September 2021 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

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

05 Nov '24

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

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John Epps completed life
by John Epps 16 May '23

16 May '23

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

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Adventures of Joe Biden--Inauguration Day!
by mellowmilan2＠gmail.com 25 Jul '22

25 Jul '22

I wrote a lot of 'Adventures of Obama' during the times now past. Ogden Nash, who wrote comic poetry in the 1920s, wrote 'Adventures of Isabel,' a 40 line poem in rhyming couplets. I took my poetic license and wrote a series of the Adventures of Obama in 10 line segments at a time. Each stanza tells the of encountering seemingly impossible odds and turning them into victory in unexpected ways. The original Isabel was a little girl who met a ravenous bear, an ugly witch, a one-eyed giant, and a despairing doctor and used her "magic" powers to win out in the end. I am continuing to use my poetic license with a nod to Ogden Nash in the Adventures of Joe Biden. Adventures of Joe Biden-Inauguration Day Joe Biden showed up for inauguration Knowing he'd face a divided nation Mitch and his minions known for obstruction Smiling as though there'd been no eruption Of venomous attackers hunting their heads At the urging of Donald who now they did dread Joe Biden, Joe Biden didn't worry Joe Biden didn't scream or scurry He calmly took his oath, made his stand And brought civility back to our land. Milan Hamilton January 20, 2021 Milan Hamilton 80 North Center Street Redlands, CA 92373 Phone: 909-556-5815 E-mail: mellowmilan2(a)gmail.com

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Our ever-dwindling Listserve
by Milan Hamilton 10 Nov '21

10 Nov '21

I believe it was Ken (Fisher?) who coined this greeting in response to Joe Ayers completion: “our ever-dwindling Listserve.” This was one of those “intrusions”into my psyche that resulted in the following poem and Googling the Henry V speech. It made me reflect on the stages of grief and where am I. Not only are we dwindling in numbers but the species of our beloved home are dwindling even faster. I get up every morning and dutifully tick off another of the days of this decade remaining (3,395 today) to have to reduce our carbon emission by the proverbial 45-50% in order to have a livable earth. And get just a little more angry/sad/resigned/accepting. I think I am cycling between resignation and acceptance currently. The response this particular notice and comment from Ken generated in me led to the following. I share it for the edification of the remnant. Milan H. A Chair at the Table St Crispin's Day Speech The St Crispin's Day speech is a part of William Shakespeare's history play Henry V, Act IV Scene iii(3) 18–67. On the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, which fell on Saint Crispin's Day, Henry V urges his men, who were vastly outnumbered by the French, to recall how the English had previously inflicted great defeats upon the French. The speech has been famously portrayed by Laurence Olivier to raise British spirits during the Second World War, and by Kenneth Branagh in the 1989 film Henry V; it made famous the phrase "band of brothers".[1] The play was written around 1600, and several later writers have used parts of it in their own texts. WESTMORLAND. O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day! KING. What's he that wishes so? My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark'd to die, we are enough To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires. But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour As one man more methinks would share from me For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse; We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian." Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day." Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words— Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester— Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be rememberèd— We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. Addendum Ah we privileged few that in a land of myst’ry Sat at table, men and women, facing one another While girding ourselves for battles of the spirit More fierce than those we’d face outside Our hallowed halls where, singing songs familiar And others learned from theologians’ words Would stir our hearts and lead us into places None believed we’d ever tread. We century twenty band of timid souls Inspired first to save the Church by teaching Her to love the World a parish at a time; Then audacious though it seemed to all but we On fire with Consciousness flowing like a river Turned our gaze upon a suffering world four billion then, Now nearly eight before we blinked an eye, ours not G-O-D’s. Climbing the Mountain of Care, we thought could demonstrate Anew a balanced triangle, a band of twenty-four, a humanizing thread Of hope beyond hope to the poorest of the poor, Not realizing yet that they were Us, the ones in need. But wait, opportunity knocks, maybe only this once in a lifetime chance: The bicentennial of the good old USA! Are you ready for this? Yes! Said We, let us conduct five thousand Town Meetings And by the way, let’s make it several thousand more around the world. Town Meeting ’76! Was off and running. Of course, we did it, One in every county of the land belov-ed. Ours not G-O-D’s. And who knows how many in the world belov-ed, G-O-D’s for sure. What a historical ride on which we privileged few were taken: Painful years ahead, decisions, decisions, decisions. Sendouts galore! Broken chains of Care! Did I sign up for this? Oh Yeah! You did! And now you get to reap the fruits of your labor. Now the Sea of Tranquility’s becoming clear. Just got an E-mail about Audrey’s Joe, not the first of us to go to the Mystery’s embrace But there’s always one that wakes you up, not so? I knew Audrey! No, I don’t mean I knew Audrey, exactly. But I knew Audrey Back in nineteen-sixty-nine, Academy, and Summer 70. This feeling washed over me, of being one of the privileged ones Who knew Audrey and Joe, and the others of us who’ve gone to the Mystery’s care: My friend Terry, who “recruited” me, George and David, who taught me, And Bob, who mentored me and was my friend, and Audrey, who I knew in ’69. Chairs are missing at the table; we are dwindling one by one; Yet the stories as they leave us, telling us their work is done, Join with saints of all the ages, beckoning, beckoning, to leave out not a single one. I’m not naming any more of us, you know who you are. Except for that other Joe, who more importantly, knew me. Remember Joe? Joe used to say that when he went, all of us who went on ahead would wait hey-- At the Pearly Gate hey. So, we could all march in together hey. Ah, we privileged few who were there on Crispin’s Day Milan Hamilton September 15, 2021 Sent from my iPad

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9/30/2021, Progressing Spirit, “White Too Long” - A Conversation with Robert P Jones, Part 1; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 30 Sep '21

30 Sep '21

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | “White Too Long” A Conversation with Robert P Jones, Part 1 | | | | | | | | | | Interview by Rev. David Felten September 30, 2021 The following is Part 1 of a series drawn from an interview with Robert P. Jones, author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity on September 9th, 2021. It has been edited for length and focus. _______________________ David Felten: Your latest book, White Too Long, lays out the complicity of American Christianity with white supremacy, particularly within the church of your upbringing, the Southern Baptist Convention. Do you really mean the white supremacy I’m thinking of? Robert Jones: I think when most white people hear the words “white supremacy,” they conjure up grainy, black and white images of people in robes burning crosses in the 1920s. And what that does is distance us from anything we might call “white supremacy.” What we really need to be talking about is what Professor Eddie Glaude calls “white supremacy without all the bluster” — or without the costumes. So, what I mean by white supremacy is acknowledging that we have been born into a society with a deliberately unlevel playing field, and that has been built with the assumption that white lives are more valuable than others. David Felten: It’s so baked into the status quo, people don’t see it. Robert Jones: But it’s right in front of us. The country was set up very intentionally and overtly to justify giving better jobs, better schools, and better places to live to those who claim to be white. And if you’re any kind of honest student of American history — or if you just know your own family's history (if you're white) — you can see it clearly. There's not a city in the country where you can't see the legacy of racially motivated zoning, where there were “whites-only” areas of the city. The whole history of public schooling in the country was set up to benefit those who could claim to be white at the expense of others. David Felten: And as long as we’re thinking about white supremacy as hoods and burning crosses, we get a pass. We can say, “That's not me!” Robert Jones: Right. That’s nothing to do with me. But these other things are much closer to home, including police violence disproportionately affecting African-American men, mass incarceration, and other things that are still going on that we tend to not put in the category of white supremacy. David Felten: The light you shine on the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention is pretty shocking. The largest evangelical denomination in the country founded on justifying and defending slavery? Robert Jones: Yeah, at its height, it had 16 million members, making it the largest not just evangelical denomination, but the largest denomination of any kind in the country. I begin the book—it’s the first sentence of White Too Long, with this basic fact: “The Christian denomination in which I grew up was founded on the proposition that chattel slavery could flourish alongside the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its founders believe this arrangement was not just possible, but also divinely mandated.”[i] David Felten: And that never came up being raised in the SBC? Robert Jones: I was never taught what the “Southern” in Southern Baptist Convention meant. I just assumed it was an innocent geographical marker — not that it meant an allegiance to a Southern way of life that included owning other human beings. That's the meaning of the “Southern” in Southern Baptist that's still there today. David Felten: It's as if the Methodist Episcopal Church South had never died. Robert Jones: It’s worth noting that both the Methodists and Baptists split in the same year and it was these white Christian denominations splitting over the issue of slavery, with the Southern factions justifying slavery biblically, that was the dress rehearsal for the political splits that finally led to the Civil War. David Felten: It was a righteous cause because it's in the Bible. Robert Jones: Absolutely. Plus, I had an MDiv from a Baptist seminary and a PhD from Emory University (a good Methodist seminary) and through all that education, was, I frustratingly, never taught anything about this thing called the “doctrine of discovery,” the underpinning of white supremacy. David Felten: And that goes WAY back! Robert Jones: Yeah, it was a 15th century set of doctrines promulgated by the Pope that justified and blessed the expeditions of Columbus and all the others. It basically said that if you were from a European nation with a Christian king and you encountered other lands not occupied by Christian people, you had the blessing of the church and the power of the state to dominate those lands and those people. David Felten: So, the founders of the SBC and the Methodist Episcopal Church South were able to pick up on that as further justification for their white supremacy. Robert Jones: Yeah, there's a straight through-line. The same doctrine that justified the forced removal and genocide of Native Americans justified slavery. And what's underneath it all is the belief that European Christians were God's chosen people and their lives were more valuable than others’ lives. David Felten: White Too Long introduces us to some of those pretty influential “chosen” people who’ve otherwise been lost to history. Robert Jones: One of the folks that I didn't know about before I started doing research for the book is a guy named Basil Manly Sr. He was not only the architect of the secessionist movement in Alabama, he was the architect of the Southern Baptist Convention and went on to found Southern Seminary, which today remains as the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. As the official “Chaplain of the Confederacy,” he was one of the leading proponents of preaching about God's blessing on the Confederacy, the Southern way of life, white supremacy, and how slavery was justified as part of God's will. David Felten: He was also present at Jefferson Davis’ inauguration and did the invocation. Robert Jones: Yeah. It tells you how tight he was. He was actually the only person in the carriage with Jefferson Davis and the vice president of the Confederacy when they were brought up to the Capitol. He held the Bible during the oath of office and gave the “consecrating prayer,” casting a vision of the Confederacy as the ideal expression of God's will for human society on earth. David Felten: And after the Civil War, the SBC and other denominations, including Methodist, continued to justify and promote white supremacy. What did that look like? Robert Jones: Well, there were all kinds of contortions. The Methodists come back together in the early part of the 20th century to mend their North and South rift. But what they did to preserve the power of white bishops within the denomination was to put all of the African-American churches in one non-geographical district. Instead of mixing the African-American churches into the districts where they geographically belonged, they put them in this one anomalous thing called the “Central District,” so that all the African-Americans were represented by one bishop (as a way of watering down power) and keeping all the other districts segregated. David Felten: So, they used political tactics to guarantee segregation and the supremacy of whites. Robert Jones: Plenty of churches had restrictive covenants that in their official minutes declared themselves as whites-only congregations. In fact, doing research for the book, I think one of the more heartbreaking things I realized about my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, is that the last thing the great civil rights worker, Medgar Evers, did before he was assassinated in 1963, was an organizing effort trying to integrate the white churches in downtown Jackson. David Felten: And one of those churches was the Methodist church where the mayor was a member. Robert Jones: That's right. The Methodist church had the mayor and the Baptist church had the governor. The governor, Ross Barnett, was one of the most segregationist governors in the 20th century. He was simultaneously running an overtly segregationist campaign while serving as the superintendent of the men’s Sunday School program and was wildly loved by the church. When he was elected, they had a special sanctification ceremony and gave him a big pulpit Bible. The person who gunned down Medgar Evers, Byron De La Beckwith, was a white, Episcopalian member in good standing at a church in Greenwood, Mississippi. He’d been writing letters to the editor in the Mississippi delta papers saying, “If any African-Americans try to attend my church, I'll be waiting on the steps with a gun.” David Felten: So it’s not just Baptists and Methodists. Robert Jones: No. It's worth noting that both Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis weren't Baptists. They were Episcopalians. David Felten: And Lee and Davis still have pews at the Richmond church where John Shelby Spong served as rector many years ago. Robert Jones: Yeah. It's deep. I think that's the thing we're having to wrestle with, is how deep this is in the DNA of white Christianity in the country. David Felten: When I heard you speak at a UCC church in California, you were intentional about saying, “Hey, you Progressives are not clear of this. You can't just wash your hands and say, ‘Well, we're Progressives and we’re the good guys.’” Robert Jones: Yeah, I would say that if you were reading the written documents that were issued by the National Council of Churches, or by the Methodist social principles or denominational advocacy offices, you’d think that Methodists were everywhere in the civil rights era. And some were. Pastors lost their jobs because they stood up for civil rights. But I think these big denominational level statements are never fully taken up at the local congregational level. I think that's the work that has to be done. "Coming Up:" For the statistics exposing the challenge before us and some practical suggestions about how to dismantle the white supremacy inherent in white Christian America, see Part 2 of David Felten’s interview with White Too Long author, Robert P. Jones. ~ Rev. David M. Felten and Robert P. Jones Read online here About the Authors Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions” and authors of Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity. A co-founder of Catalyst Arizona and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David is the proud father of three reliably remarkable human beings. Robert P. Jones is the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute[ii] (PRRI), and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, winner of a 2021 American Book Award. He writes a weekly #WhiteTooLong newsletter dedicated to the work of truth-telling, repair, and healing from the legacy of white supremacy in American Christianity: robertpjones.substack.com *** Get your FREE copy of White Too Long!*** Three signed copies of Robert P Jones’ White Too Long will be given away to three lucky readers of ProgressingSpirit.com. Just add a comment with the hashtag #whitetoolong to the comments below or on the Progressive Christianity Facebook page and you’ll be entered in the drawing to win! [i] Jones, Robert P. White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. Simon & Schuster, 2020, page 1.[ii] https://www.prri.org/ | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Susan Do your beliefs include that you must accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior in order to go to heaven; and, in the end, those who do not accept Christ, no matter how much good they have done on earth, will go to hell? A: By Skylar Wilson Dear Susan, Thank you for your question. I experience the Universe as a single non-dual event that we now know has expanded over 13.8 billion years up to this point. I interpret Jesus Christ, planet Earth, and all of the elements, animals, plants, fungi etc. as being an embodiment of this cosmic process. I resonate with the idea that the Cosmic Christ, the Tao, Buddha Nature etc. is the vital thread of Spirit that moves through all things and that the historical Jesus, among others, experienced this and reflected it within his community. Within this living cosmology, there is no heaven or hell that exists as a place outside of Creation. The life giving impulse of Creation and the beauty of planet Earth itself is everlasting life and Heaven. This level of connection cannot be taken away but we can easily lose touch with it when we identify with the pain and trauma that is also inevitable in life. To reiterate, Hell is identifying with our wounds and suffering to the point where we forget that we are completely loved and connected to life. Heaven is a metaphor for how good life is when we live and act from the knowing that we’re completely connected and can feel each part of this world reaching out to us and holding us in unique, strange, and alive ways. Heaven and Hell can be very real places in a psychological sense but are not places outside of our lives here and now. I believe that we create heaven and hell through our choices. When we choose to act from connection and love, with empathy and compassion while opening to the pain of suffering within ourselves and in the world then we are participating in creating Heaven. ~ Skylar Wilson Read and share online here About the Author Skylar Wilson, MA is the founder of Wild Awakenings, a conscious community of change-makers dedicated to the thriving of Earth, life, and humanity. He has led wilderness rites of passage journeys as well as ecological restoration teams for 18 years, specializing in creating sacred wilderness immersion experiences and interfaith ceremonies. Skylar is the cofounder and co-director of the Order of the Sacred Earth, a network of mystic warriors and activists dedicated to being the best lovers and defenders of the Earth that we can be. Skylar is the coauthor of the book by the same title as well as the co-host, with Jennifer Berit, of the podcast: "Our Sacred Earth" on Unity online radio. Skylar works closely with schools and organizations including the Stepping Stones Project in Berkeley, CA over the last 8 years while guiding organization-wide retreats, mentoring youth, group leaders, parents and elders. He also produces transformational events for thousands of people around the country including the Cosmic Mass, an intercultural healing ritual that builds community through dancing and the arts. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A couple of weeks ago, we lost our dear friend, Bishop John Shelby Spong, one of the patron saints of Progressive Christianity. His life and work were such an inspiration to so many of us and his guidance was instrumental in helping to shape our organization. He will be deeply missed, but his theological writings live on with ProgressiveChristianity.org through his former newsletter, now known as Progressing Spirit. One of the things that I value most about ProgressiveChristianity.org is that we both preserve the work of theological giants like Bishop Spong, as well as, continue his legacy by empowering up-and-coming thinkers to share their invaluable insights. We create a space that advances the conversation and promotes an intellectually honest theological approach that empowers people rather than imprisoning them in outdated theological models. If you would like to help us continue the Progressive Christian Movement, please consider making a recurring gift or a one-time donation in memory of Bishop Spong. Your generosity makes all the difference. Blessings, Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines, Co-Executive Director ProgressiveChristianity.org Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org 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 Examining the Meaning of the Resurrection Part I: Setting the Stage Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong May 25, 2011 Through this column during the weeks before Good Friday, I did a series on the story of the cross and its meaning, seeking to call you, my readers, into a more interpretive way of reading the passion narrative. I focused on the developing nature of that narrative and sought to show that when the first narrative account of the crucifixion was actually written in Mark around the year 72 CE, it was filled not with references to eye-witness reporting, but with quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures, especially from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. It was, I concluded, never intended to be literal history or something based on first-hand data. The original purpose was thus not to tell us what actually happened, but to interpret the meaning of what happened. Once we stopped seeing these words as literal history, the door was opened to plunge into a radically new understanding. So we noticed that the account of Judas Iscariot was an 8th decade addition to the Jesus story, one about which Paul, who wrote between 51 and 64, knew nothing. We examined the placement of the crucifixion story into the celebration of the Passover and suggested that this was a contrived interpretative technique, rather than a literal memory. We saw that the character we call Barabbas, whose name literally means “Son (bar) of God (Abba),” now paired with Jesus, also the son of God, was suggestive of the two animals in the liturgy of Yom Kippur, one of which was slaughtered while the other was set free and thus we saw how Yom Kippur had been used to interpret the death of Jesus liturgically. These insights, while surprising no one in the academies of Christian scholarship, are always surprising and sometimes even troubling to those who have generally assumed that in the story of Jesus’ death as written in the gospels, they were actually reading history. They were not, nor was that ever the intention. The gospels are written 40-70 years, or between two and three generations, after the time of the crucifixion and they reflect a long interpretive process in which the memories people had of Jesus were wrapped inside Jewish messianic expectations that then became the way the Jesus story was understood and interpreted. As Paul noted in I Corinthians 15, Jesus died “in accordance with the scriptures.” Now in this post-Easter time of the Christian year, I would like to subject the resurrection stories of the New Testament to the same sort of critical biblical analysis, recalling that St. Paul also said that Jesus was raised “in accordance with the scriptures.” Perhaps in the process of this series, we will learn that in freeing theological truth from the biblical text, something does not have to be literal to be understood as true and that the experience of the resurrection has little to do with a body being resuscitated from death back into life. Indeed, the resurrection of Jesus means something far different and far more significant than that. So I plan five, maybe even six columns that will run periodically over the next ten weeks or so. I am aware that this column is used in Adult Education classes in a number of churches across this nation and around the world. I hope this series will prove to be fruitful to those readers in particular. Once again, we begin this biblical probe by examining the books of the New Testament in the order in which they were written, which means we study the New Testament in this order: First, we read Paul (51-64), then Mark (70-72), Matthew (82-85), Luke (88-93) and John (95-100). Only in this way can we watch the story grow and gain insight into its original meaning. Paul, primarily in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, written ca. 54-56, is very spare in giving us any Easter details. Quite literally the only thing Paul says is that Jesus “was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.” Note there is no reference in Paul to a tomb, to a stone being rolled away, to the women coming at dawn on the first day of the week, to a messenger who makes the resurrection announcement and finally no hint of the appearance of Jesus physically at the tomb to anyone. All of these details will be added only in the later gospels. Paul does, however, give us a list of those who, he says, had the raised Christ “manifested” to them, or the list of those to whom the resurrected Jesus “appeared.” The word that we translate “appeared” or was “made manifest” is very loose. Does it mean a physical sighting or a transforming experience? Does it mean a seeing with human eyes or the birth of a new awareness? Is its primary meaning physical sight, second sight or insight? Is it different from the account of Moses “seeing” God in the burning bush? Paul gives us no details. The list of witnesses, however, might provide some clues. So might other texts in the Pauline corpus that cannot possibly be read as physical bodily resuscitation stories. In Paul’s list, there are six separate manifestations. First Paul says, he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to “the Twelve” and then to the 500 brethren at once. That seems to be the first list. Then a parallel list is recorded in which he appears to James then to “the apostles” and finally to Paul himself. Both sets of witnesses beg more questions than they answer. Cephas is no surprise, he is always listed first among the twelve, and perhaps that position is a direct result of being the first one to “see” the raised Christ. I will examine that possibility later. “The Twelve” is a surprise, but only because Judas is clearly still among them. Paul seems not to know the tradition that one of the twelve was a “traitor.” Judas is first introduced in Mark (70-72) and when Matthew (82-85) gives the first written narrative of the resurrected Jesus appearing to his disciples, the Judas story has been factored in, so in that gospel Jesus appears only to the eleven! No corroborating data anywhere identifies the “500 brethren” to whom Paul says he appeared “at once” so they continue to be shrouded in mystery. Then in his parallel list he starts with James. Who is he? There are three James’ in the New Testament: James, the son of Zebedee, James, the son of Alphaeus, and James, the brother of Jesus. Which James does Paul mean? The only James that Paul ever mentions elsewhere in his writing is James the brother of Jesus so he becomes our best guess. Then Paul says he appeared to “the apostles.” Who are they? They are clearly not “the Twelve,” who have already been listed. So they have to be a different group, but who? By the time the gospels are written, “the Twelve” are called “the apostles,” but not so with Paul. Finally, please note that Paul claims that he himself was one who also “saw” the raised Christ. Could this possibly mean that the resurrection was conceived of by Paul as a resuscitation of a deceased person? Hardly! Paul’s conversion, according to the best reconstruction that we can put together was no earlier than one year and no later than six years after the crucifixion. The gospel writers collectively assert that no resurrection appearances in any physical sense took place that long after the crucifixion. Mark tells us of no appearance of Jesus at all, not even to the women in the garden, but he does hint that the disciples will see him in Galilee, which is a 7-10 days’ journey from Jerusalem. Matthew contradicts Mark and says the women did see Jesus in the garden at dawn on Easter day and then he relates a story of Jesus appearing to the disciples in Galilee that appears to come much later and in which Jesus comes out of the sky as one who has been both transformed and glorified. He is clearly not a resuscitated body who has returned to life in this world. Luke says appearances of the raised Christ continued for as long as forty days after Easter and then terminated with the ascension. John says the ascension took place on Easter evening after the tomb was found to be empty by Mary Magdalene that morning, and that the Jesus who appeared to the disciples was an already transformed and ascended Jesus, who was not bound by time and space. Indeed he could walk through walls. So what kind of seeing was Paul talking about when he included himself in his list of witnesses? How are we to understand this suddenly, rather complicated Easter story? Easter is obviously not quite as simple as literalists suggest, when they demand that belief in the resurrection must mean belief in the physically raised, resuscitated body of Jesus from the dead. It is clear to me that this is not what the Easter experience was about at all. What is not so clear is what it was about. So that is what I shall seek to explore in this series of columns. I will take the entire New Testament and search it for clues, remembering that all of the books that constitute the Christian Scriptures were written only in the light of the Easter experience. Not one verse of the New Testament was written prior to Easter and not one verse was written except inside the meaning of Easter. Every word of the New Testament was created 30 to 70 years after the fact of Easter. I will present my data in response to four very elemental questions that I will ask of my biblical sources. They are: Who? Where? When? and “How? Whatever the Resurrection was, who stood at the center of this life-changing experience? Who was the first to understand? Who opened the eyes of others so that they could understand? Is there evidence throughout the New Testament that points in a single direction? Where was the crucial person to whom the reality of Easter dawned in the mind of this critical observer? The gospels are divided between Galilee and Jerusalem. Are there other narratives in the New Testament that make it clear that it was one and not the other? When did this “appearance” occur? Easter may be timeless, but the Easter experience occurs in a human mind at a particular moment of time? Is “three days” a measure of physical time or is it a symbol? Finally, in what context did Easter dawn? How did this context frame the experience? Can we enter that interpretive context today and see Easter’s meaning with new eyes? That is the outline of where I hope to go over the next few weeks. I hope you will want to journey with me for this is the only website I know, which seeks to open the minds of people to a non-literal, but profoundly real way to hear the Christian story. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Be Fearless. Inspired. Unstoppable. For Change Online weekend retreat with Linda Tucker and Andrew Harvey Exploring LionHearted Leadership™ and Sacred Activism October 15th – 17th READ ON... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Global Buzz reminder
by ICA International 28 Sep '21

28 Sep '21

Reminder for entries This reminder is for the Global Buzz that will be published October 5th. 2021 (Please send your entries at least a day or more ahead) Please send all your entries by regular e-mail to: inform(a)ica-international.org with your entry as an attatchment. Send details of news items, training programmes, your peer to peer connections with other ICAs, any concerns you may have and of any events that are coming up at your location. Your report can be long or short, but remember that all other ICAs would really like to know about the things that matter where you are, and what you are doing as an ICA. Peter, for ICAI Communications Pour les entrées de rappel Ce rappel est à la Global Buzz qui sera publié le 5 octobre 2021 (S'il vous plaît envoyez vos entrées au moins un jour à l'avance) Veuillez envoyer toutes vos entrées maintenant par courriel ordinaire à : inform(a)ica-international.org avec votre entrée comme un attatchment. Envoyer les détails des articles de nouvelles, des programmes de formation, vos connexions peer to peer avec d'autres CIAS, de toute préoccupation que vous pourriez avoir et de tous les événements qui sont à venir à votre emplacement. Votre rapport peut être longue ou courte, mais rappelez-vous que toutes les autres CIAS aimerait vraiment savoir à propos de choses qui importe où vous êtes et ce que vous faites comme une ICA. Recordatorio de las entradas Este aviso es para el Global Buzz que se publicarán 5 mes de octubre 2021 (Favor de enviar sus entradas al menos con un día de antelación) Por favor envíe todos sus entradas ahora por correo electrónico a: inform(a)ica-international.org con su entrada como un archivo adjunto. Enviar detalles de noticias, programas de capacitación, el peer to peer las conexiones con otros convenios o acuerdos internacionales, las preocupaciones que usted pueda tener y de los eventos que se aproximan en su ubicación. El informe puede ser a corto o largo, pero hay que recordar que todos los demás convenios quisiera saber realmente sobre lo que realmente importa, y lo que están haciendo una ICA.

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923/2021, Progressing Spirit, Skylar Wilson,: Water~Spirit~Activism; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 23 Sep '21

23 Sep '21

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Water~Spirit~Activism | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Skylar Wilson September 23, 2021 Water is life. Without it, the vast majority (if not all) of life on Earth would not exist. The story of water begins with the birth of the Cosmos, when Hydrogen gas was created. A little later (about two hundred and fifty million years), the pregnant bellies of mother stars grew Helium from Hydrogen while creating Oxygen and Carbon. These new elemental babies were then released out into the universe as their creators exhaled their final breaths. The first water molecules formed in space about 4.5 billion years later when Hydrogen and Oxygen found each other, around the same time that Earth came into form, barren and lifeless at first, until water found its way home in its constituent elements on meteors. And then came life. Water is therefore aptly associated with birth, fertility, and renewal; it is a way back to our Source. It is our Origin Story. It is the voice of Spirit and a map by which to orient ourselves here and now from the most ancient star ancestors to the creeks gurgling down the mountains behind my home. In part, I am reflecting on renewal both because as I am writing this it is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and because of all of the devastating floods and hurricanes that have wreaked havoc on so many places around the world over the past month. Water can obviously be as destructive and deadly as it is life giving. Earth is 71% water. When we humans are born, we are made of approximately this same percentage. We are made in Earth’s image; created within Earth’s watery imagination. Born into life through a series of cosmic processes of explosive passion and grace. As we age however, the amount of water within our bodies decreases, eventually dropping to as low as 39% (1). As fat grows in our bodies, water decreases and we often can become less connected to our cosmic source. As many of us continue to dry out and become distracted and overworked, our superficial identities and roles solidify. It is so easy to forget our watery beginnings and therefore lose touch with the cosmic and earthly powers that flow through us. As one of the four elements essential to our understanding of life (in science as well as in all of the traditional philosophies, from east to west and north to south), water carries the most gravitas. The creation of aqueducts in ancient Greece and Rome contributed to improvements in agriculture and the emergence of the Western mind. In the United States, the average family uses 300 gallons of water per day. Every year trillions of gallons are lost because of pipe leaks (2). It’s well documented that the Incas of Peru engineered complex and efficient water systems that allowed for their empire to grow through peaceful assimilation. A new study published in Nature Sustainability shows how a 1,400 year-old method of diverting water can sustainably provide more water to Lima (approximately 40,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water per year) than the modern methods being used today (3). As we look for ways to sustain free access to the cosmic gift of water, a relatively small group of greedy and powerful people with corporate shields are buying up water rights to control and starve entire nations. In May, 2000, Fortune magazine wrote, “Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations”(4). This crass commodification of water tells me that we are no longer present to this precious resource in the ways that Water, and we, deserve. At the current rate of consumption, waste, pollution, and corporatization, the life that we know and love will not exist much longer. The only way to pull back the seat of our attention toward the inner waters will be the Great Shift in consciousness. A move from materialism toward connection where we can access our feelings, our power, our emotions, our moods, intuitions and dreams in more visceral ways that can guide us toward fluid, effective and creative activism. To facilitate this comprehensive shift in consciousness, we can integrate some of the ancient healing modalities. In the Ayurvedic system of India, water is seen as cohesive, cooling, soothing, and lubricating, that can balance body, heart, mind and soul when used intentionally. Similarly, in Chinese medicine, water is the element that holds and cleanses one’s vital essence. In the body, this process occurs primarily through the kidneys as they maintain the balance of water while filtering out waste and toxins. They therefore have a yin-like receptive quality as they produce, store, and regulate fundamental substances such as qi (vital energy), blood, and bodily fluids, and transform them. Can we humans become the kidneys of the planet and clean and restore the watersheds and wetlands that are our larger body? In a Christian context, water plays a pivotal symbolic role. Contemplate for example this quote from the Gospel of John, “He who believes in Me...From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). And: “...whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). These concepts of “living water” and “a well of water springing up to eternal life” coming from the “innermost being,” represents an immediate connection to a living Cosmos, a living Earth, and a connected humanity. This understanding is also apparent in the Book of Revelation: “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life...and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2). Is this revelation something that we can use to transform how we see and participate with “the river of the water of life” to heal our connection with the water cycles, the living world and our humanity? Lao Tzu puts forth in the Tao Te Ching that water is the ultimate metaphor for this process; water is soft and flexible, and yet powerful enough to erode metal, stone, and mountain ranges. Flowing water symbolizes change, the only constant in the Universe. Matthew Fox describes this process as “a mystical awakening” and “a global religious awakening” in his book The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: “The mystical awakening, an awakening to a living cosmology, to a Cosmic Christ alive and vital in all creatures and in all humans…This new birth will cut through all cultures and all religions and indeed will draw forth the wisdom common to all vital mystical traditions in a global religious awakening...” (5). All of humanity and all mystical traditions rely on water as their fundamental and unifying thread. The coming of the Cosmic Christ, the Tao, Buddha Nature, and you and I are involved in a process of opening fully to water and protecting it for all humans and for our plant and animal relatives. Our relationship with water is our common touchpoint to a living cosmology. Water is our gift from the stars. It is the catalyst for our collective awakening. Billions of humans have been baptized with water, channeling the Spirit of our cosmic origins. What does it mean to become like water? Perhaps it has to do with holding space for cleansing, for what we’re being asked to dissolve within ourselves and our communities. To be with the pain of loss. As we let go, we are held within water’s flow again. This practice of becoming like water may involve wallowing in puddles, sipping water slowly with gratitude, listening to rivers, prancing through the rain at midnight, or surfing the waves of the ocean with dolphins. It could mean moving to higher ground and to moist landscapes where there’s protection from fires and floods. It could mean joining with the Order of the Sacred Earth community and its network of Earth activists (6) and holding circles and councils that foster deep listening, receptivity, trust, a space to grieve and to find connection. It could mean committing your life to the outpouring of love and service (7). It could mean calling and writing mayors and senators, or supporting the righteous efforts of the indigenous Water Protectors battling Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. Or better yet, finding out how your water is being managed in your local watershed. But whatever you do, let your own inner waters guide you. Water represents the connection between an individual soul, our communities, the Tree of Life, and a collective ecological consciousness born of our Cosmic origins. It’s the Spirit of the Universe as it flows through us. Are we learning to swim through the birth canal of this new and ancient understanding in a felt way that’s messy and terrifying, exhilarating and purifying? Are we learning to quench our soul’s most essential organizing instincts by becoming flexible and receptive, like water? Is water guiding us through a rite of passage into the deepest connections with the Universe? I think so, and it’s time to get wet! ~ Skylar Wilson Read online here About the Author Skylar Wilson, MA is the founder of Wild Awakenings, a conscious community of change-makers dedicated to the thriving of Earth, life, and humanity. He has led wilderness rites of passage journeys as well as ecological restoration teams for 18 years, specializing in creating sacred wilderness immersion experiences and interfaith ceremonies. Skylar is the cofounder and co-director of the Order of the Sacred Earth, a network of mystic warriors and activists dedicated to being the best lovers and defenders of the Earth that we can be. Skylar is the coauthor of the book by the same title as well as the co-host, with Jennifer Berit, of the podcast: "Our Sacred Earth" on Unity online radio. Skylar works closely with schools and organizations including the Stepping Stones Project in Berkeley, CA over the last 8 years while guiding organization-wide retreats, mentoring youth, group leaders, parents and elders. He also produces transformational events for thousands of people around the country including the Cosmic Mass, an intercultural healing ritual that builds community through dancing and the arts. References: - https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-percentage-of-the-human-body… - https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water - https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/ancient-water-system-in-peru-could-fi… - http://www.pauldonahue.net/who_owns_earths_water.html - Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: the Healing of Mother Earth and the birth of a Global Renaissance. Pg. 5. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988. - http://www.orderofthesacredearth.org - Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: the Healing of Mother Earth and the birth of a Global Renaissance. Pg. 5. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988. - http://www.orderofthesacredearth.org - Wilson, Listug, Fox. Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action. New York: Monkfish Books, 2017. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader How can Christians get a firm foundation with scripture that has been influenced by the spirit of political influence by Kings and Popes and transcriptionists who were influenced by governments? A bit of a crisis of faith here. Can there still be a Divine Jesus without true historical knowledge of Him? A: By Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Dear Reader, I would substitute for your words “without true historical knowledge of Him” the words “with only partial historical knowledge of him.” What we know historically about Jesus is not nothing. Indeed, in our lifetimes many Biblical scholars (along with anthropologists and others) have worked hard to separate the words and teachings we can be certain about from Jesus’ mouth from those that seem to have been added after he died. The gospel writers did not hesitate to put words into his mouth but that is not entirely a negative thing. It tells us what he triggered in his followers and it tells us how he lit a fire in them that resulted in a lot of creativity. Isn’t this how history works even in our day? A speaker excites people and they tell others about it and invariably misquote and make up things and project their feelings and stories into the picture they are relaying to another? As a teacher, that is very much my experience. Often people will quote me but misquote me; or cite someone I cited and get it wrong. But enthusiasm is not always a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing—a sign of life and spirit therefore. But exactness is not always part of the big picture. What all this tells me is the truth of what we call the incarnation of divinity in Jesus. That he was a full and real-life human being with all that entails in terms of limits and making of friends and betrayal by friends and making of enemies and being misquoted while he lived and afterwards. All these imperfect realities match our life experiences also, they are all part and parcel of the vulnerability Jesus represents: Not only did God become human--God became vulnerable to an imperfect world. Like us. So the fact that Scripture is “influenced by Kings and popes and transcriptionists and translators and imperfect and mistaken human beings” is an invitation to look deeper than the literal to the stories and teachings that instruct us in how to live and why. It is also an invitation to look at some of the contemporary Biblical scholars that are discovering many dimensions to the background surrounding the Scriptures. For example, just this week I received a new book by New Testament scholar Bruce Chilton on a fellow and dynasty that played a big role in the life and death of Jesus. The book is called The Herods: Murder, Politics, and the Art of Succession. As one commentator puts it, “the Herodian policies and intrigue shaped the worlds of early Judaism and Christianity.” And another, “the relevance for Jesus and the origins of the Christian Church can hardly be exaggerated.” Keep studying; keep asking good questions; learn to hunt and gather for meaningful answers and interpretations and trustworthy scholars and mentors and ever deeper questions. ~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 35 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 74 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship (called The Cosmic Mass). His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are A Way To God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey; Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times; Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times; Stations of the Cosmic Christ; Order of the Sacred Earth; The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times; and Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic – And Beyond. To encourage a passionate response to the news of climate change advancing so rapidly, Fox started Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox. | | | | | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | | | | This Week's Featured Author Remembering Bishop Spong June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021 Read a few of the tributes that have been written on the death of Bishop John Shelby Spong. Read More ... | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Examining the Story of the Cross, Part VII: What Judas Iscariot Meant in the Eighth, Ninth & Tenth Decades of Christian Development Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong April 21, 2011 Last week we began a biblical analysis of Judas Iscariot. First, we noted that Paul, who wrote and died before any gospel had been written, was totally unaware of the tradition that one of the “twelve” played the role of the traitor. Not only is there no mention of this when Paul wrote the account of Jesus being “handed over,” but also when Paul described the experience of resurrection on “the third day,” he said that Jesus was seen by the “twelve.” Judas is still among them, a fact that would have been inconceivable if he had been the traitor. Next we looked at how the Judas story, introduced into the Christian narrative by Mark, the first gospel writer somewhere between the years 70-72, grew and developed as new details were added when each successive gospel was written, until the Fourth gospel completed the New Testament’ Judas portrait somewhere between the years 95-100. Finally, we took those developing gospel details and, guided by them, began a search of the Hebrew Scriptures for other tales of traitors to see if in those Jewish sources any of the things said later about Judas were present. We discovered that every single detail in the New Testament’s account of Judas could be accounted for in this manner. This suggests that the story of Judas is not that of a person of history, but of a mythological creation. One other detail that needs to be noted is that while Judas, the symbol of the Jewish nation, grows darker and more sinister as each successive gospel is composed, Pontius Pilate, the symbol of the Roman authorities, grows more and more benevolent. Pilate is portrayed as struggling to have Jesus released, offering Barabbas in exchange, washing his hands publicly and announcing that “I find no fault in him.” Keep in mind that the gospels were written 40-70 years after the crucifixion. They are not eye witness accounts, but interpretive portraits and we must not pretend that they are describing things that actually happened; they are seeking to interpret what the death of Jesus meant and to find in it the salvation purpose that they assumed his death accomplished. With that in mind, it is also essential to be cognizant of the history of that time and to embrace the context in which the gospels were composed and how the story of a traitor named Judas might have emerged. The Jewish people were conquered by the Roman Empire about 65 years before the birth of Jesus, thus breaking the oppression of the Syrians and beginning the period of oppression at the hands of the Romans. As a conquered people the Jews displayed the entire gamut of responses that subjugated people always display: some sought to cooperate with their conquerors, some endured this oppression passively and some resisted in every way they could. The general population of Jews admired these resisters calling them “freedom fighters.” The Romans on the other hand regarded them as “terrorists.” In fact these rebellious Jews tended to organize themselves as guerrilla warriors and set up camp in the natural hideouts of the hills of Galilee to harass their conquerors with a series of hit and run attacks. From these hiding places they would swoop out on small contingents of Roman soldiers, destroy them and then fade back into those hills. They were a nuisance to the Romans, but a costly nuisance. Emboldened by their guerrilla successes, these “patriots,” who were also known as “the Zealots,” decided in 66 AD that they were sufficiently strong to attack the Romans directly and to drive them out, thus securing Jewish freedom once again. So they began activities that looked more and more like general warfare and less and less and less like sporadic guerrilla tactics. It was a military gamble that in retrospect proved to be quite foolish. The Romans responded with maximum force and began to neutralize the Galilean hills, but they were unable to destroy the guerrilla bands since moving a heavily-armed Roman force into those hills was all but impossible. When the hostilities escalated, however, the Romans under a commander named Vespasian decided that they had to attack and destroy the heart of the Jewish nation. The Galilean guerrillas could not continue without support from Judea and Jerusalem. So invading Judea with a powerful military force, the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem and in the year 70 CE, breached the walls, cracked the defense perimeter and moved into the Jewish capital city. The Romans went through Jerusalem in that year like the Russians went through Berlin in 1945. Not one stone was left on another. When the smoke of battle cleared, the nation of Judea no longer existed, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the Temple had been razed to the ground as all Jewish resistance was crushed. Those who managed to escape retreated into the desert to a fortress named Masada, where they held out until the year 73 when they too were finally destroyed. Josephus, a Jewish historian, tells us that the defenders at Masada, knowing that if they were captured alive death by crucifixion awaited them, engaged in an act of mass suicide until not a Jewish soldier was still alive when the Romans finally entered the fort. This war unleashed enormous hostility on the part of the Romans toward all Jews for having brought this war upon themselves and upon Rome. Within the Jewish community the members of the Orthodox party, who controlled the worship of the Temple and who had in fact supported the guerrilla fighters, were held particularly responsible for bringing this disaster upon the Jewish nation. The Roman authorities, however, did not distinguish one Jew from another. Revisionist Jews, a category that at that time included the disciples of Jesus who were called not Christians but the “Followers of the Way,” sought to find a way to separate themselves from the Orthodox Party for the sake of their own survival, lest they be tarred with the same brush with which all Jews were being tarred by the Romans. How better to do that than to make the villain of the Jesus story someone who bore the name of the Jewish nation by shifting the responsibility for the death of Jesus away from the Roman officials, who alone had the power to execute, and to portray the Romans as crucifying Jesus, but only under pressure from the Orthodox Party of the High Priest and Sadducees. This meant that the same people who had been responsible for the war against Rome were now said to have been also responsible for the death of the founder of their own movement. They would thus portray Jesus not as a revolutionary – “My kingdom is not of this world,” – and at the same time portray Pilate, the Roman governor, in increasingly benevolent terms seeking to set Jesus free. The principle these “Followers of the Way” were trying to establish was that “if your enemy is also my enemy then we should be friends.” To frame the Jesus story as an act of betrayal by the Orthodox party of the Jews accomplished these goals. So Matthew’s gospel can portray Pilate as seeking Jesus’ release but being thwarted seeking to remove his guilt by announcing: “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.” At the same time characterizing the Jews as a “mob” at the foot of the cross, saying words that would fuel anti-Semitism through the centuries: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” This group thus began a process of separating the followers of Jesus from the Jews that ultimately resulted in the “Followers of the Way” being excommunicated from the synagogues around the year 88 CE and pushing Christianity rapidly into becoming a Gentile movement. Ultimately they sought to deny the Jewish womb that had given them birth. Soon fierce hostility toward the Jews became a primary mark of Christianity and its intensity grew in the first centuries of Christian history. The Church Fathers, Polycarp, Irenaeus, John Chrysostom and Jerome, among many others, filled their writings with a blood-curdling anti-Semitism. To them the Jews were “vermin unfit for life” and “Christ-Killers.” Forced conversions, the kidnapping and subsequent baptizing of Jewish babies enabled them to use a law prohibiting a Christian child from being raised by “infidels,” to make legal the separation of Jewish children from their parents. Good Friday became a day of peril for Jews as Christian emerged from their churches and cathedrals filled with wrath for what “the Jews had done to Jesus” and seeking revenge by beating Jews, destroying Jewish property and sometimes killing Jews. The Crusades were filled with anti-Semitism – so was the Inquisition – Martin Luther added fuel to the fires of hatred with his diatribes against Jews and his call for the burning of synagogues. The Holocaust was the final incredible explosion of the anti-Semitism poured into the blood stream of Western civilization by Christian people. It all began I now believe when out of their need to survive the hostility of the Romans following the Jewish-Roman war the Christians created the character of Judas making him the quintessential Jew and using him to shift the blame for the death of Jesus away from the Romans, where it surely belonged, and onto the Jews, which allowed Christians to justify their anti-Semitism for centuries. The stereotype of a Jew from the character of Shylock in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” to the images of Jewish people as money grubbing bankers is all derived from the portrait of Judas who would do anything for money. Because Jews were not allowed in Christian Europe to own any land, they became bankers and jewelers and in the process this anything-for-money reputation was enhanced. The facts are that Jesus was put to death by the Romans, but his death was blamed on the Jews for political reasons. Judas was the vehicle for accomplishing this. It is never too late to roll the prejudices of ages back. It is never too late for Christians to bow in apology before our Jewish brothers and sisters and to beg forgiveness. It is never too late to be vigilant against anti-Semitism whenever it lifts its ugly head. As we come to observe Good Friday this year in the name of the Jewish Jesus, I invite my fellow Christians to join me in doing just that. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements “Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred” Free/Online October 7th Victoria Loorz, Cofounder of Seminary of the Wild & The Wild Church Network will invite participants to uncover the wild roots of their faith and encourage a deepened commitment to a suffering Earth by falling in love with it — and calling it church. Read On... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Remembering Lee Early
by Karen Snyder 17 Sep '21

17 Sep '21

Today, Tuesday, August 17, we celebrate the life and death of Lee Early. Lee was a man who stood tall through everything - literally and figuratively - whether it was working in community development in the Marshall Islands, facilitating planning with executives in corporations, loving his wife and three daughters and their families, or boosting social connections and self-confidence in his golf game. Plans for a memorial are pending. If you wish to contact Leah Early, she can be reached at leahearly(a)comcast.net <mailto:leahearly@comcast.net>.

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draft of a listserv email invitation
by David Dunn 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Hello friends. Jan Sanders and I have been collaborating on creative projects for over a year now. As we transcribed Jan’s oral history into stories for her nieces and nephews we realized that we wanted to explore these experiences in greater depth and breadth with colleagues. We were surprised by the knowing and energy that appeared. Our story telling morphed into a creative publishing venture related to action research in cultural transformation. Our first project: Rituals in the Field: Nepal—tells the story of a transformative event Jan and Richard Sims created during a Social Artistry training seminar in Dhulikhel, Nepal in 2008. This first Rituals in the Field explores the foundations and layers of experience and meaning when the methods of Social Artistry are interwoven with ICA’s Technology of Participation and the legacy of our intentional community. When we shared this first project with ICA’s Global Research Network, one member commented, “I see that we can now self-publish our own work.” Perhaps others will be moved to describe how their own life experience speaks into our world today. We’ve discovered that collaborating in this kind of project has been empowering, fruitful and fun. We hope that you’ll be inspired to find a partner for doing your own self-publishing related to cultural transformation. Click here <https://indd.adobe.com/view/f88415dc-4443-4088-a9f4-33e3a8764d23> to view Rituals in the Field: Nepal in an online version that will open in your web browser. Right and left arrows allow you to flip through the pages. Click the [Cloud-Down Arrow] icon in the lower right hand corner of the Rituals in the Field web page to download the PDF version. The PDF is interactive. See the navigation note below the content links box on the cover. Enjoy and give us feedback. Jan Sanders and David Dunn — "Mystery, possibility, and the power to choose" David Dunn 740 S Alton Way 9B Denver, CO 80247 720-314-5991 dmdunn1(a)gmail.com <mailto:dmdunn1@gmail.com> — "Mystery, possibility, and the power to choose" David Dunn 740 S Alton Way 9B Denver, CO 80247 720-314-5991 dmdunn1(a)gmail.com

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FW: JOE AYRES - completed life
by Lynda C 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Joe Ayres, a true Archive Angel, has completed his life at 98 years old. Many of you mostly knew his wife Audrey, but those of us in the Chicago metro knew Joe and Audrey very well. Their home in Naperville with its wide open spaces was the source of many Religious House picnics and celebrations where we all enjoyed their generous hospitality and a chance to experience green grass and shade trees and badmitton and other yard games, plus winter snowmen and such. During the time of overseas deployments, the Ayres attic became a regular storage place for treasured items. Bless them for that loving gesture of care. Audrey was a dedicated fixture in the Town Meeting days on the West Side, an expert in writing grants for the 5th City Preschool, attended many overseas conferences and some HDP projects, and in her later years, one of the tenacious members of the Archives team, driving into Chicago each day from Naperville, well into her senior years. Even after her death, Joe continued to help finance the work of the archives in her memory. What a team! When we moved to Galax, they included Galax as a stop over heading back to Naperville after a trip to their St. Louis relatives. They even helped with a sidewalk sale from our Men’s Shop during the annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention. Their pre-teen granddaughter accompanied them. On several trips to Chicago to work in the Archives, I was privileged to visit Joe and family in Naperville. In the spirit of a wake, I hope many of you will share memories online as well as copied to Peter whose address is below to share with the family. We celebrate Joe’s life and indeed this family as mission from God to history, singing “For all the saints, who from their labors rest….” With deep care, Lynda Cock From: Peter Ayres <peter_yrs(a)yahoo.com> Date: Monday, September 13, 2021 at 11:25 AM To: Lynda Cock <lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: JOE AYRES I saw an older email from when Mom passed away and realized I can maybe inform you that dad passed away Sept. 1st. 2021. He made it to 98 on August 9th. All and all, he did very well and died at home with family around. There one day, gone the next after a pizza party for our brother Mike, with him. 1 day of hospice. If you know others who might want to know, please feel free to pass the news along. No service for the moment is planned. Not sure who at ICA might want this information. I hope there is an attachment here with his Obituary for you. Sorry for the news, Peter Ayres 630 505 9695

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