July 2021 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Archives week in Chicago
by RICHARD HOWIE 26 Jul '21

26 Jul '21

Dear Laura, You need to send this to Ellie Stock. Thanks for all your work, Ellen Howie Sent from my iPad > On Jul 26, 2021, at 8:42 AM, Laura Grover via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > Hi Ellie, > > Both of those items are in the files that are ready to be scanned. Did you want the slides to be included? I do not see the slides here. Did you already send them? > > Thanks for asking. > > Laura, Karen, Debra and Ed > > -----Original Message----- > From: "Ellie Stock via OE" <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 8:56pm > To: "ICA Dialogue" <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, "OE Community" <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > Cc: "Ellie Stock" <elliestock(a)aol.com> > Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Archives week in Chicago > > Hi Karen, > Thanks for your and everyone's work on the archives. > A couple of years ago (?) I sent Jean Long a copy of our 1974 Rochester Region Global Odyssey participants' booklet (including the script for our post-trip slide presentation) and a copy of our Global Odyssey 40th Reunion booklet. Could you please check to see if they made it to the files? Thanks! > Ellie :) > elliestock(a)aol.com > On Saturday, July 24, 2021, 07:46:20 PM CDT, Karen Snyder via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > Colleagues, > Major work is being done on the Global Archives at the ICA in Chicago in the last two weeks of July. We are focused on the Archives goal of “CREATING THE FUTURE OF OUR PAST”. > This first week we (Ed Feldmanis, Laura Grover, Debra Harris, Karen Snyder) engaged in sorting and scanning Archives for the website so it is available to the world. Our accomplishments include: > * Emptying 30 file cabinet drawers in the basement > * Preparing Global Odyssey materials, the Ur Images course and Religious Studies I (RSI) course for scanning and adding to the website. We were surprised to find RSI course material in five languages (English, French, German, Korean, Spanish). > > Our goal for the second week is to post on the website the Religious, Cultural and Methods course materials from the 1960s that informed the curriculum for Academies, International Training Institutes, Human Development Training Schools, and ToP. The Global Archives opening pages can be read in any language; embedded files can be copied to a Google doc for translation. > We can use your help in a number of ways: > * Did you participate in one of the seven Global Odysseys in the 1970s? If you are willing to share your notes about experiences and photos, scan and email them as soon as possible. Or box and mail them to the attention of the Global Archives at ICA (4750 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago 60640). > * Tell us what should be the next priorities volunteers should work on after we complete the curriculum. And always it is helpful to know what is helpful/needs help as you view the website. > * As information is added to the website, there is much contextual writing needed to make the info more understandable (and interesting) as well as editing. If you are willing to work with any of the nine collections to do editing and writing, email Karen Snyder (karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com) > We look forward to hearing from you, > Ed Feldmanis, Laura Grover, Debra Harris, Karen Snyder > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Archives week in Chicago
by Vera M Barber 26 Jul '21

26 Jul '21

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Re: [Oe List ...] Archives week in Chicago
by laurab＠lauragrover.com 25 Jul '21

25 Jul '21

I discovered yesterday that we share the same birth date ---Sept 29? Laura -----Original Message----- From: "Janet Sanders via OE" <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 9:55am To: "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, "ICA Dialogue" <Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: "Janet Sanders" <janetasanders(a)hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Archives week in Chicago Well done team! I am looking forward to reading some of the curriculum back ground papers/files. Get [ Outlook for iOS ]( https://aka.ms/o0ukef ) From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Karen Snyder via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2021 8:46:12 PM To: ICA Dialogue <Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>; OE Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Karen Snyder <karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Oe List ...] Archives week in Chicago Colleagues, Major work is being done on the Global Archives at the ICA in Chicago in the last two weeks of July. We are focused on the Archives goal of “CREATING THE FUTURE OF OUR PAST”. This first week we (Ed Feldmanis, Laura Grover, Debra Harris, Karen Snyder) engaged in sorting and scanning Archives for the website so it is available to the world. Our accomplishments include: * Emptying 30 file cabinet drawers in the basement * Preparing Global Odyssey materials, the Ur Images course and Religious Studies I (RSI) course for scanning and adding to the website. We were surprised to find RSI course material in five languages (English, French, German, Korean, Spanish). Our goal for the second week is to post on the website the Religious, Cultural and Methods course materials from the 1960s that informed the curriculum for Academies, International Training Institutes, Human Development Training Schools, and ToP. The Global Archives opening pages can be read in any language; embedded files can be copied to a Google doc for translation. We can use your help in a number of ways: * Did you participate in one of the seven Global Odysseys in the 1970s? If you are willing to share your notes about experiences and photos, scan and email them as soon as possible. Or box and mail them to the attention of the Global Archives at ICA (4750 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago 60640). * Tell us what should be the next priorities volunteers should work on after we complete the curriculum. And always it is helpful to know what is helpful/needs help as you view the website. * As information is added to the website, there is much contextual writing needed to make the info more understandable (and interesting) as well as editing. If you are willing to work with any of the nine collections to do editing and writing, email Karen Snyder ([ karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com ]( mailto:karen.snyder10@gmail.com )). We look forward to hearing from you, Ed Feldmanis, Laura Grover, Debra Harris, Karen Snyder

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song lyrics - When I'm On My Journey
by jonzondo＠juno.com 23 Jul '21

23 Jul '21

Hello All,I'm doing some research on the song "When I'm On My Journey"Although I've looked online, I can't yet find the author or the lyrics.Did "we" write that song?Does anyone have the lyrics? I know this much...1. When I'm on my journey there is no one there but me...2. I'm one with history3. I'm one with family thanks in advance for any assistance.Love,Jon Mark Elizondo

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7/22/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev Jim Burklo: If God Is Love…; Q/A Gretta Vosper; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 22 Jul '21

22 Jul '21

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If God Is Love… | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Jim Burklo July 22, 2021 One of the many ways to read the Bible is to view it as God’s autobiography. So here I offer a “Cliff’s Notes” of that story – heavily influenced by the depth-psychological, mythical interpretation of the scripture offered by Carl Jung in his “Answer to Job”: “I started out as the creator of the universe: a guy beyond the sky who breathed the cosmos into existence. I was a human-like entity with unlimited supernatural powers. I created the universe because I was lonely. I needed a companion. Sure, I had angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim all around me, but they praised me and fawned over me so much that I couldn’t really connect with them as friends. So I formed the world and put a human on it – someone I could talk to. Someone who would worship me but also be real with me. At first, it seemed like Adam and I were going to hit it off. “But Adam wanted companionship with someone at his level. He wasn’t happy – I could tell. So I put him to sleep, pulled a rib out of him, and turned it into a woman. “That worked for a while, but it didn’t take long before the two of them got ambitious. Taking walks with them in the Garden of Eden was nice for all three of us, but they wanted more. They wanted my superpowers. So they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and that’s when the trouble got started. I didn’t like how uppity they were getting, so I kicked them out of the garden and made them work for a living, thinking that would wear them out so much that they wouldn’t be so ambitious. “It is hard to be friends with someone who is not your equal. This was a problem that I couldn’t seem to supernaturally work my way out of. I wanted real companionship, but not competition. “Sure enough, they got good at agriculture and started amassing surpluses of food, and their offspring created cities and civilizations. They got good at building things – like the amazing Tower of Babel. I was impressed, but also threatened, again, by how close they were getting to my heavenly realm. So I had to bring them back to earth by confusing them with different languages, so it would be harder for them to cooperate and do god-like things. “It was a nice try, but it didn’t do the job. People created more and more elaborate civilizations and were so focused on the pleasures they had created for themselves that they were beginning to forget about me altogether. I got really angry about it and decided to wipe the earth clean and start over again. I picked out one family to build a big boat and put pairs of animals on it, and then flooded the whole earth. After the flood, Noah re-populated the earth and things were better for a while. I got more respect and people seemed humbled. “But of course they just went back to their old ways again after a while. This time I tried to take a more subtle approach. I entered the souls of certain people called prophets, who spoke on my behalf to correct the proud and evil ways of humanity. Occasionally this tactic worked, but mostly the people ignored or persecuted the prophets while they were alive, and only showed them respect after they were dead and gone. I was losing interest in human beings, just as they were losing interest in me. I felt lonely and frustrated. “But there was one human who gave me joy: Job. He followed my commandments and worshipped me with all his heart, but he was also refreshingly honest with me. With Job, I felt like there was hope that I could have a meaningful relationship with humanity. “Satan served as my special investigator in my heavenly court. He saw that I was happy with Job, but he knew I’d been burned by people time and again. Satan told me that we ought to test Job to make sure his faithfulness and goodness was real. I reluctantly agreed. “The miseries that Job endured in this time of testing were dreadful. He lost his family, his wealth, and his health. It hurt my soul to hear him crying out to me for mercy. He knew that my treatment of him was unjust, and he told me so. And he was right. I tried to shut him up with a long diatribe about my mighty gloriousness. But neither he nor I found any satisfaction in it. In the end, we restored to Job his family, wealth, and health. But the test left both of us traumatized. “For millennia I felt guilty about what I had allowed to happen to Job. It made me re-think this whole business of divinity. Being supernatural was over-rated. I created the universe in the first place because I wanted a loving relationship with somebody. But love requires vulnerability. Job was vulnerable. I was not. Being supernatural got in my way. “So I decided to become a human being – a mortal. In Jesus, I experienced everything that Job enjoyed and suffered. It was wonderful and it was awful. After the torture on the cross, after the tomb, there was no going back. I gave up omnipotence and omniscience, and settled for omnipresence. Three days later, I emerged from the tomb… reduced to nothing more – and nothing less – than pure unconditional love. “Love is all that is left of me. I can’t fix things. I can’t force things. I can’t control things. All I can do is invite, attract, and welcome. All I can do is exude kindness and compassion, and hope that all beings will be drawn to me. And as they take me into their hearts and treat each other with love, humbly releasing puffed-up pride, I experience overwhelming joy in our companionship. My cosmic loneliness is gone. “Just as people must do, I had to give myself up to find the love I was so desperate to have. For eons I suffered loneliness and frustration, and in turn caused humans to suffer from unrealistic expectations of what I could do for them. I really wasn’t very good at being a supernatural divinity because I was so preoccupied with my own jealous rage. I’m sincerely sorry about all that, dear humans. Getting down to your level gives me infinite empathy for all you go through. I don’t want religion to make life any harder for you than it already is. So from now on, know me as love - so that I can know you, and you can know me, fully.” If supernatural divinity died on the cross, and if God is no more and no less than love, what are the consequences? If God is love, then God is a verb. If God is love, then God is something we do. If God is love, then Christianity is all about practicing it. If God is love, when we truly, unconditionally love someone, God is in that relationship, blessing it. If God is love, then God is extremely powerful. But love is not directive. Love does not force anybody to do anything. If God is love, then God is omni-attractive, but not all-powerful and not all-knowing. If God is love, then prayer becomes the contemplative experience of that love through compassionate awareness of all that is. If God is love, then worship awakens us to it, and fills us with praise for it. Through billions of years of cosmic unfolding and evolution, we mortals have come into being for the purpose of reflecting awe and wonder back at the universe. We’re here to let our jaws drop in amazement at each other’s existence, and to be wonderstruck with loving attention toward all that exists. When we are in this state of awe, we are doing God. We are practicing God. We are communing with each other and with nature through God. If God is love, then the church is a school of love, and Jesus is our teacher. The lessons are simple, but the practice is hard. So we gather together to help each other love as best as we can. If God is love, attracting and not directing, then the Bible is our language of faith, rather than being a fixed and final rule-book. So let us interpret the Bible and the Christian tradition through the lens of these three words in 1 John 4:8: “…God is love.” ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read online here About the Author Rev. Jim Burklo is the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. An ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of seven published books on progressive Christianity, with a new one coming out soon: Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus (St Johann Press, 2021). His weekly blog, “Musings”, has a global readership. He serves on the board of ProgressiveChristiansUniting.org and is an honorary advisor and frequent content contributor for ProgressiveChristianity.org. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Bert In your recent Question & Answer dated March 25, 2021, you mentioned being an atheist. This term has too many diverse meanings. I don’t believe in the Greek God Thor and don’t expect him to change the weather for me. Does that make me an Atheist? Gods of Mythology come down to earth from heaven and literally fight your battles. I don’t believe in any of the Gods of Mythology, not even the Christian three-part God that was invented in the fourth century under Roman Caesar Constantine. All religions seem to have Gods that are “God in the image of man”. But I do believe in life after biological death. I do believe in a source of creation that lies outside the time-space continuum and therefore is not observable by the scientific method. The source of creation is infinite and undefinable, so calling it a God is just too limiting. I am not comfortable with calling myself an Atheist since that often implies belief in no life after biological death. How do you define an Atheist? A: By Rev. Gretta Vosper Dear Bert, Thanks for this important question. Your reflections on the gods you don’t believe in remind me of Richard Dawkins’ comment in his book The God Delusion: “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” But it seems to me that your concern is not so much about the gods contrived of the human mind, or even about why I use the word “atheist”, but about those things that we cannot yet, and may never, answer: what is the source of all that we experience and what happens to it and to us when our lives end. That, my friend, I do not know. Still, my answer to the question “How do you define an Atheist?” is quite simple: An atheist is someone who does not believe in any gods. They are of two types: those who do not believe because there is no proof and who would believe should such proof be provided, and those who would not believe in either case. I am the former, a position known as “weak atheism.” I did not identify as an atheist until bloggers in Bangladesh were being assassinated for doing so. It seemed important to me that those of us who enjoy the privilege of believing whatever we choose identify with those whose governments purport to protect them but refuse to do so. Subsequently, my congregation sponsored one of those Bangladeshi bloggers as a refugee; he’s been in Canada for two years with his family. Welcoming them was one of the most significant undertakings and greatest joys of my ministry. I do not believe we continue to exist beyond death, but what we do lives on, as you well know. When I am required to describe what the term “god” means to me, I describe what it is we have the privilege of creating between us: beauty, forgiveness, love, kindness. It is the power of that, distributed throughout all our relationships that brings us courage in times of fear, strength in times of defeat and loss, and challenges us to love when hatred would seem the more rational response. When we die, those to whom we have given these strengths in relationship continue to hold them, continue to draw on them. We live on, sewn into the fabric of their being by what it is we have shared with them. This is why it is so important that we love extravagantly, wrestle with the hurt we’ve experienced until we find our way to peace and then live out that peace, and why we must call one another to right relationship with self, others, and the planet. Each time we do any of these things, we strengthen that thing so many refer to as “god”. I just don’t use the word for all the reasons you’ve noted: it simply makes no sense to use such a limiting word for a reality too impossible to define. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read and share online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. Visit her website here. | | | | | | | | 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 a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. 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 Facing Hard Choices in the 21st Century. It’s Either Hogs or Hines! Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong January 12, 2011 In the last half of the 19th century a country doctor named Edgar Hines lived with his family that included two sons, Edgar jr. and John Elbridge in Oconee County, South Carolina, near Clemson University. Edgar Hines, Jr. went on to become an outstanding doctor. John Elbridge Hines grew up to become the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and probably the outstanding world leader in religion produced by the Episcopal Church in the 20th century. Bishop Hines was graced with a unique ability to see issues as they emerged in the life of our society while they were still embryonic. He then acted to address them before they became major crises and thus while action was still possible. This prescience is what I believe is the unique gift of those who Christians have called prophets. Prophets have never been predictors of the future, as biblical literalists like to contend. They are, rather, the discoverers of the future as it is being born, because they know how to read the contemporary signs of the times. Bishop Hines was this kind of prophet. During the urban riots of the 1960’s in America, while typical politicians were calling for the imposition of “law and order,” John Hines was walking the streets of our erupting cities in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem, Detroit, Cleveland and Newark, talking to the people who lived there, listening to the rage, the sense of hopelessness and despair that was fueling the outbreaks of violence and discovering how out-of-touch with these human issues the institutional forms of Christianity really were. Then, in acts of powerful and courageous leadership, he called the Episcopal Church to re-order its priorities to put human need before institutional security; to recognize that Christian mission also meant empowering the powerless. From his study of history John Hines demonstrated the profound lesson of human civilization, namely that powerless people are always exploited people. This insight signaled to him that by empowering the powerless ones an effective blow against exploitation is being struck. He illustrated this insight in Christian history by pointing to the treatment of the powerless ones, whether they were people of color, women or homosexuals, all of whom have been exploited not only by western people, but also by professing Christians. John Hines laid these ideas before the church he headed and his church responded to his leadership with the boldest initiative I have ever known a religious institution to undertake. They began to fund as a primary part of this church’s ministry a program that would give powerless people the power to determine their own future. Of course, it was controversial! Of course, dislocation resulted! Of course, establishment values and establishment people were threatened. Yes and of course, they struck back, withholding their contributions, demanding that the church “stick to religion” and “quit its involvement in politics,” as if Christianity had ever in its history been a religion that tended to the “things of the spirit” and not to the call to give life to all and to give it abundantly. It was probably the most glorious chapter in the history of the Episcopal Church. Yes, our church lost members and it lost financial support, but it discovered its integrity and the realization dawned on us that the Church will die of boredom long before it dies of controversy. John Hines was then and is now my ultimate ecclesiastical hero; he was and is my ultimate role model. A photograph of him sits before me at my desk until this very moment. It has been there for years. He was the first person with whom I talked when I was elected Bishop of Newark in 1976. I later worked to get his biography published so that his kind of leadership would never be forgotten. The Biography was entitled Granite on Fire and was written by Ken Kesselus. Until John Hines died, hardly a week went by that we did not talk on the phone. I asked John Hines on one occasion to help me to understand how a lad could grow up in the little town of Seneca, South Carolina, known for its fundamentalism in religion and its conservatism in politics, and become a world leader in religion battling for the human rights of the victims of our culture’s prejudices. He responded by telling me a story about his father, Dr. Edgar Hines, who, in addition to his private medical practice, had also been appointed the County Health Officer for Oconee County, South Carolina. Dr. Hines, he said, became aware of the health risk to the people, caused by the fact that in that poor farming region, people kept hogs in their fenced-in backyards, where the ground water in the wells was susceptible to infiltration by diseases carried in the feces of the pigs, making an outbreak of cholera a distinct possibility. This impending danger caused him to propose to the county commissioners the passing of a county ordinance, which would require the housing of pigs to be located a sufficient number of yards away from human dwellings. For the people of Oconee County, South Carolina, this was an unheard of and unappreciated interference on the part of government in the private lives of these farmers and they struck back with fury. The county commissioners, far more responsive to the votes of these disturbed citizens than they were to the warnings of a country doctor, refused to pass such an ordinance. Dr. Hines then informed the commissioners that without such an ordinance, he could no longer be responsible for the health of the people and was thus prepared to offer his resignation. This was no idle threat for doctors in the 19th century in rural South Carolina were scarce and replacing Dr. Hines would be almost impossible. In the face of his threat, the county commissioners agreed to a reconsideration of their vote at the next official meeting. It was the primary county-wide topic of conversation before the re-consideration meeting occurred. The local newspaper trumpeted the debate with a headline on page one of the weekly paper “It’s either Hogs or Hines.” When the meeting was finally held, the hogs won by a 3-2 vote. Dr Hines resigned. Within six weeks, the daughter of the chairman of the county commissioners contracted cholera and died. An outbreak of cholera spread throughout the county creating a major health crisis. Shortly thereafter the Commissioners reversed their decision and pigs and humans were legally separated by a sufficient distance to minimize future epidemics. It was from this childhood memory that Bishop Hines came to understand that the role of the prophet is to understand life so deeply that you can see a crisis before it develops and step out to meet or even to divert it while there is still time. I though of this principle and of John Hines as well on two occasions recently. One had to do with the debate on whether or not to allow the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire as the law that inaugurated them called for them to do. Over the next decade these tax benefits for the wealthiest 2% of our population will add more than a trillion new dollars to our national debt. To sustain these tax benefits, the United States will inevitably have to borrow the money from either China or Saudi Arabia. That reality raises to the level of the inevitable the fact that somewhere down the road this nation runs the risk of bankruptcy. This in turn means that this momentary enrichment of the few will inevitably result in long term disaster for the entire nation. To sweeten this irresponsible tax bill and thus to gain sufficient liberal support to pass the measure, additional tax benefits for unemployed people and a drop in payroll taxes for the middle class were also approved. At the same time that this tax bill was being debated, a bi-partisan task force, headed by Democrat Erskine Bowles, the former chief of staff to President Clinton and Republican Alan K. Simpson, the former senator from Wyoming and a major party leader, were confronting the Administration and the Congress with the impending fiscal disaster facing this nation if the skyrocketing deficit is not brought under control. Their bi-partisan report called for a radical revamping of America’s tax structure, closing all of the loopholes, which are used primarily by the rich to lower their tax obligations. This would mean, if adopted, ending many exemptions that are “sacred cows” like mortgage interest and charitable contributions. It would mean the lengthening of the years one must work to be eligible for social security; as well as tempering the amount of social security the very wealthy are allowed to receive. It would mean cutting defense spending that still represents an out-of-bounds percentage of the national budget. The report of this commission could not get enough votes from its own members to require Congress to take up their proposals. Please note that the vote to require Congress to take up this report did not require that they pass any of its provisions, but only that a consideration of this report and its recommendations would be forced on our elected officials. The second occasion in which John Hines insight came to my mind occurred when I continued to hear right wing people condemn climate change warnings as something coming from “neo-fascist environmentalists.” They maintain that climate change, which they continue to call “global warming,” is a myth that can be dismissed with every winter storm. At the same time, the melting of the Arctic ice cap has not only threatened the polar bears with extinction, but has set off international competition for the oil that might become accessible if new passageways through the Arctic are opened up. At the other end of our planet in Antarctica, a New York Times feature in December warned of the decline and possible extinction of its penguin population whose food supply has been disrupted by the melting ice caps. The choice the leaders of this nation face today is between doing only what we are now doing for the sake of immediate profits or to face the reality of the coming environmental crisis and to act responsibly to divert it. Our way of life is at stake in the out-of-control national debt. The life of our planet is at stake in the environmental crisis. Yet no alarm bells are being sounded nationally. Dr. Edgar Hines, where are you now that the nation and the world, not just the people of Oconee County, S.C., need you? Where is your successor in our country today? ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements New Online Programs for those called by Earth and Spirit to Return to the Great Conversation Re-member and reclaim the deep, sacramental rhythms of life. An Online Immersion Friday and Saturday, July 30th & 31st from 8:30 am – 11 am Pacific; and 3 pm – 5 pm Pacific READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Mary Elizabeth Avery Work
by Isobel and Jim 21 Jul '21

21 Jul '21

Greetings dear colleagues, Thank you Rob for sharing Mary’s words. It was very moving to read them and, between the lines, hear her life experiences shown on the page. Mary showed us the light in her life. Thank you Jack for your own poetry and spirit exercise. I loved reading your words about Judy and they gave me courage to journey on during the lock down we are having here in many parts of Australia,owing to the Delta variant of Covid. Grace and peace within and without. Isobel Bishop Isobel Bishop Mob. 0412 129 425 > On 21 Jul 2021, at 4:54 am, Janet Sanders via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > So wonderful to have Mary’s beautiful life lifted up in these lines. I truly appreciated her humor and determination. We had great explorations together. Lovingly, Jan > > Sent from my iPad > >> On Jul 20, 2021, at 12:42 AM, Phyllis Hockley via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >> >> Mary, the light of the world. >> So glad I could have her shine on me. >> So glad I could see her energy enliven others. >> So glad we could work together to create a school where children were cherished. >> So, so glad and I give great thanks. >> >> >> On 7/19/2021 5:23 PM, Robertson Work via Dialogue wrote: >>> Dear colleagues, >>> >>> Yesterday was the 18th anniversary of the passing of Mary Elizabeth Avery Work, my beloved wife of thirty-five years, when she completed her life of sixty years and ten months. Below are some of the wise words that she wrote a few months before she died: >>> True Darkness >>> Light Resurrected >>> Eternal Now >>> >>> My angle on creation >>> True Darkness >>> Light resurrects me >>> Eternal now >>> >>> I want to >>> Help people articulate >>> Their angle on creation >>> Their sense of foreground/background >>> Their life questions >>> By focusing their energy of >>> Current reality >>> Releasing their energy of >>> Psychic tensions >>> Harnessing their energy of >>> Mythic, archetypal, interior >>> Images and Stories >>> Integrating their energy of >>> Deep connections >>> Remembering >>> I am the light of the world >>> Believing >>> I am the light of the world >>> Being >>> I am the light of the world >>> Each light is sacred >>> All lights are one >>> I am the light of the world >>> Transforming my cancer >>> A need to be kicked into/onto a higher level >>> An evolutionary leap >>> A fractal pattern – >>> The first journey – 8 years old >>> Into the stars until I don’t exist – the message >>> A longing for the experience of falling into the stars >>> a physical experience >>> I don’t exist – the return >>> Seeking unknowingly >>> Blindly, releasing energies >>> The second journey >>> Cancer continues the pushing into other realms >>> Fractal pattern >>> Keep going deeper into cancer >>> I don’t exist >>> Keep going deeper into stars >>> I don’t exist >>> Stars are patterns of light >>> Nodes are patterns of Indra’s Net >>> In the midst of return >>> The message through Light >>> A reflection of the I AM >>> Not a light generated by me >>> Inside me – me is me >>> But this me is captured >>> In the light and has become >>> A reflection – light in every cell >>> Light resurrecting >>> Live in now if >>> Caught in this light/life >>> Cancer – true darkness >>> Darkness >>> Primordial light >>> Penetrate to higher >>> Fertility/creativity >>> True darkness >>> Light resurrects me >>> Eternal now >>> New feminine – sacred >>> Image woven in my >>> Lungs – Indra’s net >>> Reminder of the fractal pattern >>> Journey – to receive the message >>> I don’t exist >>> The return >>> Where am I now >>> The mythic >>> Harnessing irrational energy >>> Energy process >>> Opening >>> Vibrational movement >>> Light pouring into dark dense cells >>> Thanking darkness >>> Enabling me to move out >>> Received as darkness >>> The Great Doubt >>> Forms in front – 3 inches >>> From sternum – coalescing >>> Needs an objective symbol >>> - The Great Doubt >>> - The Friends >>> How can I connect >>> Being salt of the Earth >>> And light for the world? >>> How can I shine in a salty way? >>> Pouring forth ions that bring >>> Ease and calm and peace and aliveness? >>> What is birthing? >>> What is implanted? >>> What is ready to grow? >>> I am challenged to demonstrate the >>> Sign of the light >>> - movement and repose >>> How do I move as light? >>> How do I rest as light? >>> I am challenged to be salt to the world: >>> Alive, piquant, essentially good >>> The salt of the Earth – a preserver >>> The taste of the sea, the giver of >>> Life >>> How may I cherish saltiness, >>> in myself and others? >>> How am I salt to the world? >>> I am challenged to be a light >>> Shining among the people >>> Who see the good you do and >>> Praise the I AM, Mystery, Divine Light. >>> May those things I touch >>> And create be structures of light >>> Dedicated to light >>> May I feel myself part of the explosion >>> Of inward light, capable of returning >>> Consciously and freely into the >>> Source of Light. >>> I remember and honor the loves of my life. >>> I enjoy with delight the signs of loves celebration >>> Everywhere >>> I open freely and respond creatively >>> To the mystery of each present moment >>> I work to deepen and stabilize an awareness of the >>> work of the spirit and soul >>> Illuminating my understanding of the forces >>> That work in beauty within >>> Me and all beings >>> Divine light is prayer >>> May my prayer shine >>> The light of divine care >>> On children. May I help >>> To create a world where >>> Children are cherished >>> May divine light as I >>> Experience it in my body >>> Work to heal my wounds >>> Work to heal the wounds of >>> The children, the Earth. >>> Niagara >>> Energy vortex >>> Waters unleashed >>> Chaotic >>> Rushing energy >>> Water vibrates >>> Receives all >>> Embraces, cleanses >>> Darkness and pain >>> Falls away >>> Purity of light >>> Unseen calm >>> Flow beneath >>> Patterns created >>> Serenity >>> ............................................. >>> Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF >>> Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ >>> Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/ >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Dialogue mailing list >>> Dialogue(a)lists.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 > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Mary Elizabeth Avery Work
by Robertson Work 20 Jul '21

20 Jul '21

Dear colleagues, Yesterday was the 18th anniversary of the passing of Mary Elizabeth Avery Work, my beloved wife of thirty-five years, when she completed her life of sixty years and ten months. Below are some of the wise words that she wrote a few months before she died: True Darkness Light Resurrected Eternal Now My angle on creation True Darkness Light resurrects me Eternal now I want to Help people articulate Their angle on creation Their sense of foreground/background Their life questions By focusing their energy of Current reality Releasing their energy of Psychic tensions Harnessing their energy of Mythic, archetypal, interior Images and Stories Integrating their energy of Deep connections Remembering I am the light of the world Believing I am the light of the world Being I am the light of the world Each light is sacred All lights are one I am the light of the world Transforming my cancer A need to be kicked into/onto a higher level An evolutionary leap A fractal pattern – The first journey – 8 years old Into the stars until I don’t exist – the message A longing for the experience of falling into the stars a physical experience I don’t exist – the return Seeking unknowingly Blindly, releasing energies The second journey Cancer continues the pushing into other realms Fractal pattern Keep going deeper into cancer I don’t exist Keep going deeper into stars I don’t exist Stars are patterns of light Nodes are patterns of Indra’s Net In the midst of return The message through Light A reflection of the I AM Not a light generated by me Inside me – me is me But this me is captured In the light and has become A reflection – light in every cell Light resurrecting Live in now if Caught in this light/life Cancer – true darkness Darkness Primordial light Penetrate to higher Fertility/creativity True darkness Light resurrects me Eternal now New feminine – sacred Image woven in my Lungs – Indra’s net Reminder of the fractal pattern Journey – to receive the message I don’t exist The return Where am I now The mythic Harnessing irrational energy Energy process Opening Vibrational movement Light pouring into dark dense cells Thanking darkness Enabling me to move out Received as darkness The Great Doubt Forms in front – 3 inches From sternum – coalescing Needs an objective symbol - The Great Doubt - The Friends How can I connect Being salt of the Earth And light for the world? How can I shine in a salty way? Pouring forth ions that bring Ease and calm and peace and aliveness? What is birthing? What is implanted? What is ready to grow? I am challenged to demonstrate the Sign of the light - movement and repose How do I move as light? How do I rest as light? I am challenged to be salt to the world: Alive, piquant, essentially good The salt of the Earth – a preserver The taste of the sea, the giver of Life How may I cherish saltiness, in myself and others? How am I salt to the world? I am challenged to be a light Shining among the people Who see the good you do and Praise the I AM, Mystery, Divine Light. May those things I touch And create be structures of light Dedicated to light May I feel myself part of the explosion Of inward light, capable of returning Consciously and freely into the Source of Light. I remember and honor the loves of my life. I enjoy with delight the signs of loves celebration Everywhere I open freely and respond creatively To the mystery of each present moment I work to deepen and stabilize an awareness of the work of the spirit and soul Illuminating my understanding of the forces That work in beauty within Me and all beings Divine light is prayer May my prayer shine The light of divine care On children. May I help To create a world where Children are cherished May divine light as I Experience it in my body Work to heal my wounds Work to heal the wounds of The children, the Earth. Niagara Energy vortex Waters unleashed Chaotic Rushing energy Water vibrates Receives all Embraces, cleanses Darkness and pain Falls away Purity of light Unseen calm Flow beneath Patterns created Serenity ............................................. 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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FW: [Dialogue] Mary Elizabeth Avery Work
by Lynda C 20 Jul '21

20 Jul '21

Thank you, Rob and Jack, for this deep poetic and imaginal sharing. Remembering both Mary and Judy with gratitude in these sharings. Peace! Lynda From: Dialogue <dialogue-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Reply-To: ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Monday, July 19, 2021 at 9:35 PM To: ICA Dialogue List <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: J Gilles <jackcgilles(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Mary Elizabeth Avery Work Rob, Excellent grasp of the Eternal Reality. I think you will grasp my shortening of it. It works for me and I have shared it with others. You can even make it into an exercise for Children. At first they will enjoy it. Then, then they will someday really grasp it and they will be so grateful you taught it to them Here is my Mantra. Peace Within, and I am at Peace. Peace Within, Thank you. Now the key to this is knowing that Space is empty, but Space is not a Thing. It is full, but you can’t see it. There was recently a heated debate that two Artist were selling an Art Form that was empty space. A lot of people, including Stephen Colbert made a joke of it. But Stephen Colbert is a Religious. He knows what they were trying to say. But he didn’t want to do a Profound set of words in a Comedy show. Others just made jokes. Image an orthogonal (rt angle) going through the middle of your body. It actually is a Circle but you only have two hands. 1. You start with your hands grasped together with the Thumbs placed inward and the joined hand little fingers pointing outward. 2. “When someone asks you if you are Happy”, What do you reply”. “I am not happy, but I am at peace within.” Lower your hands straight down beside you and then slowly draw them up to the top and touch them flat together. Say” I AM at Peace, because I am at Peace Within. And I am at Peace within, because I am IN Peace Without (note capital letters, but you can do it by emphasizing the words.) Bring your hands up as if they go to Eternity They are infinitely long wings. You are in a Bubble that extends to Infinity in every direction, As you keep your fingers reaching as high as you can, you slowly draw them down saying “I am at PEACE WITHIN, because I am IN Peace Without. Then just reverse the flow, “And BECAUSE I am in Peace Without, (pause with hands down at your sides, “I am, at Peace Within. I hope you grasp that. It is very deep and even doing it fast people will be puzzled, but they won’t laugh. If they think about it they will see, that Heaven is HERE and NOW, all around, but you cannot see it, or them. But my beloved is here, I know that because we speak all the time. She is here, this I know. We call that the Meditative Council. This is all about the Solitaries. It is a very private thing. We may have the same people on our Meditative Council. It doesn’t matter, They are there for different reasons for everyone. And they too are on a Journey. For some of your Council will be more powerful than others. Place those around the table of your Life. Look at the Solitaries, and see we knew that you had to go deeper and deeper, until level four. We struggled with coming up with the Words that could express that State of Being. Some of us have no idea how to get there. But Life will take you there. It always does. The Other World is IN THE MIDST OF THIS WORLD. The Truth is that consciousness is neutral. The same is true for all, it is amoral. Your Freedom Decides which you choose. You can choose your heaven or your Hell. The people you see on the Street may be in Heaven or hell, in a State of Being they have chosen. But most don’t know anything about this and are in Limbo. But one day, anywhere, they may hear the Word of Freedom. As JWM said, it could have been a Jackass on the side of the Hill who woke you up. We did a course called RS-I, It was designed for Christians, because that is the Image we had. But all people’s are walking around, either in heaven or Hell. It takes but an instant, and you are on your Journey for Life. Peace Within, Jack If you have Questions we can talk.And pardon any misspells and Syntax. I don’t always get it right. On Jul 19, 2021, at 7:23 PM, Robertson Work via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>> wrote: Dear colleagues, Yesterday was the 18th anniversary of the passing of Mary Elizabeth Avery Work, my beloved wife of thirty-five years, when she completed her life of sixty years and ten months. Below are some of the wise words that she wrote a few months before she died: True Darkness Light Resurrected Eternal Now My angle on creation True Darkness Light resurrects me Eternal now I want to Help people articulate Their angle on creation Their sense of foreground/background Their life questions By focusing their energy of Current reality Releasing their energy of Psychic tensions Harnessing their energy of Mythic, archetypal, interior Images and Stories Integrating their energy of Deep connections Remembering I am the light of the world Believing I am the light of the world Being I am the light of the world Each light is sacred All lights are one I am the light of the world Transforming my cancer A need to be kicked into/onto a higher level An evolutionary leap A fractal pattern – The first journey – 8 years old Into the stars until I don’t exist – the message A longing for the experience of falling into the stars a physical experience I don’t exist – the return Seeking unknowingly Blindly, releasing energies The second journey Cancer continues the pushing into other realms Fractal pattern Keep going deeper into cancer I don’t exist Keep going deeper into stars I don’t exist Stars are patterns of light Nodes are patterns of Indra’s Net In the midst of return The message through Light A reflection of the I AM Not a light generated by me Inside me – me is me But this me is captured In the light and has become A reflection – light in every cell Light resurrecting Live in now if Caught in this light/life Cancer – true darkness Darkness Primordial light Penetrate to higher Fertility/creativity True darkness Light resurrects me Eternal now New feminine – sacred Image woven in my Lungs – Indra’s net Reminder of the fractal pattern Journey – to receive the message I don’t exist The return Where am I now The mythic Harnessing irrational energy Energy process Opening Vibrational movement Light pouring into dark dense cells Thanking darkness Enabling me to move out Received as darkness The Great Doubt Forms in front – 3 inches From sternum – coalescing Needs an objective symbol - The Great Doubt - The Friends How can I connect Being salt of the Earth And light for the world? How can I shine in a salty way? Pouring forth ions that bring Ease and calm and peace and aliveness? What is birthing? What is implanted? What is ready to grow? I am challenged to demonstrate the Sign of the light - movement and repose How do I move as light? How do I rest as light? I am challenged to be salt to the world: Alive, piquant, essentially good The salt of the Earth – a preserver The taste of the sea, the giver of Life How may I cherish saltiness, in myself and others? How am I salt to the world? I am challenged to be a light Shining among the people Who see the good you do and Praise the I AM, Mystery, Divine Light. May those things I touch And create be structures of light Dedicated to light May I feel myself part of the explosion Of inward light, capable of returning Consciously and freely into the Source of Light. I remember and honor the loves of my life. I enjoy with delight the signs of loves celebration Everywhere I open freely and respond creatively To the mystery of each present moment I work to deepen and stabilize an awareness of the work of the spirit and soul Illuminating my understanding of the forces That work in beauty within Me and all beings Divine light is prayer May my prayer shine The light of divine care On children. May I help To create a world where Children are cherished May divine light as I Experience it in my body Work to heal my wounds Work to heal the wounds of The children, the Earth. Niagara Energy vortex Waters unleashed Chaotic Rushing energy Water vibrates Receives all Embraces, cleanses Darkness and pain Falls away Purity of light Unseen calm Flow beneath Patterns created Serenity ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/ _______________________________________________ Dialogue mailing list Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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7/15/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Gretta Vosper: When Religion Goes Rogue [Indigenous children/boarding schools/genocide]
by Ellie Stock 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3450501452 #yiv3450501452templateBody .yiv3450501452mcnTextContent, #yiv3450501452 #yiv3450501452templateBody .yiv3450501452mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3450501452 #yiv3450501452templateFooter .yiv3450501452mcnTextContent, #yiv3450501452 #yiv3450501452templateFooter .yiv3450501452mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When Religion Goes Rogue | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Gretta Vosper July 15, 2021It was over two decades ago that I first heard of the stories told by Indigenous families in British Columbia that unmarked graves of children could be found at the sites of former government and church-run residential schools. At the time, the former United Church minister who had been trying to alert authorities, Kevin Annett, then in his early forties, had already been placed on the Discontinued Service List - stripped of his ordination through a disciplinary process used by The United Church of Canada when the behaviour of a clergy person comes into question. In 1996, Canada’s national news magazine, Macleans, told the story of Annett’s disciplinary process under the title “The United Church Confronts an Activist”[1]. Journalist Chris Wood depicted the proceedings as repeatedly “characterized by rancor and recrimination.” It was the first time in its history that the UCC had conducted such a disciplinary hearing in British Columbia. Annett, incensed by the imposition of the requirement that he undergo a psychiatric assessment as part of the disciplinary proceeding, refused to comply; in so doing, he sealed the action against him and his relationship with the United Church was officially ended. Annett was written off by many as not to be taken seriously. And while he continued to work with Indigenous communities to try to get their stories heard, we continued to not take him, or those stories, seriously. To our ultimate shame. Recent weeks have uncovered over 1300 graves at the sites of residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church in Canada for Indigenous children. South of our border, Rep. Debra Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, has taken up the challenge of exploring the lands of former American residential schools – many of them also run by religious institutions – searching for the graves of children who may be buried there. It is likely that, by the time this article is published, the number of children buried in unmarked graves on either side of our international border, may have risen. In Canada, it wasn’t just the Roman Catholic Church involved. Both the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church also participated in the residential schools program which, for decades, forcibly removed Indigenous children from their families for the purpose of educating them into the dominant white, Christian culture of the country. The tragic results of the program are evident across Canada where Indigenous families continue to experience the trauma of familial and generational disruption, the religiously and politically condoned erasure of traditional language and teachings, and the failure of government to address the resultant social and cultural inequities and injustices which persist to this day. A question of nomenclature It may not seem remarkable that Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church which ran the three schools at which, to date, unmarked graves have been found, has refused to apologize for the deaths or the appalling way in which graves were treated (markers at one site were bulldozed by a Catholic priest in the 1960s during a dispute with a local Indigenous Chief). Some argue that a pope’s apologies are only given in person and that Francis hasn’t yet had the opportunity. He has, however, been invited to Canada to do just that. To date, no appearances have been scheduled. The question, however, is what would he apologize for? Would it be for the unsupervised way in which certain schools dealt with the deaths of schoolchildren? Would it be for deciding that it was cheaper to bury children at the school than return their bodies to their families? Would it be for not keeping records that would make connecting the remains with bereaved families possible? Or would it be an acknowledgement of the Roman Catholic’s legacy of genocide? Would it be an apology for what we have all wanted to deny for so long? And would we then feel free to sweep our own apologies in alongside, a national avalanche of complicity? Genocide by any other name The word “genocide” gets a lot of hackles up. Coined in 1944 by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin, the term was the slamming together of the Latin suffix cide, meaning murder, with the Greek prefix genos, meaning tribe or race. Genocide came to mean the eradication of an entire people. Surely a thousand or so dead children can’t be argued to be the eradication of a whole race or even of a tribe when their families were left to live according to their practices as they saw fit. The term genocide seems so extreme, doesn’t it? Some scholars have argued that the appropriate label for the Canadian government’s intent to assimilate Indigenous peoples through the residential school program is cultural genocide. Others note, however, that the term “cultural genocide” doesn’t even exist in United Nations’ documents. At one time, the term was included in a draft of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), but it was ultimately removed and the term “genocide” is used exclusively in the final document. Lemkin, however, the man who originally coined the term, seems to have written with the understanding that genocide meant far more than the eradication of a people by murder or killing. The destruction of culture fell squarely within the boundaries of genocide as he intended the word to be understood. The world represents only so much culture and intellectual vigor as are created by its component national groups. Essentially the idea of a nation signifies constructive cooperation and original contributions, based upon genuine traditions, genuine culture, and well-developed national psychology. The destruction of a nation, therefore, results in the loss of its future contribution to the world. . . . Among the basic features which have marked progress in civilization are the respect for and appreciation of the national characteristics and qualities contributed to world culture by different nations—characteristics and qualities which . . . are not to be measured in terms of national power or wealth. [2] (italics mine, gv) To intentionally silence whole groups of people, by whatever means, is an offence that Lemkin would have named genocide. The practice of removing children from their families, refusing them the right to use their own language thereby undermining, if not destroying, the capacity for intergenerational transmission of culture, naming their customs and spiritual practices evil or corrupt, and refusing them the most sacred of all cultural practices, their traditional burial rituals, is the ultimate depiction of genocide as Raphäel Lemkin originally defined it. White Christians, dominant in North America because of the diseases, weapons, and beliefs they brought to this land, intentionally undertook to destroy Indigenous culture. They undertook a systematic program to do so. No matter what they called the “program”, it was genocide. It is genocide for which the Pope, our governments, and perhaps all white Christians and their descendants, must account and apologize. Incalculable loss We are made rich by what we receive of the heritage of our elders, of nations, and races who have come before us. They people our imaginations, colour our ideas, inform our deepest and best thinking, challenge our rigidities. But they also scare us half to death, strain our understandings of who and what we are, and leave us far more than we might ever have chosen for ourselves: heart-breaking truths; egregious complicities; harrowing cultural roots; blood-soaked family trees; the legacies of cold, marble-carved hubris. The past planted seeds of tomorrows we couldn’t foresee, might never have allowed to grow had we seen them, but they mature, nonetheless. And we must reckon with them. Every today is built on the best and the worst of what has come before. Every tomorrow is fertilized by the courage or insecurities of the present. It is ours to choose those tomorrows, not only for ourselves, but for those who will come after us. Lemkin knew this. He knew that our beauty and strength were limited only by the breadth of the stories and the diversities of the people who contributed to them. One story offers this understanding; another illuminates it from an alternate perspective. Together, we grow and learn. Together, we are made whole by exercising and testing our relationships with one another. Together, our cultures, our traditions, our ideas are cured over time and we grow into and through them. Eliminate one or another story, and the whole is incomplete. Indeed, eliminate the entire narrative, and the whole that might have been will, simply, never be. It is that simple. Given the breadth of culture we have lost or destroyed over time, is it any wonder that humanity seems more lost than ever? Using Lemkin’s definition, can we deny that religion, perhaps even Christianity, has been the greatest proponent of genocide throughout human history? Using religious syncretism to override local traditions, Christianity superimposed its story onto festivals and rituals of older, localized belief systems, silencing stories once told by telling bigger, more exciting ones. Our tradition built upon the destruction of ancient libraries, silencing cultural and scientific truths handed down, perhaps, for centuries. Infidels were slaughtered, non-believers tortured, healers burned at the stake, those who refused to convert cursed and driven from their communities. Burning books. Banning words. Smashing obelisks. Destroying sacred sites. Shattering ideas. Genocide by any other name. Beyond genocide I cannot define the religious impulse. I cannot claim to understand the pull religion has on some or the equally strong repulsion it holds for others. I do not want to live outside religion’s deepest wonders. I do not want to live within its shameful truths. The arc of human wealth has followed the curve of religious domination as divine rights have been used to claim properties, people, and whole lands. The breadth of the religious quest has stretched the human heart to acts of compassion and sacrifice beyond comprehension. We are struck by limitless wonder. We are mired in devastating truth. Were I to follow Lemkin’s lead, working to draw us into relationship with one another through and between the world’s myriad religions and beliefs, I wonder if what we might seek together could be called an understanding of the heart, perhaps even in the sense of standing under the protection of another’s heart; trusting that they will protect our story and offering, in turn, a pledge to do the same. Lemkin knew that we must protect one another’s stories. To know one another’s stories intimately, to seek to understand another’s practices, traditions, tests, strengths, burdens, losses, and accumulations of those things held to be dear – this would challenge us to open our hearts beyond our own beliefs, beyond the protection of our own traditions. This is what Lemkin saw and what might be the hardest thing we fractious beings could ever undertake: the need to create space and permission to tell our stories deeply and fully enough that we can hear in each one what our own does not hold; to marvel at a tale told differently; to see in another’s footsteps, not just their journey of discovery but our own. This, Lemkin knew, would mean a world beyond hate. A world in which he would never have had the need to slam together a Latin suffix and a Greek prefix. A world in which the word genocide would never have been coined. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. Visit her website here. [1] Chris Wood, “The United Church confronts an activist”, September 16, 1996, Macleans. https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1996/9/16/the-united-church-confronts-a… Raphäel Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation - Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress, 2nd ed. (Clark, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2005), 91. In Cultural Genocide: Facing History and Ourselves, https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-in…, accessed July 7, 2021. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Mel Why are there many books written that Progressive Christianity is a dangerous belief? I was checking Kindle books and I have come across that there are books written about the negative side of Progressive Christianity. I wonder why this is so? Everyone has their opinion and why would people who write these books be judgmental? A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear Mel,An orientation toward scarcity and separation has informed a lot of the decisions we make as a species. When we perceive there may not be enough of something, we scramble to be sure we will have what we need, and usually extra…just in case. This can feed a tendency in us to feel very threatened and concerned about how others are finding ways to be sure they will have enough. Is their way better than mine? Is their way posing a threat to my sense of safety or competency? Progressive Christianity “affirms that the teachings of Jesus provide but one of many ways to experience the Sacredness and Oneness of life.” For those who have been taught repeatedly that Jesus is the only way, such a statement is very disorienting. Progressive Christianity “seeks community that is inclusive of ALL people.” For those who have been encouraged to create community exclusively with people who look and sound like them, this statement invites variety that creates confusion and possible fear. Progressive Christianity “believes there is more value in questioning than in absolutes.” For those who have taken comfort in predictability and answers, this statement evokes anxiety and perceived chaos. So, Progressive Christianity opens the doors to disorientation, confusion and chaos? Well, yes! In some ways… And this feels very messy for the parts of us that really prefer comfort, ease, and order. Progressive Christianity recognizes that being human on this living planet means experiencing diversity, death, and fear while learning to find meaning, love and friendship amidst it all. Is Progressive Christianity dangerous? Most definitely if a Christian doesn’t want to recognize their participation in a system that has allowed certain humans to thrive at the expense of other humans and more-than-humans. The Rev Dr. Cornel West powerfully sums it up with these words, “To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away.”~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Did you know that ProgressiveChristianity.org is the repository for all of Bishop John Shelby Spong’s newsletter articles, which he used as the basis for his books? Once he retired, he entrusted us with their care, as well as the continuation of his newsletter, which is now called Progressing Spirit. We need to upgrade our site to better maintain our digital records of this material. If Bishop Spong’s work has been meaningful to you, would you consider a donation to help make his ongoing legacy possible? We are a small non-profit and any gift that you are able to give has an enormous impact. Thank you for your commitment to Progressive Christianity! The Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines, Co-Executive Director ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit online and going strong - click here to donate today! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Joseph - An Essential Character in Matthew’s Vision of Jesus Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong January 5, 2011Christmas has faded from our memory. The trees are down, the tinsel and the chaos of the day have been cleared away. The crèche scenes have been stored in the basement or attic for another year. It is, therefore, a good time to focus on the least understood member of the Holy Family that dominated the Christmas images. We call him Joseph and he is the strong, silent one, who stands behind the manger in that patriarchal world as the symbol of order. Who was he? Was he a person of history or a symbol? While the Christmas story is still fresh in our minds, allow me to explore the figure of Joseph. Mythmakers and fantasizes have wrapped layers of legends around him. A Christmas song from the 14th century, called “The Cherry Tree Carol,” depicts Joseph and Mary on the way to Bethlehem when Mary was “great with child.” They pass an orchard filled with cherry trees ripe with fruit. Mary asks Joseph to gather her some cherries, reminding him that she needs assistance “for I am with child.” To that request Joseph responds in anger, “Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee.” The tension is relieved, however, when the baby Jesus from the womb of his mother orders the cherry trees to bow down so that Mary can pick the fruit herself and Joseph, seeing this miracle, repents of his doubts. The 20th century English poet, W. H. Auden, similarly, in his Christmas Oratorio, entitled “For the Time Being,” depicts the temptation of Joseph as an inner debate where he hears a voice say: “Joseph, have you heard what Mary said occurred? Yes, it may be so, but is it likely? No!” When we turn to the Bible itself to see what the New Testament says about Joseph, our first response is surprise when we discover how little there is, given the rich legendary tradition. Paul, the first author of any book that is included in the New Testament, writing in the years between 51 and 64, says absolutely nothing about either Joseph or Mary. He also seems to be totally unaware of any notion about a miraculous or virgin birth. All he says about Jesus’ origins is that he was like every other human being “born of a woman” and like every other Jew “born under the law.” (Gal. 4:4). When we come to Mark, the first gospel to be written (ca.70-72), once again we find no birth story and no mention of Joseph whatsoever. Mark does, however, seem to know that Jesus has four brothers and at least two sisters (see Mark chapters 3 and 6). They are, however, portrayed as not only negative to Jesus, but also as actually seeking “to seize him (Jesus) for, Mark tells us that people were saying, “he is beside himself,” that is, out of his rightful mind. Could Mark have avoided the story of a miraculous birth and Joseph’s role in that drama if he had known about it? I do not think so. When the virgin birth story entered the tradition in the 9th decade of the Common Era in the writing of Matthew, the second gospel, Joseph makes his first appearance of which we are aware in the Christian tradition. Please be aware that Matthew’s gospel was written 50-55 years after the crucifixion and thus some 80-85 years after the birth of Jesus. Joseph is not only introduced into the tradition for the first time by Matthew, but he is also the central figure in Matthew’s birth story. Here Joseph is portrayed as wrestling with whether or not he should send his wife back to her father’s home as “damaged” goods since she is pregnant before their marriage, but when he is assured of her faithfulness by God in a dream, he becomes the one who names this child, and thus the one who offers both protection and legitimacy to this child. When this birth narrative ends, however, Joseph disappears from Matthew’s story. Joseph appears in Luke’s birth story also, but in a much less central role than the one assigned to him by Matthew. When the two birth narratives end Joseph disappears from the entire gospel story. Joseph never appears in any biblical story about the adult life of Jesus anywhere in the New Testament. So the first biblical fact to be embraced is that in the New Testament Joseph is only a character in the birth narrative, he is not a presence in the adult life of Jesus. That is not true about Jesus’ mother, Mary, who is referred to in Mark only once by name, but is referred to as “the mother of Jesus” in a few other places in all of the other gospels. Even so, the fact remains that while Mary’s resume in the New Testament is quite thin, Joseph’s is almost non-existent. People have speculated that the absence of Joseph, whom tradition has suggested was an old man, is best explained by the possibility that he must have died while Jesus was very young. That is of course a possibility that must be considered, even though there is no data that gives us anything on which to base that speculative conclusion. I want, therefore, to propose another alternative for which I suggest there is some supportive data if one knows how to read the gospels properly, that is, not literally, but the way the original Jewish readers of the gospels would have read them. Perhaps Joseph was not a figure of history at all, but a literary creation originated in Matthew and designed to fill out his cast of characters when he created the first birth narrative. My reasons for suggesting this arise out of my study of Jewish history. Let me seek to build this case. It is a well known fact that there was a deep division in Jewish history between the tribe of Judah, which was also called the Southern Kingdom, and the Ten Tribes of Israel, which were called the Northern Kingdom. What is less well known is that this division was viewed by the Jews as a division between the descendants of Judah and the descendants of Joseph. The dominant tribes in the Northern Kingdom were Ephraim and Manasseh, both of whom were said to be the sons of Joseph. The Bible suggests that this division went all the way back to the patriarch Jacob, who had two wives. His first wife, Leah, was the mother of Judah and his second wife, Rachel, was the mother of Joseph. Enmity between these two half brothers appears in the Genesis account of their early life. Judah is portrayed as the brother who was willing to sell Joseph into slavery for 20 pieces of silver. The two Jewish states split permanently after the reign of Solomon in 920 BCE. The author of Matthew’s gospel wanted to portray Jesus as the messiah who came to bind up all of the divisions in the human family. This unity, for Matthew had to begin in healing the ancient division in the life of the chosen people. He opened his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus that traced his line through King David and the kings of the Southern Kingdom, so Jesus emerged out of the tribe of Judah. Now, by making Jesus’ earthly father be named Joseph and by assigning to Joseph the role of protector, he incorporated the Joseph tribes into his story. If this is accurate thus far, then we ask: Where did Matthew get the content that he has assigned to his character called Joseph? Everything biographical that Matthew relates about Joseph is found in the birth narratives, which constitute the first two chapters of his gospel. Here we learn three things about Joseph. First, he had a father named Jacob. Second, God speaks to him only through dreams. It was through a dream that he was told to take Mary as his wife. It was through directions received in dreams that Joseph moved regularly with Mary and the Christ Child until he finally settled his family in the village of Nazareth. Dreams were essential to Matthew’s portrait of Joseph’s life. Third, the role assigned to Joseph in Matthew’s narrative was to save the messiah, the child of promise, from death and he did this by fleeing to Egypt. That is the extent of the knowledge we have in the New Testament about Joseph. Now look back into the Hebrew Scriptures at the story of Joseph the patriarch, best known in our culture today as the Joseph of the “coat of many colors.” His dramatic story is found in Genesis 37-50. When we read that story carefully, we discover three things about this Joseph. First, he had a father named Jacob. Second, he was constantly identified with dreams, first as the interpreter of the dreams of the Pharaoh’s butler and baker and finally as the interpreter of the dreams of the Pharaoh himself. He was even called by his brothers, “the dreamer.” Third, in this narrative the role that the patriarch Joseph played in salvation history was to save the chosen people from death during a time of famine and the way he did it was to take them down to Egypt. I do not think these connections are coincidental. Matthew is going to tell the story of Jesus as the Messiah who came to bind up the human family. He first must heal the divisions in the chosen people. So he makes Jesus the heir of King David and thus a son of Judah and then he portrays him as being raised under the protection of an earthly father named Joseph. Messiah has made his people one so that they could make one the nations of the world. So the figure of Joseph looks like the literary creation of Matthew and becomes the first interpretative hint of his theme that Jesus came to bind up divisions and to make the human family one. Recall that Matthew ends his gospel by having the risen Christ give the Great Commission: “go into all the world” go to where people have been defined as different, unclean, uncircumcised, and tell them the message of Jesus, namely that God’s love is unbounded. Assure them that there is nothing anyone can be or do that will separate him or her from the love of God. Paul captured this same theme when he wrote in Galatians in 52 CE that in Christ, there is “neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor free,” but all are one. To that we add that in Christ there is neither white nor black, gay nor straight, Protestant nor Catholic, Jew nor Muslim, believer nor atheist, conservative nor liberal, but all share in a common humanity. That is the vision of Jesus that Matthew intends to paint in his gospel and Joseph is a crucial, introductory character, in whom Matthew’s theme is announced. Perhaps if we ever learned to read the scriptures correctly, escaping the mindset of literalism, we could once again hear the gospel and begin to assert the oneness of all people under the love of one God. That is the substance of the vision we Christians receive from Jesus.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Click here for more information/registration ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright © 2021 ProgressiveChristianity.org, a 501(3)c. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 4810 Pt. 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7/08/2021, Rev. Lauren Van Ham: The Mother Religion; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 08 Jul '21

08 Jul '21

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Lauren Van Ham MA July 8, 2021A month ago, my husband and I were in the car at 4:30 in the morning. We were returning to San Francisco from San Diego, and attempting to get ahead of the traffic that would be in L.A. I was driving. To my left was the Pacific Ocean spanning left-to-right; and shining from above? Luna! The full moon was reflecting a steady, kind glow saturating the water’s surface. I was without words and Valentino, in his half-asleep state said, “Isn’t it amazing how gentle Earth is with us? She’s so patient.” In Her 4.5 billion years of being a planet, Earth has known great drama illustrated in superfluous gestures of creativity and supreme acts of destruction. If we used only this as our backdrop for religion what would our religion consist of? Edgar Morin, a French philosopher and sociologist has thought a good deal about this and writes, “Such a religion would lack any providence, any shining hereafter, but would bind us together as fellows in the unknown adventures. Such a religion would not have promises but roots: roots in our cultures… in planetary and human history; roots in life and the stars that have forged the atoms of which we are made; roots in the cosmos where the particles were born and out of which our atoms were made…. Such a religion would involve a belief, like all religions but, unlike other religions that repress doubt through excessive zeal, it would make room for doubt within itself. It would look out onto the abyss.” Driving north that pre-dawn morning, Valentino and I were looking out onto the abyss. As abysses go, it was a friendly one. We were together and we were safe with no presenting threats. But to see the moon and ocean in their untamed vastness brought us instantly out of our separateness into intimacy with Mystery. We were sharing a moment in the unknown adventure that knows its roots, and makes room for doubt. For those few dazzling moments, we felt Earth’s fierce love and grounded equanimity. She was witnessing us and we were witnessing Her. Being seen in this way, feels to me like Psalm 139:15-16: “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.” In a previous Progressing Spirit article, I mentioned the work of religious scholars who have tried to better understand the earliest mentions of “Original Sin.” In their careful review of etymology and translation, original sin might best be described as a place inside every single one of us that aches for the cosmic unity we left when we fell from the stars and took form as an embryo. Our profound homesickness and efforts to restore the fragments (Tikkun Olam), define how we live, for better or for worse, consciously and unconsciously. This beautiful and insatiable heartache makes me want… my Mom. In 2016, research was shared reporting that dolphin mothers[i] sing to their infants while they are in the womb and for some time after so that the babies can learn their names. Apparently, the rest of the pod encourages this learning to happen by quieting their own usual sounds. Did your Mother sing you your name? The religion that Morin describes, suggests there are ways to feel our cosmic roots, or put differently: to tap the deeper knowing we carry about our Mother. Not only our biological Moms, our adopted Moms, or our symbolic Moms but our Great Mom, the one described in Genesis 3 as, “the mother of all living.” You know, the one, “who beheld our unformed substance even as we were woven in the depths of earth?” That one. Whether or not your biological mom sang your name to you in utero, the mother of all living did. And do you know what? She is singing to us still. She is singing our names and inviting us to be part of the living religion –- the Mother Religion -- that does not repress doubt with excessive zeal. Our Mother Religion is living, loving, generous, patient, interdependent, ebbing and flowing. And did I say patient? Doubt comes, doubt goes. It’s the repression that erodes us. It’s the oppression that drowns out the mother’s song. How do we hear the notes again? Honor your mother. It’s mentioned a number of times in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, but what does this instruction mean really? Well, we honor Her by buying organic and composting. We honor Her by dismantling systemic injustice. We honor Her by voting for climate emergency resolutions and attending shareholders’ meetings to demand equity for all people. We honor Her by repairing painful stories in our families as and where we can. We honor her by planting flowers for the pollinators, and harvesting rainwater and driving less. We honor Her by calling our Mothers and by listening to the next generation. We must do all of this -- and whatever else is within our capacity, too -- but “honor your mother” isn’t a list of activities or boxes to check; it’s a religion to practice. A talk to walk. I don’t know a whole lot about dolphins and the vigilance required to stay safe in the open seas. I know that they travel together and, now we know that the pods support the young ones in learning their names. Perhaps this is the most important thing – to travel and rest together, to play and eat and look out for each other, and if you become separated or danger befalls you, to know your name. To carry your mother’s song within you, so that – no matter what -- you are always at home. Maybe Jesus, walking in the sands of the Middle East, felt this marine mammal wisdom in his own DNA. Maybe Harriet Tubman, could hear the honking of geese, pointing her North on those moonless nights. Today, in their distracting and seductive way, modernity and progress have sometimes convinced us that we can avoid our fragile existence, or that technology can replace the song, improve the song. But our temporary lives and our deep longing is still there. What can we learn from our more-than-human relatives about vulnerability and death? Isn’t this the rub that all religion is trying to soften? Honoring our mother, is about understanding our essence as fleeting and eternal. We are held. We are named. It cannot be otherwise. Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu and so many other wise teachers and mystics remind us to find our way home by seeing ourselves in all that is living, animate and inanimate. Messages of scarcity and superiority take us down paths of fear and separation. We can behave so badly, but that is not the song our Mother sings us. The words of Her song are medicine just like the lyrics in Ysaye Barnwell’s piece, Wanting Memories: I thought that you were gone but now I know you're with me. You are the voice that whispers all I need to hear. I know that I am you and you are me and we are one. I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand. I know that I've been blessed again and over again. We have so much to learn and evolutionarily speaking, we are barely in elementary school. Honor your Mother is about showing up for class with the willingness to be seen and taught by the ones who don’t look like us. When we listen, really listen, we honor our Mother because we hear all that lives. It is moving in Her, and you and I – we – belong, doubts and all. In our Mother, we are fearfully and wonderfully made and we cannot ever fall away from our eternal, cosmic home. ~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham MA Read online here. About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.[i] I learned about this study reading a book I have loved and recommend: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (2020, AK Press) [ii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UJLJOaKW_0 | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Terry Is the Church ever going to address the antisemitism in our liturgy? The Jew hating is both blatant and subtle in the scriptures we read from Mark, Matthew, Luke, John and early Paul. You’d think 2,000 years of accusing the Jews of killing Jesus, being money grubbers, etc. was enough of this ugly stereotype. It is time the Church confronted its role in perpetuating all the antisemitism the first century Church created and the Church has perpetuated since. A: By Rev. Roger Wolsey Dear Terry,Thank you for your question. It is a deeply pastoral one coming from a true place of awareness and concern. Indeed, many of the liturgies utilized in the regular worship services in quite a few denominations contain language that’s offensive to our Jewish friends. This is particularly noticed in certain Calls to Worship; Words of Institution and the Great Thanksgiving that are part of the sacrament of Holy Communion; and especially evident in many of the readings shared as part of special services during Holy Week prior to Easter Sunday. Good Friday most notably. One piece of this is the readings from the Bible assigned on given days from the Lectionary. When the Gospel of John is featured, this is even more evident still. The way John puts it, Pontius Pilate and Rome didn't really want to kill Jesus, it was the Jews who wanted Jesus dead. As Dr. Elaine Pagels has indicated, as each of the Gospels were written chronologically they became increasingly more anti-Semitic in that they started shifting the blame away from Rome for the death of Jesus and onto the Jews. The Gospel of John is the zenith of this - with Pilate seemingly not really wanting to kill him – he’s portrayed as reluctantly allowing the execution due to the alleged pressure from “the Jews.” This is what led to Luther being so anti-Semitic. Which is in part what led Hitler to do what he did. This is demonstrated in several books and articles. For the record: Pontius Pilate was a ruthless killer and he wouldn't've bothered to meet in person with anyone slated to be executed, let alone be concerned about any public pressures or preferences. I know of quite a few progressive Christian congregations that are modifying the language used in liturgies – taking care to not blame “the Jews” for Jesus’ death. If they work with the texts from John for Good Friday, they’ll modify the wording to instead say “the public”, “the citizens”, “the mob”, “the masses”, etc. Some churches avoid using the texts from John re: Jesus death all together. In the same way that some churches modify the lyrics of old hymns to avoid condoning the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement, pastors and lay leaders should feel empowered to modify the texts for the Words of Institution and the Great Thanksgiving, as well as all denominational liturgies. Moreover, we’d do well to have a revision denominational liturgies all together, as well as calling for another revision of the Revised Common Lectionary. ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Read and share 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. | | | | | | | | 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 a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. 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 A Letter From Bishop Spong Bishop John Shelby Spong July 8, 2021My Dear Friends, Please accept my sincere thanks for the cards and letters sent to me on the occasion of my 90th birthday. I experienced the joy of reliving moments of my life in reading them. They were more than 500 in number and came from every continent of this earth except for the Arctic and Antarctic regions! I read them with joy. I soon realized that I could never respond to them individually, so I hope you can accept this communication. Many of you asked for an update on my health. I had the stroke on September 12, 2016 in Marquette, Michigan, where I was lecturing. The right side of my body was paralyzed. I could not walk nor use my right arm or hand. Fortunately that did not last and by a host of physical therapies, I can today walk (with a cane) and I can use every part of my body save my right hand. It feels asleep all the time. I can not write in a legible fashion and cannot even sign a check. It is a stage of life that seemed strange at first -- not able to write even a letter, but I have accepted my limitation and I live in the love of my wife Christine and my daughters and grandchildren. A number of you inquired about my last book Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today. It was due at Harper/Collins on December 31, 2016. I had yet to do the task of writing the conclusion and doing the editorial work that separates the wheat from the chaff! Not being able to write legibly was a problem. I dictated the final chapters to my wife and she typed them and we edited it together. We got it in on the deadline and it was published in 2018! The downside came when I could not go on tour with the book. We had already stated that this was the final book of my career. I hope it was a fitting conclusion. It has had to grow by word of mouth, but that is not all bad. I am proud of it! I feel completed. Thanks for asking. Sincerely yours, John S. (Jack) Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Letting Go - 2021 Our consumer culture teaches that getting more stuff and holding on to it is the way to riches. Our ego-driven society encourages us to seek power and enjoy being the center of attention.But the spiritual life emphasizes other things. Online July 12, 2021 - August 1, 2021 Read on.... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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