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Re: [Oe List ...] Colleagues in CA, WA OR--fires?
by Zoe Barley 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

I think Ken worked on this one (Pentecost ) but he denies all knowledge so who knows. Sent using myEarthLink On Wed Sep 16 17:12:56 MDT 2020 James Wiegel via OE wrote: With Isobel's post, I was reminded of a song from Baptist Vacation Bible School that had the line in it "See the fire burning Lord, Somebody touched me" And I got wondering if someone is writing some new songs that capture these days. Then I thought of 2 old ones from the composite song book: Pentecost Hymn and Prayer . . . PENTECOST HYMN Tune: There's New World Coming Like the sound of heaven with the rushing of the wind Came the fire a‑burning and new life was given to men. The young see visions and the old dream dreams Born of fire, filled with power, for all men. To the light from darkness, and to freedom from fear Building from the ashes into one community Peter, Paul, and Luther, Augustine and Benedict Born of fire, filled with power, for all men. With despair abounding and a lack of hope around Still the Spirit comes to the ones who birth the day Giving breath and being to the ones who give their death Born of fire, filled with power, for all men. For the coming ages and the journey of mankind We claim the promise that the fire give life to them Deciding freely to live on behalf of all Born of fire, filled with power, for all men. PRAYER Tune: Aravah (Hebrew) When I see my life ever is torn And loved ones violated And my failures are daily reborn Then sorrow with heaven is weighted Yet I can gladly em-brace every hour And praise God’s inequity I can sing of my blessings that shower My joy inexpressible be. Now here I stand battered to and fro The chaos within yet surrounding I cry out my want and the lack that I know And power from with- out feel uplifting. The weight of the world on my shoulders I bear I echo the voices that cry The path of Mankind with my agony bent And my God I’ll fight on ‘til I die. Jim Wiegel (http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=123) The unknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plain sailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 (geo:0,0?q=401%20North%20Beverly%20Way%2CTolleson%2C%20Arizona%2085353) 623-363-3277 (tel:6233633277) jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com (mailto:jfwiegel@yahoo.com) www.partnersinparticipation.com (http://www.partnersinparticipation.com) On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, 03:57:28 PM MST, isobeljimbish--- via OE < oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net) > wrote: Dear colleagues on the Way, The Australian colleagues are thinking about you as you suffer and grieve over loss of life and property; with the onslaught of the bush fires on your west coast. We understand the horror and pain you are experiencing, coming from our own horrendous past summer. Thinking of you all, With our fondest love, Isobel Bishop Isobel Bishop Mob. 0412 129 425 (tel:0412129425) On 17 Sep 2020, at 12:20 am, RICHARD HOWIE via OE < oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net) > wrote: Keeping you all in prayer. Our cream colored skies here are caused by the smoke high up in the atmosphere. Take good care, Ellen and Dick Sent from my iPad > On Sep 15, 2020, at 11:33 AM, Seth Longacre via OE < > > > > > oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net) > > > wrote: > > The smoke is seriously no joke. We closed up all the windows days ago and aren’t letting the kitties out, but even with an air filter, the smoke is giving me headaches. I think most of Oregon is like here in Ashland — everyone who can be is in lockdown and then there are the worst off who’ve been evacuated and are living in their cars in parking lots with no escape at all from the smoke. But we’re lucky. The majority of those who’ve lost their homes here in So Oregon are those on the low end of the socioeconomic scale — whole mobile home parks have been razed, the fire is not yet contained, most non-essential businesses are closed, there’s little to know public transport running. On the upside, donations pour in to several locations, the schools and several churches are providing food and shelter, everyone from cellphone companies to massage therapists are showing up and volunteering services to those in need. And some rain is predicted for Thursday night and Friday. We may run out and dance in the streets. Sent from one of my iThingees, please excuse brevity and typos > On Sep 15, 2020, at 08:22, Ellie Stock via OE < > > > > > oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net) > > > wrote: > > > Just wondering what the front line news about the fires is from folks living in CA, WA, and OR. We're thinking about you, wondering how you are doing, and hoping you are staying safe. The news media accounts of neighborhoods destroyed and intense smoke air pollution is heart-rending. > > Ellie Stock > > > > > elliestock(a)aol.com (mailto:elliestock@aol.com) > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > > > > > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net) > > > > > > > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net > > _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net) http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > > > > > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net) > > > > > > > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net > > _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net (mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net) http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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9/17/20, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer: A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, Part 2; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

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and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 .yiv7334032866mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 .yiv7334032866mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templatePreheader .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templatePreheader .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateHeader .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateHeader .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateBody .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateBody .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateFooter .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent, #yiv7334032866 #yiv7334032866templateFooter .yiv7334032866mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A White Man Makes the Case for Reparations, Part 2 | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer September 17, 2020“Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world, and the high priest called Pope, and in his name the King and Queen Doña Juana our lords, in his place, as superiors and lords and kings of these islands and this Tierra-firme. If you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command.” These words, written by both the Pontiff in Rome and the King of Spain and enforceable by their conquering armies, would be among the very first words spoken by European settlers to indigenous peoples in the New World. They come from an official document that would have been carried by a conquering explorer to the Americas. The document was entitled The Requerimiento. It was an amalgamation of both religious and royal power that argued that from the time of Peter, God intended for the Church and its titular head, namely the Pope, to rule over the Earth, all lands and all peoples. The document begins by stating that the Pope owns the land upon which the document is now being read. It tells of other lands newly conquered, and within them the conversion of inhabitants who were proselytized by Roman priests and who converted to Christianity. It says they willingly ceded control of those lands to the Pope and his designees, the King and Queen of Spain. Having shared news of other lands and inhabitants acquiescing with immediacy, it demands that the peoples of this new land do the same. The words I quoted above come at the end of this document. Imagine if you will a native people, having spent millennia in that place without encounters of any kind from European conquerors, one day seeing this new tribe. The complexion is odd. The language unrecognizable. And yet, in a language that sounded like gibberish, they would be told to convert “with immediacy”, cede ownership and control of the land to the rightful owner the Pope, or prepare to be at war with the church. This war would end up with the justifiable enslavement of all – including wives and children. THAT is how white Europeans entered these shores. When I write as a white man about calling for reparations, this is the source and origin of the damages for which we bear responsibility and for which we seek repair. The question I want to ask in this essay is this: how far removed from that source are we. Is it a distant relic of the past from which we are now utterly disconnected? Or is there a lingering thread through time that ties us intimately not only to its worldview but to the hubris and arrogance necessary to believe it is justifiable? There has never been a time after we whites occupied these shores when both white religious authority and white political power failed to conspire to instantiate white power, white privilege, and white supremacy. Yes, there would be voices of resistance (even white ones) to this ideology from the start – but they would never be sufficient to slow its progress, much less end its power. This second essay will use but a very few (of countless thousands) examples of how that ideology persists and evolves, taking ever new forms; how that ideology created not merely racism but systemic racism that eventually even white people lost the ability (and desire) to see or mitigate; and how those conditions undermine the argument that whites today do not benefit from nor are they responsible for the sins of the past. This is a mere sampling of the moral and legal claims made by whites that began with first contact and continue to this day. Damage has been done. We whites today are both responsible for and beneficiaries of that damage; and the act of repairing that damage – of making reparations – falls to us. Why us? Because none before us has taken up the responsibility of repairing the damage. That repair is crucial to the emergence of equity, restoration, and reconciliation. I can’t provide deep context for the documents or public statements I reference in this short essay. I will simply record them as given with minimal commentary and let them speak for themselves. As you read this, ask yourself at what point in our history was fair distribution of wealth and power between the races actuated? We have already seen the language of the Requerimiento – a legal and theological document that gave whites sole right to possess land and enslave anyone refusing to worship Jesus. Let us move forward now through our history. Louisiana revised their slave codes in 1852, and the new code included these provisions: “no slave can possess anything in his own right, or dispose in any way of the produce of his industry, without the consent of his master;” “slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate;” “no slave shall be permitted to buy, sell, negotiate, trade or exchange any kind of goods or effects…under penalty of forfeiting the whole;” “all persons who shall teach, or permit or cause to be taught, any slave in this State to read or write, shall, on conviction,…be imprisoned.” In 1705 Virginia passed a slave code establishing that any runaway slave could be dismembered. >From the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court: “In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants (italics added for emphasis), …were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.” A little further on: “The legislation of the different colonies furnishes positive and indisputable proof of this fact. It would be tedious, in this opinion, to enumerate the various laws they passed on this subject.” I only cited two examples of such laws. Judge Taney wrote in his opinion to the court in this landmark case that they were too numerous to cite. Every one of those laws written by then two centuries before and since were sufficient to perpetuate white skin privilege by law and be upheld by the highest court in the land. >From the Requerimiento to the colonies to the state constitutions to the Supreme Court, now over three hundred years of legal precedence conspired to deprive blacks of voting rights, property ownership, commerce, and education. We continue with post-civil war rhetoric and legislation. Here we simply need to demonstrate that the Emancipation Proclamation did not change the economic outlook even if some of the laws were rewritten. In 1901, political leaders from Alabama gathered for a Constitutional Convention of the State of Alabama. The Journal that recorded the proceedings notes the following argument put forth: “…there is no higher duty resting upon us…than that which requires us to embody in the fundamental law such provisions as will enable us to protect the sanctity of the ballot in every portion of the state.” A voting rights act in 1965 attempted to end what had become rampant, overt and legal disenfranchisement of black voters. But since 1965 legal means like gerrymandering, closing polls or having fewer voting booths in heavily black districts, along with mass incarceration have rendered that bill useless. And then there is this: “They want three and a half billion dollars, for the Post Office. Now they need that money to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these million and millions of ballots. But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.” This was spoken just days ago by the President of our country – an admission that he will choke the Postal Services of money needed to count and collect ballots cast during a global pandemic. The continual and methodical subjugation of the black vote is a primary care and concern for white men in power. Black voters scare the hell out of white men in power. What Donald Trump said in his press conference about dismantling the Post Office is eerily reminiscent of the white Alabama politician saying “…there is no higher duty…. than to protect the sanctity of the ballot.” Mr. Trump is only doing what white men have conspired to do for and with one another from the founding of this country. Until 1968, white resistance to black empowerment included creating housing regulations that forbade or prohibited the sale of property to black families. The first known such covenant was written in Minneapolis in 1910 and read this way: “…the premises shall not at any time be conveyed, mortgaged or leased to any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian, of African blood or descent.” From there, one Henry Scott would become the president of the Seven Oaks Corp. in Minneapolis and would put that same language into thousands of deeds across the city. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was an attempt to stop this discrimination. Housing discrimination was a means of prohibiting black laborers from accruing wealth over a lifetime commensurate with their sweat, talent, and abilities. It was legally enforced discrimination that had a profound effect on how wealth could be accrued and transferred to future generations. After the act passed, it was proven to have very little effect. Very few violations were ever investigated and even fewer were prosecuted. In order to get enough votes to pass, the Dirksen amendment was written into the bill that greatly weakened the enforcement power of the federal government. Former HUD Secretary Patricia Harris once said of the Act that HUD was reduced to “asking the discovered lawbreaker whether he wants to discuss the matter.” (US Congress, 1978). Those who would successfully prove and prosecute wrongdoing could only be awarded $1,000 recompense for damages. By 1980, only five plaintiffs received awards in excess of $3,500. There is a footnote to this. In July of 2012 the Federal Government reached settlement with Wells Fargo bank, forcing them to pay a penalty of $184.3 million in relief to homeowners to resolve fair lending claims. It was discovered that from 2004-2009 they practiced wholesale discrimination in lending practices involving black and Hispanic borrowers. Having been denied prime lending rates ONLY BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE (it was proven), when the market collapsed their homes were foreclosed on at rates much higher than their white counterparts. This was not the slave era, dear reader. This was ten years ago. This has been anything but comprehensive. It is a mere tip of the iceberg in terms of legally defended and morally repulsive tactics used from the founding of this country to the present day to compromise the voting power and earning potential of black Americans by whites in power, who used that legally enforced discrimination to maintain control over wealth and its distribution. The damage we are seeking to repair when we talk about white power, white privilege, and white supremacy isn’t just about slavery. Yes, slavery is a part of the legacy of forced disenfranchisement and legalized wealth disempowerment. But it didn’t begin with slavery and it didn’t end there. America has always let whites be educated differently, given whites unfair access to property, favored white voters, paid whites different salaries, while denying people of color access to education, depriving them of the right to vote, and writing laws that prevented them from their full earning potential and property ownership. There is not a time in America when the actions of whites in power failed to compromise the earning power and potential of the black race. Reparations are owed. Damage has been done and repairs need to be made. If you are white in America today – you owe reparations. You have benefited from the system whether you actively constructed the system or not. In every election cycle, we whites have held fairly or unfairly a majority and ensured that the leaders we elect and the laws they write will fail to level the playing field. That is not an accident. Reparations is not a question of if, but of how and when. That is what I will talk about in my third installment of this series.~ Rev. Dr. John 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 David Does God have to heal all the people who ask me to pray for them? A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear David,If God were like us, with an ego, I would say, “God doesn’t have to do anything,” but this has not been my experience of God. In the world around me, I see God in the Life that is happening in you and in me, and in every living thing. Our creation is God, generating life and learning and possibility every single moment. Along the way, we get hurt, mistakes happen, events take place in ways we don’t like. Prayers for healing are some of the best prayers we can pray. It is never wrong to pray for a miracle or for a cure, but prayers for healing create space for outcomes we might not be able to see initially. Healing is a space where any number of things may happen, and all of them are movements toward wholeness. I pray for the health and wholeness of all beings each time I remember to -- and especially when I am struggling with the enormity of injustice or heart-break or another hardship that feels so, so wrong. When we pray for the healing of others (and for ourselves), we are asking for God – the source of unfathomable Love – to bring us into wholeness with that love. I don’t believe these prayers are ever “wasted,” because each one reminds us of our own intention to strive toward this sense of love and wholeness in our own life, and in our walk with others. I hope you will keep praying healing prayers, when you’re requested to do so. Life and Love are ancient and wise. In ways we understand, and in ways we do not, they are always conspiring to bring us into divine wholeness.~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part VIII: The Corinthian Letters Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 10, 2009 Paul was a complicated mixture of many things. He was a missionary who traveled hundreds of miles by foot and by boat to tell his story. He was, as we noted last week when examining the letter to the Galatians, an intense zealot who would fight vigorously to defend his understanding of the gospel. He was a theologian who sought to put his experience of God into rational thought forms so that they could be passed on. Perhaps above all things, however, Paul was a pastor who sought to smooth out disputes, confront evil and ease hurt feelings in the congregations that he founded and served. When we examine his correspondence with the church in Corinth, it is this pastoral side that dominates. Even when he discusses issues like the resurrection, his discussion is pastorally oriented as he seeks to ease in the people of the Corinthian church their anxiety connected with mortality. The first thing to note about the two Corinthian letters is that they appear to be composites of a more extensive correspondence that perhaps reached a total of four or even five Pauline letters. By a careful analysis of our two remaining epistles to the Corinthians, scholars have come to the conclusion that these “lost letters,” to which Paul actually refers in the epistles that we do have, have been included, at least in part, in what we call II Corinthians. These scholars point to such passages as II Cor.6:1-7:1, II Cor.10-13 and even in the extraneous verses in Cor.11:32-33 that appear to be inserts into the texts that actually break the flow of Paul’s argument. Despite this strange construction, however, scholars find no evidence to suggest that all of II Corinthians is the authentic work of Paul. We need to remember that preserving letters in the first century was an inexact and costly procedure of hand copying, and that no one had yet assigned the status of “Holy Scripture” to the writings of Paul. Maybe that is why they preserved only what they believed was most important. When we turn to the content of these two Corinthian epistles themselves, we find Paul, the pastor, dealing with human beings who are acting like human beings. Paul knows what every pastor knows, namely, that congregations are not made up of angels. At the same time congregations learn very quickly that ordination does not bestow perfection on their ordained leader. Pastoral care is the sensitive attempt to bring wholeness out of an exchange between human passion and human insecurity. It is a delicately nuanced balancing act, the job of which is to enhance the humanity of all who are involved. If we need a text to describe the goal of all pastoral activity, it would be the Fourth Gospel’s definition of Jesus’ purpose: “I have come,” John’s Jesus says, “that they might have life and have it abundantly.” That is finally both the mission of the Christian Church and the hoped-for outcome in every pastoral situation. Abundant life, please note, does not always mean happiness or even the easing of pain. Many people seek wholeness in quite destructive ways, with addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex and even success being just a few of them. Sometimes abundant life becomes possible only in confrontation and brokenness. Real pastoral care is not about making it feel good; it is about helping wholeness to be created. Paul understood that and every pastor must learn it sooner or later. Wholeness is seen in the freedom to be, in the ability to escape the survival mentality that inevitably locks us into self-centeredness. Wholeness is found in the maturity of being able to live for another by giving our love away. It will be through the lens of that understanding of pastoral care that I will seek to explore the issues found in the epistles to the Corinthians. The Corinthian congregation appears to have had more than its share of pastoral needs and even to have exasperated Paul on more than one occasion. Some of the issues to which he refers are party lines and divisions among the people. Some claimed loyalty to Paul, some to Apollos and still others to Peter. Beyond that their rowdy behavior had begun to distort the worship of the people. In that early part of Christian history the Eucharist was begun with a community meal called “The Agape Feast.” The Corinthians, however, had turned this common meal into a gluttonous orgy that left some of the poor hungry. Then they had turned the Eucharistic wine into an occasion of public drunkenness. Paul obviously needed to speak to this behavior. There was also a dispute in the congregation about the meat served at this “Agape Feast.” It had been bought at a local butcher shop where, in this pagan society, it had been slaughtered in ceremonial offerings to the idols of the people. Could Christians eat meat that had been offered to idols? Some Corinthian followers of Jesus were offended by this idea. Still others had become enamored with Paul’s message of salvation as the ultimate expression of God’s grace and the conviction that this grace, so abundantly and freely given, was not dependent on their personal behavior. This meant that they had now become what the church came to call “anti-nomianism,” that is, some were suggesting that the more they sinned, the more God’s grace abounded. This stance appeared to render any sense of personal ethical responsibility completely meaningless. Still others seemed to have a hierarchy of value associated with certain activities of the synagogue. Prophets who shared their prophetic words with the congregation were deemed to be of less value than those who claimed the gift of “glossolalia” or “speaking in tongues,” that is, the ability to utter words that only God could understand. This was, they seemed to think, the highest gift of all and thus the most to be honored. If this were not enough for one pastor to deal with, there was also a gender dispute going on. Some Corinthian women seemed to take seriously Paul’s words, in his earlier letter to the Galatians, that “in Christ there is neither male nor female, but all are one.” This new freedom and equality for women obviously challenged the patriarchal value system of that ancient world. Some women, quite clearly, pushed these boundaries well beyond even Paul’s comfort level. No one, not even Paul, escapes his or her cultural prejudices completely. The extent of this boundary pushing becomes obvious when Paul asserts his threatened male authority by saying, “I forbid a woman to have authority over a man!” Since no one forbids what has never happened, these women were overtly claiming authority over men in the life of the church. While Paul’s prejudiced humanity is in full display in this last conflict, on most of the others he rises to the pastoral challenge. Paul begins by telling them that Christ alone is their foundation and that any division of loyalties among the followers of various leaders was based on the inability to understand that these leaders were simply “servants through which you believed — I planted, Apollos watered, but only God gave the increase.” In regard to the Eucharist, Paul upbraids the members of this congregation for eating and drinking in such a way that some are hungry and some are drunk. He urges them to eat and drink in their own homes and to recognize that the act of breaking bread and drinking wine in the Eucharistic feast is “a participation in the body of Christ” and what his life of love and sacrifice was all about. The Eucharist, he proclaims, is a liturgical way in which they participate in Christ’s wholeness. Paul takes anti-nomianism on directly, reminding them of their mutual responsibility to one another. He suggests that immorality, at its heart, was to treat another human being as a thing to be used rather than as a person to be loved. He defuses the debate about meat offered to idols by saying that since idols are nothing, meat offered to idols is meat offered to nothing, so there is no prohibition as to its use. He continues, however, by stating that this stance misses the point of this dispute. “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful but not all things build up.” It was a subtle, but powerful, distinction. The evil in this debate, he continues, is the lack of sensitivity on the part of some to the feelings of others. Candy is not evil, but to offer candy to one battling with obesity is not loving. It does not build up the person or fulfill the goal of Christ. Finally, Paul gets to the debate on spiritual gifts. There is no hierarchy of gifts, he argues, for all gifts are in the service of the same spirit and are expressions of the same God who inspires us all. The gifts of the people offered in worship are necessary to the building up of all, he suggests. Every gift is for the benefit of the whole community that he calls the body of Christ. Following that analogy of the body, he moves on to suggest that their bickering as to whose gift is the most important makes as much sense as a debate between the eye, the ear, the hand and the foot as to which part of the body has the higher value. This sets the stage for Paul’s writing of what is surely the most beautiful, the most memorable and the most quoted passage in the entire Pauline corpus. After describing the body in which the various organ and parts work together for the good of the whole, Paul says, “I will show you a more excellent way.” Then he begins his famous ode to love. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” He continues by defining love as patient, kind, not boastful or jealous and never ending. He recognized that all human knowledge is partial. No one sees God face to face. We all see “through a glass darkly.” He urges the Corinthians to put away childish things and to grow up. Finally, he concludes “that faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” It is Paul at his insightful best.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Days and Nights of M-C-P
by Dawn Collins 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

Dear Colleagues, Days in the city of Denver are a bit hazy now with a cloud cover that gives way to a dark inky night. I happened to look out in awe transfixed at the window last week as I viewed a beautiful, pearlescent orange quarter moon in the east in the sky... After observing this wondrous sight with a solo obeisance of one, I remembered the plight of bicoastal colleagues and folks in the mountains to the west of me; and a couple whom I know in the hills of Boulder that had rebuilt after the last conflagration. I said a prayer for them and for the lost lives and former safety, and security of towns, homes, livelihoods in these times full of an intrusive "new normal" afflicting the environs of our nation. We join the host of countries which have been sorely affected by pandemic and climate change... Yes, times of trial and testing are upon us yet we rely on tradition to spring us forward through the open gateway to the future.We continue to hold before us images and perform actions that sustain us expectantly while waiting patiently for the object of our supreme devotion to birth the new thing... Kindfully yours,dawn collins We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1 John 4:19

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Corrections to OBaPT Links
by Dawn Collins 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

Oops! Looks like a slip of the eyes and the fingers occurred when transmitting the links for the previous email of On Becoming a Practical Theologian. Here are the corrected versions. https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21011.pdf for the pamphlet alone https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21013.pdf for the Addendum alone https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21014.pdf for both together in one piece Tested each link also and they should work O.K. Would appreciate any thoughts on how these spirit tools might be helpful to you... Kindfully yours,dawn collins We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first,- 1 John 4:19

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9/10/20, Progressing Spirit, Lauren Van Ham: When Everything Becomes Sacred; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 10 Sep '20

10 Sep '20

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateBody .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent, #yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateBody .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateFooter .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent, #yiv5842615638 #yiv5842615638templateFooter .yiv5842615638mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When Everything Becomes Sacred | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham September 10, 2020 And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Hebrew Scriptures, Micah 6:8 The flower is always the bud’s undoing. Let go then. Step into the river lean into the wind let the strength of the earth rise through you. Watch your fingertips burst into bloom. - Pavithra K Mehta At Progressing Spirit, we get nudged and inspired to walk Jesus’s talk. In the last few weeks alone, we’ve looked at making reparations, exercising our humility, using our prophetic imagination, learning from each apocalypse and taking lessons on engagement from the late Congressman John Lewis. Thank you, Authors, Scholars, Teachers and Pastors! These weekly reads provide reassurance and stimulation – a steady reminder that we are able, that the time for engaging is now, and that we are part of a good community, caring and struggling together. In a phone call not long before his transition to the next world, American filmmaker Ava DuVernay asked Representative John Lewis what she should do. She was feeling pulled in many directions and every issue felt important. “Ava,” he responded, “Do Everything.” At first glance it’s comical, right? And completely unrealistic. Or borderline abusive? Thomas Merton, another non-violent peace activist wrote, “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.” But when held in a different way, I feel a powerful Zen koan in Lewis’s words. Perhaps this mantra, “Do Everything,” is interchangeable with “Be Everything.” I’m thinking about the Living System, of which we’re a part. Imagine a forest, miles and miles of prairie grass roots, the mycelial web, a bee hive. In any of these there is the organism itself, and there is the larger network. The tree is itself, and it is also every other tree, as it sends messages and aid in one moment, and receives messages and support in another. There is an incredible willingness on the part of the trees, grasses, fungi, bees, to participate in the larger picture. Then again, if they sever communal ties, life will be much harder, and quite short. In the Living System, we observe how Life reveres Life. In the colonizing or extractive system, we feel the lack of reverence. Not only is there incredible disregard for the larger network, there is fear. An unwillingness to be curious, to be expanded, to develop intimacy. My friends and teachers at Movement Generation, an Ecology & Justice project based in Oakland, CA put it like this: Story + Land = Place Story + Land + Sacredness = Home And then they add: The colonial mind is homeless There is an incredible willingness on the part of the trees, grasses, fungi, bees, to participate in the larger picture. Then again, if they sever communal ties, life will be much harder, and quite short. In the Living System, we observe how Life reveres Life. In the colonizing or extractive system, we feel the lack of reverence. Not only is there incredible disregard for the larger network, there is fear. An unwillingness to be curious, to be expanded, to develop intimacy. But when held in a different way, I feel a powerful Zen koan in Lewis’s words. Perhaps this mantra, “Do Everything,” is interchangeable with “Be Everything.” I’m thinking about the Living System, of which we’re a part. Imagine a forest, miles and miles of prairie grass roots, the mycelial web, a bee hive. In any of these there is the organism itself, and there is the larger network. The tree is itself, and it is also every other tree, as it sends messages and aid in one moment, and receives messages and support in another. In a phone call not long before his transition to the next world, American filmmaker Ava DuVernay asked Representative John Lewis what she should do. She was feeling pulled in many directions and every issue felt important. “Ava,” he responded, “Do Everything.” At first glance it’s comical, right? And completely unrealistic. Or borderline abusive? Thomas Merton, another non-violent peace activist wrote, “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.” In the Living System “everything” and “everyone” is biodiversity. Biodiversity is our best defense, and it’s regenerative! While the extractive system mines and mono-crops the minerals and much needed microbes from healthy soil in order to do one thing, a biodiverse system uses the complexity of “everything” to fulfill a variety of needs like replenishing oxygen, sequestering carbon in forests, pollinating crops, and creating compost from waste. In Hebrew scripture, the prophets arrive on the scene to disrupt the colonizing system, the extractive system. Their words call out hypocrisy and point to corruption. This was hard work then, and it’s especially hard work now, as most of us have experienced how our prophetic voice only gets us so far before we see ourselves also complicit in a very tangled system. It’s been designed that way; but it doesn’t mean we should go back to sleep. Instead, we need to return to what’s sacred. The regenerative system puts sacredness at the center. It recognizes relationships and the labor of living as valuable. The labor of living? Yes, the energy we (humans, birds, vegetables, algae, all of us) take from the sun, and turn into flowers… or flight… or answering emails, making soup, running a marathon, singing a lullaby, facilitating a group discussion, you get the idea. The labor of living is what all of us do, and all of it holds value in the larger system. But which system? If we are feeling stuck in place and utterly homeless, it’s a good indication that we’re in the colonizing system (Story + Land = Place). And if you’re feeling it, you’re not alone. I’m feeling it too. In my conversations with people living around the world, the unifying theme is how vital it has become to protect the Living System, to regard the sacredness of all life and to care for one another and all species in a way that reflects how deeply we need one another. Reflecting on a protected natural space near her home, author Jenny Odell describes it this way, Our fates are linked, to each other, to the places where we are, and everyone and everything that lives in them. …It’s scary, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. That same relationship to the richness of place lets me partake of it too, allowing me to shape-shift like the flock of birds, to flow inland and out to sea, to rise and fall, to breathe. It’s a vital reminder that as a human, I am heir to this complexity - that I was born, not engineered. That’s why, when I worry about the estuary’s diversity, I am also worrying about my own diversity - about having the best, most alive parts of myself paved over by a ruthless logic of use. When I worry about the birds, I am also worrying about watching all my possible selves go extinct. And when I worry that no one will see the value of these murky waters, it is also a worry that I will be stripped of my own unusable parts, my own mysteries and my own depths.Humans made the extractive system, and humans can un-make it. We need to contest our current systems of power and return to one where sacredness is at the center. When sacredness is the measurement of value, “everything” is not too much, but rather wonderfully, and necessarily diverse, supporting of all parts of the Living System. Like that hive of bees, we each participate in “everything” so that everyone is supported. Let’s do everything so that one day – not too far away – we are living and working in an economy that has been designed for the ones who are most excluded (the “least of these,” Matthew 25:40), so that sufficiency and generosity holds us all. Let’s do everything so that one day – this one feels more distant – we have learned how to navigate hurt and harm without prisons and police so that there can be no more prisons and police.Both of these examples might magnify the grief of the moment. And it’s very true that jumping to solutions too quickly is a form of denial, so let’s, please be honest and gentle with our grief and our anger. And then, just like the tree, sending and receiving aid and support for every other tree, let’s accept the invitation to lean in and embody what the Hebrew prophets, Jesus and many other brave change-makers have modeled. Let’s do everything!~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice, and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader I was really inspired by Rep. Alexia Ocasio-Cortez’s response to the insults of Rep. Ted Yoho, but I was equally disappointed by Yoho’s pseudo-apology. What makes a good apology? A: By Brian D. McLaren Dear Reader,First, for those who haven’t seen or read AOC’s eloquent, firm, and gracious response, you can find it here. And if you haven’t seen Rep. Yoho’s apology, you can find it here.Rep. Yoho’s apology really is a case study in what not to do, and I winced when I saw it, remembering times I’ve made the same tired old mistakes.He begins by touting his virtue: “I am a man of my word.” He avoids addressing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez directly, thereby increasing the dehumanization. Instead he says, perfunctorily and with no specificity, “I arise to apologize…” He minimizes the gravity of his offense, as if “abrupt manner” was the offense, and as if the offense would not have been as grave if he had called her a “disgusting f*cking b*tch” less abruptly. Then he mentions being married with two daughters and “being very cognizant of my language,” a common ploy used by men of weak character to hide behind the women in their families. He admits to “offensive language” but minimizes it by saying these words “were attributed to me by the press,” as if the whole problem is the press’s fault, and then further exonerates himself by saying his words “were never spoken to my colleagues,” and apologizes for those who misconstrued them that way — a clever but obvious dodge of the real issue, not to mention a classic act of blame-shifting.He then recalls being on food stamps when he was young, and then becomes teary in empathy for… himself! The final insult of his non-apology comes when he claims the moral high ground: “I cannot apologize for my passion, or for loving my God, my family, and my country.” Having hid behind women and poverty, he then hides behind religion, family, and the flag to defend himself. It was a truly reprehensible performance that reflects mistakes many of us have made in apologizing authentically.The best guidelines I’ve ever encountered for a legitimate apology come from V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), author of The Vagina Monologues. She recommends a four-step process for apology in her powerful book The Apology and in her TED talk, “The Profound Power of an Authentic Apology”:1. Say what, in detail, you did.2. Tell the story of what made you capable of doing what you did, not as an excuse, but as an explanation. In so doing, you show that you have done some inner work of reflection so you can address the deeper roots of your action, which makes you less likely to repeat it in the future.3. Feel what your victim felt.4. Take responsibility and make amends.So, I humbly offer this fix for Rep. Yoho, inserting numbers for the different parts of the apology, in thanks to V:I need to publicly apology to this House, and especially to my esteemed colleague, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 1) I recently called Rep. Ocasio-Cortez a filthy and dehumanizing name. There is no excuse for my action. Then, when caught, I denied it, another inexcusable failure of character. 2) I have examined myself about how I came to this place. I realize that I am an arrogant man and when I encounter a strong and intelligent woman who disagrees with me or my ideology, I want to bring her down in some way. I have never admitted or adequately addressed this toxic masculinity in myself. Now I must. 3) I can only imagine how many other arrogant and childish men my gifted colleague has had to face to get to where she is today, and I feel deep regret about adding to her pain, and the pain of other women. In addition, I regret setting a terrible example for other men, and I must change going forward. 4) I take full responsibility for my actions, and I would like to ask my colleague what it will take to make appropriate amends so I can grow as a human being and a member of Congress, and so that together, we can work for a better Congress, a better country, and a better world. I failed my colleague, this Congress, and my responsibility as a leader to set a positive example, and I am sorry.We can only imagine what a difference an apology like this could have made. May we all have the courage and wisdom to apologize authentically the next time we do wrong and cause someone harm.~ Brian D. McLaren Read and share online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. He is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. A leader in the Convergence Network he also works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story. Other recent books include: The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part VII: Paul's Early Epistles, I Thessalonians and Galatians Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 3, 2009In our Origins of the New Testament series, I now turn to the epistles of Paul since he was the first author to write any part of the New Testament. My plan is to divide the authentic writings of Paul into three broad categories. There is what I call “the early Paul,” best seen through his first two epistles, I Thessalonians and Galatians; then there is what I call “the middle Paul,” best illustrated through his most familiar works, I and II Corinthians and Romans; and, finally there is “the late Paul,” best observed through the epistles known as Philemon and Philippians. Please note that these seven epistles constitute what scholars all but universally agree are the authentic letters of Paul. I will examine Paul in his various roles as pastor and as theologian. This Pauline segment of our larger task of examining the origins and makeup of the New Testament will then conclude with a brief analysis of the disputed epistles, the dispute being whether or not they are the authentic works of Paul. That list includes Colossians and II Thessalonians, which very few scholars still contend are Pauline. Then we move on to those about which there is almost no dispute at all, since these letters appear to have been written well after Paul’s death. In this category we locate Ephesians, I and II Timothy and Titus. Most Christians are unable to discern any differences in voice, tone or content in the entire body of work that we now call the epistles, whether written by Paul or not. That is probably because we never read them as a whole and thus never get a sense of Paul’s specific thinking. We tend to hear them instead only in small snatches being read as lessons in church and with no context. My hope is that through these columns I will be able to provide my readers with sufficient knowledge of the distinctiveness of each epistle that the differences between them become obvious. It might even be exciting to enable people to become biblically literate, which would place them among the minority of Christians who are conversant with Paul’s thinking. The first epistle that Paul wrote, most scholars agree, was I Thessalonians. It is, however, placed sixth in the epistle section of the Bible because these letters were put into the canon of scripture according to their length. Romans, Paul’s longest letter, is first, and Philemon, Paul’s shortest letter, is last. If they had been listed chronologically I Thessalonians would be first, Galatians second, I and II Corinthians third and fourth, Romans fifth, Philemon sixth and Philippians seventh. So we begin our study of Paul’s content with his first two works. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia and Galatia was in central Asia Minor. The book of Acts tells us that Paul visited both of these towns on his early missionary journeys. He wrote these two epistles in the first few years of the sixth decade, probably between the years 51 and 53. At this time the followers of Jesus were still members of the synagogue. Paul came to each town as a traveling evangelist who also happened to be a rabbi. The venue for his words was thus the Sabbath service in the synagogue, though we need to recognize that in those two towns the synagogues were far removed in both miles and strictness from Judea. Members of these synagogues were Greek-speaking Hellenized Jews, who lived as members of the Jewish Diaspora. The synagogue was thus not only a worship center for them, it was also their cultic and cultural center. Diaspora synagogues had by this time begun to attract Gentile worshipers. It was a time of great religious ferment in the Greek-speaking Roman Empire. The gods of Olympus had lost most of their appeal. The mystery cults seemed too bizarre and had not yet become established. This meant that the synagogue was more and more a place to which serious worshipers of many varieties turned. In the synagogue there was a firm conviction that God was one. The Torah of the Jews portrayed this one God as concerned about life and ethics, as well as about patterns of worship. As the Jews moved further away from their homeland many of them began to shed the more rigid aspects of their religion, and Judaism for them became more abstract, more spiritual, and less definably Jewish. Gentile worshipers were not drawn to the cultic aspects of Judaism, like kosher dietary rules, circumcision and Sabbath day observance, so these changes made it even more attractive to them. Paul, as a Greek-thinking Hellenized Jew, was thus frequently more appealing to these modernizing Jews and the Gentile visitors than he was to the stricter Jewish members of the audience, who viewed the synagogue as their last attachment to their ancestry. In Thessalonica Paul had clearly emphasized in his preaching the messianic claim for Jesus. That role had many connotations for the Jews, but among the most compelling was that the messiah, when he came, would establish God’s eternal kingdom and inaugurate God’s earthly rule. In the service of this idea the early disciples of Jesus had been consumed with the task of connecting the life of Jesus to the messianic promises found in their scriptures. They thus searched their sacred writings for hints and clues to prove that Jesus was the expected messiah. Sometimes they stretched these texts beyond the breaking point. At the heart of the Jesus message was the claim that death had been conquered and that his followers would be transported into eternal life very soon. The Gentile visitors to the synagogue had bought this message and had formed themselves into a separate community of believers within the synagogue. They still attended Sabbath day services, but they also gathered on the first day of the week for the Christian liturgy they called “the breaking of the bread,” at which time they prayed “thy kingdom come.” The obvious desire by Gentiles to be in the synagogue, but not of the synagogue, was more than some traditional Orthodox Jews could tolerate, so Paul and his teaching became a source of divisiveness in the various synagogues of the empire. The Orthodox Jewish believers began to attack Paul’s credentials and his reputation. The Gentile worshipers had turned from idols to the one God of the Jews, but Paul had located this God in the life of Jesus and so deeply convinced them of this that they had begun to wait for Jesus’ promised return from heaven. Clearly this was the message they had heard from Paul. As time passed, however, the Kingdom did not arrive and they began to waver. When Thessalonian family members began to die, their despair increased. Something was clearly wrong if they died before the kingdom arrived. The bulk of Paul’s message in his first epistle was designed to assure these troubled worshippers that the dead would rejoin the living when that second coming arrived. No one knows, he assured them, either the time or the season when that second coming will occur. Paul, the pastor, thus urged them to be vigilant, to keep awake, to be sober and to put on “the armor of God,” an image that he would expand in later works. In Galatia, the pastoral issue was a little different. The content of Paul’s message in this second epistle was that in Christ alone their salvation was assured. This had caused those who responded to that message to move dramatically away from the law of the Jews. Keeping the cultic rules of Judaism lost its urgency in Paul’s proclamation of the infinite love of God that he believed had been revealed in the life of Jesus. This seemed to Orthodox Jews to be nothing less than a prescription for moral anarchy and the obliteration of the Torah itself. So they struck back at Paul and were supported by the heavy guns of the more traditional Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, including Peter and James, the Lord’s brother. This tension erupted into the first major division in Christian history. Was the Christ figure merely a new chapter in Judaism? Was he another prophet in a long line of Jewish prophets waiting to be incorporated into the ongoing Jewish story? Did believers in Jesus have to come through the rituals and rites of Judaism in order to be Christians? This was the position that Peter and James took and defended. For Paul that stance was a violation of everything his Christian experience had taught him. Paul had found in Jesus a love sufficient to embrace him just as he was. Paul had tried the other way. By his own confession he had sought to obey every commandment of the law in order to win salvation. That had not proved to be a path that led him toward wholeness. Religious observance never is. It was and is just another form of human slavery, another attempt to win divine favor, to manipulate the deity with good behavior. At best that approach produced religious self-centeredness, not the glorious liberty of the children of God. For Paul the battle he was fighting in this epistle was for the heart of what he believed was the Christ experience. In defense of his understanding of Christ he mounted a strong counterattack, dismissing Peter’s behavior as unworthy of the gospel and expressing a strong dislike for James, the Lord’s brother. He berated those in the congregation in Galatia who had so quickly abandoned his gospel for this new religious bondage. Galatians reveals Paul not only at his most passionate, but also at his angriest and his most human. Defending his claim to be an apostle, Paul tells us more in this epistle than anywhere else about his conversion experience, and the meaning he found in Jesus that had been the source of his conversion. When the smoke of battle cleared, Paul stood victorious and the book of Acts would later relate the story of Peter’s conversion (see Acts 10). It is also in Galatians that Paul first articulates the unity that he finds in Christ, who obliterates the human security boundaries between Jews and Gentiles, males and females, bond and free. All are one in Christ, he asserts. Paul, as we noted earlier in this series, felt himself loved beyond anything he had imagined possible and he refused to allow that single message to be compromised. He won this battle, but it would be one that Christians would fight again and again throughout history. Perhaps it was that this message of unqualified love was simply too good to be true. Imagine a God who knows the secrets of our hearts, but who loves us anyway. That is, however, the meaning of the Christ story for Paul and, as such, it would represent a major step into what it means to be human.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements The Book of Awakening: having the life you want by being present to the life you have. Sept 18th - 19th Have you ever taken a personal retreat at home? If not, then doing so will be something worthwhile for you. With more than a million copies sold, The Book of Awakening by New York Times #1 bestseller Mark Nepo, has been the go-to guide for navigating the path to joy and freedom in the face of illness and hardship. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Re: [Oe List ...] RS 101: On Becoming a Practical Theologian (OBaPT) (Pamphlet and Addendum)
by Dawn Collins 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Hi again, friends and colleagues, The question I'm left with is: Do y'all think an early try-out of this course is virtual worthy? I think the OBaPT weekend construct is adaptable. Yet, the ideal for me is waiting patiently for the face-to-face RS1 model. Beret, I welcome your feedback and hope to chat with you this week...Remember the point of this OBaPT offering was to speak to the issue of leading the way to care for oneself on the journey with affirming like-minded folks; and which takes place with facilitation after the last section of RS1. Am looking forward to the RS1 materials you're sending as a must-have to my library. I welcome the present struggle in our community with theological language taking place in the books we're reading and the breakthroughs we're sharing. I also find The Message Bible by Peterson a hospitable companion. Kindfully yours,dawn We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1 John 4:19 On Monday, September 7, 2020, 10:30:22 AM MDT, Dawn Collins <collinsdawn747(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Dear colleagues and friends, Whence goeth the path of the traditional and progressive church? Here are 2 LINKs below (compliments to Wendell Refior and the Global Archives) to be offered in a weekend program (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) for your church of choice based on RS1. Now that the Archives are called the Social Research Center, these two pieces are filed under Academy RS1 and one other place...Also, be sure to check with Karen Snyder in SRC for a digitized copy of the RS1 Enablement Manual. This 5 section mini-session is designed to engage participants in working through their individual/corporate faith stance, in contemporary contextual language grasping the relevance of their conclusions to our changing world. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you wish to add to this effort of the spirit. Should you desire to accept this mission, I would appreciate your feedback. Kindfully yours,dawn https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets//21011pdf (for the 5 sections 15-page OBaPT pamphlet) https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21013pdf (for the 25 questions Addendum) We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1John 4:19

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Links to Recording of the Celebration of Life for David Zahrt
by Jo Nelson 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Hi, all, Linda Zahrt is having trouble sending the links to the recordings of Saturday’s Celebration of Life, so she asked me to share them here to reach as many people as possible in a timely way. We deeply appreciated seeing so many colleagues that we haven’t seen for a very long time, and appreciated the wide variety of stories. It was a fitting celebration that shared so many facets and gifts of David and his life. Thank you for participating! (And I apologize to those who couldn’t get into the session – I discovered too late that my Zoom account only allows 100 people at once, and that there were more than 100 who wanted to participate!) Here are the links to the two files: Video recording: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7uwjzy739l27spc/zoom_David%20Z%20Celeb.mp4?dl=0 Chat: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ee9kx6pj27a3nt/chat%20David%20Z%20Celeb.txt?dl=0 You will need a video player on your device to see the recording. The chat is text only. With deep gratitude, Jo -- Jo Nelson, CPF, CTF <jnelson(a)ica-associates.ca> Certified Professional Facilitator and ICA Certified ToP™ Facilitator ICA Associates, Inc. 401 Richmond Street West, Suite #405, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5V 3A8 Ph. 1 416-691-2316, x2230 Toll-free 1 877-691-1422 Fax 1 416-691-2491 Website http://ica-associates.ca Cellphone 647 233 6910 Skype "jofacilitator" Vendor of Record: Government of Ontario Learning and Training Services #OSS-00154215 Vendor of Record: Public Works and Government Services Canada E60BQ-01ISSA/353/ST, Organizational Management. Pre-qualified Vendor, Alberta Education Resource List “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller

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RS 101: On Becoming a Practical Theologian (OBaPT) (Pamphlet and Addendum)
by Dawn Collins 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

Dear colleagues and friends, Whence goeth the path of the traditional and progressive church? Here are 2 LINKs below (compliments to Wendell Refior and the Global Archives) to be offered in a weekend program (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) for your church of choice based on RS1. Now that the Archives are called the Social Research Center, these two pieces are filed under Academy RS1 and one other place...Also, be sure to check with Karen Snyder in SRC for a digitized copy of the RS1 Enablement Manual. This 5 section mini-session is designed to engage participants in working through their individual/corporate faith stance, in contemporary contextual language grasping the relevance of their conclusions to our changing world. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you wish to add to this effort of the spirit. Should you desire to accept this mission, I would appreciate your feedback. Kindfully yours,dawn https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets//21011pdf (for the 5 sections 15-page OBaPT pamphlet) https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/21013pdf (for the 25 questions Addendum) We love the Final Reality because the Final Reality loved us first.- 1John 4:19

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Global Buzz for September
by ICA International 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '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: September 2020 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-20/2020-09-01.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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9/03/20, Progressing Spirit: Brian McLaren: So… if we care, what do we say?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

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p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateBody .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent, #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateBody .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media only screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateFooter .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent, #yiv3007661383 #yiv3007661383templateFooter .yiv3007661383mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | So… if we care, what do we say? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Brian D. McLaren September 3, 2020 Recently, I received an email from a reader who asked, “Hi Brian. I would love to know your thoughts on speaking with close family members who are active or retired police officers during this time. I’m seeing so many black activists and white allies calling for the police force to be defunded and dismantled. I’m seeing hundreds of videos of police violence against peaceful protestors. I’m angry and sad and don’t know what to say to those who have served faithfully and made police work their life’s work. Any help you can give is appreciated. Your work has meant so much to me through the last few years and I so appreciate your pastoral voice.” I was struck by the spirit of the question: this person cares about the violence being done to Black lives and this person also cares about the well-being of honest police officers who see themselves as public servants. That wide aperture of empathy is such a good place to begin. So… if we care, what do we say? Christians in different times and in different places would answer this question very differently. In the earliest centuries of Christianity, for example, to be a Christian meant to be a nonviolent peacemaker, which made the bearing of arms unthinkable. For example, in the Second Century, Hippolytus said, “A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate must resign or be rejected. If a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God” (On Idolatry Chapter 19: Concerning Military Service). In our context in the U.S., when nearly all of us can close our eyes and replay the video of a white police officer with his knee on the neck of a black man, we are in a moment of profound reckoning. On the one hand, how do we take seriously the deep-seated white supremacy that is so embedded in all facets of our government, including police departments? On the other hand, how do we appreciate and support active and retired police officers in our families, neighborhoods, and congregations who want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? Here is a line of pastoral conversation that I can recommend. I’m not saying this is the only way to respond, but it is a way that could lead people beyond defensiveness into a space of curiosity and desire to understand. 1. Lead with empathy. Say something like, “I can imagine this hasn’t been an easy time to be a police officer. How has it been for you?” Then, listen with empathy. And use active listening skills - with responses like, “That must be frustrating… frightening… discouraging,” etc. If you set the stage with sincere empathy, you create space for real communication — and even communion — to occur. Without empathy, you’ll probably just end up in an argument, increasing defensiveness and distrust. 2. Show curiosity. Ask specific questions like these: “How was it for you being a police officer before George Floyd’s killing and the recent protests? How has it changed since the protests began? How did you get interested in being an officer? What have been the hardest and most rewarding things about your career as an officer? How do you think things can get better? In what ways can you empathize with African-Americans who are afraid of the police? Have you seen things on the inside that concern you?” Your curiosity allows you to become even more empathetic and understanding. Already, that’s a win. 3. Go deeper. If you feel it’s appropriate, you might ask a question with sincere curiosity — and without setting a “gotcha” trap, something like, “I’m curious: How do you feel about the Black Lives Matter movement and the call to defund police?” Ask clarifying questions. Seek to understand how and why they feel as they do. Try to translate your own reactivity into curiosity… seeking to understand before seeking to be understood. 4. Make an offer. If you think your conversation partner is misinformed, rather than pushing back in a way that will instantly make them defensive and even combative, make an offer, saying something like, “I see that differently. If you’d be interested, I’ll be glad to explain how I understand the problem. Then I’d be interested in how you would respond.” Or if you don’t feel prepared to offer a better understanding, offer to do some research. “You’ve got me thinking. I’d like to do some research into this problem. Would you be open to me getting back in touch with you about it? I value your perspective as an officer yourself, and I value our relationship.” 5. Be constructive. In the presence of disagreement, position yourself not as an antagonist, but as a peacemaker. If you hit an impasse, you have at least three options. .....A. You might ask an imaginative question like this: “How do you think officers like you and citizens like me can work together to address the racism that is still part of our society? How can we get to a place that is better for everybody — for police officers and for people who are worried they might be the next victim of police misconduct?” Sometimes, getting people engaged in imagining solutions is the best way to cure their misdiagnosis of the problem. .....B. You might simply achieve disagreement by restating one another’s positions fairly. You could say, “Wow. I think I see that differently. Let me see if I can put where you’re coming from in my own words… Is that it?” Or, “Could you try to put my perspective into your own words?” This habit puts you “on the same side” in trying to understand one another — a very different posture than trying to conquer the other. .....C. You might offer a non-directive felt response. You might say, “Wow. That concerns me,” or “I see what you’re saying, even though it worries me,” or, “Wow, I feel your anger and hurt. I see the situation very differently.” You shift the focus from an argument to a human-to-human communication of feeling. This entire strategy is based on years of making well-intentioned mistakes that led me to do some research on bias and why it’s so hard for people to change their minds (see Why Don’t They Get It? available here: https://brianmclaren.net/store/) If I were to summarize in a couple of sentences, I’d say first, that people can’t see what they can’t see unless someone helps them, and second, that people usually come to truth through relationship. A caring and non-aggressive conversation partner can be the bridge to help others to see things in a new way, and can be an agent of healing where there have been misunderstanding and wounds. And that’s not just true for others. It’s true for me too. And you. ~ Brian D. McLaren Read online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story. Other recent books include: The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). Brian is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings – across the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, On Being, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time, New York Times, Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print and online media. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader I have been an on and off member of a church for 15 years. The church is Assemblies of God, but the pastor is more liberal in his style of message giving. They can’t and don’t speak to the issues of gayness and they would say that Jesus is the only way to God. This pastor has meant so much to me. He introduced me to the person of Jesus, which has led to my graduate studies in theology. Problem is, I am much more progressive than they are. I’ve had a troubled childhood, so my journey to God has been fraught with questions, which theology school is helping me to investigate. I also have a child who dislikes Sunday school at this church, which makes me sad. I want her to feel excited about knowing God, but the language they use sometimes is a bit unapproachable – even reading the Bible to a kid with words like “righteous” means nothing – even to me. I was going to try the Universalist Unitarian church, but it seems to denounce God and lessen Jesus. I want to be a Christian and I want to show my daughter who God is and can be, but I’m at a loss. Do I stay where I am or do I join a less Christian church? Either way I will feel like an outsider. A: By Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft Dear Reader, Thank you for sharing your heart and your journey. Your questions and processing are all part of what it means to be a person of Faith. One thing I always remind myself is that there is no perfect church. In the same way, there is no perfect denomination. That being said, it may help you to spend some time thinking about what some non-negotiables are for you. Is preaching that Jesus is the only way to God a deal-breaker? Or is that okay as long as you can create opportunities and space for your thoughts around that in other areas? Is Sunday School for your child a deal-breaker? Is lessening Jesus a deal breaker? Another helpful reminder is that the dogma, doctrine, Sunday School, or even one leader at a church doesn't make up the entirety of the place. The church is the people! By virtue of you bringing yourself and YOUR beliefs and questions to the space, the Church is - or at least should be - fluid. If you're happy with many aspects of a Church but want to push for change or question some aspects, it's your place to do just that. If your pushing leads to a rub with one of your non-negotiables, then maybe it's time to look around. My prayer for you is that you don't feel like an outsider wherever you land, but rather that the person of Jesus and the promises of God allow for you to feel right inside God's dreams. ~ Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft is an activist, organizer, Baptist minister, and mother of five-year-old twins Zane and Levi and four-year-old Skyler. She is the Executive Minister for Justice and Movement Building at Middle Collegiate Church and the founder of Raising Imagination, a platform that examines social change at the intersections of faith, parenting and politics. Her activism has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, Refinery29, and Bust and she is a regular writer and inaugural board member of The Resistance Prays. She and her family live in the East Village of Manhattan and fight the patriarchy and examine their racism and spirituality together, one cheerio at a time. | | | | | | | | 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 our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited A Church Tower in a Shopping Center! A Restaurant in a Church! Is This Evolving Christianity? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 26, 2009 I have just completed a whirlwind tour of the United Kingdom — nine lectures in eight days in places as far east as Colchester, as far north as Edinburgh, as far west as Exeter and as far south as London. This tour was under the auspices of a group called the Progressive Christian Network of the United Kingdom, or PCN-UK, which is chaired by Hugh Dawes, a remarkable Anglican priest. These lectures, attended by just under 2,000 people, tapped into a religious yearning that is clearly a growing presence in this deeply secular nation. The content of each lecture was some aspect of the subject of life after death and whether the concept of eternal life can still be held with integrity by modern men and women. I returned home with a new hopefulness about the Anglican Communion in the UK. The PCN has formed some 35-plus study cells in various towns and cities throughout the UK that meet regularly, mostly monthly, but a few weekly. Attendance at each group averages between 20 and 25 people, drawn from current and lapsed Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists and the United Reformed Church, a combination of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. In Colchester, the lecture was held in the Lion’s Walk United Reformed Church. This church was originally a large stone structure near the center of the city. As the city grew it became surrounded by a variety of shops, but very few homes, and slowly the value of the property rose as a commercial site. When the repairs on the old structure began to drain the church of its life and assets, a decision was made to tear it down and to take advantage of its value by allowing the site to be developed for commercial purposes. The congregation, however, saw the value of continuing to worship in that same location and the shopping center also wanted the church to be part of its new venture. This mutual desire produced a remarkable new thing. The church building was razed to the ground except for the proud tower, its primary identifying mark. The tower was then restored and it stands today in the middle of the site, rising high above the shops as this center’s most recognizable feature. This ecclesiastical landmark, drawing people to it, provides the shopping center with a sign of permanence. At the eye level of shoppers is a glass case in the tower that enumerates the continuing Sunday and weekly activities of this URC congregation. Hundreds of people pass these announcements each day. Near this tower are large glass doors directing people to the church. Inside, potential worshippers have the choice of navigating two flights of stairs or of entering an elevator. Both lead to the church itself, which is now located above the shops. The new worship space is large and octagonal, with the familiar stained glass windows from the old church setting a tone of reverence and continuity in this new environment. It seats perhaps three hundred, yet it still projects a sense of intimacy. Offices, washrooms, Sunday school rooms, activity rooms and a kitchen complete the church’s “upper room” facilities, providing far more modern and usable space than this congregation had ever previously enjoyed. Parking is no problem for the members of this congregation on Sunday or for those attending evening activities, for adequate parking is provided by the shopping center. Today this congregation is vital, alive, engaged and led by a newly installed pastor who is a Scottish Presbyterian. Included in the congregation are people of remarkable ability. There is Norman Hart, a retired journalist, who has spent a good part of his life working in various countries in Africa training young African journalists to take their places in the Africa of the future; his wife, Linda Hart, sings with the London Choral Society, for which she takes the train up to London once a week to attend rehearsals. Together she and Norman anchor the church choir. Then there is Linda Harrison, who is the congregation’s liaison to the national Progressive Christian Network and the organizer of the nationwide study cells. The benefits of the new arrangement with the shopping center have placed this congregation on a firm financial footing, and it is now busy about the task of transforming its life and doing its ministry. The members of this congregation are eager to engage the contemporary world in all of its complexity, not to hide from it or to become a ghetto of irrelevant evangelical fervor within it. I was deeply impressed with their vision. Two other churches on the tour have long been the power centers of a progressive Christianity in England. One is St. James’ in Piccadilly Circus in London, which from the days of its former rectors, Donald Reeves and Charles Headley, has become a major place of interfaith activity in Great Britain. The other was St. Mark’s in the Broomhill section of Sheffield, which is the center of England’s steel industry some three hours north of London in the Midlands. This church was served for over 20 years by Adrian Alker, an incredibly gifted priest. As part of his ministry he started an organization called “The Center for Radical Christianity.” Through the years he nurtured this congregation into a new understanding of Christianity, regularly introducing the members to frontier scholars of the Christian faith and so building this church into a center of intellectual exploration. Naturally, he frightened local ecclesiastical authorities, which seems to have been the response of religious leaders from the time of Jesus on, when anyone dares to step outside the box of conventional thinking. While the authorities quaked in their boots and sought to marginalize this priest, his congregation grew and thrived. English bishops seem content to watch churches in their dioceses die of boredom all the while fearing that they might be disturbed by controversy. I was fascinated to learn on this tour that the authorities in several of the dioceses near the locations of the various lectures had refused to publish notices of the PCN-sponsored lecture tour for fear that some of “the faithful” might come and be upset by ideas about which they had never heard, even though these ideas have been abroad in academic Christian circles for at least the last two hundred years! St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Edinburgh with its rector, John Ames, was another remarkable church on this tour. It was packed for the lecture and had to close its doors and allow no more people to attend under the fire code of the city that limits the number of people that can safely be in each public building at any one time. I had the honor of being introduced on this stop by a man I regard as the most creative bishop in the Anglican Communion today. His name is Richard Holloway, the former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Referring to my book Eternal Life: A New Vision, Bishop Holloway announced that they had worked out a special price with the publisher Harper/Collins to make this book available at the price of ten pounds, “a price below that of Amazon,” he said Then he asked, “Where else can you buy Eternal Life for ten quid?” If that were literally true it would indeed be a bargain, well below the cost of indulgences once sold to gain the same end. When I got to St. Luke’s, Holloway, in North London, I discovered that this church had turned its worship space into a series of candlelit tables and chairs around which the people drank wine as they listened to the lecture. Their priest is Dave Tomlinson, whose book describing new understandings of Christianity has been a topic of much conversation in the Anglican Communion. Moving on to St. Faith’s Church, Dulwich, in South London, I looked out on a rainbow congregation of multiple ethnicities. There were also in the congregation on that Sunday a number of retired priests; a young Scottish infectious-disease doctor and his social worker wife who hailed from California; a Harvard Divinity School graduate who chose not to be ordained; and many other fascinating people. The Sunday school was made up of primarily African, Indian and Asian children who reflected the mix of the neighborhood. Hugh Dawes, the head of PCN, was the vicar here and he has led this church in his gentle but stretching style for well over twenty years. The hymns that Sunday were contemporary, not the dirges of the English hymnal whose title is “Hymns: Ancient and Modern” but which seems really to mean “ancient hymns and not-quite-so-ancient hymns.” They used a contemporary creed that was not bound to the three-tiered universe of a pre-Galileo mentality, but still touched the essentials of the Christian story. Hugh also included those traditions that longtime Anglicans would feel related them to their past: familiar vestments, incense and other trappings of English Christianity. The lecture tour then moved west to another refurbished United Reformed Church adjacent to another shopping center in Exeter that is served by a gay pastor, Iain McDonald, who lives openly with his partner of some years. This congregation’s enthusiastic embrace of the gifts of this pastor demonstrates new levels of consciousness. Then we moved on to Hereford, where the lecture tour concluded in a downtown, liturgically conservative Anglican Church named All Saints. This church had earlier been marked by its bishop for closure since there were no longer any people living near its commercial location. Instead, however, a creative rector named Andrew Mottim decided to turn half of this church’s building, including the balcony, into a vegetarian restaurant that today serves mid-morning coffee and “biscuits” and afternoon tea and “sponge” to shoppers. In addition it serves an average of four hundred vegetarian lunches each day. This vegetarian restaurant is set in full view of the church’s altar and chapel where the Eucharist is celebrated regularly. Both kinds of eating, lunch and the Eucharist, are in this place deemed to be holy. These were some of the signs of hope, creativity and new life that I saw everywhere I went. These churches formed the background against which a new Christianity for a new world is emerging in secular Great Britain. I have renewed hope. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements My Resources for Churches (and everyone else!) Every so often, I put out a “musing” that is a guide to my writings and videos. It’s that time when churches make plans for their program year, so this is a good moment to share links to my materials for worship, study, and spiritual practice. Use freely. All I ask is attribution! ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read On... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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