March 2022 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Selected Talks by Mathews
by jonzondo＠juno.com 08 Mar '22

08 Mar '22

Would anyone like a copy of Selected Talks by Mathews?I am doing some spring cleaning.Jon Elizondo

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Upcoming events on the MARCH Global Schedule
by Sunny Walker 08 Mar '22

08 Mar '22

*The Global Schedule for March* has already provided several opportunities for engagement and there is more to come. We encourage your participation and invite you to consider offering a presentation, recommending other people to present, or giving feedback by emailing: icaglobalschedule(a)gmail.com as well as inviting people you know who may be interested to attend. *On March 10 -* a *presentation on indigenous treaty process* and what it has meant for the Māori in New Zealand and First Nations peoples of Canada. - Keeping Treaty On The Agenda *Another March 10th opportunity*: a presentation by two highly informed Australians: *Crisis in Ukraine – Looking back, looking ahead.* *March 13* – *Girls for Future* film and discussion with the director and a film participant afterwards. It follow 4 girls from Senegal, Indonesia, Australia and India as their lives are directly affected by consequences of environmental destruction. *March 17/18* - We will be hosting (twice) *a sharing event and conversation to stand together with the Ukrainian and Russian peoples in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine*. Details will be posted soon. We encourage each of you to show your support of our colleagues in Ukraine in the critical time. In the meantime, share your support and concerns on social media and on the ICAI website. More to come on this. *March 21-24* - Global Facilitators Serving Communities presents *“How can we talk about crisis?**”* in 4 modules. GFSC brings to the conversation 30+ years of experience strengthening personal and community resilience! Click on this link to see full details on the schedule of events: https://icaglobalarchives.org/social-research-center-events/ Sunny and Alan On behalf of the Global Schedule Team *Sunny Walker * *She/her/hers* *On **Arapaho, Cheyenne, Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) tribal land* Certified Facilitator (Also Certified ToP Facilitator) ToP Methods Mentor Trainer - Upcoming Courses <https://www.top-training.net/w/> Virtual Facilitation Collaborative Senior Facilitator sunny.sunwalker(a)gmail.com 303-587-3017 For virtual facilitation inquiries: sunny(a)virtualfacilitationcollaborative.com www.virtualfacilitationcollaborative.com

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Global Buzz for March
by ICA International 08 Mar '22

08 Mar '22

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... And please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: March 2022 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-22/2022-03-01.php Read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves ICAI Communications

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Re: [Oe List ...] Selected Talks by Mathews
by jonzondo＠juno.com 07 Mar '22

07 Mar '22

Charles,You are 3rd in line by requests made to me.thank you.Jon ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Charles Allen Lingo Jr via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: "oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net" <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: clingojr(a)aol.com Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Selected Talks by Mathews Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2022 11:16:53 +0000 (UTC) Yes, Jon, please forward to me your offering of Selected Talks by Mathews. I'm at clingojr(a)aol.com. Thank you!Charles Lingo -----Original Message----- From: jonzondo--- via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net Cc: jonzondo(a)juno.com <jonzondo(a)juno.com> Sent: Sun, Mar 6, 2022 4:31 pm Subject: [Oe List ...] Selected Talks by Mathews Would anyone like a copy of Selected Talks by Mathews?I am doing some spring cleaning.Jon Elizondo_______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Enjoy the present moment 🤪❤️💕🌹 love and Prayers, Ellen
by RICHARD HOWIE 04 Mar '22

04 Mar '22

Sent from my iPad > On Mar 3, 2022, at 4:12 PM, Judi White via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > Ellen, I try and try to move forward, but with each step I arrive in the present moment. LOL! > >> On Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 10:37 AM RICHARD HOWIE via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >> Dear Judi >> ,As my brother Jim was want to say….Trust, and move forward. >> Love, >> Ellen >> >> Sent from my iPad >> >>>> On Feb 28, 2022, at 6:51 PM, Judi White via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >>>> >>> >>> While I was recovering from my latest heart repair, my old cat Bo, got into a fight with a night creature. His right paw and left leg left him limping badly. I was not well enough to get him to a vet and No one offered. It turned out fine. He found a quiet pace and totally relaxed a few days, eating very ittle. He was healed in a week. I'm sending the healing angels to Dick and Diane and to all y'alĺ dearly ĺoved coeagues w compassion ❤ to calm your souls during this scary time. Just breathe in the love God is surrounding you with and breath out trust in his heaing power. >>> >>>> On Sat, Feb 26, 2022, 7:19 AM Lynda C via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >>>> Dear Colleagues, >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Many of you will remember my younger sister Diane and her husband, Richard (Dick) Galbreath. They were active in the Richmond region and Area New York, but also worked on the Economic Team with the HDP’s and also with the LENS team. As an educator and elementary school principal, Diane also worked with Youth Town Meetings and lots of work in the Petersburg region. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Dick is currently in the hospital struggling with complicated heart issues. I thought some memories, song lines, poetry, candles and your updated family news would be good encouragement for them. Dick is 86 and Diane will soon be 80. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> You can send things to me which I can forward on to them or post on the ICA Dialogue list which they receive. They are listed in the Directory at 3108 Cox Rd, Wilsons, VA. 23894 if you wish to send a photo or card. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Courage, community and care, >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Lynda and John >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> OE mailing list >>>> OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net >>>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net >>> >>> <20220227_153605.jpg> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> OE mailing list >>> OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net >>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net >> _______________________________________________ >> OE mailing list >> OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net >> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net > > > -- > > > Judi White > "Take pleasure in the excellence of others, Shanti Deva > http://anandasmantra.wordpress.com > http://porchtimechats.blogspot.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Richard and Diane Galbreath Guardian family
by Lynda C 03 Mar '22

03 Mar '22

Dear Colleagues, Many of you will remember my younger sister Diane and her husband, Richard (Dick) Galbreath. They were active in the Richmond region and Area New York, but also worked on the Economic Team with the HDP’s and also with the LENS team. As an educator and elementary school principal, Diane also worked with Youth Town Meetings and lots of work in the Petersburg region. Dick is currently in the hospital struggling with complicated heart issues. I thought some memories, song lines, poetry, candles and your updated family news would be good encouragement for them. Dick is 86 and Diane will soon be 80. You can send things to me which I can forward on to them or post on the ICA Dialogue list which they receive. They are listed in the Directory at 3108 Cox Rd, Wilsons, VA. 23894 if you wish to send a photo or card. Courage, community and care, Lynda and John

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3/03/2022, Progressing Spirit: Dr. Karl Krieg: Ukraine; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 03 Mar '22

03 Mar '22

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ukraine | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Dr. Karl Krieg March 3, 2022Although the intelligence indicated a Russian invasion was imminent, most of the people of the world, including Ukraine, continued on with life as usual. Then, in an instant, Russian tanks started rolling into a peaceful, non-threatening neighboring country, triggering the first such move of its kind in Europe since WW2. For decades, such major war seemed a thing of the past, a replica of a bygone mentality, replaced by economic interdependence and cooperation. But all was not well in the mind of the man who struck, the paranoid megalomaniac Vladimir Putin, de facto dictator of Russia. Once he and he alone gave the order, the first of almost 200,000 troops started the invasion of Ukraine, preceded by missile bombardment and accompanied by an armada of tanks and armored personnel carriers. The people of Russia and Ukraine share the same blood. Many invading soldiers were completely unaware that they were on a mission of invasion with all the consequent killing and destruction. Ordinary citizens at home in the great cities of Moscow and St Petersburg took to the streets in protest, in spite of total intimidation by the government, risking their future to speak out against the atrocity. One by one the countries of the world stepped up to condemn Putin. Arms were sent to Ukraine. Humanitarian facilities were set up to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of expected refugees. Air space was closed to Russian airplanes. Financial transactions involving Russian banks were cancelled. In short, nations of the world responded with a united refusal to accept the madness of Putin, and the response continues to grow. What is Putin’s story? Born in 1952, he grew up in abject poverty and hunger, his mother so weakened by starvation that it was thought she was dead. Hordes of rats infested the housing, and he learned to chase them away with sticks. Small in stature, he was constantly bullied, and so he learned a form of Judo, wherein he learned that if a fight was inevitable, it was best to strike first. Having lost two other children, his parents doted on him, giving him a car that they had won, and treated him like a king. He was very smart, eventually going on to law school and then a doctoral degree in economics, from thence offered a position in the KGB. The rest is history. [Mirror, Feb 23, 2022] As of Feb 28, 2022, we do not know if the situation will escalate or de-escalate, but already much has become obvious, once again. On the one hand, a single person and his enablers are able to destroy the world. On the other hand, the vast majority of people want only to be able to live their life in peace, and are willing to condemn violence and aggression. This simple narrative seems to be the story of human history. The first thought that comes to mind is the oneness of all humanity, indeed, of all creation, and how we treat one another has far-reaching implications. The continual message of the Hebrew prophets and of Jesus is that we must care for the least of these our brethren, the widows and orphans, both literally and symbolically as representative of all poor. The golden rule summarizes the essence of all that is good and holy in human life, and yet we neglect and violate this basic understanding, and poverty too easily becomes a breeding ground for our own destruction. Death and destruction in the Middle East creates desperate young men and women who become suicide bombers. Years ago crowded and inhuman conditions in New York City jails allowed tuberculosis to take hold there and make a comeback. Perhaps the same can be said of Putin: that extreme poverty in youth gave birth to a distorted mind. We are all one, and if we do not realize that fact, ultimately we pay the price. So this war is a call to care for one another. Most specifically, that means that the bounty of our planet cannot be hoarded by the few at the expense of the many, be it by the billionaire capitalists of the West or the billionaire oligarchs of Russia. That inequality is not only a violation of universal morality, it is also a recipe for disaster. Would-be despots require others who enable them, either because of fear or because of their hope to share in the power and riches, and these enablers are equally as guilty as the despot. An authoritarian dictator is nothing without a cadre of immediate supporters. This is why it is so distressing to witness here in the United States not only the would-be dictator Trump, but also those who enable his attempt to destroy American democracy. Government of the people, by the people and for the people, is not easy to create nor is it easy to maintain. And to have these principles trampled by leaders who have sworn to uphold them, is a travesty beyond words. The people of Ukraine are dying that they might live a life in a democracy, a style of life that we enjoy but take so lightly. Their war is our war, a war against the authoritarians of the world who would rule where the people have no recourse and the dictator has no responsibility. Sad it is, but true, that at times violence must be met with violence. Religions and philosophies have argued about if and when violence is justified and/or necessary. Christianity through the ages has unfolded a theory about when war is just, and perhaps the most profound element is that it must be defensive. No one can argue that the situation in Ukraine is anything other than defensive, an attempt on the part of the many to stop the madness of one man. It was Hitler’s rise to power that led theologians like Reinhold Niebuhr away from pacifism into what has been called Christian realism, an awareness that sometimes evil must be met with physical resistance. This oneness of all humanity mentioned above is also manifest in the response to Putin’s madness. Every nation but a handful have come together to repudiate the war. The vast majority of people want nothing more than to live in peace with friends and family, and when that innermost yearning is threatened and taken away, the response is universal. The realization that most of us do in fact believe in peace and goodness is to be treasured and celebrated. When we are reminded to love one another, this is not an alien request but rather the essence of who we really are. As I write these words on Monday, Feb 28, delegations from Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Belarus at a secret location. No one knows what will happen, except perhaps Putin, who is probably shocked by the reaction of the world to his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Resistance has slowed the movement of his army. The ruble has lost 30% against the dollar, and the Russian stock market has been forced to close today. Almost 6000 Russian citizens have been arrested for protesting the war. President Zelensky has urgently requested admission to the EU, and plans are being set in motion to bring war crime trials to the Hague. Threats by Putin to Finland and Sweden have been rebuffed by those countries, and Europe has come together as one, joined by other nations around the world, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. At least at the beginning of today, one has the hopeful feeling that the tidal wave of a united humanity is overpowering the perverted myopia of one man and his enablers.~ Dr. Carl Krieg Read online here About the Author Dr. Carl Krieg received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC and PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith and The Void and the Vision. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Larry How do you explain the beginning of creation? What, if anything, existed before the universe? Jesus lived and died, and did many great things, but the Son of God… who or what is God? A: By Rev. Lauren Van HamDear Larry,Thank you for this enticing series of questions! Throughout the ages, early humans from various tribes and living in different regions of the world have offered many versions of origin stories – how we were created, and from where we came. The creation stories that move me most are the ones that begin in love. I believe that, whether an ancient story or quantum physics, the beginning of creation might best be explained as an incomprehensible pouring forth of love, resulting in this ever-expanding universe filled with everything we know and all that we cannot. No-thing and Everything existed before the universe because it was solely, singularly, purely Love. That is all. In his dazzling poem, Love Letter to the Milky Way, Drew Dellinger writes, “I want to tell you about love… Even the word ‘love’ is not adequate to define the force that wove the fabric of space and time.” During his walk on Earth, Jesus did a provocative job of embodying this love. It’s a fierce love. It only thrives with diversity and becomes stronger when shared generously. This has been and always will be our invitation: to walk in the world as bringers of this love. Jesus did it so well that we are still telling stories about it, studying it, and looking for more and better ways to be this love now… and now… and right now. Rather than conceptualizing God as a who or a what, I try to remember myself to this love. It is the source that birthed me, it is my teacher while I’m alive on earth and, someday when my breathing stops, this love will be my eternal home. Your questions take us to vast horizons, Larry. Jesus helped us to recognize that this vast love is knowable and tangible in our daily, ordinary acts. The GREAT in the small (Mark 4:30-32). May we all be awakened and at peace as we take on countless small acts while bringing great and vast love. ~ 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! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podme | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited "Think Different - Accept Uncertainty” Part III: A Call to Re-Image God and All Religious Symbols Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 9, 2012Defining the human experience that we call God is not just a modern activity, human beings have engaged in this task since the dawn of civilization. The factor driving the change in the human definition of God was never a new revelation from on high; it was always a dramatic shift in human life usually brought about by a necessary adaptation in the eternal quest for survival. The God experience has always been given a human definition.The first recognizable human religion, anthropologists tell us, was what we today call “Animism.” Animism was a religion that perceived of God not as a being fixed in one particular place, but as a diffused and ever present invisible force found everywhere. Animism pointed to the presence of spirits connected with various parts of nature. In this animated world, there was a spirit of the ocean that kept the tides within its bounds. If that spirit became violently angry a tsunami might result. There was the spirit of the olive tree that when pleased caused the tree to maximize its fruit. The presence of “spirits” explained the life and behavior of everything: animals, plants, the sun and the moon. At this time in history, human beings were in the hunter-gatherer phase of our development, unsettled nomads engaged in the endless human quest for food. Food, generally speaking, could not be stored or at least not for long periods of time, so starvation was an ever present threat to survival. It was the religious task in this animistic world to keep the spirits happy so that those spirits would aid us in the struggle to survive. That was the primary human understanding of God for literally thousands of years.When the shift from nomadic wandering to a settled life of cultivating the soil began to occur the human understanding of God had to begin to shift and shift it did. The first two places where settled human communities developed were in the Nile River valley of Egypt and in the area known as Mesopotamia, located between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. In both places, the rich and fertile soil invited people to cease their wandering life and to settle where that soil promised them a steady supply of food. No, the shift did not happen all at once, but when it did happen, the understanding of God developed in a nomadic culture no longer made sense in their settled state. Animism now began to fade and a religion organized around fertility cults came into being. This religion, dedicated to a God conceived of as the “Earth Goddess,” began to dominate the human experience. Ancestor worship was part of that shift. The reason for this addition to human thinking was that a nomadic people were always on the move and so their dead, even if buried, were always left behind and thus soon forgotten. Graves did not become shrines. When settled communities were formed, the dead were buried nearby and the idea of being surrounded by one’s ancestors seemed natural. Indeed, the act of burial itself was a gift of Earth Mother worship, since burial in the ground was thought of as an act of opening the womb of Mother Earth and placing her own children back into that womb.Child sacrifice also grew out of these fertility cults. The idea here was that if one offered one’s first born child to the fertility goddess, one would be blessed by that deity with many more children. Religion was then, as it has always been, in the service of human survival and survival had now moved from the daily searching for food in a spirit-filled world into the attempt to grow food in an agricultural community, where bountiful yields depended on the good will and favor of the fertile Earth Mother.In time, however, those agricultural communities became bigger and more complex and thus they had to be both governed and defended. This new reality demanded a new tribal organization. The survival of these agricultural communities began to depend on both the military wisdom and brute strength of the male warriors, the strongest of whom would become the chief. With survival now dependent on both the fertility of the Earth goddess and the power of the male chief, slowly the deity began to be portrayed as a feminine goddess with a male consort. Over time the male warrior deity grew stronger until God came to be thought of primarily after the analogy of the chief. God came to be thought of as the heavenly chief, a single ruler who guarded the community from above. This was the first expression of a primitive monotheism. There was an intermediate step between animism and monotheism that was reflected in the gods and goddesses of the Olympus. Here there was a male chief, a Zeus or Jupiter, together with a female partner, a Hera or Juno, but with various other natural phenomena covered in animistic style by special deities: There was Mercury the messenger god, Neptune the god of the sea, and Cupid the god of love. It was the male-warrior deity, thought of after the analogy of the trial chief, however, who was destined to be the wave of the future, the context in which the theistic nature of God would emerge.Today, there is a general agreement around the world that monotheism is the proper definition of God. The monotheistic God, however, has taken very different forms in the various region of the world: 1. The Judeo-Christian world of the West and those parts of the world that were colonized by the West; 2. the Islamic world of the Middle East, a world that stretches now from Indonesia to Libya, and 3. the Hindu-Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Confucius, Shinto world of the Far East. Generally, though more in the West than in the East, the theistically understood deity is dominant. God is thus generally thought of as a being, external and supernatural, the dispenser of blessings and punishments and the worker of miracles. It is this theistic understanding of God, which has been in place for the last 12,000 to 15,000 years that appears to be dying the world over. The death of theism is not the death of God; it is the death of a human definition of God. If, however, one has no other concept of God, the death of theism feels like the death of God.This death has been brought about by the study of space from Copernicus to Hubble’s telescope, together with the work of such luminaries as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Insights from that field of knowledge have in effect, destroyed the theistic God’s dwelling place above the sky. The study of physics, with its insights into the laws of nature and its new understanding of the relation of cause to effect, now explain many things that we once attributed to the theistic deity. These discoveries, coming first from Isaac Newton and then from his many descendents, have also reduced the credibility of supernatural language, which is the language of theism, including as it does, appeals to both miracle and magic. Our world no longer knows how to make sense out of most of the things that religious people claim to be theistic activities.In our own Judeo-Christian tradition, there were always minority voices that suggested new ways in which the divine could be experienced and understood. In a previous column we looked at breath and wind as God symbols. Are there others that might move our thinking outside of and beyond the dying box of theism? In the scriptures non-personal words and images for God, while not the major thrust, are still present, and that presence forced even the biblical writers to recognize the limited and problematic nature of all human concepts of God. An impersonal definition did not imply a non-personal deity. It only meant that personal images were not big enough to embrace the mystery and wonder of the holy. Every word that human beings create and use is but a symbol. The best a symbol can do is to point beyond itself to a reality that words cannot possibly enfold. Perhaps that is why the Jews were traditionally forbidden even to speak the name of God, for to pronounce the holy name was tantamount to claiming that one could actually know God. That is also why the second of the Ten Commandments in the Jewish Scriptures prohibited any human attempt to make an image of God. God cannot be replicated in any human form. Perhaps those who engage in the enterprise called “theology” ought to realize that building images of God with words, whether in scripture, creeds or doctrine, is little more that another form of idolatry.Listening to the minority voices in Holy Scripture, we hear different ways of perceiving the “holy.” In the First Epistle of John someone appears to have asked the venerable elder, “Who or what is God?” He responded, “God is love!“ He went on to say that if you want to abide in God you have to abide in love. Love enhances life, expands our vision, calls us to new understandings and opens us to the possibilities of growth. Yet love is still a mystery. None of us can create love, all we can do is to pass it on once we have received it. If we do not pass it on, it dies. Love cannot be saved or stored. If God is love, we need to ask the obvious question: Can we then say that “Love is God?” Does defining God as love not carry us beyond theism?A second biblical image for God is that of a rock. Well over a hundred times in the Bible, the word “rock” is used in reference to God. That idea has entered Christian hymnody in such titles as “Rock of Ages.” To what reality was this biblical image referring? Experience tells us that when we stand upon a rock, we are supported and kept from sinking. Is that the connection? My great theological teacher, Paul Tillich, made that connection when he referred to God as “The Ground of Being.” Can this “rock” image also lead us beyond theism? Is our “being” an aspect of something we might call “being itself”? Are we connected in some mysterious mystical way with all that is? Can we look at God through this lens and break the theistic pattern by exploring these possibilities? I believe we can. I think we must. The future of Christianity requires the discovery of new analogies for speaking of the holy. That is the first step in moving beyond theism. It is a slow process, but a necessary one. Once we enter it, however, new doors begin to open. We will continue to walk through those doors as this series continues.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Healing the Divide: METOO To WETOGETHER This carefully facilitated 7-week course creates a safe forum where we can awaken a deeper empathy and understanding and begin to discover practical pathways towards healing and transforming our relationships. Online: March 2nd - April 23rd. 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Fwd: A World Held Sacred...
by Karen Snyder 01 Mar '22

01 Mar '22

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