December 2019 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Re: [Dialogue] Fwd: Birthday Witness
by Joan 15 Dec '19

15 Dec '19

I have felt all that you expressed here. I have experienced all that you have experienced here and was torn open one more time. Thank you for that. We tend to hide from that kind of pain. Losing two of your own children is never how it is supposed to be but is how it is for me. If we make this further death journey, let me know. Joan -----Original Message----- From: Richard Alton via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Richard Alton <richard.alton(a)gmail.com> Sent: Sat, Dec 14, 2019 3:59 pm Subject: [Dialogue] Fwd: Birthday Witness Death up Close It has been a rough year. Late in 2018 I fell off my bike and headed to the doctor to make sure I was okay. From a CT scan discovered two lung spots- four months of CT scans, a PET scan and a biopsy, (which caused a collapsed lung) to find out it was nothing the doctors were concerned about. But it generated a lot of thinking about my end of life, and death. Even went to a Church class on sharing what you have done or need to do to get ready for your funeral.Then Jim Stovall, Sally’s brother (10 years in the Order), came down with stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver. They worked on a liver replacement, but Jim’s body became toxic and he died in April of this year. Then in May, Sally (significant other for 14 years) had a major stroke and died- just to give you a feel for this death up close:Sally, nothing basically wrong...just general 70-year health problems... a little issue with high blood pressure but controlled by pills. She was getting ready for a meeting and I came into the bedroom and she was on the bed- said she got dizzy in the bathroom and just barely made it to the bed. She said she had a headache (her speech was a little slurred) and wanted two aspirins- I gave them to her and left her on the bed for 15 minutes- came back and she wanted to eat something- sure- but she could not get up except her left arm- I grabbed her arm but she was not able to make it up- I called ambulance-we got to the hospital- she had a massive stroke with major brain bleeding... from local Western Suburban Hospital took her downtown by ambulance to Rush (Chicago stroke Hospital). Arrived at Hospital by 10:30pm and they determined she had lost most of her brain function. We kept her on a breathing tube until her sister and daughter arrived the next day and pulled tube after a prayer service with her pastor Marti, Pam Bergdall, Carol (sister), Teresa (daughter), George Emerick (Teresa’s father) and myself. Sally lasted about 15 minutes. In a way it was great, it was quick. She was unconscious almost immediately at 730pm Monday night and pronounced dead at 4:27pm the next day, May 21st.. a great lifeBut I wasn’t prepared for the HOLE that was blown in my life with the loss of my partner of 14 years. And in the midst of this emotional loss, I have had to spend the last 7 months taking care of the aftereffects of Sally’s death and re-organizing my life. So, my learnings from these 3 death experiences (I count my lung problem as a near death): - 1) In all 3 events I was struck how unprepared we are for death both in handling others deaths or our own. We are overwhelmed by the loss of our loved one to deal with what is the most important event of our or their lives. How can we pay so little attention to expressing the meaning and purpose of this glorious life we have had? - 2) Second, death is usually hidden and then burst into our lives. Death is wicked how fast it comes and how it is all consuming and leaves little room for preparation or even thought. Sally’s stroke was unannounced, and she was gone in less that 12 hours. Jim Stovall was in a hospital fighting a losing battle for his life and Sally and his family were totally consumed with his care. It is hidden in that we do not want to even consider this end or admit to our finitude and mortality. The hiddenness from death, from this final power cuts us off from our journey leaves us shocked and disoriented in thinking/preparing to have a meaningful ending3) What happens is professionals that deal a lot with death step in and organize the readings, the message, the music, the witness, the reception as the family and friends are frozen in losing a beloved one. When you read Matthew’s The Time My Father Died and Matthews gets mad at what the funeral home had done to his father. The issue is not the funeral home but rather Joseph had not thought through his father’s death. In the case of Sally, since I had been thinking about my own death- I asked ICA’s Seva Gandhi to do one of the Memorial Services witnesses to Sally’s life. I asked her to reflect on Sally’s time in the Order, the Ecumenical Institute and Institute of Cultural Affairs. Seva did a great job capturing Sally’s thankfulness for being in a religious community and how she engaged herself as being part of a global servant force that was out to care for the poorest of the poor. I was so pleased that it seemed to hold the depth, wonder and uniqueness of her existence; - Sally loved the religious house and the community, interaction, structures it brought her life. - - Sally loved the town meetings and her engaging the small towns across Utah. She had an amazing memory of those small town meetings and especially the songs. - - It was clear that Sally had found purpose in her life and was sent to make a difference in this world. Others sensed this too. Was pretty obvious when she died on a Tuesday and the next day, Wednesday, we held a prayer service with 100 people showing up and talked and talked about what Sally meant to their lives. And then that Saturday at her Memorial Service 250 people showed up many unknown to us... people were standing in the Church aisles But my lesson learned through all of this is that we need to take ownership of our death and the message (word) it brings to others. I have worked on my funeral: like to have the Daily Office liturgy, DH Lawrence’s Not I, Not I But a New Wind Blowing Through Me read, decided what I like to have read from the NT and the OT and who and what would like have sung plus a witness-one being the ICA. For Sally’s Memorial Service her children pulled together a slide show that was fabulous. Need to do that.I think the basic message is that we need to get our deaths thought through. So 3 deaths (actually Sally’s sister died the year before) and a funeral class hasmade death up close as a reality. Overwhelming experience; need to bring intentionality and attentionally to our deaths and the death needs to speak the “Word”. So from this experience and dialogue I have joined with others to form a “Death Team” (Pam Bergdall and Seva Gandhi- who says death is always on her mind), We are proposing a quarterly death webinar or more like a death sharing circle to get our deaths in shape...it has been said that facing up to death also makes for a better life. What think you?Dick Alton, RS-1, 1968, born December 14, 1941 -- Richard H. T. AltonOne Earth Film Fest ( OEFF)Green Community ConnectionsInterfaith Green NetworkT: 773.344.7172richard.alton(a)gmail.com*Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2019, March 1-10http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Re: [Dialogue] Fwd: Birthday Witness
by Ellie Stock 14 Dec '19

14 Dec '19

Hi Dick, Thank you for your birthday witness, pondering your death experiences--what a year it has been for you. The news of Sally's death came as a shock, as we had seen you both the summer before. So many ways to ponder death...whether it be the loss of a beloved, the violence held up in the daily news, the slow deaths of friends and family members suffering from terminal illness, the suffering of others and Earth itself or dying to the self in servanthood--all hold a mirror to the fragility of our own lives and ask the question: how shall we then live? I recall reading Castaneda--death being a friend, looking over our shoulder...death bringing life into sharp focus. I also remember Matthews saying if you can't picture yourself on a cold cement slab, you won't be able to risk or give yourself to anything. So we are ultimately talking about life... So your sharing catalyzes pondering in all of us... A reflection from 1967... life deathfears not death.deathfears not dying—ordying fears livingandliving fears birthandbirth fears loveandlove fears knowingthenlove is not loveandfree is not freeandknowing fears sensesandsense rewombs in isolationandsenseless perpetuationonpumiced islandswheregreen and rednolonger bear fertile brownbutmiscarry zebra-striped lava,charringwild blossoms of sensitivityand intelligibilityrootedin destructivity,andpoof! and perhaps pow!sizzling,sinking, and ominous silence sealawatery sepulchermournedby black and blue—ifdeath fears dying. ejh Grace and peace ~ Ellie :)elliestock@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Richard Alton via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Richard Alton <richard.alton(a)gmail.com> Sent: Sat, Dec 14, 2019 4:59 pm Subject: [Dialogue] Fwd: Birthday Witness Death up Close It has been a rough year. Late in 2018 I fell off my bike and headed to the doctor to make sure I was okay. From a CT scan discovered two lung spots- four months of CT scans, a PET scan and a biopsy, (which caused a collapsed lung) to find out it was nothing the doctors were concerned about. But it generated a lot of thinking about my end of life, and death. Even went to a Church class on sharing what you have done or need to do to get ready for your funeral.Then Jim Stovall, Sally’s brother (10 years in the Order), came down with stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver. They worked on a liver replacement, but Jim’s body became toxic and he died in April of this year. Then in May, Sally (significant other for 14 years) had a major stroke and died- just to give you a feel for this death up close:Sally, nothing basically wrong...just general 70-year health problems... a little issue with high blood pressure but controlled by pills. She was getting ready for a meeting and I came into the bedroom and she was on the bed- said she got dizzy in the bathroom and just barely made it to the bed. She said she had a headache (her speech was a little slurred) and wanted two aspirins- I gave them to her and left her on the bed for 15 minutes- came back and she wanted to eat something- sure- but she could not get up except her left arm- I grabbed her arm but she was not able to make it up- I called ambulance-we got to the hospital- she had a massive stroke with major brain bleeding... from local Western Suburban Hospital took her downtown by ambulance to Rush (Chicago stroke Hospital). Arrived at Hospital by 10:30pm and they determined she had lost most of her brain function. We kept her on a breathing tube until her sister and daughter arrived the next day and pulled tube after a prayer service with her pastor Marti, Pam Bergdall, Carol (sister), Teresa (daughter), George Emerick (Teresa’s father) and myself. Sally lasted about 15 minutes. In a way it was great, it was quick. She was unconscious almost immediately at 730pm Monday night and pronounced dead at 4:27pm the next day, May 21st.. a great lifeBut I wasn’t prepared for the HOLE that was blown in my life with the loss of my partner of 14 years. And in the midst of this emotional loss, I have had to spend the last 7 months taking care of the aftereffects of Sally’s death and re-organizing my life. So, my learnings from these 3 death experiences (I count my lung problem as a near death): - 1) In all 3 events I was struck how unprepared we are for death both in handling others deaths or our own. We are overwhelmed by the loss of our loved one to deal with what is the most important event of our or their lives. How can we pay so little attention to expressing the meaning and purpose of this glorious life we have had? - 2) Second, death is usually hidden and then burst into our lives. Death is wicked how fast it comes and how it is all consuming and leaves little room for preparation or even thought. Sally’s stroke was unannounced, and she was gone in less that 12 hours. Jim Stovall was in a hospital fighting a losing battle for his life and Sally and his family were totally consumed with his care. It is hidden in that we do not want to even consider this end or admit to our finitude and mortality. The hiddenness from death, from this final power cuts us off from our journey leaves us shocked and disoriented in thinking/preparing to have a meaningful ending3) What happens is professionals that deal a lot with death step in and organize the readings, the message, the music, the witness, the reception as the family and friends are frozen in losing a beloved one. When you read Matthew’s The Time My Father Died and Matthews gets mad at what the funeral home had done to his father. The issue is not the funeral home but rather Joseph had not thought through his father’s death. In the case of Sally, since I had been thinking about my own death- I asked ICA’s Seva Gandhi to do one of the Memorial Services witnesses to Sally’s life. I asked her to reflect on Sally’s time in the Order, the Ecumenical Institute and Institute of Cultural Affairs. Seva did a great job capturing Sally’s thankfulness for being in a religious community and how she engaged herself as being part of a global servant force that was out to care for the poorest of the poor. I was so pleased that it seemed to hold the depth, wonder and uniqueness of her existence; - Sally loved the religious house and the community, interaction, structures it brought her life. - - Sally loved the town meetings and her engaging the small towns across Utah. She had an amazing memory of those small town meetings and especially the songs. - - It was clear that Sally had found purpose in her life and was sent to make a difference in this world. Others sensed this too. Was pretty obvious when she died on a Tuesday and the next day, Wednesday, we held a prayer service with 100 people showing up and talked and talked about what Sally meant to their lives. And then that Saturday at her Memorial Service 250 people showed up many unknown to us... people were standing in the Church aisles But my lesson learned through all of this is that we need to take ownership of our death and the message (word) it brings to others. I have worked on my funeral: like to have the Daily Office liturgy, DH Lawrence’s Not I, Not I But a New Wind Blowing Through Me read, decided what I like to have read from the NT and the OT and who and what would like have sung plus a witness-one being the ICA. For Sally’s Memorial Service her children pulled together a slide show that was fabulous. Need to do that.I think the basic message is that we need to get our deaths thought through. So 3 deaths (actually Sally’s sister died the year before) and a funeral class hasmade death up close as a reality. Overwhelming experience; need to bring intentionality and attentionally to our deaths and the death needs to speak the “Word”. So from this experience and dialogue I have joined with others to form a “Death Team” (Pam Bergdall and Seva Gandhi- who says death is always on her mind), We are proposing a quarterly death webinar or more like a death sharing circle to get our deaths in shape...it has been said that facing up to death also makes for a better life. What think you?Dick Alton, RS-1, 1968, born December 14, 1941 -- Richard H. T. AltonOne Earth Film Fest ( OEFF)Green Community ConnectionsInterfaith Green NetworkT: 773.344.7172richard.alton(a)gmail.com*Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2019, March 1-10http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Birthday Witness
by Robertson Work 14 Dec '19

14 Dec '19

My dear brother Dick, Blessings on you, Dick, in your grief and gratitude, over the passing of your beloved Sally. It is so very hard. My Mary passed away 16 years ago and it is forever fresh. I love your proposal of a "Death Team." Count me in. What I am saying these days is that I want to make Death my friend, to remind me every second that every second counts. How do we each live life to the fullest each and every moment and day? The greatest memorial we can have is not a memorial service but a lifetime of service for people and planet, especially at this critical moment in history and evolution when humanity and many of our fellow Earthlings are threatened with extinction. Civilizations are born and die. Planets are born and die. Impermanence is part of the very essence of being a living being in this mysterious universe. Much love to all, Rob ................................................................................................ Recent book: A Compassionate Civilization: The Urgency of Sustainable Development and Mindful Activism - Reflections and Recommendations https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546972617 Blog: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/<https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/><https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsonwork/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compassionatecivilization/ ________________________________ From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Richard Alton via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2019 5:57 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>; ica-dialogue(a)igc.topica.com <ica-dialogue(a)igc.topica.com> Cc: Richard Alton <richard.alton(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Oe List ...] Birthday Witness Death up Close It has been a rough year. Late in 2018 I fell off my bike and headed to the doctor to make sure I was okay. From a CT scan discovered two lung spots- four months of CT scans, a PET scan and a biopsy, (which caused a collapsed lung) to find out it was nothing the doctors were concerned about. But it generated a lot of thinking about my end of life, and death. Even went to a Church class on sharing what you have done or need to do to get ready for your funeral. Then Jim Stovall, Sally’s brother (10 years in the Order), came down with stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver. They worked on a liver replacement, but Jim’s body became toxic and he died in April of this year. Then in May, Sally (significant other for 14 years) had a major stroke and died- just to give you a feel for this death up close: Sally, nothing basically wrong...just general 70-year health problems... a little issue with high blood pressure but controlled by pills. She was getting ready for a meeting and I came into the bedroom and she was on the bed- said she got dizzy in the bathroom and just barely made it to the bed. She said she had a headache (her speech was a little slurred) and wanted two aspirins- I gave them to her and left her on the bed for 15 minutes- came back and she wanted to eat something- sure- but she could not get up except her left arm- I grabbed her arm but she was not able to make it up- I called ambulance-we got to the hospital- she had a massive stroke with major brain bleeding... from local Western Suburban Hospital took her downtown by ambulance to Rush (Chicago stroke Hospital). Arrived at Hospital by 10:30pm and they determined she had lost most of her brain function. We kept her on a breathing tube until her sister and daughter arrived the next day and pulled tube after a prayer service with her pastor Marti, Pam Bergdall, Carol (sister), Teresa (daughter), George Emerick (Teresa’s father) and myself. Sally lasted about 15 minutes. In a way it was great, it was quick. She was unconscious almost immediately at 730pm Monday night and pronounced dead at 4:27pm the next day, May 21st.. a great life But I wasn’t prepared for the HOLE that was blown in my life with the loss of my partner of 14 years. And in the midst of this emotional loss, I have had to spend the last 7 months taking care of the aftereffects of Sally’s death and re-organizing my life. So, my learnings from these 3 death experiences (I count my lung problem as a near death): 1. 1) In all 3 events I was struck how unprepared we are for death both in handling others deaths or our own. We are overwhelmed by the loss of our loved one to deal with what is the most important event of our or their lives. How can we pay so little attention to expressing the meaning and purpose of this glorious life we have had? 2. 2) Second, death is usually hidden and then burst into our lives. Death is wicked how fast it comes and how it is all consuming and leaves little room for preparation or even thought. Sally’s stroke was unannounced, and she was gone in less that 12 hours. Jim Stovall was in a hospital fighting a losing battle for his life and Sally and his family were totally consumed with his care. It is hidden in that we do not want to even consider this end or admit to our finitude and mortality. The hiddenness from death, from this final power cuts us off from our journey leaves us shocked and disoriented in thinking/preparing to have a meaningful ending 3) What happens is professionals that deal a lot with death step in and organize the readings, the message, the music, the witness, the reception as the family and friends are frozen in losing a beloved one. When you read Matthew’s The Time My Father Died and Matthews gets mad at what the funeral home had done to his father. The issue is not the funeral home but rather Joseph had not thought through his father’s death. In the case of Sally, since I had been thinking about my own death- I asked ICA’s Seva Gandhi to do one of the Memorial Services witnesses to Sally’s life. I asked her to reflect on Sally’s time in the Order, the Ecumenical Institute and Institute of Cultural Affairs. Seva did a great job capturing Sally’s thankfulness for being in a religious community and how she engaged herself as being part of a global servant force that was out to care for the poorest of the poor. I was so pleased that it seemed to hold the depth, wonder and uniqueness of her existence; * Sally loved the religious house and the community, interaction, structures it brought her life. * * Sally loved the town meetings and her engaging the small towns across Utah. She had an amazing memory of those small town meetings and especially the songs. * * It was clear that Sally had found purpose in her life and was sent to make a difference in this world. Others sensed this too. Was pretty obvious when she died on a Tuesday and the next day, Wednesday, we held a prayer service with 100 people showing up and talked and talked about what Sally meant to their lives. And then that Saturday at her Memorial Service 250 people showed up many unknown to us... people were standing in the Church aisles But my lesson learned through all of this is that we need to take ownership of our death and the message (word) it brings to others. I have worked on my funeral: like to have the Daily Office liturgy, DH Lawrence’s Not I, Not I But a New Wind Blowing Through Me read, decided what I like to have read from the NT and the OT and who and what would like have sung plus a witness-one being the ICA. For Sally’s Memorial Service her children pulled together a slide show that was fabulous. Need to do that. I think the basic message is that we need to get our deaths thought through. So 3 deaths (actually Sally’s sister died the year before) and a funeral class has made death up close as a reality. Overwhelming experience; need to bring intentionality and attentionally to our deaths and the death needs to speak the “Word”. So from this experience and dialogue I have joined with others to form a “Death Team” (Pam Bergdall and Seva Gandhi- who says death is always on her mind), We are proposing a quarterly death webinar or more like a death sharing circle to get our deaths in shape...it has been said that facing up to death also makes for a better life. What think you? Dick Alton, RS-1, 1968, born December 14, 1941 -- 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

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12/12/19, Progressing Spirit: Lauren Van Ham: Imagine That!; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 12 Dec '19

12 Dec '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0924999122 #yiv0924999122templateBody .yiv0924999122mcnTextContent, #yiv0924999122 #yiv0924999122templateBody .yiv0924999122mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0924999122 #yiv0924999122templateFooter .yiv0924999122mcnTextContent, #yiv0924999122 #yiv0924999122templateFooter .yiv0924999122mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } What sort of change do you imagine when you hear the words, “everyone,” and, “everything”? | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Imagine That! | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA December 12, 2019Last Spring, Greta Thunberg’s statement to the European Parliament included the phrase, “Everyone and everything needs to change.” It’s become a mantra for me: Everyone, Everything, Me, Changing. What sort of change do you imagine when you hear the words, “everyone,” and, “everything”? To me, it sounds large. Downright Biblical. And, here is my real question: are we even able to imagine it? Probably not. Maybe some of us, for a moment? Maybe in glimpses? At long last, there is starting to be some real recognition of what we humans have done to ourselves and the living system in which we’re intricately woven. Along with this recognition comes an assortment of responses, emotions, and agendas. Scientists, social entrepreneurs and activists are meeting the faces of those who had believed things, “weren’t so bad,” that a solution was being worked out “behind the scenes.” More and more of us now see and understand that humans surviving the climate crisis is not a guarantee, and very much up to us. This level of urgency and importance can create a froth of nervous activity, panic, hunkering down… But there is another possibility. And the season we’re in carries instructions! Since Summer, I have found relief in the writings of Jem Bendell, a professor of leadership from the UK, who is teaching from the awareness that societal collapse, related to climate chaos, is already happening. He calls our task at hand, “Deep Adaptation.” With others from the climate policy community, Bendell releases all previous ideas of, “sustainability,” and instead explores what kind of adaptation is possible. Different aspects of Deep Adaptation, are described using four “Rs.” Resiliency considers first how to reduce harm and not make matters worse by cutting emissions, adhering to international drawdown measures, and such. Relinquishment, describes measures for protecting ourselves in the ways we can by withdrawing from global coastlines and not building in fire zones, for example, as well as decommissioning vulnerable industrial facilities. These steps are hugely important, but it’s the next two Rs of Deep Adaptation that really get me. In Restoration, Bendell pointedly asks how we might live and die lovingly because of the necessary changes. In what ways will we act to lovingly care for what we’ve destroyed or eroded? How will we practice restoration, in Jem’s words, “not because it will work, but because we have a faith or sense that it is the right way to be alive?” For any of us who walk a spiritual path, for those who claim a practice of meaning-making, moving with Spirit, or living by Faith, this is what we endeavor to do…isn’t it??? In fact, as brilliant beings and co-creators in this interdependent web of life, isn’t that what we believe we are called to do? We’ve gotten lost. Even in our efforts to affect change in some places, we’ve fallen prey in others to the seductive din of Business as Usual. It’s really hard not to, AND I believe Advent and the Solstice season remind us of who we really are and of what we are truly capable! This season is the dreamtime. When Matthew and Luke set out to tell the birth story of Jesus, their assignment was great. They needed to shake people from what had become Business as Usual; to lift us from out of its loud, limited and fear-based thinking. Does any of this sound familiar? With enough unexpected and surprising nudges to look and listen for Spirit elsewhere, Luke and Matthew intended to help people return to a deeper truth, to more direct encounters with right ways to be alive. To do this, Matthew and Luke left historical accounts to others. They used cosmological and shamanic examples to tap something deeper in us, something filled with Creation and Divinity. Repeatedly, angels appear to Joseph, Zechariah, Mary and the shepherds. Nearly every time the Angels begin with, “Do not be afraid” and then continue to deliver a clear message that speaks to the Deeper Knowing inside each of the listeners.[i] The Christmas story, again and again, asks each of us to call into question the ways we have become comfortable in the scarcity and predictability of Business as Usual. Dreams, angels, bright star nights and animals awaken us with wild and Creation-infused imagery to embody our more liberated selves who can care and respond more creatively. This is good medicine for us right now. It is high time we find our way back to the cosmological perspectives and spiritual practices that will take us from our old ways of seeing while also offering the steady reassurance of, “Do not be afraid.” It is only from this space that we can imagine something different. The fourth R in Deep Adaptation is Reconciliation. Here, Bendell references anthropologist and psychologist Jonathan Lear’s work to better understand the Crow Nation of North America. In a summary of Lear’s book, Radical Hope, Scott Duimstra of Library Journal writes, “Lear examines the cultural collapse of…the Crow Nation. Lear begins by examining the importance of bravery, courage, and honor within the tribe’s culture and how these values were tested when the Crow were forced to abandon their warrior lifestyle and move onto a reservation. Their chief, Plenty Coups, inspired the Crow to use what Lear describes as ‘imaginative excellence’ by trying to imagine what ethical values would be needed in their new lifestyle. Plenty Coups did this with a combination of such traditional sources as dream interpretation and past ethical values, which gave the Crow an opportunity to overcome their despair and lead a meaningful life.” Plenty Coups understood Deep Adaptation. So much was lost. Reorientation was needed multiple times in order to find meaning in the meaningless, to find willingness in the face of death and irreparable losses. Imaginative excellence, indeed! Plenty Coups, like the Gospel writers, called hard upon our other ways of knowing – dreams, rituals, signs and symbols found in the wisdom of Creation and Spirit. Part of our paralysis right now is our fear of death. It’s so real. It’s also always been true. Should the fear we harbor around our own death stymie us in our efforts to find adaptive practices for all other life to flourish in the ways it can? Of course not. As people of faith it is our job to imagine what can be; to move from fear and limitation into creativity and care, ingenuity and trust, synchronicity and reciprocity within the living system that envelopes us. Dr. Cornel West calls on our imaginative excellence when he reminds us, “To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely — to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away.” The instructions of this season are fantastic preparation for the year ahead and the climate emergency timeline we must heed. Counter to ALL the ways Business as Usual has usurped this season, making much of it a self-serving disaster, we are invited to choose otherwise. Can we – will we - give ourselves the space, the permission, the courage to excellently imagine the change ahead? Each one of us is being asked to suspend everything we think we know, so that we might restore our relationship with ourselves, Creation and one another. By embracing the 4 Rs, our actions can bring about healthy soil, water and air. Our future can include thriving networks of humans who are supporting one another locally while generously, peacefully sharing best practices globally. A world that honors balance and flow with all living species and discovers its innate and divine abundance…Imagine that!~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA Read online here[i] If you are interested in learning more about the Christmas story’s origins and the intentional choices made by Gospel writers to free us from Business as Usual, I highly recommend The Liberating Birth of Jesus: A Birth Story Able to Reverse Our Planet’s Perils by Lee Van Ham (OneEarth Publishing, San Diego, CA. 2019) In the interest of transparency, the author is my Dad.About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, she 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). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Glenda So, I have come to a point in my life where I no longer have a belief in a higher power. I was raised Southern Baptist and radiated to Methodist as an adult. After reading several of Dr. Spong’s books and essays I feel that what I had come to suspect is now true. Now I am lost, its as if there is not a Santa Claus. No being to look after me or my loved ones and perhaps no afterlife either. It’s not as if I am crushed but is it weird that I am still seeking “something”? What now? On the other hand, there is relief that there is not a God that only favors some, all the contradicting rhetoric in the Bible now doesn’t have to make sense to me. Please help. A: By Kaitlin Curtice Dear Glenda,I believe the person asking this question has come to a really important place in life, one that many people who grew up in fundamental religious spaces perhaps don’t get to. What happens when everything falls to the side and we are left with a sort of black hole where religion once was? I came to this in my late 20s and have been struggling with it ever since, while others come to this existential sort of crisis later in life. For example, I have found it quite comforting that the universe is far expanded outside the walls of the Baptist churches I grew up in. Instead of a patriarchal, white God who controls everything and blesses only those he deems worthy, I am enveloped by Mystery that I cannot comprehend. That gives me room to breathe a little, to ask big questions, to wonder. The advice I would give to the person asking this question is to let grief lead, at least for a little while. We must go through the process of letting go of the childhood “container,” as Richard Rohr calls it, to see what might be on the other side. Maybe on the other side it’s just more questions, but at least we know we aren’t alone. Ask what it means to be human, and that, if there isn’t an afterlife or a divine presence, what does it mean to still be a loving, kind human anyway, who honors others, human and non-human alike? We may not know what’s ahead of us, and perhaps we cannot make sense of the past, either. What we have is this exact moment, and we can be present to it. We can marvel at the way the leaves change colors and fall, or the way ice glistens in the sunlight. We can become childlike again, without having to succumb to our childhood religious prisons. That, at least, is something. Allowing ourselves to grieve a religion that was ours for so long will give us room to ask what’s next, and to not shame ourselves, whatever the answer may be. If we become atheists, humanists, just generally spiritual, or followers of another religion, we do it because our humanness leads us there, and there is no shame in that. If there is a God/Divine Being/Great Mystery, I’d like to think they’d be okay with our grief, lack of clarity, and wobbly legs as we find our way through this life. The best part is, we aren’t alone in the search, because if we are human, we are made for questions, for life, for seeking, for being, and for that beloved childlikeness that claims us along the way, every day. ~ Kaitlin Curtice Read and share online here About the Author Kaitlin Curtice is a Native American Christian author and speaker. As an enrolled member of the Potawatomi Citizen Band and someone who has grown up in the Christian faith, Kaitlin writes on the intersection of Indigenous spirituality, faith in everyday life, and the church. Her first book, Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places, was published with Paraclete Press in 2017. It is a series of fifty essays and prayers focusing on finding the sacred in everyday life. Kaitlin is currently working on her second book with Brazos Press, set to come out in 2020. It has been named by Publisher’s Weekly as a Religion and Spirituality book to watch for. Kaitlin has contributed to OnBeing, Religion News Service, USA Today and Sojourners, among others, and she was interviewed for the New Yorker on colonization within Christian missions. In 2018 she was featured in a documentary with CBS called “Race, Religion and Resistance,” speaking on the dangers of colonized Christianity. Kaitlin travels around the country speaking on faith and justice within the church as it relates to Indigenous peoples. She has been a featured speaker at Why Christian, Evolving Faith, Wild Goose Festival, The Festival of Faith and Writing, and more. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Origins of the Bible, Part X: The Rise of the Prophetic Movement: Nathan – Prophecy's Father Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 15, 2008The prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures are not religious versions of Drew Pearson or Jeane Dixon. They do not predict future events. Prophets are those who are in touch with values, truth, perhaps we could call it God, and who thus see the issues of life more deeply than other people see them. Perhaps they are the ones who, by standing on the shoulders of others, can perceive future trends and speak to them before others see them developing. We have known artists to whom prescience has been attributed. A well-known Spanish painter, for example, painted a scene several years before the Spanish Civil War that portrayed his country torn apart in a violent struggle. The Bible might well have called him prophetic. He saw what there was to be seen, but not everyone was able to see it. The power of the prophets was also derived not from the established structures of the social order, but from the prophet's vision. They were always outside the lives of either political or ecclesiastical authority. As such, they were what King Ahab called the prophet Elijah, "Troublers of Israel". The established priesthood always resented the prophets for they were not ordained or trained. They were free spirits who somehow spoke with an authority that established figures wished they possessed. The ability to speak to authority in a way that demanded the authority's attention was the signal mark of the prophetic spirit. None of this, however, answers the question of just why it was that the role of the prophet was able to rise in Israel to such heights that the religion of Israel was said to rest with equal weight on the law (the Torah) and the prophets. It all began, I believe, in a charismatic confrontation between Israel's most powerful king and a man armed only with a sense of God's righteousness. That story is told in the Second Book of Samuel and it remains powerful today. King David lived in the biggest and tallest house in the city of Jerusalem, which meant that when he was out on his roof top he could look at the rooftops of all of Jerusalem's citizens. One afternoon when he was doing just that, he spied a beautiful woman taking a bath in what she assumed was the privacy of her own roof top. The king was smitten with her charms and at once sent a messenger to her with an invitation to visit the palace to have a tryst with her king. The woman came. Perhaps in the power equations of that world she had no choice, perhaps she wanted to come, the text doesn't tell us and so we will never know. The two of them, nonetheless, became lovers at least for this brief time. When the lovemaking was over, the woman, whose name was Bathsheba, returned to her home. I suspect this was neither the first nor the last such affair that King David had had and so he did not think much about it once the rendezvous had ended. So it was that that weeks passed and memories faded until they were newly called to mind by a message arriving at the palace directed to the king's eyes alone. The message read: "King David, I need for you to know that I am expecting your child." It was signed, Bathsheba. When David read it, he responded in a typically male, evasive way. "You are a married woman", he said. That is the first time that we learn from the biblical source that this tryst was an adulterous relationship that the king had had with a married woman. "Why do you assume that I am the father of this baby?" To which Bathsheba responded immediately, "I am indeed a married woman, but my husband Uriah is a soldier in the king's army. He has been fighting the king's wars under Joab, the king's military leader and thus he has not been home for months. There is no doubt, O King, that you are this baby's father." Still unwilling to accept responsibility, the king decided on an alternative course of action. It was plan B. He would grant Uriah a furlough so that Uriah could then come home, enjoy the privilege of his wife's bed and then, in this pre-DNA testing world, they could say this baby came early. It would not be the first time that tactic had been employed. So this permission for leave was conveyed by a royal messenger to the field and a very surprised Uriah found himself being granted an unprecedented furlough. What King David did not anticipate, however, was that Uriah had the make-up of the "original boy scout". He was a soldier first, drunk with the camaraderie of warfare. "It would not be fair or appropriate for me to enjoy the comforts of my home and my wife while my buddies are bleeding and dying on the battlefield from which I have somehow been removed. Therefore, in solidarity with them", he concluded, "I will not enter my home on this leave." Very ostentatiously Uriah set up a pup tent on the walk beside his home and spent his entire leave there. On viewing this, David, feeling trapped, said: "What a turkey" and began to develop Plan C. Once again a sealed royal order was conveyed to Joab, the commanding officer, this time by the hand of Uriah himself. In this letter David commanded Joab to organize his army into a flying wedge and hurl it at the gates of his enemy's capital city. Uriah was to be placed at the front tip of the flying wedge, where his death was all but inevitable. It was done. Uriah was struck down and killed. Joab then notified the king that his problem was now solved. King David sent for Bathsheba and she became a member, perhaps the dominant member, of his harem. Finally, King David felt that his problem was solved. This outrageous kingly behavior, however, did not escape the notice of a highly respected holy man whose name was Nathan. He decided that he must confront the king about the king's action. The reputation of Nathan was such that the king, unsuspecting of what was to come, granted him the audience that he requested. It must have been a strange confrontation. Here was King David in his royal chambers surrounded by all the wealth, power and opulence of royalty. Standing before him was Nathan, armed only with a sense of righteousness that is contained in what he believed was the moral law of God and the universe. When the two of them were alone Nathan said to the king that an episode of gross injustice in the king's realm had occurred and that Nathan felt compelled to bring it to the king's attention. The king encouraged Nathan to speak on. Nathan did so in terms of a parable. A certain poor man, he told the king, had a single ewe lamb that was treated as a pet in his family. This lamb was fed from the family's table, slept in the family's home and shared in the family's love. Another man who lived nearby, Nathan continued, was very wealthy and owned great flocks of sheep. One day this rich man had a distinguished visitor that he was required by the mores of his culture to honor by entertaining him at a banquet. Instead of taking a lamb from his own flocks, however, he went to the house of his poor neighbor, took his only ewe lamb, slaughtered, dressed and roasted it and set it before his guest. The rich man and his guest dined sumptuously while the poor man and his family were grief stricken. Nathan let the pathos hang as he finished his story. David, upon hearing this tale, was filled with anger and declared: "The man who has done this thing must surely die". Then in one of the Bible's most dramatic moments, Nathan fixed his eyes on the king and said: "Thou art the man!" The king, thought to be all powerful, had been called to answer for his deeds. No one is above the law of God, he learned. That was a lesson rare in the ancient world, indeed it was a message unique to the people of Israel. David might have been divinely chosen to be king, as the biblical story suggests, but the King of Israel still lived under the authority of the law of God and must answer for his behavior. David, to his great credit, did not banish Nathan from his presence, but heard the voice of God through the words of Nathan and publicly repented. He sought to do acts of restitution. When the child of this adulterous liaison died shortly after his birth, David and the biblical writers interpreted this death as divine punishment. Perhaps in a further act of trying to make things right, David lifted Bathsheba out of his harem and into the public role as his queen. Their second child was born a while later. His name was Solomon and he was to be the successor to David's throne and to solidify the royal line of David that was destined to last, at least the Southern Kingdom, for over 400 years until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BC (BCE). For Nathan's act of courage to be included in the Jewish Scriptures meant that this episode had entered the annals of Jewish memory. By becoming part of the sacred text of the Jewish people, it was destined to be read in worship settings over the centuries and in time to become identified as a mark of Judaism. In retrospect, Nathan was called a prophet and because of that the prophet's role in Jewish life was established. It was the duty of the prophets to speak for God in the citadels of power, to claim for God's law a place of absolute influence and to assert that there is no one in the land who was not subject to the law of God. Monarchy was not absolute in Israel from that moment on. Nathan originated the prophetic role in Israel. He established Israel as the one nation where no one's power would be above the power of the law. This was the reality that made the Jewish nation different from all the other nations of the ancient world. Certainly it was this nation alone that was destined to produce the prophetic tradition that would become so strong that it was not "the law and the Temple" but "the law and the prophets", that would characterize this people. We will look at a number of the prophetic voices as this series on the origins of the Bible continues.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Join the Global Silent Minute December 21, 2019 At 9.00pm London GMT on the Solstice, December 21, 2019, let us ring a bell to prepare to enter into one minute of silence in communion with the Forces of Light, as we generate a reservoir of united global thought that will inspire cooperative endeavours to create a better world for all. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Heidi Holmes
by jstanfieldica 11 Dec '19

11 Dec '19

Dear Colleagues,Heidi Holmes died at 3:05pm today in a hospice where she has been for the last few weeks. Rachel and Duncan were by her bed.We celebrate her completed life.Peace,Jeanette StanfieldFor the familySent from my Bell Samsung device over Canada's largest network.

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Celebration of Heidi
by Jeanette Stanfield 09 Dec '19

09 Dec '19

Hi, I am attaching invitation to celebration of Heidi Holmes life in hopes that you will see photo of Heidi that was included in invitation. Jeanette Stanfield

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Prayers & Healing for Shirley Henschen
by Timothy Wegner 07 Dec '19

07 Dec '19

Patricia sent the following out to the WSR (Women's Spirit Retreat) mailing list and asked me to forward to OE and Dialogue: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Patricia Henschen <phenschen(a)verizon.net> Date: Wed, Dec 4, 2019, 8:55 PM Subject: Prayers & Healing for Shirley Henschen Dear Women of the WSR: As some of you know, our mom, Shirley Henschen, has been undergoing treatment for cancer since January of 2018. Last week, she began her third regimen of chemo. This coming Saturday is her birthday. The Henschen family invites you to participate in a time of prayer and healing for her, to increase her strength & resiliency and the efficacy of the chemo. So that as many people can participate as easily possible, I suggest setting aside a few minutes at noon in your time zone to send healing thoughts and prayers to Shirley. If you are a healer (Healing Touch, Reiki, etc.), please use your gifts to uplift Shirley and restore her well-being to the greatest extent possible. If noon is not a feasible time, please select whatever time is available to you. Shirley was one of the founders of the WSR South, and when she and my dad moved to Arizona in 1996, she continued the tradition of semi-annual retreats for amazing women by founding the WSR West. Kindly share this with the prayer warriors and healers you know in your network. I know without a shadow of a doubt that all of the love and positive intentions of so many good people will help her immeasurably. Those of you who know Shirley know that she is the epitome of goodness and kindness; she has helped many, and she really needs our help now. God bless you all. Blessings and peace, Patricia Henschen

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Global Buzz for December
by ICA International 07 Dec '19

07 Dec '19

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Global Buzz Report: December 2019 Click above or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-19/2019-12-01.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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12/0519, Progressing Spirit: Kaitlin Curtis:The Power of Liminal Spaces In Changing Times; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 05 Dec '19

05 Dec '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9463160548 #yiv9463160548templateBody .yiv9463160548mcnTextContent, #yiv9463160548 #yiv9463160548templateBody .yiv9463160548mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9463160548 #yiv9463160548templateFooter .yiv9463160548mcnTextContent, #yiv9463160548 #yiv9463160548templateFooter .yiv9463160548mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } We are all, always, changing, and accepting that truth is the beginning of everything. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Power of Liminal Spaces In Changing Times | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Kaitlin Curtice December 5, 2019I was thinking recently about how much I loved getting my hair cut growing up. If I became bored with something in my life, I chose a new style. If I felt like I needed to express myself in a new way, I decided to get bangs, or chop all my hair off, or try something completely new. My hair was a part of me that could shift and change as I shifted and changed. My hair, in a way, was the space where I asked questions and took chances, when I couldn’t do that in other realms of my life. I grew up in the conservative southern Baptist tradition, in a conservative town, where, even at the public school, there were rules based on Christian principles. Girls couldn’t wear tank tops with straps less than two inches , or shorts and skirts above the knee, so the evangelical purity movement was alive and well in all realms of life. Even though I followed all the rules, I expressed myself through my fashion sense, through my hair, and through the music I listened to and wrote. I pushed the boundary only as far as I felt comfortable without crossing a line, and I found that creativity was an outlet, a safe space for me to be exactly who I am as a beloved person. I’m not southern Baptist anymore, and would loosely call myself a Christian. And today, while I still have an eclectic style and love of music, I’ve found that the power of words and identity are also ways of expression, especially coming out of a religion that does not greatly value either one when they belong to women. I write as an act of resistance. I identify myself as a Potawatomi woman within the church as an act of resistance. This means that I live in a lot of gray areas. Many of us who grew up in fundamental spaces were taught to live in dualities: black and white, in and out, saved and unsaved. In those spaces, there isn’t liminality. There aren’t many safe spaces to ask really hard questions, to show anger toward injustice, or even to grieve when we need to grieve. We are taught to brush it off, smile, move on, trust God, and believe. But the cost of those dualities is our identities. The cost is the identity of a gender non-binary or trans person who can’t fully, safely live into who they are. The cost is a sense of self-love for a mixed-ethnicity or bi-racial person who is made to feel ashamed of who they are. The cost is young girls and women expressing themselves only within the boundaries of patriarchal relationships and marriages. The cost is disabled people being told they don’t belong and they aren’t enough. Can we create spaces that are not built by those dualities, but built in the liminal spaces, where we gather to ask questions, to lean into difficult conversations with grace and truth-telling? I’ve been thinking lately about Bob Dylan’s song The Times, They Are A-Changin’. Written in the 1960s, this song was an anthem during a hard time in America. It pointed to injustice and called all people into the work of doing what is right, of not being silent, of using whatever gifts they had to create change and foster wholeness. This particular line speaks to me: Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again As a writer who often criticizes the church and the false and harmful narratives America has told for generations, I live in a space that is difficult to inhabit sometimes. But I know I am not alone, and I stand alongside others who are asking hard questions. I am standing in a lineage of people, in Dylan’s generation and before, who are pointing to change that is coming, whether we are ready for it or not. When we do not know where to go from here, we can look to our children. Another line in Dylan’s song says this: Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ I am a mother of two children, and so much of my own religious deconstruction has happened because they challenge me daily to ask hard questions about the God I grew up with and the God I now know and the God that I will learn about tomorrow. Because our children are the future, we ask hard questions now for them and because of them, and we allow them to ask their own questions. We listen to their wisdom and learn from their passionate way of loving the world. This is where so much of the American white church has fallen short. This is why there are studies, books and conferences about why the younger generations aren’t interested in worship and are abandoning the faith of their parents and grandparents. My generation, millennials, are considered lazy and anti-religion because we are naming our own trauma and working to dismantle institutions that have traumatized us. If we are trapped in a religion or spirituality that doesn’t allow us to ask questions, those questions either die (and our souls die along with them) or we begin to break out of those toxic boxes. Sometimes we leave religion altogether, and sometimes we stay, always pushing for things to change, for equity, for justice. We do it for the sake of our own wellness. We do it for the sake of future generations. And what waits on the other side, in the liminality, is more questions, more unknowing, more mystery. For many, it’s scary there. We try to force answers. We hate the process. But the young ones lead us. Their dreams carry us forward. Their persistence and passion create a path where we didn’t see one before. We are all, always, changing, and accepting that truth is the beginning of everything. Today, while I’m not getting haircuts to express who I am on a regular basis, I am using words to guide me, to lead me, to push those boundaries and show me what the next step might be. For now, that is enough. For now, I know that no matter what changes are coming, I am not alone in this work.~ Kaitlin Curtice Read online here About the Author Kaitlin Curtice is a Native American Christian author and speaker. As an enrolled member of the Potawatomi Citizen Band and someone who has grown up in the Christian faith, Kaitlin writes on the intersection of Indigenous spirituality, faith in everyday life, and the church. Her first book, Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places, was published with Paraclete Press in 2017. It is a series of fifty essays and prayers focusing on finding the sacred in everyday life. Kaitlin is currently working on her second book with Brazos Press, set to come out in 2020. It has been named by Publisher’s Weekly as a Religion and Spirituality book to watch for. Kaitlin has contributed to OnBeing, Religion News Service, USA Today and Sojourners, among others, and she was interviewed for the New Yorker on colonization within Christian missions. In 2018 she was featured in a documentary with CBS called “Race, Religion and Resistance,” speaking on the dangers of colonized Christianity. Kaitlin travels around the country speaking on faith and justice within the church as it relates to Indigenous peoples. She has been a featured speaker at Why Christian, Evolving Faith, Wild Goose Festival, The Festival of Faith and Writing, and more. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By John Would you comment from your Christian perspective on the Buddhist assertion that we have no separate self or separate existence because we cannot understand who we are without understanding who we aren't, and our separate existence is known only because of everything we are? Is the sense of self an illusion? A: By Brian McLaren Dear John,First, I should say that although I have studied some dimensions of Buddhism, I am not deeply enough conversant with Buddhist understandings of self to offer a cogent counterpoint of Christian and Buddhist views. I wrote a book on Christian identity in a multi-faith world (Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?), and as I explain there, I tend to agree with John Cobb, who says that different religions are "incommensurable." In other words, different religions are not saying different things about the same thing, or the same thing about the same thing. Rather, having developed in different contexts, they're different research projects, so to speak, saying different things about different things. They each have their own unique backstory and are addressing problems and challenges unique to their own contexts. That doesn't mean they have nothing to say to one another, but it does suggest that it is best to try to approach each religion as its own language or its own world, and to try to enter it and understand it from the inside, rather than thinking that one can understand one religion fully when operating within the mind and assumptions of another religion. Having said that, I do recall a story told about the Buddha that relates directly to your question. I found the story here (https://tricycle.org/magazine/there-no-self/) When Vacchagotta the wanderer asked him point-blank whether or not there is a self, the Buddha remained silent, which means that the question has no helpful answer. As he later explained to Ananda, to respond either yes or no to this question would be to side with opposite extremes of wrong view (Samyutta Nikaya 44.10). Some have argued that the Buddha didn’t answer with “no” because Vacchagotta wouldn’t have understood the answer. But there’s another passage where the Buddha advises all the monks to avoid getting involved in questions such as “What am I?” “Do I exist?” “Do I not exist?” because they lead to answers like “I have a self” and “I have no self,” both of which are a “thicket of views, a writhing of views, a contortion of views” that get in the way of awakening (Majjhima Nikaya 2). I take the Buddha's guidance to heart. Rather than speculate about whether a separate self exists, I would say that if a self exists, in a truly Christian understanding, it cannot be separate. That's because every person, along with every other creature and reality, lives within the love and attention and presence of God. In God and in God's love, each thing is connected to all other things. This, I think, is what Paul is pointing to in Romans 14:7 where he says no person lives to himself or herself alone, and no person dies to himself or herself alone. This, I think, comes close to the concept of inter-being that many Buddhist teachers explain. The self-ness of a sentient being doesn't require it to be separate. The selfness of one can inter-be with the selfness of another. This is what love, communion, and unity are about. Howard Thurman spoke of this when he said: Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music. Here, I think, the Christian teaching of the Trinity also can be helpful. I don't bring in the Trinity as an exclusive and coercive dogma, but as a healing teaching in the Christian tradition that suggests that in the One-ness of God, there is harmonious otherness. There is a Fatherness, we might say, that includes but doesn't absorb and eradicate Son-ness, and a Son-ness that includes but doesn't absorb or eradicate Spiritness, and so on. The threeness of the Trinity is diversity-in-unity or unity-in-diversity. In other words, in God, there is not oneness that opposes otherness, nor is there otherness that violates one-ness. Rather, in God there is infinite one-anotherness. Dynamic relational harmony is what God is, or as John puts it, "God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). In this sense, Paul can quote (Acts 17:28) an ancient poet, "In God we live and move and have our being." Our self can exist within God, without separation, and yet without a hostile takeover or absorption. In short then, we might say that in a Christian framework (I say "a" rather than "the," because there are many viewpoints in Christian communities), the separate self is an illusion, or better put, a delusion. We often promote this delusion because it gives us permission to be selfish, arrogant, bigoted, egotistical, even narcissistic. The Christian self is a relational self, a self that seeks to love one's neighbor as oneself, because God loves both myself and my neighbor's self without discrimination. When this insight goes beyond a notion that one sees and actually becomes the way one sees, that, I believe, is at the heart of the Christian mystical experience. There is no separation, no condemnation, no male or female, slave or free, Jew or Greek, no clean or unclean, but God becomes all in all. God is all because I see all in love, and God is in all, because the love and presence of God fill without obliterating. We might say the fullness of God doesn't replace, but rather fulfills the self. The self, whatever it is, is a bush that burns with the fire of God but is not consumed.Thank you for your question.~ Brian McLaren Read and share online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story. Other recent books include: The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). Brian has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors since the mid 1980’s, and has assisted in the development of several new churches. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings – across the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations. A frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, On Being, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time, New York Times, Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print and online media. Brian is married to Grace, and they have four adult children and five grandchildren. His personal interests include wildlife and ecology, fly fishing and kayaking, music and songwriting, and literature. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origin of the Bible, Part IX: The Judges - Transition Between the Law and the Prophets Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 7, 2008When one initiates a series of columns on the origins of the Bible and how it came to be written, there are inevitably times when there are transitions. They are not the most exciting part of the story, but they are essential if one is going to hear the story in its entirety. We come to such a transition part of the story in this column. Let me set the stage. Thus far we have examined the development of the Torah, the name by which the Jews refer to the first five books of the Bible. Though they are popularly known as "The Book of Moses", today scholars are universal in denying the Mosaic authorship of these books for three reasons that, upon examination, seem quite obvious. Firstly, Moses had been dead some 300 years before the first verse of the Torah was written, making it, shall we say, somewhat impossible for him to be its author. Secondly, the Torah contains an account (Deuteronomy 34) of Moses' death and burial, a rather remarkable thing for an author to be able to write. Thirdly, an analysis of the Torah reveals it to be the combination of at least four separate strands of material written over a period of some 500 years from 950BC (BCE) to 450BC, but reflecting events in Israel's earlier history. Recent scholarship has finally and completely dismissed one of the prevailing fantasies marking biblical literalism. In this week's column, we transition beyond the Torah and toward the prophets. Jewish tradition was built on the "twin towers" of the law and the prophets. Moses was the Jewish face of the law and his name became a synonym for the law. The prophets, however, were not identified with a person in the same way, even though Elijah has been designated, I think inaccurately, as the father of the prophetic movement. Elijah lived in the 9th Century BC, a time in which the Jewish people were divided into competing nations, the Northern Kingdom, with its capital in Samaria and Judah with its capital in Jerusalem. Elijah was identified with the Northern Kingdom. The Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy) covers Jewish history from the moment of creation to the time when Israel was poised on the edge of what they called "The Promised Land". The Exodus and the Conquest of Canaan are located in the 1250-1200BC period. The prophetic movement appears in the reign of King David, but its golden age does not arrive until the 8th Century BC. So there is a considerable gap of time between the Torah and the prophets. During this gap the solitary Jewish nation divided through a civil war into two separate nations. The Northern Kingdom lasted until 721BC, when it was destroyed by the Assyrians and the nation called Judah lasted until 586, when it was destroyed and its people exiled to the land of the Babylonians. These constitute the stories related in the biblical books from Judges to II Kings, which now come into our focus. These books probably do not give us much real history. They are rather filled with folk tales, hero stories and national propaganda, but they do provide information into the character of Judaism. We look first at the books of Joshua and Judges. It is still a much debated question as to whether Joshua was a historic person. Historians wonder whether the conquest of the land of Canaan was done in a single military conflict resulting in a Jewish victory, as the Bible suggests, or whether that conquest occurred over hundreds of years as marauding Semitic bands settled in this land and only later did their stories merge into a consistent Jewish history. What we do have in the biblical story is that Joshua was the successor to Moses and that he was of the tribe of Ephraim, which made him a member of one of the two Joseph tribes that would someday constitute the bulk of the Northern Kingdom. Many Moses stories appear to have been wrapped around Joshua. Certainly the splitting of the Jordan River so that the people of Israel could walk across it on dry land on their way to conquer Jericho is a Red Sea story being retold. The conquest of Canaan by Joshua is portrayed in the Bible as being total, but later history shows Jews and Canaanites living side by side and even intermarrying long after Joshua, which would seem to indicate that Joshua enjoyed something less than total victory. The Book of Joshua actually only relates three major military campaigns: The Battle of Jericho, which is told in great detail; the battle against the kings of the South and the battle against the kings of the North, both of which have scant details. If you read the word kings here as if they were more like mayors of various villages, you would have a truer picture of these battles. After these three campaigns the Bible suggests that the people settled down into loosely-knit confederations under the leadership of local judges. The period of the Judges in Jewish history produced folk tales, hero stories and myths that are quite distinct even in the Bible. People tend not to be familiar with these stories, except for the narrative about the strong man, Samson and of his dramatic undoing at the hands of his lover, Delilah. As delightful as the story of Samson is, it is only one of many that we find in the Book of Judges. There is also the account of Jael, who finds the number one enemy of her people, a Canaanite general named Sisera, delivered miraculously into her hands. After giving him a glass of milk laced with sufficient drugs to render him unconscious, she proceeds to nail his head to the floor with a mallet and a tent peg. It is a rather gory story! There is also the story of Jephthah and his rash vow to sacrifice anyone who comes out to greet him on his return from a military victory. The innocent one who gets trapped in this vow turns out to be his own daughter. Then there was the story of Ehud, the left-handed judge, who managed to drive his sword so deeply into the stomach of Eglon, the hugely fat king of Moab, that his hand actually disappeared in the king's flesh. Perhaps the most repellent story in the Bible is the narrative in the Book of Judges about a man who travels with his concubine to Jerusalem where, to save himself from abuse, he offers his concubine to the men of the city for gang rape. When they have done their worst to her, they threw her unconscious body on the porch of the home where this man was staying. He then proceeds to carve this woman into twelve pieces, sending part of her to each of the twelve tribes of Israel to call them to arms (Judges 19). The stories found in the Book of Judges are not necessarily the passages one reads in church and then says, "This is the word of the Lord!" This period in Jewish history when local judges were the real rulers might best be understood as analogous to that period of American history when the people of this nation lived under the articles of confederation as a loose union of states with little or no national power. Having just endured the life of submissive colonies ruled by a foreign power, these early Americans were not eager to cede local authority to anyone. The Israelites also had searing memories of their oppression at the hands of the Egyptians and so, having found freedom, they were also not eager to be submissive to a distant authority again. That is a natural reaction, but it is hardly ever a permanent solution. The American Colonies would never have maintained their independent life had they not become a unified nation. The tribes of Israel would never have maintained their independent life had they not become a nation. The new union in both nations was, we recall, quite fragile and was tested by secession. It was 80 years after the kingship of David was established that the ten Northern tribes seceded from the nation ruled by the tribe of Judah. It was 73 years after the United States established the central government, under the presidency of George Washington that secession from this union occurred that ultimately involved eleven states. The process of nation building seems to go through certain inevitable stages. The period of the Judges came to an end under the leadership of the final judge, whose name was Samuel. He is clearly the pivotal figure in this period of Israel's history between being a people in the wilderness and having an established nation. As seems to be the case with every pivotal figure in Jewish history, Samuel becomes a model for Jewish messianic thinking. Certainly the Jesus story shows the influence of Samuel. Samuel had something of a miraculous birth. His mother, Hannah, had been unable to have children until, as the story says, God intervened to answer her prayers. When Samuel was born Hannah was said to have sung a song that is quite similar to the Song of Mary that we call the Magnificat. When Luke tells the story of Jesus going up to the Temple at the age of twelve, there are many similarities with Hannah taking Samuel to the shrine where Eli the priest lived. Samuel is also the pivotal figure in the establishment of the monarchy. At first he was said to have resisted the pressure to have a king, warning the people that kings can be tyrants and yet he anoints Saul to be the first king of the unified Jewish nation. When Saul proved to be a poor choice, Samuel sought out and anointed a shepherd boy named David, the son of Jesse, to be the second king and it was David who established the lasting monarchy. It was also during the reign of King David that a lone man, armed with nothing except a sense of his belief in the immutable moral law of God, challenged King David publicly for what he believed was the king's immoral behavior. By this act this man established the prophetic principle, which was rare indeed among the ancient nations, that even the king must live under and be judged by the law of God. Ultimately this principle would make Israel a very different nation from all of the rest. To this man's story and its role in the rise of the prophetic movement we will turn when this series continues.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Advent and Holiday E-Courses from Spirituality & Practice A collection of holiday opportunities for spiritual retreat. Looking for a spiritual retreat to tide you over in quiet contemplation during the holy days leading up to Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Day, and Epiphany? 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