June 2013 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Re: [Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future
by Bill Parker 06 Aug '13

06 Aug '13

Greetings, I prefer "the human community" networked but working in a multitude of manifestations toward what is of primary value. When we are talking about faith traditions we are talking about something that crystalized for a moment in history an articulation of life, what it meant to be fully human (both liberated, humble, and a servant), and how that understanding of being human was manifest in a human community. The sources underlying this are the basis of evolution and the health of the species. When we move into poetry with this before it is manifested in relationships it becomes abstract and raises questions that must be answered before anyone knows whether they want to be a part of it or not. The poetry comes out of life and music comes out of community. We live in a time where that must be new. The "missional" images of our work (environment, those who care) and concerns we have (prisons, education) as the primary metaphors only serve to delimit the overarching purpose of a community of humanness. And it obscures the essential nature of developing the core that connects the vast array of engagement in order that each dimension can have a system impact for the future. Just thinking..... Bill Parker ----- Original Message ----- From: Jack Gilles To: Order Ecumenical Community Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 1:02 PM Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future Dear All, Herman has started a new and profound dialogue. This is indeed what we were aiming at with our creation of the Springboard group and list serve years ago. There is no doubt that there is a core of us who feel deeply about the need to relate together in a proactive role in a number of domains. It was the basis of the Springboard that the Order decision so many of us participated in transcends any particular manifestation, and many of us consider ourselves "Order" until death. I believe, like Herman, the existence of a self-conscious Order is something to seriously consider. All of us have encountered people who never heard of the ICA/EI/OE but would see themselves as part of the "Invisible College", "The League" etc. and would find a covenanted body meaningful. The key question is "for what end" would it be? I have always liked the name "Order of the Earth" (OE) as a holding category and shifts the relationship from religion to Ecology (in the most profound sense). Anyway, I an certain that not everyone on this list serve wants to participate in this conversation, but I'll let others suggest at what point we would shift to either a newly created list serve, or perhaps better, into Google docs. and eventually Google Hangouts. But we need to, at some point, begin to move toward some collaborative 'doing', even if that doing is some research and/or some corporate writing. Let the dialogue continue. Thanks Herman, Jann, Jim etc. Jack On Jun 24, 2013, at 8:27 AM, Herman Greene <hfgreenenc(a)gmail.com> wrote: Excellent Jann, ESI is something in which various organizations can collaborate without losing their identity. On the issue of a new teaching force, a new EI (either Ecumenical Institute around John Cock's redefinition of ecumenical) or an Ecozoic Institute drawing on Thomas Berry's understanding of that term but not making it a Thomas Berry institute) is something that I am probably in a strong minority in thinking about. The gist of the idea is that OE would turn over to a new generation an understanding of pedagogy around a new core curriculum. As I see it that would be a curriculum developed in the collaboration that ESI is, but there is also the possibility that some group would take it on as a project and there would be nothing wrong with that effort becoming organized. As I was going through materials yesterday from OE, I came across two article by Bill Parker on the new pedagogy. We are thinking along the same lines. They are both presented below and I can send them as attachments to anyone who asks for them. In one Bill makes this salient point: "The circumstances of our environment can no longer use facilitation as the awakenment tool at first. We are living in a time in which a “new pedagogy” must come into being; not facilitation of everyone’s mixed up and confused thinking." In the other Bill makes this point: "None of us as individuals woke up until someone awakened us personally. Only then did we grasp that we could be a skilled pedagogue awakening and training thousands in a new pedagogy for the sake of awakening the world to a new way of being human. " I too look forward to substantive dialogue around this. See articles below. Herman Colleagues, Speaking of the New Pedagogy, which implies a new pedagogue, perhaps the obvious needs to be pointed out. Here are some thoughts about the emerging shape of the New Pedagogy as seen through the presence of the new pedagogue. The New Pedagogy is remarkably different from anything we have ever done in our past because the pedagogue is completely different from the pedagogue of the past, even if the pedagogues are the same person. The pedagogue of the 60’s was not global, in spite of one’s self story, nor had the pedagogue of the 60’s spent 30 years living the Dark Night of the Soul. The 60’s pedagogue had no understanding of the terrain and topography of the other world in the midst of this world, the Kingdom of God, I believe Jesus called it. The old pedagogue had no first hand knowledge of what the pedagogy of the oppressed was nor how it worked in every land of the planet until they went there and did it. The old pedagogue had no clue as to how to be sustained in a solitary and self-sufficient life. The pedagogue of the 60’s was naïve about the world and about the consequences of not being responsible globally, theologically, or economically, as the human condition and the condition of the planet reveal so clearly today. The Pedagogue of the 60’s saw ecumenism insofar as the Christian community was concerned and not as a vehicle for global peace and diversity through interaction of an inter-faith community. The pedagogy of the past was but a prelude to the pedagogy we are now putting together. The pedagogue of the past was but a spiritual shadow of the pedagogues you have become today. But we must shake off our stylistic compromises and our preferred prejudices we acquired in order to be imminently presentable to our chosen markets, if we are to build the earth. We cannot keep doing what we have been doing, we cannot simply wrap our arms around everything everyone is doing and say that is it, we must courageously embrace a new role, take a new risk, embrace an open future, address the global contradiction and see to it that what needs to be done is getting done. None of us as individuals woke up until someone awakened us personally. Only then did we grasp that we could be a skilled pedagogue awakening and training thousands in a new pedagogy for the sake of awakening the world to a new way of being human. We live in urgent times now and our time is short. If we are going to move on this moment, now is the time to move. There is no doubt we have been prepared by the fire of life for this. The only question is who will. There is no new pedagogy nor new pedagogue without embodying that which is being disclosed in the style of the pedagogy. RSI changed our lives because the pedagogues were living their pedagogy! That reality was the methodology. We, too, are called to be that embodiment regardless of whether we say yes or no to what history is asking us to do. With profound respect, take care for there is little time and so much to do. Grace and Peace be unto you. Bill Given at the People of the Order Gathering July 14, 15, 2010 By Bill Parker THE NEW ORDER WITNESS It was remarkable to see the twenty or thirty people of the Order come to Oklahoma and participate in the Symposium with OCU faculty and OIKOS student scholars. The gathering was like nothing else and that special, unique relationship among the People of the Order was manifest again. We have come a great distance together and alone. Who we were as a community of people marked a reality still having a major impact on people’s lives. If you don’t believe me, ask Jim Wheeler, who just bore witness in the Wheeler Declaration and in what he just now shared with us. We were a community transparently grounded in the faith tradition of the Church. Our mission to the world took us deeply into the great tradition of the Christian faith. Everything we said, thought and did was carefully understood to be building on the great tradition of the faith. We probed deeply into the historical church before we decided to move directly into the world and demonstrate what the Church looked like in mission on behalf of all. Our mission to the world took us to places where we all discovered something far more was required of us, something new; something capable of sustaining a pluriform community in mission. We could no longer function as a transparently grounded community of the Christian tradition: we were diverse, and yet we needed new myths, rites, and symbols, as well as a practical corporate discipline. In this turning point, we moved to a secular discipline based upon the most common denominator: “Those who care”. We encountered a fork in the road and we took this one and became the Institute of Cultural Affairs. Now, I am not criticizing our decision. It was exactly what we needed to have done, as painful as that turned out to be. What we did sustained the movement and demonstrated an entirely new, radical and effective method for sustainable human development the world over. But for us, the Order, over time, over a stretch of a decade, the foundation of our spirit life was experienced as cloudy, or shallow. Yet we could not go back. We had become global, spiritually global, and we had gone beyond the Christian faith tradition to a pluriform tradition, or no tradition. THE NEW TIMES Eboo Patel, in his book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, says the divisions in the world today are in inter-faith relationships. But, the divisions are not between Christian and Muslim, or Muslims and Jews, or Hindu and Christian. The line that divides all faiths is between the Religious Totalitarians and the Religious Pluriformists within all faith traditions. The Religious Totalitarians isolate themselves and think of themselves as superior, or even cultivate hate toward those who look or believe differently from themselves. While the Religious Pluriformists embrace diversity of faith, culture and practice, and seek peace and community by working together toward a better world. That is the global division that threatens everything the human community has worked to achieve. The remarkable fact in this division is that Religious Totalitarians have for decades invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the careful training, mentoring, and encouraging of the rising generations about what it means to be human. They have nurtured the younger generations ever so carefully in racial or religious hatred and the accompanying self-righteousness as a true picture of reality. They have built and staffed Universities, High Schools, Middle Schools, Elementary Schools, and even day care to groom more toward that way of seeing reality. They have training camps to get them prepared for the “holy” struggle. While this is going on, during the same decades, the Religious Pluriformists have invested practically zero in the special nurturing formation and development of the rising generations toward the desirability and necessity of a world of pluriformity and diversity. Patel walks us through the known terrorists and the violent groups developing rapidly in this country and around the world during the past few years. He points out that it is the young who are committing the terrorist’s acts, as they give their lives to it. They are hardly old enough to know what they are doing but the older men behind them are mentoring them in what their faith tradition means, pushing them toward notions of superiority, hatred of differences of other people, violence and acts of terrorism. All the while the men behind these young people are providing assurances that their violent acts are pure, necessary, and are the will of God. They assure the rising generation that these beliefs, attitudes, and actions are the fulfillment of their lives, climaxed by dying for the struggle. The time is now for all those wanting a culture of peace, diversity and pluriformity to make a bold decision. We have come to a historic moment in our life where we are facing another fork in the road. Jim Wheeler, the author of the Wheeler Declaration, says when the Order came to that fork in the road in 1970-1971 it chose the ICA, the secular option; it left the other fork, the Ecumenical Institute fork, because of the difficulties its Christian tradition created in the diverse situations in which we were located. He adds, however, that the unrealized opportunities never go away. They only remain in the unconscious until circumstances call them forth as a necessity and that is precisely where we are today. We had that possibility in 1970-1971, because we understood ourselves to be living out of a New Religious Mode, to become the global, interfaith Ecumenical Institute but we chose not to and for very good reasons. We had to go through that which we went through, where the bottom fell out from under us, and we were shattered over time, and ultimately called ourselves out of being as an Order in 1988. We were not prepared to move forward as the Ecumenical Institute in a global, interfaith way and had we done so at that time, we would have become just another Religious Totalitarian community. God saved us from that. Returning to that fork in the road is precisely what is happening today. The circumstances of our environment can no longer use facilitation as the awakenment tool at first. We are living in a time in which a “new pedagogy” must come into being; not facilitation of everyone’s mixed up and confused thinking that yields a sense of hopelessness and cynicism except on a most reduced scale. We have to cut through all of the popular rubbish and undergrowth to reach the individual center of people’s lives so they may have the possibility of deciding for themselves what it means to be a human being today, in this moment and circumstance. If you don’t see the differences I am pointing to in facilitation and pedagogy, then you do not understand what I am trying to say. I may need to find a better way to say this. THE NEW PEDAGOGY This returning to the fork does not mean we return to the old pedagogy and the old courses, but rather a “new pedagogy” based upon grounding of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, or other faith traditions. Pedagogy is something we have all got to relearn. We have embraced our role as facilitators for 40 years and we cannot facilitate this awakenment. It requires pedagogy that slices through the peripheral to the depths of the human soul. This is the cutting edge today! This new pedagogy is the awakenment task before us. In this context, facilitation is our tool kit, our hammer and screwdriver, for engagement but not our edge for awakenment. What we have been doing with OIKOS and OCU, Centenary University, and other associations is getting access to the rising generations, who by way of the secular and scientific cultural realities, have never been given the possibility of their own faith traditions as grounded in life and having those traditions interpret the meaning of their lives. Instead, they swirl around in confusion, trying to interpret and make sense of their faith tradition and its relationship to their lives in particular. Patel describes himself as being raised in a secular Muslim family in America. He visited his Islamic family in India: Grandmother, aunts, and other members of their household. He was aware of knowing he was a member of a faith tradition but actually not relating to it very much in real life. After many years, during prayer to observe Laylatul Qadr, the night in Ramadan when the Qur’an was first revealed, on New Year’s Eve, the turn of the millennium, he had a moment in his life when he was struck with a stark clarity: he, Eboo Patel, was part of the story of Islam, he was a part of the story of pluralism, he was part of the story of the spiritual principal of human togetherness. He saw himself not as a member of a faith tradition but as one who is a carrier of his faith tradition and a part of the larger story. THE NEW ORDER This is where you can see the 21st Century Spirit Movement. It is a vast, expansive global movement of the spirit. It is diversified and it is already located in every aspect of human civilization. But, it must be declared! And we are the ones who can do that and do it on the foundation of our faith traditions, whatever those traditions may be. So, when we look at our past journey, it is not surprising to see how strong our growth was when we were standing on a faith tradition reaching back to the beginning of time, thousands of years. Then we entered a decade or so of a new secular faith tradition that went all the way back to 1970-1971. Now we stand at a crucial vantage point to see that we are about the transparent grounding of every faith tradition in order to bring the faith continuum from the beginning of time into the present and future. Only this will enable the care of this world by creating a culture of peace, economic justice, and planetary sustainability. We need to pursue the avenues of accessing the rising generations, to be among them, to be a grounded presence of knowledge and experience from which they can access the foundations for creating the future. However, before this can happen, we must corporately work through the current perversions blocking people from having the opportunity to make a decision about what it means for them to be human. We have been called to awaken a new generation of pedagogues in the ranks of the rising generations, and provide the solid, sustaining, historical foundations upon which they can provide leadership for the 21st Century Spirit Movement. They will, themselves, become the face of their own faith traditions in caring for the world and shaping the world to come into a culture of peace and working together. If you remember our first decade, then you know how important our cultic acts were to everything we understood about life. Over time, we lost what we understood for so many years as “that without which” there is no sustaining substance. I realized, as I looked into it, that corporately we lost any sense of the cultic practices long before 1988. When I did decide, not long ago, to live out of a spiritual discipline with a continuum of faith going farther back than 1971, I looked for the only cultic acts I knew which had connected me to all the past, present and future: the Daily Office and the Common Meal. I wanted to see them for analytical reasons at first: to see their components, then the phrasing, and how they connected to time. The work on spiritual practices and consciousness by Pat Webb and David McCleskey of the Silence Foundation and Larry Ward of the Lotus Institute, reminded me of the necessity of cultic acts for one’s consciousness, quality of life, and care for the world. I realized that my own practices did not go back beyond memories prior to 1971. So I decided to review what I once new about our cultic practices and I found I had forgotten most of it and suspected I was not alone. I started searching for a Daily Office in my files, on our various websites, and in the Golden Pathways CD but I could not find the Daily Office I remembered! I could only find something that had been transcribed into something else and my experience of the change was that someone had taken out the cultic nature of the Daily Office resulting in what appeared to me as several levels of higher abstraction. What I found started with “In the Name of the Creator. And of the Redeemer. And of the Sustainer. Amen.” This edited version did not strike me as a “cultic act” coming out of all the past, over thousands of years. The cultic act I remembered was “In the Name of the Father. And of the Son, And of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” That was cultic! How much I had forgotten and I wondered about others. What do we not understand about a cultic act? It is an act for all time: past, present, and future. It is not something we edit to conform to some pressures of the culture. If we do, we create a different cultic act not necessarily connected to the faith tradition. So, I spent several days pulling my hair out trying to remember every phrase of the Daily Office and writing it, piece by piece, putting in the cultic language. As I worked on this I realized the Daily Office became a solitary discipline for me which connected me to a tradition going back to the beginning of time. I had a cultic act upon which to again ground my life in my faith tradition. I am glad I did that; it has transformed my awareness of my own life and the understanding of the life around me. I look forward to examining the Common Meal as well. As Jim Wheeler said when he quoted from Isaiah in the Wheeler Declaration: “Look to the Rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” We know now that everything we did was in part dedicated to developing skilled pedagogues who understood the power of cultic acts. Do you remember all those pedagogy weekends we had, or if it was not a pedagogy weekend it was a course that needed to be taught? Do you remember how our faculty was structured so that pedagogical training was a co-objective of every course we taught? Think also of the operations of the corporate life of the Religious Houses, all focused on pedagogical development of everyone in the House. That was how pedagogical formation happened: we lived it, we took everyone under our wing for the sake of their formation, and it wasn’t just practice, it was working in the presence of the Order who was grounded in their faith tradition and who became the transcendence of that faith tradition to the world. This is what we have been called to do and it has required all of our past to prepare us to say yes and to assume the role. And you know something really neat about this historical moment for us? We don’t have to wait to see what the ICA decides, or does. Nor do we need to wait to see what Mark Davies decides, or OCU, or OIKOS. This is a decision we can make right now, here in this room, here with these people. We can now leave the old Order Ecumenical behind. We can decide to be a new Order, the same in some ways, but totally transformed by our past life as a Religious/Secular Order and our journey through the Dark Night of the Soul. Born anew for a new time, a new age, a new pedagogy, and a new Order, the Global Inter-Faith Ecumenical Order! This Order is not to be structured like the past Order but it already is self-sufficient in its covenant to a corporate life and mission. It is an Order of individuals who know that engagement in a specific daily spiritual discipline is the basis for everything else. Wherever there are two or more the Order will have a corporate celebration weekly or monthly. There shall be a quarterly planning council for the global mission, the great work. There shall be an annual Order Council for the work of accounting and strategic commitments. The Order shall study together such missionally focused work as Eboo Patel’s book, for example. Now, I am going to stop and let the rest of you have a chance to tell me how wrong I am. Thank you -- __________________________________________________ Herman F. Greene 2516 Winningham Road Chapel Hill, NC 27516 919-942-4358 (ph & fax) hfgreenenc(a)gmail.com _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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The Landfillharmonic Orchestra
by PSchrijnen＠aol.com 06 Jul '13

06 Jul '13

All is possible.... THE LANDFILL ORCHESTRA http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UJrSUHK9Luw Paul Schrijnen 13 Bloemfontein Avenue London W12 7BJ +44 7973 206 766 skype: paulus.schrijnen ____________________________________ From: PSchrijnen(a)aol.com To: luisa.violine(a)hotmail.com Sent: 17/04/2013 03:18:56 Malay Peninsula Standard Time Subj: The Landfillharmonic Orchestra THE LANDFILL ORCHESTRA http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UJrSUHK9Luw Paul Schrijnen 13 Bloemfontein Avenue London W12 7BJ +44 7973 206 766 skype: paulus.schrijnen ____________________________________ From: meadce(a)aol.com To: pschrijnen(a)aol.com, stefan.schrijnen(a)accenture.com, chiaretta13(a)yahoo.de, maxschrijnen(a)hotmail.com, pschrijnen85(a)googlemail.com Sent: 17/04/2013 02:11:39 Malay Peninsula Standard Time Subj: Fwd: [hsotherinfo] FW: The Landfillharmonic Orchestra THE LANDFILL ORCHESTRA http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UJrSUHK9Luw

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"Journey Reflection" June 2013 Top-viewed Blogs
by Lynda Cock 30 Jun '13

30 Jun '13

Dear colleagues, Following are the top-viewed blog posts during June <blocked::http://rejourney.blogspot.com/2013/06/journey-reflection-blog-revi ew-june-2013.html> 2013 (after viewing a blog post, click top-left return arrow on your computer to return to view another blog post). As always, we appreciate your quote suggestions, comments, and sharing blog posts with others. Happy 4th of July to you in the USA, Lynda and John >Daily Blog: "Journey Reflection" at 4 links ... Google: <http://www.rejourney.blogspot.com/> www.reJourney.blogspot.com Google Plus: <https://plus.google.com/u/0/114307312715975337692/posts> Journey Reflection/Google Plus Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/transcribebooks> https://www.facebook.com/transcribebooks Twitter: <https://twitter.com/transcribebooks> https://twitter.com/transcribebooks >Web Page: <http://www.transcribebooks.com/> www.transcribebooks.com >Books: <https://www.amazon.com/author/johnpcock> https://www.amazon.com/author/johnpcock

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Need help
by Doris Hahn 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Can one of you send the Maya Angelou poem that starts: "You stand at the closed door...." Thank you. Doris Hahn

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Re: [Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Thank you, Herman. This is a lot to think about. My first response is profound excitement. The tiny not-for-profit on whose board I serve, Sequoia Center for Holistic Studies, is looking for how to expend our energy and resources for the sake of the generations to follow. Our conservation work in Mexico has been turned over to a local board there, and we haven't found a new direction. I hope this starts a substantive discussion and expect we'll all need some time to get our minds around the challenges we face. Thanks for bringing them to light on this solstice weekend. Blessings, Jann McGuire In a message dated 6/23/2013 9:59:15 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, hfgreenenc(a)gmail.com writes: Dear All, This is an important email for me, though it will not be for each of you. It is one I have thought about for months, especially since returning from a visit in ICA headquarters in Chicago in September 2012. I made that trip because I was going to be able to meet with Jack Gilles, who was at ICA working on the archives project. I was also looking forward to meeting with Pam and Terry Bergdall again. The event turned out to be overwhelming for me, in part because of the profound memories that welled up within me, in part because of the conversations Jack and I had and the picture he presented of the EI/ICA archive (which brought down the full breadth of our legacy on me), and in part because I really realized that the big corporate body that constituted EI/ICA was gone. I left the Order in 1975 and didn’t come back into contact with Order folk until the Millennium Conference in 2000. I have had four or five occasions since then to be in Chicago or at a Springboard gathering. I have been on the OE listserve for some time and on the ICA Dialogue listserve for a year. Nelson and Elaine Stover and John Cock live nearby and I have been in contact with them and colleagues who live in Asheville. The eight years I was in the Order from 1967-75 shaped my life dramatically, but for the most part my development since 1975 has taken place apart from EC/ICA. There have been several key influences on me and I will name three: Thomas Berry, Alfred North Whitehead (and the International Process Network), and the practice of business law. EI didn’t help me at all with the overwhelming task I was given growing up as a Southern Baptist, which was to save the world. I have learned though to balance this calling to make my life count with humility and self-care. The basic impulse and teaching of EI is however still strong within me and indeed is what leads to this email. There is much to be written, but to write much at this point I feel is a mistake because what is involved is not for me alone to articulate or determine. It is a part of a conversation that has been going on some time and it has to do with what we who have been a part of EI/ICA can contribute to our time. The subject does not directly concern ICA US or any ICA organization as an institution, though it is not irrelevant to any of them either. Let me start with the easiest issue, our listserves, then go to a particular project, then to the legacy of EI/ICA. 1. The Listserves. This will border on a gripe. I initially joined the OE listserv to reconnect with my family/friends. Folks, you are still the closest friends I have. I use friends with the knowledgeable awareness that we were and are colleagues first and friends second, but that latter part seems increasingly important. After going to Oklahoma City a couple of years ago and meeting with David Dunn, I eventually asked to be added to the ICA listserve. I thought I would be in a network of a whole different group of people. To my surprise I found out that it was by and large the same group of people. I don’t have any recommendation about the two existing listserves except they are puzzling to me because I honestly don’t see the difference. The time has passed, however, when I will do anything other than read emails that stick out for me. I just can’t keep up and it raises the question for me, as I’m sure it does for many of you, about what are these listserves for. Nonetheless I keep receiving the emails because I like to at least read the titles of the various emails. I’ll basically leave this issue open, though I am considering going back to only being on the OE listserve. There may be a need for a listserve around the next topic in this email. 2. The Project. The way I see the world, humanity as a whole is moving from economic-industrial civilization to ecological-cultural civilization. The transition we are going through is equivalent to that which occurred with the Neolithic villages, the establishment of the classical civilizations, the Medieval/feudal period, modernity beginning in the 16th century and industrial civilization beginning in the 18th century. Agricultural civilization, which began 10,000 years ago, and industrial civilization which began 200 years ago were most fundamental. Now we are faced with converging crises (rapid in historical terms, but not as fast as many of us expect) and for the next century or so the changes will occur. The goal is not Heaven on Earth, but the more Heaven the better. Thomas Berry spoke of a “viable” human future and I like that more modest language, but he also spoke of an “ecozoic” future and the need to care for the comprehensive community of life even for the sake of the human. A set of circumstances two years ago brought me into work related to preparing for Rio+20, the third Earth Summit of the UN, which occurred last June in Rio. Before engaging I took some time to study the “sustainable development” history in relation to the UN. I came to the conclusion that this was the language on the basis of which change will occur in the next few decades if it is to occur. It is a language understood and used by all 192 member states of the UN (and no doubt those who are not members as well) is readily understood by the business community, and is well understood in civil society (there are 5,000 civil society groups with consultative status with the UN). Of course, the language itself, which I found in the UN documents produced over the last 20 years to be quite remarkable, will not bring about change in the same way that say a local village project will. What we are faced with, however, is the problem that we are in the planetary phase of human development and there are no solutions to local problems without a global shift, that is a change in the dominant mode of human civilization globally. This statement doesn’t negate the idea of “think globally and act locally,” of course that is where the dominant effort must occur. I got involved in preparation for Rio+20 with a group that was advocating for the inclusion of ethics and spirituality in the Outcome Document for the conference. The group is known as the “Ethics and Spirituality Initiative for Sustainable Development” or “ESI” for short. The simple ideas behind ESI are two: (a) if the lack of sustainable development is an ethical and spiritual problem then ethics and spirituality must have something to do with the solution, and (b) if we look only to economics and science to address the issues related to sustainable development, we will not make the needed changes. Let me illustrate what I mean on that second point by a quote from a book by Jorgen Randers, called 2052: As a consequence of the increase in the average global temperature of plus 2 degrees Centigrade by 2052, humanity will experience an increasing number of bothersome climate effects over the decades to come. . . . Each event will lead to public outrage and create fear for the future. But in most cases the short-term costs of action will be seen as unacceptably high and lead to a “well-considered” decision to postpone significant action. Jorgen also writes of “last to lose” strategies where people will feel there is no way to control globally either resource use or demand, so their strategies will promote more economic growth to strengthen their own strategic positions and ability to strengthen their own resource bases and defenses. These strategies will only make matters worse. Do you see the ethical and spiritual problems? People will need to do the “ un-well-considered,” that which in the short-term is not in conventional terms in their own best interest. Thomas Berry wrote that humans must become self-limiting. While this has been honored in spiritual traditions, it is the opposite of the march of civilization which has always been for more. He said we needed to “reinvent the human at the species level with critical reflection within the community of life systems, in a time-developmental context through story and shared dream experience.” Now I happen to feel that OE/ICA, or let me speak from my own experience, the Ecumenical Institute, as I knew it, had a lot of knowledge about how to call for, teach and prepare people for the task of large-scale change EI also knew about spiritual formation, the kind that is needed to go through challenging times and take risks. Therefore I can see the role of a pedagogical effort coming out of the historic OE/ICA community in relation to the transition from economic-industrial civilization to ecological-cultural. I can also see the remaining EI/ICA network as being helpful in this effort, and without focusing on the institutional issue, I can see how this could provide an important role for ICA. I think there is no doubt a continuing important role for village projects and local efforts such as the ones ICA US has undertaken in Chicago, but that is not the subject of this particular email. My own primary institution now is the Center for Ecozoic Societies. It is pip-squeak big. My institution, CES, and others will engage in collaborative efforts related to ESI, ESI will not be an organization in itself. We will propose various projects and then people can take them up if they wish. We had a meeting of all of 20 people in NYC on May 14 and came up with this initial list: There was a discussion of authoring a book on ESI (not what this ESI group is about, but rather a call to leaders of values-based organizations) with chapters from the people present. The book would also serve as an anchor to this movement. One common project all agreed upon was commenting collectively on the post-2015 UN development agenda. Other collaborations are possible and these were suggested at the meeting. Please add to this list: · Advocating for culture/spirituality as the fourth pillar of sustainable development · Developing an educational curriculum on sustainable development for VBOs (this is to help enable people to understand how to be global citizens and the relationship of ethics, spirituality and culture to sustainable development). · Host ecological civilization conferences · Engage teams of interested persons in different regions of the world to prepare a vision and pathway to ecological civilization (the transition from economic-industrial civilization to ecological-cultural civilization) · Promote the International Ethics Panel for Ecological Civilization, Ombudsmen for Future generations, Trusteeship of the Global Commons, Office of Ethical Assessment in the UN Secretariat and other ethical structures of governance · Work on the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (contribute to the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (WASH stands for water sanitation and hygiene), and support a similar initiative focused on energy) I can imagine that those who have had the training and experience I have had through OE/ICA could be very helpful in preparing and carrying out these two in particular: · Developing an educational curriculum on sustainable development for VBOs (this is to help enable people to understand how to be global citizens and the relationship of ethics, spirituality and culture to sustainable development). · Host ecological civilization conferences Another list that I want to put forward, without comment is this one: The following were identified as areas where transformational leadership is needed in books by David Orr and Paul Schafer: (i) creating a new theoretical, practical, historical and philosophical framework for the world of the future (with an emphasis on the importance of the cultural dimension of life and of strengthening this dimension); (ii) dealing with the intimate relationship between people and the natural environment, (iii) providing uncommon clarity about our best economic and energy options, (iv) helping people understand and face what will be increasingly difficult circumstances, and (v) fostering a vision of a humane and decent future. I can imagine some of you want to be involved in ESI. I can imagine a new Ecumenical or Ecozoic Institute to carry out the educational programs. I can imagine this is connected with ICA though not that ICA would have to be involved. Well, I’ve gone on longer than I thought I would. I haven’t brought this section to a conclusion, but I believe I have provided enough of a flavor for you to “get it.” I’ll be interested in what you have to say either through this listserve or by emailing me directly. 3. The Order (or EI/ICA) Legacy. The story of who we were needs to be told and the past needs to be preserved. I have wondered from time to time if there needs to be some kind of loose order going forward. Since I haven ’t had any brilliant insights into that I am letting that ride. In some ways I would like an affiliation where I can honor my vows (the ones I took long ago in EI to poverty, chastity and obedience), but I can only presently see work in forming such an order as a distraction. It is part of our history to say that what needs to come into being must come into being around the mission and that is enough guidance for me. I am going to do this work and let the forms emerge. There are two troubling parts about the legacy about which I would like to speak. One is the sense that “if we only do this ___________, everything will change.” The second is the idea that everything is perfectly expressed in a model. If we are to do this work, it is necessary to let go completely of dogmatic certainty and the idea that we can make things happen. A key event in the life of the Order which I keenly remember but no one else to whom I have spoken seems to have remembered. McClesky gave a lecture on the turn to the world. He drew a football diagram on the board and talked of doing an end run around the church. He said we had a decision to make about whether we would be a force or a leaven. At the time, the notion was that we would be a force. So we mapped out the world and, being obsessed with numbers in grids, went out to change it. In this effort we can only be a leaven. Herman -- __________________________________________________ Herman F. Greene 2516 Winningham Road Chapel Hill, NC 27516 919-942-4358 (ph & fax) _hfgreenenc(a)gmail.com_ (mailto:hfgreenenc@gmail.com) _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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6/27/13, Spong: My Mentors, Part 5 - Richard Henry Baker
by Ellie Stock 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR My Mentors, Part 5 Richard Henry Baker He may have had fewer obvious gifts than any person I ever watched in a position of significant power and authority. He was not an impressive personality. One would describe him more as homespun than as notable. He was more like a favorite uncle or a comfortable neighbor. He was not particularly tall, perhaps stretching to five feet and nine inches. What one noticed at first about him was that he walked with a slight limp, the result of a World War I injury. He had little oratorical power. It would not occur to most people to want to listen to a speech he might deliver. The public speaking required of him in his profession was experienced by him as a chore. He did it, but he did it rather poorly. Audiences were seldom moved; endured would be the word they would have used. He had few administrative skills and was looked upon as one who was never quite organized. On more than one occasion, enough to form a pattern in the minds of some, he got his schedule confused and showed up at the wrong place on the wrong date and at the wrong time. He ran his organization as if it were a family, feeling it was everyone’s duty to bear one another’s burden. That of course could not be done unless people’s burdens were well known. He was not malevolent, but confidentiality was not his strong suit. He frequently sought to encourage one person by telling him or her about another person, who had confided in him and who, in his opinion, had much the same problem. I do not mean to be critical, but to be descriptive. This man, now deceased, was a bishop, elected bishop-coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in 1950 and succeeding to the diocesan bishop’s office in 1959. He filled that office until 1965, not a long term as those things are normally measured. He ordained me deacon on June 24, 1955. Today I regard him as the most influential bishop under whom I ever served. His name was Richard Henry Baker and he helped me understand the complex nature of effective leadership. He modeled a leadership style that is absolutely unique. So let me tell you the story of my fifth great mentor and, in the process, help you, my readers, to understand that genius comes in many forms. Richard Henry Baker came to the Episcopal office after a long rectorship at the Church of the Redeemer in a rather fancy suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. When he went there in the early1930’s, Redeemer was a little country church, well suited to Dick Baker’s informal, one on one, personal style. Prior to and following World War II, however, the suburbs around the great cities of America exploded. Great farms were carved into beautiful sculptured lots, roads were paved, trees were planted, homes were built and shopping malls were erected. The face of America was dramatically changed and the little Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore County evolved into a large, wealthy and influential suburban church. Its rector, Richard Baker, grew with them. He was there for so long that children he had known in the Sunday school and various youth groups left home for universities and graduate schools, got married, began their families and then returned to the neighborhood and the church of their upbringing, but now as admired, successful professionals. They were among Baltimore’s leading citizens. Many were doctors whose careers at Johns Hopkins Medical School and Hospital achieved national recognition, but they were still known to Richard Baker as little Earl or little Billy. The Church of the Redeemer expanded its physical facilities time after time to accommodate its growing congregation. The staff at this church also grew to meet this congregation’s expanding needs. At this faith community’s center, however, was still this simple man who knew everyone and who was, it seems, loved by all. No one expected him to be what he was not. Everyone was quite pleased that everything was changing except Dick Baker. He was an anchor in a swirling sea. His Sunday sermons were brief and practical. No one would mistake him for a scholar. As a pastor he was more an advice giver than a skilled counselor. He was a comfortable part of the furniture at this increasingly affluent and dominating congregation. Meanwhile, in the Diocese of North Carolina, the bishop, whose name was Edwin Anderson Penick, was approaching the mandatory retirement age of 72. He had been elected bishop when he was only 35. Most of the people in that diocese had never known anyone else in that office. He also filled that office magnificently. He was a powerful speaker, a respected intellect and a master administrator. He was known as “Prince Bishop,” a larger than life ecclesiastical figure. He was accorded honor and status in whatever setting he entered. When the time came to choose his successor, it was clear that the diocese wanted someone just like him. The nominees were of that mold. One was the dean of an Episcopal theological seminary, a scholar, a published author and one whose skills in leading clergy were already established. Another, the rector of a large Virginia Church, who bore a name that reflected the ancestry of Virginia’s landed gentry, combining in his three names three distinguished Virginia family lines. To speak his full name was like a roll call of the “first families of Virginia.” The third nominee was a rector of a large church in Richmond, Virginia, a city that, probably more than any other, gloried in its history. Anyone of these would have been a fitting successor to Bishop Penick. The election convention got off to an interesting start when a North Carolina lay delegate extolled the virtues of the man with three noble Virginia names a bit too effusively, dwelling on the history of his three distinguished family lines. The next speaker, put off by this excessive tribute to blue blood, asked if we were interested in this man as our next bishop or were we bringing him to North Carolina for breeding purposes? The Virginia blue blood never had a chance after that. So the seminary dean was elected and the people felt good about their choice. The Dean, however, declined his election, an action that stunned the people of North Carolina and deflated their corporate egos. A year later, another convention was called and Richard Henry Baker of Baltimore, Maryland, was chosen. The contrast could not have been more severe. The Diocese of North Carolina had turned to a man beloved in his community because he had been there for so long and they had thrust this wonderful, but limited man into a position of great power and influence to succeed an icon of respect and effectiveness. When Dick Baker began to be known in North Carolina, a sense of despair about the future of the diocese became palpable. How will we manage when this man takes over it was asked? It was a fair question. It is said of bishops that upon election, they either grow or swell. Bishop Baker did neither. His great gift was that he knew who he was and he made no effort to become anything else. He certainly did not swell. He sat loosely to authority. He elicited gifts from others that he did not have. Some of North Carolina’s top business leaders, fearing that the diocese was in poor hands with this bishop, volunteered their services, taking over the business and financial leadership of the diocese. Senior clergy ceased to be parochial in their outlook and began to give this bishop the best leadership they had to offer. Bishop Baker kept delegating his authority to clergy whom most regarded as too young to be effective leaders and then he watched them grow. He trusted others to provide him with the talent he knew he did not possess. He empowered congregations and clergy to risk in dramatic ways. In 1959 when a group of young clergy simply closed the segregated camp the diocese had operated for “colored Episcopalians,” deciding that the one diocesan camp, known as Vade Mecum, would serve all the children of the diocese, Bishop Baker approved that decision without hesitation and rode out the storm that ensued among North Carolina’s “old white establishment” with a serenity that was impressive.. He never wavered and the attempt to overturn that decision made by those “young upstarts” failed because this bishop exercised veto power. Another young priest, not five years out of seminary, became chair of the prestigious “State of the Diocese” committee, empowered to bring sweeping recommendations to the convention about future policy. Bishop Baker did not flinch when one of those recommendations was to close a hospital in Charlotte that it had run for years for “colored people,” thus forcing the city to provide public tax-supported medical care to blacks and whites alike. Bishop Baker empowered the clergy of his diocese to grow into who they were capable of being. He asked others to give gifts of leadership that he knew he himself did not possess. That was and is a tremendous gift of leadership. People today look back on that period of church history in North Carolina with some sense of wonder. It was a time of intense conflict over race and the role of women in the church. It was an era when angry people withheld their money from the church as a weapon to keep control and when congregations voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Church in order to keep their prejudices intact. In retrospect people were heard to say such things as “The Diocese of North Carolina got through those difficult days in spite of having such a weak man in the bishop’s office.” How wrong they were. We got through those days because we did have Dick Baker in the bishop’s office. Today I am aware of the contributions that clergy developed under Dick Baker have made in the larger Church. They have become bishops, deans and rectors of some of America’s greatest congregations. One founded the Alban Institute, many were active in the Civil Rights movement, the movement for women’s equality in church and society and the movement for justice and full acceptance of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community. They are the results of the ministry of Richard Henry Baker, who assessing his weaknesses accurately, called many more into being something they did not know that they had the ability to be. I salute him as one of the great mentors of my life. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Dr. Franklin Woo, of California writes: Question: I have been following your work for many years, especially when we were living in New York Now in retirement in California, I found your book A New Christianity for a New World most helpful, as if tailor made to fit my needs. Before retirement, I had essentiality two roles: one of chaplain and lecturer in religion at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1965-1976) and director of the Chinese Program, National Churches of Christ in the USA (1976-1993). Experiences in these two roles have sealed my definition as a bi-cultural person with dual belongings in value systems of both Chinese traditions and Christianity, despite the fact that I was born in the U.S. (San Francisco Chinatown). In Hong Kong and Asia, I learned so much about Chinese and East Asian traditions, especially from students, colleagues and other faculty members. I was very much attracted to the best in the Confucian tradition, especially “Neo-Confucianism,” after classical Confucianism had interacted for centuries with native Daoism and Indic Buddhism to become a more inclusive system that embodies nature and the cosmos. While in New York, I attended monthly Neo-Confucian seminars at Columbia University, where professors from colleges and universities of the Atlantic seaboard did rigorous exegesis of ancient texts, the envy of Christian scholars. In retirement I still worship regularly with my wife in a local Presbyterian congregation for the sake of discipline and community, although all of my work has been in ecumenical contexts. I have found Christian worship, however, to be essentially boring banality. Its confession and absolution are too facile, not to mention that my sins are much more sophisticated than what the superficiality of the confession texts state. Maybe this is all as you mentioned in your book, “familiarity breeds contempt.” I actually resonated well with your quote of Bonhoeffer in the Preface, especially “Before God and with God we live without God.” Your liberating of Christianity from theism has enabled faith for me to converge more directly with so much in the Chinese and East Asian traditions. My first encounter with ridding the supernatural from Christianity was from David Ray Griffin’s book: Reechantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion (Cornell University Press, 2001). His rigorous and specific critique really did it for me. Your intellectual honesty (a la John A. T. Robinson) resonates well with the best in Neo-Confucian fundamentalism, which is the fundamental commitment to the human discourse. Your beginning with the dawn of humanity’s consciousness and the struggle for survival reminded me of Robert N. Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (Harvard 2011), an interreligious work which took Bellah 15 years to write after retirement. The 746 pages appear to be his reading notes to himself. Your stating that the description of religious experience can never encompass the entirety of that experience resonates well with the Daoist claim that all articulations of experience, if absolutized, can be “an idolatry of words.” Your Christianity of expansion into larger and larger realms of exclusivity resonates with the best of the Confucian paradigm of each person being a center of relationship from family, to community, to society, to nation, to world, to the cosmos (ping tian xia) “all under heaven.” Your integrating good and evil is likened to the Daoist yin-yang, where everything in life is seen an interconnected. There is no facile isolating of that which is “evil,” since every person is a combination of many facets of personhood. There is little dichotomy in Daosim; life and death are one. Your idea of giving away self and love resonates well with Buddhist non-attachment to things, to loved ones, to life, even one’s own. It is the art of letting go in both Christian and Buddhist kenosis, though the latter has made it a vocation. Your emphasis on the imperative of community is also central to Confucianism where to be human requires at least two; no one is an atomistic individual. In retirement I have been trying to stay intellectually alive by reviewing books for an academic journal, China Review International, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii. To date they have published close to 70 of my reviews since 1995. Thank you for answering one of my most fundamental questions by demythologizing the notion of a theist parent/fixer, alleviating us of all responsibility. Answer: Dear Franklin, Thank you for your incredible letter and for your permission to reprint it in my column. I think it gives my readers a sense of how rich a cross-cultural religious experience can be. I have gained much from my dialogues with Hindus in India, Buddhists in China, Jews and Muslims in the USA. Perhaps we can get our churches to work on their prayers of confession so that they can be developed to cover “the sophistication” of your sins. I like that idea! I would love to meet you someday. John Shelby Spong Announcements Happy Summer! “And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, 'You owe me.' Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.” ~Rumi We hope this finds you well and enjoying these days as the sun graces us. Soon we will head back into shorter days and longer nights...but it is our love that can light up the sky. This month's free eBulletin from ProgressiveChristianity.org was all about children. It is full of resources to guide children on a compassionate and wonder-filled path. Check it out here if you missed it! Are you looking for people or faith communities in your area? Search our Global Network Directory for community near you. May your days be filled with laughter, light and delight! ~The team at ProgressiveChristianity.org Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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6/27/13, Spong: My Mentors, Part 5 - Richard Henry Baker
by Ellie Stock 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR My Mentors, Part 5 Richard Henry Baker He may have had fewer obvious gifts than any person I ever watched in a position of significant power and authority. He was not an impressive personality. One would describe him more as homespun than as notable. He was more like a favorite uncle or a comfortable neighbor. He was not particularly tall, perhaps stretching to five feet and nine inches. What one noticed at first about him was that he walked with a slight limp, the result of a World War I injury. He had little oratorical power. It would not occur to most people to want to listen to a speech he might deliver. The public speaking required of him in his profession was experienced by him as a chore. He did it, but he did it rather poorly. Audiences were seldom moved; endured would be the word they would have used. He had few administrative skills and was looked upon as one who was never quite organized. On more than one occasion, enough to form a pattern in the minds of some, he got his schedule confused and showed up at the wrong place on the wrong date and at the wrong time. He ran his organization as if it were a family, feeling it was everyone’s duty to bear one another’s burden. That of course could not be done unless people’s burdens were well known. He was not malevolent, but confidentiality was not his strong suit. He frequently sought to encourage one person by telling him or her about another person, who had confided in him and who, in his opinion, had much the same problem. I do not mean to be critical, but to be descriptive. This man, now deceased, was a bishop, elected bishop-coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in 1950 and succeeding to the diocesan bishop’s office in 1959. He filled that office until 1965, not a long term as those things are normally measured. He ordained me deacon on June 24, 1955. Today I regard him as the most influential bishop under whom I ever served. His name was Richard Henry Baker and he helped me understand the complex nature of effective leadership. He modeled a leadership style that is absolutely unique. So let me tell you the story of my fifth great mentor and, in the process, help you, my readers, to understand that genius comes in many forms. Richard Henry Baker came to the Episcopal office after a long rectorship at the Church of the Redeemer in a rather fancy suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. When he went there in the early1930’s, Redeemer was a little country church, well suited to Dick Baker’s informal, one on one, personal style. Prior to and following World War II, however, the suburbs around the great cities of America exploded. Great farms were carved into beautiful sculptured lots, roads were paved, trees were planted, homes were built and shopping malls were erected. The face of America was dramatically changed and the little Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore County evolved into a large, wealthy and influential suburban church. Its rector, Richard Baker, grew with them. He was there for so long that children he had known in the Sunday school and various youth groups left home for universities and graduate schools, got married, began their families and then returned to the neighborhood and the church of their upbringing, but now as admired, successful professionals. They were among Baltimore’s leading citizens. Many were doctors whose careers at Johns Hopkins Medical School and Hospital achieved national recognition, but they were still known to Richard Baker as little Earl or little Billy. The Church of the Redeemer expanded its physical facilities time after time to accommodate its growing congregation. The staff at this church also grew to meet this congregation’s expanding needs. At this faith community’s center, however, was still this simple man who knew everyone and who was, it seems, loved by all. No one expected him to be what he was not. Everyone was quite pleased that everything was changing except Dick Baker. He was an anchor in a swirling sea. His Sunday sermons were brief and practical. No one would mistake him for a scholar. As a pastor he was more an advice giver than a skilled counselor. He was a comfortable part of the furniture at this increasingly affluent and dominating congregation. Meanwhile, in the Diocese of North Carolina, the bishop, whose name was Edwin Anderson Penick, was approaching the mandatory retirement age of 72. He had been elected bishop when he was only 35. Most of the people in that diocese had never known anyone else in that office. He also filled that office magnificently. He was a powerful speaker, a respected intellect and a master administrator. He was known as “Prince Bishop,” a larger than life ecclesiastical figure. He was accorded honor and status in whatever setting he entered. When the time came to choose his successor, it was clear that the diocese wanted someone just like him. The nominees were of that mold. One was the dean of an Episcopal theological seminary, a scholar, a published author and one whose skills in leading clergy were already established. Another, the rector of a large Virginia Church, who bore a name that reflected the ancestry of Virginia’s landed gentry, combining in his three names three distinguished Virginia family lines. To speak his full name was like a roll call of the “first families of Virginia.” The third nominee was a rector of a large church in Richmond, Virginia, a city that, probably more than any other, gloried in its history. Anyone of these would have been a fitting successor to Bishop Penick. The election convention got off to an interesting start when a North Carolina lay delegate extolled the virtues of the man with three noble Virginia names a bit too effusively, dwelling on the history of his three distinguished family lines. The next speaker, put off by this excessive tribute to blue blood, asked if we were interested in this man as our next bishop or were we bringing him to North Carolina for breeding purposes? The Virginia blue blood never had a chance after that. So the seminary dean was elected and the people felt good about their choice. The Dean, however, declined his election, an action that stunned the people of North Carolina and deflated their corporate egos. A year later, another convention was called and Richard Henry Baker of Baltimore, Maryland, was chosen. The contrast could not have been more severe. The Diocese of North Carolina had turned to a man beloved in his community because he had been there for so long and they had thrust this wonderful, but limited man into a position of great power and influence to succeed an icon of respect and effectiveness. When Dick Baker began to be known in North Carolina, a sense of despair about the future of the diocese became palpable. How will we manage when this man takes over it was asked? It was a fair question. It is said of bishops that upon election, they either grow or swell. Bishop Baker did neither. His great gift was that he knew who he was and he made no effort to become anything else. He certainly did not swell. He sat loosely to authority. He elicited gifts from others that he did not have. Some of North Carolina’s top business leaders, fearing that the diocese was in poor hands with this bishop, volunteered their services, taking over the business and financial leadership of the diocese. Senior clergy ceased to be parochial in their outlook and began to give this bishop the best leadership they had to offer. Bishop Baker kept delegating his authority to clergy whom most regarded as too young to be effective leaders and then he watched them grow. He trusted others to provide him with the talent he knew he did not possess. He empowered congregations and clergy to risk in dramatic ways. In 1959 when a group of young clergy simply closed the segregated camp the diocese had operated for “colored Episcopalians,” deciding that the one diocesan camp, known as Vade Mecum, would serve all the children of the diocese, Bishop Baker approved that decision without hesitation and rode out the storm that ensued among North Carolina’s “old white establishment” with a serenity that was impressive.. He never wavered and the attempt to overturn that decision made by those “young upstarts” failed because this bishop exercised veto power. Another young priest, not five years out of seminary, became chair of the prestigious “State of the Diocese” committee, empowered to bring sweeping recommendations to the convention about future policy. Bishop Baker did not flinch when one of those recommendations was to close a hospital in Charlotte that it had run for years for “colored people,” thus forcing the city to provide public tax-supported medical care to blacks and whites alike. Bishop Baker empowered the clergy of his diocese to grow into who they were capable of being. He asked others to give gifts of leadership that he knew he himself did not possess. That was and is a tremendous gift of leadership. People today look back on that period of church history in North Carolina with some sense of wonder. It was a time of intense conflict over race and the role of women in the church. It was an era when angry people withheld their money from the church as a weapon to keep control and when congregations voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Church in order to keep their prejudices intact. In retrospect people were heard to say such things as “The Diocese of North Carolina got through those difficult days in spite of having such a weak man in the bishop’s office.” How wrong they were. We got through those days because we did have Dick Baker in the bishop’s office. Today I am aware of the contributions that clergy developed under Dick Baker have made in the larger Church. They have become bishops, deans and rectors of some of America’s greatest congregations. One founded the Alban Institute, many were active in the Civil Rights movement, the movement for women’s equality in church and society and the movement for justice and full acceptance of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community. They are the results of the ministry of Richard Henry Baker, who assessing his weaknesses accurately, called many more into being something they did not know that they had the ability to be. I salute him as one of the great mentors of my life. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Dr. Franklin Woo, of California writes: Question: I have been following your work for many years, especially when we were living in New York Now in retirement in California, I found your book A New Christianity for a New World most helpful, as if tailor made to fit my needs. Before retirement, I had essentiality two roles: one of chaplain and lecturer in religion at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1965-1976) and director of the Chinese Program, National Churches of Christ in the USA (1976-1993). Experiences in these two roles have sealed my definition as a bi-cultural person with dual belongings in value systems of both Chinese traditions and Christianity, despite the fact that I was born in the U.S. (San Francisco Chinatown). In Hong Kong and Asia, I learned so much about Chinese and East Asian traditions, especially from students, colleagues and other faculty members. I was very much attracted to the best in the Confucian tradition, especially “Neo-Confucianism,” after classical Confucianism had interacted for centuries with native Daoism and Indic Buddhism to become a more inclusive system that embodies nature and the cosmos. While in New York, I attended monthly Neo-Confucian seminars at Columbia University, where professors from colleges and universities of the Atlantic seaboard did rigorous exegesis of ancient texts, the envy of Christian scholars. In retirement I still worship regularly with my wife in a local Presbyterian congregation for the sake of discipline and community, although all of my work has been in ecumenical contexts. I have found Christian worship, however, to be essentially boring banality. Its confession and absolution are too facile, not to mention that my sins are much more sophisticated than what the superficiality of the confession texts state. Maybe this is all as you mentioned in your book, “familiarity breeds contempt.” I actually resonated well with your quote of Bonhoeffer in the Preface, especially “Before God and with God we live without God.” Your liberating of Christianity from theism has enabled faith for me to converge more directly with so much in the Chinese and East Asian traditions. My first encounter with ridding the supernatural from Christianity was from David Ray Griffin’s book: Reechantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion (Cornell University Press, 2001). His rigorous and specific critique really did it for me. Your intellectual honesty (a la John A. T. Robinson) resonates well with the best in Neo-Confucian fundamentalism, which is the fundamental commitment to the human discourse. Your beginning with the dawn of humanity’s consciousness and the struggle for survival reminded me of Robert N. Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (Harvard 2011), an interreligious work which took Bellah 15 years to write after retirement. The 746 pages appear to be his reading notes to himself. Your stating that the description of religious experience can never encompass the entirety of that experience resonates well with the Daoist claim that all articulations of experience, if absolutized, can be “an idolatry of words.” Your Christianity of expansion into larger and larger realms of exclusivity resonates with the best of the Confucian paradigm of each person being a center of relationship from family, to community, to society, to nation, to world, to the cosmos (ping tian xia) “all under heaven.” Your integrating good and evil is likened to the Daoist yin-yang, where everything in life is seen an interconnected. There is no facile isolating of that which is “evil,” since every person is a combination of many facets of personhood. There is little dichotomy in Daosim; life and death are one. Your idea of giving away self and love resonates well with Buddhist non-attachment to things, to loved ones, to life, even one’s own. It is the art of letting go in both Christian and Buddhist kenosis, though the latter has made it a vocation. Your emphasis on the imperative of community is also central to Confucianism where to be human requires at least two; no one is an atomistic individual. In retirement I have been trying to stay intellectually alive by reviewing books for an academic journal, China Review International, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii. To date they have published close to 70 of my reviews since 1995. Thank you for answering one of my most fundamental questions by demythologizing the notion of a theist parent/fixer, alleviating us of all responsibility. Answer: Dear Franklin, Thank you for your incredible letter and for your permission to reprint it in my column. I think it gives my readers a sense of how rich a cross-cultural religious experience can be. I have gained much from my dialogues with Hindus in India, Buddhists in China, Jews and Muslims in the USA. Perhaps we can get our churches to work on their prayers of confession so that they can be developed to cover “the sophistication” of your sins. I like that idea! I would love to meet you someday. John Shelby Spong Announcements Happy Summer! “And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, 'You owe me.' Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.” ~Rumi We hope this finds you well and enjoying these days as the sun graces us. Soon we will head back into shorter days and longer nights...but it is our love that can light up the sky. This month's free eBulletin from ProgressiveChristianity.org was all about children. It is full of resources to guide children on a compassionate and wonder-filled path. Check it out here if you missed it! Are you looking for people or faith communities in your area? Search our Global Network Directory for community near you. May your days be filled with laughter, light and delight! ~The team at ProgressiveChristianity.org Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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Bill Bailey in hospital
by Lynda Cock 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

The following info was shared with me by Mary Ann Wainwright from the church where the Wainwrights and the Baileys are active members. With Marianna's permission, I am also sharing with you. The cause of the fluid in his brain is uncertain, she says. Maybe from a build-up. Prayers and support are welcome. The Bailey's new address (2013 Directory) is 24 Highbridge Crossing, Asheville, NC 28803. e-mail <mailto:wmbailey@charter.net> wmbailey(a)charter.net. With care, Lynda Cock _____ From: Mary-Ann [mailto:ma-wainwright@charter.net] Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 11:10 AM To: John Cock Subject: Re: eternal-i-am (dialog) Dear John & Lynda, >From the Jubilee prayer chain: Bill Bailey had surgery last Thursday to remove fluid from his brain. He was doing quite well and came home from the hospital yesterday. Last evening he fell and became delirious. At the ER they discovered he has pneumonia and he will most likely be readmitted to Mission Hospital today. Prayers are requested for Bill and Marianna and the family. Mary Ann Wainwright From: John Cock <mailto:jpc2025@triad.rr.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 8:01 AM To: transcribebooks(a)triad.rr.com Subject: eternal-i-am (dialog) Journey Reflection June 25, 2013 eternal-i-am <http://www.rejourney.blogspot.com/> blog link <image001.jpg> .When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I Was. When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I Will Be. When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM. ***** ~Helen Mallicoat, "I AM" source <http://applicationofgodsword.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-am-poem-by-helen-mallic oat.html> via Forrest Craver Journer: Finally, there is solace in "I AM." Nez: Not the power of "Journer Am," but the power of eternal-i-am . always now. Namaste. ______ Image: Rex Lambo infinity symbol source <http://society6.com/product/Infinity-Symbol-Stars-Galaxy-Space_Stretched-Ca nvas> Xtra blog post: Most <http://rejourney.blogspot.com/2010/05/most-fasinating-dance-of-all.html> Fasinating Dance (Tim Casswell and Chikhale School) ***** Journey Reflection: 3,290+ blog posts > Google: www.reJourney.blogspot.com <http://www.rejourney.blogspot.com/> More than 1 Xtra Blog Post daily at these 3 links > Google Plus: Journey <https://plus.google.com/u/0/114307312715975337692/posts> Reflection/Google Plus Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transcribebooks Twitter: https://twitter.com/transcribebooks

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Re: [Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future
by paula.philbrook＠gmail.com 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Timothy Wegner <tim(a)tswegner.net> Date: 06/25/2013 9:02 PM (GMT-06:00) To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future Del wrote: >I would love a way that I might easily tune into, follow and contribute to conversation threads of substance among us. I have given the question of the limitations of the email listservs a lot of thought over the years. Some of those limitations are obvious, such as that there is no clear distinction between OE and DIALOGUE, and that whether or not the conversations appear threaded (keeping topics together) is the accident of how people's email clients work. Over the years various ones of us have tried alternative software platforms. This experimentation included (among others) wiki.wedgeblade.net and is continuing today using WordPress for the ICA archives. I can (and will if asked) install other platforms at wedgeblade.net (or elsewhere) quite easily. And while I am willing to do that, I have reached some (never entirely final) conclusions that may not be too satisfying for the inquiring and restless: 1. Email lists work amazingly well for our aging community. Yes there are limitations, but folks seem to have come to terms with them. My guess is that these lists will continue while enough of us have not yet lost the ability to get to a computer and type. There is an enormous amount of useful discussion and news on these lists. But they are not the "true and beautiful", and sin abounds. 2. These cats cannot be herded, OE and DIALOGUE will be what the evolve to be, some prefer one to the other for unfathomable reasons. Perhaps someone can articulate a useful distinction. Or not! 3. When we try new platforms, success depends much more on willing organizers and facilitators more than on the technical aspects of the platforms. Experimentation will continue, and folks deciding to commit effort will be the key to success. We will continue experimenting with new ways of being community online, but my guess is the email lists will exist for some time, then slowly fade away as the tide comes in and our footprints, one by one, are washed away from the beach of this world. Tim

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Reflection by Del
by Del Morril 25 Jun '13

25 Jun '13

Reflection by Del on June 22, 2013 As I watch the credits roll for a film about post-war Europe and the relocating of thousands of orphaned children due to WW II's destruction and concentration camps, I am in awe over the names that appear before me - names reflecting an amazing variety of backgrounds, cultures, and nations - Czech, Pole, German, French, English, on and on - all with something they are offering us and the rest of the world. And I reflect on all the peoples who came to this particular land, from all over the world at various times in our history - even back to the first who were here to greet those arriving from Europe. And I find myself recalling how the Chinese began their lives here, and what they went through to remain. And I recall the Japanese who established their presence and homes in our own area of the Pacific Northwest, and the hardships they faced as WWII imposed itself on them, as well. And I recall all the others who came - some to escape persecution of one kind or another, whether Christian, Jew or agnostic; some to simply have a better chance of surviving economically; some to join their relatives; and others to take on jobs that no one else wanted, or else needed cheap labor. Whether as free people, as indentured servant, slave, or those who continue to face the terror of crossing a border in order to feed their families, they continue to come, just as they did centuries or decades ago. Some families continue to arrive as refugees from more than a World War II. They come because humankind persists in fighting over politics, philosophy, religion or land, pushing out the innocent for whom they believe they are fighting. We are, indeed, an amazing land of diversity, expressing every country in the world, be it Asian, African, European, Australian or what-ever. It is what distinguishes us. It is what propels our creativity and humanity. Despite our own history of persecutions and murderousness against particular peoples who were merely trying to forge new lives in a new country, we still manage to hold together without destroying our towns and cities over our differences. We've had our eruptions - riots or protests gone wild - and yet remain a people of one nation, despite those differences. We will probably continue to have differences, and continue to struggle and debate over who should enter our shores. But I hope we never forget that our own forebears struggled so that we could have the very freedom and new chances in life that others desire to have. This includes those who have come to have more opportunities in their art, music or dance. It includes those who have become to escape political or religious persecution. As horrible as it might be, it includes, s well, those who brought there against their will so that others could have "more". And it includes those who continue to be brought here with a hopefulness that turns out to be the hell of prostitution due to others who want "more". It includes those who have come because they believed our streets were paved with gold, only to discover the same poverty from which they had escaped. And it does, indeed, include many others who seek merely to experience liberty for the first time in their lives. Those who continue to come to our shores are not much different than those already here. Some are born into a life they hope for, and others never are, but hope their children will find that new life. Regardless of the reasons for which all of our forbears came, and the reasons that people continue to come here, this is, indeed, one land and one people - not a melting pot but a kaleidoscope of creative energy and great gifts to us all. Most of our people have the opportunity of a second chance, a new life and, above all, freedom. As warped as that freedom seems, at times, it is still the underlying pinning of our country. We are ruled, no more wisely or unwisely as any other country, by the People. It is through our voices of support and complaint, for good or for ill. It is by our votes into office those who are to speak for us. It is hoped that our chosen representatives will vote wisely for our sakes - all of us, rich or poor, male or female, young or old. It is in and for this place called America! It is this country called the UNITED States of America. Del Del Hunter Morrill 3217 North Mason Avenue Tacoma WA 98407-5419 H: (253) 752-1506; W: (253) 383-5757 <mailto:delhmor@wamail.net> delhmor(a)wamail.net Web site: www. hypnocenter.com The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. (Joseph Campbell)

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