- Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Cathy Pierce this note is from Rosa Loeb, Cathy's daughter.
by Paula Philbrook 09 Jan '19

09 Jan '19

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

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Re: [Dialogue] Cathy Pierce
by Lynda C 08 Jan '19

08 Jan '19

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

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Tributes to Catherine Pierce and Bill Norton
by Karen Snyder 08 Jan '19

08 Jan '19

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

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Global Buzzanuary 2019
by ICA International 08 Jan '19

08 Jan '19

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

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

03 Jan '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateBody .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent, #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateBody .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateFooter .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent, #yiv3818028251 #yiv3818028251templateFooter .yiv3818028251mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } We are not bereft of resources to inspire and instruct our work of hope in a time of eco-darkness. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Some Resources for Hope in a Time of Doomsday Messaging Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox January 3, 2019As we enter a new year amidst the dire warnings from the United Nations and even Trump’s own administration about the peril humans and the rest of the Earth are in due to climate change, it seems fitting to ask: Where are there some resources for hope? Without hope people die. Without hope people do crazy things—like tell one another that we are all doomed and that all we need do is eat, drink and be merry while of course we grab our piece of the disappearing pie. Thomas Aquinas had a warning about doomsday messaging however when he said that the “worst thing a human can do is to teach despair.” He also warned us that despair is the “most dangerous” of all sins—not the worst—that is injustice; but the most dangerous because when a person (or society) is in despair they do not care about themselves much less any one else. (Didn’t Jesus say something about loving your neighbor as yourself?)And who is our neighbor? Is it just the two-legged ones? Or is it also the soil and the trees, the plants and the animals, the birds and fishes and oceans and rivers and birds and air and wind that both feed us and delight us. The UN study gives us twelve years in which to change our ways profoundly. After that climate change will continue pretty much unabated. In its essence the Earth crisis carries a spiritual crisis. It is all quite apocalyptic. As Ted Richards has reminded us in his important book on The Great Re-imagining: Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse, the Greek word for Apocalypse also means Revelation. Which raises the issue: What Revelation is staring us in the face as we wrestle with the survival of the planet as we know it in this apocalyptic time?To me the answer is obvious: The Revelation of How Holy all things are; how holy existence is; how holy our planet is. As Thomas Merton put it, “everything that is is holy.” Or as Meister Eckhart put it: “Isness is God.” Or as Thomas Berry put it: “It has been said, ‘We will not save what we do not love.’ It is also true that we will neither love nor save what we do not experience as sacred…. Eventually only our sense of the sacred will save us.”[1] Will we discover this revelation before it is too late?It is this recovery of the sense of the sacred that we must ignite in ourselves and all our institutions from education to religion, economics, politics, media, agriculture, art, architecture. We do not have a choice. There alone is our “salvation,” our healing, our conversion or metanoia or evolutionary leap into the future of what it means to be human (and has always meant). Lakota teacher Buck Ghosthorse said to me one day: “Do you want to know how sacred water is? Go without it for three days.” Will we learn how sacred the earth was only after we have despoiled and desecrated it? Or might we ignite a fire of wakefulness and awareness and of hope before Earth as we know it is ruined? The profound changes in weather patterns that express themselves in droughts, record fires, unprecedented forceful hurricanes and flooding, the rising of sea levels, the migration of people and other species from unprecedented heat are unmasking our denial (thus revelation, to remove the veil).Eco philosopher David Orr defines hope this way: “Hope is a verb with the sleeves rolled up.” Yes! Hope is proportionate to the work—both inner and outer—that we are willing to undertake in the name of a healthy Earth. Roll up our sleeves and go to work—but from a deep, inner place, not from panic or duty or fear. Consider these resources for work both inner and outer.In Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy Buddhist activist Joanna Macy and physician Chris Johnstone lay out a practical guide to keeping hope alive without shrinking from the “widespread anxiety” that is abroad in our time. Active Hope is a practice—something we do rather than have—they tell us and it does not require optimism. It requires choosing. “Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bring about what we hope for” they remind us (p.3) Their workshops on Hope begin with practices of Gratitude because “Gratitude enhances our resilience, strengthening us to face disturbing information.” (p. 43) Gratitude is the Via Positiva.Writer Scott Russell Sanders, confronted by his seventeen year old son that he lacked hope, responded by entering on a two year retreat in pursuit of Hope. The result was an excellent book, Hunting for Hope: A Father’s Journeys. In it he tells us what he has learned. “I still hanker for the original world, the one that makes us rather than the one we make. I hunger for contact with the shaping power that cures the comet’s path and fills the owl’s throat with son and fashions every flake of snow and carpets the hills with green. It is a prodigal, awful, magnificent power, forever casting new forms into existence then tearing them apart and starting over.” (138)His hope comes from relating to the cosmos and one night stood out for him in particular. “I climbed out of the car with a greeting on my lips, but the sky hushed me. From the black bowl of space countless fiery lights shown down, each one a sun or a swirl of suns, the whole brilliant host of them enough to strike me dumb.” We humans have a longing with us he says that no matter what work we human do and no matter how clever they are, “they will never satisfy this hunger. Only direct experience of Creation will do.” It is faith “in our capacity for decent and loving work, in the healing energy of wildness, in the holiness of Creation” that will yield hope. “That the universe exists at all, that it obeys laws. That those laws have brought forth …life, and out of life consciousness, and out of consciousness these words, this breath, is a chain of wonders. I dangle from that chain and hold on tight.” (39f)Both Macy and Sanders are appealing to Creation Spirituality, the “holiness of Creation,” in Sanders’ words and Macy outlines a four-fold path to hope that is almost identical to the four paths of Creation Spirituality. Creation Spirituality is hopeful not because it is optimistic but because it begins with something bigger than ourselves: Creation. Buddhist poet Gary Snyder defines the Sacred this way: The sacred “helps take us out of our little selves into the whole mountain-and-river mandala universe.” (The Practice of the Wild, 16) For Snyder the sacred and the wild overlap and for Thomas Berry the wild forms the “wellspring of creativity” that we share with all other beings in the universe. Further teachings of Creation Spirituality that build up our muscles of hope are the following:Original Blessing. Isn’t it important to see the Goodness of creation and existence as our starting point? The goodness of the 13.8 billion years that brought our Earth and sun and moon forward as well as ourselves? And also the goodness of ourselves as Original Blessings as well? Doesn’t an original sin ideology, whether found in religion or in consumer capitalism, stifle hope and feed pessimism and self hatred? And in doing so elevate patriarchy which is, as Adrienne Rich taught us, busy teaching us “fatalistic self-hatred”?The Cosmic Christ. Instead of wallowing in psychological and anthropocentric narcissism, shouldn’t we be searching for what Sanders and Snyder speak of: The big picture, the universe, the whole. A post-modern physics begins with the whole, physicist David Bohm teaches. So does a post-modern religion. Christianity flies on two wings—the historical Jesus and the Cosmic Christ. The latter is so rarely taught or evoked—which is why Bishop Marc Andrus and myself teamed up with two artists to share a new and post-modern spiritual practice called the Stations of the Cosmic Christ, which is available as a book and as 16 icons to put on one’s church or retreat walls and a card deck for meditations. The Cosmic Christ theology is found in the earliest Christian sources, namely Paul and the Gospel of Thomas–as well as in the later Gospel stories. All the great Liturgical feasts in the Christian memory from Christmas to Jesus’ Baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost are set in a cosmic context. The Cosmic story of Christ has been hijacked by ecclesial narcissism.The New Cosmology. Creation Stories have always kept tribes together and there is hope in a common creation story being taught by science around the world today that invites us all into the task of co-creating a livable future.The Order of the Sacred Earth. Why not a community and a movement of lovers of the earth (mystics) and defenders of it (prophets or warriors) who comes from all the world spiritual traditions and none and take a vow to love the earth and defend it? That is what the Order of the Sacred Earth is all about. (see Order of the Sacred Earth)Creation Centered Mystics. If the creation spiritual tradition is indeed that of the historical Jesus (and it is because he derives from the wisdom tradition of Israel) and if it is the first author of the Hebrew Bible (the J source which it is), then surely there will be many creation -centered mystics in our lineage. And there are. Jesus and Paul but surely Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Nicolas of Cusa and many artists, poets, musicians, film makers and others in our own times, Thomas Merton included. If Jung is correct when he tells us that “only the mystics bring what is creative to religion itself,” then we ought to be renewing religion out of a deep awareness of this creation-centered mystical tradition.All these elements of creation spirituality nurture and feed hope. I can think of no finer preparation for a hopeful warrior than to feast on the writings of Meister Eckhart who marries psyche and cosmos, the world and the soul, spirit and matter like no one else and who is recognized by students of religions the world over as a champion of truth and justice.[2]Creativity. Otto Rank observes that “pessimism comes with the repression of creativity.” Yes, creativity brings hope (science shows that a creative state awakens endorphins in our brain that make us happy). So art as meditation brings hope and the energy to act that goes with it. Psychologist Claudio Naranjo rightly called extrovert meditation or art as meditation “the way of the prophets.”Speaking of creativity and energy to act, consider, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. This book edited by Paul Hawken inspires hope by offering 100 substantive solutions from scientists and others committed to healing the planet. The book breaks down solutions into the following categories: Energy; Food; Women and Girls; Building and Cities; Land Use; Transport; Materials; Coming Attractions. Within the latter category is a shout out for Pope Francis’ encyclical on “Care For Our Common Home,” Laudato Si. This too is a resource that should be studied and shared.So we can see that we are not bereft of resources to inspire and instruct our work of hope in a time of eco-darkness.~ Matthew Fox Click here to read online and to share your thoughts.About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 35 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 71 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Recent books include The Lotus & The Rose: Conversations on Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity with Lama Tsomo; Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the God Without a Name; new paperback version of Stations of the Cosmic Christ with Bishop Marc Andrus. A Special Eckhart@Erfurt workshop in June, 2019.*******************************[1] Forward to Kathleen Deignan, ed., When the Trees Say Nothing: Thomas Merton Writings on Nature(Notre Dame, In., Sorin Books, 2003), 18f.[2] I put Eckhart in the room with Rabbi Heschel, Thich Naht Hanh, Avicenna, Rumi and Hafiz, Black Elk, Hindu Coomeraswamy, etc. in my Meister Eckhart: Mystic-Warrior For Our Times, New World Library, 2015. | | | | | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Matt I desire to continue my spiritual journey by walking the Christ path as it is and has been the path of my life. I believe God to be the source of life, love, and ground of being. I don’t believe God is a personal being as Christianity and the Bible often defines or illustrates. That said, is Progressive Christianity, as the community defines it, Pantheistic or Panentheistic? If God is not personal, what rationale do we, as progressive followers of Christ, have to believe God greater and beyond our universe (Panentheism) rather than just being our universe (Pantheism)? Does continuing to walk the Christ path mean that I must onto notion/faith that God is something greater than everything? I’m considering attending a United Universalist Church, the closest thing to Progressive Christianity I can find in my area. I hesitate because I don’t want to lose my focus on the Christ path as it has been so fruitful in my life. A: By Joran Slane Oppelt Dear Matt,The difference between pantheism (“all is God”) and panentheism (“all is in God, and God is in all things”) is a subtle shift — a micro adjustment — along a spectrum that includes mythic, traditional, modern, pluralistic, mystical and unitive beliefs. This spectrum (as seen in Spiral Dynamics, Fowler’s Stages of Faith, etc.) is an evolutionary model that applies to all world religions. In my opinion, every Christian expression at pluralistic and beyond (and even some modernists) can safely be referred to as a “progressive” Christianity. But that tiny shift along the religious spectrum can result in cataclysmic changes for the individual and their worldview. Because Christianity emerged relatively recently in history, when discussing panentheism we must also make a distinction between concepts like a living, monotheistic and Abrahamic God and a pre-Christian, animistic Creator (Spirit) whose body is the living universe. We need both history and mythology to tackle the big questions. I can hear your frustration with the lack of clarity on the topic as well as seeking a church home in your area. I know that lonely feeling. I understand the personal importance of wanting to clearly align yourself with the cosmological view of an organization. It’s how we share language, values, ideas and experience within a community of practice. It determines how we show up and serve others. It’s how we belong. But, I have a hunch that this question (the nature of God) will be a personal one -- and one that is wrestled with until we pass into the next world. To clarify what Progressive Christianity “believes” or where they stand on doctrine might be tough. The “Progressive Christianity” movement is a sprawling tangle of roots and branches that includes the emerging, contemplative, integral and evangelical. Some churches are more progressive than Christian (some more Christian than progressive). The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity (as listed at ProgressiveChristianity.org) state that Christ teaches us about the “sacredness, oneness and Unity of all life.” They say nothing at all about God. And, for me, this is the heart of the matter. Mystical religious experience — a personal relationship with the Divine — is the path of Christ. Walking the Christ path doesn’t require you to believe anything about God or the universe, it simply requires that you love God with all your heart. God doesn’t need to be a “personal Being” in order for me to have a personal relationship with God. This is where the mystics (Eckhart, Hildegard, Teresa, Merton, et. al.) got it right. We can appreciate their poetry about crystal castles and babbling streams and the “innermost” and the holy journey “Christward” as a description of that love. As Ilia Delio describes, “God is a name that points to an unfathomable mystery of unquenchable love and inestimable goodness. There’s no human mind that could get itself wrapped around the infinite or eternal love that God is.” In Psalm 139 -- a poem about this exact everywhereness of God (“Where can I escape from thy spirit?”) -- we may know that God is in all things (lightness, darkness) but only after showing up there ourselves. I may enjoy playing catch with this ball (“the nature of God”) in slow motion with you via the internet, but the Spirit of this question truly comes to life when it is becomes midrash, conversation, interpretation -- when it is argued and debated with others following the way and walking alongside you on the path. Which brings me to UU. I assume when you say that you’re considering attending a “United Universalist” church in your area, you mean “Unitarian Universalism.” I have two thoughts: 1) You should not hesitate to seek community at any church you want. Attend a different church each week, if you like. It doesn’t mean you need to become a member or join a committee or change your religious affiliation. 2) Unitarian Universalism has a rich history of being an open, welcoming, tolerant and loving church with a commitment to social justice and community. Every UU community I’ve been to has been a place where Christians, Buddhists and atheists alike can gather, sing, celebrate, serve and grow together. What UU typically does not offer (and, of course there are exceptions) are communities of practice for those following the very personal path of the mystic or the contemplative. Sadly, it’s all too rare in the Christian churches as well. UUs are progressive and liberal and would wholeheartedly welcome the deism/theism or pantheism/panentheism debate, but if your focus is to keep Christ at the heart of all things, then I feel like you might be better served in a Christian (not an interfaith) community. It’s worth having a candid conversation with your local UU minister to see if there’s a home for you there. Wherever you land, they will be lucky to have your gifts of focus, insight and curiosity. I will pray for your continued discernment as you navigate the Way. Looking forward,~ Joran Slane Oppelt Click here to read and share onlineAbout the Author Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister, life coach and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and founder of Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay committed to “transformative practice, community service and religious literacy.” Joran is the author of Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox), Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He serves as President of Interfaith Tampa Bay and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion.He has presented at South by Southwest in Austin, TX; Building the New World Conference in Radford, VA; Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City; Embrace Festival in Portland, OR and Integral European Conference in Siófok, Hungary. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Dallas, Texas: A New Vision Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October 11, 2006 Dallas, Texas, has never been one of my favorite cities. Its image was firmly set for me during the course of a single month in 1963, when two events occurred that rocked this country. First, the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., was booed, abused and spat upon by a Dallas crowd while making a speech on the United Nations.Recent harsh, right-wing editorials in its newspapers were considered responsible for inciting this mentality among Dallas citizens. Within a month in this same city, that anger struck again as President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Dallas became for me a city of hostility. A decade later that negative image was enhanced when I was gathering material to write the biography of my personal mentor and hero, John Elbridge Hines, who had been Bishop of Texas prior to his election a Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (1964-1973). As his official biographer I had the privilege of reading all of the correspondence sent to him and the press notices that referred to him. The amount of vituperative rhetoric that he received from Dallas citizens, and the stridently negative coverage of him in the Dallas Morning News confirmed my less than positive feelings about that city.Later in my days as a bishop, the leadership of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, especially its one-time Suffragan Bishop Robert Terwilliger, kept the Dallas negativity at full strength. Terwilliger was a consistently hostile voice in our church as we sought to wrestle with the issues of a changing world. He adamantly opposed the ordination of women to the priesthood and directed constant and emotional energy against every liberalizing move the church made in the seventies and eighties to bring justice and acceptance to gay and lesbian people. None of these experiences served to counter my poor image of Dallas.Yet I could recall things long stored in my memory bank about Dallas that were positive. When I was a child I was a Washington Senators baseball fan. The Washington organization was the parent team of the Charlotte Hornets who played in my hometown and to this team my childhood devotion was intense. Charlotte Hornet players who made it to the big leagues, like Early Wynn, Al Evans, Jake Early, Jim Bloodworth and Bobby Estalella, were my ultimate heroes. Most did not stay with the Senators, but were traded or sold by this chronically bad team to pay its bills. Finally poor crowds forced this team out of Washington, first to Minneapolis-St. Paul to become the Minnesota Twins, and after a second Washington team also failed, it was moved to Dallas to become the Texas Rangers. I then transferred my affection to the Rangers and pulled for this Dallas/Fort Worth team until I moved to Newark in 1976 and fell in love with the Yankees of Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson and Catfish Hunter. However, for that brief time Dallas gained credibility and warmth inside my not always objective psyche and served to temper my heretofore negative image.Over the years these positive feelings began to grow as I accepted a number of invitations to speak in this city. I lectured at Southern Methodist University where an “adopted” son of mine named Chace Brinegar was a student, and then at the Perkins Theological Seminary where the great theologian Schubert Ogden was a respected and admired member of the faculty. I led a clergy conference for the Methodists of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I even engaged in a printed debate in the Dallas Morning News with the current Episcopal Bishop of Dallas, James Stanton, that I enjoyed, but I don’t think he did. On three different occasions, I spoke at the very unique Dallas Cathedral of Hope. On three other occasions, I gave a series of lectures at the Unity Church of Dallas. All of these were wonderful experiences and I began to develop a circle of friends in that city who forced me to recognize that the monolithic negative definition of any place is always inappropriate. Every city, indeed every place, has within it both good and evil, things for which to be proud and things for which to be ashamed.I go into this personal history as a preamble to a recent experience in which Christine and I spent five wonderful days in Dallas, that were as meaningful as any time as I have ever known. We arrived on a Friday and that evening and on Saturday night, we both attended, along with some 400 people, two performances of the play “A Pebble in My Shoe,” written and directed by Los Angeles playwright Colin Cox. This play is based on my autobiography, Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love and Equality. It has been floating around the country at various venues since it opened in Los Angeles in late 2005. Dallas was the second Texas city, after Austin, where it has been performed. Both nights the audience was wonderfully responsive to this drama about the Church’s struggle with racism, sexism and homophobia.On Sunday I spoke twice at the Cathedral of Hope to a combined audience of some 1,300 people. Founded in 1973 as a worship community for homosexual people, this church has had as its senior pastor for the past nineteen years, the Rev. Michael Piazza, a gay Methodist minister of enormous talent. During his tenure the Cathedral of Hope emerged as one of that city’s largest congregations with an online ministry that reaches 10,000 people a week. The multiple Sunday worship services are augmented by a spectacular choir of some 40 – 50 voices and a marvelous full orchestra under the direction of Cynthia Brown. Once they had a choral group calling itself “The Positive Singers,” because all of its singers were HIV positive.The new leader of this church is the Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson, who has a graduate degree in Theology from Perkins and a PhD from Texas A. & M. She was an ordained Methodist minister who was outed as a lesbian and dismissed from her congregation. She found her ministry in this incredible place where, along with Michael, she is universally loved and admired and where her incredible talents are on full display. The Cathedral of Hope was originally affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination created by the Rev. Dr. Troy Perry specifically for the rejected homosexual members of all churches that today has over 300,000 members around the world. The Cathedral of Hope is at this moment negotiating to enter the Christian Protestant mainstream by affiliating with the United Church of Christ. This transition is symbolic of the transition going on in America as homophobia dies and gay and lesbian people enter the life of full citizenship in both our nation and our churches. Michael Piazza told me some years ago that at the height of the AIDS epidemic, he was conducting as many as 20 to 25 funerals a month, almost all of them for young males less than 40 years of age. I have thought many times of how grateful I am to this church for giving its love and pastoral care to so many who found the welcome of Christ lacking in the churches in which they were raised.As the service unfolded in that church on that Sunday morning, tears came to my eyes as I watched worshipers come up as couples or as family groups to receive communion. The acceptance accorded to so many who have endured so much rejection was present in the joy and love on the faces of these gay and lesbian people. Couples held hands, sometimes a gay son or lesbian daughter would come to receive the sacrament accompanied both by their partners and their parents. This was a church in which they could finally be openly together.That afternoon, my wife and I accepted their invitation to ride in the back of a Lincoln Town Car convertible as part of the Dallas Gay Pride Parade. On that ride we received the love, cheers and applause of the thousands who lined the streets along the parade route. We were announced at the various stops along the way as the Episcopal bishop who had fought for the full acceptance of homosexual people in the life of the church. The crowd waved, shouted and called us by our names. It rained constantly during the parade on that open convertible, but neither the rain nor a group of Bible-wielding counter demonstrators could dim the joy of that day for us. The counter-demonstrators, with voices screaming and faces contorted by anger promised us the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. I am always amazed at how the Bible, that portrays my Lord embracing the outcasts, touching the lepers, welcoming the Samaritans, not judging the woman taken in the act of adultery, and inviting “all of ye,” not “some of ye,” to “come unto me,” can, in the hands of a few distorted people be turned into a book of hatred, violence and judgment.The Dallas visit ended with a lecture delivered to a large audience of people at the Unity Church of Dallas on Monday evening. The Unity Movement is a branch of Christianity to which I have in recent years become deeply attracted, as it quite self-consciously seeks to redefine the Christian faith outside the categories of sin, guilt, rescue and control.Its theology begins in Matthew Fox’s concept of “Original Blessing” rather than with the traditional concept of “Original Sin.” It sees and encourages personal growth and the call to full humanity. It proclaims a Christianity built on love and inclusion. It affirms each person as he or she is and then seeks to provide both the community and the resources to help that person grow into being all that he or she can be. Unity sees Christianity as a religion of acceptance not judgment, of expanding life not controlling behavior. The Unity movement contains much of what I believe will mark the Christian Church of the future.Christine and I flew home on Tuesday with the smiles of those who have been in the presence of the Holy. We also came away with warm new feelings about the city of Dallas. Is it possible that the Kingdom of God might be dawning in Texas? God does move in mysterious ways, doesn’t she?~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | Events and Updates Catalysts for Change Online: January 7 - 27, 2019 In your day, you’ve probably made a lot of resolutions — large and lofty goals covering all aspects of your life — and then watched them fall to the wayside one by one. Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks to break a habit or start a new practice. So here is a 21-day journey on the path of change. Each day you will receive an email with a short reading from a spiritual teacher and a spiritual practice to do, to help you firm up your resolve and make small steps for change. Click here for more information/registration. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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

02 Jan '19

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

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2018 Fall Sojourn Board Report revised
by Jean Long (via Google Docs) 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

I've shared an item with you: 2018 Fall Sojourn Board Report revised https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qbDIcf7nYD55EMzNHk4o2e2_jBjpW-Fk3TBFisV… It's not an attachment -- it's stored online. To open this item, just click the link above. Greetings as we turn the corner to a new year - --This is a report on the Fall Sojourn Week that was shared with the ICA Board. It is a shorter version - there is a link in the report that will take you to a longer report. --It was a watershed week. The physical structure of the website is developed to the point where some of the Collections (Image Based Learning and Facilitation Methods in partcular) have link capability from the topics on the home page to documents at other levels. --The major focus was figuring out how to get digitized documents into the website frame - and that task happened. --Now Doug Druckenmiller is training people virtually in each of the Collection categories to be able to do that procedure. --One of the next major tasks will be to write contexts of the "what, why and how" for each Collection and the methods and procedures listed under them so that the material becomes user friendly. The Spring Archives Sojourn week will take place at the Greenrise Building in Chicago from Sunday, April 14 (arrive) - Saturday, April 20th (depart). To share your questions or responses with the Archives Advisory Committee, please send them to: jean.long512(a)gmail.com 720-633-5008

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12/27/18, Progressing Spirit: Joran Slane Oppelt: The Sound of Silence: Valuing the "Via Negativa"; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 27 Dec '18

27 Dec '18

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2506014273 #yiv2506014273templateBody .yiv2506014273mcnTextContent, #yiv2506014273 #yiv2506014273templateBody .yiv2506014273mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2506014273 #yiv2506014273templateFooter .yiv2506014273mcnTextContent, #yiv2506014273 #yiv2506014273templateFooter .yiv2506014273mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } It is in this new post-modern, plugged-in environment we must consider and give context to the value of silence and to the virtues of stillness. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Sound of Silence: Valuing the Via Negativa Column by Joran Slane Oppelt December 27, 2018 “Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.” – Simon and Garfunkel SILENCE Every second Tuesday, I host a “Silent Reading and Writing Party” at our meditation center in St. Petersburg, FL. We gather in the classroom, silence our phones, relinquish them into a wooden bowl, get comfortable on the floor, bolstering ourselves with pillows and cushions, and retreat into a good book. We ceremoniously begin and end the sustained 90 minutes of silence with the sound of the gong that rests in the corner of the room. And, inevitably, the silence we enter is not-so-silent. There are sounds of traffic from outside, the occasional sounds of someone scribbling in their journal, the sounds of someone getting up and making themselves a cup of tea or coffee. Even the creaks, pops and groans of the human body seem loud and out of place in that hushed room. At the end of each session we share a bit about what we’ve read (or written) and even those nervous first-timers (those who cling to and hesitate to give up their device or who go wide-eyed at the sound of the gong) share an appreciation for the chance to be in proximity to others without the obligation or expectation to speak. The average American spends more than 11 hours per day staring at a screen — reading, watching, listening or interacting with media (or each other). That is most of our waking hours. Worldwide, people send 23 billion text messages per day. That’s 16 million per minute. It seems that we are communicating more, but that we are communicating more silently. A silent, permeating hum. And, any glance around the dining room of a local restaurant — once a table has exhausted all conversation and small talk and turned once again to their phones — will prove there is no longer such a thing as awkward silence. LANGUAGE In his book, The Four Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World, Laurence Scott illustrates the sometimes confusing new language used to describe the sensory range of digital life. “Consider, for instance,” he writes, “the photographic meaning of ‘digital noise’ as referring to a graininess or unwanted pixelation of the computerized image.“ There is also the concept of “muting“ an advertisement or text message conversation, rendering it invisible as opposed to inaudible. The official language in Twitter‘s 2014 announcement debuting its silencing feature read, “Muting a user on Twitter means their tweets and retweets will no longer be visible in your home timeline.“ Imagine reading that statement in 1980 (or even in 1990). Then there is the “chat.“ Whether with a family member, coworker, customer service representative or robot, “chatting“ is something we now do in a small square window on our mobile device or desktop. Of course, there are options for “Voice Chat,“ and as Scott writes, “This one-time redundancy, which prior to the digital age would have seemed as strange a term as, say, ‘Ear Listening,’ now offers a valid distinction. ‘Chat’ alone no longer implies vocals. Voice Chat thus efficiently suggests, in two words, how our assumptions about sound, and the ways we perceive it, are not what they used to be.” THE VOID It is in this new post-modern, plugged-in environment we must consider and give context to the value of silence and to the virtues of stillness. The words “fasting“ and “cleanse“ — usually reserved for diet and nutrition — are now used in conjunction with media and personal screen time. And, the long-term effects on the body and mind of this new way of being — this digital everywhereness or embeddedness — are still unknown. What is known is that deep in the heart of stillness and the silence of solitude, there is the opportunity for reflection, contemplation, creation and growth. Seasonally (and spiritually) there is a benefit to entering the darkness or the void of Winter after having taken the inventory of the harvest and contemplating what to re-plant or re-seed. The phrase “dark night of the soul“ (first coined by St. John of the Cross) has long been used to describe the suffering of those who are grieving or of those who have chosen to dance the tortured path that winds along the precipice of creation and transformation. But, we all experience our own dark night. Episcopalian priest, Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox has argued that the Neo-Platonic three-fold path of purgation, illumination and union, used in much of Western philosophy and spirituality, is sorely antiquated. In books like Creation Spirituality and Original Blessing, he has proposed a new four-fold path — the via positiva, via negativa, via creativa and via transformativa — the ways of wonder, mystery, creativity and justice. Commenting on the via negativa in Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox writes, “As divine as all creation is, the human person must learn to let go of things in order to let things be things and in order that reverence might be learned. Things are not bad but the human propensity to cling to things is harmful and creates the dualisms that result in all sin. When we let go and let be we learn new levels of trust including trust in the dark and in our experiences of nothingness, both personal and political.“ Consciously and deliberately moving into stillness, darkness, silence and the void can be terrifying. We may find ourselves going wide-eyed at the sound of the gong — the signal for us to leap. We may freeze. We may stand on the edge of the precipice, leaning forward into the wind-whipped emptiness and find ourselves without the courage to simply fall forward. Luckily for us, the decision to grieve or transform is rarely ours to make. It is made for us by God, the machinations of the cosmos, the wind that carries us over the edge, or by the gentle (or not-so-gentle) hand of another. Fox reminds us, “There is no moving from superficiality to depth — and every spiritual journey is about moving from the surface to the depths — without entering the dark.“ “Daring the dark means entering nothingness and letting it be nothingness while it works its mystery on us. Daring the dark also means allowing pain to be pain and learning from it.“ In Creation Spirituality, Fox offers us this commandment — “Thou shalt dare the dark” — but he does so not without first instructing us through the via positiva. It is by first passing through and celebrating our sense of awe, wonder, gratitude and joy that we are able to enter into darkness and the mystery of The Void. This is what carries us through the other side into a new season of creation and reinvention. This is the lantern that we bring with us into the cave, that burning ember — or promise of the birth of the Christ child within — that gives us hope. FORWARD MOVEMENT In his book, Religious Inquiry – Participation and Detachment, Holmes Rolston III writes, “Algebra is an activity that one cannot watch with any notion of what is going on unless he himself knows how to do it. All those parts which one cannot do, one cannot understand. Religion is like this. Unless one can do it, what he or she observes makes no sense.” All the sacred language and meaning-making in the world is nonsense unless we can survive transformation at the deepest center of our being. If we don’t rise every morning and return to our advocacy and activism, if we don’t eventually reawaken from that dark night of the soul to experience more beauty, goodness and truth, then we are lost in The Void. Our effort to survive will be predicated on our ability to bridge the gap between understanding and undergoing. Trusting that we are the process is the process. Knowing that the question is always part of the answer is wisdom. As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves.“ Going forward, we must not fear change. We must learn to love the unsettled and unfinished parts of ourselves. We must brace ourselves for the sound of the gong and enter that silence bravely. We must relinquish our smartphones to the wise, wooden bowl and find each other through the sharing of stories. We must carry our coffee and tea, our culture and technology, with us into Winter, knowing that we will encounter someone along the way to share a cup and a conversation with that may be more wounded or angry than we are. We must be comforted that we will be held through every transformation, every loss, every rotation of the Cosmic spiral by the steady, certain hand of faith. That this, too, shall pass. We must always remember that we learn by doing — by picking up and putting down. As we learn to test the waters, and push our chests out into the wind as we dive off the edge of doubt, we improve with every turn at rising again. We show future generations how easy it can be to grieve, to forgive, to reconcile and to rebuild. We show them how to relight and pick back up the torch of their sacred work — that crude hand-fashioned tool used to transport the divine spark which can illuminate the shadowy, darkened corners or burn the whole thing down. A WINTER PRAYER Spirit, grant me the strength To rise and relight my torch That I may build something new. Grant me the insight To understand and undergo My transforming, ever-broadening, edges. Grant me the peace To love the unfinished parts within. Grant me the wisdom that comes With always becoming. ~ Joran Slane Oppelt Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the AuthorJoran Slane Oppelt Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister, life coach and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and founder of Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay committed to “transformative practice, community service and religious literacy.” Joran is the author of Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox), Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He serves as President of Interfaith Tampa Bay and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion. He has presented at South by Southwest in Austin, TX; Building the New World Conference in Radford, VA; Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City; Embrace Festival in Portland, OR and Integral European Conference in Siófok, Hungary. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Heather What is the relationship between Christianity and other religions? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Pauline, Every religious system the world over begins as a way of enabling people to enter the experience of transcendence and meaning. There is something about self-conscious human beings that forces us to seek to commune with the source of our life. That experience is so deep that I am not sure there is such a thing as a nonreligious human being. There are certainly human beings who reject a particular religious content but none that fail to raise the ultimate questions that create our various religious answers. All of this is to say that the great religions of the world have codified that eternal quest into systems of thought that now dominate the various regions of the world. Christianity is today primarily the religion of the Western world and those areas that have been colonized by Western powers. Islam is the religion of the Middle East stretching into Africa in the West and Indonesia in the East. Hinduism and its child Buddhism dominate the religious landscape of the East. There are clearly many divisions inside each of these religious traditions. There are also minority religious movements like Jews and Jains that are scattered throughout the regions of the world and that live under the domination of one of the majority traditions. Conflict arises in the world of religion when any system decides that it has captured the Ultimate Truth of God and therefore all other systems are defective or subject to conversion. I honor the pathway that Christianity has offered me since it enables me to walk into the wonder of God. This does not mean, however, that I am, somehow, incapable of also honoring the pathway that others walk. If we believe that God is one then all pathways to God are in the last analysis, journeys toward the same goal. I intend to live within my faith traditions as deeply as I can. That does not mean that I will ever allow my devotion to the God I meet in Christ to be used to denigrate any religious system different from my own. I hope that religious maturity might soon lead us all in this direction. ~ John Shelby Spong Originally published October 8, 2003 Click here to read and share online | | | | | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Study of New Testament Miracles, Part III Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October 4, 2006 In the opening column in this series on miracles in the Bible, I noted two things. First, the accounts of miracles in the Bible are generally limited to three cycles of stories within the biblical narrative. They are part of the Moses-Joshua cycle of stories, the Elijah-Elisha cycle of stories and the Jesus-Disciples of Jesus cycle of stories. There is an occasional supernatural tale in other parts of the Bible, but these are the only areas where they are concentrated. Second, miracles in the biblical story are not necessarily moral acts. The plagues inflicted on the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus, which included the divine killing of the first-born son in every Egyptian household, are hardly moral by any standard we would employ today. The narrative of Joshua asking God to stop the sun in the sky to allow him and his army more daylight hours to complete the slaughtering of his Amorite enemies is also a rather bizarre divine act. In that analysis, we discovered that in the Moses-Joshua stories, the miracles recounted are almost exclusively nature miracles, by which I mean they are stories of the manipulation of natural forces to achieve a human goal. The plagues on Egypt involved turning the Nile River into blood, commanding hailstones and darkness to fall upon the nation, the affliction of the people with boils and the livestock with disease were all, the Bible says, miraculously sent to accomplish specific human purposes. The idea that anyone has the power to command what we regard as the natural forces of the universe to enter into his or her service is very strange indeed. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha also tended to occur in the natural order. These prophets were said to be able to manipulate the weather patterns to achieve their purposes and Elijah was deemed capable of calling down fire from heaven to burn up his enemies. However, the content of miracle accounts grow in the Elijah-Elisha cycle, for it is here that miraculous healings and even accounts of raising a dead person back to life enter the biblical tradition. When we come to the gospels, we discover that Jesus was said to be capable of performing miracles in each of these three areas of life. Associated with him was a series of nature miracles: Jesus stilled the storm, walked on water, expanded the food supply and caused a fig tree to die by laying a curse on it, all of which involved manipulating the natural order. Yet the gospels also portray Jesus as a healer, enabling the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the mute to sing and those who were “possessed by demons” to be cleansed or exorcised. Jesus was said to have had this healing power even though some of the first century diagnoses, like ‘demon possession,’ are today dismissed as pre-modern ignorance. There are also three stories told in the gospels in which Jesus was said to have the power to raise the dead. They were the daughter of Jairus, whose story is told in Mark, Matthew and Luke; the raising of a widow’s son from death in the village of Nain, told only in Luke, and finally the story of the raising of Lazarus, told only in John’s gospel. The point I want to make in this brief analysis is that each type of miracle that is attributed to Jesus in the gospels also occurs in the earlier cycles of Moses-Joshua and Elijah-Elisha. So my first inquiry into understanding the miracle stories in the gospels leads me to ask whether the miracles attributed to past biblical heroes might have been used to help shape the miracle accounts told about Jesus. Pursuing this line of inquiry raises the possibility that these miracles stories might have been developed to serve the interpretative purpose of seeing Jesus as a new Moses or a new Elijah far more than they were the descriptions of actual events that literally happened in history. This week I explore this possibility more deeply. Note first that Moses as the father of the law and Elijah as the father of the prophetic movement represent the twin towers of the Jewish religion. The religion called Judaism was said to “hang on the law and the prophets.” Moses and Elijah also loom large in the background of the gospels. As I mentioned in the second column of this series, Moses’ name appears seventy-eight times in the New Testament and Elijah’s twenty-nine times. In the dramatic story that Christians call the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were said to appear on that mountaintop with Jesus and to converse with him. When Peter responded to this vision with the suggestion that three tabernacles be built to mark this event, one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus, he was raising Jesus to the highest status that a Jew could imagine by making Jesus equal to Moses and Elijah. The fact that in this story Peter was rebuked by a heavenly voice that elevated Jesus above both Moses and Elijah probably reflects the early struggle among the disciples of Jesus about who he was and how his life was to be understood. It is clear from a study of the gospels that some stories that had been told about Moses and Elijah were retold about Jesus. In the minds of the first Christians a mutual dependency binding Moses and Elijah with Jesus is obvious. However, these stories are magnified to demonstrate Jesus’ superiority, which was the conclusion his followers had drawn. One thinks immediately of the story told only in Matthew’s gospel about a wicked king named Herod who sent his troops to Bethlehem with orders to kill all the Jewish male babies less than two years of age. His desire was to destroy God’s promised deliverer. When Moses was born another wicked king, that time named Pharaoh, also ordered all Jewish boy babies destroyed in a vain effort to remove God’s promised deliverer. Matthew had Mary, Joseph and Jesus fleeing to Egypt to escape this purge. This also meant that just as God called Moses to come out of Egypt, so God could now call Jesus, the new Moses, to come out of Egypt. Jesus’ baptism is filled with Moses images. Moses splits the ‘Red Sea’ to lead people to understand that God is working through him. Jesus, the new Moses, splits the heavens, which contain ‘the waters above the firmament’ (Gen. 1:6), which then flow down on him as the Holy Spirit so people can see that God dwells in him. In the wilderness Moses asks God to send heavenly bread, called manna, to the starving multitude. In the wilderness Jesus expands five loaves to feed a multitude. The stories are related. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) Jesus is portrayed as the new Moses, on a new mountain, giving a new interpretation of the Torah. Once again the evidence reveals that the story of Jesus has been shaped by the story of Moses. Elijah is not as prominent as Moses in the New Testament, but he is still a figure in the background of the gospel tradition. In both Mark and Matthew, the Elijah role is delegated to John the Baptist. Luke, however, counters this by saying that John the Baptist is not the new Elijah, but only the one who comes in “the spirit of Elijah.” The reason for this becomes obvious when Luke reaches the climax of his story and begins to portray Jesus as the new Elijah by expanding the Elijah story from the Book of Kings. In Luke’s unique story of Jesus raising the only son of a widow from the dead, the echoes of Elijah raising a widow’s son from the dead are heard. However, the key place where this identification focuses is found in the comparison of the ascension of Elijah (II Kings 2) with the story told only in Luke of Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1,2). Luke is clearly building the Elijah story into his portrait of Jesus. In these two narratives both Elijah and Jesus ascend into heaven. The text about Elijah indicates that he needs a magical chariot, fiery horses and a God-sent whirlwind to accomplish this feat. Jesus, the new and greater Elijah, is portrayed as ascending on his own power. Elijah pours out on his single disciple and successor, Elisha, a double portion of his enormous, but still human, spirit. Luke, however, portrays Jesus as pouring out the infinite power of God’s Holy Spirit on the whole gathered community of disciples in sufficient supply to last through all generations. Under the skill of Luke’s quill, the fire from Elijah’s horses and chariot becomes the tongues of fire that light on the disciples’ heads and Elijah’s propelling whirlwind becomes the “mighty rushing wind” of the Holy Spirit filling the whole room on the day of Pentecost. There are other connections between Jesus and the Moses and Elijah cycles that space does not allow me to cover in this brief article. Taken together, however, they form the basis for the suggestion that long before the gospels were written, both Moses and Elijah had become models through which Jesus’ followers understood him and by which they processed the Jesus experience. In this way, Moses and Elijah stories were in fact wrapped around Jesus, becoming the source of at least some of the miracles attributed to Jesus in the gospels. I conclude this column by examining just one. Moses demonstrated God’s power over water in the Red Sea narrative. After Moses died, this power was celebrated in the writings of the prophets and in the psalms until it became a regular part of the Jewish understanding of God found in their liturgies. These liturgies proclaimed that God could make a divine path in the ‘deep,’ that God’s footprints could be seen upon the water. When the disciples of Jesus began to say that they had met the presence of the holy God in Jesus, they simply attributed those ancient God concepts to Jesus as the only way that human language could be stretched sufficiently to capture the meaning of their experience. Like God, Jesus could still the storm. Like God, Jesus could walk upon water. These were not observed miracles being described by eyewitnesses; these were interpretative words describing the God presence they believed they had met in Jesus. As we begin to see these connections, a new way to look at the miracle stories emerges. The nature miracles are not supernatural acts so much as they are interpretative signs. They are Moses and Elijah stories magnified. We thus misread the gospels by literalizing them. There is far more data to be considered, but this is a start. We destabilize the literal view to capture the experience that literalism can never capture. This study will continue. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | | | Announcements Now Available as a PDF Download! Bishop Spong's The Origins of the Bible: The Old Testament Introducing Bishop Spong’s landmark series on the Origin of the Bible covering both Old and New Testaments. His scholarly analysis and signature insights breakdown the past, present and future of these sacred texts. Click here for more information ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Fwd: Witness- Birthday
by Richard Alton 20 Dec '18

20 Dec '18

*Oh My God, Life* …the things that happen in life are astonishing..being driven to and fro by the mystery.. a few recent examples I attended part of the ICA USA Board meeting last month. We broke up into small groups and I was in a group with John Cock II. He and I were in Kenya together. I think it was John’s 9th grade trip. I was impressed to hear him rattle off the villages he worked in: Kwangware, Kamweleni and Mugumwoini...just like he had been there yesterday. John was a great addition. Probably, the first Board member literally born into the organization- now an urban engineer with a focus on bike trails. Had his middle school daughter with him. I wonder when she is going abroad. The afternoon I was there, the Board brainstormed ICA core values- things like community development, ToP methods, being a learning organization, even poverty, chastity and obedience. I struggled with this question of core values. I think the core of the core is the ability to give a witness.. to stand present to one’s life and the amazing things revealed or that happen to one…the mystery at work in one’s life. Like on Halloween night I was coming home late at night on my bike and ran right onto a big pile of leaves- it knocked me off my bike, split my lip and banged up my ribs. I made it home but the next day was having trouble breathing so went to the hospital. They performed a CT scan. There were no broken ribs, but the scan showed that I had spots on my lungs...so this all happened to catch my attention about my lungs... and on Halloween (the Day of the Dead). The second part of my Halloween leaf event: it seems the leaves grabbed my phone- so the day after the fall, I could not find my phone- that really hurt. I went back to all the places I had been including the leaf place but no phone. Finally, after I had given up Sally asked me, “doesn’t Apple have an app that will help you find a lost phone?” so on my computer I found the lost apple link and sure enough on the screen map there was a flashing signal. It was about a 100 yards from where I fell. So I follow the map and there is my cell on the curb like it had been waiting for me… think those leaves put it there. Is this not The Other World in the midst of this world…a Visit to the Land of Mystery? These Visits seem to come in 3s. I work on the One Earth Film Fest through which we show environmental movies all over greater Chicago and engage people in conversation and action in response to the films. So I received an email from a Dexter Watson at St Malachi/Precious Blood Parish about showing a movie. I set up a meeting with Dexter on the Westside of Chicago. It turns out Dexter is not only the parish coordinator but also the former Alderman of the area. And yes, Fifth City is in his former Aldermanic area. In fact, one of Dexter’s favorite people and a mentor was the late Verdell Trice, the head of the Fifth City Auto Center and board member of the Preschool. Dexter even tried to have a street named after Verdell at one time. This is the second time I have been driven back to 5th City. You know we are going to have a great film fest event there. Dick Alton, introduced to the mystery in December,1968 and working with the mystery on the future of planet Earth ever since. Oak Park, Illinois -- Richard H. T. Alton One Earth Film Fest ( OEFF) Green Community Connections Interfaith Green Network T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com **Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2019, March 1-10* http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 -- Richard H. T. Alton One Earth Film Fest ( OEFF) Green Community Connections Interfaith Green Network T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com **Save the Date! One Earth Film Festival 2019, March 1-10* http:www.oneearthfilmfestival.org Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2

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Winds and Waves reminder for December
by ICA International 16 Dec '18

16 Dec '18

Any problem reading this message please click or paste this URL in your browser's address bar http://windswaves.icai-archives.org/new-ww/ en français en español November 2018 This is a reminder for entries to our new Winds and Waves Magazine We are delighted to invite you to share your stories here via this link medium.com/winds-and-waves We also welcome videos that show the work you are doing. And we would be delighted if you would share stories from Winds and Waves on your own social media networks. 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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