June 2021 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

6/17/2021, Progressing Spirit: Special Edition: Celebrating Bishop John Shelby Spong on his 90th birthday
by Ellie Stock 17 Jun '21

17 Jun '21

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateBody .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent, #yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateBody .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateFooter .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent, #yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateFooter .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Special Edition: Celebrating Bishop John Shelby Spong On His 90th Birthday | | | | | | | | | | As we continue to celebrate yesterday's marking of Bishop Spong's 90th Birthday, we dedicate this week's newsletter to previous Essays and a Q&A from Bishop Spong. In particular, we want to acknowledge his lifelong dedication to human rights and social justice reform as the Nation celebrates Juneteenth this week. We have forwarded hundreds of emails from readers wishing him a Happy Birthday; we encourage you to add your best wishes, please address them to admin(a)progressivechristianity.org. | | | | | | | | Meditation on Turning 80 in London Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 25, 2011I marked the 80th anniversary of my birth in Green’s Restaurant, Duke Street in London this summer. What I thought was to be a quiet, romantic dinner with my wife Christine was jarred a bit when we arrived at the restaurant and were told “Your table for five is ready.” Five, I thought, who are the five? I looked at my wife for clues and was told that this was her party not mine. So we went to our table, sat down and waited to see who these invited guests would be.In about five minutes the mystery began to clear up when two of our closest friends, Liz and Geoff Robinson appeared. I had not thought of them since they live in Wellington, New Zealand. Liz has directed each of my book tours to New Zealand and Geoff is the news anchor of Radio New Zealand and thus the best recognized voice in that country. We have together hiked the Milford Track on New Zealand’s South Island and vacationed on the tip of the North Island in previous years. I was vaguely aware that they were going to be in the UK this summer, but did not know that our dates would overlap so I was as amazed and delighted to see them.About 15 minutes passed before the mystery of the final guest was solved. The door opened and in came Karen Armstrong, a close friend and a former nun, whose books have catapulted her to be one of the best commentators on religious matters in the Western world. Her sensitive treatment of Islam has turned her into almost a rock star in Iran. We have known and loved Karen for more than a decade and see her regularly in London and in New York. She travels extensively and finding her home on this particular day was a long shot.So now my birthday dinner guest list was complete and the party lasted until 11:30 pm. There was no one else in the restaurant when we finally departed. The waiters seemed perfectly content to let us continue as long as we wished, but they did look relieved when we finally left. That dinner gathering was the beginning of my meditation on what it means to reach 80 years of age. Age is a gift that I believe must be embraced and even cherished.Frequently the joy of life is not fully appreciated until the years begin to creep up. When I was a young man, my focus was always on the future. I worked hard at each stage of my life to prepare me for the next. There came a time, however, when I realized that I was not preparing for life, I was living it. That is a crucial distinctionI have had three quite distinct and exciting careers. I was a priest, then a bishop and then an author-lecturer. Each was a full time occupation. I loved them all. In my 21 year career as a priest I lived in four distinct and wonderful locations. My first church was located quite literally between Duke University and the Erwin Cotton Mills in Durham, N. C. and its congregation straddled both worlds. The two leaders of my vestry were Dr. Herman Salinger, head of the Department of German at Duke and a published poet, and Milton Barefoot, known as “Piggy,” who was a child of the mill community and was then working as a gas pump regulator for the State of North Carolina. Both were wonderful human beings.My second location was in the farming belt of Eastern North Carolina – the town of Tarboro in Edgecombe County. This rural community was filled with good people, but racial tensions were high in those days as segregation was dying and a new way of life was struggling to be born. Among my responsibilities as a 26 year old priest were Calvary Church, a wonderful community of dedicated white people, and St. Luke’s Church, another wonderful congregation of dedicated black people located just one block away in that deeply segregated world. I loved both of these congregations. The people of Calvary helped me to grow in many ways and the people of St. Luke’s took me in and loved the racism out of me. I was never the same after serving those two churches.My third location was Lynchburg, Virginia, where I shared that town with an up and coming Baptist preacher named Jerry Falwell. Once again the significant issue in that town was a deep racism. St. John’s Church where I was privileged to serve, was also across the street from Randolph Macon Women’s College and for the first time I embraced how powerful a force the presence of an institution of higher learning can be in the life of a community. It was in Lynchburg that I also learned that congregations are made up of people who are not only willing, but quite capable of learning anything that I knew. The people at St. John’s were politically conservative, but biblically uninformed. They were, however, not mushrooms meant to be kept in the dark and covered with manure, and so with them I learned a valuable lesson. It is not lay people, but the clergy who are overwhelmingly afraid of truth, insight and biblical scholarship. Lay people do not need to have their God or their religion protected by frightened clergy.My final priestly location was St. Paul’s Church in the heart of Richmond, Virginia. It was then and remains today the greatest church experience I have ever had. In this congregation the people were leaders in business, finance, law, medicine and government. Yes, they also were politically conservative, but they were open to new possibilities and I loved that congregation passionately. Here people flocked to an adult Bible class that I taught, eager to learn if the church was willing to teach. Being a priest was a deeply satisfying, enormously fulfilling life. Perhaps in the terms of personal meaning, it was the most satisfying of my three careers.In 1976 I was elected bishop of Newark and began my second career. A bishop is an administrator, a conflict manager, a personnel officer, a fund raiser and a figure head. I say this not to be pejorative, but to state a fact. The bishop of a diocese is also, I learned, the articulator of a vision for the church in that area. In the diocese I served I was, by dint of my office, the chairman of the board of a major urban hospital. I had to learn about health care, medical politics and more legal issues than I knew existed. The office of bishop required talents I did not have and knowledge for which I had no training. I embraced a steep learning curve.How does a bishop measure success? That is hard to do. The thing I’m proudest of is that ten of the clergy who worked with me in this diocese at some point in their careers went on to become bishops. Six of our clergy went on to become cathedral deans across America and others served in parishes that occupy critical places in the life of the church and this nation.When I retired from this office in February of 2000, I moved immediately on to my third career in academia. I taught at Harvard, at the University of the Pacific, at Drew Theological School and at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, California. I began to write a weekly column first for Beliefnet, then for Waterfront Media, then for Every Day Health and now for TCPC. I was amazed at the expanse of that column. We, and I say we because my wife Christine organized and facilitated this phase of our lives, began a lecturing career that carried us not only across America, but to the United Kingdom at least annually; to Australia and New Zealand nine times; to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Israel, South Africa, Thailand, Canada and IndonesiaThroughout my career I took a crash course in institutional politics and worked to put institutional Christianity on the side of the full inclusion of people of color, women and gay and lesbian people in both church and society. I rejoice today that my nation has an African-American President, my home diocese of North Carolina has an African-American bishop and half of our clergy are now female, including our extraordinarily gifted woman Presiding Bishop.I am proud that when I retired as the bishop of Newark I had 35 out of the closet gay and lesbian clergy serving with high effectiveness and 31 of them lived openly with their partners. I rejoice today that my church has two gay-partnered openly elected and confirmed bishops.In those three phases of my life, I was always planning ahead and looking forward. As I grew older, the present became increasingly where I wanted to live, not the future. Meaning was found, life was lived and relationships were treasured in the present. My family became more and more important to me. Freeing people to be whole and to offer the gifts they have to offer, whether modest or impressive, became an essential mark of life. Faith became existential not theoretical. God became a living presence, not an external being. Christ became a principle lived out fully in history by Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity became a universal experience that crossed all boundaries. Staying connected with old friends became an increasingly precious part of life. Repairing broken relationships, where possible, became a priority and where it was not possible it helped simply to acknowledge my part in the brokenness.I have never been one to speculate on the content of life after death, but I do trust it, feel it, and seek to live into it. The only way I know how to prepare for life after death is to live deeply, richly and fully now, scaling life’s heights, plumbing life’s depths, risking love, affirming others and accepting differences. It is by living fully that I prepare for death.St. Paul was wrong, death is not the last enemy to be defeated. Death is a friend to be embraced. Death adds zest and passion to life by forcing us to live and investing each moment with ultimacy. I thus never want to miss an opportunity to tell my wife how much I love her. I live for the moments when my children or grandchildren call or when we visit. I love to hear about their victories and defeats, their struggles and joys. I want to live every moment of the life that I have, but I also want to relinquish that life with grace and dignity when it is time to do so.These were the streams of consciousness that flowed through my mind as I reveled in turning 80 years old and celebrating that with my wife and three special friends in London on Duke Street in the summer of 2011.~John Shelby Spong Read online here | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Ted I was pondering this past week about the right wing fundamentalists and their real fear of anything that smacks of socialism. For me, the word socialism means that the society cares for those who are marginalized, who have major difficulties coping with basic life issues, the poor, etc. My understanding of Christian belief is that this care is at the core of our belief - to care for those who need our care, our support, our understanding. Why do those who are “fundamentalist” refuse to see this as part of the Christian gospel? Or am I missing something? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Ted,Thanks for your letter. Socialism is one of those words bandied about today rather loosely. To you it means care for the marginalized. For members of the Tea Party in America, it seems to mean having the government control one’s life down to telling us when one must die. I do not believe that using loaded, easily misunderstood words is helpful to dialogue, so let me approach your question from a different angle. I do not see any economic system devised by human beings that does more good for more people better than capitalism. Capitalism, however, devoid of social conscience that expresses itself in making sure that the wealth of the nation is not limited to a very small number of people at the top of the economic pyramid on one side and that no one falls through the safety net on the other, simply does not work. This means that I support things like a graduated income tax, Social Security, mandated universal health care and the regulation of institutions to guarantee fair and equal opportunity in wealth creation for all citizens. If capitalism is not tempered with these restrictions then I am convinced that the capitalist system will drive toward the revolution that Karl Marx predicted. So socially responsible and democratically established legislation is today necessary if capitalism is both going to endure and to be effective. This means that it is essential that capitalism develop the means to allow the wealth of this nation to be spread more equitably and thus allow capitalism to continue to be the best economic system yet devised by human beings. We are in fact mandated by our faith to care for the poor, to feed the hungry and to tend the sick. We are also enjoined to love our neighbors as ourselves. I do not see how those ideals can be served if we allow capitalism to develop an underclass in which poverty is never escaped and in which the basic elements of a caring society do not exist. Christian history, which includes the development of capitalism, also reveals that we have not only violated these ideals, but we also have been anti-Semitic, anti -Muslim, anti-people of color, anti-women, and anti-homosexual. That is a strange way to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors. What is going on in America at this moment is the political manipulation of basic human fears in order to gain power over others or to have power, which the ruling classes believe they have lost, restored. One manifestation of this is that the white Anglo-Saxon population that claims to be the “first families” of America is facing the fact that the United States now includes enormous numbers of citizens whose ancestors migrated not from Europe, but from Africa, Latin America and Asia. We are thus engaged in an internal struggle between the American spirit of inclusion and the vested interests of the earliest settlers. The anger in our political system today also reveals our latent racism, our greed and our xenophobia. When these fears are coupled with unstable economic forces that cause the future to feel insecure, the problems are compounded. I believe we will get through this time in our history. We need long term stability in our government so that the big problems in energy, financial reform, health care and the environment may be addressed. Whether we will have that long term stability is the question. My sense is that with an economic revival and the creation of jobs, the fears will subside. Will that economic upturn come before the election of 2012? I do not know, but that election will be crucial to our future as a nation. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong January 19, 2011 Read and share online here | | | | | | | | | | | To acknowledging the impact and contributions Bishop Spong has made in the lives of people all over the globe, we are asking his readers who have been touched by his life and writings to help keep them alive on ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit by making a donation today assuring his teachings and writing will be preserved for future generations. | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Should this Column Deal with Political Issues? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 24, 2011I value the letters I receive from my readers. They often offer me new perspectives, bringing to my attention new facts that contribute significantly to my understanding or challenge my conclusions. Frequently these letters express appreciation for insights that I have been able to give them. The most appreciative letters come from two major sources: first, from those who are struggling to build or to rebuild their religious frame of reference in the light of knowledge available to those of us living in the 21st century, and, second, from those who share in my attempts to apply insights gained from my faith commitment to the social, political and economic realities of our day. Indeed, the columns that elicit the most positive feedback are those that some would call “political.” The recent column on the role of Texas oil money in American politics, for example, received record positive mail; as did my column more than a year ago entitled “My Manifesto” on my stated refusal to debate any longer the issue of homosexuality. Since I, along with the vast majority of the medical and scientific community, no longer believe that there is any rational basis on which to discriminate against homosexual people, I do not want to dignify continuing ignorance with a willingness to debate what is no longer debatable. I do not debate whether the earth is flat or whether slavery is moral either. Despite these realities, I still get letters from readers complaining about the “political” columns. One reader seems to write every time a column comes out on a theme that is not specifically religious. I have ignored those letters for almost a year but they keep coming from the same source and so I have decided to respond to this limited but consistent criticism. This person professes to be thrilled with my columns and books on religion. Indeed, he tells me that he delights in sending many of these columns to friends to share with them this new religious point of view. He seems, however, to resent any column with which he disagrees. His comments run the gamut of the things I have absorbed all of my professional life from one-dimensional conservatives. He argues that he does not subscribe to my column to get “political analysis,” of which, he claims, he can get all he wants from newspapers, radio and television. I find that a fascinating idea! I would argue that none of these media outlets offers a view of political events from the unique perspective of faith. Nor are any of them expressions of “objective” political reporting as he seems to think. An editorial in the New York Times and another in the Houston Chronicle, for example, will reveal radically different political perspectives. Listening to televised commentaries on the proposed budget of the Obama administration from conservative commentators on Fox News and from liberal commentators on MSNBC will do the same. These spokespersons on both sides of these issues are all legitimate participants in the American debate, some may be more informed than others, but each sees reality through the lens of his or her own priorities and prejudices. I make no claim to do otherwise. My perspective is that I am a Christian, who believes I must examine political and economic decisions in the light of those values. The basis upon which I make political and economic judgments is that I believe every person, rich and poor, Anglo-Saxon and African, Hispanic and Asian, male and female, gay and straight must to be treated with the dignity of being a child of God. They should not, therefore, have their sense of infinite worth compromised by the insensitive decisions of elected officials, whose primary goal is to be reelected. I accept as the purpose of Jesus and thus of his disciples, a category in which I include myself, that the Christ task is to enhance human life. The Fourth Gospel quotes Jesus as saying that his purpose is to bring abundant life to all. I do not see how one can bring abundant life or enhance present life if racism, masquerading as “States’ Rights,” is allowed to linger; if economic decisions are made to balance the nation’s budget on the backs of the poor, while just having passed an extension of tax cuts for the very wealthy top one percent of America’s earners. I do not believe that life can be enhanced if this nation allows the gap between the rich and the poor to continue to expand. I do not believe that life is enhanced if wars are entered into on the basis of deliberately falsified statements about weapons of mass destruction and in which thousands of America’s young people are killed. I do not believe that, in the interest of enhancing the wealth of the oil industry, our sons and daughters lives ought to be put at risk. I do not see how the lives of gay and lesbian people can be enhanced by allowing uninformed and homophobic people to place their prejudices into the law or state constitutions. Yet all of these things have occurred in the recent life of our nation by decisions made in the political arena. I have no intention of abdicating my responsibility both as a commentator and a citizen to speak in and to that arena. To stay outside the debate is to do little more than to create a vacuum that will be filled by the Sarah Palins, the Glen Becks and the Sean Hannitys of the world. I require no one to agree with me. My opinions are certainly not infallible. My thinking has changed dramatically over the years and I hope will continue to do so as “new occasions teach new duties and time makes ancient good uncouth,” to quote the poet James Russell Lowell. The second implication in these letters is that because my professional field is religion, I have no right or competence to speak to political issues. Jimmy Carter’s field of expertise was engineering and peanut farming. He offered his unique life’s experience to lead first the State of Georgia and later the United States. George W. Bush had done some oil drilling and headed a baseball team. Did those backgrounds render them incapable of speaking or acting on political issues? The majority of American people did not think so. Both American and world politics have actually been life studies of mine. At the drop of a hat I can discuss the major political issues with which every president of the United States has had to deal, including the little known ones like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Rutherford B. Hayes. I have had very close members of my family deeply involved in politics. One of them, my first cousin, William B. Spong, Jr., defeated the Byrd machine in Virginia in 1966 to wrest the United States Senate seat from A. Willis Robertson, the ultra-conservative father of TV evangelist Pat Robertson. He lost that seat in 1972 running as an incumbent Democrat on a national ticket headed by George McGovern. I study every presidential election to determine what it says about where our nation is at that moment in its history. I have attended, as a political reporter, the nominating conventions of both of our major political parties. I have been interviewed on national television a number of times and have debated Pat Buchanan on Crossfire and William F. Buckley on Firing Line. I am a lot of things, but a political novice is not one of them! I am also amused when receiving these letters that anyone thinks they have a right to determine the content of this weekly column. It would not occur to me to tell Bill O’Reilly or Rachel Maddow what their subject matter should be. Sometimes the letters I receive are little more than hostile and rude rants. I received one recently that read. “Put it all the way to Hell, Sir! I am interested in your spiritual take, not in your stance on political matters. I may have to unsubscribe unless you get back to spirituality and back off from political B.S. Does your new content have anything to do with your new “carrier/ sponsor?” To this reader I am eager to say first, that the content of this column has been consistent for all of its life. The column’s title, begun nine years ago, is “Bishop Spong on the News and the Christian Faith.” No publisher has ever asked or tried to edit my content. Second, spirituality however you define it, is not divorced from life. Third, I am amazed that a reader feels that, since he or she might not agree with a particular column, he or she has a right to attack me personally or to attempt to coerce me into abiding by his or her wishes by threatening to “unsubscribe” to this column. Readers are, of course, free to disagree with anything I write or to unsubscribe at any time. They are not free, however, to dictate to me what the content of my column should be. The idea that religion is a separate activity from politics always feels strange to me, coming as it does normally from a right-wing mentality. If anyone wonders why this seems so strange, all that person has to do is to examine the content of Christianity. It is a radical movement! In Christ, says St. Paul, all tribal identities fade away. One can hardly be an uncritical super-patriot and be a Christian. Christianity calls us to love our enemies. That makes support for wars of aggression difficult. Christianity calls us to deal with the poor in a sensitive manner even if it raises our taxes. A member of Congress who opposes the current version of health care bill, which covers forty million previously uninsured Americans, has an obligation to offer a bill spelling out an alternative way to cover these uninsured. Otherwise, honesty demands that there be a public admission that he or she does not really care about the issue of forty million people without health care because they cannot see beyond their own needs. I mean by this to suggest that I believe political tactics can always be debated, but I do not see how Christians can fail to agree on the goal of universal health care coverage for all our citizens. Politics is the arena in which public issues are decided. I intend therefore to be a participant in the political arena because “faith without works is dead” to quote the New Testament book of James. I treasure the privilege I have to be in dialogue with my readers. I will explore the Christian faith in depth each week and I will speak to public issues from that perspective wherever those issues arise. The growing number of subscribers indicates to me that they are happy to be in this dialogue. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together. Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Work with ICA around the world
by Robertson Work 16 Jun '21

16 Jun '21

Dear colleagues, Thought that some of you might like to hear this recent podcast interview on "Aspire with Osha" concerning my work with ICA around the world: https://oshahayden.com/podcast/compassionate-civilization-a-conversation-wi… Please stay safe and healthy. ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/

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6/10/2021, Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers: Progressing Spirit: Progressive Christians and Palestine; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 10 Jun '21

10 Jun '21

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and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 .yiv9074303407mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent, #yiv9074303407 .yiv9074303407mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templatePreheader .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent, #yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templatePreheader .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templateHeader .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent, #yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templateHeader .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templateBody .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent, #yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templateBody .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templateFooter .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent, #yiv9074303407 #yiv9074303407templateFooter .yiv9074303407mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Progressive Christians and Palestine | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers June 10, 2021 Over three weeks before the first rocket was fired from Gaza, and war erupted yet again between Israel and Palestine, something happened that was hardly mentioned in the press, but explains so much of the terror and humiliation that Palestinians face every day from Israel. It was the first day of the Muslim month of Ramadan when a squad of Israeli soldiers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, pushed past the attendants, and “cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful from four medieval minarets” (as reported in the New York Times).It was also Memorial Day in Israel, and the president was giving a speech at the Western Wall, where it was feared that the Jewish prayers would be drowned out by the amplified prayers coming from the Mosque. It would be the last straw in a series of provocations that define life for those who live under occupation and de facto imprisonment in the West Bank and Gaza. As Israel struggles with its own political survival following Netanyahu’s indictments on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, another tragically lopsided conflict has exploded. As of this writing, more than two hundred Palestinians have died, including women and children, while about a dozen Israelis have lost their lives in rocket attacks. As always, Israel holds an enormous military advantage—with every bomb and bullet made in the U.S. A. We supplied the Iron Dome defense system that destroys most of the incoming rockets from Hamas. Palestine has no defense system and no military because, for all practical purposes, it does not exist. Over the last four years, Trump has given Israel everything he could think of, regardless of the long-term strategic consequences. He moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and granted Israel sovereignty over captured territory in the Golan Heights in a bid to win evangelical votes and paint Democrats as anti-Jewish. Four Arab countries then normalized relationships with Israel so they could do business with them, despite the fact that they had once agreed not to do so until the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was resolved. Most experts agree that our failures to resolve this issue drives more terrorism than any other single grievance in the Arab world. Gaza, which has been described as an open-air prison, is so densely populated that there is no place to hide when Israeli F-16s begin dropping bombs or launching artillery strikes. The Israeli blockade has contributed to over 50% unemployment in Gaza, the highest in the world. As Palestinians battle a wave of coronavirus infections, Israel destroyed the only health center where testing is done. They had previously decided that they would not share COVID vaccinations with Palestinians, a move that would surely give the Jewish prophets a reason to wear sackcloth and ashes. Following the loudspeaker incident, a decision was made by the Israeli police to close off a popular plaza outside the Damascus Gate which serves as a main entrance to the Old City, where young Palestinians gather during Ramadan. This led to protests and nightly clashes with police. Many residents of East Jerusalem cannot vote after Israel occupied and annexed the area in the 1967 war because they chose not to apply for citizenship that would confer legitimacy on an occupying power. Now they are being gradually pushed out of Jerusalem through restrictions on building permits and demolition orders. Olive groves have been burned, houses razed by bulldozers, and more and more Israeli settlers have built illegal settlements on occupied land without consequences. Now, in the worst violence seen since the intifada, Palestinian youth have begun attacking Jews, and Jews in return have attacked Arab citizens inside of Israel. It has shocked a region long accustomed to war, but not between next door neighbors. With the eviction of six families from Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem looming, Hamas had begun to flex its muscles again as a resurgent sense of national identity has taken hold among young Palestinians. Finally, the most dramatic escalation of all came when Israeli police raided the Aqsa Mosque on May 7th. Armed with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets, they burst into the mosque and set off clashes with stoned-throwing protestors in which hundreds were injured. The sight of stun grenades and bullets inside the prayer hall of one of the holiest sites in Islam on the last Friday of Ramadan, one of its holiest nights, was a grievous insult to all Muslims. Now the region is again in flames, with Palestinians suffering disproportionately. American politicians rush to microphones to profess their support for Israel and her right to defend herself. But apparently no one, not even President Biden, seems to think that Palestine has the right to defend herself. There are indeed terrorists in Hamas who vow the destruction of Israel, but there is officially no such thing as an Israeli terrorist, even when settlers burn down Palestinian homes and kill their occupants. Of course, no one dared to use the A-word (apartheid) when describing Israel’s treatment of its Arab neighbors. That is, until Desmond Tutu broke the taboo and compared what was happening at checkpoints and roadblocks to what happened to blacks in South Africa. Then Jimmy Carter wrote a bestseller, “Palestine: Peace Not apartheid”, and a wave of condemnation followed as the American Jewish community claimed that the former president was giving aid and comfort to the new anti-Semites. Meanwhile, one thing has come clear during America’s long “war on terrorism.” It has increased terrorism ten-fold. We are an occupying power, an Empire, a colossus astride the planet. We police the world on behalf of corporations, kick down doors without a shred of cultural understanding, and back our political, strategic, and economic allies regardless of how they treat their enemies. Progressive Christians love to say that we love “every single other,” but almost no one, not even moderate Democrats, dares to speak up for Palestine, to utter the “P-word”, which was once banned from the Democratic platform. There are certain moments when history remembers silence and shames it. We are living through such a moment. Most churches sat on the sidelines during the civil rights movement, or actively resisted it. Most churches resisted the inclusion of LBGTQ people into the full sacramental hospitality of the beloved community. Most Christians said nothing when mass incarceration showed us the demonic side of systemic racism. As for the role of women in church leadership, the record is obvious. Now we speak up for all these things. But when the subject of Palestine comes up, radio silence. Chris Hedges, former war correspondent for the New York Times, has seen small boys baited and killed by Israeli soldiers. They swore at the boys in Arabic over loudspeakers, the boys threw rocks, and then the soldiers opened fire, killing some, wounding others. Such incidents were reported as children caught in the crossfire. When Israel drops 1,000- pound fragmentation bombs on overcrowded hovels in Gaza City, it is explained as a surgical strike on a bomb-making factory. When homes and small businesses are reduced to rubble, and families dig the corpses of their loved ones out by hand, the official explanation is the demolition of the homes of terrorists. When Israel destroyed the Associated Press and Al Jazeera headquarters, they claimed it was being used to house terrorists. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked for evidence to support this claim but has received none. Gaza is now a pile of rubble without clean water, schools, hospitals, or safe space for over 70,000 displaced civilians. Dear lovers of equality, justice, inclusion, and liberation: Colonialism and ethnic genocide will always produce resistance. When you have nothing left to lose and no hope, you turn to the only means of resistance available to you. Occupiers are the “near enemy” in Arab lexicon. First, we create terrorists, then we refuse to negotiate with terrorists, and then kill what we have created in the name of keeping the world safe from terrorists. The definition of insanity comes to mind. Are you an anti-Semite if you criticize Israel? No more than you are anti-American when you criticize your own country. We dare to criticize that which means something to us. The West has the power to wage peace as well as waging war--the peace that Jesus the Jew dreamed of and died for. He hailed from Nazareth of Palestine. As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” (Lk 19:41-42). Voices of conscience are needed now to make what John Lewis called “good trouble.” Who is willing to speak truth to power? Who is willing to stand up for Palestine and call Israel to account for crimes against humanity? Who will use the remarkable gift that is a free pulpit or the power of the pen to declare our non-compliance with the principalities and the powers? Complicity with evil is itself evil. Proportionality is a central tenet of Just War Theory. This is not a just war. This is a crime against humanity. Either all of us matter or none of us do. Preach it. Please.~ Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers Read online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers is retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC Church, Oklahoma City, Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus at Oklahoma City University, and Adjunct Professor of Homiletics at Phillips Theology Seminary. He is a fellow at Westar, a member of the God Seminar, and his most recent book is Saving God from Religion: A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age. Visit website here: RobinRexMeyers.com | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader The news and social media are full of the wonderful contributions of people of color, gays and trans. Why do you think so many individuals still hold prejudiced views about people who are different from them? A: By Rev. Brandan Robertson Dear Reader,This is a wonderful question. The truth is that while LGBTQ+ and POC representation has dramatically increased in media over the last decade, there are still many places across the U.S. and around the world where LGBTQ+ people are severely underrepresented, and many people still believe that they don’t know an LGBTQ+ person and may have very few interactions with people of color. In these communities, fear, stereotypes, and religious bigotry still dictate how people think about LGBTQ+ people and communities of color. I have come to believe that the most powerful way to combat prejudice is through the power of proximity- only when these homogenous communities begin to see, hear the stories of, and get to know real queer people and people of color will they be challenged to change their perspectives- and for some communities, this may take quite a while to happen. In the meantime, allies in those kinds of communities have important work to do, speaking up against prejudice beliefs and offering an alternative way to think about LGBTQ+ people and people of color. Sometimes these challenging conversations can provoke people to begin exploring on their own beliefs, providing an opening for the journey of transformation. So yes, while representation is expanding, we still have a long way to go before true equality and justice prevail.~ Rev. Brandan Robertson Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. He leads Metanoia, a digital spiritual community at MetanoiaCenter.org | | | | | | | | | | | | Join Us In Celebrating Bishop John Shelby Spong On His 90th Birthday, Wednesday June 16th Beloved and world-renowned, John Shelby Spong, whose books have sold more than a million copies, was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. His admirers acclaim him as a teaching bishop who makes contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary layperson — he’s considered the champion of an inclusive faith by many, both inside and outside the Christian church. >From 1991 to his retirement in 2017, Bishop Spong wrote a weekly newsletter for a growing global audience calling for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. ProgressiveChristianity.org has managed his newsletters and essays since 2011 - now under the Progressing Spirit umbrella, you can find the archive here. We encourage you to send him your best wishes on this his 90th birthday. Please address them to admin(a)progressivechristianity.org and they will all be forwarded to Bishop Spong. As a way to acknowledging the contribution Bishop Spong has made in the lives of people all over the globe, we are asking his readers who have been touched by his life and writings, and wish to honor his 90th Birthday, to help keep his books and writings alive on Progressive Christianity.org and Progressing Spirit by making a donation today assuring his teachings are preserved for future generations. | | | | | | | | 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 us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited An Adventure At A Law School Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 16, 2010Recently, I spoke at the Law School of Marquette University, a Jesuit institution in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My topic was “Homosexuality and the Law.” It was in many ways a fascinating experience. I was introduced by an attractive, bright second year law school student, who, I gathered, had worked very hard to have me invited. She was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and is an out of the closet lesbian, who plans to be married next summer in Dubuque, Iowa, where gay marriages are both recognized and legal. My purpose in this address was to demonstrate how changes in cultural norms occur in all branches of knowledge, certainly including science, law and religion, and that this is what makes it possible to dismiss yesterday’s inadequate understandings and to find both the courage and the ability to embrace new realities. There is no such thing, I asserted, as unchanging truth since truth must always be expressed in ever-changing human propositional statements. Whenever any understanding or perception of reality is put into words, these words are captured by the level of knowledge and even the always subjective words of the one speaking and, thus, inevitably that person’s words share in a time-bound and time warped view of the world. There is no possibility that human propositional statements could ever become eternally true. People do not seem to recognize that there were many scientists in the 17th century who challenged the new insights of Galileo and who regarded Galileo as a disturber of settled truth. There were also many biologists in the 19th century who challenged the new insights of Charles Darwin. The great Albert Einstein was himself unable to adapt to the idea of quantum weirdness developed by fellow physicist Niels Bohr. Knowledge is always growing and expanding. There are no such things as inerrant formulations of truth, not in the scriptures or in the presumed infallible proclamations of any ecclesiastical figure, despite what people have claimed for both. I listen today, sometimes with despair sometimes with amusement, to passionate, but naïve politicians who want to defend something they call a “strict constructionist” view of the Constitution of the United States. Both my despair and my amusement come from their apparent inability to understand how time-warped the Constitution is. When politicians hear that statement they react exactly like biblical fundamentalists do when someone says that the Bible is filled with both human and divine negativity. These politicians are not aware that the Constitution defined slaves as three-fifths of a human being. They do not realize that the Constitution refused to allow women the privilege of voting until it was amended in 1920? Another of our sacred national documents, the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These powerful words were written, however, by a slave holder who quite obviously used the word “men” as a synonym for “human” and then defined “human” as being both white and male. A “strict constructionist” in political circles is what a biblical fundamentalist is in religious circles. Their words sound good, but they consist of uninformed, empty rhetoric. “Strict constructionism” really means “I want to be assured that the Constitution confirms my present prejudices.” Biblical fundamentalism regards the Bible in the same exact way. It is this idea of “strict constructionism” in regard to the Bible that has caused that text to be used in the cause of homophobia just as it was previously used in defense of racism and the sexist oppression of women. No biblical scholar today could ever mold the nine obscure passages in the entire Bible that homophobic people quote so regularly into an intelligent and credible argument to oppose today equal rights and justice for the lesbian, gay, transgender and bi-sexual members of our society. Such an argument would simply carry no weight in any court of law. Yet in religious circles of our society these nine texts are still used without embarrassment by religious spokespersons as if they still had some claim to either credibility or respectability. The undoubted facts are that all of the objective medical and scientific data available in our world today asserts that no human beings choose their sexual orientation, they simply awaken to it. To discriminate against homosexual people because they are not heterosexual makes about as much rational sense as our culture’s historic discrimination against women because they are not men, our racist discrimination against people of color because they are not white, or our discrimination against left-handed people because they are not right handed. Each of these arguments once employed to sustain each of these long dead prejudices is now simply being recycled to sustain our irrational attitudes toward the homosexual population today. As such they are little more than expressions of prejudice ignorance. The last stand in the battle against all prejudices is seen in the almost inevitable suggestion by those resisting change, that these issues should be submitted to a referendum of the voters. The hope here is that there is still enough latent homophobia in the culture that a majority can be achieved in opposition to the constitutional rights of this minority. They also know how to manipulate the electorate. Public relations firms will be hired to frame the issue in such a way as to maximize fear. Hate money will pour from wealthy, but uninformed sources and be used to demonize gay people with both weird stories and veiled innuendos about how gay marriage will “weaken traditional marriage.” No one ever quite says just how that weakening will occur, but the seeds of fear are planted. That is why equal protection under the law can never properly be the subject of a popular referendum. No benefit, including the benefits of marriage that has been extended to one citizen can be arbitrarily denied to another. That is the guarantee of the Constitution. People fail to realize that if a vote is allowed on a constitutional right, that vote by itself would transform this nation from a constitutional democracy, which guarantees the rights of the minority, into a “mobocracy” in which the rights of any minority could be submitted to the will of the majority. That is the prescription for tyranny. To my audience at Marquette’s Law School I stated my conviction that the time has come for religious leaders, from the Pope to Pat Robertson, to take responsibility for the uninformed and uneducated homophobia, which emanates from their lips on a regular basis. Homosexual persons are not deviant, as the Pope continues to state, nor are they sinful as Pat Robertson regularly asserts. There is a huge difference between being a minority and being abnormal! Homosexuals are a minority that is all. So are left handed people, red headed people and at least in the western world, people of color. Yet many religious leaders continue to proclaim them abnormal. Ignorance is no less ignorant when it is either spoken by religious people or perfumed with pious rhetoric. No one should hesitate to confront any persons who seek to shape public opinion when those persons reveal how hopelessly out of date they are on the subject about which they continue to make public pronouncements. When I finished this address one person, who identified himself as both a law professor and a Jesuit priest, sought to defend his church’s position that homosexuality is “deviant.” It does not mean, he said, that homosexual people themselves are deviant; it means that they deviate from the norm, which is that the purpose of human life is to reproduce itself. This has been the church’s consistent position, he stated, as it stretches from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas. Since homosexual persons, he continued, cannot or will not do that they are therefore “deviant.” It was as weird a line of reasoning as I have ever encountered. First, the idea that because it comes from Aristotle through Aquinas means that it is consistent, does not rule out the possibility that it has been consistently wrong. Second, for anyone to suggest that truth has been captured in the writings of Aristotle who lived some 2400 years ago or in the work of Aquinas, who lived about 700 years ago is patently absurd. Third, I asked by what act of hubris comes the power to define the norm as that which has been bequeathed from Aristotle, to Aquinas and thus to the Roman Catholic Church? Fourth, I pointed out that such an argument would also call childless couples deviant and since most of us will ultimately reach the place in life in which we can no longer reproduce ourselves biologically, such a position would suggest that the end of every human life is to become deviant. Fifth, I wondered out loud how it was that this church, which requires celibacy for the priesthood, could define the norm for non-deviant humanity in such a way as to suggest that celibacy itself participates in deviancy. I read this line of argumentation as that coming from a person embarrassed by his church’s position and seeking a way to make its unacceptable quality palatable. Once again, it was apparent to me that arguments designed to defend prejudices are never rational. That is why they must be wrapped inside the convoluted language of most “religious reasoning.” That conversation alone was worth the trip to Milwaukee. Prior to my lecture, I attended a class on the legal issues facing gay and lesbian married couples. It was a “matter of fact class” where the exercise of the day was to develop a prenuptial agreement between a wealthy lesbian and her much poorer potential mate. So while the Jesuit professor defended the definition of homosexual people as “deviant”, the Marquette Law School was quietly preparing its students to live in the world where gay marriage and gay equality before the law are both inevitable. The time has come to say so boldly. This debate is old, tired and increasingly irrelevant. Let’s be done with it.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements New Online Programs for those called by Earth and Spirit to Return to the Great Conversation Starting June 18th through August 21st. Seminary of the Wild introduces new introductory and advanced programs for deepening your journey of ecological awakening and the cultivation of a new kind of leadership in 2021 and 2022. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Fwd: OliveAnn Slotta Memorial Service: June 5, 2021
by Karenbueno 09 Jun '21

09 Jun '21

Some of you who knew OliveAnn would like to see this: Karen Bueno -----Original Message----- From: University Park United Methodist Church <kflomberg-rollins(a)uparkumc.org> To: karenbueno(a)aol.com Sent: Wed, Jun 9, 2021 12:59 pm Subject: OliveAnn Slotta Memorial Service: June 5, 2021 OliveAnn Slotta Memorial Service: June 5, 2021#yiv7806070999 p{margin:10px 0;padding:0;}#yiv7806070999 table{border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv7806070999 h1, #yiv7806070999 h2, #yiv7806070999 h3, #yiv7806070999 h4, #yiv7806070999 h5, #yiv7806070999 h6{display:block;margin:0;padding:0;}#yiv7806070999 img, #yiv7806070999 a img{border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;}#yiv7806070999 body, #yiv7806070999 #yiv7806070999bodyTable, #yiv7806070999 #yiv7806070999bodyCell{min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;}#yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999mcnPreviewText{display:none !important;}#yiv7806070999 #yiv7806070999outlook a{padding:0;}#yiv7806070999 img{}#yiv7806070999 table{}#yiv7806070999 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(max-width:480px){#yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent, #yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999headerContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent, #yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999headerContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999bodyContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent, #yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999bodyContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999footerContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent, #yiv7806070999 .yiv7806070999footerContainer .yiv7806070999mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} OliveAnn Slotta Memorial Service: June 5, 2021 | | | | | OliveAnn Slotta Memorial Service: June 5, 2021 | | | | | | | | | | Here is the video of Olive Ann's memorial service from June 5, 2021. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright © 2021 University Park United Methodist Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in through our Welcome Book at our weekly services. Our mailing address is: University Park United Methodist Church2180 S University BlvdDenver, Co 80210 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. | | | | |

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An evening with Duane Elgin. Join Us on June 14 at 7:30 pm Chicago Time
by James Wiegel 08 Jun '21

08 Jun '21

JoinUs on June 14 at 7:30 pm Chicago Time CHOOSING EARTH Humanity’s Great Transition to a Mature Planetary Civilization takes a LONG, WIDE, and DEEP look at the next half century. 36 of us are in the midst of a study of the book. On June 14, Duane Elgin, the author, is joining us for an evening to give us a fresh overview and some helpful insights as we move more deeply into the book. PLEASE JOIN US. June 14, 2021 7:30-9:00 pm Chicago time. On Zoom. HERE’S HOW: Send an email to Jim Wiegel jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com Tell him you want to participate. Jim will send you a Zoom Link to the session on Sunday, June 13. WANT MORE BACKGROUND? 1. Explore the Choosing Earth website http://www.choosingearth.org 2. View the "FACING ADVERSITY" documentary (available on Facing Adversity: Choosing Earth, Choosing Life | | | Facing Adversity: Choosing Earth, Choos... | 3. Review the PDF version of CHOOSING EARTH https://choosingearth.org/book/ This from CHOOSING EARTH I place my greatest faith in the people of the Earth organizing ourselves from the local to global level and, together, swiftly learning our way into a sustainable and purposeful future. This from Duane Elgin: “I first connected with the ICA community in the 1980s and I have the highest regards for the community and your work! I’m happy to be reconnected again and hope Choosing Earth serves your creative work.” See you there?? Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

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Room-to-Read Zoom dialogue July 8th
by Robertson Work 08 Jun '21

08 Jun '21

Dear colleagues, Hope you can join the "Room to Read" Zoom dialogue on the critical decade this July 8th. Kay Nixon will be the host, and Cosmas Gitta and I will dialogue on the critical decade 2020 - 2029 and what we each can do. Hope to see you then. This is part of the ICA global calendar. The event is in support of the Room to Read programs in developing countries helping children around the world. Here is the URL to sign up: https://give.roomtoread.org/event/chicago-chapter-author-event-with-roberts… Rob ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/

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Global Buzz for June
by ICA International 08 Jun '21

08 Jun '21

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... And please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: June 2021 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-21/2021-05-01.php 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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Fwd: OliveAnn Slotta
by Karenbueno 05 Jun '21

05 Jun '21

OliveAnn Slotta died May 3, and today, June 5, we had a memorial service for her at her church, University Park United Methodist. Someone mentioned that they had just told an ICA colleague about OliveAnn's death who had not heard it before, so I am sending this to the addresses I have for the folks who knew her. Karen Bueno -----Original Message----- From: University Park United Methodist Church <kflomberg-rollins(a)uparkumc.org> To: karenbueno(a)aol.com Sent: Tue, May 4, 2021 2:02 pm Subject: OliveAnn Slotta OliveAnn Slotta#yiv4589430384 p{margin:10px 0;padding:0;}#yiv4589430384 table{border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv4589430384 h1, #yiv4589430384 h2, #yiv4589430384 h3, #yiv4589430384 h4, #yiv4589430384 h5, #yiv4589430384 h6{display:block;margin:0;padding:0;}#yiv4589430384 img, #yiv4589430384 a img{border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;}#yiv4589430384 body, #yiv4589430384 #yiv4589430384bodyTable, #yiv4589430384 #yiv4589430384bodyCell{min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;}#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384mcnPreviewText{display:none !important;}#yiv4589430384 #yiv4589430384outlook a{padding:0;}#yiv4589430384 img{}#yiv4589430384 table{}#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384ReadMsgBody{width:100%;}#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384ExternalClass{width:100%;}#yiv4589430384 p, #yiv4589430384 a, 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(max-width:480px){#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent, #yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384headerContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent, #yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384headerContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384bodyContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent, #yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384bodyContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384footerContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent, #yiv4589430384 .yiv4589430384footerContainer .yiv4589430384mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} OliveAnn Slotta | | | | | | | | | | | | | With heavy hearts, we need to relay the sad news that Oliveann Slotta passed away unexpectedly early yesterday morning from complications surrounding B-cell lymphoma. Oliveann has been receiving treatment and has been on the church prayer list for several weeks as those treatments continued. Her doctors had been pleased with her progress, but she was taken to the emergency room on Sunday evening and passed away several hours later. Funeral arrangements have not been made yet, but we will pass that information along as soon as it is available. Please keep her husband Jim and their family in your prayers. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright © 2021 University Park United Methodist Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in through our Welcome Book at our weekly services. Our mailing address is: University Park United Methodist Church2180 S University BlvdDenver, Co 80210 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. | | | | |

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Completed Life of George Randall West
by Nancy Lanphear 04 Jun '21

04 Jun '21

Fred and I were somewhat frequent visitors to Litibu by the Sea. I recall our first visit in 1993? When Fred was asked to come and work with the community and other advisors to design pathways and house placements????Plants may have played a part in his assignments as well. I wonder if you can guess where we stayed in those early days? If you guess George and DonnaMarie’s casa, you would be right. That was even before they had a second floor. I think the only buildings were the garage with the two units and the cottage. Although we visited a few more times in the early days, our next foray and the many visits to follow were for Fred to design and begin the implementation of Cheryl’s memorial Garden by the Sea. George was always available to lend a hand and a bit of sage advice as he carefully watched the construction of the site. Each of these times, being with George and DonnaMarie was a highlight in my life. And as DonnaMarie became less able, George took on the role of loving care person. George was all of the things each of you have mentioned, “a man for all seasons’? I have a personal story to share. My favorite: I went to their casa on a visit following DonnaMarie’s death: George’s humor is low key; and he is such a tease that sometimes I couldn’t discern humor from seriousness. His “dead pan “ expression was priceless as was his smile and twinkling eyes. I remember walking into the house and he offered me a seat, the chair with its back to the kitchen, the one I usually sat in when in their casa. George left to go to the back door and upon his return, he stepped around the corner and saw someone sitting in the chair, he stopped and gasped - did he imagine it was DonnaMarie? I’ll never know for sure because he very quickly came back into the room for our visit. We talked of DonnaMarie and told several stories of her incredible life and her determination and love of community.... - remember her pulling herself up the stairs when she could no longer walk well? When it was time for me to leave from the visit with George, somehow we imagined this might be our last visit. I tried to open the door but either pushed or pulled on the door incorrectly and of course, it wouldn’t open. We laughed and George suggested, “perhaps I just don’t want you to leave”!!!! What beautiful parting words from a man who had become a good friend, teacher, and spirit guide. Love you George! Nancy Sent from my iPad

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Completed Life of George Randall West
by Salvatore Caruso 04 Jun '21

04 Jun '21

Dear colleagues: While talking with Karen last evening she suggested I send this message to the OE community. This was sent to the Litibu Ecovillage a couple of days ago.As some of you may remember George & Donnamarie moved to Litibu Mexico in the early 90’s to help establish what has come to be known as the Litibu Ecovillage. What follows is the message we sent……. We all lost a dear friend, colleague and founding member of the Litibu Ecovillage. George Randall West was a spiritual giant, pedagogy teacher and created community wherever he planted his feet.. This is a current update on the passing of our dear friend and founding member of the LEV George West is being sent to an expanded list of current members and friends of the LEV plus past members of the LEV.( If we’ve missed anyone please let us know and pass it along ).. THE PASSING.. George had a fall on Saturday May 15th and was taken that evening by ambulance to the Punta Mita Hospital. Several in the LEV community including Kathy, Meg, Jack, Marisol, Miriam & Laura have been extending care in different ways. Marisol as one of his primary care givers arrived at the hospital the last night to make sure he was comfortable and work out hospital admin details w the family. He did undergo surgery on Sunday, May 16. He returned to his casa on Monday May 17 for recovery and PT. While home he was comfortable but on pain meds. At his age 87, a fall like this is very hard to recover from. The doctor had visited him on the morning of May 31 finding him improving. That evening @ 9:30pm George gently stopped breathing. Nick,Marisol and caregiver Rosario were by his side. Earlier Jack & Miriam were with him as well. He was surrounded by love... THE LIFE.. A a brief reflection and memories.... GEORGE RANDALL WEST had a very rich life. He is my dear friend, mentor and one of the founders of the LEV. Here’s a brief bio I asked three former members ( Karen,Jim and Judith) to put together on his life for us to enjoy. I’m sure all of you have your own stories to add. Please send them as we will use all of this in a future Remembrance Celebration of George’s completed life… In the meantime here’s a page out of life well lived….. GEORGE provided his creative juices to build comprehensive community development to marginalized villages and cities across the globe thru Institute of Ciltural Affairs ( See a summary of this lifeway in the attachment below).He, with his dear wife, Donnamarie, built the LEV starting in the early 1990’s. With Rod & Rose Worden they formed the core that took raw land and carved out what we all see and enjoy today...Personally without him Casa Cancion del Mar and the Pas Jardin would not exist. I can say that he provided the experience in creating the LEV thru all the trial & error of community building he had experienced in the years before thru the ICA where he was a giant in community development. He found time to write his book about his COMMUNITY experiences in the now published : “ Creating Community: Finding Meaning in the Place We Live: A Handbook for Comprehensive Community Development, 2012” Now enjoy reading thru a part of George’s life in this memories doc from Karen, Jim & Judith who ended their reflections with this phase which holds his spirit: “ Many more stories are waiting to be told of George being a social pioneer in his community engagement and a gentle soul in his care for individuals” WE WILL BE CREATING A WAY TO SHARE STORIES, STAY TUNED. On behalf of the Litibu Ecovillage, Salvatore

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