November 2020 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

FW: Celebration of life for John Weir Singleton, 1931-2020
by Lynda C 05 Nov '24

05 Nov '24

From: Rob Singleton <rob.singleton(a)hsc.utah.edu> Date: Saturday, July 11, 2020 at 3:51 PM To: Rob Singleton <rob.singleton(a)hsc.utah.edu> Subject: Celebration of life for John Weir Singleton, 1931-2020 This email is sent on behalf of Louise Singleton- Dear Family and Friends, We plan a virtual Gathering of Gratitude to celebrate the life of John Singleton on August 8 at 11:00 a.m. MDT. The celebration will consist of a service and, after a five minute break, a virtual reception. Details of the service and instructions for how you can participate are contained in the attached Word document. Please register to join the celebration at: http://bit.ly/johnweirsingleton which also contains additional information. With love and appreciation to all of you who made John's life abundant. Louise Rob, Martha, David, and Will Louise Singleton 3101 Old Pecos Trail, Unit 509 Santa Fe, NM, 87505 lrsingleton85(a)gmail.com<mailto:lrsingleton85@gmail.com> J. Robinson Singleton, MD Professor and Vice Chairman for VA Programs, Department of Neurology, University of Utah Chief of Service, Neurology, Salt Lake City Veterans Medical Center Office 801-581-6770 Cell- 801-201-4525

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John Epps completed life
by John Epps 16 May '23

16 May '23

Dear Communion of Saints, John's earthly existence was completed on Wednesday morning, June 24, 2020. His last words were "thank you," the same words he wrote to you on June 9 in his brief comments, "Thanks for the memories." For five days we were privileged to be in the lovely Denver Hospice which enveloped us with grace and compassion. I am grateful for your many comments of appreciation for John in response to his "Last Collegium." His remains will be interred at the Montview Presbyterian Church Columbarium in Denver. Grace and Peace, Ann

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Fannie Lou Hamer
by J and O Slotta 08 Dec '20

08 Dec '20

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5 ICA talks
by Robertson Work 30 Nov '20

30 Nov '20

Dear OE/EI/ICA colleague, Thought you might enjoy the paperback of my latest book which is now available. It includes five ICA talks: 1994, Lonavala; 1995, Seattle; 2010, Chicago; 2012, Kathmandu; and 2019, Chicago. There are also UN, Building Creative Communities Conference, and other talks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578780038 THE CRITICAL DECADE: Calls for Ecological, Compassionate Leadership: Work, Robertson: 9780578780030: Amazon.com: Books<https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578780038> THE CRITICAL DECADE: Calls for Ecological, Compassionate Leadership [Work, Robertson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. THE CRITICAL DECADE: Calls for Ecological, Compassionate Leadership www.amazon.com Please stay safe, healthy, and happy, Rob ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/

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Thoughts on TrEXIT
by W. J. 29 Nov '20

29 Nov '20

Thoughts on TrEXIT Much as I totally detest her surreal political biases, I say that we NEED to pay attention to Susan’s voice. While I disagree with her stance that Mr. Biden is not (yet) President-elect, Susan HAS pointed out the obvious: that almost fifty percent of the voting electorate is ALL FOR continuing the mirage of Trumpworld. More or less. Or maybe they’re just stuck in their little time-warped bubble of political illusion and reductionistic, fear-filled defensiveness. So Susan is the canary in our coal mine. Let us pay very careful attention to the thrashing, dying throes of this political Monster. And to the unnamed grief of seeing their longed-for political messiah slumping off the stage and, likely, going to jail. I, for one, have struggled with co-existing with my Trump-voter siblings in my family of origin. But their reality is that they’ve never even tried to understand me and/or my weltanschauung, let alone the former Order:Ecumenical. Instead, they went for the obvious Evangelical Jesus-y version of Trumpworld. All to get a conservative Supreme Court majority, mostly. And to reverse everything from Roe v. Wade to Obergefell v. Hodges. So they winced at the pussy-grabbing and still pushed the Trump button. If I have just ONE insight after four years of living in Trump Hell, here it is: MOST Trump voters WERE--and some still ARE--somewhere between naïve and innocent. They innocently voted for the Monster (as he turned out to be) who promised them their version of Heaven in America. What I fail to understand is why they voted for him twice! Especially considering the incredible pile of more than a quarter million corpses of those who died because of his malfeasance—and worse. We need to make room for our national grieving process. We have ALL lost a major war with a virus that resisted our half-hearted, scatterbrained, self-sabotaging attempts at containment. And it WILL get way worse before January 20. Our grieving needs to include grief over realizing our complicity in letting all this come down on us. Divided as we are politically, we are ALL in this together, and ALL of us need to take on the burden of social reconstruction. What we must face is like nothing since the aftermath of the Civil War. And it’s WAY BEYOND the aftermath of the Viet Nam War that still continues as we fail to reckon the human cost of that political disaster in body bags and ruined lives. And it’s NOT as simple and easy as making a political course correction “back to normal“ after a short four-year side trip to the edge of the Abyss. It ain’t over until those on both sides of our polarized body politic can engage in a healing process. So let’s get over our exuberant partying and horn-honking in the streets. After four years of Hell, it’s a wonderful moment! But enough already! We are witnessing the slow, painful, final hours of the Monster as Trumpworld gradually disintegrates into a steaming, slimy pile of fetid lies and frivolous court cases designed to poison the American electorate with mountains of disinformation and Trumped-up conspiracy theories. It's a direct assault on democracy that seeks to plant the seeds of disillusionment and support targeted attacks on American institutions and marginalized groups of scapegoated people. And the Monster of creeping Trump-tocracy is just now entering the breakthrough stage. To quote The New Yorker: "When it is no longer possible to reverse autocracy peacefully, the autocratic breakthrough has occurred, because the very structures of government have been transformed and can no longer protect themselves. These changes usually include packing the constitutional court (the Supreme Court, in the case of the U.S.) with judges loyal to the autocrat; packing and weakening the courts in general; appointing a chief prosecutor (the Attorney General) who is loyal to the autocrat and will enforce the law selectively on his behalf; changing the rules on the appointment of civil servants; weakening local governments; unilaterally changing electoral rules (to accommodate gerrymandering, for instance); and changing the Constitution to expand the powers of the executive. "For all the apparent flailing and incompetence of the Trump Administration, his autocratic attempt checks most of the boxes." And then, it gets WAY worse: ". . . if he is elected, Biden will likely proceed as if politics as normal has been restored, because he and the Democratic Party treat Trump as an aberration—cured simply by being voted out of office. "The last two days have, once again, shown that Trump is neither an aberration nor the product of Russian interference, but rather the conscious choice of roughly half of the voters, or some sixty-five million Americans. This is a giant and, now, aggrieved movement, capable of carrying Trump or, more likely, one of his children, back into office in 2024 or 2028. . . . . If, upon his Inauguration, a President Biden acts as though our national nightmare is over—if he attempts to build bridges and fetishizes bipartisanship in order to pass some watered-down legislation, rather than, say, even acknowledging the necessary and probably impossible task of unpacking the federal judiciary—then the autocratic attempt can return, and it will be stronger." I’m almost done, and this is more like a Rant than a Witness. But my truth is: I’m finally eighty years old, and I’m finally clear that I’m no longer Mister Nice Guy. Avoidance of truth-telling may have looked like a good idea in the past, but just LOOK at where that got us! So I’m going for our Painful Reality, rather than trying to make Nice, Meaningful Transestablishment-type Comments to try to make us feel a little better. And thank you, Susan, for alerting us to the internal reality of those who voted for Donald Trump. Marshall By Declaring Victory, Donald Trump Is Attempting an Autocratic Breakthrough Links in the message (1) | | | By Declaring Victory, Donald Trump Is A... |

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11/26/2020, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Roger Wolsey: Ball of Confusion; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 28 Nov '20

28 Nov '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3014297744 #yiv3014297744templateBody .yiv3014297744mcnTextContent, #yiv3014297744 #yiv3014297744templateBody .yiv3014297744mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3014297744 #yiv3014297744templateFooter .yiv3014297744mcnTextContent, #yiv3014297744 #yiv3014297744templateFooter .yiv3014297744mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ball of Confusion | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey November 24, 2020 “Ball of Confusion – that’s what the World is Today – Hey Hey” ~ The Temptations, 1970 The strangest experience during my four years of studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver took place in the autumn of 1995. Dr. Ed Everding taught Religious Education and on that particular day, we students discovered that the door to our large classroom was locked and the glass on the sides of the doors had been covered with dark construction paper. We waited out in the hallway until we heard the door click and we slowly entered the room. The lights were off, weird music was playing on a boom box, there was a strobe light flickering, a lava lamp or two propped up on stools, and we saw that most all of the tables and chairs were either upside down or on their sides. There were strange things suspended from the ceiling tiles, there were odd posters randomly posted to the walls, most upside down… , and there were a few mannequins, as well as a couple of people who sort of looked like mannequins. One of them was our professor, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, complete with a lei around his neck, holding what appeared to be a Mai Tai drink in one hand – ignoring us completely. The other mannequin may or may not have been a person, one student felt bold and gave “it” a wet willie. It wasn’t a mannequin, the person shifted, yet kept their aloof composure. Oops. After 10 minutes or so, the professor turned down the strange music and he invited us to turn the desks right side up and we sat down. As we did, he went to the chalkboard and wrote a word upon it that I’d never encountered before, “A N O M I E” and then he underlined it, saying it aloud, “An-O-Mee.” He went on to explain that the concept of anomie was coined by sociologist Émile Durkheim in 1893. It’s the idea that there can be conditions in which the norms, values, and assumptions within a society are no longer in place and the people feel a profoundly unmoored dis-ease. This dis-ease about things tends to lead to a felt sense of alienation, estrangement, and uncertainty about, well, everything. And, in many cases, it can lead persons to feel devastated and even to self-harm and suicide. “Man [Humankind] can’t become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs. To free him of all social pressure is to abandon him to himself and demoralize him.” Such alienation and estrangement from self, friends, family, community, and institutions is rampant at present in the U.S. and it is affecting many people’s ability to seek or be in relationships and to seek or maintain jobs. There is no doubt a correlation to the recent rise in suicide we’ve been witnessing. I would suggest that the United States in 2020 is experiencing anomie, Indeed, a case can be made that many Americans were experiencing it upon the U.S. waging an unjust and senseless war in Iraq; followed by the election of president Barack Obama. The phenomenon of having a black person elected to such a high office, coupled with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that honors marriage for same sex couples in all 50 states – in tandem with many working class people struggling as manufacturing jobs were disappearing – created a perfect storm for the populist movement that culminated in the unabashedly bigoted, xenophobic, and anti-intellectual administration of Donald Trump. This sense of anomie only increased over the four years of the Trump era – and reached fever pitch this year with the arrival of the twin pandemics of civil unrest in response to a mismanaged criminal justice system and to a mismanaged response to the highly contagious Covid-19 virus. Many hard working people who had fancied themselves as empowered by the current president (including his boorish and uncivil rhetoric and behavior) were loathe to discover that their ability to keep working their way up the social ladder and pulling themselves up by their respective bootstraps had been undermined by forced shutdowns of the economy. Many of these same people felt indignant when seeing mass protests and the (sort of) related riots and looting and found themselves rallying against the possible rise of a “socialist state” whereby the “values of the elites” will be imposed onto them. While many of us may well feel that such fears are unfounded and indeed irrational and baseless, as Bishop George Berkeley put it, esse est percepi - what people perceive is the reality that they experience. Which brings to mind another Latin phrase, horror vacui – “nature abhors a vacuum” (attributed to Aristotle). Close to half of the U.S. population have apparently been swayed by the propaganda coming from certain quarters and they no longer believe in the veracity of the mainstream news, the legitimacy of political institutions, the credibility of scientists, nor do they even allow for any goodwill, wisdom, or merit from the mainline Church (including from the Pope). Many, too many, of these persons are painting the mainstream press and media as “fake news”; and many, too many, of these persons are exiling themselves from Facebook and shifting instead to alternative platforms such as Parler which ironically claim to be forums that “don’t censor” – when in reality, they are echo chambers for ideologues who don’t wish to be challenged by inconvenient truths or dissenting opinions – thus, filling the perceived vacuum. Such persons have been persuaded to believe that a frankly right of center neo-liberal such as Joe Biden (and the Democratic Party) is “socialist” and/or “communist.” And many of these people have also been convinced that true Christianity means being opposed to abortions, homosexuality, and universal health care. Indeed, that belief has effectively become a shibboleth for the testing of who is and who isn’t a “real Christian.” It isn’t an overstatement to suggest that the U.S. hasn’t been this polarized and divided since the Civil War in the 1860s. The truth is, many Americans would not consider Bishop John Spong – nor we, his readers, fans, and followers – to be authentic Christians, nor as good Americans (for those of us who happen to reside in the U.S.). What to do? Well, we could do the typical human thing and respond to “their” tribalism with increased tribalism of our own – battening down the hatches, and shoring ourselves up for what “true progressive Christians believe” etc. – effectively creating creeds, dogmas, and shibboleths of our own. However, I am writing to advise against that. The last thing our society (in the U.S, and in the larger world) needs is another increase in harsher demarcations between “us” and “them.” The last thing we need is increased polarization. The last thing we need is more lines drawn in the sand. We could even attempt to seek ways to engage with people who think and believe differently than we do with enhanced skills and techniques – see “Ending the Civil War.” Over the past decade, however, I’ve grown to be less religious, and more, “spiritual and religious.” I’ve come to embrace mysticism as part of my life and way of being a Christian follower of Jesus. And from this place of connection to Divine Source, I’m encouraging us to not so much seek demands, platforms, and agendas lobbying the incoming Biden administration - as good and sensible to us as they may seem - instead, to deepen into ourselves and our divinity. Now this isn’t a firm either/or, it’s of course a both/and, but what I’m urging is a prioritized emphasis that has us centering and grounding ourselves in the Divine - more than in ceaseless activism that comes from a cerebral place. I’m inviting us to feel into ourselves, embody the love that we seek to see in the world, and from this place of love engage in mindful, conscience, and prayerful action. Dr. Cornel West famously said, “Never forget that justice [politics] is what love looks like in public.” True enough. But activism for justice that isn’t centered in Divine love may not be just at all. As Gandhi put it, “there is no way to peace, peace is the way.” And as the apostle Paul put it, “ If I speak in the tongues of [humans] or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” I’m hoping we are all sensing bells of truth and recognition when we hear those words. With these profound insights in mind, I urge us all to devote the next 12 months to deepened inner-work. To increased spiritual practice. To spiritual disciplines. To embracing the mystic truth of our divinity. To remembering who and Whose we are. To truly knowing, deep in our guts, that we “live and move and have our being” in the God who is Love - and that ultimately who we are is love. I’ve written on this forum in the past urging progressive Christianity to not “be so high/heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good.” Example, “Where the Rubber Hits the Road”, and “Putting the Shark back in the Tank”. And I’ve also shared in the past about the beauty and merits of progressive Christians embracing spiritual practice, spirituality, and mysticism (seeking direct connection to Source) – e.g. "A Call to Spirituality and Religious Participation" and, “Making Friends with Silence”. Yet, I’m now feeling called to restate this as an ardent *need* for progressive Christians and the cause of progressive Christianity. If we are to be relevant – to ourselves, our loved ones, our churches and/or communities, we need to do our work. They need us to shift from our heads and more toward our hearts. More toward a felt sense of authenticity and compassion that others can palpably feel – that isn’t coming from a place of “new wording” or “re-branding”, but rather, from the hearts, our guts, our very beings – the authentic truth of who we are. And this isn’t just “light” work – it also means engaging in some shadow work of our own. People won’t trust us unless they know that we really know ourselves – including our darkness. As Carl Jung put it, “People will do anything no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Moreover, people who we disagree with won’t trust us unless we recognize that there is that of God within them too – unless we too recognize their divinity. The late Catholic (and rather progressive) theologian Karl Rahner said “The Christian[s] of the future will be a mystic or he [we] will not exist at all.” I agree. I’ll close with some inspiration from the mystic poet Rumi,”You are not but a drop of the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” “I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God.” May we know that God is with us and within us as we do our sacred work. ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey p.s. Here’s a mystic pondering of a passage in the Gospel of John from a progressive Christian perspective. Enjoy. “Holy Yogi Jesus Was a Walrus and so are You” . Read online here About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is a United Methodist pastor who resides in Grand Junction, CO. Roger is author of Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity and blogs for Patheos as The Holy Kiss and serves on the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org. Roger became “a Christian on purpose” during his college years and he experienced a call to ordained ministry two years after college. He values the Wesleyan approach to the faith and, as a certified spiritual director, he seeks to help others grow and mature. Roger enjoys yoga; playing trumpet; motorcycling; and camping with his son. He served as the Director of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder for 14 years, and has served as pastor of churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and currently serves as the pastor of Fruita UMC in Colorado, and also serves as the "CRM" (Congregational Resource Minister/Church Consultant) for the Utah/Western Colorado District of the Mountain Sky Conference. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Dean Can’t say I disagree on your article: A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, but it raises at least one question. When God’s people chased inhabitants out of the ‘Promised Land’ I don’t recall any discussion of reparations for the displaced people. Perhaps that is our rationale (excuse) for claiming reparations as a non-issue. A: By Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer Dear Dean, Thank you for this question. It is an interesting one. My response will reveal my overall view of Scripture. I see our sacred texts not as God’s literal words revealed to some human scribe who simply served as an empty vessel recording all that God poured into her. I see them as the faithful and authentic testimonies of those who experienced something sacred in the otherwise profane matters of human existence. I see them as creative, poetic, and memetic – products of human experience and imagination with the purpose of shaping hearts and minds and of generating a fundamental faith in a God with whom we entered into covenant and from whom we received the promise of protection, comfort, and eventually the promise of eternal life. There were no cameras to record events, no journalists trained to record history without bias. With every story told, there was an agenda – a need to perpetuate along with the story a bias, be that legal, moral, or ecclesial. In the best of circumstances, that bias reflected the perceived will of God – but not always. Biblical records of the conquest of the land we call promised are far from historically accurate. They are idealized accounts filtered through the lens of the victors who wanted to attach to their victory and conquest both the aid of God and the approval of God. White slave owners did the same thing. They attached divine mandate and approval to their conquest and enslavement of captured African natives. They mythologized their white skin and dehumanized black skin. That myth will survive as longs as whites maintain control of the public narrative. In the same way, Biblical authors justified the conquest and enslavement of another people by attaching God to the story and making their God the agent of their bloodlust. Passages that describe God as commanding the enslavement and slaughter of innocent children and livestock does not sound to me like the God we would come to know in the writings and teachings of Jesus. What does sound more divine to me are the invitations for peoples of the Earth to love their neighbor, to turn the other cheek, to pray for those who persecute you, to love your enemy, to give to the poor and the widow and the orphan. When it is written in the epistle of John that “God is love,” I take that as instructive. Scripture that reveals a God whom we know as love I receive as authentic and revelatory. On the other hand, passages that cannot be reconciled with the God whom we know as love are little more to me than the human attribution of our capacity and lust for evil to God. ~ Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer is the author of two published books, Beyond Resistance: the Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World and Steeplejacking: How the Christian Right Hijacked Mainstream Religion. He is a recipient of Eden Seminary's "Shalom Award," given by the student body for a lifetime of committed work for peace and justice. John currently serves as the 9th General Minister of the United Church of Christ. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | This week's donation request | | | | | | | | | | We Are Grateful For You! This year, it may seem odd to talk about gratitude. For many of us, it has been hard to stay focused on being thankful when it feels like we have given up so much. Yet, perhaps we can use this time to assess what is really important in our lives and ensure that we are appreciating every moment. Indeed, tasks —like going to the grocery store —that once seemed mundane can now be a major outing! As we approach Thanksgiving, many are modifying or even forgoing usual celebrations in order to truly care for the ones we love. During this week, we hope that you will find time to assess those things for which you are grateful and give thanks. Here at ProgressiveChristianity.org we are giving thanks for you and your ongoing support. Without you we could not function as an organization. If the resources that we provide are on your list of things for which you are grateful, we hope that you might consider making a donation to ensure that we can continue to be a beacon of Progressive Christian light for years to come. We hope that you have a great Thanksgiving week! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part XVIII: Mark, The First Gospel Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong April 1, 2010 The original gospel, the one we know as Mark, was written, I believe, after the fall of Jerusalem and its subsequent destruction by the Roman army under the command of a general named Titus, in 70 CE. It was the climax of a war that began in Galilee in 66 and would finally culminate in a mass suicide of the final defenders of the Jewish cause at a place called Masada in 73. The echoes of this fall of the “eternal” city are heard in a number of places throughout Mark’s text. The apocalyptic words recorded in Chapter 13 seem to describe the pain endured by the residents of the holy city in that catastrophe and includes the suggestion that they must flee into the hills of Judea and perhaps even to Galilee. The story of Jesus being transfigured on a mountain in Chapter 9 also suggests that in the minds of his disciples he has now replaced the Temple as the meeting place between God and human life. On him the “shekinah,” the light of God, that once was believed to have enveloped the Temple as a sign of God’s presence now shines on him. I do not believe that a story like that of the Transfiguration would have been written unless the Temple itself had not already been destroyed. Even the rise of the story of a traitor named Judas, introduced for the first time in Christian history by Mark’s gospel, suggests that those Jews, who were followers of Jesus, wanted to put some distance between themselves and the Temple authorities. To make the name of the traitor identical to the name of the now defeated nation, Judah, over which the Temple authorities had once exercised authority, accomplished that task. These are just a few of the things that cause me to date the writing of the first gospel around the years 71-72. We have previously suggested that the synagogue had to be the setting in which the story of Jesus was remembered, recalled and retold during the time that we call the “oral period” of Christian history. That assertion is based on the fact that when this first gospel appears the story of Jesus has already been wrapped inside the sacred scriptures of the Jews. This could only have happened in the synagogue, since that would be the only place in which first-century people would ever hear the Jewish Scriptures read, taught or engaged. There was no such thing in that day as a “family Bible.” Books, which had to be copied by hand, were far too expensive to be individually owned, so the scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures were community property — treasured, kept and read only in the sacred setting of the synagogue. When Mark’s Gospel appeared, its text revealed that the memory of Jesus had already been incorporated into those Jewish scriptures. The story of Jesus had been orally transmitted in and through the synagogue. Mark reveals this in the first verse of his gospel when he announces that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ “as it is written in the prophets.” Then he starts his story by quoting first Malachi and then Isaiah. When this gospel introduces John the Baptist for the first time it is clear that John has already been interpreted as the Old Testament figure of Elijah, who in the expectations of the Jews had to precede the coming of the messiah. John is clothed by Mark in the raiment of Elijah, camel’s hair and a girdle around his waist. He is placed in the desert where Elijah was said to dwell. He was given the diet of locusts and wild honey that the Hebrew Scriptures said was the diet that Elijah ate. Then Mark relates the story of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River at the hands of John the Baptist. That was the moment, Mark asserts, when the power of God in the form of the Holy Spirit entered into the human Jesus and he was acclaimed to be God’s son. Mark has obviously never heard of the story of the virgin birth, which offers a different way for this divine presence to enter Jesus. Next Mark moves on to tell the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for forty days, but he gives no content to those temptations. That was destined to come in later gospels that expanded Mark with developing stories. One can see the oral period at work here, for in the synagogue on the Sabbath first the law was read, then the prophets and then the disciples of Jesus would relate Jesus stories that seemed appropriate to those readings. Increasingly they saw in the Hebrew Scriptures the anticipation of the messiah’s life and when they became convinced that Jesus was the expected messiah, they began to interpret these scriptures as anticipatory of their day and the life of Jesus became more and more the one to whom all the Hebrew Scriptures pointed. The second clue that reveals the synagogue as the place in which the story of Jesus was remembered, told and retold is that the gospel of Mark reflects the liturgical year of the Jews and thus has an appropriate story about Jesus designed to be read at each of the great liturgical observances of that year. One cannot see this, however, if one is not familiar with these liturgical synagogue patterns relived annually by the Jews. So let me file, almost by title, the major events recalled in the worship life of the Jewish people during their liturgy. The first worship event in the synagogue, which marked liturgically the birth of the Jewish nation, was called “the Passover.” It re-enacted annually the Jewish flight from slavery in Egypt and thus their beginnings as a separate and distinct people. Passover is to the Jews what the Fourth of July is to the citizens of the United States. It was celebrated on the 14th and 15th days of the Jewish month of Nisan which, according to the book of Leviticus, was the first month of the Jewish calendar, although Jewish practice was not consistent as to when the year began. The second great observance of the Jewish year was Shavuot, or Pentecost, which comes fifty days after Passover, hence the name Pentecost, which means fifty days. On this day the Jews commemorated God’s giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it was observed in traditional Jewish circles with a 24-hour vigil dedicated to recalling and celebrating the beauty and wonder of the Torah. The law represented to the Jews God’s greatest gift to God’s people. After Shavuot there were no major holidays in the Jewish year for about four months. Then in the seventh month of their calendar, a month known as Tishri, three major observances occurred in rapid succession. The celebration began on the first day of Tishri with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah was observed by blowing the shofar, the ram’s horn, to gather the people together. When they gathered the announcement was made that the Kingdom of God was at hand and the people were urged to prepare for its arrival. It was the promise of each new year that the Kingdom of God would someday come. On the tenth day of Tishri came the observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This was a day of deep penitence that included both confession and sacrifice. Liturgically this was an attempt to cleanse the people of their sins and thus to allow them to have their sins borne away, which would, of course, leave them fit to enter the presence of God as only the High Priest could now do and he only once a year at Yom Kippur. Beginning on the fifteenth day of the month of Tishri and lasting for eight days was the Festival of Booths, also called Tabernacles, or Sukkoth. This was the harvest festival, the Jewish day of Thanksgiving, but it also recalled the years of Jewish history when the people were homeless wanderers in the wilderness between Egypt and the land they regarded as their promised destiny. It was, therefore, observed by the erection of booths or temporary shelters, which recalled their wilderness years. Sukkoth was the happiest and most anticipated holiday of the Jewish year. It was also the last Jewish festival for about two months. When the month of Kislev arrived, located as it was in the dead of winter, the Jews observed a “festival of lights” known then as Dedication, but known today as Hanukkah. This was a celebration born in the Maccabean period of Jewish history (167-63 BCE) and it recalled the restoration of the light of God to the Temple after it had been defiled by the Seleucid King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, who was defeated in battle by Judas Maccabeus. The end of the Jewish year came in the early spring with the month of Adar, which brought the people back liturgically to the month of Nisan and its celebration of the birth of their nation. Every year the people of the synagogue relived this cycle of feasts and fasts and every year for at least forty years the followers of Jesus, who were still part of the synagogue, thought of him and spoke of him inside this liturgical framework. When the first gospel of Mark was written, this liturgical framework was clearly present and it became, probably quite unconsciously, the organizing principle of Mark’s gospel — and because both Matthew and Luke built their gospels on Mark’s model it became the organizing principle of all three. We know that Mark began the custom of setting the story of the crucifixion inside the celebration of Passover and because of this Jesus was increasingly seen as the new paschal lamb who, like the lamb of Passover, died to dispel the power of death. What we do not see so clearly is that if we attach Mark’s story of Jesus’ passion to the Jewish season of Passover and then roll Mark’s gospel backward across the liturgical year of the Jews, we will discover that an appropriate Jesus narrative falls at exactly the right spot in the gospel to fit the calendar to enable it to illumine the festivals and fasts of the Jewish year and in their proper order. Next week I will develop that correlation, and then I trust it will become clear that Mark was written as a liturgical book to be read in the synagogue with the purpose of revealing Jesus as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. It is not a history book. It incorporates the memory of Jesus into the ongoing life of the synagogue. If you, my readers, are like me, then once this key unlocks the story, the gospel of Mark will never be the same. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Lux Divina: A 2020 Advent Journey This e-course for Advent will be a quiet, spacious, reflective time in community, where we will feast on scripture and the teachings of Fr. Thomas Keating and other mystical writers. We will reflect on the great themes of this season as they inform and enrich the contemplative life. Starting November 27th - December 25th. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Global Buzz reminder for December Issue
by ICA International 27 Nov '20

27 Nov '20

Reminder for entries This reminder is for the Global Buzz that will be published December 5th. 2020 (Please send your entries at least a day or more ahead) Please send all your entries by regular e-mail to: inform(a)ica-international.org with your entry as an attatchment. Send details of news items, training programmes, your peer to peer connections with other ICAs, any concerns you may have and of any events that are coming up at your location. Your report can be long or short, but remember that all other ICAs would really like to know about the things that matter where you are, and what you are doing as an ICA. Peter, for ICAI Communications Pour les entrées de rappel Ce rappel est à la Global Buzz qui sera publié le 5 décembre 2020 (S'il vous plaît envoyez vos entrées au moins un jour à l'avance) Veuillez envoyer toutes vos entrées maintenant par courriel ordinaire à : inform(a)ica-international.org avec votre entrée comme un attatchment. Envoyer les détails des articles de nouvelles, des programmes de formation, vos connexions peer to peer avec d'autres CIAS, de toute préoccupation que vous pourriez avoir et de tous les événements qui sont à venir à votre emplacement. Votre rapport peut être longue ou courte, mais rappelez-vous que toutes les autres CIAS aimerait vraiment savoir à propos de choses qui importe où vous êtes et ce que vous faites comme une ICA. Recordatorio de las entradas Este aviso es para el Global Buzz que se publicarán 5 diciembre 2020 (Favor de enviar sus entradas al menos con un día de antelación) Por favor envíe todos sus entradas ahora por correo electrónico a: inform(a)ica-international.org con su entrada como un archivo adjunto. Enviar detalles de noticias, programas de capacitación, el peer to peer las conexiones con otros convenios o acuerdos internacionales, las preocupaciones que usted pueda tener y de los eventos que se aproximan en su ubicación. El informe puede ser a corto o largo, pero hay que recordar que todos los demás convenios quisiera saber realmente sobre lo que realmente importa, y lo que están haciendo una ICA.

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Swamp Gravy
by Seth Longacre 26 Nov '20

26 Nov '20

Today, NPR’s Planet Money re-broadcast this episode for Thanksgiving because, well, GRAVY! I commend it to you. thanks to Joy Jinks, Nan and Bill Grow: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/939016028/swamp-gravy-updated <https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/939016028/swamp-gravy-updated> Seth T. Longacre Ashland, OR I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower—the light is my darkness, the Voice in my silence. Helen Keller ———-O0ooo— ———–(——)— ————)–-/—- ————(_/- —-ooo0O—- —-(——)—- —–\-–(– ——\_)-

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Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Swamp Gravy
by Karen Snyder 26 Nov '20

26 Nov '20

Thank you for bringing this NPR update of its 2018 interview about Swamp Gravy to our attention Seth. Swamp Gravy is an excellent example of how community development can occur by focusing on the arts. Many images of Colquitt, GA have been changed over the years as a result of this musical going on for some 30 years. See https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/imaginal-education/demonstrations… <https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/imaginal-education/demonstrations…> for more information. Peace, Karen > On Nov 25, 2020, at 9:35 PM, McGuire, Jann & Fred via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > Thank you, Seth. One of the most fun weekends of my life was visiting Nan and Bill and seeing Swamp Gravy. I tried to promote a similar production in our local community theater in Lindsay, CA, but ours was quite modest in comparison. > > Jann McGuire > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Seth Longacre via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > To: oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net; Colleague ICA Dialogue list <Dialogue(a)wedgeblade.net> > Cc: Seth Longacre <sethlongacre(a)gmail.com> > Sent: Wed, Nov 25, 2020 6:28 pm > Subject: [Dialogue] Swamp Gravy > > Today, NPR’s Planet Money re-broadcast this episode for Thanksgiving because, well, GRAVY! I commend it to you. > > thanks to Joy Jinks, Nan and Bill Grow: > > https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/939016028/swamp-gravy-updated <https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/939016028/swamp-gravy-updated> > > Seth T. Longacre > Ashland, OR > > I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower—the light is my darkness, the Voice in my silence. Helen Keller > > ———-O0ooo— > ———–(——)— > ————)–-/—- > ————(_/- > —-ooo0O—- > —-(——)—- > —–\-–(– > ——\_)- > > > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net> > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Reflecting on Giving Thanks, the Spirit of Gratitude
by Ellie Stock 26 Nov '20

26 Nov '20

Dear Folks, Last Sunday, Thanksgiving Sunday (also the Reign of Christ in the Christian Liturgical Calendar), I led Second Presbyterian Church's (St. Louis) Sunday Forum Group, reflecting on Giving Thanks, the Spirit of Gratitude. During the week before the participants were invited to write down/keep a mini journal (list, words, poetry, art, etc.) of their experiences of gratitude each day. The first 15 minutes of the session was prayer and context and the rest was conversation reflecting on our experiences of gratitude. As we participate on this nation's observance of Thanksgiving, I thought I would share this session with you for your own refection and observations of your experiences of gratitude. So, attached is a synopsis of the session. Giving deep thanks for all of you and our years of collegiality. Hope you all have a beautiful day. Blessings! Ellie elliestock(a)aol.com

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