March 2013 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

No Subject
by R Williams 18 Mar '13

18 Mar '13

http://www.buchholzerstadtlauf.de/mltx/bbnfkvqi?zkiows

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3/14/13: A New Plan for Good Friday
by Ellie Stock 14 Mar '13

14 Mar '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR A New Plan for Good Friday Reclaiming Good Friday as a major focus of both Lent and the Christian story will be at the center of my life this year, when I spend that day in Richmond, Virginia, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. This is the church I served as Rector from 1969-1976 and it is a church to which I am still deeply and emotionally connected, even some thirty four years after leaving that position. St. Paul’s is a downtown, business center church located literally in the heart of Richmond, the capitol of the state of Virginia. It is surrounded by financial institutions, utility companies, insurance companies, hotels and a sports and convention center. It is literally across the street from the state capitol building, the Governor’s mansion and a statue of America’s first president, a Virginian named George Washington. Underneath St. Paul’s Greek revival building is a three-level parking garage that serves the city commercially from Monday to Friday, while serving the needs and convenience of St. Paul’s members on evenings and weekends. Richmond’s history includes the time when this city served as the capitol of the Confederate States of America and along Richmond’s Monument Avenue are statues of Confederate heroes. St. Paul’s also played a major role in that moment of American history and was deeply identified with the Confederacy. It preserves that part of its history today by noting with appropriate markers the pews in which Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis once sat as worshipers. After the Civil War and the imprisonment of Jefferson Davis, the Rector of St. Paul’s, Dr. Charles Minnigerode, was one of the few people allowed to visit the former president. Dr. Minnigerode thus became “the voice of Jefferson Davis” to the wider public during Davis’ years of incarceration and was thrust into being a figure of significant importance in the city and throughout the South. The rector of St. Paul’s became, thereby, a voice to which people listened in the city by dint of his office alone. Of the thirteen rectors that have served St. Paul’s since its birth, five have been elected bishops in such varied places as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arkansas, New Jersey and Arizona. On an average day in the work week, within a six block radius of St. Paul’s an estimated 100,000 people will be at work in their offices. So through the years, St. Paul’s has offered noonday services, concerts and forums, to which many in this working population have been drawn. This ministry is uniquely focused during the season of Lent, when a noontime half-hour preaching service is held during the forty days of that season. A luncheon is served in St. Paul’s before and after the service, which requires more than 300 volunteers a week, to enable people to attend worship and have lunch within the span of an hour. People from a wide range of Christian traditions come to these services and the daily attendance will range from 100 to 700 people. This noontime pattern is still replicated in a few other downtown churches in cities across America, but it is a shrinking number. Despite this midday Lenten preaching tradition, however, the observance of Good Friday, the climax of the Lenten season, has recently fallen into general neglect, even at St. Paul’s. The traditional pattern of the past was a three hour service scheduled from noon to 3:00 p.m., designed to mark the time when Jesus was believed to be dying on the cross. In recent years, this service has declined to the place where it has almost disappeared, being replaced by a much less demanding and shorter liturgy. With the fading of Good Friday, the climax of the season of Lent has disappeared, leaving most American Christians with a much more shallow celebration of Easter as one of the inevitable results. This year, St. Paul’s in Richmond decided to try to reverse that trend. A church in the heart of a vibrant downtown filled with people at work might be able to revive this tradition and thus serve all of the suburban churches, where fewer and fewer people are present during the hours of the working day. If successful, a church in the heart of every city in America might follow suit. So these are St. Paul’s plans. First, the three-hour service is planned as a series of six thirty minute self-contained units, making it possible and convenient for people to come and go from work on the hour or half hour. While some will attend the entire three hours, most will fit their Good Friday observance into their workday schedules. Second, each of the thirty minute services will include concert level Passiontide music. The magnificent adult choir of St. Paul’s and its gifted organist and choir master, David Sinden, will present a series of chorales or motets from the St. John Passion by J. S. Bach, as well as the work of other composers like Thomas Tallis and Felix Mendelssohn. Soloists will be featured in these musical presentations. To attend a significant Good Friday concert in the heart of the city will be one of this service’s primary attractions. Third, the Bishop of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, will preside over the entire service, assisted by the Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley, the current rector of St. Paul’s. The presence of the Bishop gives the service a larger appeal beyond the boundaries of St. Paul’s congregation. Fourth, the people reading the lessons in each of the six segments will be drawn from the public life of both Richmond and Virginia. The first reader will be a former governor of Virginia, who guided the state away from “massive resistance to the law of the land,” which was Virginia’s original response to the desegregation order by the Supreme Court in the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954. He led this state beyond the attitudes that had produced slavery, segregation and the racism of the Old South into a new day of social harmony and racial cooperation. He and his family made their witness in a deeply personal and public way. Interestingly enough, in the light of today’s politics, he was and is a Republican. The second reader will be an African-American woman who served on the City Council in those difficult days of transition and whose leadership locally was instrumental in enabling the new and modern city of Richmond to be born. The third reader will be the wife of the last governor (a Democrat) and thus was the First Lady of Virginia from 2005-2009. In her own life, she embodies the transitions through which both Richmond and Virginia went and she helped to develop a new consciousness. The fourth and fifth readers will be two women who represent careers which were not open to women in previous generations. One is a priest and spiritual director. The other is a Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo Bank, working in the area of philanthropic services. The final reader will be the current Senior Warden of St. Paul’s. He is the CEO of a major hospital in Richmond. He is also an African-American, the first African-American to be the lay head of this church, once known as the “Cathedral of the Confederacy.” Each of these readers will be an expression of hope and a symbol of the new America that is being born. My role in this service will be to deliver six meditations, one in each of the six thirty minute services. As we live through these three hours, I will seek to invite people into the meaning of the Passion story as it was told by the author of the Fourth Gospel that we call John. Specifically, I will try to move the Christian Church away from that threadbare Good Friday format of the past that focused on what was called “The Seven Last Words from the Cross.” Those “Words” were never anything more than an attempt to force the gospels into a blended narrative, which makes a mockery out of current biblical scholarship. The overwhelming probability is that the dying Jesus never uttered any one of these “seven last words.” The absolute certainty is that he never uttered all of them. Mark, the first gospel to be written (70-72), has Jesus speak only one “word” from the cross, that is: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew, the second gospel (82-85), followed Mark’s lead and recorded only that same “word” from the cross, nothing more. We know that this “word” is the first verse of Psalm 22, a psalm which the early Christians used to narrate the story of the cross. Even the earliest story of the crucifixion we now know was not an eye witness account, but was rather an interpretive piecing together of a series of Old Testament texts of which Psalm 22 was a major contributor. By the time Luke wrote the third gospel (88-93), the idea that Jesus felt forsaken by God was offensive and so Luke replaced it with a much more positive and confident final saying: “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.” That is a far cry from “My God, why have you forsaken me.” Luke also added two other sayings, one supposedly spoken to the soldiers: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” and one supposedly addressed to the penitent thief: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” When John, the final gospel, was written (95-100), he dismissed all of the previous “words” recorded in the earlier gospels and added three new ones never heard of before: “Woman, behold your son; son, behold your mother;” “I thirst,” and “It is finished.” “The Seven Last Words” thus represent a forced unity that the gospels never had and they are, we now know, quite inauthentic. My hope will be that in future Good Friday services the Passion story will be developed according to Mark one year, Matthew the next year, Luke the third year, John the fourth year and then continue the rotation. The authenticity of the individual gospel accounts will thus be restored to Good Friday. I hope this service sets an example that brings a new biblical understanding of the Passion of Jesus and that it restores Good Friday to a central place in the Church’s life. Above all, I hope it will drive us away from Easter bunnies and Easter Parades down 5th Avenue as the meaning of Easter and into the experience of the resurrected life itself. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Bill Russell from Orchard Park, New York, writes: Question: Given that most of the events in the gospels’ accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life are, as you suggest, myth and metaphor based on Old Testament passages, what do you think was the origin of the “Lord’s Supper”/Holy Communion”/the “Eucharist?” Answer: Dear Bill, Let me first expand on your stated assumption that you seem to attribute to me, namely the accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life were nothing more than myths and metaphors based on Old Testament passages. The early Christians interpreted Jesus in the light of their conviction that he fulfilled their expectations of the Hebrew Scriptures in regard to “the one who is to come,” but they had an experience with a person of history for whom this interpretive process was employed. Behind the narrative in the gospel in regard to the crucifixion was the fact that a person named Jesus actually lived in history and was in fact crucified by the Romans. So the story is not all myth and metaphor, though both myths and metaphors have always been used as an interpretive means by which we seek to get to the heart of the “Jesus experience.” There is little doubt in my mind that the origin of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, or the Holy Communion was an adaptation of the Jewish Passover for Christian usage. The Passover was a liturgical interpretation of the moment that witnessed the birth of the Jewish nation in the experience of the exodus from Egypt and out of slavery. The Eucharist was a liturgical re-enactment of the birth of Christianity born out of the transformative experiences that we call the crucifixion and the resurrection. The breaking of the bread and the blessing of the cup of wine in the Passover were newly understood and expanded into the symbols of the broken body and the shed blood of the crucified one. To eat and drink these symbols was to interpret his death as the doorway to life. Almost inevitably these symbols were literalized and began to represent the entry of the worshiper into the resurrected life of Jesus or, more specifically, the entry of the worshiper into the life of God, which pointed the worshiper toward a kind of mystical union of the human with the divine. The early Christians gathered to break bread in the name of the resurrected one and to remember what his death meant as the moment of their transformation. Today, eating together remains a symbol of community and eating together to celebrate a special event in life like a birthday or an anniversary is still the way we keep the community’s memory alive. I treasure the Eucharist. I do not literalize it. I think every occasion of sharing food brings lives closer together. I rejoice in both. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements Click here to watch the 12-12-13 interview with Bishop Spong on Viewpoint about the next Pope Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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A Book of Interest
by R Williams 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Colleagues, Several days ago I requested recommendations for education materials to work with local people on "why" sustainable living matters, as opposed to "what" it is and "how" to do it. I am grateful for the response I received and want to return the favor. On the same subject (maybe one of you first recommended this to me) I found a book, authored in 2011 by Frances Moore Lappe, entitled EcoMind: Changing the way We Think, to Create the World We Want. In the book Lappe exposes seven "thought traps" that she suggests are limiting an effective response to the crises we face in matters of the environment, social and economic justice, and our political (democratic) processes. For those of you who are working in any or all of these areas, check out this book to see if you might find it informative, as I have. Her approach, evident in the title, is to bring about significant change through the change of hearts and minds, i.e. "the way we think." If you should read it I would be grateful if you would share your reflections. Randy "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." --Buckminster Fuller

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ICA GreenRise Uptown Building
by Terry Bergdall 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

On Wednesday, Lesley Showers, ICA-USA's Facilities Manager, and I attended an event where the Mayor marked the expansion of the City's Chicago Retrofit Commercial Building Initiative. The "ICA GreenRise Uptown Building" -- which some of you remember it as "Kemper" -- received official recognition (see link below). A full page ad in Chicago newspapers showcases GreenRise with the other buildings (see attached). http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/… The significance of this multifold. First, it opens the door for pro bono assistance organized by the City to support our efforts to build a green culture at 4750. This includes the creation of a major monitoring system for the upcoming solar project on our roof. They understand GreenRise to be a pilot for other nonprofits. Second, this occurred largely because of the reinforcing strategies of our city-wide neighborhood work with "Accelerate 77" and our leadership development program with universities. As I think many of you know, over 220 students were involved last year in the doing the crucial field work for A77. (If this is news to anyone, let me know I'll elaborate.) The synergy of GreenRise, Accelerate 77, and university partnerships advance our strategy of becoming a high profile, reputable, nonprofit player in our hometown of Chicago. This is crucial for building a durable institutional home so that national and international programs of transformative change can continue far into the future. Nothing less, of course, is worthy of our history. Take care, Terry

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ICA GreenRise Uptown Building
by Wanda Holcombe 11 Mar '13

11 Mar '13

Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] ICA GreenRise Uptown Building Yes, Yes, Yes....congratulations & tons of gratitude for all the creative work to transform "Kemper" (4750 Sheridan Ave) & sustain it as a Green Rise Building. Our family has visited ICA/Kemper over the years, shown it off proudly to our grand kids, participated in the care of the archives & attended programs offered over the years. Many of us remember what it looked like when we first occupied "Kemper" & the many hours it took to turn it into an International Center & our "home". I always come away with a great sense of thankfulness for all it has taken by my colleagues to continue to maintain & bring us to this great day of sustainability. If you have not visited ICA Chicago in the past few years....treat yourself to a grand surprise & see first hand the legacy & future of ICA! Thanks to ALL the staff & volunteers Wanda On 3/9/13 6:46 PM, Terry Bergdall wrote: On Wednesday, Lesley Showers, ICA-USA's Facilities Manager, and I attended an event where the Mayor marked the expansion of the City's Chicago Retrofit Commercial Building Initiative. The "ICA GreenRise Uptown Building" -- which some of you remember it as "Kemper" -- received official recognition (see link below). A full page ad in Chicago newspapers showcases GreenRise with the other buildings (see attached). http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/… > >>> The significance of this multifold. First, it opens the door for pro bono assistance organized by the City to support our efforts to build a green culture at 4750. This includes the creation of a major monitoring system for the upcoming solar project on our roof. They understand GreenRise to be a pilot for other nonprofits. Second, this occurred largely because of the reinforcing strategies of our city-wide neighborhood work with "Accelerate 77" and our leadership development program with universities. As I think many of you know, over 220 students were involved last year in the doing the crucial field work for A77. (If this is news to anyone, let me know I'll elaborate.) >>> >>> The synergy of GreenRise, Accelerate 77, and university partnerships advance our strategy of becoming a high profile, reputable, nonprofit player in our hometown of Chicago. This is crucial for building a durable institutional home so that national and international programs of transformative change can continue far into the future. Nothing less, of course, is worthy of our history. >>> >>> Take care, Terry >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> OE mailing list >>> OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net >>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OE mailing list >> OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net >> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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A Good time to Support ICA endeavors
by George Holcombe 11 Mar '13

11 Mar '13

During all the economic and political turmoil of the past several years, the Institute of Cultural Affairs held its own. The staff have worked long hours on critical issues such as energy efficiency and climate change, school readiness, and international HIVAIDS initiatives. They have provided exciting new ToP learning opportunities and have continued to improve ICA’s Service Learning programs preparing a next generation of leaders. They have gained recognition for their environmental work in Chicago and beyond. We "old hands" have had opportunities to participate in all of this, both making the wisdom of our past useful and involved in creating the future of what we started. All this has been supported by generous personal gifts from colleagues to help sustain our Annual Fund and mission. Did you know, Raymond and Tina have once again pledged to match all new and increased gifts up to $40,000 in 2013. For those who do regular contributions, we have a chance to increase our impact with an extra gift. If you have not made a contribution to ICA's work, here's an opportunity to get in the game. Wanda and I hope that all of us will be able to respond. Thanks, George Holcombe 14900 Yellowleaf Tr. Austin TX 78728 Mobile 512/252-2756 grholcombe(a)gmail.com "Whatever the problem, community is the answer. There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret Wheatley

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Re: [Dialogue] ICA GreenRise Uptown Building
by beretgriffith＠charter.net 09 Mar '13

09 Mar '13

It is exciting to see the building gaining "official" recognition. Work in The Archives during April will be even more exciting! Beret On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 3:46 AM, Terry Bergdall wrote: > On Wednesday, Lesley Showers, ICA-USA's Facilities Manager, and I > attended an event where the Mayor marked the expansion of the City's > Chicago Retrofit Commercial Building Initiative. The "ICA GreenRise > Uptown > Building" -- which some of you remember it as "Kemper" -- received > official > recognition (see link below). A full page ad in Chicago newspapers > showcases GreenRise with the other buildings (see attached). > > http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/… > > The significance of this multifold. First, it opens the door for > pro > bono assistance organized by the City to support our efforts to build > a > green culture at 4750. This includes the creation of a major > monitoring > system for the upcoming solar project on our roof. They understand > GreenRise to be a pilot for other nonprofits. Second, this occurred > largely > because of the reinforcing strategies of our city-wide neighborhood > work > with "Accelerate 77" and our leadership development program with > universities. As I think many of you know, over 220 students were > involved > last year in the doing the crucial field work for A77. (If this is > news to > anyone, let me know I'll elaborate.) > > The synergy of GreenRise, Accelerate 77, and university > partnerships > advance our strategy of becoming a high profile, reputable, nonprofit > player in our hometown of Chicago. This is crucial for building a > durable > institutional home so that national and international programs of > transformative change can continue far into the future. Nothing less, > of > course, is worthy of our history. > > Take care, Terry > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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3/7/13, Spong: A Look at Benedict XVI's Book on the Infancy Narratives of Jesus
by Ellie Stock 07 Mar '13

07 Mar '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR A Look at Benedict XVI's Book on the Infancy Narratives of Jesus A few months before the startling announcement of his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI published a book on the birth narratives of Jesus as found in the New Testament. It was a book promised in the publication of a previous book by this Pope, entitled Jesus of Nazareth, which I reviewed in this column more than a year ago. In this previous book, Benedict XVI had scrupulously danced around any and every opportunity to discuss the Virgin Birth. He wanted, he said, to address that subject later, devoting an entire volume to it. I was intrigued by how he would manage this subject as so much of the Roman Catholic doctrine and piety is related to the figure of the Virgin Mother of Jesus. The primary New Testament portrait of Mary is in the birth narratives, yet the overwhelming consensus of modern biblical scholarship dismisses the literalization of these narratives, so the Pope would have to compromise either Marian piety or biblical scholarship. When I finished reading Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives just a few weeks ago his choice was clear. The Pope made a decision not to engage the scholarship of the last 200 years in order that he might continue to cling to the core teachings of his Church. The result was a book that the scholarly world will simply ignore and, as a result, a new sense of dis-ease will settle across the hierarchy of Roman Catholicism. I now understand why this Church has not been able to relate to its scholars and why the hierarchy keeps trying to suppress critical thought. Benedict XVI’s book reveals an inner devotion that will be attractive to many. He also employs a homiletical style as many of his pages “preach” the lessons he draws from the birth narratives. Frequently in his prose, he seeks to reveal connections between the birth narratives and the later gospel portrait of the adult Jesus and ultimately to link both to the development of the creeds. The birth narratives are made the servants of the church’s doctrinal understanding. Yet, he does acknowledge and recognize the fact that the birth narratives, which appear only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, reveal a clear dependency on Jewish tradition. This is typically the first step one takes out of literalism as critical scholarship begins to be embraced. For example, he says, “the Song of Mary,” known in the Church as “the Magnificat,” reflects its origin in the “Song of Hannah” found in the book of I Samuel. The “three days” in which the boy Jesus was apparently lost when his parents took him up to Jerusalem at the age of 12, presages the three days the crucified Jesus was lost to the world. The echo of the slaying of innocent boy babies in the story of Moses and the Pharaoh appears to be present in Matthew’s story of King Herod slaying the boy babies in Bethlehem. Yet the idea never seems to occur to the Pope that the infancy narratives were not history, that they are little more than Jewish haggadic Midrash and were never intended by their authors to be looked at or read as literal narratives. This lack of informed scholarship was also absent from his original book, Jesus of Nazareth. In that volume, he gave no evidence that he has ever read or even recognized Roman Catholic scholars. In this earlier book he even asserted that the “Farewell Discourses” in John (14-16) were actually delivered by Jesus in Jerusalem during the final week before his arrest and crucifixion, a point of view that no Johannine scholar would affirm. A study of these discourses will reveal that they actually talk about the persecution, which the Johannine community was experiencing when the Fourth Gospel was written, some seventy years after the crucifixion. There are many Roman Catholic biblical scholars with whom he might have consulted. One thinks immediately of Edward Schillebeeckx, probably the outstanding Catholic scripture scholar of the 20th century; John Dominic Crossan, one of the three founders of the Jesus Seminar, or Raymond Brown, who taught New Testament at Union Seminary in New York for decades and whose work was chronicled on two occasions in cover stories in Time magazine. I suggest, given the combination of his own biblical naïveté and the current challenges to some of his Church’s dogmatic traditions, that he might not have felt comfortable with either Schillebeeckx or Crossan, both of whom found little support in the Catholic hierarchy for their work, because neither was willing to live inside the doctrinal boundaries that their church seems to require even though both authors are regarded in the academic world as brilliant. Raymond Brown, however, was thought of in Catholic circles as one who was vigorously defending the teachings of this Church and who bent his scholarship regularly to conform to that teaching. Brown, who died a few years ago, however, was not an “opus dei” devotee, and his work on the birth narratives, published under the title The Birth of the Messiah, is today still regarded among biblical scholars as the definitive study on this subject. Yet there is no mention even of Raymond Brown’s work in Benedict XVI’s bibliography and no indication in the pages of his book that Brown’s thought has ever been read or engaged. Instead the Pope quotes second tier “Catholic” propagandists like Jean Danielou, Rene Laurentin and Rudolf Pesch, who spend their time seeking to make a case for a literal star of Bethlehem, a literal journey following that star by the wise men and the literal accuracy of the Virgin Birth understood biologically. The Pope goes so far as to seek to establish that the major source for the material contained in Luke’s birth narrative came from the mother of Jesus herself. Luke does state, he reminds his readers, that “she kept all these things in her heart and pondered them.” There is, of course, no speck of historical data that points to such a conclusion and the time frame of Luke’s gospel would suggest that the mother of Jesus would have been well past one hundred years of age before that gospel was written. Where these memories of the Virgin were stored after her death or who translated them from Mary’s original Aramaic into Greek for Luke to have them available to him are issues not addressed. Neither is there an explanation for the fact that there is a total absence of birth narrative material in the writings of Paul, Mark, the document known as Q or the Gospel of Thomas, all of which scholars believe predate Matthew and Luke. If the magi were really Persian astronomers seeking salvation, as the Pope suggests, then one does not have to answer the inconvenient historical questions that he avoids. For example, what kind of person would it be, who sees a peculiar star formation in the sky, such as the one the Pope mentions that astronomers have noted as having occurred in 7-6 BCE, when there was a conjunction of the planets of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces, and who then decided to follow that “star’s” guidance in search of a newborn “King of the Jews?” Surely following stars to the birth place of a king is the stuff of fairy tales, not history. What kind of person is it who would assume that this mysterious star was able to travel through the sky so slowly that these magi, presumably on camel-back, could keep up with it? What kind of mentality would it take for one to assume that this star mistakenly led them to the palace of King Herod, where they had to get additional directions, this time from the Jewish Scriptures? What kind of magical story would it be that these gift-bearing persons brought to this child in the home of his parents in Bethlehem, gold, to signal his kingship; frankincense, to signal his divine nature, and myrrh, a symbol of death, to signal the story of his passion and crucifixion? What kind of person would assume he or she is reading history when it is learned in the story that Herod, a first century head of state, had actually deputized these magi, whom he has never before seen, to be agents of his central intelligence agency in order to bring back to him a report on this newborn king, who presumably would constitute a threat to his throne? When these magi did not do Herod’s bidding, what kind of king would it be who would then go to Bethlehem and slaughter all the baby boys in an attempt to remove this infant threat to his throne, especially when that same gospel will tell us in chapter 13 that this child was raised in the home of a carpenter father? It is as if Benedict XVI never considered any other possibility than that the birth narratives are the recording of historical events incorporated into the gospel narratives. That was a popular assumption in the pre-critical days of the 18th century. It is not credible today. Benedict suggests that the prophetic text of Isaiah 7:14 (“Behold a Virgin will conceive”) and the passages of the Suffering Servant in II Isaiah (40-55) were written as prophetic words, waiting for their completion in the person of Jesus. He seems to ignore the obvious probability that the memory of Jesus was altered to conform to these biblical expectations and that the texts were even changed to make the points of connection seem more complete. To him the angels, who sing to hillside shepherds, are real. These shepherds then go on a successful search to find the child armed only with two clues; he is wrapped in swaddling cloths and is lying in a manger. The miraculous nature of these stories is then dramatically affirmed by the fact that they find him immediately. The primary difference between Christian education and Christian propaganda is that Christian education searches for new ways to understand the biblical texts. Christian propaganda assumes that the literal, traditional understanding of the scriptures is the only correct and true one, and so research is not to discover truth, but to validate the truth that the propagandists already believe they possess. Dogmatic Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, employs this technique. This is the mentality that produces both fundamentalism and the claims of institutional infallibility. This mentality can admit no challenge, denies the relativity of all formulas of human truth and then seeks to impose its understandings with authority claims. It is a pity that even a world-wide figure like the Pope who seeks to enter the public debate by means of a book does not understand this. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Nina Brock from Ovando, Montana, writes: Question: Your comment in a recent column about Paul not being able to say the Nicene Creed prompts a question. We attended your week long seminar in Berkeley, CA, last summer on “Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World” in which you remarked that a creed is “not a girdle into which we force our flabby faith.” Later, you said that you viewed the creed as a love song and would perhaps reword it. My question is how would you restate the creed to make it not only palatable but meaningful in the 21st century? Answer: Dear Nina, I am glad you were with me in Berkeley last summer. That was a vigorous week for both me and the class. The schedule of five days – Monday-Friday - and four hours each day, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., makes it the hardest week I ever do, but the response of those who attended that Pacific School of Religion course made it worth while. Let me restate what I believe I said in regard to the creeds. After describing them as “love songs that my religious ancestors sang to God in the 4th century of the Christian Era,” I stated that if Christians, including me, were to have the opportunity to compose the creeds in 2013, none of us would use the language of the 4th century. What I seek to get people to understand is that the creeds are an explanation of a life-changing religious experience and that explanations always reflect the time in which they are composed. No explanation ever endures forever. Every explanation is, therefore, subjective not objective, time bound and not eternal. No time-warped human creation can actually capture the ultimate reality we call God and any claim that they can or have is nothing less than ecclesiastical idolatry. So any attempt to impose the 4th century creeds on today’s world is an act of violence. Our task is, rather, to try to lead people into the Christ experience that created the creeds in the first place. How do we put the reality of that experience into our words and our 21st century frame of reference? This is what a creed is designed to do and no 4th century document can do that for those of us who live in the 21st century. A contemporary expression of the Christian Faith requires us to define the God experience we claim in a very new and different way. I do not think we can continue to view God as a supernatural, miracle-working deity who lives above the sky. That definition of God died in the 17th century as a direct result of the work of such people as Galileo and Isaac Newton. It also requires that we redefine how we believe the meaning of God was found in the life of Jesus. The language of such creedal doctrines as the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity makes assumptions that 21st century people cannot make. It requires that we stop talking in pre-Darwinian terms of a perfect creation from which human beings fell into original sin, necessitating a rescue operation that Jesus accomplished by dying on the cross. That kind of language makes no sense in a post-Darwinian world. The task of writing a modern creed means that we release the words of our creedal past, while we cling to the reality of the Jesus experience that ancient creeds sought to explain and we assert that there was something about Jesus that expanded life beyond every boundary including the boundary of creeds. I do not know what a 21st century creed would look like, but I do know two things about it. One, it would not be the same as the creeds we now recite in Christian Churches and, two, it would no more be eternally true than the creeds that it replaced. Why don’t you and the members of your congregation have a go at rewriting the creed for our time? Enjoy your life in Montana. I loved our time in Helena this past September. It is beautiful country and filled with great people. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements Visit our Global Network and Join the Community today! Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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RS1 in Bonham, Texas - June 6-8
by Ken Fisher 06 Mar '13

06 Mar '13

Spirit Colleagues, I am most pleased to share with you the forthcoming RS1 in Bonham, Texas. For those of us who have spouses or colleagues who have 'never been' or for those of us who wish to be refreshed, here is the opportunity. For a viable and flourishing humanity on planet Earth, Ken Announcement of the Realistic Living June 6-9, 2013 Leadership Training School And June 9-12, 2013 Research Symposium This June we want to emphasize the theological foundations and pedagogical methods that inspired the creation of Realistic Living in 1984 and guided our work for the last 29 years. In the 1960s the Order:Ecumenical, through its nonprofit organization The Ecumenical Institute, initiated a five-session weekend course entitled “Religious Studies One: The Twentieth Century Theological Revolution.” Over the following two decades this course was taught to about 50,000 clergy and laity by over a 1000 trained teachers. In the 1980s and 90s the staff of Realistic Living continued to hold updated versions of this course as well as write essays and books on the dynamics that made this course so effective. A Primer on Radical Christianity (1985) was our first full-volume effort. After 2000 we continued to update, expand, and research the sociological implications of this theological breakthrough including three more books: The Call of the Awe: Rediscovering Christian Profundity in an Interreligious Era (2003), Great Paragraphs of Protestant Theology: A commentary on the 20th Century Theological Revolution and its Implications for the 21st Century (2005), and Jacob’s Dream: A Christian Inquiry into Spirit Realization (2008). Our annual Leadership Training Schools and other courses have also continued to work with the content and implications of this theology. In our Leadership Training School this summer we are going to revisit the original five-session dynamics of the RS-1 course, filling in its history and anticipating its future as a guide for the Christian reconstruction we are aiding. This should give us an opportunity to reflect on how to freight the power of RS-1 as we continue forward. Attached is a chart of the schedule for the June Leadership Training School providing an overview of how we will proceed. The four talks on Friday and Saturday will be updated versions of the RS-1 talks, pulling on Joyce’s and Gene’s many years of teaching these dynamics. The study sessions that will follow the talks will focus on five chapters from Great Paragraphs of Protestant Theology. Attendees will be asked to read these brief chapters before coming to the Training School (These readings are available in both hard copy and e-downloads.) We will also provide the five traditional papers. Also attached is a chart of the proposed schedule for the June Research Symposium. The specific research agenda will be decided by the attendees, and the overall nurture structures are in line with those customarily used for these meetings. These meetings will be held in Bonham, Texas, partly in the Marshalls’ home and nearby Guest House and partly in other Bonham locations. Attendees of the Training School need to arrive in time to eat and show up for a 7:00pm opening on Thursday June 6th. Count on a 2-hour drive from the DFW International Airport. The closing time on Wednesday the 12th is 1:00pm. Similar times apply to those arriving or leaving on Sunday. More explicit details will be shared as we get closer to the meetings. Please put these dates on your calendar, choose soon whether you can come, make your travel arrangements, and let us know. For a vital resurgence of Christian practice, Joyce, Gene, and Alan staff of Realistic Living

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From The Directory Man - You almost waited too long!!
by Jayandem2＠aol.com 03 Mar '13

03 Mar '13

Dear Friends and Colleagues: >From Mike Tippett: A good idea before Spring: Renew your subscription to the ICA/OE/EI Directory!! I NEED TO MOVE REMAINING COPIES!! Priced 15% off original price- Now $18.00! IF YOU ARE A FORMER SUBSCRIBER, PLEASE CONSIDER GETTING THE 2013 VERSION There is still time for you to order your copy! For those who aren’t familiar with The Directory, it is a listing of names, addresses, phones, emails and occupations of several hundred people who have been at one time or another associated with the I.C.A., or the Ecumenical Institute, or its programs and projects. It’s fun to see where everyone is living and what each is doing. (I’m in Florida and am semi-retired) If you would like a copy of your listing, either write or email me. If you would like a copy of The Directory, send in the form below. Cost of the Directory is NOW $18.00 for either the booklet form, or a CD. If you order two forms, it will NOW cost $25.00. ORDER FORM NAME: ______________________________ ADDRESS: ____________________________ CITY/STATE/POSTAL(ZIP) CODE: ____________________________ COUNTRY: ________________________ EMAIL: ______________________________ Make Checks out to and send orders to: Michael B. Tippett, 4676 32nd Court East, Bradenton, FL 34203 (USA) Phone: (941) 753-5189 Email: MovementDir(a)aol.com Please send me a copy of the directory: [ ] Booklet form [ ] CD Cost of the Directory is $20.00 for either the booklet form, or a CD. If you order two forms, it will cost $30.00. I enclose $___________ The CD will contain In Memoriam and Names and Addresses, etc, in Microsoft Word format.

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