January 2019 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Bill Norton's Obiturary
by Timothy Wegner 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Therese Norton <therese.norton01(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Jan 9, 2019, 11:56 Subject: In Memory of William Norton To: theresenorton01(a)gmail.com <Therese.norton01(a)gmail.com> Dear family and friends, Here is the link to my father's obituary/life sketch. Please feel free to share it. https://jernsfuneralchapel.net/tribute/details/1492/William-Norton/obituary… I also wish to thank you for all the love and support you have shown over these last few weeks/months. It means a lot to me. Keep in touch. -- Therese ------ Therese Norton 1102 Franklin St. Bellingham, WA 98225 206-409-3011

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Greg Harris
by Ellie Stock 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

Dear ICA Friends, After receiving a Christmas Card from us, Evan Harris, son of former ICA colleague in Canada, Greg Harris, called to say that Greg's cancer, which had been in remission, returned, and he died October 23, 2018. We worked with Greg in 1977-78 during the "golding" of Canada. Carleton and he did circuits together out of Montreal, oftentimes on snowy roads in rural areas. Greg was a pedal-to-the-metal driver back then--and, one time, slip slide and away--the car spun off the road into a meadow. Fortunately, they were able to get the car back on the road and continued their journey, Carleton now driving. We give thanks for the gift of Greg's life, for his passion and work for justice. Evan asked that we share this information with those who knew him. He is Geg's only child and is presntly working while studying business management. His contact info:27 Rainsford RoadToronto, OntarioCanada M4L 3N5 Ellie Stockelliestock(a)aol.com

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1/11/19, Progressing Spirit: Kevin Forrester: Liturgy As Corporate Spiritual Practice Of Embodiment: Part II; spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7316013581 #yiv7316013581templateBody .yiv7316013581mcnTextContent, #yiv7316013581 #yiv7316013581templateBody .yiv7316013581mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7316013581 #yiv7316013581templateFooter .yiv7316013581mcnTextContent, #yiv7316013581 #yiv7316013581templateFooter .yiv7316013581mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } A Wisdom text has the capacity to foster the soul’s growth or unfolding. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Liturgy As Corporate Spiritual Practice Of Embodiment: Part II Column by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. January 10, 2019I ended my last column with these words: With the universal human desire to be a human being of Being as our starting place, the question I raised in “Terrifying and Terrible Texts” remains the plumb line: is a particular formal liturgical text a Wisdom text (be it a eucharistic prayer, a collect, or a hymn)? A Wisdom text has 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 present as boundless love.A Wisdom Liturgical Year Informed and Transformed by BeingLet us now see how this reformed vision of liturgy as spiritual practice of embodiment can transform the Christian liturgical year of corporate worship. In my next column I’ll complete this exploration with a look at some examples of eucharistic prayers of presence from liturgical texts I have written.Liturgy needs to be reformed by being informed and transformed by the human desire to become an embodiment of Being here and now. As we look at the conventional church liturgical year, which begins with Advent and closes with the Season after Pentecost, not only is nostalgia problematic. The seasons and their prayers orient the soul to an external Savior, rather than an experiential discovery of the healing presence of ever-present Being. When Being becomes the leaven transforming the liturgical year, we can discover new, meaningful, dimensions, in the unfolding pattern of gathering for spiritual practice. Here is one possibility for reimagining the Christian liturgical year, which builds upon the basic human experience of realizing that Being is the very leaven of human experience calling forth our unfoldment into living Christs. - Birthing of New Life At the heart of the liturgical triptych of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany is the mystery of birthing new life. The spiritual path is integrally a journey in and through birth and death and birth. John’s gospel, as well as that of Thomas, captures this exquisitely. The birthing process invites us to discover the value of vulnerability and the centrality of trust. We are swallowed by life and then emerge once again, as the story of Jonah depicts so well. - Awake, O Sleeper And yet we fall asleep, spending most of our lives operating unconsciously. The spiritual path requires that we wake-up from our mechanical repetitiveness; wake-up from our survival driven panic; wake-up from our fear clutched hearts and practice living lives with open hearts, open minds, and open bodies. Ash Wednesday is a reminder that our body, not our being, is from dust and returns to dust. There is no curse here, no judgment. Rather, here is an opportunity to acknowledge that embodied life is short beyond belief; time is precious. The present moment is a gift inviting us to become aware beings. - Transfiguration/Transformation In Eastern Christianity, transfiguration is a mystery central to spiritual practice. To become embodiments of Being means to become translucent, no longer cut-off from our unconscious and no longer dulled to the passion of our deepest longings. Lent is not about self-mortification or denial; it is a time to enter the desert, which means the willingness to reexplore those attachments that derail our soul’s growth, driving us through life without awareness of our true motivations. We feel and explore our soul’s hunger, our egoic drivenness, and our personality’s fear of being alone. The desert is our soul facing itself without distraction discovering that her true nature is Being, with the inherent capacity to live life with authentic joy. - Reign of Wisdom Rather than being a quaint party with vegetation, Palm Sunday confronts us with the truth that the Christ movement is a counter-festival, which means it is a liturgy that draws us to critique the dominant hierarchy in society and church, and bids us to live lives in which the Wisdom Way embodied in the life of Rabbi Jesus captures our hearts. We rediscover the courage of being the holy fool who serves. - Sent to Serve Here we reconceive the conventional “Great Three Days.” Spiritual practice as a life of service is restored to the integral heart of the Christian spiritual path. But this is a sense of service that flows freely from boundless love; the human heart becomes free from being driven by guilt or shame or requirement. Instead of washing and anointing feet, which bears little meaning in this culture, we can wash and anoint hands for service, as we roll up our sleeves and get to work in a broken world. - Companionship & Cross: Mary Magdalene and Rabbi Jesus Fidelity and friendship are discovered and celebrated anew as the core dimensions of the story of the Cross. Good Friday is not a tale of abandonment, but of the capacity of human beings to remain faithful companions in face of tremendous loss. The spiritual path is not easy and, in the end, requires all that we are. Mary and the other women embody the virtue of constancy with Jesus up to, into, and thru his death. - Light Renews our Life Being itself is the light that is luminescent in darkness as well as daylight; it is Being, manifested so resplendent in Rabbi Jesus and his companions, that renews our spiritual lives. Even more, in Easter we glimpse the deep truth that non-Being, or emptiness, is the actually timeless source of Being. The emptiness of death is the womb of life. This means that not even death can terminate the unfolding mystery of Being that is you and me. - Love Through and Through Spiritual practice becomes our way, our rhythm, of life. Realization is asked to mature into actualization, which means practicing embodiment becomes our very way of living in this world. We awake not to flee this world, but to become full participants without being held captive. This is what it means to be quickened in the Spirit, and to be in this beautiful yet broken world, but not of it. Boundless Love is never captive. Authentic human embodiment is characterized by Love through and Through. The Season after Pentecost is thus a discovery of Boundless Love as the fabric of existence permeating all experience; which is why the emptiness of the grave is not terminalIn my next column I will offer some explicit examples of such prayers of presence from liturgical texts I have written that follow a Wisdom-based liturgical year. Although my focus will be eucharistic texts, the goal is to create collects, eucharistic prayers, and hymns that embody and express with clarity and simplicity and beauty, this fundamental truth: we are to realize ourselves as embodiments of Being.~ 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“. Visit Kevin’s Blog: Essential Living: For The Soul’s Journey | | | | | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Charles Pelagius’ view of Original Sin and his conflict with Augustine might be something one of our gifted writers would write about. The ninth Article of the Anglican 39 Articles don’t look very favorably on him and his followers. A: By Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Dear Charles, Thank you for your question. I too have felt that Pelagius (born 354) has gotten something of a bad rap over the centuries. Like most so-called heretics much of the dust-up between him and Jerome and Augustine was deeply enmeshed in the politics of the time. Saint Augustine was very much a son of the Roman Empire which was in its last gasp of decadence in the early fifth century. Much pessimism and negativism pervaded the Mediterranean mindset at that period. Pelagius on the other hand, derived from the Gallic or Celtic lands either Briton or Ireland) outside the empire. His worldview was essentially earth-based and more like the tribal world that Jesus derived from in Palestine than it was from an Empire soon to be baptized Christian (so-called). He fiercely opposed Manicheism and the dualisms it was based on.Augustine was imbued with dualisms thanks to his immersions in Manicheism and in Neo-Platonism—it was he who said “man but not woman is made in the image and likeness of God” and “spirit is whatever is not matter.” He separated nature from grace and developed the ideology of original sin that identified original sin with our sexuality. Pelagius would have none of that and he emphasized human choice over human inheritance. Reinhold Niebuhr has remarked that Augustinian-based Christianity over emphasized the grace of pardon at the expense of the grace of power and Biblical scholar Krister Stendahl says that Augustine’s preoccupation with an “Am I saved?” concern is neurotic and not Biblical at all. Meister Eckhart, himself deeply imbued with a Celtic consciousness, heals the nature/grace rift this way. “Nature is grace” he writes.Unfortunately, the Western Church has followed Augustine’s dualistic consciousness far more than it has the Celtic awareness—but remember that Augustine’s worldview that triumphed prevailed in a context of building a Christian empire. A nature-based consciousness does not lend itself well to empire-building; dualism does. Not only Pelagius and Meister Eckhart but also John Scotus Eriugena (who translated many of the Greek Orthodox theologians into Latin) and Hildegard of Bingen (raised in a Celtic monastery along the Rhine), Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich and Nicolas of Cusa also followed the Cosmic Christ in opposition to the anthropocentric (and narcissistic) preoccupations of Augustine. The Eastern Church rejected Augustine and rehabilitated Pelagius after his condemnation in the West.Pelagius visited Rome, Sicily, Carthage and Jerusalem where he met Jerome and the two clashed deeply. Jerome, who violently opposed the Jovinianists, accused Pelagius of being of that school of thought—Jovinian claimed that marriage was as holy a state as celibacy (marriage was not declared a sacrament until the twelfth century and then it was a very controversial opinion which, by the way, Hildegard endorsed). Jerome also was scandalized that Pelagius had many friendships with “mere women” and complained about the “Amazons who attach themselves” to Pelagius. (Celtic women can be strong women and clearly neither Jerome nor Augustine were at home with such.)Like Eckhart and Blake, Pelagius talks of redemption as reminding—Eckhart called Christ “the great Reminder.” Sin is primarily our forgetting our way and our origins as images of God. “If you wish to measure the goodness of human nature, look to its author,” Pelagius wrote in a letter. With this awareness of our blessed origins (original blessing?), comes responsibility however for we can all fall into forgetfulness which can even build as a nefarious habit. So said Pelagius.* ~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Click here to read and share online About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 35 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 71 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. ************************ * I highly recommend the following article by Mary Aileen Schmiel, “The Finest Music in the World: Exploring Celtic Spiritual Legacies,” in Matthew Fox, ed., Western Spirituality: Historical Roots, Ecumenical Routes (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1981), 164-192. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Miracles IV - Interpreting the Healing Miracles Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 8, 2006 When we begin to dissect the miracle stories of the gospels, it is easy to notice some fascinating connections. The nature miracles, for example, are clearly the retelling or reworking of earlier biblical stories about Moses or Elijah. One can see the similarities between Moses asking God to feed the multitude in the wilderness with heavenly bread and Jesus feeding the multitude in the wilderness with five ever-expanding loaves. The story of Jesus walking on water has its ultimate root in the story of Moses splitting the Red Sea. That feat was then celebrated in the psalms and prophets in such words as God is able to make “a pathway in the deep” and God’s “footprints can be seen on the water.” When those words are then applied to Jesus in the gospels they represent a God claim far more than they are a story of the supernatural. When we come, however, to the narratives in the gospels that portray the power of Jesus to bring healing to the people, the problems get more intense and the debate becomes more emotional. Miraculous healings by Jesus have been associated with his divine nature for so long that many feel that to question the literal accuracy of these stories is to attack the very essence of the Jesus story, which portrays him as a God-presence. If God can do miraculous healings, the argument goes, could not Jesus, as part of who God is, do the same? It is an interesting thesis and demands a careful and considered approach to the definition of both God and Jesus. I begin this discussion by noting that we have no record of Jesus doing supernatural acts of healing until the gospel writing tradition begins around 70 C.E. That means that we know nothing of this miraculous tradition until at least 40 years, or two full generations, after the earthly life of Jesus had come to an end. There are some biblical scholars who date what is called the Q material, which appears in Matthew and Luke, and the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas as earlier than any of the written gospels. Whether those claims can be sustained or not is still hotly debated in New Testament circles and I personally tend to doubt them, but the fact remains that neither of these two sources contains a description of a miracle story or a healing episode. There are also no accounts of Jesus doing miracles in the writing of Paul (50-64 C.E.). Certainly no one can suggest that this fact diminishes Paul’s view of the divine Christ, since Paul has one of the highest Christologies in the entire New Testament. So the door is pushed ajar just a fraction to the possibility that the narration of the supernatural healing miracles might have a purpose other than that of being descriptions of events that actually occurred. I ask you to hold these possibilities in your minds for just a moment while we proceed to uncover some biblical data and to assess some biblical facts that might put new light on this subject. There is a fascinating narrative told us only in Matthew and Luke, which may offer us a clue as to how miracle stories came into the Christian tradition. These two gospel writers take a story from Mark describing how John the Baptist was imprisoned and executed and expand it. In their expansion John in prison sends a messenger to Jesus asking the messianic question: “Are you the one who is to come or must we look for another?” It is a question that could not have arisen until the debate about whether or not Jesus was the anticipated messiah began to be engaged, which surely occurred well after his death. The way Jesus was made to respond to John’s question is also noteworthy. He did not say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ He said, rather, “go back and tell John what you see and hear, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the mute sing.” No miraculous tales were included in the narrative, but Jesus was portrayed as claiming that these signs have gathered around him. What was that answer all about? What did it mean? What was Jesus being portrayed as trying to convey? Only those who are deeply familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures would have any clue as to the context out of which Jesus was speaking. He was referring to the 35th chapter of Isaiah, written in the late years of the 8th century B.C.E. The historical situation was that the Northern Kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians. Its citizens had been carried off into captivity, where they became the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel,” disappearing into the DNA of the Middle East. The Southern Kingdom of Judah would, in that same critical moment of history, accept vassalage to the Assyrians and pay tribute in exchange for tiny vestiges of freedom. It was a bleak time in Jewish history and that bleakness gave rise to intensified messianic hopes. The Jews began to dream about the coming of the Kingdom of God. In time tales about the one who would usher in that kingdom would be added to that dream. This figure was called by a variety of names: ‘the anointed one’ (maschiach in Hebrew, messiah in English), ‘Son of Man,’ the ‘new Moses,’ the ‘new Elijah’ and even the ‘Son of God.’ When Isaiah wrote he went on to depict the signs that would accompany the dawning of this Kingdom of God. The pain of the world, he said, would be transformed, wholeness would replace brokenness and perfection would overcome imperfection. What Isaiah was really doing was to create a new image of the Garden of Eden into which all people would be invited to enter. He described this vision in these words: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall bloom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The majesty of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the Glory of the Lord, and the majesty of our God” (Isa. 35:1-2). How would people know that the Kingdom of God had broken into human history? Isaiah answered that question with what he called the signs of the Kingdom: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy, and a highway shall be there and it shall be called the Holy Way. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Is. 35: 5, 6, 8a, 10, 11). Jesus in his answer to John the Baptist was portrayed as making the claim that in his life Isaiah’s signs of this in-breaking Kingdom were present. Go tell John what you see: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the mute sing. When the Kingdom comes, the gospel writers were saying, all of those things that represent the reign of God must become visible. So, when people ascribed messianic claims to Jesus, they also had to attribute messianic acts to his presence. That is how and why, I believe, the tradition developed in which healing miracles were attributed to Jesus. It was not that these things actually happened so much as it was, that this was the way his followers interpreted who Jesus was, and how they described the power that they experienced in his person. The next step required of those of us who want to become proper interpreters of the gospels is to expand our definition of these aforementioned infirmities. What kind of blindness, for example, was it that was to be overcome? Was it physical blindness or spiritual blindness? Did it have to do with sight, insight or second sight? Was it more about those who, despite the fact that they had eyes, could not see who Jesus was? Was it about those who, though they had ears, were in fact deaf to his message and reality? Was it about those who were physically crippled or spiritually crippled? Was it about those who could not speak because they had not yet entered the experience for which these words were originally formulated? When we analyze the healing episodes in the gospels, we find that all of them speak to the wholeness, the fullness of human life. In Mark’s Gospel there are two episodes about sight being restored, two episodes about hearing being restored, three episodes in which the physically lame and the mentally impaired are cured, and two episodes in which the tongues of the mute are loosened so that they can speak of the new reality. These are the data that cause me to suggest that these stories were not literal events that happened but interpretive narratives added to the memory of Jesus in those years between his death and the writing of the gospel accounts. They were designed to interpret both his life and his death in the light of their dawning understanding of him as “the first fruits” of the Kingdom. He had become the life in whom they first saw what the Kingdom of God was all about. If that reconstruction has substance, it would account for why miracle stories are not attached to the memory of Jesus in earlier writings. It would also suggest that even healing miracles were originally designed to be interpretive symbols, not descriptions of literal events. If such was the original intent of the gospel’s healing stories, one thing becomes immediately obvious. That is, that the literal minds of the western Gentile Christians clearly distorted these interpretive symbols because they did not understand the Hebrew texts that lay underneath these stories. It also suggests that if these stories were never intended to describe events that actually happened, that fact ought to be obvious in the stories themselves. Next I will begin to focus on representative miracle stories in the gospels to see how well these ideas play when the texts themselves are analyzed. I will look in particular at the “sight to the blind” stories in the gospels to see if we can find in them interpretive, non-literal hints of their original meaning. I believe we can and, when we do, a whole new level of understanding the Bible in general and the gospels in particular opens before our eyes. So stay tuned.~ 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 MLK Day of Service For the past 24 years, America has honored Dr. King through service on the federal holiday dedicated to him, led by the Corporation for National and Community Service(CNCS). Whether you have previously participated in this day of service or this is your first time, it is pertinent to remember his words, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” Click here for more information .... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Cathy Pierce this note is from Rosa Loeb, Cathy's daughter.
by Paula Philbrook 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

Those of you @ 4750 in the declining year's of Joe's life will remember Cathy & Rosa's visits. Paula Please join me in honoring the spirit and life of my loving mother... Catherine A. Pierce, 9/16/1949 - 12/29/2018 Community Activist, Beloved Mother and Grandmother, Sister, Mentor and Friend Memorial Service will be held 2/9/2019, 1pm Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville 7405 Arlington Expy, Jacksonville, FL 32211 On Tue, Jan 8, 2019, 8:01 PM Lynda C via Dialogue < dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net wrote: > We celebrate the life of Cathy Pierce, one of the early E.G.youth, > daughter of Joe Pierce, sister to Gregg and Mark. When we were assigned > to the WDC House, I did some occasional work for Bishop Jim at the > Methodist offices. Cathy was working in a social justice agency of the UMC > at that time. I’m sorry to learn of her death. She always seemed wise > beyond her years. > > > > Pat or Karen, or any one, do you have any contact information for her > family? With care, Lynda Cock > > > > *From: *Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of ICA > Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > *Reply-To: *ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > *Date: *Tuesday, January 8, 2019 at 7:59 PM > *To: *ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > *Cc: *Doug and Pat Druckenmiller <dpat23(a)msn.com> > *Subject: *Re: [Dialogue] Tributes to Bill Norton > > > > I may be the only one of this group who knew Catherine before I’d heard of > the Order. I first met her in Billings, Montana, at Rocky Mountain College. > I was a senior, she a freshman. We lived in a 4-room wing of the Women’s > Residence Hall. Two other women in that wing were also named Pierce, I > believe spelled the same way. They were cousins and really hilarious. > Another woman in that wing was doing her student teaching and also newly > engaged. One night, the night she got an engagement ring, as I recall, all > of the other women in that wing removed all her furniture from her room and > stuffed it into the shower. We spread her covers and other bedding on the > floor where her bed should have been. We were all disappointed when this > poor woman came in, looked at her bedding, and crawled in as if the bed > were still there. But Cathy, as we called her then, and the rest of us had > a good laugh. > > The other part of that Rocky experience for Catherine involved my > now-husband Doug, who was also a freshman then. I’m pretty sure Cathy went > to Rocky to get away from anyone who knew the Order or the Ecumenical > Institute. Doug says she looked at him with horror the first time she saw > him. He was wearing a black beret with a wedge blade. “They’re everywhere!” > her face seemed to say. > > The next time I saw her was when Doug and I joined the Order. I > walked into the Westside kitchen and there she was. It was one of those > wrong context things. I knew I knew her, but was completely flummoxed. She > laughed at told me who she was. Then it made sense. > > As Karen Snider says, I also reconnected with her on Facebook. > Journey on, Cathy. > > Pat Druckenmiller > > > > Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for > Windows 10 > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of > Sunny Walker via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > *Sent:* Tuesday, January 8, 2019 11:59:51 AM > *To:* Colleague Dialogue > *Cc:* Sunny Walker > *Subject:* Re: [Dialogue] Tributes to Bill Norton > > > > The only other Norton I knew was the Norton Anthology of English > Literature (or something like that) and I associated it will Bill because > he was so intelligent. I also thought of him as a big, wise, gentle bear > because he was. Yes, Journey on. And for Catherine, I did not know you, but > your legacy is a deep and appreciated gift. > > Sunny > > > > S > > > > On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 8:15 PM McCabe, Diann A via Dialogue < > dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > > When we moved into the Atlanta House in 1973, Bill Norton was someone with > eyes wide open, a ready laugh, and a singing voice that carried us through > the days. Journey on, Bill, journey on.--Diann McCabe > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of > Richard Alton via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > *Sent:* Saturday, January 5, 2019 5:31 PM > *To:* Colleague Dialogue > *Cc:* Richard Alton; Order Ecumenical Community; Seva Gandhi; Colleague > Dialogue; Linda Alton > *Subject:* Re: [Dialogue] Tributes to Catherine Pierce and Bill Norton > > > > *Bill Norton stories*: I was with Bill during the early 80s in Kenya > working on the New Village Movement. At that time we had 350 Kenyan ‘blue > shirt’ staff and impacted 1,500 villages across all of Kenya. We had staff > all over Kenya and great support from a variety of amazing donors. One of > our best supporters was Goran Hyden of the Ford Foundation who was also on > the Board of Sweden SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation > Agency). > > > > Hyden thought the best hope for a major grant was to do an in depth study > of the ICA’s impact, so Ford gave us $50,000 to do such a study. We hired a > University of Nairobi professor to do the study. There were control > villages matched with our New Village Movement Villages. We did a baseline > study using the Professor’s graduate students for the field studies and > entering the data in the University’s computers. After a year we were > ready to go back and collect the new data to measure the change in > Behavior, knowledge and attitudes. But the University professor said he had > spent the money and needed more money. > > > > Obviously, we were in trouble. Bill Norton stepped up and said I can do > it. I have the computer back ground and willing to go out to these > villages. I can coordinate with our staff the collection of new data and > then put in the data and run the significant difference test off the > University’s computer. In 3 months Bill had the work done with amazing > results. Thanks, Bill. > > Dick Alton > > > > On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 6:51 AM Karen Snyder via Dialogue < > dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > > *Light a candle for Catherine Pierce* > > September 16, 1949 – December 29, 2018 – Jacksonville, FL > > Karen Snyder writes about Catherine Pierce > > I have been a ‘friend’ of Catherine’s through Facebook, seeing her > postings of her family and social engagement in the past few years. Her > daughter Rosa writes, “Catherine had the most incredible mind, body, and > soul.” Colleagues on the march write multiple postings including, > “Activist for peace and justice everywhere …. One of Jacksonville’s > activist superstars, who had nothing but love and kindness for all she met > … We are better for knowing you and for the time you spent fighting for > justice to make our world a better place for all." > > ***** > > *Light a candle for Bill Norton* > > December 15, 1945 - December 29, 2018 - Bellingham, WA > > Leah Early shares her thoughts thru a poem she wrote and an Aboriginal > poem she shared: > > In acknowledging the death of Bill Norton, these thoughts visit me: > > Bill is not someone I was assigned with in a place of raw possibilities. > I was never close enough to feel vibrations from his singing, nor did I > wash dishes with him amid steaming water and clanging dish trays. > We shared no late night security sessions, no sweaty cleanup days. > But I knew wherever Bill was, > he broke bread and spilled wine. > > Across a very crowded room, I caught a wide smile and dancing eyes. > And from great distances through Religious House reports, > we were introduced again and again. > I knew the Nortons were part of our community—the us > living precariously between no-longer and not-yet--and > as was true for all living things, Bill’s life was precious. > > > From Bee Lake, an Aboriginal poet: > > Forever Oneness, > who sings to us in silence, > who teaches us through each other. > Guide my steps with strength and wisdom. > May I see the lessons as I walk, > honor the Purpose of all things. > Help me touch with respect, > always speak from behind my eyes. > Let me observe, not judge. > May I cause no harm, > and leave music and beauty after my visit. > When I return to forever > may the circle be closed > and the spiral be broader. > Amen. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net > <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.wedg…> > > > > > -- > > Richard H. T. Alton > > One Earth Film Fest ( OEFF) > > Green Community Connections > > Interfaith Green Network > > T: 773.344.7172 > > richard.alton(a)gmail.com > > **Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2019, March 1-10* > > http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org > <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oneear…> > > > > Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 > > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net > <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.wedg…> > > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net >

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Re: [Dialogue] Cathy Pierce
by Lynda C 09 Jan '19

09 Jan '19

We celebrate the life of Cathy Pierce, one of the early E.G.youth, daughter of Joe Pierce, sister to Gregg and Mark. When we were assigned to the WDC House, I did some occasional work for Bishop Jim at the Methodist offices. Cathy was working in a social justice agency of the UMC at that time. I’m sorry to learn of her death. She always seemed wise beyond her years. Pat or Karen, or any one, do you have any contact information for her family? With care, Lynda Cock From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Reply-To: ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 at 7:59 PM To: ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Doug and Pat Druckenmiller <dpat23(a)msn.com> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Tributes to Bill Norton I may be the only one of this group who knew Catherine before I’d heard of the Order. I first met her in Billings, Montana, at Rocky Mountain College. I was a senior, she a freshman. We lived in a 4-room wing of the Women’s Residence Hall. Two other women in that wing were also named Pierce, I believe spelled the same way. They were cousins and really hilarious. Another woman in that wing was doing her student teaching and also newly engaged. One night, the night she got an engagement ring, as I recall, all of the other women in that wing removed all her furniture from her room and stuffed it into the shower. We spread her covers and other bedding on the floor where her bed should have been. We were all disappointed when this poor woman came in, looked at her bedding, and crawled in as if the bed were still there. But Cathy, as we called her then, and the rest of us had a good laugh. The other part of that Rocky experience for Catherine involved my now-husband Doug, who was also a freshman then. I’m pretty sure Cathy went to Rocky to get away from anyone who knew the Order or the Ecumenical Institute. Doug says she looked at him with horror the first time she saw him. He was wearing a black beret with a wedge blade. “They’re everywhere!” her face seemed to say. The next time I saw her was when Doug and I joined the Order. I walked into the Westside kitchen and there she was. It was one of those wrong context things. I knew I knew her, but was completely flummoxed. She laughed at told me who she was. Then it made sense. As Karen Snider says, I also reconnected with her on Facebook. Journey on, Cathy. Pat Druckenmiller Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10 ________________________________ From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Sunny Walker via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 11:59:51 AM To: Colleague Dialogue Cc: Sunny Walker Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Tributes to Bill Norton The only other Norton I knew was the Norton Anthology of English Literature (or something like that) and I associated it will Bill because he was so intelligent. I also thought of him as a big, wise, gentle bear because he was. Yes, Journey on. And for Catherine, I did not know you, but your legacy is a deep and appreciated gift. Sunny S On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 8:15 PM McCabe, Diann A via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>> wrote: When we moved into the Atlanta House in 1973, Bill Norton was someone with eyes wide open, a ready laugh, and a singing voice that carried us through the days. Journey on, Bill, journey on.--Diann McCabe ________________________________ From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:dialogue-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net>> on behalf of Richard Alton via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>> Sent: Saturday, January 5, 2019 5:31 PM To: Colleague Dialogue Cc: Richard Alton; Order Ecumenical Community; Seva Gandhi; Colleague Dialogue; Linda Alton Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Tributes to Catherine Pierce and Bill Norton Bill Norton stories: I was with Bill during the early 80s in Kenya working on the New Village Movement. At that time we had 350 Kenyan ‘blue shirt’ staff and impacted 1,500 villages across all of Kenya. We had staff all over Kenya and great support from a variety of amazing donors. One of our best supporters was Goran Hyden of the Ford Foundation who was also on the Board of Sweden SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency). Hyden thought the best hope for a major grant was to do an in depth study of the ICA’s impact, so Ford gave us $50,000 to do such a study. We hired a University of Nairobi professor to do the study. There were control villages matched with our New Village Movement Villages. We did a baseline study using the Professor’s graduate students for the field studies and entering the data in the University’s computers. After a year we were ready to go back and collect the new data to measure the change in Behavior, knowledge and attitudes. But the University professor said he had spent the money and needed more money. Obviously, we were in trouble. Bill Norton stepped up and said I can do it. I have the computer back ground and willing to go out to these villages. I can coordinate with our staff the collection of new data and then put in the data and run the significant difference test off the University’s computer. In 3 months Bill had the work done with amazing results. Thanks, Bill. Dick Alton On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 6:51 AM Karen Snyder via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>> wrote: Light a candle for Catherine Pierce September 16, 1949 – December 29, 2018 – Jacksonville, FL Karen Snyder writes about Catherine Pierce I have been a ‘friend’ of Catherine’s through Facebook, seeing her postings of her family and social engagement in the past few years. Her daughter Rosa writes, “Catherine had the most incredible mind, body, and soul.” Colleagues on the march write multiple postings including, “Activist for peace and justice everywhere …. One of Jacksonville’s activist superstars, who had nothing but love and kindness for all she met … We are better for knowing you and for the time you spent fighting for justice to make our world a better place for all." ***** Light a candle for Bill Norton December 15, 1945 - December 29, 2018 - Bellingham, WA Leah Early shares her thoughts thru a poem she wrote and an Aboriginal poem she shared: In acknowledging the death of Bill Norton, these thoughts visit me: Bill is not someone I was assigned with in a place of raw possibilities. I was never close enough to feel vibrations from his singing, nor did I wash dishes with him amid steaming water and clanging dish trays. We shared no late night security sessions, no sweaty cleanup days. But I knew wherever Bill was, he broke bread and spilled wine. Across a very crowded room, I caught a wide smile and dancing eyes. And from great distances through Religious House reports, we were introduced again and again. I knew the Nortons were part of our community—the us living precariously between no-longer and not-yet--and as was true for all living things, Bill’s life was precious. From Bee Lake, an Aboriginal poet: Forever Oneness, who sings to us in silence, who teaches us through each other. Guide my steps with strength and wisdom. May I see the lessons as I walk, honor the Purpose of all things. Help me touch with respect, always speak from behind my eyes. Let me observe, not judge. May I cause no harm, and leave music and beauty after my visit. When I return to forever may the circle be closed and the spiral be broader. Amen. _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.wedg…> -- Richard H. T. Alton One Earth Film Fest ( OEFF) Green Community Connections Interfaith Green Network T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com<mailto:richard.alton@gmail.com> *Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2019, March 1-10 http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oneear…> Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.wedg…>

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Tributes to Catherine Pierce and Bill Norton
by Karen Snyder 09 Jan '19

09 Jan '19

Light a candle for Catherine Pierce September 16, 1949 – December 29, 2018 – Jacksonville, FL Karen Snyder writes about Catherine Pierce I have been a ‘friend’ of Catherine’s through Facebook, seeing her postings of her family and social engagement in the past few years. Her daughter Rosa writes, “Catherine had the most incredible mind, body, and soul.” Colleagues on the march write multiple postings including, “Activist for peace and justice everywhere …. One of Jacksonville’s activist superstars, who had nothing but love and kindness for all she met … We are better for knowing you and for the time you spent fighting for justice to make our world a better place for all." ***** Light a candle for Bill Norton December 15, 1945 - December 29, 2018 - Bellingham, WA Leah Early shares her thoughts thru a poem she wrote and an Aboriginal poem she shared: In acknowledging the death of Bill Norton, these thoughts visit me: Bill is not someone I was assigned with in a place of raw possibilities. I was never close enough to feel vibrations from his singing, nor did I wash dishes with him amid steaming water and clanging dish trays. We shared no late night security sessions, no sweaty cleanup days. But I knew wherever Bill was, he broke bread and spilled wine. Across a very crowded room, I caught a wide smile and dancing eyes. And from great distances through Religious House reports, we were introduced again and again. I knew the Nortons were part of our community—the us living precariously between no-longer and not-yet--and as was true for all living things, Bill’s life was precious. From Bee Lake, an Aboriginal poet: Forever Oneness, who sings to us in silence, who teaches us through each other. Guide my steps with strength and wisdom. May I see the lessons as I walk, honor the Purpose of all things. Help me touch with respect, always speak from behind my eyes. Let me observe, not judge. May I cause no harm, and leave music and beauty after my visit. When I return to forever may the circle be closed and the spiral be broader. Amen.

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Global Buzzanuary 2019
by ICA International 08 Jan '19

08 Jan '19

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Global Buzz Report: January 2019 Click above or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2019-01-01.php And: read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves ICAI Communications

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1/3/19, Progressing Spirit: Matthew Fox: Some Resources for Hope in a Time of Doomsday Messaging; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 03 Jan '19

03 Jan '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateBody .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent, #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateBody .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateFooter .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent, #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateFooter .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } We are not bereft of resources to inspire and instruct our work of hope in a time of eco-darkness. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Some Resources for Hope in a Time of Doomsday Messaging Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox January 3, 2019As we enter a new year amidst the dire warnings from the United Nations and even Trump’s own administration about the peril humans and the rest of the Earth are in due to climate change, it seems fitting to ask: Where are there some resources for hope? Without hope people die. Without hope people do crazy things—like tell one another that we are all doomed and that all we need do is eat, drink and be merry while of course we grab our piece of the disappearing pie. Thomas Aquinas had a warning about doomsday messaging however when he said that the “worst thing a human can do is to teach despair.” He also warned us that despair is the “most dangerous” of all sins—not the worst—that is injustice; but the most dangerous because when a person (or society) is in despair they do not care about themselves much less any one else. (Didn’t Jesus say something about loving your neighbor as yourself?)And who is our neighbor? Is it just the two-legged ones? Or is it also the soil and the trees, the plants and the animals, the birds and fishes and oceans and rivers and birds and air and wind that both feed us and delight us. The UN study gives us twelve years in which to change our ways profoundly. After that climate change will continue pretty much unabated. In its essence the Earth crisis carries a spiritual crisis. It is all quite apocalyptic. As Ted Richards has reminded us in his important book on The Great Re-imagining: Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse, the Greek word for Apocalypse also means Revelation. Which raises the issue: What Revelation is staring us in the face as we wrestle with the survival of the planet as we know it in this apocalyptic time?To me the answer is obvious: The Revelation of How Holy all things are; how holy existence is; how holy our planet is. As Thomas Merton put it, “everything that is is holy.” Or as Meister Eckhart put it: “Isness is God.” Or as Thomas Berry put it: “It has been said, ‘We will not save what we do not love.’ It is also true that we will neither love nor save what we do not experience as sacred…. Eventually only our sense of the sacred will save us.”[1] Will we discover this revelation before it is too late?It is this recovery of the sense of the sacred that we must ignite in ourselves and all our institutions from education to religion, economics, politics, media, agriculture, art, architecture. We do not have a choice. There alone is our “salvation,” our healing, our conversion or metanoia or evolutionary leap into the future of what it means to be human (and has always meant). Lakota teacher Buck Ghosthorse said to me one day: “Do you want to know how sacred water is? Go without it for three days.” Will we learn how sacred the earth was only after we have despoiled and desecrated it? Or might we ignite a fire of wakefulness and awareness and of hope before Earth as we know it is ruined? The profound changes in weather patterns that express themselves in droughts, record fires, unprecedented forceful hurricanes and flooding, the rising of sea levels, the migration of people and other species from unprecedented heat are unmasking our denial (thus revelation, to remove the veil).Eco philosopher David Orr defines hope this way: “Hope is a verb with the sleeves rolled up.” Yes! Hope is proportionate to the work—both inner and outer—that we are willing to undertake in the name of a healthy Earth. Roll up our sleeves and go to work—but from a deep, inner place, not from panic or duty or fear. Consider these resources for work both inner and outer.In Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy Buddhist activist Joanna Macy and physician Chris Johnstone lay out a practical guide to keeping hope alive without shrinking from the “widespread anxiety” that is abroad in our time. Active Hope is a practice—something we do rather than have—they tell us and it does not require optimism. It requires choosing. “Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bring about what we hope for” they remind us (p.3) Their workshops on Hope begin with practices of Gratitude because “Gratitude enhances our resilience, strengthening us to face disturbing information.” (p. 43) Gratitude is the Via Positiva.Writer Scott Russell Sanders, confronted by his seventeen year old son that he lacked hope, responded by entering on a two year retreat in pursuit of Hope. The result was an excellent book, Hunting for Hope: A Father’s Journeys. In it he tells us what he has learned. “I still hanker for the original world, the one that makes us rather than the one we make. I hunger for contact with the shaping power that cures the comet’s path and fills the owl’s throat with son and fashions every flake of snow and carpets the hills with green. It is a prodigal, awful, magnificent power, forever casting new forms into existence then tearing them apart and starting over.” (138)His hope comes from relating to the cosmos and one night stood out for him in particular. “I climbed out of the car with a greeting on my lips, but the sky hushed me. From the black bowl of space countless fiery lights shown down, each one a sun or a swirl of suns, the whole brilliant host of them enough to strike me dumb.” We humans have a longing with us he says that no matter what work we human do and no matter how clever they are, “they will never satisfy this hunger. Only direct experience of Creation will do.” It is faith “in our capacity for decent and loving work, in the healing energy of wildness, in the holiness of Creation” that will yield hope. “That the universe exists at all, that it obeys laws. That those laws have brought forth …life, and out of life consciousness, and out of consciousness these words, this breath, is a chain of wonders. I dangle from that chain and hold on tight.” (39f)Both Macy and Sanders are appealing to Creation Spirituality, the “holiness of Creation,” in Sanders’ words and Macy outlines a four-fold path to hope that is almost identical to the four paths of Creation Spirituality. Creation Spirituality is hopeful not because it is optimistic but because it begins with something bigger than ourselves: Creation. Buddhist poet Gary Snyder defines the Sacred this way: The sacred “helps take us out of our little selves into the whole mountain-and-river mandala universe.” (The Practice of the Wild, 16) For Snyder the sacred and the wild overlap and for Thomas Berry the wild forms the “wellspring of creativity” that we share with all other beings in the universe. Further teachings of Creation Spirituality that build up our muscles of hope are the following:Original Blessing. Isn’t it important to see the Goodness of creation and existence as our starting point? The goodness of the 13.8 billion years that brought our Earth and sun and moon forward as well as ourselves? And also the goodness of ourselves as Original Blessings as well? Doesn’t an original sin ideology, whether found in religion or in consumer capitalism, stifle hope and feed pessimism and self hatred? And in doing so elevate patriarchy which is, as Adrienne Rich taught us, busy teaching us “fatalistic self-hatred”?The Cosmic Christ. Instead of wallowing in psychological and anthropocentric narcissism, shouldn’t we be searching for what Sanders and Snyder speak of: The big picture, the universe, the whole. A post-modern physics begins with the whole, physicist David Bohm teaches. So does a post-modern religion. Christianity flies on two wings—the historical Jesus and the Cosmic Christ. The latter is so rarely taught or evoked—which is why Bishop Marc Andrus and myself teamed up with two artists to share a new and post-modern spiritual practice called the Stations of the Cosmic Christ, which is available as a book and as 16 icons to put on one’s church or retreat walls and a card deck for meditations. The Cosmic Christ theology is found in the earliest Christian sources, namely Paul and the Gospel of Thomas–as well as in the later Gospel stories. All the great Liturgical feasts in the Christian memory from Christmas to Jesus’ Baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost are set in a cosmic context. The Cosmic story of Christ has been hijacked by ecclesial narcissism.The New Cosmology. Creation Stories have always kept tribes together and there is hope in a common creation story being taught by science around the world today that invites us all into the task of co-creating a livable future.The Order of the Sacred Earth. Why not a community and a movement of lovers of the earth (mystics) and defenders of it (prophets or warriors) who comes from all the world spiritual traditions and none and take a vow to love the earth and defend it? That is what the Order of the Sacred Earth is all about. (see Order of the Sacred Earth)Creation Centered Mystics. If the creation spiritual tradition is indeed that of the historical Jesus (and it is because he derives from the wisdom tradition of Israel) and if it is the first author of the Hebrew Bible (the J source which it is), then surely there will be many creation -centered mystics in our lineage. And there are. Jesus and Paul but surely Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Nicolas of Cusa and many artists, poets, musicians, film makers and others in our own times, Thomas Merton included. If Jung is correct when he tells us that “only the mystics bring what is creative to religion itself,” then we ought to be renewing religion out of a deep awareness of this creation-centered mystical tradition.All these elements of creation spirituality nurture and feed hope. I can think of no finer preparation for a hopeful warrior than to feast on the writings of Meister Eckhart who marries psyche and cosmos, the world and the soul, spirit and matter like no one else and who is recognized by students of religions the world over as a champion of truth and justice.[2]Creativity. Otto Rank observes that “pessimism comes with the repression of creativity.” Yes, creativity brings hope (science shows that a creative state awakens endorphins in our brain that make us happy). So art as meditation brings hope and the energy to act that goes with it. Psychologist Claudio Naranjo rightly called extrovert meditation or art as meditation “the way of the prophets.”Speaking of creativity and energy to act, consider, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. This book edited by Paul Hawken inspires hope by offering 100 substantive solutions from scientists and others committed to healing the planet. The book breaks down solutions into the following categories: Energy; Food; Women and Girls; Building and Cities; Land Use; Transport; Materials; Coming Attractions. Within the latter category is a shout out for Pope Francis’ encyclical on “Care For Our Common Home,” Laudato Si. This too is a resource that should be studied and shared.So we can see that we are not bereft of resources to inspire and instruct our work of hope in a time of eco-darkness.~ 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 35 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 71 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.*******************************[1] Forward to Kathleen Deignan, ed., When the Trees Say Nothing: Thomas Merton Writings on Nature(Notre Dame, In., Sorin Books, 2003), 18f.[2] I put Eckhart in the room with Rabbi Heschel, Thich Naht Hanh, Avicenna, Rumi and Hafiz, Black Elk, Hindu Coomeraswamy, etc. in my Meister Eckhart: Mystic-Warrior For Our Times, New World Library, 2015. | | | | | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Matt I desire to continue my spiritual journey by walking the Christ path as it is and has been the path of my life. I believe God to be the source of life, love, and ground of being. I don’t believe God is a personal being as Christianity and the Bible often defines or illustrates. That said, is Progressive Christianity, as the community defines it, Pantheistic or Panentheistic? If God is not personal, what rationale do we, as progressive followers of Christ, have to believe God greater and beyond our universe (Panentheism) rather than just being our universe (Pantheism)? Does continuing to walk the Christ path mean that I must onto notion/faith that God is something greater than everything? I’m considering attending a United Universalist Church, the closest thing to Progressive Christianity I can find in my area. I hesitate because I don’t want to lose my focus on the Christ path as it has been so fruitful in my life. A: By Joran Slane Oppelt Dear Matt,The difference between pantheism (“all is God”) and panentheism (“all is in God, and God is in all things”) is a subtle shift — a micro adjustment — along a spectrum that includes mythic, traditional, modern, pluralistic, mystical and unitive beliefs. This spectrum (as seen in Spiral Dynamics, Fowler’s Stages of Faith, etc.) is an evolutionary model that applies to all world religions. In my opinion, every Christian expression at pluralistic and beyond (and even some modernists) can safely be referred to as a “progressive” Christianity. But that tiny shift along the religious spectrum can result in cataclysmic changes for the individual and their worldview. Because Christianity emerged relatively recently in history, when discussing panentheism we must also make a distinction between concepts like a living, monotheistic and Abrahamic God and a pre-Christian, animistic Creator (Spirit) whose body is the living universe. We need both history and mythology to tackle the big questions. I can hear your frustration with the lack of clarity on the topic as well as seeking a church home in your area. I know that lonely feeling. I understand the personal importance of wanting to clearly align yourself with the cosmological view of an organization. It’s how we share language, values, ideas and experience within a community of practice. It determines how we show up and serve others. It’s how we belong. But, I have a hunch that this question (the nature of God) will be a personal one -- and one that is wrestled with until we pass into the next world. To clarify what Progressive Christianity “believes” or where they stand on doctrine might be tough. The “Progressive Christianity” movement is a sprawling tangle of roots and branches that includes the emerging, contemplative, integral and evangelical. Some churches are more progressive than Christian (some more Christian than progressive). The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity (as listed at ProgressiveChristianity.org) state that Christ teaches us about the “sacredness, oneness and Unity of all life.” They say nothing at all about God. And, for me, this is the heart of the matter. Mystical religious experience — a personal relationship with the Divine — is the path of Christ. Walking the Christ path doesn’t require you to believe anything about God or the universe, it simply requires that you love God with all your heart. God doesn’t need to be a “personal Being” in order for me to have a personal relationship with God. This is where the mystics (Eckhart, Hildegard, Teresa, Merton, et. al.) got it right. We can appreciate their poetry about crystal castles and babbling streams and the “innermost” and the holy journey “Christward” as a description of that love. As Ilia Delio describes, “God is a name that points to an unfathomable mystery of unquenchable love and inestimable goodness. There’s no human mind that could get itself wrapped around the infinite or eternal love that God is.” In Psalm 139 -- a poem about this exact everywhereness of God (“Where can I escape from thy spirit?”) -- we may know that God is in all things (lightness, darkness) but only after showing up there ourselves. I may enjoy playing catch with this ball (“the nature of God”) in slow motion with you via the internet, but the Spirit of this question truly comes to life when it is becomes midrash, conversation, interpretation -- when it is argued and debated with others following the way and walking alongside you on the path. Which brings me to UU. I assume when you say that you’re considering attending a “United Universalist” church in your area, you mean “Unitarian Universalism.” I have two thoughts: 1) You should not hesitate to seek community at any church you want. Attend a different church each week, if you like. It doesn’t mean you need to become a member or join a committee or change your religious affiliation. 2) Unitarian Universalism has a rich history of being an open, welcoming, tolerant and loving church with a commitment to social justice and community. Every UU community I’ve been to has been a place where Christians, Buddhists and atheists alike can gather, sing, celebrate, serve and grow together. What UU typically does not offer (and, of course there are exceptions) are communities of practice for those following the very personal path of the mystic or the contemplative. Sadly, it’s all too rare in the Christian churches as well. UUs are progressive and liberal and would wholeheartedly welcome the deism/theism or pantheism/panentheism debate, but if your focus is to keep Christ at the heart of all things, then I feel like you might be better served in a Christian (not an interfaith) community. It’s worth having a candid conversation with your local UU minister to see if there’s a home for you there. Wherever you land, they will be lucky to have your gifts of focus, insight and curiosity. I will pray for your continued discernment as you navigate the Way. Looking forward,~ Joran Slane Oppelt Click here to read and share onlineAbout the Author 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 Dallas, Texas: A New Vision Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October 11, 2006 Dallas, Texas, has never been one of my favorite cities. Its image was firmly set for me during the course of a single month in 1963, when two events occurred that rocked this country. First, the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., was booed, abused and spat upon by a Dallas crowd while making a speech on the United Nations.Recent harsh, right-wing editorials in its newspapers were considered responsible for inciting this mentality among Dallas citizens. Within a month in this same city, that anger struck again as President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Dallas became for me a city of hostility. A decade later that negative image was enhanced when I was gathering material to write the biography of my personal mentor and hero, John Elbridge Hines, who had been Bishop of Texas prior to his election a Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (1964-1973). As his official biographer I had the privilege of reading all of the correspondence sent to him and the press notices that referred to him. The amount of vituperative rhetoric that he received from Dallas citizens, and the stridently negative coverage of him in the Dallas Morning News confirmed my less than positive feelings about that city.Later in my days as a bishop, the leadership of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, especially its one-time Suffragan Bishop Robert Terwilliger, kept the Dallas negativity at full strength. Terwilliger was a consistently hostile voice in our church as we sought to wrestle with the issues of a changing world. He adamantly opposed the ordination of women to the priesthood and directed constant and emotional energy against every liberalizing move the church made in the seventies and eighties to bring justice and acceptance to gay and lesbian people. None of these experiences served to counter my poor image of Dallas.Yet I could recall things long stored in my memory bank about Dallas that were positive. When I was a child I was a Washington Senators baseball fan. The Washington organization was the parent team of the Charlotte Hornets who played in my hometown and to this team my childhood devotion was intense. Charlotte Hornet players who made it to the big leagues, like Early Wynn, Al Evans, Jake Early, Jim Bloodworth and Bobby Estalella, were my ultimate heroes. Most did not stay with the Senators, but were traded or sold by this chronically bad team to pay its bills. Finally poor crowds forced this team out of Washington, first to Minneapolis-St. Paul to become the Minnesota Twins, and after a second Washington team also failed, it was moved to Dallas to become the Texas Rangers. I then transferred my affection to the Rangers and pulled for this Dallas/Fort Worth team until I moved to Newark in 1976 and fell in love with the Yankees of Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson and Catfish Hunter. However, for that brief time Dallas gained credibility and warmth inside my not always objective psyche and served to temper my heretofore negative image.Over the years these positive feelings began to grow as I accepted a number of invitations to speak in this city. I lectured at Southern Methodist University where an “adopted” son of mine named Chace Brinegar was a student, and then at the Perkins Theological Seminary where the great theologian Schubert Ogden was a respected and admired member of the faculty. I led a clergy conference for the Methodists of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I even engaged in a printed debate in the Dallas Morning News with the current Episcopal Bishop of Dallas, James Stanton, that I enjoyed, but I don’t think he did. On three different occasions, I spoke at the very unique Dallas Cathedral of Hope. On three other occasions, I gave a series of lectures at the Unity Church of Dallas. All of these were wonderful experiences and I began to develop a circle of friends in that city who forced me to recognize that the monolithic negative definition of any place is always inappropriate. Every city, indeed every place, has within it both good and evil, things for which to be proud and things for which to be ashamed.I go into this personal history as a preamble to a recent experience in which Christine and I spent five wonderful days in Dallas, that were as meaningful as any time as I have ever known. We arrived on a Friday and that evening and on Saturday night, we both attended, along with some 400 people, two performances of the play “A Pebble in My Shoe,” written and directed by Los Angeles playwright Colin Cox. This play is based on my autobiography, Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love and Equality. It has been floating around the country at various venues since it opened in Los Angeles in late 2005. Dallas was the second Texas city, after Austin, where it has been performed. Both nights the audience was wonderfully responsive to this drama about the Church’s struggle with racism, sexism and homophobia.On Sunday I spoke twice at the Cathedral of Hope to a combined audience of some 1,300 people. Founded in 1973 as a worship community for homosexual people, this church has had as its senior pastor for the past nineteen years, the Rev. Michael Piazza, a gay Methodist minister of enormous talent. During his tenure the Cathedral of Hope emerged as one of that city’s largest congregations with an online ministry that reaches 10,000 people a week. The multiple Sunday worship services are augmented by a spectacular choir of some 40 – 50 voices and a marvelous full orchestra under the direction of Cynthia Brown. Once they had a choral group calling itself “The Positive Singers,” because all of its singers were HIV positive.The new leader of this church is the Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson, who has a graduate degree in Theology from Perkins and a PhD from Texas A. & M. She was an ordained Methodist minister who was outed as a lesbian and dismissed from her congregation. She found her ministry in this incredible place where, along with Michael, she is universally loved and admired and where her incredible talents are on full display. The Cathedral of Hope was originally affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination created by the Rev. Dr. Troy Perry specifically for the rejected homosexual members of all churches that today has over 300,000 members around the world. The Cathedral of Hope is at this moment negotiating to enter the Christian Protestant mainstream by affiliating with the United Church of Christ. This transition is symbolic of the transition going on in America as homophobia dies and gay and lesbian people enter the life of full citizenship in both our nation and our churches. Michael Piazza told me some years ago that at the height of the AIDS epidemic, he was conducting as many as 20 to 25 funerals a month, almost all of them for young males less than 40 years of age. I have thought many times of how grateful I am to this church for giving its love and pastoral care to so many who found the welcome of Christ lacking in the churches in which they were raised.As the service unfolded in that church on that Sunday morning, tears came to my eyes as I watched worshipers come up as couples or as family groups to receive communion. The acceptance accorded to so many who have endured so much rejection was present in the joy and love on the faces of these gay and lesbian people. Couples held hands, sometimes a gay son or lesbian daughter would come to receive the sacrament accompanied both by their partners and their parents. This was a church in which they could finally be openly together.That afternoon, my wife and I accepted their invitation to ride in the back of a Lincoln Town Car convertible as part of the Dallas Gay Pride Parade. On that ride we received the love, cheers and applause of the thousands who lined the streets along the parade route. We were announced at the various stops along the way as the Episcopal bishop who had fought for the full acceptance of homosexual people in the life of the church. The crowd waved, shouted and called us by our names. It rained constantly during the parade on that open convertible, but neither the rain nor a group of Bible-wielding counter demonstrators could dim the joy of that day for us. The counter-demonstrators, with voices screaming and faces contorted by anger promised us the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. I am always amazed at how the Bible, that portrays my Lord embracing the outcasts, touching the lepers, welcoming the Samaritans, not judging the woman taken in the act of adultery, and inviting “all of ye,” not “some of ye,” to “come unto me,” can, in the hands of a few distorted people be turned into a book of hatred, violence and judgment.The Dallas visit ended with a lecture delivered to a large audience of people at the Unity Church of Dallas on Monday evening. The Unity Movement is a branch of Christianity to which I have in recent years become deeply attracted, as it quite self-consciously seeks to redefine the Christian faith outside the categories of sin, guilt, rescue and control.Its theology begins in Matthew Fox’s concept of “Original Blessing” rather than with the traditional concept of “Original Sin.” It sees and encourages personal growth and the call to full humanity. It proclaims a Christianity built on love and inclusion. It affirms each person as he or she is and then seeks to provide both the community and the resources to help that person grow into being all that he or she can be. Unity sees Christianity as a religion of acceptance not judgment, of expanding life not controlling behavior. The Unity movement contains much of what I believe will mark the Christian Church of the future.Christine and I flew home on Tuesday with the smiles of those who have been in the presence of the Holy. We also came away with warm new feelings about the city of Dallas. Is it possible that the Kingdom of God might be dawning in Texas? God does move in mysterious ways, doesn’t she?~ 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 | | | Events and Updates Catalysts for Change Online: January 7 - 27, 2019 In your day, you’ve probably made a lot of resolutions — large and lofty goals covering all aspects of your life — and then watched them fall to the wayside one by one. Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks to break a habit or start a new practice. So here is a 21-day journey on the path of change. Each day you will receive an email with a short reading from a spiritual teacher and a spiritual practice to do, to help you firm up your resolve and make small steps for change. Click here for more information/registration. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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From Gene Marshall, thanks to David
by James Wiegel 02 Jan '19

02 Jan '19

Seems clear and concise https://mailchi.mp/e7f72505871d/welcome-to-citizens-call-2228533?e=fff404a3… Jim Wiegel 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353 Tel. 011-623-936-8671 or 011-623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. "But that is not what great ships are built for." Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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