September 2018 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Thank you
by Doris Hahn 06 Oct '18

06 Oct '18

I surely appreciate your birthday note; also your continuing work on the archives. I always enjoyed the archive work and also the opportunity to know you better. Peace, Doris

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9/13/18, Progressing Spirit: Forrester:Terrifying & Terrible Texts: Knowing the Difference between Study and Liturgy; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 04 Oct '18

04 Oct '18

View this email in your browser Terrifying & Terrible Texts: Knowing the Difference between Study and Liturgy Column by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. September 13, 2018 “I’m in Pain” Quite recently, a dear friend and colleague within a spiritual group in which we both participate raised a question, a heartfelt concern, about a book we were asked to read. This particular text, written in the middle of the last century, is a psychotherapy book that explores an energetic understanding of how the mind and body are interconnected. The book has much to commend it. However, my friend was in pain over the blatant homophobia in this piece and was wondering how I and others were experiencing the text and whether it was even appropriate for our study. I responded that I appreciated the soulful pain of which she was speaking. (In truth, my heart ached as her words landed upon me.) I found the author’s homophobia sharp as well as blatant. Why then continue reading this text? I offered that as a teacher I feel a particular need (even a responsibility) to know what have been the veins of theory upon which our teaching has drawn to take the shape it has. I would also like to understand as fully as possible how these theorists have been appropriated – what has been incorporated and shaped our teaching and what has been left, and why. I know that these are questions of mine, and I believe they will be questions asked of us and others who are spiritual teachers. Study & Liturgy It is also true, that while we are expected to study and understand these texts because of the impact they have had upon the unfoldment of psychotherapy and spirituality in the west, we would never offer these texts within the context of meditation. There are texts for study and there are texts for liturgy. Although there is much to commend it, the New Revised Common Lectionary does not fully appreciate this important distinction. As a result, too often liturgy continues to assault the hearts, minds, and bodies of those who have gathered to be guided and soulfully nurtured. (I’m focusing here on biblical texts used in liturgy. But this assault pertains equally to the inherent violence of atonement-based collects and eucharistic prayers recited each Sunday.) I raise this matter because I have lost count of the times members of my congregations and spiritual seekers with whom I work have implored why they must read aloud for liturgy the texts offered by the institution’s authorities. Although such homophobic and misogynistic verses as Rom. 1.26-27 and 1 Tim. 2.11-14, respectively, are now omitted, they continue to hear passages, which to their ears disturbingly proclaim tribal slaughter (Zeph. 1.17-18) and violence (Jer. 20.7-13), all in the supposed name of the divine. These are oppressive texts (and there are more) – painful to read and wounding to hear – and all, as a matter of course, are read as declarations of “the word of God,” for which they are told to offer “thanks.” These terrifying and terrible texts continue to compromise the capacity of Christianity to offer a meaningful message in the 21st century. A chasm is created between spiritual seekers and the truly boundless love of Being, because the dominant tradition is beholden to liturgical custom that cultically enshrines a tribal deity whose prejudices, penchants for reactive retaliation, and wholehearted embrace of violence are celebrated in the many pages of the stories regularly proclaimed as purportedly revealing the true nature of Being. Liturgy is neither the time nor the place for preachers to consistently be pressed into the act of deconstructing biblical texts so as to minimize the harm done to those desiring to hear words of life. Evolutionary Context We have yet to fully appreciate the evolutionary historical context of the cultures that produced the biblical texts which are read within our liturgies. Texts are products of human beings within specific cultural periods. Sacred texts are those for which the authors and communities make the claim that they reveal qualities or aspects or dimensions of the true nature of Being. But we must always remember it is we human beings who are making the claim for the revelatory capacity of the texts. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether any particular text is a Wisdom text – does it have the capacity to foster the soul’s growth or unfolding, helping her to realize that she is an utterly unique expression of Being that is boundless love? If not, the text isn’t suitable liturgical material. For liturgy – no longer appropriately understood as the worship of a distant tribal deity – is essentially itself a spiritual practice, wherein we gather together to experience becoming embodiments of Being in the present moment. Who makes the decision about the suitability of a text? We do. We draw from the best psychological, sociological, philosophical, theological and spiritual wisdom we have. We acknowledge the clear truth that not all biblical texts, not all scriptural stories, embody and speak to the boundless love, boundless freedom, boundless wisdom, that is Being. We acknowledge that as a species we are evolving and maturing. We realize that our ancestral tribal peoples produced these overwhelmingly tribal texts with their tribal deity. But simply the fact that they have been the community’s “canonical” texts in the past, does not warrant their use as liturgical texts for spiritual seekers today. Humans of Being There is nothing sacrosanct about the “canon” from which Sunday liturgical texts are drawn. Canon simply means texts which past authorities have given their imprimatur. Times change. Contexts change. To paraphrase the wise spiritual teacher, Richard Rohr, we do not see Being as Being is but as we are. And who are we? We aspire to no longer be a tribal people guided by a vengeful tribal deity. We aspire to no longer be a homophobic people. We aspire to no longer be a misogynistic people. We aspire to no longer be a racist people. We aspire to no longer be a vengeful people. We aspire to be simply and fully humans of Being. Terrifying and terrible texts can do terrific damage to human beings. Now is the time to distinguish between texts for study and texts for liturgy; between stories that sustain the soul, and stories (and prayers) that sunder her heart. Within liturgy, we need to hear texts that remind us of our better angels. We need stories that land upon our souls as nourishment for transformation from beings utterly captive to our survival drive, to humans of Being. There are times when authentic nourishment can be hard to swallow. Our egos are inherently defensive and resistant to dissolution – no matter how seemingly minor. There is a substantive difference, however, between a challenging text with which our souls must inevitably wrestle (like that of Jacob in Genesis) and a terrifying and terrible text. There is a proper season, a suitable place, for study of terrifying and terrible texts. But that is not within our liturgies. Within our liturgies we come to sit and receive nourishment for our hungry souls. As a nondual spiritual path at its authentic core, Christianity is an invitation to taste and know belovedness as the very fabric of existence. ~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of St. Paul’s Church in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including “I Have Called You Friends“, “Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms“, and “My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You” and “Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland“. Question & Answer Q: By Eleanor Kerfoot Some while ago Dr. Spong replied to a message from me in which I stated that possibly there could be some thought devoted to the idea that, “God” is both within a person and everywhere. This makes sense to me and I have been living this understanding successfully. The concept of a “Deity” or of “Deities" is well-known, documented and practiced as well as awareness of knowing truth within us. There is room for tolerance. Why are we pursuing Christianity when Jesus himself did not? Does Dr. Spong’s book “Unbelievable” take us this far? A: By Lauren Van Ham Dear Eleanor, Yes, I believe Bishop Spong’s, Unbelievable, does explore some of what you are asking. Perhaps you have already seen some of this featured here recently, in the reflections offered by Progressing Spirit’s team of authors. Some of this response may feel like a game of semantics, but it is very important to create some distinctions around how Christianity is being defined. Jesus did not pursue Christianity, but Christianity happened as a response by those who wanted to practice what Jesus modeled. And most particularly, they wanted to practice with others! Christianity was, first and foremost, a way for practitioners to study together, to pray together, to struggle, and grow and serve together. Jesus insisted upon it! He included everyone and stressed the importance of eating together, working together and being in the great grappling of Life, together. What happened after this – and we recognize it well having seen it happen many times, in many ways throughout history - is what every worthy spiritual teacher has resisted. We tried to codify it. Teachings were interpreted in different ways and used as attempts to contain and control. In the book, Spong directly questions, “Is behavior control really the purpose of the Christian faith?” And a few sentences later he writes gravely, “Christian history surely reveals that Christians of the world can be and have been prodigiously evil.” So, why pursue Christianity? It all depends on the Christianity we mean when we act, and breathe and move in the world as embodied practitioners. Spong instructs that Christianity in the time of Jesus and today (if it has any chance of surviving), is a call to universalism. A call for every one of us to go beyond our biological or self-ascribed boundaries, NOT to convert “others” to a battery of lessons and formulaic answers, but rather, in Spong’s words, “to accept them as they are, to call them to live fully, love wastefully and be all that they can be in the infinite variety of our humanity.” This can be hard work, and it will almost always be challenged. This is why spiritual community is so important. The teachings aren’t easy, but the instructions are very simple. In our togetherness, we return to the simplicity of Life and Love, Awe and Forgiveness. We provide consolation and encouragement in the face of disappointment or defeat. And we hold one another accountable, reminding everyone that we are part of one inter-related family, one interdependent planet, one Love that tries and fails to teach us this again and again and again. ~ Lauren Van Ham Click here to read and share online About the Author Lauren Van Ham was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest; Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Her passion and training in the fine arts, spirituality and Earth’s teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief and loss, and sacred activism. Lauren’s work with Green Sangha (a Bay Area-based non-profit) is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of environmental activism taking place in religious America. Her essay, “Way of the Eco-Chaplain” appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women. Lauren tends a private spiritual direction practice and serves as Dean for The Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Jesus for the Non-Religious, Part I Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 15, 2006 Most Christians seem to assume that the details of their faith system dropped out of heaven in a fully developed form. Nothing could be further from the truth. The creeds began as baptismal formulas in the 3rd century and did not receive the shape we now recognize until the 4th century. Doctrines like the Trinity and Incarnation were still being formed in the 5th century. Moving closer to the life of Jesus, scholars now suggest that miracles were added to the Jesus story only in the 7th and 8th decades of the Christian era. The Virgin birth and the suggestion that resurrection meant physical resuscitation are products of the 9th decade, and the account of Jesus” ascension enters the tradition only in the 10th decade. Perhaps the biggest gap in our knowledge of Jesus, however, occurs in those years between 30 C.E. when Jesus” earthly life came to an end and 70 C.E. when gospels began to achieve written form. Today, by lining up the gospels in chronological order with Mark first (ca. 70 C.E.), then Matthew (ca. 80 C.E.), Luke (ca 90 C.E.) and finally John (ca 100 C.E.), we can see how the miraculous was heightened; the details become more graphic and supernatural activity more pronounced. If the story could grow as dramatically as it did from 70-100 C.E., is it not reasonable to assume that it also grew from 30-70 C.E.? Yet with no written sources, entering that time of oral transmission is a problem. For the past year that forty-year oral phase of Christian history has been the primary focus of my study. In a series of columns not necessarily on successive weeks, but as a theme to which I will return often during the next six months, I want to begin to share this study with my audience under the general topic of “Jesus for the Non-Religious.” How can we gain access to an oral period of history when by definition no written records exist? Is that not a dead end for research? These are valid questions, yet studies of the gospels yield numerous clues that lead us into these primitive moments in our faith story. The obvious fact is that the story of Jesus was passed on or we would not have it today. So the questions are by whom, how and in what context. Was it simply personal? Did parents convey the Jesus story to their children? Did it pass from person to person in the marketplace? The context of the gospel narratives appears far too complex and patterned to have been handed on in that personal and individual way. We need to search for a better explanation. The gospels make it clear that before the story of Jesus was written a heavy dependency on the Hebrew Scriptures was already evident. That could not have happened accidentally. Mark, for example, opens his gospel with two quotations from the Hebrew prophets, one from Malachi and the other from II Isaiah. He then builds into his narrative of Jesus image after image from the Jewish scriptures. Matthew seems to imply in his gospel that everything Jesus does is in fulfillment of the words of the prophets. He retells a story of the birth of Moses as if it actually happened to Jesus (see Exodus 1:15-22, Matthew 2:16-18). He patterns the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.5-7) on Psalm 119 portraying Jesus as the new Moses. Matthew and Luke both provide us with genealogies of Jesus that relate him to both Abraham and King David. They both quote Jesus as using texts from the Hebrew Scriptures to ward off the attacks by Satan in the story of the temptation. Luke models the life of Jesus frequently on the life of the prophet Elijah. On two occasions Luke says the role of the resurrected Jesus was to open their minds to understand the scriptures as the way to make sense out of his death. The Fourth Gospel opens with a hymn of praise to the “Logos” or the “Word” that John believes he has discovered in Jesus. This hymn was patterned on a hymn to wisdom from the book of Proverbs. John constantly has Jesus invoke the name of God, “I am,” given to Moses at the burning bush as part of his own divine claim. One cannot read the gospels without confronting the Hebrew Scriptures on every page. These facts point powerfully to the source of the oral tradition. The only setting in which this interweaving of the Jesus story with the Hebrew scriptures could have occurred was in the synagogue, since that was the only place where people heard the scriptures read and interpreted. In the first century no one owned books since few people could either read or write. There was no Gideon Society to place the sacred scriptures in hotel rooms. The books of the Jewish Bible had to be copied by hand on great scrolls. They were enormously expensive. They were the treasured possessions of the whole community, kept in the Tabernacle of the Synagogue and brought forth with great solemnity to be read aloud in public worship on the Sabbath. They were always read in order. One does not skip around with scrolls. The handles of the scrolls were laboriously turned as they were read and the male reader began the next Sabbath where he had stopped the previous Sabbath. The next problem in this interpretive process is that most people today have no idea what the liturgy of the Synagogue was like in the first century, so they have no way of imagining this setting. Fortunately, a brief description of synagogue worship included in the Book of Acts (13:13-16), gives us our next clue in this probe of the oral period of Christian history. Synagogue worship consisted of long readings from the three major sections of the Hebrew Bible. The first was a reading “from Moses,” that is from the Torah, that included the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It was a requirement of first century Judaism that the entire Torah, as the most sacred part of the Hebrew Scriptures, be read in public worship in the synagogue over the Sabbaths of a single year. This would mean that just the first lesson “from Moses” would last at least thirty minutes each Sabbath. The second reading came from what the Jews called “The Early Prophets,” which included the books from Joshua to II Kings. There was no compulsion to complete the reading of this material in any specific time frame; hence this lesson was much shorter. The early prophets were simply read in order until completed and then the process would begin again. The third reading came from what they called “the Latter Prophets,” which were four in number: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and what was called the Book of the Twelve. Today Christians refer to this Book of the Twelve as “the minor prophets,” and list them separately as the books from Hosea to Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. In the Jewish world, however, these twelve books were all on a single scroll and treated as a single work. Thus the four scrolls of the “Latter Prophets” tended to be read over a four-year cycle at the rate of approximately a chapter a Sabbath. One year would therefore be the Isaiah year, one the Jeremiah year, one the Ezekiel year and one the year of the twelve. In the liturgy of the Synagogue these three major readings, interspersed with prayers and Psalms would constitute the core of the worship experience. After the final reading, the leader of the Synagogue would normally inquire, as happens in Acts 13, whether anyone had a message to bring that would illumine the morning’s readings. This became the setting in which his followers told stories about Jesus, recalled the sayings and parables of Jesus and remembered and shared the developing Jesus tradition. In this fashion, over the years, the Hebrew Scriptures were wrapped around Jesus and through them Jesus was interpreted. The content of the memory of Jesus was thus organized by the liturgy of the Synagogue. To recognize this connection becomes a major breakthrough into the oral period of Christian history. By the time the gospels were written the memory of Jesus had been so deeply shaped by the Synagogue context that it is impossible now to separate history from scriptural interpretation. That is what makes the perpetual quest to find the Jesus of history so difficult. The conclusion of the scholars of the Jesus Seminar, for example, was that only 16% of the sayings attributed to Jesus in the gospels are actually authentic, accurate portrayals of what Jesus really said. The other 84% are words read into the Jesus of history by an interpreting community during the oral period. Much of what the gospels call the acts of Jesus fall into a similar statistical spread. For example, was Jesus really born in Bethlehem or was the Bethlehem birth story an attempt on the part of people during the oral period to claim for him the messianic status of being heir to the throne of David? Did Jesus really feed 5000 people in the wilderness or was that an attempt to portray him as a new Moses who also fed a multitude in the wilderness with bread called manna? Did Jesus really march triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey or was that an attempt to identify him with the figure of the Shepherd King in the Book of Zechariah, who also came to Jerusalem, humbly riding on a donkey (9:9-11)? Did Jesus really drive out the moneychangers from the Temple and reclaim that place as “a house of prayer for all people” or was this an early Christian attempt to show that what the prophet Zechariah said about the Messiah had been acted out by Jesus? That prophet had written that when the Day of the Lord comes, there would no longer be a trader in the House of the Lord (14:21). Did Jesus really pray for the soldiers who crucified him, as only Luke records, or was this story developed to identify Jesus with the Servant of II Isaiah (53:12), who made “intercessions for the transgressors?” On and on we could go, posing this same question in literally hundreds of different ways about hundreds of familiar stories. At the very least, this study begins to give us a glimpse of who Jesus was before gospels were written, creeds formed or doctrines developed. If we are willing to journey to this place with openness, I think we can be assured that Jesus will look very different. As this series develops I hope to show you this Jesus. Perhaps in the words of my friend Marcus Borg, we might “see Jesus again for the first time.” ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Jacob’s Ladder Workshop LIVE or online 9-27 thru 9-20 in Redwood City, CA What if you were given a Road Map to Enlightenment? ................................* Would you take it? ................................* Follow it? ................................* Be curious about it? Our Western Wisdom tradition of Kabbalah offers a complete Road Map to Personal Enlightenment and guidance for navigating and mastering the 4 Worlds: Physical, Emotional, Spiritual and Divine. This roadmap is called JACOB’S LADDER. Click here fore more information/registration...

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Re: [Dialogue] (no subject)
by jayandem2＠aol.com 01 Oct '18

01 Oct '18

Thanks, Nancy jayandem2(a)aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Lanphear via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Nancy Lanphear <nancy(a)songaia.com> Sent: Fri, Sep 28, 2018 12:38 pm Subject: Re: [Dialogue] (no subject) Thanks Michael for continuing to keep us connected. The Lanphear directory info remains the same. I will send you a check for $20.00 for the paper copy. Hugs, Nancy On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 9:30 AM Michael Tippett via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: Thanks for the reminder Frank I will add you to the freebie list. On Sep 28, 2018 10:57 AM, Frank Knutson via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: I’m OK. Remember I get a freebie this year—want the email version. ‘Disobedience was man’s Original Virtue.’” ~Oscar Wilde ❤ Frank On Sep 27, 2018, at 5:14 PM, Tippett, Judith & Michael via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: I apologize if this is a duplicate, (Triplicate ?) I didn't want to miss anyone. THE 2019 DIRECTORYDear colleagues, I NEED YOUR CORRECTIONS OR ADDITIONS SENT TO ME ASAP to get the 2019edition of The Directory pulled together, to mail out in mid-November Please check over your entryin The 2018 Directory. Indicate belowany changes necessary. If you don’thave a 2018 Directory and want to see your entry, please email me with yourrequest. For those who aren’t familiarwith The Directory, it is a listing of names, addresses, phones and emails andoccupations of several hundred people who have been at one time or anotherassociated with the I.C.A., or the Ecumenical Institute, or its programs andprojects. If you aren't listed, and wantto be, fill out the form below and either mail it to me, or email it. Listing in The Directory is free If you want to order adirectory, complete the order form and send your check or money order (made outto Michael B. Tippett). In preparation for theDirectory, I need input from you. A. In Memoriam: Please let me know of any colleagues thathave died since the last Directory was published. Also, if you know the year of death thatisn’t already listed for a colleague, let me know. B. Cover for the 2019 Directory:Forthe past several issues of The Directory, I have featured a picture, a writtenpiece, and/or artwork submitted by colleagues. I would like to hold a contest this year for artwork or a photo to puton the cover. If you have something you would like to submit as a coverpossibility, send it to me. The first and second place winners will get afree Directory, and the first place winner’s submission will be featured on thecover. It will be interesting to see what the response is. For the 2018 Directory, we had a photo of thebuildings on the historic Ecumenical Institute campus in Fifth City onChicago’s West Side. Isn’t it your turn to submit something for thecover? REPLY TO THE DIRECTORY EMAIL ADDRESS, WHICH IS: movementdir(a)aol.com THE DIRECTORY REGISTRATIONFOR INDIVIDUALS OR FAMILIES: Please use to update PERSON # 1:Name as it should appear inTHE DIRECTORY:________________________________ Date of birth: __________(m/d/y) [optional] Occupation:____________________________________________________________ (Maximum 45 characters) Office Phone: (__) [____] _______________ Office Fax :(__) [ ___ ] _____________ (CountryCode) [Area or City Code] Local Number Bus. E-mail: _________________ PERSON # 2:Name as it should appear inTHE DIRECTORY: _______________________________ Date of birth:__________(m/d/y) [optional] Occupation:____________________________________________________________ (Maximum 45 characters) Office Phone: (__) [____] _______________ Office Fax : (__) [ __________________ (Country Code) [Areaor City Code] Local Number Bus. E-mail:_________________ Home Address: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Home Phone: (__) [____] _______________ Home Fax:(__) [ ____________________ (Country Code) [Area or City Code] Local Number Children living withparents: (Include birth dates, also, ifdesired) _________________________________________________________________________________________ Individual or Family listing is FREE! Cost of the Directory is$20.00 for the booklet form. AGAIN THISYEAR!! --- The Directory is available asan email attachment!! Cost only $15.00 ******************************************************************************************ORDER FORMNAME:______________________________ Email:________________________ADDRESS:____________________________ CITY/STATE/POSTAL(ZIP)CODE/COUNTRY: ____________________________________ Please send me a copy of TheDirectory: [ ] Booklet form [ ] Email Attachment Cost of the Directory is still $20.00 for the bookletform. The email attachment will costonly $ 15.00. You can order both for$30.00The CD version previously offered has beendiscontinued. I enclose $___________ (Check/Money Order made out to Michael Tippett) Re: PayPal:I’m sorry, but I can nolonger accept PayPal. I’ve had too muchtrouble with it in the past. Also, Ican’t accept Credit Cards. I hope itisn’t too much of an inconvenience to send a check or money order. Send orders to: Michael B. Tippett, 46 Meadow Circle – Ellenton, FL 34222-4224 USA Phone: (941) 417-7120(H) 713-8626 (C) Email: MOVEMENTDIR(a)aol.com _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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(no subject)
by jayandem2＠aol.com 28 Sep '18

28 Sep '18

I apologize if this is a duplicate, (Triplicate ?) I didn't want to miss anyone. THE 2019 DIRECTORYDear colleagues, I NEED YOUR CORRECTIONS OR ADDITIONS SENT TO ME ASAP to get the 2019edition of The Directory pulled together, to mail out in mid-November Please check over your entryin The 2018 Directory. Indicate belowany changes necessary. If you don’thave a 2018 Directory and want to see your entry, please email me with yourrequest. For those who aren’t familiarwith The Directory, it is a listing of names, addresses, phones and emails andoccupations of several hundred people who have been at one time or anotherassociated with the I.C.A., or the Ecumenical Institute, or its programs andprojects. If you aren't listed, and wantto be, fill out the form below and either mail it to me, or email it. Listing in The Directory is free If you want to order adirectory, complete the order form and send your check or money order (made outto Michael B. Tippett). In preparation for theDirectory, I need input from you. A. In Memoriam: Please let me know of any colleagues thathave died since the last Directory was published. Also, if you know the year of death thatisn’t already listed for a colleague, let me know. B. Cover for the 2019 Directory: Forthe past several issues of The Directory, I have featured a picture, a writtenpiece, and/or artwork submitted by colleagues. I would like to hold a contest this year for artwork or a photo to puton the cover. If you have something you would like to submit as a coverpossibility, send it to me. The first and second place winners will get afree Directory, and the first place winner’s submission will be featured on thecover. It will be interesting to see what the response is. For the 2018 Directory, we had a photo of thebuildings on the historic Ecumenical Institute campus in Fifth City onChicago’s West Side. Isn’t it your turn to submit something for thecover? REPLY TO THE DIRECTORY EMAIL ADDRESS, WHICH IS: movementdir(a)aol.com THE DIRECTORY REGISTRATIONFOR INDIVIDUALS OR FAMILIES: Please use to update PERSON # 1: Name as it should appear inTHE DIRECTORY:________________________________ Date of birth: __________(m/d/y) [optional] Occupation:____________________________________________________________ (Maximum 45 characters) Office Phone: (__) [____] _______________ Office Fax :(__) [ ___ ] _____________ (CountryCode) [Area or City Code] Local Number Bus. E-mail: _________________ PERSON # 2: Name as it should appear inTHE DIRECTORY: _______________________________ Date of birth:__________(m/d/y) [optional] Occupation:____________________________________________________________ (Maximum 45 characters) Office Phone: (__) [____] _______________ Office Fax : (__) [ __________________ (Country Code) [Areaor City Code] Local Number Bus. E-mail:_________________ Home Address: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Home Phone: (__) [____] _______________ Home Fax:(__) [ ____________________ (Country Code) [Area or City Code] Local Number Children living withparents: (Include birth dates, also, ifdesired) _________________________________________________________________________________________ Individual or Family listing is FREE! Cost of the Directory is$20.00 for the booklet form. AGAIN THISYEAR!! --- The Directory is available asan email attachment!! Cost only $15.00 ****************************************************************************************** ORDER FORM NAME:______________________________ Email:________________________ ADDRESS:____________________________ CITY/STATE/POSTAL(ZIP)CODE/COUNTRY: ____________________________________ Please send me a copy of TheDirectory: [ ] Booklet form [ ] Email Attachment Cost of the Directory is still $20.00 for the bookletform. The email attachment will costonly $ 15.00. You can order both for$30.00 The CD version previously offered has beendiscontinued. I enclose $___________ (Check/Money Order made out to Michael Tippett) Re: PayPal: I’m sorry, but I can nolonger accept PayPal. I’ve had too muchtrouble with it in the past. Also, Ican’t accept Credit Cards. I hope itisn’t too much of an inconvenience to send a check or money order. Send orders to: Michael B. Tippett, ADDRESS: 46 Meadow Circle – Ellenton, FL 34222-4224 USA Phone: (941) 417-7120(H) 713-8626 (C) Email: MOVEMENTDIR(a)aol.com

5 4

9/27/18, Progressing Spirit: Matthew Fox: Moral Issues and Ethics; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 27 Sep '18

27 Sep '18

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#yiv1156558001templateFooter .yiv1156558001mcnTextContent, #yiv1156558001 #yiv1156558001templateFooter .yiv1156558001mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } This is the path of love that Jesus called us to... | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Moral Issues and Ethics Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox September 27, 2018 A number of years ago a rabbi approached me and said to me: “You Christians should let the ten commandments go. These were given to us at a particular period in our existence and they belong to us. Instead, we Jews and millions of other people around the world are waiting to hear what those two commandments are all about that Jesus supposedly taught you.” And of course we Christians know that those two commandments are the sixth and ninth (i.e. all about sex). Joking aside, those two still little known commandments go something like this: “You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” And, "you must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22.37-39) I think it would behoove us to take the rabbi at his word. How do we love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and also love our neighbor as ourselves? And how are we doing at it? Love of God is about loving life in all its expressions and occasions, and love of self is essential for love of others. To love self then surely requires that we know ourselves and that means certainly our true self and our deepest self as opposed to our false self or outer self, the masks we wear to please others or to fit in or to avoid knowing our true self. Thomas Merton wrote extensively about our “true self.” He said we are “at liberty to be real or unreal…be true or false, the choice is ours.” If we fail at this we live under a mask and develop an “itch with discomfort” that we must eventually pay “a psychiatrist to scratch.”(1) It is down deep that we find our capacity for love because “if the deepest ground of my being is love, then in that very love itself and nowhere else will I find myself, and the world, and my brother and Christ. It is not a question of either-or but of all-in-one.” In this unity we encounter an equality of being and we learn “Meister Eckhart’s Gleichheit (equality) which finds the same ground of love in everything.”(2) It is in this “ground of our soul or of our being, a ‘ground’ which is …enlightened and aware, because it is in immediate contact with God” that we find what the Buddhist D. T. Suzuki called the “True Self” or the “original mind.”(3) I call this “original blessing.” To love oneself truly is also to love others—not only because we are societal animals and need community to serve, laugh, offer criticism, assist, but also because we literally can’t survive without others. And by others I don’t mean just other two-legged ones but the others who are of different species—the plants and the animals, the sun and the moon, the waters and the winged ones and the insects and the planets and the supernovas that burst and spread the elements that render our existence possible, etc. etc. Who is our neighbor? Well, all these beings are. Consider the air that we breathe—what is more intimate than air that we breathe in with every breath? That means the air is our neighbor—are we loving it–or are we taking it for granted? Are we protecting it for our own health and that of our neighbors and our children to come—or are we ravaging it with pollutions and polluters? If we are in denial about climate change (which half of our political machinery is at this time in the US), then we are not loving our neighbors—or our descendants–and their need for healthy land and soil and food and well-nourished bodies and minds. Love in the Biblical tradition is not sentimental. It is not soap opera love—it is about justice. Therefore balance; therefore sustainability. “Love means justice” said Meister Eckhart in the fourteenth century working out of the Jewish tradition about justice. The word “maat” in African languages means something very similar, our capacity to bring balance back, homeostasis in today’s scientific language (along with “sustainability”). Such love requires strength and perseverance and co-operation and solidarity and standing up to injustice which is its opposite. Bishop Spong stresses that rules will not save us and are not the last word when it comes to ethics. He is correct. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century chose deliberately not to build his ethics on rules or commandments but on virtues (as did Aristotle, his mentor). Virtues are good habits that allow one to respond to the moral exigencies of one’s time when one cannot rely on rules and rule books and rule enforcers. Courage is such a virtue; and ingenuity; and creativity. Civil disobedience, which is the method for love and justice that Gandhi and Martin Luther King employed so successfully, is about developing a virtue of non-violence or non-retaliation, not returning violence for violence but rather returning love for violence and being willing to pay the price for doing so (King went to jail 39 times for his disobedience and Gandhi also went to jail often for his). It is notable I think that it took a Hindu to put Jesus’ teachings of love as non-violence into an ethical practice that was effective. Gandhi was standing up to a so-called “Christian nation,” namely the British empire, to wage a crusade of love and not war and retaliation. Then a generation later a Christian came along, King, who learned the practice from Gandhi and implemented it to oppose the racism, segregation and hate in the USA, also eager to label itself a “Christian nation.” Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 that when you “do it to the least you do it to me” is another way of grasping compassion, justice and love as norms to live by. “Compassion is where peace and justice kiss” remarks Meister Eckhart. When one sees suffering one sees the Christ, one sees the crucifixion all over again whether one is talking about the victims of police violence or women who are abused in work places or children growing up needlessly without health care and basic food, or the homeless, or the ravishing of the rainforests that are needed not only for the purifying of the air they accomplish for us and all living species on the planet, but also for their own unique selfhood. Do humans make rainforests? No. They are a once in a lifetime event. They too are our neighbors. To speak of love and justice is also to speak of darkness and immorality and evil. We, especially Americans, can wrap ourselves so snugly in our life blankets of rhetoric and militarism and national anthems and materialism and consumerism and the gods of comfort that we shield (or imagine we shield) ourselves from the mayhem of evil. The kind of wars that have been unleashed in the Middle East beginning with America’s invasion of Iraq need to be meditated on for the lessons to be learned. One lesson is that the reptilian brain—and an “eye for eye” mentality—does not solve human conflicts. As Gandhi warned, those who follow an eye for eye and tooth for tooth doctrine may well end up both blind and toothless. We can do better and this is what Jesus taught. Forgiveness matters; letting go is possible; moving on can happen. There is a powerful true story of a mother in LA whose 17 year old son was murdered in a drive-by killing and when they found his killer who was a 19 year old and put him in prison she visited the young man who killed her son; then she visited him again; and again. He had had no mother. They became friends. Love is possible and forgiveness is possible. Redemption is possible. Thomas Aquinas teaches that when a critical moral issue arises you cannot just turn to a book or a list of rules for the answers. Rather, he advises, take counsel from a person of conscience and then do your own soul-searching and let your conscience decide. Today is a time when conscience must wake up and speak up and stand up. Whether we are talking of treating immigrants as “the least among us” and therefore “other Christs” or the oceans or the rainforests or the animals, so many of which are going extinct, or women or gay people or people of a different race or religion or ethnicity from ourselves, it is time to see all as “other Christs.” Not as other. It is time to stand up and fight; to get in touch with the capacity that we all have within us of moral outrage (to be found in the third chakra) and tap into that anger using it as energy to make love and justice happen. This is what the prophets did—they tapped into moral outrage and then spoke up and acted up and did what Rabbi Heschel says all prophets do: They interfered. True love needs to interfere. And who are the prophets today? You are; I am; we all are. Heschel says “there lies in the recesses of every human existence a prophet.” We must plummet our recesses—seek for our true self—and operate out of there. I believe the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality name the recesses vividly for us: Our awe, wonder, joy and gratitude (Path One: The Via Positiva); Our silence and our suffering and grief (Path Two: The Via Negativa); Our Creativity (Path Three: The Via Creativa); and Our powers of Compassion, Justice Making and Healing (Path Four: The Via Transformativa). These constitute our deepest resources; they are the birthplace of the mystic/prophet in all of us. An ethical person therefore is both a lover (a mystic) and a warrior or prophet (one who interferes with injustice). If it is true, as William Hocking says, that "the prophet is the mystic in action", then it is very clear that we must all tap into our mystical depths to find the loving self which is our true self (Paths One and Two are the mystical self). Out of that mystic self there derives the prophetic self (Paths Three and Four). New Testament scholar Dominic Crossan observes that for Paul you cannot be a Christian without being a mystic. This is the path of love that Jesus called us to: The love of the mystic and the love of the prophet, the love of our true selves that reach out organically to love all the other creatures we share life with and with whom we share a love of life. Isn’t that just about everyone and every creature? Aren’t all creatures striving to love life in their own way? And therefore God? ~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 69 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Recent books include The Lotus & The Rose: Conversations on Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity with Lama Tsomo; Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God...Including the God Without a Name; new paperback version of Stations of the Cosmic Christ with Bishop Marc Andrus. A Special Eckhart@Erfurt workshop in June, 2019. With young leaders Fox is launching a new spiritual (not religious) “order” called the Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE) that is welcoming to people of all faith traditions and none and whose ‘glue’ is a common vow: “I promise to be the best lover of Mother Earth and the best defender of Mother Earth that I can be.” ————————– (1.) Cited in Matthew Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey (Novato, Ca: New World Library, 2016), 185. (2.) Ibid., 44. (3.) Ibid., 34. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader Can this (Christian) faith create a new institutional form that fosters a truth-seeking, universal community? A: By Joran Slane Oppelt Dear Reader, I don’t believe that any one spiritual tool, practice or teaching will satisfy the needs of everyone on the planet. A universal community under the umbrella of one religion is a Utopian ideal. Pluralism and religious diversity increasingly allows for the inclusion of many voices and has shown us the promise of a world where those voices live side-by-side. Conversely, the corruption and abuse of power within the ranks of Catholicism (universal church) has shown this and future generations the dangers of gathering too tightly under one umbrella and ceding our values to a powerful few – something Jesus himself warned against. Secondly, if by “truth” we mean the domain of the empirical and verifiable facts, then we have miles to go. We have now entered the era of “post-truth,” where all opinions are valid and all perspectives may be politicized. Seeking the “truth” means that we must agree the truth exists – that we can both look up at the sky and agree that it is blue based on testable data. The post-truth era has already caused seismic change in things like science, media, ecology, climate, social justice, race/gender studies, women’s rights and religion. The “enlightenment” of the 17th century allowed us to separate and integrate the value spheres of beautiful, good and true. It allowed us to speak three different languages, from three distinct perspectives (I, We and It). It protected and preserved the realms of spirituality, law and science. It has kept people like Robert Mapplethorpe and Rob Bell from being burned at the stake and it has allowed things like natural science, astronomy and philosophy to flourish. But, seeking a personal “Truth” is a dangerous proposition in post-modern times. White Christian males (those who have long held political and religious power) are being threatened by diversity and are crying out that they are the ones being victimized. If Christianity – the full spectrum of religious experience and expression, its institutions, teachings, writings, sacraments, icons, saints, symbols, etc. – expects to survive postmodernism, it must let go of the “universal” idea and embrace the pain and discomfort of transformation. ~ Joran Slane Oppelt Click here to read and share online About the Author Joran Slane Oppelt Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister, life coach and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and founder of Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay committed to “transformative practice, community service and religious literacy.” Joran is the author of Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox), Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He serves as President of Interfaith Tampa Bay and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion. He has presented at South by Southwest in Austin, TX; Building the New World Conference in Radford, VA; Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City; Embrace Festival in Portland, OR and Integral European Conference in Siófok, Hungary. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Lamb of God: Jesus for the Non-Religious, Part III Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March 29, 2006 In this series, to which I am returning periodically through the year, I seek to draw our attention to the person of Jesus before the creeds were formed and doctrines were created. I even want to get to who Jesus was before the gospels were written. My goal is to understand the original “Jesus experience” and perhaps even to enter it. It is important to note first that at least forty years had elapsed between the end of Jesus” earthly life and the writing of Mark, the first gospel, and at least seventy years between the end of Jesus” life and the writing of the last gospel, John. In that period of 40 to 70 years interpretive data drawn primarily from the Jewish scriptures were added to Jesus that formed the portrait that the gospel writers simply assumed. In the last article in this series I sought to demonstrate that the gospels reveal a Jesus who had already been intertwined with the content of the Jewish Scriptures, shaped by the liturgy of the Jewish people, and interpreted through the lens of Jewish messianic expectations, none of which could have occurred except inside the synagogue. Christians are not generally aware that the Christian Church did not separate from the synagogue until the final years of the 9th decade. Before that date, the disciples of Jesus, like Jesus himself, were regular participants in its life. Support for this conclusion is present on almost every page of the four gospels. In what is now the third column in this series, I want to examine a familiar Jewish symbol, “the lamb of God,” that the disciples of Jesus obviously used to interpret his death at the dawn of the Christian movement. It is a symbol that comes directly out of the synagogue liturgy for the Day of Atonement, called Yom Kippur. The fact that Christians have used a lamb as a symbol for Jesus and that we refer to Jesus in liturgical worship today as “the Lamb of God” reveals this connection. In addition familiar evangelical phrases like “Jesus died for your sins or my sins,” or those times when Christians speak of being “washed in the blood of the lamb” are also related to Yom Kippur. Yet despite these clearly borrowed references, most Christians, knowing little or nothing about Yom Kippur, or the way in which that Jewish holy day has shaped the language of contemporary Christianity, continue to use this symbol, sometimes in ways that are strange and even bizarre to the original Jewish meaning. So I begin this column by introducing the meaning of Yom Kippur and its influence on Christian practice. On the Day of Atonement the Jews were personally required to concentrate for a 24-hour period, on their understanding of human life as sinful and alienated from God. The dimensions of that day are spelled out in the Torah (see Lev.16: 1-28 and 23:16 ff). It is a time for fasting, penitence and seeking the forgiveness of God. The Yom Kippur liturgy required the taking of two animals (goats or lambs, but later tradition has made one a lamb and the other a goat) from the flocks to present to the High Priest. These animals were required to be young, healthy males without a spot, blemish or broken bone. Physical perfection was of the highest importance. Since human beings were not thought to be able to enter God’s presence in their alienated state, they sought to gain access to God by offering a perfect offering. Physical perfection was part of that. In time this lamb also came to be thought of as morally perfect. Animals do not have freedom of choice so it was presumed the lamb could not choose to do evil. It was, therefore, seen as a perfect symbol to be offered to God in place of the imperfect people. One of the creatures was then chosen by lot to be sacrificed. After being slaughtered the blood of this “lamb of God” was placed on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, the spot in the Temple where God was thought to dwell. The blood of the perfect lamb thus covered people’s access to God. They went to God only through the blood of the lamb. The second animal was then brought to the High Priest. Holding its horns and bowing over it, the high priest began to confess the sins of the people. The symbol here was that as the high priest confessed, all of the evil inside the people came out and landed on the head and back of this animal, making it the “bearer of their sins”. The newly cleansed people celebrated their purity, by pronouncing curses on this sin-bearing creature and calling for its death. However, this animal was not killed at Yom Kippur, instead it was run into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people with it. The Book of Leviticus called this creature, “The Scapegoat.” Using the Yom Kippur symbol for Jesus entered the New Testament first in Paul who related it to his death. In I Corinthians (15:1-6), Paul asserted that the death of Jesus was not purposeless, since his death, like the death of the sacrificial lamb, was “for our sins.” Mark, the first gospel, (ca.70 C.E.) added to this Yom Kippur connection by interpreting the crucifixion as a “ransom” offered for many. Jesus, like the sacrificial lamb, paid the ransom required, making further punishment unnecessary. The identification between Jesus and the sacrificial lamb was complete by the time the 4th Gospel was written (95-100C.E.) when the author portrayed John the Baptist referring to Jesus with words taken directly from Yom Kippur: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins of the World.” Liturgical Christian churches use these words, now called the “Agnus Dei” at almost every Eucharist, while in evangelical churches these words created the idea that is called the substitutionary theory of the Atonement, which asserts that though you and I deserve to be punished for our sins, Jesus has absorbed that punishment for us, freeing us from our sins. Looking deeply into the gospel tradition, we discover more subtle influences of Yom Kippur in those texts. When John’s gospel tells the story of the legs of two thieves being broken to hasten death (19:31-38), he notes that the legs of Jesus were not broken. That was not literal memory at work. It was rather an attempt to preserve the symbol of Yom Kippur in the portrait of the cross. The new Lamb of God must, like Yom Kippur’s lamb, be physically perfect. When the gospels record crowds calling “crucify him, crucify him,” they were making it clear that Jesus had been identified with the sin-bearing creature of Yom Kippur to whom words were also shouted calling for its death, the fate of all sin bearers. The story of Jesus” crucifixion was thus seen and interpreted through the lens of these Yom Kippur rituals. Jesus, like the animals, was a young, healthy male with no blemishes or broken bones. He also came to be understood as the morally sinless one. Under the pressure of this interpretive symbol, it was said of Jesus, he was “tempted in all things and yet without sin.” His death was thus said to be like the death of the sacrificial lamb. His perfection covered the imperfections of the people and gained for them access to the presence of God. People began to talk of being “washed in the blood of the lamb.” The Jewish disciples of Jesus understood this identification as a symbol of the human yearning to be at one with God. It was their way of saying that the death of Jesus was not a tragedy, but was a free and complete act of human self-giving. In offering his life without the need to protect, defend or preserve his selfhood, they were saying that in the death of Jesus they had caught a glimpse of who and what God is. They had experienced in Jesus life fully lived, love wastefully given, and the ground of all being giving them the courage to be themselves. The death of Jesus was thus originally interpreted as an act of ultimate self-giving that greatly enhanced life by draining from human beings all their sinfulness that served to separate them both from God and from each other. The self-giving act created in its recipients a response of wholeness. When the Gentile world, into which Christianity had moved by the end of the 1st century, received this symbol, the concentration was no longer on the unfettered gift and the willing sacrifice that love always makes, it was rather focused on a legal concept. The fallen world deserved punishment. God was obliged to provide that punishment so justice would result. The punishment due to sinful people was, however, more than human beings could endure and so Jesus absorbed it for us. God laid on him the punishment deserved by all. Salvation understood as undeserved restoration became the dominant note of Christianity. Justice was served. Debt was paid. Life was rescued. We were washed in the blood of the “Lamb of God.” When this contract was literalized, it was not life and freedom that resulted but gratitude and indebtedness. This is how Christianity became so totally identified with our understanding of human wretchedness and with the use of guilt as the emotion of control. From that day to this, Christianity would never be the same. Guilt always distorts life and unrelieved gratitude ultimately issues in chronic dependency, a combination that has never enhanced life or increased love for anyone. What once had been a Jewish liturgical symbol, expressing the human yearning to be at one with God, was literalized and a distortion of Christianity immediately began. Its marks are everywhere. Why do we baptize children? To wash away the stain of the “fall” into which we are hopelessly born. Why do we celebrate the Eucharist? To reenact the sacrifice of Jesus who rescued us and filled us with dependent gratitude. Why do we sing of God’s Amazing Grace? Because it “saved a wretch like me.” Why do we in worship say such things as: “Lord, have mercy,” “we are miserable offenders,” unfit to “gather up the crumbs” from beneath the Lord’s table? It all derives from Yom Kippur legalistically misunderstood by Christians. Christianity, which began as a call to new life, was transformed into a religion of guilt and control, sin and punishment. That is the direction in which most Christian doctrines finally flowed. To reclaim the promise of life, this theology of sacrifice, death and sin must be first raised to consciousness and then banished, for it is not compatible with the Jesus who claimed that his purpose was to give life and to give it absolutely. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | | | Announcements Practicing Spirituality with the Peacemakers – 2018 .........Online E-Course 10-01 thru 11-09 In “Practicing Spirituality with Peacemakers” we offer an alternative way of living that is built on the strong spiritual foundations of nonviolence, living together harmoniously, forgiving and being reconciled with others, and seeking common ground. Click here for more information/registration. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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9/20/18, Progressing Spirit: Oppelt: Religion and The New Paradigm (A Spiritual Upgrade); Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 20 Sep '18

20 Sep '18

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!important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7542218491 #yiv7542218491templateFooter .yiv7542218491mcnTextContent, #yiv7542218491 #yiv7542218491templateFooter .yiv7542218491mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } There is a new paradigm in religious thought — that of the progressive, pluralistic ally of science and lover of truth. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Religion and The New Paradigm (A Spiritual Upgrade) Column by Joran Slane Oppelt September 20, 2018 There is a new paradigm in religious thought — that of the progressive, pluralistic ally of science and lover of truth. It is the path of those committed to a living integration of art, science, philosophy and spirituality. This frontier was articulated with clarity and depth in Belonging to the Universe, a dialogue (published in 1991) between Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast and physicist Fritjof Capra. In Belonging, Steindl-Rast and Capra offer similarities between the major shifts in their respective fields — religious and scientific thought. New paradigm thinking in science, says Capra, means a “shift from the part to the whole.” In theology, according to Steindl-Rast, it means a “shift from God as revealer of truth to reality as God’s self-revelation.” It means a shift from objective science (“structure”) to “epistemic science” (“the understanding that the process of knowledge is to be included in the description of natural phenomena”). In religion, it means a shift from theology as an “objective science” to theology as a “process of knowing.” In science, a shift from truth to “approximate descriptions” and in religion, a “shift in focus from theological statements to divine mysteries.” And across both fields, a shift in the fundamental metaphor of knowledge from “building blocks” to “networks” — from fundamentals to process, from discreteness to interconnectedness. The signposts that signaled this new territory have been numerous, yet some have chosen to ignore them. >From the pulpit of today’s “modern” Christian churches you will hear messages that sound straight out of the 16th century. You will hear about the cleansing blood of Christ or the blood of Jesus as the way to salvation. You will hear about how Jesus rose from the dead — not spiritually, not figuratively, but literally rose from the grave in the flesh. You will hear these morbid tales of a zombie Jesus because these Christian leaders don’t teach their followers to think beyond the page, like adults, and because — like adolescents fascinated by superheroes and the fountain of youth — we are preoccupied with overcoming pain, suffering and our own bodily death. According to a recent campaign by the United Church of Christ, “God is still speaking.” Yet, while biblical scripture has largely remained unchanged over time, the language we use to translate and illustrate it has. We are still using the metaphor of “the well” in a time when our cities’ water supplies are poisoned with lead, fluoride and radiation. Who is the woman at the well in Washington, D.C.? Who is the woman at the well in Flint, Michigan? Illustrating the gospel of Christ with newfound colors, modern language and meaningful stories can only make it more nuanced, more relevant and more sacred. In Dr. Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels we read not only of the linguistic inaccuracies in the European and Greek translations of the Gospels, but of the clear attempt to destroy the character of Mary Magdalene. Her historical importance, her teachings, and the concept of the Divine Feminine (shekinah, or “divine wisdom”) have been scrubbed from canonized text. She has been incorrectly painted (by a predominantly male clergy) as a manipulator and a prostitute. And, we continue to suffer from an imbalance of the masculine/feminine forces in society (equal pay, body rights, female objectification, rape, harassment, etc.) and in ourselves (sexuality, gender, power, rage, shame). We have had countless messages from God — loud and clear — revealing to us through philosophy, science, physics, medicine, archaeology, cosmology — that our vision of the world (and each other) may need to be modified. Yet, some of us have been told that to listen to these messages is blasphemous, that we risk our very soul by giving our time to the heretical scientific “materialists,” and that we should listen to the words of our priests and chaperones rather than look (“taste and see,” Psalm 34:8) for ourselves. We have had a million chances as a species to revise and update what we believe about the universe in which we live. Our spiritual inbox is full of these messages on a daily basis. They are reminders that the Cosmos is ever-changing (evolving and increasing in complexity), that we are constantly expanding through our own consciousness (DeChardin’s nöosphere, Aurobindo’s involution), and that our perception of the Divine (our theology) needs to be revisited as our consciousness and cosmology expand to include more depth. Some of us have been simply marking these messages as spam because they’re not coming to us from “trusted providers.” They’re arriving from institutions that we’ve been told to distrust (philosophy, psychology, astronomy, archaeology). Our spam filters can become so full that it is more work to sort and index and categorize all of this new information than it is to just ignore, trash or recycle everything out of hand. By doing so, we are making a conscious choice to not install the spiritual upgrade and stick with our limited, antiquated (and sometimes glitchy) operating system. Sometimes these messages can feel like advertising — well-designed sales pitches crafted to convert us to a new way of thought. They are. They can feel like offers from the company that sold you your last computer, asking you to upgrade your software and hardware with the latest bells and whistles. And it’s easy to refuse them. It’s easy to lump them in with car salesmen and the multi-level marketers. Yet, they are the ones who built, designed, coded and programmed your device. Or, imagine receiving a postcard from the tailor who hand-crafted and stitched together your very first suit (the original suit you were given as a child). They’ve been trying to reach you for some time. They know you’ve changed and grown a lot since you left the shop, and your suit is now too small. Your arms and legs dangle out of it and you look like an awkward teenager. Sometimes your friends even laugh about it behind your back, but they would never say anything to your face. It’s time to get a new suit. God — the Creator, the programmer, the tailor — has been trying to contact you. His messages (in the form of collective knowledge, revealed wisdom and answered prayers) have been clear. Expand your way of living to include more truth and more depth, extend your way of relating to include more goodness and love, upgrade your way of thinking to include more being and more beauty. Installing a new spiritual operating system also means seeing through new lenses and new eyes. It will require looking at the universe all the way up (and outward) to the edges of the known universe where human life becomes insignificant and all the way down (and inward) to the quantum realm where the laws of mathematics dissolve. It means looking at these dimensions of our world with the same awe, gratitude, joy, humility and sense of sacredness that we would bring to the pews of our local church. Seeing the world around us as changed (and changing) requires changing ourselves from within. And we have had the capacity (if not the will) to do so all along. As Jesus said in Luke 17:21, “The Kingdom is not coming in any way that you can observe. The Kingdom of God is already here — within you.” ### The Future of Christianity (Visioning Exercise) A new Christian movement is on the horizon. It’s there along with a number of alternative futures. Here are a few questions to help facilitate this visioning process: - What would this progressive, neo-Gnostic, Christianity/spirituality look like? - Would it be a desirable future? Why — or why not? - What would it take to make it happen? What would it take to prevent it? - Would you be willing to do what it takes to realize or prevent this future? - Who would this future advantage, and who would it oppress? What is the cost, and who pays the price? ~ Joran Slane Oppelt Click here to read online and to share your thoughtsAbout the Author Joran Slane Oppelt Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister, life coach and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and founder of Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay committed to “transformative practice, community service and religious literacy.” Joran is the author of Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox), Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He serves as President of Interfaith Tampa Bay and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion.He has presented at South by Southwest in Austin, TX; Building the New World Conference in Radford, VA; Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City; Embrace Festival in Portland, OR and Integral European Conference in Siófok, Hungary. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By a Reader In Christ or Follow Jesus? If I am a follower of Jesus, can I be in Christ too? A: By Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Dear Reader,In my next essay I will explore liturgy but let me draw upon a passage from a liturgical text I’ve written for the Season of Creation to provide a context for my response to your question.“May this promised land, the Earth, teach us to discover that from You all blessings do flow. Your Spirit hovers over the deep giving birth to all – creation is Christ incarnate. Your Spirit unites Mary and Joseph giving birth to the prophet from Nazareth – Jesus grows as Christ. Your Spirit suffuses souls giving birth to searching pilgrims – the unfolding body of Christ. Here, upon this fragile sphere within boundless space, You are inviting all things to realize the Christ they are created to be – becoming new, tasting your glory, knowing wholeness in You.”In my experience, each of us is the continual weaving into being, moment-to-moment, of Being. We are unique, beautiful, unrepeatable manifestations of Being which is utterly (which is to say, gracefully) effulgent. What this means is that Being is not only humanity’s true nature but the true nature of all that is. Our essence is “to be.”In my understanding then, “Christ” is the language Christians have for speaking of this universal truth about our true nature. Our spiritual path is to realize our Christic true nature – in other words, to realize for ourselves that we are Being becoming manifest, tangible, creatively expressive as our personal life. To be a follower of the way of Jesus is deeper and more intimate that being “in Christ”; the spiritual path is one of becoming the Christ (or Being) you already are by your very nature.~Kevin G. Thew Forrester Click here to read and share onlineAbout the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of St. Paul’s Church in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including “I Have Called You Friends“, “Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms“, and “My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You” and “Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland“. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Jesus for the Non-Religious, Part II Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March 1, 2006 In the first column in this series (published on February 15, 2006), I sought to establish the fact that the memory of Jesus, including his words, parables and actions were recalled orally and passed on only in the Synagogues. This means that before the written gospel tradition began, the synagogues were the context in which Jesus was remembered. I base that conclusion on the fact that the gospels reveal a deep intertwining between the memory of Jesus and the content of the Jewish Bible. This interweaving could only have occurred in the Synagogue because that was the only place where the Hebrew Scriptures were read and discussed. Few people could read in the first century and books were in the form of very expensive hand-written scrolls belonging, normally, not to individuals but to the whole community. Only the Synagogue, for example, had copies of the sacred scriptures, which were read when the people gathered for worship. In the first of this series, I described the Sabbath liturgy of the first century that called for the reading of the entire Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy) in order at public worship on the Sabbaths of a single year. After that long reading each Sabbath came shorter lessons from both the early prophets (Joshua through II Kings) and the later prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve, i.e. Hosea through Malachi). Then members of the congregation were invited to comment on these scriptures. That was when Jesus” disciples recalled his words and deeds. Inevitably, this meant that they interpreted Jesus through the lens of these texts. So stories of those larger than life heroes of the Jewish past became interpretive vehicles through which Jesus began to be thought of as the “New Moses ” or the “New Elijah.” Stories from both heroes were retold as if the events in their lives had been repeated in Jesus” life.Jewish worship was also filled with a yearning for Messiah to come. Messianic ideas thus also became channels through which Jesus was portrayed as the one in whom these various hopes were fulfilled. Phrases like “Son of Man” and “Son of David” and symbols drawn from the anticipation of a coming “New Israel” began to show up in their descriptions of things Jesus said and did. Classical images of Messiah, like the Suffering Servant from Isaiah (40-55), or the Shepherd King of Israel, from Zechariah (9-14), also shaped the Jesus memory. With the passing years, these stories were told and retold in Sabbath gatherings, until memory blended with interpretation and history was confused with mythology. People today still do not embrace the fact that everything we read in the gospels was written 40 to 70 years after the earthly life of Jesus had come to an end and thus well after this inevitable blending had occurred.Later Christians, not knowing this, incorporated these interpretative symbols into their creeds in the 4th and 5th centuries as if they were history. For example, the story of Jesus” ascension into heaven was a retelling of the Elijah story appropriately magnified. The Virgin Birth was an attempt to adapt the story of Jesus to words found in Isaiah 7:14. Judas Iscariot was a composite of all the traitor stories of the Hebrew tradition. Many miracle stories were adaptations from the Elijah/Elisha cycle. It would not be until the early 19th century that biblical scholarship began to unravel the facts of history from this primitive interpretative process.By that time, these teachings of the church had been set inside liturgies, which reinforced a literal reading of the gospel texts. This meant that when biblical scholars began the inevitable task of unraveling the Jesus of history from the Jesus of interpretation, the fundamentalists saw this biblical scholarship as a direct attack on the veracity of the gospels themselves and even non-fundamentalists began to reel under the impact of new revelations and insights that destroyed their religious confidence. In time this unraveling was so thorough that some people began to suggest that perhaps Jesus never really lived at all, that he was but a fantasy figure composed out of the pagan god stories of Egypt and the Mediterranean. When one claims too much for something about which one actually knows very little, that is almost inevitable.There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus lived. There is also no doubt that many of the familiar details of the traditional Jesus story never happened at all. To separate these two things has been the purpose of my academic concentration over the past two years, as I have sought to probe those formative years from 30 to 70 C.E., that we still call “the oral period.”The first insight I developed in this series was to document the way in which the Hebrew Scriptures had become intertwined with the memory of Jesus long before the gospels were written. The insight I seek to develop this week is to show how the liturgical year of the Synagogue, especially its celebration of the great events in the life of the Jewish people, actually shaped the form in which the first gospel, Mark, was constructed. Because Matthew and Luke both represented expansions of Mark, Matthew in a specifically Jewish direction and Luke in a more open, cosmopolitan and gentile direction, the cumulative weight of these three, called “the synoptic gospels,” set the story of Jesus into the liturgy of the Synagogue far more deeply than Western Christians have ever imagined.Christians have a church year anchored in three great events in Jesus” life: his birth, his death and his gift of the Holy Spirit. Yet, Christians still are not generally aware of the holy days of the Jewish year or of their presence in the background of various Christian observances.The Jewish liturgical year also began at different places in the calendar among various Jewish groups, making the understanding of these connections even more confusing to follow. For some it began at Rosh Hashanah in the early fall, for others at the harvest celebration called Sukkoth in the late fall, and for still others at the time of the Passover in the early spring, which celebrated the birth of the Jewish nation. Christians first tied the Jesus story into the Jewish year by paralleling the crucifixion of Jesus with the slaying of the Paschal Lamb at Passover. With that connection made, the rest of Jesus” life fell quickly into a parallel framework with Jewish observances. Using Mark’s order, and working backwards from the crucifixion to the baptism, let me lay the Jesus story out against the Jewish liturgical practices and see what insights follow.PASSOVER: Mark wrote chapters 14 and 15 of his gospel to juxtapose the crucifixion with the Passover observance. He even divided his passion story into the eight segments of a 24-hour vigil. Jesus became the New Paschal Lamb whose death broke the power of death. This meant that Chapter 16, Mark’s Easter account, would be read on the Sabbath after Passover.DEDICATION (Hanukkah): Moving backward from Passover into the dead of winter, one reaches the next Jewish observance, a festival called Dedication by the Jews. This day celebrated the return of the light of God to the Temple at the time of the Maccabees. Stretching Mark back, the story that would be read at this festival was the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop (9:2-8). Here the light of God was said to have transformed not the Temple but Jesus, presenting him as the new Temple where the light of God now resided. I suspect that by the time Mark wrote this story, the Temple had been destroyed by the Romans, which would have made Mark’s claim for Jesus as the new Temple even more poignant. SUKKOTH: In the fall of the year the Jews observed a harvest festival of eight days that would come in our calendars in mid to late October. As we continue to roll Mark’s gospel backwards across the Sabbaths of December, November and into October, we come to a series of harvest and nature stories (Mark 4:1-41) that have a remarkable affinity with Sukkoth. The parable of the sower was actually divided into four kinds of soil that produced four kinds of harvest that fit an eight-day celebration quite well.YOM KIPPUR: Five days before Sukkoth, in early to mid October the Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Still rolling Mark’s gospel backward we discover that right on cue, Mark filled his narrative with cleansing, healing stories appropriate to Yom Kippur, including the story where Jesus entered that which was unclean, the Gentile tax collecting office, and called Levi to follow him. Levi was thus cleansed by association with Jesus (2:13-17).ROSH HASHANAH: The final day in the Jewish year that Mark covered was Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year, which comes near the first of October. Rosh Hashanah was observed by blowing the ram’s horn to gather the people to announce the coming of God’s kingdom and to urge upon them preparation. Against that theme Mark opens his gospel with the story of John the Baptist, who utters the Rosh Hashanah liturgical words and proclaims that Jesus is the one for whom Rosh Hashanah yearns (1:1-11).When you put it together, Mark’s gospel appears to be organized with stories about Jesus that carry worshipers from Rosh Hashanah in the early fall to Passover in the early spring. Mark’s gospel is shorter than the other Synoptics because Rosh Hashanah to Passover only covers 6.A whole new doorway into understanding the life of Jesus begins to emerge from the shadows. I will pursue this study in future columns for through this doorway the gospels open to new possibilities and a means is developed to escape today’s killing literalism.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements An Evening with Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo October 4, 2018 8:30 PM Location: Sacred Stream 2149 Byron Street Berkeley CA How Mystical Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism provide answers to the challenges of our times. Join co-authors Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo as they discuss how these traditions provide the medicine we need to navigate contemporary life. Following a brief reading from their new book, The Lotus and the Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity the authors will engage in a dialogue and share practices you can use in everyday life. Click here to register | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Winds & Waves, September reminder for entries
by ICA International 15 Sep '18

15 Sep '18

Any problem reading this message please click or paste this URL in your browser's address bar http://windswaves.icai-archives.org/new-ww/ en français en español September 2018 This is a reminder for entries to our new Winds and Waves Magazine We are delighted to invite you to share your stories here via this link medium.com/winds-and-waves We also welcome videos that show the work you are doing. And we would be delighted if you would share stories from Winds and Waves on your own social media networks. Here is this month's featured story, about Guatemalan parents learning about nutrition and child development: Sociodramas, enchiladas, toys and gardens: Learning Basket program supports rural Guatemalan parents For information about how to work with Winds and Waves on Medium: Please see attachment here Please be sure to send this invitation on to your ICA members and friends, colleagues, partners, family, so they too can participate. You can get further information by contacting us at icawindandwaves(a)gmail.com Best wishes, Robyn, Dharma, Roma, Rosemary, Isabel, Peter, for W&W team Published by The Institute of Cultural Affairs International, 401 Richmond Street, West, Toronto, ON. M5V 3A8, Canada All rights reserved. For more information or to unsubscribe, email: inform(a)ica-international.org

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9/13/18, Progressing Spirit: Forrester:Terrifying & Terrible Texts: Knowing the Difference between Study and Liturgy; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 13 Sep '18

13 Sep '18

View this email in your browser Terrifying & Terrible Texts: Knowing the Difference between Study and Liturgy Column by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. September 13, 2018 “I’m in Pain” Quite recently, a dear friend and colleague within a spiritual group in which we both participate raised a question, a heartfelt concern, about a book we were asked to read. This particular text, written in the middle of the last century, is a psychotherapy book that explores an energetic understanding of how the mind and body are interconnected. The book has much to commend it. However, my friend was in pain over the blatant homophobia in this piece and was wondering how I and others were experiencing the text and whether it was even appropriate for our study. I responded that I appreciated the soulful pain of which she was speaking. (In truth, my heart ached as her words landed upon me.) I found the author’s homophobia sharp as well as blatant. Why then continue reading this text? I offered that as a teacher I feel a particular need (even a responsibility) to know what have been the veins of theory upon which our teaching has drawn to take the shape it has. I would also like to understand as fully as possible how these theorists have been appropriated – what has been incorporated and shaped our teaching and what has been left, and why. I know that these are questions of mine, and I believe they will be questions asked of us and others who are spiritual teachers. Study & Liturgy It is also true, that while we are expected to study and understand these texts because of the impact they have had upon the unfoldment of psychotherapy and spirituality in the west, we would never offer these texts within the context of meditation. There are texts for study and there are texts for liturgy. Although there is much to commend it, the New Revised Common Lectionary does not fully appreciate this important distinction. As a result, too often liturgy continues to assault the hearts, minds, and bodies of those who have gathered to be guided and soulfully nurtured. (I’m focusing here on biblical texts used in liturgy. But this assault pertains equally to the inherent violence of atonement-based collects and eucharistic prayers recited each Sunday.) I raise this matter because I have lost count of the times members of my congregations and spiritual seekers with whom I work have implored why they must read aloud for liturgy the texts offered by the institution’s authorities. Although such homophobic and misogynistic verses as Rom. 1.26-27 and 1 Tim. 2.11-14, respectively, are now omitted, they continue to hear passages, which to their ears disturbingly proclaim tribal slaughter (Zeph. 1.17-18) and violence (Jer. 20.7-13), all in the supposed name of the divine. These are oppressive texts (and there are more) – painful to read and wounding to hear – and all, as a matter of course, are read as declarations of “the word of God,” for which they are told to offer “thanks.” These terrifying and terrible texts continue to compromise the capacity of Christianity to offer a meaningful message in the 21st century. A chasm is created between spiritual seekers and the truly boundless love of Being, because the dominant tradition is beholden to liturgical custom that cultically enshrines a tribal deity whose prejudices, penchants for reactive retaliation, and wholehearted embrace of violence are celebrated in the many pages of the stories regularly proclaimed as purportedly revealing the true nature of Being. Liturgy is neither the time nor the place for preachers to consistently be pressed into the act of deconstructing biblical texts so as to minimize the harm done to those desiring to hear words of life. Evolutionary Context We have yet to fully appreciate the evolutionary historical context of the cultures that produced the biblical texts which are read within our liturgies. Texts are products of human beings within specific cultural periods. Sacred texts are those for which the authors and communities make the claim that they reveal qualities or aspects or dimensions of the true nature of Being. But we must always remember it is we human beings who are making the claim for the revelatory capacity of the texts. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether any particular text is a Wisdom text – does it have the capacity to foster the soul’s growth or unfolding, helping her to realize that she is an utterly unique expression of Being that is boundless love? If not, the text isn’t suitable liturgical material. For liturgy – no longer appropriately understood as the worship of a distant tribal deity – is essentially itself a spiritual practice, wherein we gather together to experience becoming embodiments of Being in the present moment. Who makes the decision about the suitability of a text? We do. We draw from the best psychological, sociological, philosophical, theological and spiritual wisdom we have. We acknowledge the clear truth that not all biblical texts, not all scriptural stories, embody and speak to the boundless love, boundless freedom, boundless wisdom, that is Being. We acknowledge that as a species we are evolving and maturing. We realize that our ancestral tribal peoples produced these overwhelmingly tribal texts with their tribal deity. But simply the fact that they have been the community’s “canonical” texts in the past, does not warrant their use as liturgical texts for spiritual seekers today. Humans of Being There is nothing sacrosanct about the “canon” from which Sunday liturgical texts are drawn. Canon simply means texts which past authorities have given their imprimatur. Times change. Contexts change. To paraphrase the wise spiritual teacher, Richard Rohr, we do not see Being as Being is but as we are. And who are we? We aspire to no longer be a tribal people guided by a vengeful tribal deity. We aspire to no longer be a homophobic people. We aspire to no longer be a misogynistic people. We aspire to no longer be a racist people. We aspire to no longer be a vengeful people. We aspire to be simply and fully humans of Being. Terrifying and terrible texts can do terrific damage to human beings. Now is the time to distinguish between texts for study and texts for liturgy; between stories that sustain the soul, and stories (and prayers) that sunder her heart. Within liturgy, we need to hear texts that remind us of our better angels. We need stories that land upon our souls as nourishment for transformation from beings utterly captive to our survival drive, to humans of Being. There are times when authentic nourishment can be hard to swallow. Our egos are inherently defensive and resistant to dissolution – no matter how seemingly minor. There is a substantive difference, however, between a challenging text with which our souls must inevitably wrestle (like that of Jacob in Genesis) and a terrifying and terrible text. There is a proper season, a suitable place, for study of terrifying and terrible texts. But that is not within our liturgies. Within our liturgies we come to sit and receive nourishment for our hungry souls. As a nondual spiritual path at its authentic core, Christianity is an invitation to taste and know belovedness as the very fabric of existence. ~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of St. Paul’s Church in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including “I Have Called You Friends“, “Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms“, and “My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You” and “Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland“. Question & Answer Q: By Eleanor Kerfoot Some while ago Dr. Spong replied to a message from me in which I stated that possibly there could be some thought devoted to the idea that, “God” is both within a person and everywhere. This makes sense to me and I have been living this understanding successfully. The concept of a “Deity” or of “Deities" is well-known, documented and practiced as well as awareness of knowing truth within us. There is room for tolerance. Why are we pursuing Christianity when Jesus himself did not? Does Dr. Spong’s book “Unbelievable” take us this far? A: By Lauren Van Ham Dear Eleanor, Yes, I believe Bishop Spong’s, Unbelievable, does explore some of what you are asking. Perhaps you have already seen some of this featured here recently, in the reflections offered by Progressing Spirit’s team of authors. Some of this response may feel like a game of semantics, but it is very important to create some distinctions around how Christianity is being defined. Jesus did not pursue Christianity, but Christianity happened as a response by those who wanted to practice what Jesus modeled. And most particularly, they wanted to practice with others! Christianity was, first and foremost, a way for practitioners to study together, to pray together, to struggle, and grow and serve together. Jesus insisted upon it! He included everyone and stressed the importance of eating together, working together and being in the great grappling of Life, together. What happened after this – and we recognize it well having seen it happen many times, in many ways throughout history - is what every worthy spiritual teacher has resisted. We tried to codify it. Teachings were interpreted in different ways and used as attempts to contain and control. In the book, Spong directly questions, “Is behavior control really the purpose of the Christian faith?” And a few sentences later he writes gravely, “Christian history surely reveals that Christians of the world can be and have been prodigiously evil.” So, why pursue Christianity? It all depends on the Christianity we mean when we act, and breathe and move in the world as embodied practitioners. Spong instructs that Christianity in the time of Jesus and today (if it has any chance of surviving), is a call to universalism. A call for every one of us to go beyond our biological or self-ascribed boundaries, NOT to convert “others” to a battery of lessons and formulaic answers, but rather, in Spong’s words, “to accept them as they are, to call them to live fully, love wastefully and be all that they can be in the infinite variety of our humanity.” This can be hard work, and it will almost always be challenged. This is why spiritual community is so important. The teachings aren’t easy, but the instructions are very simple. In our togetherness, we return to the simplicity of Life and Love, Awe and Forgiveness. We provide consolation and encouragement in the face of disappointment or defeat. And we hold one another accountable, reminding everyone that we are part of one inter-related family, one interdependent planet, one Love that tries and fails to teach us this again and again and again. ~ Lauren Van Ham Click here to read and share online About the Author Lauren Van Ham was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest; Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Her passion and training in the fine arts, spirituality and Earth’s teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief and loss, and sacred activism. Lauren’s work with Green Sangha (a Bay Area-based non-profit) is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of environmental activism taking place in religious America. Her essay, “Way of the Eco-Chaplain” appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women. Lauren tends a private spiritual direction practice and serves as Dean for The Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Jesus for the Non-Religious, Part I Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 15, 2006 Most Christians seem to assume that the details of their faith system dropped out of heaven in a fully developed form. Nothing could be further from the truth. The creeds began as baptismal formulas in the 3rd century and did not receive the shape we now recognize until the 4th century. Doctrines like the Trinity and Incarnation were still being formed in the 5th century. Moving closer to the life of Jesus, scholars now suggest that miracles were added to the Jesus story only in the 7th and 8th decades of the Christian era. The Virgin birth and the suggestion that resurrection meant physical resuscitation are products of the 9th decade, and the account of Jesus” ascension enters the tradition only in the 10th decade. Perhaps the biggest gap in our knowledge of Jesus, however, occurs in those years between 30 C.E. when Jesus” earthly life came to an end and 70 C.E. when gospels began to achieve written form. Today, by lining up the gospels in chronological order with Mark first (ca. 70 C.E.), then Matthew (ca. 80 C.E.), Luke (ca 90 C.E.) and finally John (ca 100 C.E.), we can see how the miraculous was heightened; the details become more graphic and supernatural activity more pronounced. If the story could grow as dramatically as it did from 70-100 C.E., is it not reasonable to assume that it also grew from 30-70 C.E.? Yet with no written sources, entering that time of oral transmission is a problem. For the past year that forty-year oral phase of Christian history has been the primary focus of my study. In a series of columns not necessarily on successive weeks, but as a theme to which I will return often during the next six months, I want to begin to share this study with my audience under the general topic of “Jesus for the Non-Religious.” How can we gain access to an oral period of history when by definition no written records exist? Is that not a dead end for research? These are valid questions, yet studies of the gospels yield numerous clues that lead us into these primitive moments in our faith story. The obvious fact is that the story of Jesus was passed on or we would not have it today. So the questions are by whom, how and in what context. Was it simply personal? Did parents convey the Jesus story to their children? Did it pass from person to person in the marketplace? The context of the gospel narratives appears far too complex and patterned to have been handed on in that personal and individual way. We need to search for a better explanation. The gospels make it clear that before the story of Jesus was written a heavy dependency on the Hebrew Scriptures was already evident. That could not have happened accidentally. Mark, for example, opens his gospel with two quotations from the Hebrew prophets, one from Malachi and the other from II Isaiah. He then builds into his narrative of Jesus image after image from the Jewish scriptures. Matthew seems to imply in his gospel that everything Jesus does is in fulfillment of the words of the prophets. He retells a story of the birth of Moses as if it actually happened to Jesus (see Exodus 1:15-22, Matthew 2:16-18). He patterns the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.5-7) on Psalm 119 portraying Jesus as the new Moses. Matthew and Luke both provide us with genealogies of Jesus that relate him to both Abraham and King David. They both quote Jesus as using texts from the Hebrew Scriptures to ward off the attacks by Satan in the story of the temptation. Luke models the life of Jesus frequently on the life of the prophet Elijah. On two occasions Luke says the role of the resurrected Jesus was to open their minds to understand the scriptures as the way to make sense out of his death. The Fourth Gospel opens with a hymn of praise to the “Logos” or the “Word” that John believes he has discovered in Jesus. This hymn was patterned on a hymn to wisdom from the book of Proverbs. John constantly has Jesus invoke the name of God, “I am,” given to Moses at the burning bush as part of his own divine claim. One cannot read the gospels without confronting the Hebrew Scriptures on every page. These facts point powerfully to the source of the oral tradition. The only setting in which this interweaving of the Jesus story with the Hebrew scriptures could have occurred was in the synagogue, since that was the only place where people heard the scriptures read and interpreted. In the first century no one owned books since few people could either read or write. There was no Gideon Society to place the sacred scriptures in hotel rooms. The books of the Jewish Bible had to be copied by hand on great scrolls. They were enormously expensive. They were the treasured possessions of the whole community, kept in the Tabernacle of the Synagogue and brought forth with great solemnity to be read aloud in public worship on the Sabbath. They were always read in order. One does not skip around with scrolls. The handles of the scrolls were laboriously turned as they were read and the male reader began the next Sabbath where he had stopped the previous Sabbath. The next problem in this interpretive process is that most people today have no idea what the liturgy of the Synagogue was like in the first century, so they have no way of imagining this setting. Fortunately, a brief description of synagogue worship included in the Book of Acts (13:13-16), gives us our next clue in this probe of the oral period of Christian history. Synagogue worship consisted of long readings from the three major sections of the Hebrew Bible. The first was a reading “from Moses,” that is from the Torah, that included the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It was a requirement of first century Judaism that the entire Torah, as the most sacred part of the Hebrew Scriptures, be read in public worship in the synagogue over the Sabbaths of a single year. This would mean that just the first lesson “from Moses” would last at least thirty minutes each Sabbath. The second reading came from what the Jews called “The Early Prophets,” which included the books from Joshua to II Kings. There was no compulsion to complete the reading of this material in any specific time frame; hence this lesson was much shorter. The early prophets were simply read in order until completed and then the process would begin again. The third reading came from what they called “the Latter Prophets,” which were four in number: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and what was called the Book of the Twelve. Today Christians refer to this Book of the Twelve as “the minor prophets,” and list them separately as the books from Hosea to Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. In the Jewish world, however, these twelve books were all on a single scroll and treated as a single work. Thus the four scrolls of the “Latter Prophets” tended to be read over a four-year cycle at the rate of approximately a chapter a Sabbath. One year would therefore be the Isaiah year, one the Jeremiah year, one the Ezekiel year and one the year of the twelve. In the liturgy of the Synagogue these three major readings, interspersed with prayers and Psalms would constitute the core of the worship experience. After the final reading, the leader of the Synagogue would normally inquire, as happens in Acts 13, whether anyone had a message to bring that would illumine the morning’s readings. This became the setting in which his followers told stories about Jesus, recalled the sayings and parables of Jesus and remembered and shared the developing Jesus tradition. In this fashion, over the years, the Hebrew Scriptures were wrapped around Jesus and through them Jesus was interpreted. The content of the memory of Jesus was thus organized by the liturgy of the Synagogue. To recognize this connection becomes a major breakthrough into the oral period of Christian history. By the time the gospels were written the memory of Jesus had been so deeply shaped by the Synagogue context that it is impossible now to separate history from scriptural interpretation. That is what makes the perpetual quest to find the Jesus of history so difficult. The conclusion of the scholars of the Jesus Seminar, for example, was that only 16% of the sayings attributed to Jesus in the gospels are actually authentic, accurate portrayals of what Jesus really said. The other 84% are words read into the Jesus of history by an interpreting community during the oral period. Much of what the gospels call the acts of Jesus fall into a similar statistical spread. For example, was Jesus really born in Bethlehem or was the Bethlehem birth story an attempt on the part of people during the oral period to claim for him the messianic status of being heir to the throne of David? Did Jesus really feed 5000 people in the wilderness or was that an attempt to portray him as a new Moses who also fed a multitude in the wilderness with bread called manna? Did Jesus really march triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey or was that an attempt to identify him with the figure of the Shepherd King in the Book of Zechariah, who also came to Jerusalem, humbly riding on a donkey (9:9-11)? Did Jesus really drive out the moneychangers from the Temple and reclaim that place as “a house of prayer for all people” or was this an early Christian attempt to show that what the prophet Zechariah said about the Messiah had been acted out by Jesus? That prophet had written that when the Day of the Lord comes, there would no longer be a trader in the House of the Lord (14:21). Did Jesus really pray for the soldiers who crucified him, as only Luke records, or was this story developed to identify Jesus with the Servant of II Isaiah (53:12), who made “intercessions for the transgressors?” On and on we could go, posing this same question in literally hundreds of different ways about hundreds of familiar stories. At the very least, this study begins to give us a glimpse of who Jesus was before gospels were written, creeds formed or doctrines developed. If we are willing to journey to this place with openness, I think we can be assured that Jesus will look very different. As this series develops I hope to show you this Jesus. Perhaps in the words of my friend Marcus Borg, we might “see Jesus again for the first time.” ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Jacob’s Ladder Workshop LIVE or online 9-27 thru 9-20 in Redwood City, CA What if you were given a Road Map to Enlightenment? ................................* Would you take it? ................................* Follow it? ................................* Be curious about it? Our Western Wisdom tradition of Kabbalah offers a complete Road Map to Personal Enlightenment and guidance for navigating and mastering the 4 Worlds: Physical, Emotional, Spiritual and Divine. This roadmap is called JACOB’S LADDER. Click here fore more information/registration...

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Re: [Dialogue] Happy Birthday to Doris Hahn today
by Del Morrill 12 Sep '18

12 Sep '18

As do Justin and I. and wishing you many more filled with good health and profound meaning. From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> On Behalf Of Ann Avery via Dialogue Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 1:23 PM To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Ann Avery <ann.h.avery(a)gmail.com>; clare bonnell <ctmbonnell(a)yahoo.ca> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Happy Birthday to Doris Hahn today Dear Doris and Charles Desmond and I join in wishing you, Doris, a very happy birthday. We have rich memories of our days and nights with youand Shelley in Teesside. Love and gratitude, Ann Ann Avery The Garth, Hall Street Wellingore, Lincolnshire LN50HU +44 1522 810278 +44 74607 74036 On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 at 15:25, McCabe, Diann A via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Happy Birthday, Doris. Thinking of you and Charles today. Much love, Diann and Terry McCabe, San Marcos, TX _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Owolola Olatunji
by Jo Nelson 12 Sep '18

12 Sep '18

Just got word today that our Nigerian colleague, Owolola Olatunji, passed away recently. Some of you may remember him from Ijede or from global conferences. That’s all I know — a Nigerian Facebook friend heard the news from his sister. Take care, Jo Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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