna Ubeda who are prominent in efforts aimed at the same demographic in USA.
A pre-conference seminar, Introduction to Progressive Religion and Common Dreams, will be offered on the Friday afternoon. This will be particularly suited to those who are at an early stage of their progressive journey or to those who have not attended earlier conferences and wish to learn more about Common Dreams.
Each morning will begin with an optional period of Reflections in the Somerville House Chapel led by Jana Norman.
A new feature has been introduced by having an Artist in Residence (Alexandra Sangster) who with others will give, at appropriate points during the conference, commentary on proceedings as poetry, drama, and song.
Click on these links for full details of the Program, Speakers and Presentation Extracts.
Images
Start:
September 16, 2016
End:
September 19, 2016
Location:
Somerville House
South Brisbane Australia Queensland
Organization:
Common Dreams
Website:
http://www.commondreams.org.au/
Email:
http://www.commondreams.org.au/index.php/contact-us
Telephone:
613 9571 4575
View all upcoming events here!
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