February 2019 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

2/28/19, Progressing Spirituality: Greta Vosper: Lost in Translation; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv6719484996 #yiv6719484996templateBody .yiv6719484996mcnTextContent, #yiv6719484996 #yiv6719484996templateBody .yiv6719484996mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv6719484996 #yiv6719484996templateFooter .yiv6719484996mcnTextContent, #yiv6719484996 #yiv6719484996templateFooter .yiv6719484996mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } For many progressive Christians, our ability to remain in the communities we love is dependent upon our willingness to translate what we hear... | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lost in Translation | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Gretta Vosper February 28, 2019 For many progressive Christians, our ability to remain in the communities we love is dependent upon our willingness to translate what we hear, sing, and say on Sunday morning. Much of the “content” of a weekly service continues to use the language of traditional Christianity and privilege the very rituals and artifacts which progressives no longer accept literally. While the late Marcus Borg challenged clergy and congregants to learn the stories behind Christian language and traditions as a way of becoming comfortable with their continued use, there is no evidence that doing so has helped stave off the losses Christianity has experienced over the past decades. Rather, it seems that those who try to manage the weekly calisthenics of interpretation often find it too much of an unwelcome challenge to sit, week after week after week, in the communities that have so richly supported their well-being. That’s a problem. A big problem. Who’s to blame? As someone currently being identified as responsible for further decline in The United Church of Canada (UCC), I have found that following the numbers has been oddly soothing. Those numbers, I am relieved to say, do not lay the failure of the UCC on my shoulders. That’s partly because my denomination began losing massive numbers of participants year over year when I was five years old; blaming a child for that is just cruel. The other de-shouldering of my responsibility is shown in any graph of the UCC’s statistics: decline has continued in a fairly straight line since the day I entered Sunday School (and no, I don’t think we can pin that coincidence on me, either). That day did mark, however, the highest membership the UCC would ever see. By the time I was ordained, it had already lost a full quarter of its membership. I haven’t checked the statistics of the more liberal, mainline churches in America, but I expect the trends would be roughly similar though much later in appearance. In their book Leaving Christianity[i], Stuart Macdonald and Brian Clarke, theological professors at the Presbyterian and United Church seminaries in Toronto, explore Christianity’s decline in Canada over the past seventy years. They use census data, statistics kept by denominations, and numbers they’ve teased out from under otherwise monolithic categories like “Protestant”, or “Christian”. And – surprise, surprise – they find that every single iteration of Protestant Christianity in Canada is and has been on the decline since the 1960s. (Yes, even the evangelicals are losing ground.) In the post-war boom, wealth accumulated rapidly here in Canada as it did in most Western democracies, including the United States. And, like other Western democracies, Canada shoved that wealth into social benefits like public education, health care, and a thickly woven social safety net. As a result, secularization began to grow as populations drifted away from religion. A statistical curve, starting with the small segment that was willing to self-identify as secular in the 1960s, has swept inexorably upward since to the numbers that now, in many cases, describe the fastest growing “religious” demographic. Every democracy that has supported social welfare has seen a corresponding decline in theism, the belief that there is a supernatural, interventionist divine being. The Exceptional Americans The US never fully transferred responsibility for social welfare away from religion and into the hands of public institutions, though. As a result, it remains caught in a feedback loop created by socioeconomic risk and religiosity. The fewer social protections a society has, the greater its dependence upon belief in a divine protector. The greater a society’s dependence upon a divine protector – the theistic, interventionist god like the one Christians call God – the more vulnerable its socioeconomic condition remains. It is circular. With limited social supports, the American middle class remains as vulnerable as the poor, and the wealthy have every good reason to keep them that way. They manage this by forcing wedge issues considered important to religion (like sexuality or abortion rights) into the political spotlight, thereby reinforcing theistic solidarity. There’s nothing like a good wedge issue to keep the attention of the masses away from their own social welfare. And so, the loop continues to hold. In the US, even as economic growth continued into the 1980s, the country doubled down on “The American Dream,” as individualistic an economic program as humans have ever dreamt up. Rather than investing its wealth in public institutions that would create and sustain social welfare, Americans invested in a corporatism that rewarded personal achievement and refused support to those unable to compete well enough to “earn” financial security. The result has been a continuing investment in the narrative of traditional theism because few have felt secure enough to walk away from or question the promises of its belief system. Neither scientific knowledge nor economic security exists in the US to a degree that would increase secularity. Still, there has been a rapid rise of those who claim no religious affiliation, the Nones. The growth of this category suggests there is another factor in the secularization of the States. And there is. Beginning in the 1960s (I was a kid, remember; not to blame!), the rise of the “me” generation spurred corporate investment to feed the growing monster. Corporate messaging welded “worth” to material possessions, and invited consumers to shift their sense of security from religion to material self-worth. If you dress, party, and vacation like the stars, and drive the most impressive car you can afford, it doesn’t matter what your real financial situation is; you can look like you’re living The American Dream, the ultimate test of your personal self-worth. The US should have remained highly religious because of its lack of a social safety net but adding the pressure of corporate messaging created a new crack in religion’s armor, and through it, the new demographic, the Nones, squeezed its way into the mainstream.[ii] It appears that the trend is unlikely to slow down. It is true that Canadians have been leaving Christianity longer than have our American counterparts. We are one of those Western countries increasingly secularized since the 1960s, where the United States took longer to find that trajectory. Still, that the trajectory exists, is so strong in most Western democracies, and is escalating in America, gives Christian denominations and their congregations cause for concern. Even highly polarizing wedge issues may not be enough to force large segments of the population back into the pews. The rapid increase in economic disparity, however, may continue to feed the religiosity of those who still believe but do not attend.[iii] Mysteries overcome In 1964, just as I started Sunday School, my denomination began providing laity with the fruits of contemporary Christian scholarship. Preachers started telling their congregations what the traditional words and rituals of Christianity really meant: God, salvation, communion, the stories of Jesus, …, all became transparent through closer examination, their mysteries overcome with the bald truth of contemporary scholarship. Whole families were introduced to a Jesus that may or may not have been born in a stable or bodily resurrected, a Bible that proved to be contradictory and required much more critical exploration than anyone had previously thought permissible, and preaching that demanded a systematic re-evaluation of traditional theological concepts. In the Church of England, and at the same time, Bishop John T. Robinson published Honest to God, a book that continues to inform and support progressive clergy in their beliefs and their work to this day. Also at the same time, the Anglican Church in Canada contracted with Pierre Berton to write its annual Lenten study for 1965. The Comfortable Pew provided an opportunity for Anglicans to explore the more demanding aspects of Christianity – justice and compassion – over the theological rigidity to which such studies had usually appealed. Before Berton had penned a single word, the book had sold over fifty thousand copies going on to become a bestseller in both Canada and the United States. Coupled with the growing social security that supported post-war generations, Christian literacy – by which I mean a critical understanding of Christianity similar to that presented by Bishop Spong and other biblically literate scholars – undermined the need for a protective divine being. The coincidence of that education and the losses that began to appear in the mid-1960s and continue to this day, is too great to ignore. Participation in Sunday morning activities that focus on worshipping a divine being make little sense to those who have braved the exploration of Christianity and its roots. Eroded belief, eroded adoration Almost thirty years ago, Bishop Spong wrote, “What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore.” Is it not likely that denominations and congregations began losing numbers at precisely the time their clergy began educating their communities about the shallow root system that had supported their beliefs? Honest clergy, in their impulse to expose the truth behind the curtain, began dismantling traditional belief, making it easier for minds to reject Christianity or hearts to embrace what they formerly adored without question. Is it not reasonable to think that congregants, educated to see the Bible as a human construction, God as something other than the traditionally-built superbeing wrapped in clouds in the Sistine Chapel, and Jesus as a human who had a way with words and the power to inspire, found the dissonance simply too great to maintain? Over the past many decades, progressive clergy have been teaching and preaching the Christianity of critical scholarship that has been explored in theological seminaries for over half a century. They neglected, however, to wrestle with the implications of that truth for the people in their pews. Removing traditional “fear of God” theology from our sermons, we granted congregants permission to leave, and many did. But by refusing to shift our language and liturgy away from the worship of a deity we could no longer defend to the core challenges of a vibrant Christianity – justice and compassion – we gave them a reason to leave, even if it took them decades to act on it. There are good reasons not to resurrect participation in Christianity, most of which go to the troubling reinforcement of the prejudices of the Christian right through the continued use of the language of belief by the Christian left. But there are far more and better reasons to create or resurrect communities that act like church. We are not e.v.e.r. going to return to the kind of participation we enjoyed half a century ago; we shouldn’t even want to. But wherever we let our eyes linger, we see the need for work to be done that might make life more bearable for those in our own families of faith, our communities, our nations, and our world. We who do church know how that work can be done. With that knowledge, however, also comes the responsibility to do it. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. *************************** [i] Brian Clarke and Stuart Macdonald, Leaving Christianity: Changing Allegiances in Canada since 1945, (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017) [ii] For more information on these and other trends in secularity, look for Atheism and Secularity, Vol. 1, Issues, Concepts, and Definitions, Edited by Phil Zuckerman, (Praeger, Santa Barbara, 2010). [iii] Although high numbers of Americans say they believe in God, the number who say they attend church regularly remains at about 40%. That number, however, is highly suspect; researchers have shown survey participants to regularly over report. They estimate the actual number, since the late 1990s, is probably closer to 20%, leaving about 60% of those who say they believe in God without congregational support. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By C.R. In researching different theologies of the Christian Faith, I came across your website. I read through your 8-points, but see nothing about faith in Jesus as the Christ, or His divinity. Does your organization have a ‘Christology’ or a Christological approach to the life of Christ. I’m just looking for some clarification. A: By Kevin Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Thanks for your question C. R., My sense is that faith is a matter of experience, in contrast with belief, which is a matter of the intellect. In the “age of belief” that has dominated Christianity since about the 4th century CE, these two have often been conflated. In effect, the result has been that an authentic sense of existential faith has faded into the background as we have become lost in the machinations and mazes of our credal minds. Progressive Christianity and Spirituality, as I understand them, do not offer time- and culture-bound creeds demanding intellectual assent. This is not a new form of orthodoxy. Rather, it turns, or re-turns, the attention of our soul to personal, lived, direct experience that is in continual conversation with the wider community and with history; I say this because personal does not in any way mean isolated and/or individualistic. We also turn our attention to the heart and the body, recognizing the wisdom within these centers of the human soul (integral to Semitic spirituality), which have been traditionally marginalized in Christian theology and spirituality. The first of the eight points articulated by Progressive Christianity is this: We... “Believe that following the path and teachings of Jesus can lead to an awareness and experience of the Sacred and the Oneness and Unity of all life.” Our focus is not a credal belief in Jesus. He is not an object. Rather, Jesus is a person, a Rabbi of the 1st Century, whose spiritual practice led to his realization that his true nature, his essence, is Belovedness, through and through. He matures into a diaphanous being of compassion – which is grace. The invitation that the life and teachings of Jesus presents to us is to realize that same truth about our own nature, our own essence. Jesus points us to us. To say that Jesus comes to realize that who he is is Love, is to say that he realizes his Christic nature. “Christ” simply means anointed, or graced, as the Presence of Beingness itself. His life invites us to discover the same truth about ourselves and all creation – Love is Boundless, because it is the very nature of Being. And so, the life of Jesus is an abiding invitation to discover that the sacred unity of Being is radically inclusive. ~ Kevin Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Read and share online here 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 | | | | | | | | Rev. Michael Dowd’s guest sermon at Unitarian Universalist Metro Atlanta North on February 10, 2019. Three main points (with time codes): 01:13 – Point 1: The shape of time and the nature of joy and fulfillment 14:52 – Point 2: The color of God and the purpose of religion and science 21:29 – Point 3: The way of life and the necessity of humility and gratitude ___ 02:27 – List of Dowd’s 6-part creed 12:10 – List of 8 basic human needs (as identified by Dave Pollard, in his “Cultural Acedia” writings) The Rev. Michael Dowd is a bestselling evolutionary storyteller, eco-theologian, and pro-future evangelist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on national television. His book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics and atheists, and by dozens of religious leaders - read his full bio here. | | | | | | | | 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 Rise of Fundamentalism, Part II Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March 14, 2007 One of the things we need to embrace in order to understand the conflicts being waged in most of the main line churches today is that throughout most of human history, the average man or woman could neither read nor write. That is why the Church used art forms, like the Stations of the Cross, or music, like the various spirituals developed in the black church telling a story in song, to inform the people about the nature of the Christian faith. This fact also meant that when a challenge to perceived truth occurred, very few people ever heard about it or were disturbed by it. Therefore in the 16th century when a revolutionary view of the universe was developed by Copernicus, suggesting that the planet earth was not the center of creation, it was not a great problem for the Church since few people ever heard about it. A century later, however, when Galileo, who was a far more public figure, embraced the thought of Copernicus and began to discuss and write about his thinking publicly, he paid for his notoriety in a trial, which forced him to end his life as a heretic under house arrest. Why was this cosmological insight so upsetting? The answer to that was quite simple. If heaven is not just above the sky, then much of the content of the Bible, from the Tower of Babel to the story of Jesus’ ascension becomes nonsensical. With the rise of an educated class in the great universities of Europe the Church’s ability to control truth and to define the limits of the debate began to fade. In the 17th century Isaac Newton brought natural law into western consciousness and consequently contributed to the shrinking of the realms in which both miracle and magic were believed to occur. Charles Darwin, once he made his trip to the Galapagos Islands in the 19th century, proceeded to challenge the Church’s understanding of human origins and correspondingly the accuracy of the creation story from the Book of Genesis. If human beings were not fallen from a pristine position of having been fashioned in God’s image, then the divine rescue that Jesus was said to have effected with his redemptive act of suffering and dying on the cross was a solution to an incorrect diagnosis. In the early years of the 20th century when Sigmund Freud began to analyze the infantile elements in Christianity, the view of God as a heavenly parent figure was destabilized and much that was once called holy now appeared to be only neurotic. As a result organized religion in the western world went into a tailspin. Later in the middle years of that same 20th century, Albert Einstein confronted the world with the idea that both time and space were relative categories, and that since all people live inside time and space, every human articulation of truth was itself relative and not absolute. This meant that Christianity’s absolutist claims for infallible popes and inerrant Bibles could no longer be seriously entertained. As each of these now largely undisputed insights began to enter, first the universities and, in time, the lowest levels of the public schools, their unavoidable truth was seen to challenge the presuppositions of the Christian faith and to set up a mighty struggle between religion and contemporary knowledge. We are still aware of some of the flash points of that struggle in the United States. There was the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 when a young biology teacher named John Scopes was put on trial for violating a state statute forbidding the teaching of “godless evolution” to Tennessee children, since it was deemed to be contrary to “The Word of God.” The trial attracted national attention since it brought into that small town courtroom two very well known public figures: Williams Jennings Bryan, a three-time Democratic Party nominee for President (1896, 1900 and 1908) to defend the literal Bible and renowned trial lawyer and atheist, Clarence Darrow, to defend the young school teacher. Such semi-religious propositions as “creation science” and “intelligent design” are today the lingering residue of that battle. The current searing conflicts inside Christianity over the place of the Bible in determining what is to be the role and status of women and the place of homosexuals in both church and society are nothing more than one final gasp of this age old conflict. Not to see this is simply to be blind to history. Click here to read full article. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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2/21/19, Progressing Spirit, Forrester: Part III: Eucharistic Prayers Celebrating the Embodiment of Presence; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

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!important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 h4{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 .yiv0179146225mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent, #yiv0179146225 .yiv0179146225mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templatePreheader{ display:block !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templatePreheader .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent, #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templatePreheader .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templateHeader .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent, #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templateHeader .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templateBody .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent, #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templateBody .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templateFooter .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent, #yiv0179146225 #yiv0179146225templateFooter .yiv0179146225mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } Let me begin by restating my belief that a corporate liturgical text (be it a eucharistic prayer, a collect, or a hymn) needs to be a Wisdom text. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Part III: Eucharistic Prayers Celebrating the Embodiment of Presence | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Let me begin by restating my belief that a corporate liturgical text (be it a eucharistic prayer, a collect, or a hymn) needs to be a Wisdom text. This means it is a prayer with the capacity to foster the soul’s growth, helping her to realize that she is an utterly unique expression of Being that is present as Boundless Love. In my previous two columns we have explored liturgy as the personal spiritual practice of individuals as well as a communal practice (focusing on a reformed vision of the church liturgical year). In this concluding column on liturgy, I invite us to look at excerpts from eucharistic prayers of presence that I have written. The goal is to create poetic prayers that embody and express with clarity and simplicity and beauty this fundamental truth: we are to realize ourselves as embodiments of Being. In the process, we are infusing new meanings into old and sometimes stale words, as well as discovering new words with deep resonance. Birthing New Life Presider:….Gratitude, praise, hearts lifted high, voices full and joyful – …………… these are yours. When we think ourselves worth nothing, …………… in truth we are your beautiful body. When we become lost …………… in the maze of our beliefs, in truth we are your heart. When …………… we lose our way or turn away, in truth your presence is constant. …………… And look, Christ, your Beloved, prepares a table for all, …………… offering not just bread, not just wine, but Your very Being so that …………… we may be filled, forgiven, healed blessed and made new again. …………… In truth, You are worth all our pain and all our praise. Presider:….In the days of Simeon and Anna, You lean toward the earth. …………… Your eternal Spirit becomes known to us through your Beloved. …………… Born into the family of Mary and Joseph, …………… Jesus is cradled beside the beasts and warmed by their breath – …………… Here is your child, like all your children, woven into life by the Spirit …………… and in need of compassion. …………… Worldly rulers are troubled by your dawning reign embodied …………… in this child, …………… in whom the fullness of your Spirit is pleased to dwell. These two selections are taken from different eucharistic prayers that are part of the seasons traditionally celebrated as Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. The first prayer identifies how we get lost in our shame and beliefs, inviting the participants to rediscover their inherent beauty and the truth that the presence of Being is constant and is the true gift of the table. In the second prayer I have cast the opening line in the present tense, because every day is the “days of Simeon and Anna.” Every day is the day of Being leaning toward earth. The “leaning” is the human experience of being loved; it is like a lover inclining herself to meet our lips. I am also reweaving biblical imagery within a new symbolic universe; here Jesus is like every other amazing and beautiful child, “woven into life by the Spirit and in need of compassion.” Awake, O Sleeper Presider:…..For Love transforms our Souls ………….… into students of Divinity, ………….… where we sit in the valley of Humility ………….… and on the plain of Truth, ………….… and rest on the mountain of Love. Assembly: .And because all things are consonant with God, ……………. we find God in all things. ……………. We have become Joy itself, …………… .swimming in the sea of Joy. Presider:… .As joyous fire and flame of God, ……………..our hearts sing forth Love’s praise. This prayer, which is part of the conventional Ash Wednesday liturgy, is inspired by the Beguine mystic, Marguerite Porete, who was burned alive by the Inquisition. Her poetry is somewhat unique and captivating. Her vision is timeless: “because all things are consonant with God, we find God in all things.” The implication is that “we have become Joy itself”, that delicate and indispensable quality of a heart at rest in the truth of Being. And so, we don’t find ourselves lost in storm of shame on this day of recollection, but “swimming in the sea of Joy.” We are becoming “joyous fire and flame of God.” Light Renews our Life Presider:…..Your Spirit permeates all creation ……………...and if the rocks could find voice even they would ……………...cry out in endless gratitude; hearts, minds, and bodies, ……………...all reflect your glory. ……………...Yet, as we grow, your Presence, nearer than our own breath, ……………...fades and fades; ……………...we grow blind and long for your face ……………...to press against ours once more; ……………...the song of our hearts searches for the Beloved. ……………...You are Life, sustaining and beckoning us home. Assembly:...We sing your praise to the highest heavens. Presider:…...We fall. We rise. We betray. We reconcile. ……………...All we do is done in You. ……………...You are Life, sustaining and beckoning us home. Assembly:.. We sing your praise to the highest heavens. Here I speak of Being as Spirit permeating all that is, for all that is exists only insofar as Spirit is the animating force. Yet it is also true that our awareness of our true nature fades in our maturation as individuals. We become identified with our ego and its various idealizations, which commences our search as adults for the truth of our being, our inner journey home. Spirit’s Presence is our Life never ceasing to sustain us and beckon us home here and now. Whatever we do is done in the Spirit and so we are moved to praise the beauty of Being’s constancy. Love Through and Through Presider:…..Holy and Gracious One, ……………..we are yours, body and soul – ……………..even we in our blind complacency with evil and our fear of death. ……………..You are Mercy itself, ……………..embodied in the tenacious and tender life of Jesus become ……………..Christ – ……………..sacrament of your eternal and undying Love. ……………..Jesus is who we are each called to be: Love, through ……………..and through. In this prayer for what is usually the Season after Pentecost, I draw upon the intimate language of marriage: “we are yours, body and soul.” This abiding truth perdures even when find ourselves complacent and complicit with evil, as well as in our fear of death that so often leads us to seek refuge in defense. I speak of Being as “Mercy itself.” This is no longer mercy experienced as noble deference to a quisling. No, this is the mercy lovers’ hearts offer one another embodying the sweetness of loving-kindness in the midst of betrayals small and large. Mercy here is a dimension of our true nature: “Love, through and through.” Just as Jesus actualizes his realization of being a creature of love, we, too, are invited to realize the same truth of who we actually are in this life: indeed, to become “Love, through and through” is why we exist as human beings. I have also chosen to draw upon that traditional word, “sacrament,” utilizing it as a synonym for embodied Presence, which it is. (In this sense, all creation is sacrament, for all that is exists as an expression of Being.) I offer these few excerpts from eucharistic prayers of Presence as examples to encourage others to be courageously creative. (To see the full prayers, visit kevingthewforrester.blog.) We are at the dawn of a new age of the continually unfolding Christ movement. We need new prayers reflective of mature personal and communal spiritual practice. We need prayers offered by those whose own being is marinated fully in the Mystery of Being; prayers that embody eternal Wisdom for today; prayers animated by the existential flame of truth. These are joyful waters to play in. ~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Read online here Read Part 1 here Read Part 2 here 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 | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Peter s it possible that the work of God in our time might be to get rid of the Church? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Peter, If that is the work of God then it seems to be working since the Church is in a statistical free fall all over the Christian world. People say that this is not true in the Third World but I have never been impressed with that data. The Christianity I meet in the Third World, with notable exceptions in people like Desmond Tutu, Khotsu Mkullu and Njongonkulu Ndungane, is an anti-intellectual fundamentalism that is propped up primarily by fear and superstition. It will not survive since the thought forms of the advanced world will someday inevitably engage those irrational claims. I do think the Church, as I have known it, is dying. But I also see a new Church being born. I prefer to call that new entity, not the Church but the "Ekklesia," which is a transliterated Greek word that means "Those who are called out." I see the membership of the Church of tomorrow to be those who have been called out of tribal identity, out of prejudice, out of gender definitions of superiority and inferiority and even out of religion. That Ekklesia will also be constituted by people who have been called into a new humanity, beyond the primitive boundaries that now bind the Church inside its prevailing cultural prejudices. I expect this new Church to grow as the old Church dies. I have no further desire to seek to stop the death of yesterday's Church. It fulfilled its purpose quite well, but now its day has passed. A new day is dawning, ushering in a new Christian future. I welcome it. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong Published October 15, 2003 Read and share online here | | | | | | | | 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 Rise of Fundamentalism: Fundamentalism's Roots - Part I Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March 7, 2007 Is the escalating conflict, which is public in mainline Protestant Christianity and private in Roman Catholic Christianity, really about homosexuality? I do not think so. Homosexuality is only the content of the present dispute, even being called by some right wing ideologues “the final straw” that drove them into a stance of militancy. If, how-ever, one looks at religious history, even superficially, one will discover that the roots of this present conflict are hundreds of years old; perhaps they have always have been present in Christian circles. In order to help us understand that history I inaugurate today a series of articles designed to probe the roots of our present day ecclesiastical disputes. I begin at the tap root of fundamentalism.. Behind the rhetoric and even the hyperbole that engages so many, there is an almost pathetic quest for security among religious people. This quest always seems to be attached to the conviction that human beings actually possess an ultimate and unfailing source of truth. Even here, however, there is conflict. For Roman Catholic fundamentalists that source is the infallible papacy, while for Protestant fundamentalists it is the inerrant Bible. Above all else these claims give a sense of absoluteness to which their adherents might cling while they seek to resist what they experience as an enveloping darkness gathering around them. There is a martyr’s mentality about this attitude. Literal minds pretend that the clock can be stopped and that change is not a fact of life. They portray themselves as standing firmly on God’s side while everyone else compromises with modernity, betraying clearly revealed truth and thus leading the whole religious institution down the road to perdition. The so-called “decisive issue” changes in each generation, but the emotions in the “true believers” remain the same. In my lifetime, this claim to be able to quote an inerrant Bible has been employed against the church’s move to be racially inclusive, to treat women with full equality and to open the church’s doors to its gay and lesbian members. In each intense debate the “historic faith of the Church” or the “clear teaching of the Bible” has been cited to justify continuing the practices of racism, sexism and homophobia on the part of church people. We are witnessing today what is simply another phase of this age old mentality. Most ecclesiastical disputes are thus really about security and fear. Each reveals how easily a challenge to perceived truth can be turned into hysterical anger. Before analyzing the content of the divisive issues of our day, I must first examine the claim upon which the battle is fought, namely that ultimate truth can ever be captured in a propositional form, either in the infallible utterances of an ecclesiastical leader or in the inerrant words of a sacred text. Neither claim can finally hold water. I note first that no reputable church historian in the world today buys the traditional argument undergirding ecclesiastical claims that church leaders can speak with the authority of God. This argument states that Jesus chose the apostles to be the leaders of the Church and that they in turn chose their successors and that in this divine hierarchy truth was preserved in some pure and catholic form. That idea was imposed on history to serve the propaganda needs of ecclesiastical authorities who claim to represent “Christian Orthodoxy.” Orthodoxy, however, does not mean that this point of view is true; it only means that this point of view won! The facts are that what we now call “orthodox Christianity” evolved out of many early competing factions and they were settled not by appeals to truth, but by those who had the political power to enable them to be the winners and thus to write the history of the movement. People seem to forget that once the Catholic Church had two “infallible” popes, one in Avignon and one in Rome, each claiming to speak with the unerring voice of God and each condemning the other. There is also documentable evidence that when new, indisputable truth emerged in history, challenging the old ecclesiastical formularies, even “infallible” church leaders found a remarkable ability to adapt the old certainties to the new realities. For example, originally the claim was made that Jesus alone of all human beings had escaped the infection of original sin, since the Holy Spirit was his father and his virgin mother had no part in his conception other than to be the receptacle to make human his divine life.. Then in the early years of the 18th century, science discovered that women had egg cell from which every life ever born received half of its genetic code. Women were thus equal, co-creators of every life. Since Mary was clearly a child of Adam like everyone else, she too would have been tainted by and would inevitably pass on Adam’s “original sin” to her son regardless of the virgin birth claim. So the idea of Jesus being without taint of sin, so essential to the view of salvation in that era, was threatened with being made inoperative. “Not a problem,” said the Vatican leaders and, before too many years had passed, a new dogma was proclaimed for the faithful to believe. Mary had been “immaculately conceived.” Therefore, she was cleansed from Adam’s sin even before she was born. It was a wonderful, but deeply revealing, accommodation forcing upon us the compelling realization that truth is never ultimate and that infallibility for any claim on the part of anyone to possess such truth in propositional form, is at best delusional and at worst, ridiculous. Yet Catholic fundamentalism still makes this claim. Few people, however, actually believe it. The countering Protestant claim for the inerrancy of the Bible developed because the Reformation could hardly accept the papal infallibility against which they were so busy rebelling, so they elevated the scriptures to the status of the “revealed word of God.” One wonders first which version of the Bible was the inerrant one since they differ widely. Second, people are generally unaware that the original texts of the gospels had no punctuation, no paragraphs, no capital letters and no space between words. All of those things were imposed on the gospels by interpreters hundreds of years after they were written. Were these grammarians also inerrant? It next needs to be stated that we have no complete manuscript of any single gospel that dates any earlier than the 6th century of the Christian era. We have only handwritten copies of handwritten copies of handwritten copies. Were all of the copiers inerrant? Finally we recall that Jesus spoke in Aramaic but the gospels were written in Greek. Thus before the first word attributed to Jesus was recorded, it had to be translated. Were the translators also inerrant? How many layers of inerrancy claims can rationality absorb before collapsing? We can even go far beyond this point. For example, we now know that both Matthew and Luke had Mark in front of them when they composed the gospels that bear their names. Yet neither Matthew nor Luke copied Mark verbatim. Both omitted things from Mark with which they disagreed, added things that were not in the Marcan original and actually corrected Mark from time to time. Does one edit, correct, omit from or add to the “inerrant word of God?” Of course not, but you might well do those things to the words of Mark. Finally, what happens to the inerrancy claims when you confront places where the Bible contradicts itself? In Mark and Matthew there are two versions of Jesus feeding the multitude with a limited number of loaves and fishes, while Luke says there is only one. Mark says the appearance of the risen Lord will occur in Galilee, but he never describes any such appearance. Matthew says the resurrected Jesus did appear in Galilee on top of a mountain. Luke says no Galilean appearance ever took place and that all appearances occurred in the environs of Jerusalem. Mark says the women in the garden on that first Easter did not see the Risen Lord. Matthew says they did. Luke says they did not. How can the inerrant “Word of God” be contradictory? Still infallibility claims for church leaders and inerrancy claims for the sacred texts are the accepted presuppositions of fundamentalism in Christian history, yet neither claim is capable of being sustained rationally, but in every dispute in church history one or the other of these two hysterically absurd claims becomes the weapon of choice of the fundamentalists. They shout these claims with authority, defend them with anger and invest them with the virtue of antiquity. All of this, however, is little more than the pitiful claim of frightened people whose security has been disturbed by emerging truth. That is what lies behind today’s fundamentalism, but to my surprise people still pay attention to these strange claims. They even give credibility to the propaganda of the fundamentalists that suggests that homosexuality is really the issue by listening as their condemnation of homosexuality is said to be based on the “clear teaching of the word of God.” It is not! It is rooted in the fear and prejudice of the frightened and ill informed few who feel like the world is changing and they cannot adjust. Yet because they clothe their fear in religious language people continue to give it a credibility it does not deserve, since these claims come very close to being little more than the delusions of the mentally ill. That is the real nature of the problem that Christian churches now seek to solve by debate, compromise or anger. That will continue until either the new consciousness is accepted or those who cannot adapt to the new world depart this life. Then their children will adapt until a new issue draws a new line in the sand and we repeat this strange religious dance once more. In the following weeks in this column, I will examine specifically the content of Christian fundamentalism and its many manifestations, so that the battles of our day might be placed into the context of history and fantasy separated from reality. I doubt if fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell and Albert Mohler, or evangelicals like Pat Robertson will be “convicted of their sins” by this series but in the last analysis that does not matter. Truth is never deterred by the human inability to face it. So stay tuned. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | The MultiFaith Storytelling Institute: 4 Day Intensive in Sacred Storytelling March 3 - 7, 2019 in Tampa, FL Our work covers how to identify, craft, remember, and vibrantly tell different kinds of stories. Together we create a welcoming and sacred space where participants learn and share, and leave with both concrete skills and the deep experience of a spiritual retreat. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Winds & Waves February Reminder
by ICA International 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

Any problem reading this message please click or paste this URL in your browser's address bar http://windswaves.icai-archives.org/new-ww/ en français en español February 2019 This is a reminder for entries to our new Winds and Waves Magazine We are delighted to invite you to share your stories here via this link medium.com/winds-and-waves We also welcome videos that show the work you are doing. And we would be delighted if you would share stories from Winds and Waves on your own social media networks. For information about how to work with Winds and Waves on Medium: Please see attachment here Please be sure to send this invitation on to your ICA members and friends, colleagues, partners, family, so they too can participate. You can get further information by contacting us at icawindandwaves(a)gmail.com Best wishes, Robyn, Dharma, Roma, Rosemary, Isabel, Peter, for W&W team Published by The Institute of Cultural Affairs International, 401 Richmond Street, West, Toronto, ON. M5V 3A8, Canada All rights reserved. For more information or to unsubscribe, email: inform(a)ica-international.org

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2019 Spring Sojourn Invitation
by Jean Long (via Google Docs) 11 Feb '19

11 Feb '19

I've shared an item with you: 2019 Spring Sojourn Invitation https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZOOgfgs4UMEtRk_Fy8-bNiJLS_teRQT0VnRYY-n… It's not an attachment -- it's stored online. To open this item, just click the link above. Greetings global colleagues: Attached please find an invitation to the Global Archives Spring 2019 Sojourn. These Sojourn weeks in the Spring and Fall of each year are becoming more like the Global Research Assemblies with the amount of material involved and the clarified sense of direction developed as the participants' understanding of the new Archives website is expanded. Please consider joining us in April. Jean Long Global Archives Anchor Desk

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Global Buzz February
by ICA International 06 Feb '19

06 Feb '19

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Global Buzz Report: February 2019 Click above or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2019-02-01.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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Re: [Dialogue] Bob & Muriel Griffin's new book
by John C 02 Feb '19

02 Feb '19

“Journey Reflection” blog post coming up again soon to further dialogue with Muriel and Bob Griffin's new book “Journey On” of 264 pages and umpteen pics. What an awesome journey book! Do reach in and grab one of their books while you can. Namaste. John and Lynda From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Muriel Griffin via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Reply-To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Friday, February 1, 2019 at 4:13 PM To: Order Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, Colleague Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: B&M Griffin <murielcgriffin2(a)hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Bob & Muriel Griffin's new book Thank you Nancy, You were another part of our journey that we enjoyed; I remember the drama and corporate life with you in OKC and the times spent with you in Madison County, Iowa. Thanks for the memories. Love, Muriel ________________________________ From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Nancy Trask via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Friday, February 1, 2019 2:53 PM To: Order Community; Colleague Dialogue Cc: Nancy Trask Subject: [Dialogue] Bob & Muriel Griffin's new book Dear friends & colleagues, I may have missed an earlier publishing announcement of "Journey On" by Muriel C. Griffin & Robert A. Griffin, (c) the authors, 2018. I'm fortunate that they sent me their Christmas letter & noticed it there. "Journey On" is filled with stories & photos of their lives, and that of their 5 daughters/families. Their journey has taken them from Iowa to Liberia & eventually to ICA assignments in 5th City, OKC, Tokyo, HK, Osaka, S. Korea, Edmonton, WDC, back to IA, and then MA. They have created meaningful definitions of mission & family & community life on their amazing journey & now also new definitions of "retirement." I got my copy from Amazon yesterday & have already spent more than 8 hours enjoying it. My heartfelt thanks to Muriel & Bob & their daughters for their amazing life-work, and for this wonderful book of story-telling. Nancy Trask 515-505-0456 nancy50273(a)centurylink.net _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Bob & Muriel Griffin's new book
by Nancy Trask 01 Feb '19

01 Feb '19

Dear friends & colleagues, I may have missed an earlier publishing announcement of "Journey On" by Muriel C. Griffin & Robert A. Griffin, (c) the authors, 2018. I'm fortunate that they sent me their Christmas letter & noticed it there. "Journey On" is filled with stories & photos of their lives, and that of their 5 daughters/families. Their journey has taken them from Iowa to Liberia & eventually to ICA assignments in 5th City, OKC, Tokyo, HK, Osaka, S. Korea, Edmonton, WDC, back to IA, and then MA. They have created meaningful definitions of mission & family & community life on their amazing journey & now also new definitions of "retirement." I got my copy from Amazon yesterday & have already spent more than 8 hours enjoying it. My heartfelt thanks to Muriel & Bob & their daughters for their amazing life-work, and for this wonderful book of story-telling. Nancy Trask 515-505-0456 nancy50273(a)centurylink.net

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