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Re: [Oe List ...] [Earthrise] Discontinuity
by Isobel and Jim Bishop 25 Nov '20

25 Nov '20

Good morning Randy. and all dear ones , ( down here morning is just unfolding ), Thank you for your words. I really resonate with your thoughts. For me, beginning with Advent. ( the Season commences this Sunday Nov 29) , I am going to switch off from Fb and limit my writings on the internet. This will continue until Jan 20, when your new President is elected. I will reflect on the past few months, in peace and joy in my heart as you enjoy and journey with hope, in your new beginnings. Fondest greetings from the south land, Isobel Bishop xoxo Isobel and Jim Bishop isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au > On 24 Nov 2020, at 11:03 pm, Randy Williams via Earthrise <earthrise(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > I’m really weary of partisan politics. After the Georgia runoffs and after Joe and Kamala are sworn in, I think I’ll take a break. I’ll stay informed, but for a while no opinion pieces, no cable news, no social media, no intense conversations. Maybe I’ll read some poetry, listen to some good music, work in the yard, walk the dog. Maybe I’ll even introduce myself to the neighbor who had a Trump sign in his yard, and talk about this beautiful Florida weather we’re having. Who knows, maybe I’ll even sleep all night without waking up every fifteen minutes. Not like I’m trying to deny reality or become oblivious to the world’s challenges that won’t go away. Just want enough distance to recover a little objectivity, get a reset on my perspective, and get ready to reengage. For our planet is still warming, and the struggle for peace with justice is ongoing. The future is open, and to me, it looks a little brighter just now. But as always, it will take all of us to get there. > > Randy > Alive and well in Florida with Mary Beth, and our kids and grands nearby. > > Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10 > > ++++++++++++++++++++++ > The name of the group, "earthrise," refers to the photo taken on December 24, 1968, showing the Earth rising over the horizon of the moon. The image has become a powerful symbol of mystery, awe, and responsibility.

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Barack's advice
by W. J. 22 Nov '20

22 Nov '20

As Mr. Trump struts and frets his final hours upon the White House stage, he would do well to follow President Obama's advice that summed up his foreign policy doctrine: “Don’t do stupid shit.”All Mr. Trump is putting out there these days is, frankly, 'stupid shit.'Even Rich Lowrey admits that ". . . the president has no standards and is surrounded by these clownish people who will say anything. It’s a toxic stew.”While he ignores the mounting death toll of a raging pandemic he chooses not to contain.While he wallows in self-pity, shame, and wildly impossible schemes.It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, and signifying a major national disaster.Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!We'll all be happier when he's gone--on a permanent Florida vacation.Marshallhttps://www.nytimes.com/.../Tucker-Carlson-trump.html... Links in the message (1) | | | Tucker Carlson Dared Question a Trump L... |

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Re: [Oe List ...] From The New Yorker: Does Knowing God Just Take Prac tice?
by jonzondo＠juno.com 20 Nov '20

20 Nov '20

Jack, Thank you. I appreciate your words and summary. Where are the new stories being told? Who is telling them?What are the actions of Harmony... in your life? in this country? in the world?Local actions - yes yes yes.and I think part of the key is teaching all who grew up without first nations wisdom the understanding that all of life is connected. In my tiny world I'm working on telling the new stories, I am reaching for and attempting actions of harmony (like paying rent to the indigenous tribe whose land I am living on), and I'm teaching about connection in a variety of ways including via my dance classes. blessings of the 4 winds to us all. Jon Mark Elizondo ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Jack Gilles via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Jack Gilles <jackcgilles(a)gmail.com>, James Wiegel <jfwiegel(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] From The New Yorker: Does Knowing God Just Take Practice? Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:03:37 -0600 Jim and All, There is a serious dimension to this conversation, but for now I don’t want to use the points made in the article so we can see where our work in the Archives is based on a different understanding and therefore can be helpful in this. But I will use the election madness as a point of reference. You have to understand the difference between a number and a class. When you have only two choices (say there aren’t any third options and you have to pick). You have to say either A or B. That is a number. When you are done the result is either A or B. One wins one loses. Now that is a specific situation, so it is obvious either or. But what is “two-ness” as a class? Examine the relationship between any two things, and the two things must continue (or you are back to a particular situation). So you have a tension, they both must stay in being. You cannot say “compromise” because compromise is a third option, and “two-ness” doesn’t have a third option (if you do add a third you now have “”three-ness"”, a different reality -a dynamic triangle and not a line). So if you must keep two and you want both to “win” that winning must enable or produce a feeling of winning and that is called Harmony. Again, we are not talking about a specific situation, but you can draw what harmony looks like, and that is what the Chinese did with the Yin and Yang. It is now called a “creative tension” for creativity flows from it. In a situation we have no control of we see two differences play out every day, It is called “day” and “night”. Each is different, each has a nature the other does not have, each is required to make up a complete “day”. You have “day-ness” and “night-ness”. You experience it as a Harmony; you experience the beauty of stillness and darkness and you experience the action and the light of day. They are different, they are complementary they are both good and they are a Harmony. To not add a third term to the two-ness, you must stand outside and speak about it: you need a “Story” that speaks of Harmony. You listen to the Story (like an Opera) and you intuit your particular situation as really a Harmony, and it is okay. You can live with it through the Story. Now a Harmonic Story is a “True Story”, but you can make up a story (called a lie) to show it doesn’t matter who got the most votes because the Truth “rightness" is one the one side and the other is an illusion. And when the “Story” is: The greatest democracy on Earth, and We are #1, and we lead the world and….…” is dying (and you don’t know it) then you hold on to any story that keeps that illusion alive (on both sides). It is Dead, it just looks like it is still breathing. The Earth now is now speaking; “YOU NEED A NEW STORY”. And it whispers, “Start where you are, in the local: for that is where you are alive and grounded." To make this into what is emerging you need to move beyond this particular madness. Majority rule no longer works. It used to, but it is gone. We are in a new world now where Harmony must become our guide. It must start with a Story. A Story that everyone begins to grasp is really real. We did that in Town Meeting, where the Story (Song and Symbol) enabled Harmony to be present as they worked together. They didn’t have to vote any more. We did that in HDP, where the Story enabled people to work on making it better, knowing it didn’t matter if you were part of the starting, or in the middle of the change that others had done, or later when everyone was dead, but you are part of the continuation of the Story. (Harvest Time). Harmony, Disruption, Creativity, Change. Harmony…….. The Story goes on, the four Beats go on, Harmony goes on. And nobody votes. “Three-ness” requires more paragraphs but we can see it in our Social Process (balanced/Harmony) It is Universal for any human society, thus the Social Process). We only need to go to "four-ness” because that now adds Life as the fourth term. It takes 9 (and only 9) to show how it works, and you can find those nine in our NRM Chart and our Archives topic areas. Harmony is there, but you need to know how the flow goes. Sometime when you want me to, I can talk through the Flow. But first grasp what is “two-ness” and “three-ness”: because “four-ness” has both of those within how the flow goes. Harmony requires it. But as a clue the harmonic dance is a three-step Waltz! The two-ness is the background two-step drum, the four-ness is a March. But what about “One-ness, you ask??? Ahh, that is the Silence. You can hear the sound of silence if you are real still or quiet. And Jim, you know more about “three-ness” in our Social Process than any of us. Peace, JackOn Nov 19, 2020, at 8:45 PM, Jack Gilles <jackcgilles(a)gmail.com> wrote:Jim, I listened to this before. This whole essay on the book is based on a fallacy of the question. It is why RS-1 is so powerful. It is why we always spelled the word as G-O-D, to designate that which cannot be contained by any word, or words. To listen to this is to find yourself in a mess (a very technical word). It goes nowhere. Had it been written this week it could say, "Maybe Trump really did win the election, perhaps we have just created a universe in our minds that says he lost". Get some rest and keep doing the great work you do so well!! There are profound questions we do need to dialogue upon. Peace, JackOn Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 5:23 PM James Wiegel via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:Anyone read this? Does Knowing God Just Take Practice?https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/does-knowing-god-jus… Get the writers you love, plus your favorite cartoons, on your phone or tablet. Download The New Yorker Today. https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1081530898?pt=45076&ct=App%20Sha… Wiegel“A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live.” Fred Krupp _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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From The New Yorker: Does Knowing God Just Take Practice?
by James Wiegel 20 Nov '20

20 Nov '20

Anyone read this? Does Knowing God Just Take Practice? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/does-knowing-god-just-take-pr… Get the writers you love, plus your favorite cartoons, on your phone or tablet. Download The New Yorker Today. https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1081530898?pt=45076&ct=App%20Sha… Jim Wiegel “A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live.” Fred Krupp

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11/19/2020, Progressing Spirit, Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhhauer:A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, Part III`; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 19 Nov '20

19 Nov '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv6537209822 #yiv6537209822templateBody .yiv6537209822mcnTextContent, #yiv6537209822 #yiv6537209822templateBody .yiv6537209822mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv6537209822 #yiv6537209822templateFooter .yiv6537209822mcnTextContent, #yiv6537209822 #yiv6537209822templateFooter .yiv6537209822mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, Part III | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer November 19, 2020 “If… African Americans will not be compensated for the massive wrongs and social injuries inflicted upon them by their government, during and after slavery, then there is no chance that America can solve its racial problems.” Randall Robinson, The Debt, p. 204. I enter this quote at the beginning of my final installment of my call to reparations because I want to make one thing clear: while reparations is about righting a wrong, it is also about healing a wounded nation. That wound is the source of great pain not just for African descendant people. It is also the source of great pain for the descendants of European colonialists who perpetrated one of the Earth’s most viscous, effective, and persistent evils. Too many whites argue that slavery is a thing of the past for which present day whites are not responsible. In the previous two essays, I tried to debunk that myth. It is the cause of so much pain today for black and white Americans. In the book Black Rage, we find this: “Americans characteristically are unwilling to think about the past. We are a future-oriented nation, and facing backward is an impediment to progress. Although these attitudes may propel us to the moon, they are deficient when human conflict needs resolution.” (William H. Grier and Price M. Cobbs, Black Rage, p. 23) I have been arguing that reparations is, at its core, a call to repair the damage – to seek pathways to resolving a particular human conflict that has opened deep and festering wounds. What abolition and emancipation and civil rights in the hands of well-meaning whites have done is what the prophet Jeremiah spoke about in is 6th chapter: we have cried “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. We have healed the wound of God’s people lightly. What white America often fails to see is that reparations IS the pathway to healing the racial division and, as Robinson says, the only way to “solve its racial problems.” It is the pathway to resolving this enormous human conflict. It is not enough to work hard as whites to assuage our guilt. That is the pathway to crying peace when there is no peace; to healing a wound lightly – enough to stanch the bleeding, but not enough to heal the wound. I have long said that whites in general, and the white church in particular, remain the most instantiated and greatest impediment yet to full racial equity. Without doubt, the greatest stumbling block to full white participation in repairing the damage is their love affair with both wealth and access to wealth. Whites will march. Whites will sing: “We shall overcome;” or “Lift every voice,” or “This land is my land.” Whites will get arrested, seeing this as demonstration of their bona fides, a trophy that demonstrates their commitment to the cause and their willingness to suffer for a couple hours or an overnight stay. Some have even died, entering the struggle with the awareness that there will be a price to pay. What whites have yet to do is sit at the table and talk about how to redistribute wealth and legislate pathways to wealth that do not favor them. This is the point at which white, liberal freedom-riders get off the bus and say, “I have nothing left to give.” They will spend their life telling the story of their commitment, their struggle, their sacrifice. They will cheer the election of a black president and feel some sense of both pride and satisfaction that their sacrifice helped make this happen and heal the wound. But it is a wound healed lightly – and the peace they claim to have created is no peace at all. Donald Trump and the post-Obama world we live in belies the claim that peace has come and that white contributions to racial equity have healed the wound. In the introduction to his landmark book The Possessive Investment in Whiteness,” George Lipsitz says that both public policy and private prejudice have created what he calls “a possessive investment in whiteness.” His very next sentence is the theme statement for his entire book, and really the most definitive and concise explanation for why America is the way it is: “Whiteness has a cash value.” “Whiteness is a delusion, a cultural fiction…. Whiteness is, however, a social fact, an identity created and continued with all-too-real consequences for the distribution of wealth, prestige, and opportunity.” (Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, p.vii) So this is a call to white America to fully heal the wound. Not just the black wound, but the wound that black and white both suffer from together, and that no attachment to wealth will heal. Reparations is the pathway to full healing, to resolving this human conflict, to solving our racial problem. What does that look like? Better minds than mine have wrestled with that and fallen short of the mark. Nonetheless, there are specific recommendations I am willing to make right now. First, let’s talk about HR 40. Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas’ 18th Congressional District has taken up the mantle given to her when John Conyer’s retired. She brought the bill to Congress asking for a commission to be created to study a meaningful pathway to reparations. John Conyers first introduced this bill in 1993, and it has yet to even leave committee, much less make it to the floor for a vote, much less win a majority and be passed on to the Senate for approval, much less be signed into law by the President. This is not a bill calling for reparations, but the creation of a commission to study what reparations would look like. If and when white advocates got behind this and demanded that their legislators support it, vote for it, and pass it, it would make it through and the first small step towards healing would occur. Well, white America? Will we do that? Can we do that? If we will not do even that, it is hard to imagine that we are an ally in the cause of racial equity and racial healing. Aside from supporting and passing HR 40, there are other and more tangible things whites can do or consider right now. As I think about this, there are three places of accumulated or accumulating wealth that can be taxed to support reparations: annual income of white households, accumulated current wealth of white households, and money transferred at death through inheritance. What if every white American were taxed $25 a year for ten years to create a fund for reparations? Or think even bigger. What if for ten years there was a 1% tax assessed to every white American who files for taxes? According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, the buying power of white Americans in 2018 was $6.5 trillion dollars. 1% of that is $65 billion a year. Do that for ten years. The average white household currently has more than seven times the accumulated wealth in liquidity than the average black household: $130,000 per white household; $19,000 per black household (this is from the 2018 American Community Survey conducted by the US Census Bureau). How much of that can be transferred over the next ten years in the cause of repairing the damage? One of the greatest inhibitors to equal access to wealth is inheritance law. Serious thought should be given to taxing any money that is passed from one white family member to another. A 10% tax charged to all white-inherited wealth for ten years would help alleviate the gap that has accrued from white wealth that has stayed in the family for generations – much of that accrued at a time when blacks were either enslaved, deprived of equal or any education, red-zoned out of housing districts where wealth could be invested in real estate that grew in value, or either deprived of jobs or given lower salaries because of their race. Up to $11.4 million per person of inherited wealth can be exempted from taxes in 2019, and double that if it is a married couple, since that is per person. It is estimated that in the next 20 years, boomers will inherit $68 trillion. How much of that would it make sense to set aside from taxes that could support reparations? Another source of possible funding for reparations would be church properties. What if every white church that closed from this point forward earmarked the proceeds (or a portion of those) from the dissolution of their assets for reparations? The Christian Century magazine estimates that 3,700 churches a year close – or about 1%. Let’s estimate on the conservative side that their remaining property and assets average $1 million. That’s $3.7 billion a year that we could earmark for reparations, or at least some healthy portion of that. The Black Manifesto, quoted in a previous installment, asked for the funds from the white transfer of wealth to go to ten different empowerment opportunities for black families. They were: - The establishment of a Southern Land Bank for blacks who want to establish cooperative farms. - The establishment of four major black-owned and operated publishing and printing industries in the US. - The establishment of black-owned and operated media conglomerates in major cities across the US. - The establishment of a research skill center to research the problems unique to black Americans. - Establishment of a training center for community organizing, photography, filmmaking, TV production, etc. - The support of all welfare agencies that serve black families and the organization and training of all welfare recipients. - The establishment of a National Black Labor Strike and Defense Fund. - The establishment of the International Black Appeal (IBA) for building black owned businesses in the US and Africa. - The establishment of a Black University. - The allocation of funds or planning the budget to implement the demands stated in the Manifesto. This is not offered here as the perfect plan, but to suggest that Funds be set up for and administered by black community leaders that support the ongoing development and propagation of black America. This is not a blueprint. Let’s not get bogged down right now in discussion about whether these particular taxing mechanisms or program developments are the pathway forward. It is only offered here to suggest that we can at least imagine A pathway forward. The question is not CAN whites do this, but WILL whites do it. On the one hand, putting specific recommendations like this on paper risks spending all our time arguing about whether or not these ideas will, can, or should work. On the other hand, NOT putting something on paper keeps this too ethereal and only repeats the mantra we have always heard: it just can’t be done. Well, it can be done. In previous installments on this subject I presented my argument about why it should be done, and this time I simply wanted to show that it CAN be done. Whites need to know there is no pathway through this that comes without pain and sacrifice. Yes, whites have sacrificed something in the past, but never enough. Again, we have healed the wound of the people lightly. This wound will heal, but not without great commitment to full reparations. Money isn’t everything, but it is our love of money that is the root of this evil. Only a committed detachment from that, and an accompanying attachment to wealth and race equity will heal a wound white and black Americans have lived with since whites landed on these shores. Let us work hard to discover the day when we can say, “Peace, peace,” and there is peace, when the wound is healed not lightly but wholly. That is the dream, the hope, the expectation. Thanks for listening. ~ Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer Read online here About the Author Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer was granted a Doctoral Degree in White Privilege Studies in 2007 from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH. He also has degrees in Theology and Philosophy. He is the author of two published books, Beyond Resistance: the Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World and Steeplejacking: How the Christian Right Hijacked Mainstream Religion. He is a recipient of Eden Seminary's "Shalom Award," given by the student body for a lifetime of committed work for peace and justice. John was ordained as a Christian minister in 1988. He currently serves as the 9th General Minister of the United Church of Christ, one of the USA's most progressive faiths, whose vision is "A Just World for All." He is a frequent speaker on the subject of white privilege, and is especially committed to engaging white audiences to come to deeper understandings of the privilege. He is particularly interested in how whites manifest privilege every day and how it impacts people of color, two things whites remain largely either ignorant of or in denial about. He has been devoted to his bride Mimi for over 36 years, and they have parented three children - a composer/musician, an author/painter, and a poet. John and Mimi have two grandchildren they dote on constantly. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Bill I love your writing and your views that embrace compassionate deeds rather than creedal concepts. It seems to me that your message would have a much broader appeal if you opened your invitation to follow your belief paradigm to all comers – not just Christians – and broadened your teaching authority to other sages and ethical and moral teachers beyond Jesus. I think your call and message could be far more inclusive than being restricted to Christians alone. Have you ever addressed a non-Christian audience and broadened your message to accept their way of worshipping God? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Bill, Thank you for your letter and suggestion. Yes, I have addressed audiences of other faiths, especially in synagogues, but I have also conducted a dialogue with a rabbi and his congregation in Richmond, Virginia, with a Buddhist monk in China and with a trio of Hindu scholars in India. Every significant contact I have had with other faith traditions has deepened my appreciation for what they are and has broadened my understanding of my own faith. I do not believe that I contribute to the interfaith dialogue by seeking to master a faith tradition other than my own. While I certainly do not think that God is a Christian, I believe the ultimate pathway to religious unity comes through my willingness to go so deeply into Christianity that I escape its limits. Only then can I bring to the interfaith table the pearl of great price that I believe Christianity has to offer. I hope that all religious people of all traditions will be equally dedicated to discovering the essence of holiness that their faith tradition possesses so that they can share with me the essence, the pearl of great price that they have received from their life in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. My goal is to enrich the world with the essence of Christianity even as I am being enriched by the essence of other worship traditions. I hope I never disparage or look down on the way any person journeys into the mystery and wonder of God. I do not want to be against any religion. I want to walk beyond all religions, even my own, in my lifetime quest for the truth of God that all of us can only "see through a glass darkly." ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong November 7, 2007 Read and share online here | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | This week's donation request | | | | | | | | | | Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my people not been attended to? - Jeremiah 8:22 (The Inclusive Bible – Priests for Equality) The world is in need of a balm. The health of its people is not being attended to in a manner that it needs – in a manner that it deserves. Biblically, in a manner that is required. For far too long, we have hoped, wished and prayed for a physician to attend to our health. Biden will not be that physician. He may help in some ways but he cannot heal a nation, or the world, alone. No more so than any U.S. President or world leader can or has. Yet, we continue to seek a savior in spite of the fact that the one who many call “Savior” taught us that we are our savior. We must also admit that much like the cartoon character Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The majority of traditional Christianity has not only sat too idly by as the world has become more sick and more divided, but in many cases it has encouraged the behavior that leads to it. As progressive Christians, we have work to do. Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has.” Each of us are a part of the balm the world needs. At Progressing Spirit and ProgressiveChristianty.org we provide a variety of resources, encouragement, and perspectives to help insure that we all are a “thoughtful” part of the “committed citizens” of which Margaret Mead spoke. Bringing these resources to you is surprisingly expensive, but we are committed to continue to not only provide them, but to continually improve upon them. To do so, we need your help. Would you consider making a donation to help us continue to provide these much needed resources in times such as these? Together we can be part of the balm that heals and changes the world. Progressing Spirit is part of ProgressiveChristianity.org, a 501(3)c Non-Profit. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part XVII: The Birth of Mark, the First Gospel Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong March 25, 2010 It is difficult to study the gospels accurately unless we step outside the Christian Church as we traditionally experience it today. That may sound like a strange statement, but increasingly I believe it is true. The gospels have been read in liturgical worship for two thousand years. They have provided the texts upon which sermons have been preached in churches under a variety of historical circumstances. Some of these churches were under persecution; some were so established that they participated in the persecution of others. Sermons preached on gospel texts have been heard in churches that lived through the breakup of the Middle Ages, in churches undergoing both the Protestant reformation and the Catholic counter reformation and in churches making their witness in the modern and even the post-modern world. So deeply has the message of these gospels been captured in liturgy, translated through hymns and enshrined in buildings that most of us cannot separate gospel content from cultural artifacts. This deep familiarity must be removed before the original power of the gospels can be recovered. Familiarity does bring both contempt and misunderstanding. What has sometimes been called “gospel truth” sometimes turns out not to be true at all. It is amazing, for example, how people use the Bible to justify their cultural prejudices, totally unaware of their own ignorance. These prejudices are then re-enforced by the assumption that their culturally blended knowledge is actually biblical. Of interest is the fact that most people learn the content of the Christmas story not from reading the Bible, but by watching Christmas pageants over the years. In these pageants, poetic or dramatic license is regularly practiced. People are therefore amazed to discover that only two of the gospels (Matthew and Luke) include birth stories and that these two contradict each other in many places. How many people know, for example, that in the texts of the Bible there are no camels in the story of the wise men, no donkey on which Mary rode to Bethlehem while she is “great with child,” no stable in which Christ was born and no animals that populated that non-existent stable? Moving deeper into the Christian story, there are no “seven last words” spoken by Jesus from the cross. Mark and Matthew record only one saying from the cross and that is what we call “the cry of dereliction:” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Luke omits that saying as far too human to be spoken by “the Son of God,” but then proceeds to add three of his own creation. John then omits all of these previously recorded sayings and creates three totally new ones never heard before. Finally, almost every detail of the Easter story in each of the four gospels is contradicted in the writings of another gospel. The most important thing to embrace, however, is that, in regard to the Bible, the ignorance is so profound that most people do not even know that they do not know. Part of what I am seeking to do in this series on the gospels is to penetrate this culturally imposed fog so that we today might hear the message of each of the four gospel writers in the way each was heard by the first listeners to their words. In order to accomplish this task we first need to dismiss many of the assumptions that we bring to our hearing of these gospel narratives. The first and most important of these is that the gospels are not biographies of Jesus. They are not eyewitness accounts of what Jesus actually did, nor are they tape recordings of the things that Jesus literally said. I shall never forget being on a late night talk show some years ago when on a media tour with the publication of my book, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. My host that evening was Tom Snyder, who was operating out of a studio in Burbank, California. As the interview progressed, I suggested that the four gospels in the New Testament were generally dated no earlier than the year 70 CE and no later that the year 100. Tom, a lapsed Roman Catholic, bestirred himself and said, “Now, wait a minute, Bishop! I just got out my short pencil and began to do some figuring. If the gospels were written that late then none of them could have been written by eyewitnesses.” “That is correct, Tom,” I responded. “None of them claims to have been written by an eyewitness except the Fourth Gospel, but no reputable scholar today thinks that John Zebedee actually wrote this book.” John Zebedee was described in the book of Acts (4:13) as an “uneducated man,” while the gospel that bears John’s name is filled with long, complex theological discourses, which require enormous sophistication. Finally, this gospel was written in Greek, not in Aramaic, which was, so far as we know, the only language that John Zebedee could speak. Stunned, Tom Snyder said, “That is not what the nuns taught me in parochial school!” I enquired as to what they had taught him, and he replied “They said the disciples of Jesus followed him around, writing down everything he said and that this is how we got the gospels!” Amused at how unlearned a grown and rather worldly-wise man could nonetheless be, I asked, “Tom, did the nuns also tell you that the disciples used spiral bound notebooks and ballpoint pens?” At that moment, the dawn of a new realization swept across my host’s face. The facts are that all four of the gospels were written by the second generation and, in the case of the Fourth Gospel, maybe even by the third generation of Christians. The gospels were written in Greek, a language in which neither Jesus nor the disciples were fluent. They were also written with no punctuation and without even being divided into chapters, paragraphs, verses or sentences. In the style of that day they did not even include a space between words, just line after line of letters. At the end of a line on whatever they used for a page there would be no dash to warn the reader that a word was being broken and it would continue on the next line. There were no capital letters. All punctuation, all separation of words, all divisions into verses, paragraphs and chapters would be imposed on these texts hundreds of years later. How much of the Jesus story was known before each gospel was written is hard to determine, but the probability is that for most people the first time they heard a gospel being read was the first time they had heard most of the Jesus stories that they contain. Prior to the writing of the earliest gospel of Mark, all that the people knew about Jesus was whatever had been conveyed in vignettes through preaching and the oral tradition, and the high probability is that the setting for this hearing was in the synagogue at Sabbath day worship. This means that the same story might be used on different occasions with new details added or old details deleted, making our attempt to find historical accuracy in them simply not possible. When one multiplies this fact by a period of 40 to 70 years, the dimension of the problem we face in creating hard history begins to come into view. Perhaps the best we can do is to demonstrate when the various stories about Jesus entered the written tradition. In order to understand how the first gospel, Mark, was initially received, we need to embrace the fact that before Mark wrote, the written details about the crucifixion of Jesus were contained in one line in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “He died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.” That is all Paul said, and thus that is all Christians had before the early 70’s. Mark thus introduced such narratives as the account of the last supper on the night before the crucifixion, the story of the Garden of Gethsemane, the account of Judas’ betrayal at midnight, the role of the Sanhedrin in determining Jesus’ guilt, the denial of Peter, the flight of the disciples, the trial before Pilate, the freeing of Barabbas, the torture with the crown of thorns and the story of the thieves crucified with him. None of these details were written prior to Mark. Of the burial of Jesus all that was known in writing before Mark was, again, what Paul had written: “He was buried.” That was it. Mark thus introduced the story of the tomb, the character of Joseph of Arimathea and the various details of his burial. In regard to the story of Easter all that the Christians had in writing before Mark was found, once again, in a brief Pauline narrative: “He rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.” Paul goes on to relate that Jesus “appeared” to Cephas, the twelve, 500 brethren at once, James, the apostles and finally to Paul. No detail of any of these appearances, however, was given and even the word “appeared” is open to a variety of meanings. Paul counts himself as one of those to whom the risen Christ “appeared.” Since Paul’s conversion was some one to six years after the crucifixion, an appearance to Paul could hardly have been physical. Please notice that before Mark wrote in the early 70’s, there was also no account of an empty tomb, no angels, no visit of the women and no messenger to announce the resurrection. Mark added these details as the tradition unfolded. There were other things in the Jesus story that Mark appears to have introduced for the first time. Mark is the first person to tell us about the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and the first person to associate the story of Jesus with miracles. The idea that Jesus was a teacher of note or that he taught in parables was still another Markan-introduced theme. When we embrace these things, we begin to understand something of how the Christian faith evolved and how dramatic an event it must have been to have the first gospel appear in the 8th decade of the Christian era. Next week we will begin to put the message of Mark’s gospel into the context of its first-century Jewish world. It looks quite different from the way we read it today, but even if it is a little-known story, I believe we will find it to be a beautiful one. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Walking Together Giving Thanks Through Music 34th Annual Inter-Spiritual Celebration of Gratitude Sunday, November 22nd @ 2:00 PM On Zoom Unique presentations will offer rich expressions of our diversity with chant, movement, music, spoken word, and song. May this gathering warm our hearts and instill hope for our future, “Walking Together in Gratitude”. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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11/12/2020, Progressing Spirit, Jennifer Wilson: Surrendering to the Will of Earth; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 12 Nov '20

12 Nov '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1930561347 #yiv1930561347templateBody .yiv1930561347mcnTextContent, #yiv1930561347 #yiv1930561347templateBody .yiv1930561347mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1930561347 #yiv1930561347templateFooter .yiv1930561347mcnTextContent, #yiv1930561347 #yiv1930561347templateFooter .yiv1930561347mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Surrendering to the Will of Earth | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Jennifer Wilson November 12, 2020 I didn’t know what surrender really meant until I went through labor with my first child. I had always considered myself excellent at surrendering, interpreting the word in a passive way. To surrender meant not speaking my mind. It meant keeping quiet to keep the peace, letting injustice happen to me and around me, without complaint, lulled as I was into a comfortable “c’est la vie” spiritual bypass approach to life. I had confused the concept of surrender with a murky blend of ideas like serenity, tranquility, humility, passivity and nonviolence. As I write this article, I am 39 weeks pregnant, two days away from my due date for my second son. The leaves are falling around me in the Appalachian Mountains and fires continue to burn near my childhood home in California. I cannot help but experience again the relationship between surrender, death, and birth, and the profound power of transformation that we see everywhere in the natural world. On the eve of Jesus’s arrest, on the precipice of his crucifixion he visited the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. Intuiting what was in store for him, he went into prayer while Peter, James and Paul stood watch. Jesus prayed for three hours and in an ultimate, and beautiful moment of human expression, was succumbed by fear. Speaking to God, he said “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.” He meant the cup of suffering, pain and death. He pleads for a moment to be spared, his fear and doubt overcoming him. But then, I like to imagine, he looks at the garden around him, glowing under the moonlight. He takes in the abundance of life, the beauty of the spring blossoms, and he sinks into a deeper place of communion with that ever present cosmic, life-giving energy. Finally, he says “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.” Real surrender is anything but passive. I had a home birth for my first child. As I approached my due date that first time, people often asked me if I was nervous. I told them that I was only excited. After all, I believed in myself - that I would stay grounded and present through any kind of pain. I had a strong meditation practice, I was physically fit, I had a practice of jumping in ice cold water, swimming in the blustery Pacific Ocean, participating in consciousness-altering ceremonies, running half-marathons, practicing hot yoga and the list went on. I was confident that I was physically and mentally prepared for anything. I wasn’t. The twenty-hour excruciating labor shattered me. There was a record heat wave that year, the first year of the catastrophic fires in California, and the headlines of the newspapers on my son’s day of birth read “San Francisco Reaches 115 Degrees on the Hottest Day in Recorded History.” In most of my memories of that day I can see myself lying on our bed, looking down from somewhere above, which tells me that my consciousness flitted and hovered outside of my body for part or most of it. I remember visualizing thousands of generations of women standing behind me, supporting me and sometimes jeering at my apparent weakness. I remember feeling my midwife’s fingers trying to guide the direction of my pushing. I pushed for three hours, I screamed, I vomited, I cried, I sweated, groaned, contorted my body and bled for three hours, thinking I was dying, and now I wonder if like Jesus in the garden, what I was actually doing was praying. I remember utter blackness all around me, my face pressed into an abyss of mud and squirming things, darkness and heat, an all-consuming, frightening Kali of a presence telling me that there was no running away or hiding, transcending or bypassing. For a long time, I thought that voice was an inner demon, gloating at me. Now, three years later, on the threshold of another labor, I understand that that voice, that dark presence, was actually the Earth, teaching me how to surrender. We are now, as a species, in the wildly terrifying threshold of the birth canal. The contractions have been building for countless generations, and we have not been able to see far beyond this fertile tunnel to the light just on the other side. The only true spiritual practice is the one that midwives this brutal transition, guiding our species into the new. I learned during my labor what I believe humanity needs to remember now: that in order to be a part of the birth of a new world, we must surrender, and even more importantly that surrender is a verb. It is not a passive state. The origins of the word surrender come from the French roots for “to give back,” and “over.” And that is exactly what surrender is. It is not laying down our arms, it is not choosing peace over justice, it is not breathing deeply and meditating our way out of our pain. True surrender speaks to our relationship with our common mother, the Earth. It means to give back to her, over and over again, above and beyond what we think we are capable of giving. This is also the lesson of the Fall, and the fires, and the breakdown of the world we are witnessing in a million ways every day from the pandemic that continues to spread like wildfire, to one of the most polarizing presidential elections to date, to the ever-present threat of a dying planet, crucified by its own children. I look now at the orange and yellow leaves on the trees outside my window and am reminded that when the time for rebirth comes, something changes in the very nature of things, seen and unseen. The leaves begin to lose their chlorophyll and turn from green to red, the fetus sends out a hormone to its mother’s uterus that initiates contractions, a microscopic atom is dispelled from a bat’s tongue and floats gently through the air, landing on a human lip, the tiniest spark of light is caught on a wind and expands through the air to become a massive fire. These changes can be beautiful like the rich autumn foliage of the season, painful like a contracting uterus, hot and fast like an uncontainable wildfire. Out of the compost of the fallen leaves will grow new saplings and mushrooms. Out of the birth canal will come a beautiful child telling a new story. Out of the ashes will emerge a new forest. Out of the surrendered body of a man, a new way of living and loving will spread. The trees, the laboring mother, the fire, the martyr, they give themselves back over to the Earth, and from them the Earth births something new. There are many ways one can interpret the significance of Jesus’s moment of doubt and fear, and his ultimate surrender to God, happening in the Garden of Gethsemane. One of the most profound to me is that in that garden olives were pressed into oil. To make oil from olives, the olives must be crushed under extreme pressure until a blood-red juice runs from their bodies. When this fluid hits the oxygen in the air an alchemical process occurs, and it transforms into the fresh light green color we associate with the most delicate olive oil. We use this oil to create food that nourishes our bodies, and to anoint other beings, honoring the sacred within them. The most beautiful irony is that immediately after Jesus surrendered to the will of the divine, “then appeared an angel unto him, strengthening him.” The giving of himself did not weaken him, but bolstered him, and as we know of the rest of the story, ultimately led to his metaphoric rebirth, and also to the birth of a new philosophy with new ways of being human. New opportunities sprang forth, opening the possibility for a civilization rooted in love. This is the type of surrender all mystic warriors are being called to experience at this transformational time on our planet. The kind that crushes us, that makes us bleed, that brings us to our threshold and dares us to step beyond. This is what true surrender looks like - when we give ourselves to the Earth so that these parts of ourselves can be made by her into the material of new creations. When friends have asked me during this pregnancy if I am nervous for the labor again, I tell them the truth. I am terrified. I want to beg anyone willing to listen “please take this cup away from me.” I am terrified because I know that I will meet the edge of my abyss again. I know that my ego will be shattered, again. I know that I will experience pain unlike anything I can describe with words, and I know that the only way through the process is to, well, go through it, giving myself away to the cosmos, letting myself, as my husband loves to say, be eaten by the Gods. To become something more. This is what I have learned about surrender: we must be willing to turn back to the Earth and scream from the depths of our bellies “Dear mother, not our wills, but yours be done,” and then to prepare the way for what will be born. ~ Jennifer Wilson Read online here About the Author Jennifer Wilson is the co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action and works in book publishing as a private consultant for authors assisting with manuscript editing and book publicity. She is also the co-director of Wild Awakenings, an adult Rites of Passage organization dedicated to fostering the thriving of Earth, life, and humanity. Jennifer was on the Board of Trustees at the Unity in Marin Spiritual Community for three years, serving as the Board President for 18 months. Also at Unity in Marin, Jennifer was a guest speaker for Sunday mornings, she led Rites of Passage groups for teenagers, and founded a young adult interfaith group committed to conscious connection, community service, and social activism. She is a passionate hiker, reader, writer, and public speaker. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Jackson “I stopped going to church because it just seems to be the same thing all the time. Same sermons, same actions, same results. I'm not sure we were actually changing anything. We helped the poor, but they always came back still needing help. Why don't churches do more to change things?” A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin Dear Jackson, Unfortunately, most spiritual communities have become much better and much more comfortable at giving people a hand out than giving them a hand up. Put simply, we prefer the self-serving feelings of charity to the self-sacrificing realities of justice. We feed a person for a day, we turn their power back on for now, we give them shelter for a night, and that’s a good thing, but we fall miserably short of challenging and changing the systems that will have those same people starving in a week, sitting in the dark next month, sleeping in the streets all too soon. Charity does help those in need, but only temporarily. Who it helps the most is those of us who have a need to help, who feel it is our calling to aid those in need. Charity lets us feel like we are doing something to respond to need in a world that is overwhelmed with people in need. There’s really no risk in it and people are usually very supportive of such efforts. Justice, on the other hand, is hard. It frequently requires a great deal of sacrifice and you probably aren’t going to get a lot of people cheering you along the way – probably quite the opposite. So, most spiritual communities simply don’t do it. Justice looks like activism and spiritual communities tend to shy away from that. Justice requires you to not make nice with abusive systems; it requires you to rock the boat a bit and to take a stand on issues that are frequently political hot buttons. For too many churches, that sounds very… well, un-Church like. Too many of us think being Church means being liked and all that standing up for something means standing against something and we just don’t like the thought of people not liking us because of it. But here's the thing, Jesus not only confronted systems of injustice, but he tried to teach us to do the same. He did it standing in the tradition of great prophets of Judaism who never failed to stand up against abuse of power. They risked everything. They frequently were run out of town or put to death for it. Maybe that’s what we’re afraid of – the proverbial crosses we’d have to bear. I'm not sure. The thing I am sure of is that charity is love for the moment and justice is love extended into the future. Or as Dr. King once said, “Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.” Don't get me wrong, we must not stop doing the necessary and much needed work of charity, but we also must not stop there. We must push on, risking ourselves, risking ridicule, risking our places of privilege, and reclaim the biblical and prophetic voice of justice. We must stand in the footsteps of the likes of Dr. King, Dorothea Day and Gandhi for without justice, charity falls short. Because, you see, charity and justice? They are a matched set. It is time to let justice roll. ~ Rev. Mark Sandlin Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. His work has been published on “The Huffington Post,” “Sojourners,” “Time,” “Church World Services,” and even the “Richard Dawkins Foundation.” He’s been featured on PBS’s “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” and NPR’s “The Story with Dick Gordon.” Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | This week's donation request | | | | | | | | | | Belief systems may vary from religion to religion, person to person, and still most everyone agrees with Rob Bell's words. We are all in this together. ProgressiveChristianity.org is a member driven non-profit organization dedicated to bringing you the best theological and timely information from world-class thinkers and theologians. We offer different perspectives and understanding while helping churches and individuals navigate the passages of our lives. If you have enjoyed our "free" resources and authors please take a moment to donate today so we can continue our work - we need you! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part XVI: The Elder Paul — Philemon and Philippians Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 25, 2010 The process of aging works wonders on the human spirit. Battles once so emotional that they seemed to pit life against death lose their rancor in time, and the differences that once divided people so deeply lose their potency. Age brings both mellowing and perspective. That was surely true of Paul. In this series I have tried to read Paul chronologically — that is, in the order of his writings. It is an inexact science, but I am comfortable with the order we have adopted. In that way we can see the changes taking place before our eyes. In I Thessalonians, written about the year 51 and thus Paul’s first epistle, he was concerned about the fact that the second coming of Christ had not yet arrived. Why, they wondered, had Jesus not returned by now to inaugurate the desired kingdom of God on earth? Paul tries anxiously to explain the delay. In Galatians, his second epistle, we see the white hot anger that separated Paul from those he called “the Judaizers,” who are symbolized in Galatians by James, the Lord’s brother, and by Peter, both of whom were demanding that all converts keep the Torah and only be allowed to come into Christianity by way of Judaism. Paul, deeply touched by what he came to call “grace,” would never submit to this legalistic point of view from which he had fled, namely that salvation came through one’s deeds, one’s obedience to the Torah. The Paul of the middle years of his career was thoughtful, systematic and good at problem solving. In this phase of his life, he penned his letters to the Corinthians and his masterpiece, his epistle to the Romans. In the Corinthian letters, he was majestic in spelling out the meaning of love: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” and also in that epistle he wrote the fullest understanding of Jesus’ resurrection that we possess. In Romans he comes as close as he ever would to systematizing the meaning of Christ in beautiful words that ring across the ages like “Nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” The years rolled on for Paul, however, as they do for all of us and he grew mellow. He was no longer convinced that Jesus would come again in his lifetime, so he settled into long range plans and even began to contemplate his own death. In this phase of his life, which is true for most of us, he lived more in the “now” and less in the future and so relationships grew in importance for him. It was at this stage of his life that he wrote the two epistles that we consider today, Philemon and Philippians, both of which reflect the more contemplative Paul. With the completion of our consideration of Philemon and Philippians, we will have probed the seven epistles about which there is no debate as to their being the authentic work of Paul. Next we will look at those epistles that have much Pauline substance, but increasingly scholars suggest they are “pseudo-Paul,” that is,written in Paul’s name but not by Paul himself. They are II Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians. There are other epistles that bear the name of Paul, namely I and II Timothy and Titus, that are in a third category. Universally they are regarded as not authentic and they are actually dated later than some of the gospels, so we will look at them later. If we are trying to study the New Testament in the time sequence in which its various books are written, we will have to place Mark and perhaps Matthew ahead of these “Pastoral Epistles.” For now, however, we focus on Philemon and Philippians, the epistles of the elder Paul. Both are written, according to majority opinion but certainly not the unanimous opinion of the reputable scholars, while he was imprisoned in Rome only a couple of years before his martyrdom. Philemon is fascinating in that one wonders why it was preserved at all, and why it was placed in the collection of Paul’s letters that circulated among the churches before the first gospel was written. It is so different in essential ways from every other epistle. Philemon is a personal letter of his, less than one page in length. It is addressed to an individual, not to the church community. It has to do with a request made by Paul to have a runaway slave named Onesimus, who has become Paul’s valued companion and primary caregiver, be set free so he can once again be in Paul’s service. Paul makes this request even as Onesimus is being returned to his master because, in the culture of that day, it was the right thing to do. Paul hopes that by obeying the law, his request to allow Onesimus to come back to him will be granted. Paul tells his friend Philemon, to whom he writes this letter, of Onesimus’ conversion and of his indispensable faithfulness in Paul’s service. Paul wants Onesimus pardoned so that he can freely come back to be Paul’s assistant. It is hardly the kind of letter that would rank inclusion in a group of epistles written to various churches that also included the carefully reasoned argument of the Epistle to the Romans. Yet here it is. John Knox, a top-tier 20th century Pauline scholar, offers a fascinating explanation as to why it was included. Basing his argument on an epistle written by one of the church “fathers,” Ignatius, in the early years of the second century that indicates that a man named Onesimus had become the Bishop of Ephesus after Paul’s death, Knox suggests that this was the same Onesimus about whom Paul was concerned in the Epistle to Philemon. The reason it might have been added to this collection of Paul’s letters, says Knox, is that it contained significant material that was important to the church in Ephesus, which scholars now believe was to have been the destination of this first collection of Paul’s epistles. It is an interesting speculation and worthy of being passed on, so long as it is clear that it is a speculation. There seems to be no other plausible argument as to why this private and very short letter became treasured church property. When we move on to Philippians, we come to the most affectionate letter Paul ever wrote and also to the picture of a Paul who knows that his life is nearing its end. The Philippian congregation clearly cares for Paul emotionally and Paul clearly cares for them. He writes them as “saints” for whom he gives thanks “upon every remembrance” of them. Philippi was the first city in Europe that Paul had visited and where his first European church had been planted. The Philippians had sent him gifts in prison and they were clearly worried about both his safety and his personal well being. Paul’s agenda in this letter is to thank them and comfort them about his situation. He fears he may never see them again. He promises to send Timothy to assure them of his well being. He fills the epistle with words of joy, hope and consolation. He no longer expects the return of Christ in his lifetime and so he wrestles with his own death, which he assumes to be imminent. He wonders out loud whether it is better to depart this life to be with Christ or to persevere for the sake of his churches. He suggests that when one stands at last in the presence of Christ, this earthly life will be seen as being of no great value. “To live is Christ, to die is gain” is his conclusion. There is a deep-seated contentment in Paul that finds expression in this epistle. “I have learned,” he says, “to be content in whatever state I find myself.” I can do all things, he assures his readers, through Christ who strengthens me. In his conclusion, he does not go into a long ethical treatise as he does in so many of his earlier epistles, where he moves from spelling out his understanding of Christ to drawing from that the implications for those who seek to live out the Christ life. In Philippians, his ethical teaching is one verse (4:8) “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” The most memorable passage in Philippians and one of the most mysterious and oft-quoted of all Paul’s work is found in 2:5-11. It is called the “self-emptying” passage. My sense is that in these words there is a powerful affirmation that for Paul, all that we mean by God has been experienced in Christ, but when these words were translated into English, they reflected the ancient battles in which the church sought to determine how it was that Jesus could have been both human and divine. I do not think that the Jewish Paul ever thought in those categories. The way it is read today is that Christ did not grasp after the divinity that was his, but rather emptied himself, taking the form of a servant and he was, therefore, exalted by God to the status for which he was qualified. So Paul then draws his conclusion by stating that “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.” Many scholars believe that Paul is quoting in these “self-emptying” verses an early Christian hymn. That may be so but I believe it also reflects Paul’s vision of Jesus as “The New Adam.” The first Adam did grasp after the dignity of God. The serpent’s temptation in the Garden of Eden story was that if Adam would but eat the forbidden fruit, “you will be like God.” The people in the Philippi church had tensions in their lives over how to worship, what to believe and how to act. Each side in each debate claimed superiority. Paul urges them to let the mind of Christ be their mind. Then he explained that Christ did not grasp after a superior status but emptied himself. It was in the fullness of his humanity that he found the freedom to give his life to others and that was how God was seen in him. The ultimate purpose of human life is to love the face of hatred, to forgive the face of pain, to live in the face of death. In doing those things one must be free of the need of self exaltation. That is what it means to reveal the divine in the human. It was this concept that convinced Paul that the God presence has been experienced in Jesus. The pathway into divinity is through humanity. The pathway into eternity is through time. This is the closing theme in what we now believe was the final authentic letter of the Apostle Paul. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Planning Christmas Gifts for your Children & Grandchildren? Our children's curriculum is the perfect answer! A Joyful Path is truly progressive curriculum that is nature centered, joy-full, compassionate, and intelligent. This behavior over belief curriculum is non-dogmatic, inter-spiritual, and heart centered with an emphasis on the teachings of Jesus and how to follow them in today’s world. Full year versions are available in Hard Copy, DVD and PDF. On sale until December 10th at 50% OFF! Use Coupon Code TEACH50 at checkout. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Hooray!
by Isobel and Jim Bishop 12 Nov '20

12 Nov '20

Dear colleagues, We are so pleased and relieved about your election results! Best wishes to every one. Isobel & Jim Isobel and Jim Bishop isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au

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Check this out: "Three Seconds" short award-winning film for climate
by Ellie Stock 10 Nov '20

10 Nov '20

Hi Folks, Check out this short film, "Three Seconds"--won first prize for the Film4Climate video competition. Ellie :)elliestock@aol.com Three Seconds - #Film4Climate 1st Prize Short Film Winner ... yubanet.com/life/three-seconds-film4climate-1st...Three Seconds – #Film4Climate 1st Prize Short Film Winner (Video) by Connect4Climate November 17, 2016 1st Prize Short Film Winner of the Film4Climate Global Video Competition 2016. An epic...

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10/29/2020, Progressing Spirit, Matthew Fox:The Astounding Accomplishments of Julian Norwich; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 08 Nov '20

08 Nov '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7037928153 #yiv7037928153templateBody .yiv7037928153mcnTextContent, #yiv7037928153 #yiv7037928153templateBody .yiv7037928153mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7037928153 #yiv7037928153templateFooter .yiv7037928153mcnTextContent, #yiv7037928153 #yiv7037928153templateFooter .yiv7037928153mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Astounding Accomplishments of Julian Norwich | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox October 29 2020 Most people, if they know anything about Julian of Norwich, know two things. First, that she said “all things will be well, every manner of thing will be well,” a testimony to hope or what Mirabai Starr calls “radical optimism” that arises near the end of her book Showings and ought not to be understood as “spiritual bypass” or denial of suffering. Second, people have heard that she talks about the “motherhood of God” quite often. It has been my privilege to know Julian for at least forty years as I was instrumental in publishing her in our series of “Meditations with” books that Bear & Co. published in the 1980’s to get the mystics into everyday peoples’ hands in a straight-forward manner. Her book, Meditations with Julian of Norwich, authored by Brendan Doyle who translated her work very wisely and carefully from the original fourteenth century English (she was, after all, the first woman writer in English), was only our second book in the Meditations with series. And I wrote a Foreword to it. I frequently taught her over the years. What I did not know then and learned this year while writing my new book on Julian, working from both Doyle’s translation and that of Mirabai Starr who translated the entire Showings, is not only what a powerful and creation-centered mystic Julian is, but also what a prophet she was. This helps to explain why her book was not published for 300 years after her death—partly explained by her being a woman—but also by how thoroughly she resisted the zeitgeist of her time and of what transpired in centuries following her death. I am referring to the utter pre-occupation with redemption that dominated the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and that completely imbued the religious invasions and destruction of indigenous peoples in Africa, the Americas, the Pacific islands. All of it charged up by three notorious papal bulls of the fifteenth century that collectively we know as the “Doctrine of Discovery.” In a nutshell, Julian thoroughly represents a creation spirituality. That lineage thoroughly grounded her during the midst of the worst pandemic in European history. The Black Death first struck in England when she was seven years old and then returned in waves throughout her long lifetime. She remained sane and focused even though she surely lost friends and family members all around her as she continued her life work of writing and rewriting her book over a fifty-year period. While she is very much a pilgrim in the lineage of wisdom literature (which formed the roots of the historical Jesus’ spiritual tradition), St. Benedict, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Mechtild of Magdeburg and Meister Eckhart, she is the only one among this rich heritage that practiced and preached creation spirituality during an on-going pandemic. People around her were freaking out—after all, estimates are that between 35% and 50% of Europeans died from this plague and, lacking science, all sorts of causes for the pandemic were put forth, one of them being that it was a punishment for the sins of humanity. Other excuses included scapegoating Jews and outsiders but Julian shows not a hint of anti-Semitism in her work. The punishment-for-sin trope inspired a number of men to take up flagellation, going from village to village (three villages per day was their goal) and beat themselves publicly for their sins. Is there a connection between this sense of guilt and certain politicians today going from town to town gathering hundreds and thousands of people for rallies to gather without masks and risk illness and death in the process? When one considers the context of belief that nature is wrecking its revenge on humankind for its sins, it is all the more remarkable to read Julian’s profound teachings on the goodness of nature and the godliness of nature. One must read her teachings within the matrix of fear and suspicion of nature that was all around her to realize her amazing courage and independent thought and theology. The rupture between nature and humanity was so traumatic in her time that geologian Thomas Berry says it was the Black Death that effectively ended creation spirituality in Western religion. I propose that this rupture between trusting nature and fearing and blaming nature set the stage for 1) the doctrine of discovery and the invasion and destruction of indigenous religions that was to come in the next two centuries (Columbus set sail in 1492, as we all know) and 2) the prominence of redemption over creation in Protestant and then Catholic theology and 3) the rupture of science and religion that I trace back in a special way to the year 1600 when Giordano Bruno, an ex-Dominican, was tortured (his tongue was cut out among other things) and burned at the stake by Cardinal Bellarmine and the Inquisition for trying to bring Copernicus into the faith (as his brother Aquinas had tried to do with Aristotle in the thirteenth century). Soon after came the Galileo attacks. How might history have been changed—the history of slavery and the stealing of Africans to work plantations in the Americas; the history of indigenous genocides in the Americas and the Pacific islands; the dominance of patriarchal ideology and control fetishes and misogyny; the divorce between science and religion; even the eco-destruction and extinction spasm we are currently undergoing because nature is no longer considered sacred—if Julian’s theology has prevailed? Let us now consider some of Julian’s teachings. On the sacredness of nature “The first good thing is the goodness of nature.” “God is the same thing as nature” and God is “the very essence of nature.” “The goodness in nature is God.” “To behold God in all things is to live in complete joy.” One sees here not only a theology of original blessing and “original goodness” (Aquinas’s term) but a veritable metaphysic of goodness. Julian is urging us to stay focused on goodness—even in and especially in dire times. On Oneing of God and Nature, God and Us There is a oneing (Julian invented this word just as she also invented the word enjoy) between God nature, God and us. “Nature and Grace are in harmony with each other…Neither works without the other.” “God is the Ground, the Substance, the same thing as Naturehood.” “God is the true Father and Mother of Nature.” Faith is “trusting that we are in God and God whom we do not see is in us.” Here she is identifying faith itself both with trust and with trust in pantheism. “The sky and the earth failed at the time of Christ’s dying because he too was part of nature.” A deep cosmic Christ awareness is revealed in this understanding of the crucifixion—it was a cosmic event. On the Motherhood of God “God feels great delight to be our Father and God feels great delight to be our Mother.” “A Mother’s service is nearest, readiest and surest.” “Compassion belongs to the motherhood in tender grace” and “protects, increases our sensitivity, gives life and heals.” “Jesus is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly carried and out of whom we will never come.” Julian does much more theologically speaking than praise God as mother. She applies that concept not only to God the Creator but also to God the Liberator or Savior (developing Christ as Mother) and also to God the Holy Spirit and to the Trinity as a whole. This is a complete deconstruction of the all-patriarchal God—and she is blunt about the implications. “I saw no wrath or vengeance in God” (q.v.). She displaces a hierarchical Deity and a punitive Father God with a motherly and compassionate Deity. Wrath and vengeance come from humans, not from God. Julian doesn’t just deconstruct Divinity but reconstructs it in terms of motherly characteristics which she names explicitly as: compassion, justice, caring, inner strength, service that is “nearest, readiest and surest.” Julian is not just speaking of God as Mother. On non-dualism Julian also deconstructs Patriarchy by insisting on non-dualism. Rosemary Reuther and many other feminist theologians identify dualism as lying at the heart of patriarchal consciousness. Says Julian: There exists a ‘true oneing between the divine and the human.” “In our creation we were knit and oned to God.” It is a “precious oneing.” A “beautiful oneing was made by God between the body and the soul.” “God has forged a glorious union between the soul and the body.” “God willed that we have a twofold nature: sensual and spiritual.” “God is the means whereby our Substance and our Sensuality are kept together so as never to be apart.” “God is in our sensuality.” This brief introduction to Julian’s genius helps explain why she was essentially ignored for 700 years but also why we are ready for her earthy mysticism and feminism and prophetic teachings today. “It is in our nature to reject evil,” she says. She offers us real medicine to stand up to the evils of Misogyny, Matricide (killing of mother earth) and Patriarchy with the “fatalistic self-hatred” (Adrienne Rich) that accompanies it. Clearly, she is a mystic-prophet for our times. ~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Read 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 started Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox. Matthew Fox's upcoming book: Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic – and Beyond along with his book: The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times are the basis of his Virtual Retreat and Teach-In 10/30/20 - 10/31/20 - see details below. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader With the restrictions of gathering because of COVID-19 what are your thoughts on other ways to worship? Can you experience the same benefits by attending an online service or in an outdoor service where everyone is spread out safely? A: By Rev. Matthew Syrdal Dear Reader, I believe COVID-19 will prove to bring many ‘disruptive innovations’ to the church and culture in general. As a pastor, it really overturns and clarifies the usual malaise and lack of imagination (my own included) regarding worship, liturgy and preaching. For one thing it creates space and opportunity to push us beyond our walls into the online social space. The ‘message’ can no longer be for insiders only but outsiders to the theological rubric and habits of a closed loop, insular, church culture. Most religious leaders I know have experimented with shorter, punchier, more meaningful music and messages. I wonder if more religious and spiritual leaders are feeling more emboldened in this liminal, pandemic time, to speak truth to power, to confront issues of systemic racism, and ecological devastation, regardless of the consequences, and if technology can assist that courage? Hybrid forms of online and in-person are pushing us to experiment, innovate, and build our tolerance and learning for creative failures. Online groups and practices can still have a powerful effect, but the flatness of the technology makes it more challenging than in-person community, in my opinion. We have worshiped outdoors all summer in a park and community garden space we developed a couple years ago. Worship went immediately from a private experience with people ‘like us’ to a visible and public experience, right in the middle of our neighborhood witnessed by people of all sorts of different backgrounds, beliefs, and socioeconomic factors. Our first Sunday outdoors, early this summer, I got angry calls from neighbors who said we were too loud. A week later we had neighbors walk across the street to thank us and give us pastries. Some neighbors started attending worship with us because of the need for human connection, belonging in the neighborhood, and a desire for justice and to be meaningfully involved during this pandemic. I have a smaller wilder gathering called Church of Lost Walls, which is affiliated with the Wild Church Network that has been working on an alternative vision for spirituality and community for a number of years before the pandemic. Our gathering is designed for greenspaces, open spaces, parks, and wilder places. Opportunities for more immersive experiences in nature can help people reconnect with a life and world deeper than our frenzied, unraveling human culture. Time outdoors, particularly immersed in wildish places, even if it is a well-touristed State Park or greenspace can help cultivate a certain level of psychological healing and spiritual wholeness in these pathological times. ~ Rev. Matthew Syrdal Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Matthew Syrdal, MDiv. lives in the front range of Colorado with his beautiful family. Matt is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian church (USA), founder and lead guide of WilderSoul and Church of Lost Walls and co-founder of Seminary of the Wild. Matt has been coaching, and guiding since becoming a certified Wild Mind nature-based human development guide through the Animas Valley Institute and is currently training to become a soul initiation guide through the SAIP program. | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | | | | | | The power to improve the lives of others is to many a sacred privilege and one we take seriously at ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit. For well over two decades we have provided an alternative perspective to what much of Christianity has become. Modern Christianity has become more about judging your neighbor and less about loving your neighbor. That reality makes us an essential resource that points back to, and is inspired by, the actual teachings of Jesus. Our resources enrich the spiritual journeys of countless people, provide theologically sound liturgical materials for progressive churches, and broaden the spiritual outlook of 100s of thousands of people. Help us to continue our work by becoming a supporter - donate today! | | | | | | | | | | | | This Week's Featured Author The Church Is Like A Swimming Pool… T’s & Sweats & Hoodies & Tote Bags Want to support the work of our organization while also wearing some great progressive Christian gear? Check out this quote by Bishop John Shelby Spong: The Church is like a swimming pool. Most of the noise comes from the shallow end. * 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 The Origins of the New Testament, Part XIV: What Does Salvation Mean to Paul? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 4, 2010 Paul was a person who discovered in his Christ experience new dimension of life unknown to him before. In that sense he was a classic mystic. Every human experience, however, in order to be shared must pass through the medium of words. There is no other means of communicating content to another. In that process the wordless experience inevitably takes on the dimensions of the human mind with all its limitations. Human beings always reflect the presuppositions of the cultural wisdom of the day. They reflect the level of knowledge that the speaker has achieved. Inevitably they become limited and warped by that transition and are rendered finite and mortal. An experience of God may well be eternal, but no human explanation of that experience will ever be. That is a fact that religious believers in all traditions constantly forget. All sacred scriptures, developed creeds and complex theological doctrines cannot help but compromise truth because nothing about the time-bound words they have to employ can ever be eternal. In a similar way God is by definition beyond the scope of the human mind, which is always captured in time and space. Since a horse cannot escape the limit of its “horseness” to describe what it means to be human, neither can a human being escape the limits of humanity in order to describe who or what God is. Paul wrestles with this reality constantly. Paul talks about his experience of encountering the Christ as that which enabled him to transcend all of his limits and to cross all of those boundaries that separate him from others. In this newfound sense of an expanded humanity he came to a new sense of oneness. Because he was quite sure that this new wholeness resulted from his encounter with the risen Christ, he desperately needed to find the words to explain just how that worked. He was a Greek-speaking Jewish man living in the Mediterranean world of the first century of the Common Era and had no other categories of thought to use except the ones that his world provided. Our task in this column is to search through the time-bound words that he used in order to find a way to separate the eternal experience, which was so obviously real to him, from the pre-suppositions of his time and place in history that he used to explain his Christ experience, most of which have been dismissed by modern knowledge as no longer believable inside our world view. That means that, as students of the New Testament, we must always be engaged in an activity that is not unlike delicate surgery and we will find it a never-ending task. The world does not slow down to give any of us time to adjust. We begin with an analysis of Paul’s view of human life. Paul’s writing reveals a person who is very much aware that something is wrong with humanity in general and with his own humanity in particular. He is quite sure that whatever this distortion is, all human life somehow shares in it. Paul expressed this in his ever-present sense that he was alienated from God, from all others and even from himself. There was indeed a war, he said, that is going on in his members. His Jewish tradition affirmed this sense that human life is somehow separated from God. The Jews, over their long history, had developed an annual fast day, which they observed with great solemnity and which they believed enabled them to acknowledge liturgically what their human reality was. They called this day “Yom Kippur” or “The Day of Atonement.” The observance of “Yom Kippur” involved the slaughter of a carefully chosen sacrificial lamb, the blood from which they then smeared on the mercy seat in that part of the Temple called the Holy of Holies, which they believed was God’s earthly dwelling place. A second Yom Kippur ritual occurred when they symbolically piled their sins on the back of a goat, known as the “scapegoat,” and then drove this sin-bearing creature out into the wilderness, thus leaving them purified and newly at one with God. Similar doctrines of atonement are found in almost every religious tradition the world over because there is a universal human sense of being separate and alone that I believe is born in the emergence of self-consciousness, which only human beings possess. It manifests itself in the idea that none of us is what God intended us to be. The content of that statement varies widely, but the experience is part of what it means to be human. The Jewish version of it was based on the idea that God was the creator of all things and that nothing God made could itself be defined as evil. They had, therefore, to find a way to account for this human definition without blaming God. The ancient creation story in the beginning of the book of Genesis served this purpose well. In that story the goodness of God was upheld by the assertion that God looked out upon all that God had made and pronounced it good. The problem of human alienation and its resultant human evil, therefore, had to be something that human life brought upon itself. In that ancient Jewish story the perfection of God’s creation had been broken by the disobedience of Adam and Eve. As a direct consequence, Adam and Eve, and through them all future human beings, were condemned to live not in “Eden” but “East of Eden,” to borrow a phrase from John Steinbeck. Human beings, this story asserted, were not so distorted that they did not remember their original glory, so they still possessed a yearning to return to the mythical garden where before being expelled they had once lived in the oneness of God. The story asserted, however, that the gates to that garden were forever locked and were now even guarded by an angel with a flaming sword. Human life, the story suggested, could never return to its original status. So in this world of imperfection Cain killed Abel, Jacob cheated Esau out of his birthright, Joseph’s brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery, the Jews escaped starvation by moving to Egypt only to be cruelly treated by their Egyptian overlords and ultimately God was said to have intervened in history to bring these Jews to freedom. That is the way the biblical story unfolded. That story, with that understanding of human life, shaped the liturgical life of the Jewish people. That is what created Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to provide an annual occasion for the Jews to recall the glory of their creation and to face liturgically the fact of their alienation from that original goodness. The perfection of the sacrificial lamb, both physically, in that it could have no blemishes or broken bones, and morally, in that it did not have the power to choose to do evil, represented to them what human life was created to be. So the perfect lamb was offered to God as a substitute for the human life, which was not worthy to be that offering. Human beings, out of their sense of alienation had to come to God only when they had been cleansed by “the blood of the perfect lamb of God.” Paul, shaped by this Yom Kippur understanding, interpreted Jesus under the symbol of Yom Kippur’s the “Lamb of God” who had the power to “take away the sins of the world.” He saw the death of Jesus on the cross to be analogous to the slaughter of the lamb on Yom Kippur. It offered a doorway back to God for all people. This is not only what salvation was all about to Paul, but that is also what Paul believed he experienced in the person of Christ. He accepted this gracious gift, undeserved and freely given, as that which had rescued him from “the bondage of sin.” Thus he climaxed his theological argument in Romans by proclaiming that now “nothing in all creation can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” To offer this compelling gift to the world was what fueled his missionary fervor. We live today, however, on the other side of Charles Darwin, whose thought has destroyed most of Paul’s presuppositions. For Darwin there never was a perfect creation. Life rather evolved over billions of years from a single cell into self-conscious complexity. Without original perfection there could have been no human fall into sin. If there was no human fall, there was no need for a divine rescue. No one can be rescued from a fall that never happened or be restored to a status one has never possessed. So the basis upon which Paul has constructed his concept of salvation has become inoperative. The universal experience that Paul sought to address may well still be real, but his explanation has been destroyed by the march of time. Students of the life sciences have identified the drive to survive as a universal characteristic present in all living things. Survival drives adaptability. It is seen when plants gravitate to the sun, when vines snake across the forest floor in search of the tallest trees to which they then attach themselves, when desert cacti develop a capacity to store water, when fresh water plants develop elaborate systems to filter salt in tidal rivers and when wasps and ants in the jungle develop mutual defense alliances. This drive for survival is instinctual, not conscious in plant or animal life. In self-conscious human life, however, this drive to survive rises to our awareness and is installed as the highest human value, making us the world’s first self-conscious, survival-oriented creatures. Everything in human life is bent to the service of our survival and that in turn inevitably makes human beings self-centered. This is not the result of some prehistoric or mythological fall, this is in the nature of our biology. Out of this survival mentality all of our fears about “others,” our xenophobia and our prejudices arise. It is out of our survival needs that we fight wars, enslave and segregate those who are different, denigrate women, abuse homosexuals. That behavior religion has dubbed “sin,” the result of “the fall.” Can one find salvation by being rescued from this, as Paul seemed to believe? I do not think so. We can, however, find wholeness in the experience of being lifted beyond these boundaries. I am now convinced that this was the heart of what the Jesus experience was. Next week, in our final column on Romans, we will seek to tell the Christ story as Paul experienced it, but against the background of this analysis of what it means to be human. It still rings for me at least with authenticity and integrity. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements There is still time to sign up! Aquinas and Julian of Norwich: Applying Creation Spirituality to Politics, Pandemics and Preserving the Earth 2020 Teach-In and Virtual Retreat with Matthew Fox and Friends Friday Evening Oct 30th - Saturday Oct 31st, 2020 Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers to a Teach-in and Virtual Retreat with Matthew Fox and Friends: Three Lectures, Q and A with Matthew Fox 1. Politics and Spirituality: Thomas Aquinas on the Common Good (Fri eve) 2. Julian of Norwich: Deepening Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic (Sat) 3. Julian and Aquinas on the Future of Mother Earth and the Human Species (Sat) Purchase the book here. Register for the event here. When you register you also receive a recording of the entire event. Read On... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Global Buzz for November
by ICA International 06 Nov '20

06 Nov '20

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: November 2020 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-20/2020-11-01.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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