May 2021 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

5/13/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Deshna Shine: Divine Mother Letting Go; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 13 May '21

13 May '21

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Deshna Shine May 13, 2021My daughter loads up her arms with her school backpack, her suitcase and her guitar. I help her carry her things downstairs, lingering with her as long as possible before her dad picks her up. I snuggle in next to her on the couch, breathe her in, soak her in with my eyes, trying to notice any details I might have missed. Her legs are stronger now, her softness is leaner, her body has more curves. She has a confidence and a groundedness that is new. She has always been confident, but this is different. I notice all these things and more, but I don’t say anything. I just smile at her and do my best to keep the tears from rising up through my body, into my eyes. She is 17, nearly an adult, and yet. And yet, she is my baby. She is part of me. But she is becoming more and more her own separate self. I celebrate this as much as I mourn it. She goes to her dad's now every two weeks. Two weeks on, two weeks off. That is our new thing. The two weeks she is with us, we get to really settle in with her and enjoy our time together… it almost feels normal again. But then. But then, she goes off to her dad's for two weeks and it feels like there is a hole inside of me. Like I am slowly bleeding out. Someone once said that being a mother is like having your heart walk around outside your body. So, when she is at her dad's, I practice. I practice being whole again. I practice letting her go even more. I have been practicing this since birth, like all mothers do. Every step after their first step is a step further away from us. There is nothing in the human experience like being a mother. It is this profound, all penetrating love at every cell of our body and yet. And yet, we are constantly having to let go. Let go of the new born baby, let go of the pudgy adorable toddler, let go of the curious young child. Some would say that they are still that person. But they really aren’t. Yes, there are pieces, but as they grow, they shed and become new. And as a mother, you grieve the loss of all those shed parts. If I could just hold my baby for an hour or two and fully remember her. As I prepare for the empty nest, as I prepare for her leaving and going out into the world as her nearly fully developed whole self, I celebrate her individuation. After all, that is my job as a mother, and if she is ready to go and is her own unique whole self, then I have done my job well. It isn’t so much an empty nest that I am preparing myself for, though, it is more that I am preparing for my empty self. Being a mother who births their child means that we grow our child from our own body, within our own body, then hold that child on our body, and feed that child from our body. They come into the world very much a part of our body. As they grow, they stay close to our body, but then. But then they start to separate. And it’s good because that is what is meant to happen. They go further and further away from our bodies as they become more and more themselves. I think about Mother Mary and her pride alongside her anguish as her son became more and more himself. A self that threatened the powers that be. A self that would hang for being who he was. What must she have felt when he told her, I must go out into the world and share these teachings. I must share with the world this great love I have experienced. In a Catholic funeral I recently attended, we repeated the mantras of Hail, Mary, "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” All I could think about was Mary seeing her baby hung to die, nails in his hands. How? How can a mother survive this? But even before that, when her young son was merely 12 years old, she nearly lost him, when he stayed behind at the temple for 3 days to listen to the teachers. Eventually, he would leave and become a teacher himself. She had to let him go. Her heart walked outside of her body out in the world. Our hearts walking around outside our bodies. I wonder if this is what God feels. I have never tried to really make sense of God (how can we?) and I rarely put my human feelings onto the Great Mystery of our Source. But as I learn more about the world, as I go deeper within myself, I see God more and more like a Mother. Our Ancient Mother. Our Source. Whom we were once a part of and now we are seemingly separate from. But in truth, we are never separate from our Mother. We are made of Her. Our beginnings came from Her body. God is not separate from nature, but immanent within it. God is also the Unity which holds the universe together and feeds and nourishes it. God as Mother of All exists within all that we are, feeding and nourishing us. When I look at Nature, I see God and I experience the Great Mother. What an incredible display of the Divine available to us at all times. And what happens there? Everything comes from and returns to the Divine Ground.If the Divine Mother God is also the wholeness which transcends the world, then this wholeness includes not only the manifest world, but the “unmanifest” or latent potentialities which have not been realized in nature. For example: Look at the fruit tree in all of its forms and stages - from seed to fruit. First, we have the seed, buried in the darkness, which pushes through the ground to manifest into a new form, then bud forms on the stem and what has happened to the seed? When the blossom bursts out of the bud, the bud seems to disappear. And when the fruit appears, the blossom seems to have been just a temporary illusion compared to the truth of the fruit. They are unique, yet separate, but they cannot exist without the other. The philosopher Hegel illustrates this through analogy to the growth of a plant in his opus, The Phenomenology of Spirit:“The bud disappears in the bursting-forth of the blossom, and one might say that the former is refuted by the latter; similarly, when fruit appears, the blossom is shown up in its turn as a false manifestation of the plant and the fruit now emerges as the truth instead. These forms are not just distinguished from one another, they also supplant one another as mutually incompatible. Yet at the same time their fluid nature makes them moments of an organic unity in which they not only do not conflict, but in which each is as necessary as the other; and this mutual necessity alone constitutes the life of the whole.”When you look at it from a scientific perspective, there is still the space for Divine Ground, or Source, or Great Mother, underlying the universe and guiding its order. Perhaps one can not exist without the other, perhaps there is mutual necessity as we see in all of life. In his article, "Beyond Belief: Divine Knowledge," James Cross writes, “Modern cosmology actually accepts the idea of a quantum void from which the universe was brought into existence at the Big Bang. Physicists think of this void as a cauldron of random fluctuations with particles going in and out of existence. The energy associated with this void is called zero point energy. For some reason the calculations for the amount of energy in empty space is absurdly large. Physicists naturally would not use the term “divine” in describing this void but the quantum void certainly corresponds scientifically to the religious concept that Aldous Huxley calls “Divine Ground”.”The Source from which we are made and to which we return, which is always a part of us, but we feel is separate from us. My daughter has told me she isn’t comfortable with me telling her I miss her every day when she is at her dad's. When I do, she feels sad and guilty. I try to explain to her that I always miss her, even when she is in the other room and that my missing or my sadness is not her responsibility and that I am okay missing her. But she doesn’t get it. Not yet. And so, I ask her, “Is it okay then, if I tell you I love you every day?” She says, “Of course!” So that is what I do. I tell her I am thinking of her, I tell her I adore her, I tell her I love her and I am proud of who she is. But I keep my missing to myself. And I practice becoming more whole. Part of that practice is remembering that she is a part of me and that I am in her always. Like the Divine Mother God, my heart goes with her when she leaves. And yet, I am still whole. I am the Ground, the Seed, and she is the Stem, the Flower and Fruit… but I am intertwined in all that she becomes. Hence my heart is out there blossoming in the sun. Something new and different from the Source she came from, but still deeply connected. And the practice is to remember I am also the flower and fruit, come from my own Mother. Imagine having a whole universe of children, your heart spread out all over this planet. Imagine the yearning, the missing, and the pride. Imagine the love billowing out over the entire creation from our Mother.Does She long for us? Does She celebrate our becoming? Are we the sparks of God moving around this world learning who we are and individuating? Have we forgotten Her? She may be quiet. She may just be showing us her love through the clouds, the sunsets and the dew drops, but we came from Her and She is a part of us, even as She lets us go. ~ Rev. Deshna Shine Read online here About the Author Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Elene What is it about the Temple Mount? It seems to always be the flashpoint of conflict in Jerusalem. A: By Rev. David M. Felten Thanks for your timely question, Elene. The current crisis around the Temple Mount has emerged over a pending Israeli Supreme Court decision regarding conflicting claims to land near the site. But this is just the most recent skirmish in a quarrel that goes back millennia. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all gilded the site with layer after layer of sacred significance. Tradition has it that Adam was buried on the site and Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son here. Solomon is alleged to have built his Temple here, Jesus would have walked here, and Muhammad is said to have begun his ascension to heaven from the stone beneath the dramatic golden-domed building people associate with the Temple Mount today, the Dome of the Rock. While there’s scant archaeological evidence for Solomon’s First Temple having been built here, sacred tradition places it beneath where the returning exiles rebuilt the Second Temple that King Herod refurbished in Jesus’ day. After the Romans ransacked and burned Herod’s Temple in 70 C.E., the site was left in ruins for hundreds of years. In 638, then-Christian Jerusalem was conquered by Muslims and the Dome of the Rock was built with a mind toward overshadowing “the competition’s” Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In 1099, the Crusaders besieged the Holy Land and established Jerusalem as the capital of a new Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa Mosque became a palace for the new Christian King of Jerusalem and was later used as the headquarters of the Knights Templar. The Dome of the Rock was converted into an abbey and had a cross placed on top. In 1187, Saladin’s Muslim forces overwhelmed the Crusaders and since then, Muslims have managed the Temple Mount as a waqf, a charitable trust charged with maintaining the site. Today, the Temple Mount is just one of the holy sites that the modern state of Israel honors as sacred for Christians and Muslims. A couple of years ago, my kids and I set aside time in our visit to Jerusalem to navigate the TSA-style security gauntlet required to visit the Temple Mount. Access includes long lines, metal detectors, and the scrutiny of sober Israeli security guards searching people and back-packs for any prohibited religious literature or paraphernalia. In an effort to maintain the fragile status quo, any non-Muslim symbols, literature, or prayers are banned on the Temple Mount. As we gathered with friends to take a quick picture, guards quickly moved in to disperse us. Security protocol deems that any size group may be conducive to prayer breaking out and is therefore prohibited. Because the actual location of the Temple (and therefore the Holy of Holies) is not known, many Jews don’t venture onto the Mount itself. The closest the Jewish faithful can get to this sacred site is the Herodian-era retaining wall that we recognize as the Western Wall. Adding to the ongoing tension over who has ultimate control over the site are some within the Orthodox Jewish tradition who predict a third Temple being built on the Mount to usher in the arrival of the Messiah. Jewish right-wing extremist plans to blow up the Dome of the Rock to make way for that new Temple have, so far, been thwarted. Add to that the controversial recent move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the continued incursion by Jewish settlers into the West Bank, and the humanitarian crisis that is Gaza, and it’s understandable that security measures are in a constant state of high alert. So, what is it about the Temple Mount? Overlapping religious and real estate claims, both ancient and modern, from Muslims, Christians, and Jews. It’s no wonder this otherwise tranquil setting at the center of one of the most revered cities in the world is often rife with tension – if not out in the open, then percolating just below the surface. ~ Rev. David M. Felten NOTE: The answer above responds to a question that touches upon a rapidly unfolding current event. Every effort has been made to assure that the historical and factual details were current as of its writing. As the May 2021 Israel-Palestine Crisis continues to escalate, please refer to reliable news sources for the most current information. Read and share online here About the Author Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions” and authors of Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity. A co-founder of Catalyst Arizona and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. 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Challenged My Racism Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong October 14, 2010As I stood in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapel at Morehouse College recently to witness the unveiling of my portrait to hang in the Hall of Honor, I could not help but look back on my life with wonder. I was raised uncritically in the racist prejudice of the South and yet I had somehow been able to escape its clinging power. How did such a dramatic transition occur? In my mind I began to recall the turning points. I am happy to recognize that two of these turning points occurred in church, which somehow helps me to accept this institution’s constant failure to grapple with its own negative history. The others were personal experiences. Allow me if you will to share with you the key moments of transition on my journey out of racism. First, in my early childhood during Lent every year, my church used something called a “Mite Box” for the children’s Lenten offering. This box derived its name from the story of the Widow’s Mite in the gospels. We were taught to place the coins that came from our Lenten sacrifices into these boxes. Some of us would give up candy for Lent; others ice cream; still others our Saturday trip to the movies. Whatever the “sacrifice,” the money saved became our “mites,” given to aid, we were told, the Christian mission around the world. The impressive thing to me, however, was that on the sides of this “mite box” were pictures of children from all of the nations of the world kneeling in prayer. These children were wearing native clothes and their faces revealed the pigmentation and the ethnic identities of their heritage. There was a Native American child dressed in buckskin; an Asian child with black hair and eyes slanted a little differently; a Dutch child with wooden shoes; black children from the various nations of Africa that we called “The Dark Continent;” a child from the people of the North Pole then called Eskimos, and wearing a fur lined coat and hood. This was my earliest childhood knowledge that enabled me to embrace the fact that there were different kinds of people with different dress, different looks and different shades of color, but all of them were portrayed as praying to the same God. It was an indelible impression. When I started the first grade, I was informed by my mother that I could no longer play baseball with what she called the “Negro” children, who lived on the other side of our woods. I did not understand and was angry, but the decision was final. Segregated fences were erected. In January of 1942 when I was in the fifth grade, my grammar school accepted the invitation of another school in Charlotte, North Carolina, to send representatives to a patriotic assembly they were planning. The strong emotion of patriotism was in the air since this was about a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged the United States into World War II. I was chosen to be one of my school’s delegation. When we arrived it was obvious that this school was for black children. I had no idea at that time that there was such as thing as a “black school.” It had frankly never occurred to me that there were no black children in my school. My consciousness was clearly underdeveloped. In the assembly at that school on that day, however, I had three more indelible experiences. First, we all said the Lord’s Prayer to the same God so I began to wonder why only white people came to my church. Second, we all said the same pledge of allegiance to our flag. This meant that they, like me, were full citizens of this country. Third, when we were asked to stand to sing the national anthem, much to my surprise and confusion that assembly sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which someone told me later was the “Black National Anthem.” Its words spoke of bleeding feet on the march to freedom and the lash of the master on the backs of the slaves. At that time slavery had been presented to me by “good Christians” only as a benevolent act designed to offer the people in Africa “a better life, civilization and a chance to be baptized.” Reality, which was quite different from yesterday’s racist propaganda, was beginning to crack through my comfort zone. I had no classmates of color throughout my educational days in public school or even at the University of North Carolina. It was not until I entered the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1952, to begin my preparation for the priesthood, that I had my first black classmate. A native of Detroit, his name was John Walker and, prior to his death, he became not only the highly-respected Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., but also the vice-president of the Episcopal House of Bishops. While we were fellow students, however, John Walker could not go with me to have a cup of coffee at the local drugstore. For the first time I felt existentially the pain of racism, but it was so entrenched I had no idea how to confront it as I, newly ordained, headed back to my North Carolina home. In 1957, with racial tensions rising, I became the rector of Calvary Church in Tarboro, a wonderful town of 7,500 people in eastern North Carolina. One block away from Calvary Church, which backed up to Panola Street, was St. Luke’s Episcopal Church which faced Panola Street. Panola Street was the dividing line between Tarboro’s white and black populations. St. Luke’s was a black church. In this town in 1957, the gospel was clearly segregated. St. Luke’s had no priest. It has been served long and faithfully for many years by an elderly black priest named The Rev. Dr. Milton Moran Weston, but he was now in his eighties and had finally retired. No one else was available to serve St. Luke’s. So the leaders of this small congregation came to me, the rector of the “white” church, and asked me if I could provide them with worship services, including the Eucharist on two Sundays a month. I agreed and thus began my association with that wonderful congregation. We gathered for worship on the second and fourth Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. I literally went one block away to preach a segregated gospel to this black congregation that never had as many as fifty members. The people of St. Luke’s took me just as I was and they loved and stretched me into being something that I never imagined I could be. One does not lead worship without also becoming a pastor. So I married black couples, baptized black babies; counseled troubled black people; walked through sicknesses with black patients and conducted funerals for black people ranging from an infant who digested poison to the elderly who died of natural causes. Working with black teenagers I began to feel both their despair and their anger. They saw no job opportunities except as domestic workers or manual laborers, which made incentives to stay in school almost non-existent. I also crossed the social boundary that the white community thought was sacrosanct. I went to the rehearsal dinner parties when St. Luke’s couples got married and to wakes at the funerals of the members of this congregation. I was frequently the only white face at these gatherings. In time two things happened. First, increasingly I was invited into the affection of the people of St. Luke’s. They became not parishioners, but friends. I still remember so fondly people like Jesse and Sadie Wilson, Callie Hyman, Betty Forbes Gray, Shirley and John Freeman, Reg and Judy Moss, Helen Quiggless and the wonderful stately and strong Dr. Weston and his wife along with their grandson, Winnfield Crews, whom they were raising. There were many others for whom I became the first white person they had ever trusted. They shared with me family secrets. I knew who they were related to in the white community. I began to embrace the sexual component of racism, that is, the way black women had been used as sexual objects for white men over the decades since slavery. Miscegenation has always been an unadmitted fact of American life from Thomas Jefferson to Strom Thurmond, even in the pious Bible Belt of the South. The second thing that happened was that I quickly came to the attention of the Ku Klux Klan, who saw me breaching the walls of segregation and daring to “socialize with N—ers!” The result was that I and my family underwent hostility and threats from the Klan. In that town and with the members of both of my churches I lived through the tension of the events, both locally and nationally, that engulfed our country in the fifties and sixties. That included sit-ins, public demonstrations, traffic tie ups, the Selma march, the use of fire hoses and police dogs against peaceful demonstrators and the bombing of black churches that killed little children in their Easter finery. In Tarboro I watched a black dentist whom I knew well dare to enter the political process as a candidate for the town council, something that had never happened before. He won and years later was elected mayor. I also knew and respected the sheriff, who was charged with protecting the first black children ordered to attend Tarboro’s heretofore all white schools. He carried out his duties with integrity, even though he opposed that decision with all his being. In that struggle for civil rights, I was called by my priestly vocation to look at human oppression in all its forms: race, gender, sexual orientation and religion and I vowed to oppose any attitude that diminished the humanity of any child of God. It was through St. Luke’s Church that this all became clear to me. I became committed from that time on to work to affirm the fullness of humanity for every person and to stand on the side of any victim of prejudice whatever its cause. In the living out of that vocation I became more deeply and fully human. That was the gift of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Tarboro, North Carolina, to me. More than any other experience that I can recall today that congregation made it possible for me to become the person who would someday be honored by having my portrait hung in the Hall of Honor at the King Chapel. Through this column I express my gratitude and continuing love to that small, but heroic congregation and I salute them with deep appreciation.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Emotional Intelligence for a Compassionate World Emotional Intelligence for a Compassionate World 2021, an engaging, interactive course, is the beginning of your personal journey to a more compassionate world—an opportunity to understand and nurture your own emotions, and to develop your ability to empathize and act with compassion. Online: May 17th - May 22th / $60 READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Remembering OliveAnn Slotta
by Lynda C 09 May '21

09 May '21

Jim and OliveAnn were part of the Denver Religious House when John and I were assigned there around 1981 as we returned to the USA from several years away. They were familiar faces from summer programs and the local church experiment. As more experienced parents, they were the cool presence with our youth cluster. They brought much wisdom to support our mission from their work with Town Meetings and from their experience in the Cleveland Region and in the Lorne HPD in Canada. OliveAnn was a much sought after teacher of high school and college mathematics and was honored as the Disney Math Teacher of the Year a number of years ago … a great imaginal educator in all she did. We’ve collaborated on several projects over the years, but most recently on the work of the Archives, where OliveAnn was an enlivening presence. In addition to documenting the past, she was also filled with passion and a vision of dealing with Climate Change through the Town Meeting format. The neighborhood work that she and Jim and the Denver team undertook has had amazing results and serves as a model that others can follow. We celebrate her life so fully and passionately lived. She will be greatly missed by us and the many folks whose life she touched. GRACE AND PEACE! Lynda and John Cock From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of OE List <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Reply-To: J and O Slotta <slottaglobalnews(a)earthlink.net>, OE List <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Friday, May 7, 2021 at 5:53 AM To: ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, OE List <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: J and O Slotta <slottaglobalnews(a)earthlink.net> Subject: [Oe List ...] OliveAnn Slotta OliveAnn Slotta passed away unexpectedly early Monday morning May 3rd from complications surrounding B-cell lymphoma. She had been receiving treatment for several weeks. Her doctors had been pleased with her progress, but she was taken to the emergency room on Sunday evening and passed away several hours later. The first of two Memorial Services will be held Tuesday, May 11 for family and close local friends. A second Service will be held at a later date at the University Park United Methodist Church in Denver; remote attendance will be included. Her Obituary, and an announcement and link to the Service will be shared on this Order list serve. We celebrate her long life of service, and we struggle with her loss. -Jim Slotta

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“Study” is a problem for me these days (in other words, “figuring out what is really going on”).
by James Wiegel 08 May '21

08 May '21

“Study”is a problem for me these days (in other words, “figuring out whatis really going on”). With the tsunami of resources and theplethora of media, I find myself at sea trying to find firm groundto stand on, and an articulated perspective of what is going on thathas some basis beyond my current opinions or those of my (currently)favored commentators. This emerging dilemma was recognized, lastcentury, in the work of the staff and colleagues of The EcumenicalInstitute of Chicago. In their courses and internal operations theyspelled out an approach to “Study Methodology” that, for itstime, seemed helpful. A half century later, I wonder how to outlinean adequate approach to “study” . Thatis to say, what are 3 insights you have about what makes authenticstudy these days? 123 Thanks. See attached outline of EI short course on study method.Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

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Re: [Oe List ...] Global Buzz for May
by Vera M Barber 07 May '21

07 May '21

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[Dialogue] OliveAnn Slotta
by Ellie Stock 07 May '21

07 May '21

Oh, Jim, we are so sorry to hear this news of OliveAnn's death. As you, we were hoping this round of treatments would bring a new lease on her servant-filled life. We have long admired the the way OliveAnn just bloomed beautifully wherever she was planted--be it as Teacher of the Year, golding Canada via community forums or creating Acclerate Climate Change communities in the Denver area. She was a great spirit woman of compassion and justice who gently but consistently, persistently, graciously, and creatively fully expended and extended her care and many gifts on behalf of Earth and all that is in it. We weep at the the thought that she is no longer walking with us on this sacred ground but celebrate the incredible life she has lived and the gift she has been to so many. May her legacy of love and care live on through those whose lives she touched. For all the Saints... Jim, our prayers and hearts are with you and all your family. Grace and peace blessings and love, Carleton and Ellie :)carletonstock@aol.com elliestock(a)aol.com On Friday, May 7, 2021, 04:53:52 AM CDT, J and O Slotta via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: OliveAnn Slotta passed away unexpectedly early Mondaymorning May 3rd from complications surrounding B-cell lymphoma. She had beenreceiving treatment for several weeks. Her doctors had been pleased with herprogress, but she was taken to the emergency room on Sunday evening and passedaway several hours later. The first of two Memorial Services will be held Tuesday, May 11for family and close local friends. A second Service will be held at a laterdate at the University Park United Methodist Church in Denver; remote attendancewill be included. Her Obituary, and an announcement and link to the Servicewill be shared on this Order list serve. We celebrate her long life of service, and we struggle with herloss. -Jim Slotta_______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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Re: [Oe List ...] Some History of the Spirit Movement in Australia.
by Zoe Barley 07 May '21

07 May '21

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Some History of the Spirit Movement in Australia.
by Isobel and Jim 07 May '21

07 May '21

Dear colleagues, Like many of you, I have greatly enjoyed the reminiscences of the early stories of the Ecumenical Institute, shared lately. It sparked off in me a bit of memory in how the Movement began here. Others will have their “take “ on how it ran, so this is my own bird’s eye view! Please add what I have missed, Aussie folks 😊🌻 Australian Frontier was a group established about 1962/3. The Director was a Minister of the Congregational Church, the Rev Peter Matthews. Peter had connections with the South African scene. Australian Frontier was based in Canberra. From 1965-7 they ran Courses across Australia and in January 1967 Jim Bishop and Jonathan and Janeen Barker attended the third and last of these National Courses with other clergy and laity. The Barkers were on their Honeymoon! One wonders how JWM heard about the Australian Frontier, as there was no internet or much connection in communication back then. Joe and Joe Slicker and Aimee and Frank were present at this January event, held in Wesley College within the University of Sydney. Invitations were extended by a small group of clergy and laity for Joe to return early in November ‘67. Joe, Joe Slicker and the Hilliards (or was it the Busses)? all returned and taught Courses, beginning in Perth ( the Barkers and others who had attended the event in Sydney were in Parishes there), and all across Australia, in the capital cities, eventually arriving in late November in Sydney. A decision was made to launch EI in Australia. There was a large Conference in Orford south of Sydney,in early December 1967, and in January 1968 the first National Conference was held at ‘Nunyara’ in Adelaide. Sarah snd Fred Buss and their small children as well as Don Clark remained after the Conference and we began the first Religious House in our Manse in Paddington where Jim was the Presbyterian Minister. The Buss family lived in a House in Redfern and Don lived locally in Paddington. We met every weekday for Daily Office in Redfern in a local Church and taught ourselves RS1. We ran Courses across the nation, for clergy and laity. Other Religious Houses followed, until there was a House in every capital city. Many American colleagues Iived in the Houses over the following years. Jim left the Parish after 11 years and the Bishop family moved to Chicago for the following 8 years. The Ogilvy and Bishop family attended S’68 in Chicago. ‘ Voom, Voom, Astronaunt are you having fun’? I recall very clearly a very friendly and welcoming face of dear Joe Crocker, as he registered us for the Summer programme. An unforgettable journey. I marvel at the Holy Spirit ‘moving across the face of the waters’, from here to the US, and how Joe was such a part of connecting us all together. I was a member of the Panchayat in 1977 and when Joe died I was sent back to Chicago from India to attend his Funeral. As I returned to Maliwada, it was my job to take around the village the Order of Service for Joe’s Funeral. You remember the stark Congolese Cross on the cover. The young blue shirts said to me “ don’t hide your Cross from me, you be a good Christian and I’ll be a good Hindu.” People said of Joe “ the sun has left us” and “ a light has gone out”. These statements have always remained with me. My life was transformed again and again by the local Church consults, the Town meetings, the village development consultants, the Human Development Training Schools and more. Just my memories. I met so many wonderful colleagues along the crimson line. Grace and peace are yours, Isobel Bishop Isobel Bishop Mob. 0412 129 425

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OliveAnn Slotta
by J and O Slotta 07 May '21

07 May '21

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Global Buzz for May
by ICA International 07 May '21

07 May '21

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... And please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: May 2021 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-21/2021-05-01.php Read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves ICAI Communications

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5/06/21, Progressing Spirit, Rev. David M. Felton: The Measure of a “Genuine” Progressive Christian; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 06 May '21

06 May '21

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Measure of a “Genuine” Progressive Christian | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. David M. Felten May 6, 2021 So, what’s the measure of a “genuine” progressive Christian? For some, it’s proficiency in some obscure spiritual discipline. For others, it’s engagement in the work of social justice. Whatever we are, the media seems to believe the 2020s may provide a leg-up for those who are advocates and practitioners of a post-modern, post-evangelical, post-liberal, post-Christian approach to Jesus following (whatever we’re calling it this week).[i][ii][iii] For me, any measure of whatever it is we are as progressive Christians has got to include something I often find missing from the conversation: a sense of history. I often hear the complaints of church alumni/ae who’ve abandoned the effort because things aren’t changing fast enough for them. Wrapped in a blanket of righteous indignation, the choice to sit it out is indeed an attractive one. But as my own United Methodist denomination draws ever nearer to its next inevitable schism, separation, or disintegration (whatever we’re calling it this week), I’m reminded that we’ve been here before — and the challenge for anyone who considers themselves a progressive is two-fold: 1) to not succumb to the sense of futility and loneliness that is often a part of confronting the status quo, and 2) to ground oneself in the context of a struggle that has been unfolding for centuries — and will continue long after we’re gone. For me, the sense of responsibility to pass the passion for healing the world on to the next generation is a big part of pushing back the urge to just give up. So, as encouragement to those of us out there still trying to move things forward, let me share just a few of the radical and innovative ways the founder of my denomination shook up the status quo in his day. Was he perfect? Most would say he was insufferable. Was he “woke” by today’s standards? Absolutely not. But he did manage to shake up the status quo of his generation and set in motion efforts that are yet to be fully realized 250+ years later. Women in Leadership Wesley saw that the real power to change the culture in any village or community was through the influence of its women. In a society that denied women self-determination and basic human dignity, he not only appointed them to organize and lead meetings and make decisions, he empowered them to do the unthinkable: preach. For women who were reluctant, he said, "You have an extraordinary call." And when confronted by Anglican authorities for authorizing women to preach, he quipped with a wink and a nod, “They’re not ‘preaching,’ they’re ‘exhorting the scripture’.” Public Healthcare One of Wesley’s bestselling books, Primitive Physic, or An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases, gave access to remedies for those who could not otherwise afford a physician. He made free healthcare available to the poor and promoted basic hygiene as a means to maintain one’s health. First recorded in a sermon in 1778, Wesley is even credited with coining the phrase "Cleanness is next to godliness." He modeled his philosophy by exercising, being diet conscious, keeping clean, and drinking water daily (which was not the 18th century norm). While his intentions were good, not all of his recommendations were effective: one of his suggested cures for respiratory problems was to get down on one’s hands and knees and breathe in the smell of fresh mown lawn. Opposition to Slavery Wesley actively opposed the slave trade, repeatedly referring to it as the “execrable sum of all villainies.” Abolitionists point to the impact of his pamphlet, Thoughts Upon Slavery, as just one example of his influence. Just days before his death, the very last letter Wesley wrote was to a man who had been converted under Wesley's ministry and who was then a member of Parliament: William Wilberforce. In it, Wesley wrote, .........“O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and .........in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest .........that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.”[iv] Parliament finally outlawed England's participation in the slave trade in 1807. Elimination of Creeds Wesley was also radical theologically. When Methodists in the American colonies asked for some guidance on “what to believe,” he took the original 39 Anglican Articles of Religion and “distilled” them into just 25. When he did that, he intentionally removed Article XIII, “On the Creeds.” He made the following statement in a sermon in Glasgow: .........“There is no other religious society under Heaven which requires .........nothing of men in order to assure their admission into it but a desire .........to save their souls. Look all around you; you cannot be admitted into .........the Church, or Society of the Presbyterian, Anabaptists, Quakers, ........ or any other unless you hold the same opinion with them and .........adhere to the same mode of worship. The Methodists alone do not .........insist on your holding this or that opinion; but they think and let think. .........Neither do they impose any particular mode of worship; you may continue .........to worship to your former manner; be it what it may. Now, I do not know .........any other religious society, either ancient or modern, wherein such .........liberty of conscience is now allowed or has been allowed, since the age .........of the Apostles. Here is our glorying; and a glorying peculiar to us. .........What Society shares it with us?”[v] Granted, there are still plenty of United Methodist churches that recite the creeds, but they’re just not very good Methodists. According to Wesley, the Methodist movement was never meant to be “creedal” like other “societies.” Corporate Responsibility While engaging with the poor, Wesley taught the well-off that “Your wealth is evidence of a calling (not approval, but calling) from God, so use your abundance for the good of humanity.” To that end, he is said to have preached, “Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” Around the middle of the 18th century, a young Irish brewer got the message – and also got to work. The more his brewery grew, the more he saved and the more he gave – just like Wesley taught him. He poured money into founding the first Sunday schools in Ireland. He gave vast amounts of money to the poor, sat on the board of a hospital designed to serve the needy and bravely challenged the material excesses of his own social class. He was a veritable one-man army of reform.[vi] The man taught his children his Methodist values and they, in turn, decided to better society by bettering the lives of their employees. They started by paying better wages than any other employer in Ireland. With the passing of decades, they continued to innovate in offering an entire slate of services to improve the lives of their workers. That young man was Arthur Guinness — and today, over 250 years later, Guinness is one of the most well-known corporations in the world. Its Methodist-influenced founder built a legacy of good, achieved astonishing prosperity, and used his success to benefit his community in innovative and generous ways. Just last year, one of the directors of Guinness’ new American brewery in Baltimore announced a Diversity Apprenticeship Program focused on creating career pathways for members of Baltimore’s Black Community. She said, “Guinness has always been ‘made of more’ and… genuine give back efforts are in our DNA.”[vi] I’d like to think that what’s left of the post-pandemic church could be “made of more,” too. Over 250 years ago, Wesley worked to empower women, provide healthcare for the poor, oppose slavery, toss out outdated dogmas, and inspire corporate responsibility — and the work is still not done. So, what’s the measure of a “genuine” progressive Christian? I’d like to think it’s having a sense of one’s place in the struggle of the ages, of not being discouraged by current set-backs — of seeing oneself as a small and integral part of a transformation that has been in the works long before our participation and will continue long after we’re gone. How am I so sure? Because with Jesus and John Wesley, I know we can do better. And with evangelical, conservative, and even many mainline churches caught in the grip of increasingly unhinged political and religious delusions, the world is even more in need of the voice of those who not only see the big picture, but who have a sense of place in the midst of the struggle — and who refuse to give up hope. So, “… be not weary of well doing!” Embrace your place in the story and the gifts you have to make real that vision of a better world our hearts know is possible. ~ Rev. David M. Felten Read online here About the Author Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions” and authors of Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity. A co-founder of Catalyst Arizona and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David is the proud father of three reliably remarkable human beings. [i] https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/25/religious-left-politics-l… https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/01/the-rise-of-the-religious-left/[iii] https://www.cupblog.org/2021/03/15/the-religious-left-on-the-rise-again-let… https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/wesley-to-wilberforc… Wesley, John in “Meet the Methodists” by Allen, Charles L. Abingdon Press, pg. 41.[vi] https://afro.com/guinness-open-gate-brewery-announces-1-million-fund-focus-… | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Phyllis Do you think that the Church has adequately explored and explained the spiritual aspects of evolution? What does it mean spiritually that we evolved from apes? A: By Brian D. McLaren Dear Phyllis, Thanks so much for your question. It’s one I have a special interest in. I’m a lifelong lover of nature, and from my earliest childhood, I would beg my mother to take me to the library to check out books on plants and animals. Like a lot of young boys, I was fascinated with dinosaurs, especially because there was a stream beside my house that was full of rocks with fossils. I thought evolution was beautiful and sensible, and I remember the conflict I felt when I heard preachers mock evolution and decry Charles Darwin as a devilish figure. When you ask if “the Church” has adequately engaged with evolution, in general, the answer is a clear no. Thankfully, there have been a few who pioneered a theology of evolution, especially among Catholic thinkers, notably Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 - 1955). He was a Jesuit scholar, trained in paleontology. More recently, other Catholic scholars like John Haught and Sr. Ilia Delio have engaged with Teilhard’s thought and enriched it with more contemporary scientific and theological insight. Another key figure in taking evolutionary thought seriously was the great philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). He is often called the father of process philosophy, and in his wake, brilliant Protestant Christian theologians developed process theology. Notable among them are John Cobb, Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, Catherine Keller, Philip Clayton, and Tripp Fuller. The great science fiction writer Octavia Butler could also be seen as a kind of process theologian, expressing her vision in fiction rather than nonfiction prose. Much of this work has not yet made it into the average pulpit or pew in churches, sad to say, even though it is gaining ground in academic circles. I’ve been working hard to remedy that, especially through my books The Story We Find Ourselves In, We Make the Road by Walking, and especially The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, where I get to explore Darwin and evolution in some depth. As you know, according to evolutionary theory, we aren’t exactly descended from apes. Rather, we and apes descended from common ancestors, and our existence today is connected to the whole web of life, in which we are very literally all related, part of one family tree, part of one story that includes all of life and even all the planets and stars, matter and energy, and space and time. It is a beautiful and grand story, full of poetry and wonder, and it invites centuries of theological reflection and celebration — not just among academics, but among all of us who inhabit this evolving universe. May your question and this response hasten that reflection and celebration! ~ Brian D. McLaren Read and share online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent book is Faith After Doubt. He is the author of the illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story, The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Brian is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As my colleague and fellow Co-Executive Director, Mark Sandlin told you a couple of weeks ago, we need your help to make ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit financially sustainable. We are asking you to consider making a one-time or a recurring donation if you can. We know that there are so many worthy organizations to which you can contribute, so I wanted to share why Progressive Christianity is so important to me. When I was in college, I took a course on the New Testament. For the first time, the text was not filtered through the lens of belief and dogma. Like many who begin to deconstruct the Bible through a historical-critical lens, I began to wonder if the Church, God, and faith had any relevance in my life anymore. Around that time, a campus minister friend of mine handed me Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. That book breathed new life into my soul. I found an articulation of a faith that was intellectually honest, compelling, and social justice focused; it was an expression of the Gospel that spoke to me in a way that resonated very deeply. This initial foray into Progressive Christianity opened up my mind to new ways of thinking and led me into a deeper search for truth and understanding of that divine mystery that is within us and all around us. I can honestly say that without Progressive Christianity, I would no longer be in the Church. Progressive Christianity has not only played an important role in my life and ministry but continues to play an essential role in our society. Without Progressive Christianity, the only Christian voice that many people would hear is the voice of fundamentalists who yell the loudest. That form of “Christianity” is a homophobic, xenophobic, jingoistic religion that is inauthentic to the values of Jesus. We need the voice lifted by ProgressiveChristianity.org, which promotes the Gospel tenets of unwavering love, radical hospitality, unqualified inclusion, and justice for those on the margins. These were the values of Jesus and ought to be the guiding principles for all Jesus-followers. I hope you will consider what a gift to ProgressiveChristianity.org accomplishes. Donating to this incredible organization not only supports the important work of resourcing people on the teachings of Progressive Christianity, but it also fosters hope for a better world and the values of Jesus. If you are able to make a recurring donation or a one-time gift, it truly can change lives. Peace and Love, Caleb Lines, Co-Executive Director ProgressiveChristianity.org Progressing Spirit We also want to highlight the opportunity to become a sustaining supporter. If you are looking for the best way to help us continue to provide progressive Christian resources, become a sustaining supporter by choosing Recurring Donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Stephen Hawking and the Death of Theism Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong Ocotber 7, 2010 Stephen Hawking, probably the best known and best read scientist of this century, has just published, with his co-author Leonard Mlodinov of Stanford University, a book entitled The Grand Design. This book has achieved headlines in newspapers around the world because Hawking’s conclusion is that one does not need the God hypothesis to explain the origin of the universe. The Grand Design has been hailed by such popular atheist authors as Richard Dawkins of Oxford in the United Kingdom and the author of the best-selling book, The God Delusion, who described Hawking’s book as “Darwinism for the very fabric of nature, not just for the creatures living within it.” It has been attacked by the standard defenders of the theistic God of yesterday such as the Vatican and Canterbury as well as a wide variety of fundamentalist spokespersons. Catholic News Service in Vatican City, in a display of enormous egocentricity, actually speculated that the book was published intentionally one week before the scheduled visit of Benedict XVI to Great Britain. I’m sure the publisher checked the papal schedule before starting the book on its long journey toward publication. Rowan Williams of Canterbury was content simply to dismiss Hawking’s conclusion without much commentary. The fundamentalists give abundant evidence that they don’t understand what Hawking is saying, but they do know that they are against it. I suspect that most of Hawking’s supporters as well as his religious critics have not read the book and probably never will. The reason that this deep-seated misunderstanding abounds in both the press and in current religious voices is that both the religious and the popular mind are still infected with the theistic definition of God. By this I mean that theologians and average citizens alike continue to conceptualize God as a being who exists in some place external to the world and who is equipped with supernatural power. This deity uses this supernatural power to intervene in history to guide life toward a particular conclusion or down a particular path. This theistic understanding of God, however, died in academic circles as long ago as the 19th century, but its shadow or its echo is still present and is reinforced constantly by the liturgies, hymns, sermons and prayers in the churches, synagogues, mosques and temples of the world. Theistic theology is not unlike the daily report of the weatherman, who informs us that the sun will rise and set at a particular moment each day, though we have known since the time of Copernicus in the 16th century that it is the earth’s rotation on its axis as it journeys around the sun each year that creates the illusion of the sun itself rising and setting. I welcome Stephen Hawking’s latest book as well as his religious insight as driving one more nail into the coffin of theistic thinking and forcing the religious world to begin the hard process of rethinking what it is that we mean when we say the word God. Maybe the word itself has become so corrupted that we cannot continue to use it, but I would argue that the experience of transcendence, otherness and even heightened consciousness is real and that this experience has pointed to and been part of what we have historically meant by the word God. We need to remember that despite all of our God assumptions, we have only a human language to use and it is by means of that language that we have always sought to translate our deepest yearnings. What Stephen Hawking is saying is that no matter how sophisticated our theological understanding is, the idea of God as a supernatural being who started the universe, and who from time to time has intervened in miraculous ways in the affairs of the universe in general or of this world in particular, is no longer viable. Since most people have no other frame of reference in which to think about God, they hear this as a denial of any divine reality. If one is not a theist, at least according to the limitations of the English language, the only alternative is to be an atheist. Theism, however, is not a name for God or even a name for one who believes in God. Theism is the name of a human definition of God that is no longer believable. Atheism does not mean that there is no God. Atheism means that the theistic understanding of God no longer translates into the world of our experience. Can God turn the path of a hurricane as evangelist Pat Robertson has so often argued? Can God intervene in history to stop something as evil as slavery or the Holocaust? Can God actually act to prevent such things as war and prejudice? If God has that power and does not use it, can we not state without equivocation that God is both malevolent and immoral? If God does not have this power, then does this not make God impotent? In either event such a view of God will have a very short shelf life in the world of human ideas. In each of these illustrations, however, it is clear that we have done little more than to create God in our human image, but with all of our human limitations removed. Why do we continue to envision God after the analogy of a limitless human being? Perhaps the reality is that we are not capable of transcending these boundaries. An insect could never describe a bird in any way other than in terms of the experience and world view of an insect, since the insect has no ability to transcend its limits. A horse cannot describe a human being in any other way except in terms of the experience and world view of a horse, since a horse has no capacity to transcend its limits. Human beings, however, even though limited to the experience and world view of a human being, still pretend to act as if the God we worship can and must be understood after the analogy of a limitless human being. That is the extent of our human capability. We human beings then insist, it seems, on going one dreadful step further, and that comes when we turn our God definition into creeds, doctrines and dogmas and immediately invest these ideas with the claim of infallibility or inerrancy. That is why we persecute those who disagree with our definitions or try to convert those who are amenable to our persuasion, both of which are acts of religious imperialism. Self-conscious human beings can escape our human limits, but only by analogy and pointers. There is clearly more to the idea of God than the human mind can ever understand, but we should have learned this by now, since this fact has been clear for centuries. Even St. Paul warned us that we now see only through “a glass darkly.” The Fourth Gospel tells us that the Holy Spirit “will lead us into all truth,” which seems to me to imply that none of us now possesses all truth. Yet in our pathetic human insecurity we still talk about an “inerrant Bible” and an “infallible Pope.” If we recognize that ultimate truth is beyond our limits, how can we continue to describe anyone anywhere as either a “heretic” or an “infidel,” to say nothing of proclaiming one to be an atheist? The God question will not be solved by postulating a supernatural invasion of a human-like deity at the moment of the “big bang,” or at any other moment in the unfolding of the universe or in the evolution of life. Intelligent design is just as foreign to the biologist as the God who inaugurated the universe is now to the astrophysicist. That does not mean, however, that there is no transcendent reality, no “other” that we can sense or discern as we seek to understand life. When I was working on my book Eternal Life: A New Vision, I became deeply moved by the wholeness of life. I saw a universe born in a physical explosion of matter that ultimately produced life, consciousness and self-consciousness; I am now convinced that matter carries within it the seeds of life. I see no dualism any longer between matter and life or between matter and spirit. I have also ceased to think of God theistically, that is, as a being — even a supernatural being. I think of God as the Source of life calling me to live, the Source of love, calling me to love, the ground of being calling me to be all that I can be. I think of God as the universal consciousness of which I am a part. All of these concepts are analogies, descriptions of our experience. They are not descriptions of God! I now see worship as the commitment to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that I can be. I see the mission of my faith not to be winning converts, but to be that of expanding life for all, enhancing love for all, increasing the being of all that renders every human prejudice as a violation of all that God means. I see the divine as the depth dimension of the human and thus as part of the human, not as the invasion of life by a being external to life. I see the symbols of my Christian faith story, trapped as they are inside a theistic belief system, struggling to cast that system aside so that they can be transformed and live again in dramatic new ways. The claim by Stephen Hawking that God is not necessary to account for the universe as we now understand it is a step in freeing our minds from the clutches of yesterday’s world view. I find the religious voices attacking Hawking in the name of preserving yesterday’s theistic system to be engaged in little more that the activity of institutional religion’s rigor mortis. As I learn more about the universe and life itself, I find myself called into an increasing sense of awe and wonder. Whatever God is, I believe that I am a part of that and whatever I am or can be God is present within it. The human being lives in the wonder of self-consciousness and perceives thereby the wonder of life itself. God is not external to that. I open my eyes every day to the wonder of life, the power of love, the mystery of being and I call that experience God. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Emily Dickinson & Julian of Norwich: Mystic Shamans For Our Time An Evening with Steven Herrmann, Cameron Trimble and Matthew Fox Both of these powerful women speak to our needs as a species today from deep within the creation spirituality lineage as we face climate change and eco-destruction and our and other creatures’ extinctions. May 11th at 4pm (Pacific Time) to mark a day for Mother Earth and all other mothers with two powerhouse women mystic-shamans eager to awaken and heal! READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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