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3/16/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Jess Shine: I’m tired of giving to charities; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 16 Mar '23

16 Mar '23

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0237014684 #yiv0237014684templateBody .yiv0237014684mcnTextContent, #yiv0237014684 #yiv0237014684templateBody .yiv0237014684mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv0237014684 #yiv0237014684templateFooter .yiv0237014684mcnTextContent, #yiv0237014684 #yiv0237014684templateFooter .yiv0237014684mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Jessica Shine | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | I’m tired of giving to charities. | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Jess Shine March 16, 2023Let me say that again for the people in the back. I’m tired of giving money to charities. I’ve served the church in development and parish life for over 20 years. I don’t believe giving is wrong. The Bible tells us God loves a cheerful giver and infers that we can’t out give God. So why do I say I’m tired of giving to charities?You may have heard the story of a family from the rural countryside (I first heard a version of this story from financial planner Dave Ramsey). On special occasions, Mom cooks up a particular cut of meat. She cuts off the end and prepares it in her beloved skillet. The kids grow up learning this tradition, and eventually, a son moves out and starts his own family. On special occasions, he repeats his mom’s tradition. Brings home the same cut of meat, cuts off the end, and cooks it in his mom’s favorite cooking pan now inherited. One day his partner asks ‘why are you cutting off so much of that meat?’ The son replies, ’so it will fit in the pan.’ Confused his partner says ‘maybe we need to get a bigger pan?!’Maybe one reason I am tired of giving to charities is that many organizations struggle to dream of a bigger pan, a greater mission. Maybe it’s because they don’t have a clear vision or strategy to get there. Often, we view giving to charity as giving only the parts we don’t want. The piece we cut off and throw away. The old clothes we don’t want, the old cans of food we won’t eat, the household items we can’t sell. How often do we give and think, “they should be grateful?”Sometimes we give because we’re resigned to the fact that unless we give, we’ll have to deal with ‘those people’ in other ways. Like sleeping in our neighborhoods, or jogging through them. Maybe we give because we assume that everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But what if they have no boots, to begin with?Giving away something and then telling the recipient how to use it is like giving something with a closed fist. Nothing can flow in or out. Sometimes in progressive circles, we’re so good at ‘doing for’ that we objectify the very people we are giving ‘to’. This inhibits our shared experience of liberation and I’m tired of giving in those ways. The Reverend Dr. Yvonne Delk recently reflected on this phenomenon when speaking on the history of Afro-Christian Churches within the United Church of Christ. She shared how communities of color, specifically the Afro-Christian Connection, weren’t (and still often aren’t) included in the origin stories of the denomination because they were seen as a mission priority. People to ‘bring into’ rather than ‘co-create with’. This is also true of the Indigenous peoples and Latin liberation movements that influenced American congregationalism (and continue to do so in beautiful and life-giving ways).In other words, despite labeling ourselves progressive we protect historic missiology rather than examining our personal theology. We avoid asking why we have believed or continue to believe certain things that manifest in our liturgy, organizational structures, financial systems, and outreach. This keeps our siblings from true and full inclusion, from denominational origins until today. Church we need to tell our story with a bigger pan and include all our Siblings who are the Body of Believers!I’m tired of giving money to charities whose leadership doesn’t include the folks with whom there is a disparity. I’m tired of giving to charities that spend more money on the symptoms than addressing the root causes. I’m tired of giving to charities where the ‘power’ is held by a few who ‘know better’ or at least a few who remember how we used to do things in the good ole days.Maybe you’ve committed to being anti-racist or to being radically inclusive of all God’s Beloved. Thank you! And perhaps you were taught that when you saw someone drowning you jumped in the river to help them out, nothing wrong with that. Sometimes we give to save someone, or something, an institution perhaps, a church, a building. The Late Bishop Desmond Tutu said, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”So what if there’s a better way to focus our giving and our mission? Better than our leftovers, our guilt, our savior-ism. What if there’s a bigger pan? What if there’s more to generosity than contorting our offerings into a small vision?Micah 6:8 often posted on banners and bulletins is part of a conversation where the prophet Micah is specifically speaking towards the city of Jerusalem. To prophesy its destruction and then restoration. But the destruction he foretold wasn’t brought on by an oppressive external enemy, it was an internal corruption of the people’s dishonesty and idolatry. Their vision was too small.According to Micah, the city of God was doomed because its beautification was financed by dishonest business practices, which impoverished the city's citizens. In chapters 6 and 7, God wasn’t angry because they wanted beautiful things. God was angry because of how they got beautiful things, namely the extortion of their siblings.Through Micah’s voice, it becomes clear that these people have lost their vision and have settled for a smaller pan. He asks the people, remember how God freed you from slavery in Egypt? You are enslaving people, your system is corrupt and your relationships are broken. Remember liberation is your story, it's where you’ve come from, he says to them.People who are liberated don’t enslave other people.In this passage, the people of God have become disconnected from each other, from the land, and Creator. How does God know they have become disconnected? Because they enslave each other rather than work cooperatively to build together. Because they justify the very financial practices that once entangled them. It’s easy to do that when we are disconnected from each other’s experiences.Micah is speaking from a broken heart. He speaks to his people knowing and feeling all the fears, all the worries, spoken and unspoken. He’s been awake in the middle of the night wrestling with his grief, anger, and disappointment. You’ve felt it too, haven’t you? During these years of pandemic and uprisings where we’ve become more and more aware of the needed changes in our financial and social systems.How might our generosity lean into liberation for All? Are we capable of giving more? Are we ready to give in more focused ways or to live on less than we earn? Liberation can be a guide for our generosity and a reminder to look beyond our church building for how the kin-dom of God is on the move. What does life begin to look like if liberation is the guide in how we share resources? Divine abundance? Enough for all? Joyful re-examination of our mission and the pan we’ve inherited to serve others?When we begin with liberation for all, we stay connected to ourselves, our bodies, our planet, our siblings, and our divine intuition. We know deeply why we are doing what we are doing. A space where I'm learning to listen to others and tend to the cacophony inside myself is with a cohort called Sacred Conversations to End Racism, led by the Rev. Dr. Velda Love. The monthly practice of reading, listening, and sharing is helping me shift the scarcity narrative I’ve inherited and love better through my living and giving. You can find more resources for your journey at jointhemovementucc.org.Liberation for all is the bigger pan, the bigger vision. Enough living and giving in to a small vision. I’m tired of giving to charities whose vision is anything less than Liberation for All.~ Rev. Jess Shine Read online here About the Author The Reverend Jess Shine, MDiv (they/she/elle) served most recently as Associate Minister at First Congregational UCC in Eugene, Oregon. Jess earned degrees in theology and divinity, but says, "I still haven't figured out how to walk on water.” In 2021, they completed the Privilege of Call process while serving at the national setting of the United Church of Christ. Jess was ordained to ministry by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and has continued offering spiritual care as a clergy member of The CHI Interfaith Community (based in Berkeley, CA). With over two decades of experience pastoring church communities, police officers, hospice patients and staff, teenagers, and as Community Minister of The Chaplaincy Institute, she brings a passion for people and a skill for communicating in transformative ways. Jess is a descendant of Mexican, Indian, and Northwestern European immigrants. Their spirituality began in childhood and continues through expansive relationships, reading, music, wine, travel, theological processing, sports, and food! Shine co-hosted a podcast on death and dying called “Done For” also available on iTunes, and Google. Shine has written for ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit, and serves as CHI Seminary Guest Faculty. Jess celebrates life with their wife, Deshna (an ordained interfaith chaplain), bonus daughter Kaila, and their four-legged friends. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By John What is the difference between religion and spirituality? A: By Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Dear John,Thank you for your question. It seems especially pressing today since so many people, especially young people, are identifying as “spiritual but not religious.” What is behind this particular sign of our times? I hear you asking. The word “religion” today conjures up dogmas, doctrines, institutions, hierarchy, buildings, organized worship, rules, positions on topics of the day ranging from extreme right (“Christian nationalists” or “Opus Dei”) to a more thoughtful effort to discern how to apply values to complex moral issues. I think many people find these sociological and complex versions of religion to be a heavy weight to carry at this time in history when so much is shifting beneath our feet. We are moving from the age of Pisces (symbolizing dualism by two fish swimming in the opposite directions) to the age of Aquarius, which is much more mystically based, water being a sign of depth and panentheism (fish in the water and water in the fish, God in the water and the water in God) and therefore spirituality. Think of John of the Cross: “Launch out into the deep.” In a nutshell, spirituality is our experience of the Divine. Religion and spirituality do not have to be at odds. But in a time of cultural upheaval that we are living through, many see them as such. Thomas Aquinas actually defines religion this way: As a habit of “supreme thankfulness or gratitude.” This definition of religion avoids much of the sociological burdens named above. His definition zeroes in on spirituality, for the first step in spirituality is the awe, wonder, beauty and delight of existence itself—and “supreme thankfulness or gratitude” follows from that. As Heschel says, “awe precedes faith.” These experiences are what the mystics call the Via Positiva. Gratitude for existence itself. “Isness is God,” says Meister Eckhart. Spirituality is about living our lives from a deep place. A place of Yes (William James called mysticism the “Yes” faculty). And No—the prophetic work that Rabbi Heschel calls “interfering” with injustice. Both taken together are a root or radical response to life which is my definition of what prayer is all about. How does one renew religion when it has gone sour or irrelevant, boring or insipid? Carl Jung says, “only the mystics bring what is creative to religion itself.” One looks more deeply into the depths of one’s soul, what St. Paul and Meister Eckhart call the “inner person” or the “new self” as distinct from the “old self.” In today’s parlance, the “true self,” as distinct from the “false self.” Heschel says that “there lies in the recesses of every existence a prophet.”. How get to those recesses? The Via Positiva names the depths of joy and gratitude. The Via Negativa names the depths of silence and letting go, suffering, grief, and the dark night of the soul. The Via Creativa names our giving birth from our depths. And the Via Transformativa names the depths of justice-making, compassion, healing and celebration. When religion is healthy, it is assisting us to travel this deep spiritual journey. When it is enfeebled, it takes love (mystics are lovers) as expressed in these four paths of creation spirituality to bring the real meaning of religion back. All forms evolve. Of course. That is what evolution means, the living, dying and rebirth of forms. Religion, like all else, is subject to evolution. ~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 40 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 78 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship (called The Cosmic Mass). His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much-neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Among his books are A Way To God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey; Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times; Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times; Order of the Sacred Earth; The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times; and Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic – And Beyond; Original Blessing; The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; A Spirituality Named Compassion; Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. To encourage a passionate response to the news of climate change advancing so rapidly, Fox started DailyMeditationswithMatthewFox.org | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | An Easy Way To Make a BIG Difference I bet you, like me, get more than a bit overwhelmed with all the injustices in the world. We want to do something about it – and, more times than not, we try to. It's just that there are so many things we'd like to help make better. It's easy to get frustrated and feel like what you are doing isn't enough – at least, I feel that way, at times. Being that many of these injustices come from folks calling themselves Christians, some of the best tools we have for countering them are hearts of compassion and theological education based on the hermeneutic of love. It just so happens that those are some of our highest values here at ProgressiveChristianity.org and we are passionate about giving others the tools to promote them. That's where you can easily make a BIG difference. We count on donations from folks like you to keep our vital theological and spiritual tools available. A simple donation from you can help make a big difference to someone else and even to the world. Please consider being a part of helping make the world a better place, make a donation today. Or, consider a monthly gift to help in our ongoing efforts. Thank you, you are why we are here. PEACE! Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin President and Co-Exec. Director | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | | | | What is Progressive Christianity?A Panel Discussion with the Board of DirectorsTake a few moments and listen to the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.org talk about the Progressive Christian Movement and what it’s going to look like in the future. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Part VII Matthew: The Shady Ladies of Matthew's Genealogy Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 14, 2013The audience for which Matthew wrote was conversant with the Jewish Scriptures, so when he mentions Tamar in the genealogy, they would know her story. The Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) was read in its entirety in the traditional synagogues on the Sabbaths of a single year. The 38th chapter of Genesis, where Tamar’s story is told would thus be read on the sixth or seventh Sabbath following the beginning of the liturgical cycle in the month of Nisan. Tamar’s story interrupted the familiar story of Joseph, so it stood out in clear relief. Listen now to her story. Judah, the son of Jacob, had married the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua and by her he had three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. While in the land of Chezib, Judah took for Er, his oldest son, a wife whose name was Tamar. She too was a Canaanite. Er, we are told in the Bible, was wicked and “God killed him.” So Tamar, in accordance with Jewish practice, was given to Onan, Er’s brother, to be his wife. Onan, however, did not want to raise up children to his deceased brother, so he practiced “coitus interruptus,” which has given us the word “Onanism.” This so displeased God, the Bible tells us, that God killed Onan also. Shelah was next in line to take Tamar as his wife, but he was only a small boy and by this time Tamar’s reputation for being responsible for the deaths of her first two husbands was fixed. Shelah, therefore, was not interested in or desirous of doing his culturally-assigned duty. So, Judah, Tamar’s father-in-law, sent Tamar back to her father’s house in disgrace. She was now considered “damaged goods,” one who would not bring a proper “bride price.” Judah did promise her that when Shelah came of age, she would be sent for and would become his wife. Time passed and this promise was soon forgotten. During those years of passage, however, Judah lost his wife and thus became a widower. After a period of mourning, Judah planned to go to the village of Timnah to have his sheep sheared. Tamar learned of this proposed trip and made her own plans. By this time, she was aware that Shelah, now grown, had not been offered to her as a husband. So Tamar took off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapping herself in the garb of a prostitute and took a seat at the gate of her village. She knew that her village was on the road to Timnah and that Judah would have to pass her way. When Judah saw her, assuming that she was a prostitute, he went over to her to negotiate for her services offering her a lamb from his flock in payment for her “favors.” She demanded that he give her something of value to secure the promise; a pledge, if you will, until the lamb was delivered. She requested Judah’s signet ring, his cord and his staff. Judah gave them to her without debate and so the act was consummated. The next day Judah, acting, he felt, in good faith sent the lamb with one of his servants and asked Tamar to return his possessions. Tamar, however, could not be found. The people of her village denied that there ever was a prostitute who solicited business at their gate. So the lamb came back to Judah. To avoid embarrassment, he simply charged this experience off as a bad business deal. Three months later, the rumor came to Judah that Tamar his daughter-in-law was pregnant. He was angry and when this rumor was confirmed, he took action to have her put to death at the stake for the crime of “harlotry.” As Tamar was being brought forth to be burned, she sent a message and some gifts to Judah. “I am with child,” she said, “by the owner of this ring, this cord and this staff.” Judah recognized them as his own. He then repented of the way he had treated Tamar and took her into his home and harem. She produced twins and one of them, a boy named Perez, was in the line between Abraham and Jesus. By the standards of that day, sex with one’s father-in-law was considered to be incest and was condemned. In Matthew’s genealogy, however, the proclamation was made that the line that produced Jesus had flowed through the incest of Tamar. It was a strange and fascinating way to open the story of Jesus. The second woman mentioned in this genealogy was named Rahab. Her story is told in chapters two and six of the book of Joshua. She lived in Jericho, a Canaanite city, where she ran a brothel in the red light district. She was known in the book of Joshua as “Rahab the prostitute.” When Joshua sent spies into Jericho, they went to the house of Rahab, which was built into the walls that encircled the city. When rumors of the presence of these spies spread throughout the city, Rahab hid them from the searching authorities and when the gates of the city were locked after dark, she let them down outside the walls in a basket so that they could make their escape. She exacted a promise from them, however, that when the invasion of Jericho came, she and her family, all of whom would be gathered in her house, would be spared. It was done and they were saved. Rahab married a Jew named Salmon, perhaps he was a soldier in Joshua’s army, perhaps he was even one of the spies. In this story Matthew now says that the line that produced Jesus flowed through Rahab, the prostitute. The intrigue grows. The third woman in Matthew’s genealogy was Ruth the Moabite, whose story is told in the book that bears her name. A Jewish family, Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion, moved from Israel to Moab to escape a famine. Both sons soon married Moabite women, whose names were Orpah and Ruth. Then tragedy struck and the three men in this family died, leaving a Jewish widow and her two Moabite daughters-in-law. Naomi urged her two daughters in law to return to the protection of their fathers. Orpah did so, but Ruth refused and she and Nomi returned together to the land of the Jews. Two widowed, and thus single women, did not constitute a viable family in the Jewish world. There were no jobs for women; they lived by begging and gleaning. Gleaning was the process of allowing the poor to scour the fields after the harvest for enough grain to keep one alive. This is what Ruth did each day for Naomi. In this capacity, she came to the attention of the owner of the fields, a man named Boaz, who was a distant relative of Elimelech, Naomi’s deceased husband. Boaz protected Ruth from the male workers in the field and ordered them to leave some grain deliberately in the field for her to gather. He also saw to it that she got water. Naomi, pleased when she heard of these signs, planned her own course of action. A celebration was to be held when the crop was harvested. At this celebration there would be revelry and much wine. Naomi instructed Ruth to go to the celebration, bathed, perfumed and in her best dress. She was, however, not to make herself known to Boaz until “his heart was merry” with wine. Ruth agreed. When Boaz was well drunk, he lay down on the floor and went to sleep. Ruth put a pillow under his head and a blanket across his body and then climbed under the blanket with him. At midnight Boaz awoke and discovered Ruth under the blanket with him. “Who are you?” he asked, but Ruth having successfully seduced him, responded by saying, “Marry me,” for “you are next of kin.” Boaz protested that there was a kinsman closer than he. That kinsman, however, renounced that claim and Boaz married Ruth and they produced a son named Obed. The line that produced Jesus, said Matthew, now flowed through the seduction of Ruth. The mystery thickens. The final woman in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus was “the wife of Uriah, the Hittite.” Her story is told in II Samuel 11. Her name is Bathsheba. She came to King David’s attention while bathing on the rooftop of her home in what she thought was privacy. David’s rooftop towered above hers, however, and he could and did look down on the bathing scene. Smitten by her charms, he sent emissaries to her house inviting her to come to the king’s palace for a “tryst.” She came. Whether she had a right to refuse is not stated, but it was improbable. A few months after this tryst, Bathsheba sent word to King David that she was pregnant with his child. David demurred. She was a married woman, how did she know in this pre-DNA world that it was his child? Bathsheba responded that her husband was away serving in the king’s army and that he had been gone for months. You alone, she said, can be the father of this baby. David sought to give Uriah a furlough so that he could come home, enjoy his wife and thus become the “presumptive father.” The baby just came early, people would say. Uriah, however, refused to cooperate. So David had Uriah killed in battle and took Bathsheba into his harem. Matthew was now saying that the line that produced Jesus of Nazareth flowed through the adultery of Bathsheba. We cannot help but wonder why he is introducing his story of Jesus in this way. The incest of Tamar, the prostitution of Rahab, the seduction of Ruth and the adultery of Bathsheba were the experiences in his ancestry through which Jesus came to be born, as shown in the story of Matthew’s genealogy. All of these women were foreign, and by the standards of that day, all of these women were sexually compromised. This is the way Matthew introduces the story of Jesus’ birth. What was Matthew seeking to communicate? Surely he did not have birth records so that he could trace Jesus’ lineage with any degree of accuracy. Both Matthew and his reading audience would have known this. They would have been amused that anyone at any time would have thought of this family tree as literal history. We need to recognize, however, that Matthew is the first gospel writer to suggest that the birth of Jesus was supernatural and miraculous. He introduced this tradition into Christianity, but it was not until the ninth decade of the Christian era that it appeared. Simultaneously he suggested that the line that produced Jesus passed through incest, prostitution, seduction and adultery. When this series continues we will begin to unpack this dramatic introduction.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Call to Covenant Join Rev. David Felten, co-creator of Living the Questions, for Module 3 of Living the Questions 2.0: Call to Covenant. Pastor David will be joined by Minnesota-based author, activist, and Zoom-wrangler Elizabeth Bayer.Participation in Module 1 or 2 is NOT required to participate in Module 3.Beginning Thursday, March 23rd 10 AM – 12 PM (Arizona time/MST), this online (ZOOM) webinar will continue on Thursdays through May 4th. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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FW: March Updates from Kaira Jewel- Selma
by Lynda C 15 Mar '23

15 Mar '23

In case some of you aren’t on Kaira Jewel Lingo’s mailing list, you will find this powerful article reminiscent of the work in Civil Rights that called us to work with the Ecumenical Institute in the 1960’s. Several years ago, at an Archives gathering, Doug Druckenmiller made a video of David Scott telling of this same event, assigned by JWM. I don’t know if it has been posted or not. If not, perhaps it can get on the list for the next sojourn. Hope many of you can be part of this “archeological dig” and spirit event. Karen will have to remind us of the dates and details. Thanks to Kaira for sharing this event with her Dad and with us. Thanks to Charles and David for being on the front lines of that historical event. Lynda From: Lingo Kaira Jewell <info(a)kairajewel.com> Reply-To: Lingo Kaira Jewell <info(a)kairajewel.com> Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 12:35 PM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: March Updates from Kaira Jewel View this email in your browser<https://mailchi.mp/kairajewel.com/httpsmailchimp785057cb1358resting-back-in…> [https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/template_images/gallery/bg_watercolor_top.…] [https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/template_images/gallery/bg_watercolor_left…] [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/511ab0c5-ca3e-e5…] March Newsletter Woke up this mornin' with my mind stayin' on freedom Dear friends, I have just returned from Selma, Alabama, where I had the opportunity to celebrate the 58th anniversary of the March from Selma to Montgomery with my dad, brother and a sangha friend. It was particularly meaningful for me as my dad worked with Dr. King and the SCLC and was one of 2 white men marching across the bridge on Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965 (upon the insistence of Stokely Carmichael, later known as Kwame Ture). He also helped organize the march that the court allowed to proceed two weeks later. He searched along the route to find places for marchers to spend the night on their 5-day walk to Montgomery and went back after the march ended with a team to clean up those camping spots, mend fences and the like. As we drove from Montgomery to Selma early Sunday morning for the events, my dad also pointed out the place where Viola Liuzzo was murdered by Klansmen as she was driving marchers home from Montgomery after the march. I felt a chill run up my spine imagining the jubilation in the community after the march and how vulnerable they still were in the wake of such a victory. When we arrived in Selma for the Unity breakfast, we enjoyed a delicious Southern breakfast (truly the best grits ever!) as we heard from various dignitaries and civil rights leaders, like Jesse Jackson Sr. who spoke to the courage of the Selma freedom fighters from his wheelchair. Throughout the event there was a big focus on the need to restore and protect voting rights, the main aim of the original march in 1965. Speakers shared stories of their experiences at the march and also requested support of Selma after 40% of its residential homes were damaged by a tornado in early January this year. Selma was already a place in need before the tornado. In panels over the weekend we also learned that Selma may have been targeted for its key role in the civil rights movement and punished through deliberate withdrawal of businesses and a military base, leading to its economic downturn. Here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> is some information on how to support the city in the wake of the tornadoes. We made a short visit to Sunday service at the First Baptist Church, where my dad recalled having meetings and gatherings in the basement to plan demonstrations. It was very meaningful to join the congregation in singing Lift Every Voice and Sing<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, often referred to as the 'Black national anthem.' A large and multiracial group of Boy Scouts from Birmingham, AL was in attendance as well as a group of some 30 white men from all over the country, from White Men for Racial Justice<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> who were in Selma to commemorate the anniversary weekend. From there we made a visit to the Selma cemetery and inadvertently ended up parking at a private portion of the public cemetery, the Confederate Memorial Circle, dedicated to honoring confederate soldiers. There were dozens of confederate flags waving from a patch of tombstones at the center of the circle. An older couple had also just arrived, in their separate vehicles, and were each setting up to care for the circle. The woman approached us and introduced herself the president of the Selma chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy (the husband also later proudly declared his membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans). She was wearing a "God save the South" t-shirt with an image of a soldier carrying a large confederate flag. It was quite a shock and huge contrast to the prior events of the day to listen, with as much presence as we could, to her effusive explanations of all the work they were doing to preserve and honor confederate history and all the many monuments the circle boasted, from a cannon on a pedestal used by the confederate army, to a monument for a confederate general that had been erected in a central location in Selma, but as the plaque in front of it stated, "Bowing to the protests of a few intolerant, self-styled activists, and under pressure from Selma's first Black mayor, the Selma City Council voted 5-4... to move the monument." Seeing the confederate flags waving in the breeze, on her t-shirt and on the plaques and monuments surrounding us was dizzying and disturbing. I felt nauseous as we returned to the car. I wondered what kind of South she wanted God to save? The one where black men, women and children were dehumanized, stolen from, raped, brutalized and lynched with impunity? That is the South my great grandparents fled from, seeking asylum from racial terror in the North (though they could not escape it there, either). This history is powerfully captured in the newly-expanded Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, located in Montgomery, AL, which documents over 4400 racial terror lynchings of Black people between 1877 and 1950, and all over the country, not just in the deep South. As we left the cemetery we pondered the challenge we face, as individuals and as a country, to bring about true racial justice and healing when basic facts are not shared and the perception of reality and history is so fundamentally different that it appears unreconcilable. From there we went on to the commemoration of the march itself and stood before the Edmund Pettus bridge listening to speeches, including by President Biden, who was introduced by Charles Mauldin, a dear friend of my dad's, who joined the Bloody Sunday march at the age of 16, and who has organized a Foot Soldier's Breakfast every year for decades in Selma to honor the foot soldiers of the Movement. While the bridge was named after a Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan, we claimed it as ours as we walked, jubilantly, reverently in the footsteps of those brave heroes 58 years ago, singing 'Ain't gonna let nobody turn me 'round' and 'Woke up this mornin' with my mind, stayin' on freedom' and other songs of the movement. There was such a joy and power walking among a group of thousands of people honoring this decisive moment in US history that helped lead to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And we walked mindfully, aware of how much was sacrificed then for us to be able to walk in dignity today. I felt Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh, walking with us, as we treasured each step and the freedom we could walk with, deeply alive and treasuring each moment. [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/cdb6e311-ae6a-8a…] Bowing to Buddhist monastics walking on the bridge, who were chanting and drumming And there is still much that needs to be protected and fought for. We know the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. Although the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed in Congress in 2021 it has been blocked in the Senate. Many groups are doing important work to protect voting rights. Check out The Voting Rights Alliance<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, the Poor People's Campaign<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, and a list of other ways to get involved here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. The trip was made even more special by having lunch with the Honorable Andrew Young<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> the following day, just before I had to catch a plane back to New York, who was also part of the march from Selma to Montgomery. He was executive director of the SCLC and close confidant to Dr. King and went onto serve as Ambassador to the UN and mayor of Atlanta. He is also a close friend of my father and our family and I have been fortunate to grow up spending time with him and his family. He shared over lunch that he still remembered Thay talking to Dr. King about the war in Vietnam in 1966 and how Dr. King and his staff were all in a kind of trance as Thay explained the meaning of the self-immolations of Buddhist monastic and lay practitioners, and how they were not suicides. See the picture of the three of us at the end of this email. Thank you for sharing in this profound Civil Rights experience with me by reading and holding this story with me. ~ ~ ~ Below is information on my upcoming online and in-person retreats, courses and events, plus further resources and talks I have offered recently. I'm happy to be offering more in-person events locally this spring! (Including at Adelphi University in Garden City this Thursday--tomorrow!) May we all keep our minds stayin' on freedom for ourselves, our communities, our nation and our world, including all the more than human species. in solidarity, Kaira Jewel Some of my upcoming retreats: May 16 - 21, 2023 Garrison Institute: “I’ve Got the Power!” Claiming and Strengthening Our True Power<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> A Retreat for the BIPOC Community with Dr. Marisela Gomez and Kaira Jewel Lingo. In person August 28 - September 3, 2023 Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center: Belonging to Each Other: Falling in Love with Mother Earth Together<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> BIPOC Ecodharma retreat with Kritee Kanko and Kaira Jewel Lingo. In person November 3 - 6, 2023 Barre Center for Buddhist Studies: Sacred Justice for Our World: Embodying Compassion and Equanimity<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> with Konda Mason and Kaira Jewel Lingo. In person Save the date for these upcoming retreats: September 15 - 17, 2023 Omega Institute: Weekend retreat open to everyone, with Dr. Larry Ward and Kaira Jewel Lingo. In person “I’ve Got the Power!” Claiming and Strengthening Our True Power<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> A Retreat for the BIPOC Community with Kaira Jewel and Dr. Marisela Gomez [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/3cc53b92-357b-f3…] Hosted by Garrison Institute More info here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> May 16 - 21, 2023 In person retreat Radical Aliveness in a More than Human World<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> Kaira Jewel Lingo will be co-facilitating the US retreat with Kritee Kanko [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/_compresseds/86abfa74-9…] Hosted by Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center More info here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> May 22 - 29, 2023 In person retreat This is a Kincentric Leadership retreat as part of an 18-month training program. Find out more at: www.kincentricleadership.org <https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> Sacred Justice for Our World: Embodying Compassion and Equanimity<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> with Kaira Jewel and Konda Mason [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/2e9f3c5d-d549-a4…] Barre Center for Buddhist Studies This retreat will support and resource activists and community organizers, as well as practitioners looking to engage more directly in justice work as spiritual practice. More info here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> November 3 - 6, 2023 In person retreat Some of my upcoming talks: Ongoing every Thursday at noon ET: Weekly BIPOC Meditation Sangha<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> Online Warm invitation to Black/Indigenous/People of Color (which has been meeting for 2.5 years!) to join for an hour of meditation, teaching and sharing with Kaira Jewel and Marisela Gomez, who alternate teaching every Thursday from 12-1pm ET. By donation. More info here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. To register here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. Thursday, March 9, 2023, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm. M<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>indfulness and Compassion in Our Daily Life<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. Adelphi University, Ruth S. Harley University Center, Room 324 In person Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 1 - 2 p.m., A conversation on Climate Grief<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, hosted by Good Grief Network<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> and Reimagine<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. Online Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 6 p.m., Wednesday Morning Meditation<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, hosted by Spirit Rock. Register here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. Online Thursday, March 30, 2023, 1pm ET. Rubin Museum Mindfulness Meditation<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> Manhattan, NYC In Person Monday, April 3, 2023, 5 p.m., Smith College Presidential Colloquium Speaker Series<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>, Campus Center Carroll Room. More info here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. In person Let’s TAKE ACTION: Transforming Climate Grief into Growth<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/506d7334-3c83-99…]<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> A dialogue between Good Grief Network’s LaUra Schmidt and I, to inspire action and growth as we confront climate change. Hosted by Good Grief Network<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> and Reimagine<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 1 - 2 pm ET More info and to RSVP here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. online Recent podcasts [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/0d4d0427-7286-8e…]<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> For the podcast website<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. "Friends, here is the latest episode of the Encountering Silence podcast. This episode features a conversation the Encountering Silence team had last year with Buddhist author Kaira Jewel Lingo." You can hear more podcasts on my website here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> or my YouTube channel here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…>. Buddhist-Christian Community of Meditation and Action<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/19c10bc0-9810-24…]<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> With Kaira Jewel Lingo and Father Adam Bucko Please join us on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, 8:00 - 9:30 pm ET Register here<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> I co-teach this group with my partner, Father Adam Bucko, a Christian contemplative and an Episcopal priest. We meet to deepen our study and application of the rich and diverse Buddhist and Christian contemplative practices and how these can support engaged spirituality, or what Andrew Harvey terms sacred activism, “a transforming force of compassion-in-action that is born of a fusion of deep spiritual knowledge, courage, love, and passion, with wise radical action in the world.” Sessions begin with a contemplative practice or meditation, followed by a teaching or dialogue with a guest visitor, and end with conversation and Q&A. You are welcome to join our next gathering. Everyone is welcome, of all religious or spiritual backgrounds or none. When you register, you will also have access to the recording of the gathering a week or so later. Monthly gatherings are offered on a give-what-you-can donation basis. All donations go to supporting the growth of this community. We Were Made for These Times Audiobook Available on Audible.com [https://mcusercontent.com/332adf812f8378db41c606caf/images/21592909-4391-ca…]<https://kairajewel.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=332adf812f8378db41c60…> Read by me! Available also at your favorite book seller. 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3 2

Kathleen Joyce, DOD 3/9/23
by Richard Alton 12 Mar '23

12 Mar '23

Kathleen was a Global Citizen committed to the work of the Institute of C ultural Affairs (ICA), locally and globally. She was a voracious learner, attending many ICA training programs. The ICA appreciates her generosity, constancy and longstanding commitment to the ICA. She was introduced to ICA's global work through the MN ICA Learning Community (ICANetwork) in the Twin Cities in 1991. Through it, she also met Betty and Dr. Burt Dyson, ICA members and authors of the book "Neighborhood Caretakers". Kathleen worked with them in churches and environmental groups as part of her ICA work. The ICANetwork was renamed the Minnesota Facilitator's Network (MFN). As one of it's co-founders, Kathleen was the first chair of the MFN 1994-1996. MFN was one of the first organizations outside of the ICA offices to offer the Technology of Participation (ToP®) facilitation methods training to facilitators and consultants to empower individuals, organizations and communities through participatory methods. Kathleen was one of the first local facilitators to become a certified ToP® Trainer. She also served 3 years on the Leadership Options program guide team at the ICA Chicago office. After the passing of her son, Kevin, she worked at the ICA-USA ToP® office in Phoenix, Arizona. She later returned to the Twin Cities to continue with her work with the ICA Board (2002-2007), Minneapolis and Chicago ICA offices. Kathleen continued her support of the ICA's International Global Fund, and also traveled internationally working on projects, training ToP® and participating in conferences in Africa, Kyrgyzstan and in England. Her commitment with her ICA work and connection to global and environmental issues were strongly felt and appreciated by many with an impact that will live on through others. Note to All: John and Molly Burke can be reached at: 171 Wildwood Ave. White Bear Lake, MN 55110 612-386-8172 -- Richard H. T. Alton ICA Global Fund Methodist Eco-Sustainability T/F T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 Won't you be my neighbor?

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3/10/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 10 Mar '23

10 Mar '23

1 0

Photo to archives from Sevagram
by Nancy Trask 10 Mar '23

10 Mar '23

Supplied by Hiraman Gavai, photo of Sevagram HDP. Marcus Salve on the left. -- “If you love it enough, anything will talk with you” ~George Washington Carver

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3/8/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 10 Mar '23

10 Mar '23

10 15

3/9/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 09 Mar '23

09 Mar '23

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3/09/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev.Dr. Matthew Fox: M. D. Chenu’s Very Progressive Christianity; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 09 Mar '23

09 Mar '23

M. D. 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and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 .yiv5189815492mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent, #yiv5189815492 .yiv5189815492mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templatePreheader .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent, #yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templatePreheader .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templateHeader .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent, #yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templateHeader .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templateBody .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent, #yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templateBody .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templateFooter .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent, #yiv5189815492 #yiv5189815492templateFooter .yiv5189815492mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | M. D. Chenu’s Very Progressive Christianity | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox March 9, 2023Some wonderful news and a wonderful book appeared in my life recently that has everything to do with a “Progressive Christianity.” The news is this: The German Dominicans have opened a “Chenu Institute” in Berlin and have published a book called A Coming of God into Time and History: The Theological Project of M-D Chenu OP.I welcome both events with open arms. Why so? Renowned historian Etienne Gilson stated that "there is only one Fr. Chenu each century."[1] Pere Chenu was a French Dominican who was my mentor at my studies at the Institut catholique in Paris. He named the creation spirituality tradition and the Fall/Redemption tradition for me when I was in class with him in the Spring of ’68. A year that saw the deaths of MLK, Jr., Robert Kennedy and Thomas Merton (who had recommended I study at the Catho and admired Pere Chenu very much). In 1968 students were protesting in Paris, Berkeley, California, Madison, Wisconsin, Tubingen, Germany and many other places. (One result of the student protests in Tubingen was the “conversion” of theologian Josef Ratzinger from being a contributor to progressive theology at Vatican II to being an arch conservative. When students invaded a faculty meeting at Tubingen he left the room and came back a totally changed man.)[2]As it turned out, my semester with Pere Chenu was his last semester of teaching. I still have my notes that I took in his class which was a course on the Spirituality of the 12th Century, a century that he, historian that he was, called “the one Renaissance that worked in the West” because it was bottom-up—freed serfs, the young and women led--and not a top-down renaissance like that of the 16th century.Why is a Chenu Institute and a new book about him such good news for progressive Christians today? Because he was a progressive and courageous theologian throughout his life and was unafraid to break the glass in so many areas of culture and religion including theological education. As regent of studies at the Dominican House of Studies, he reinvented theological education and wrote about it in a short book on Le Saulchoir. In 1942 the Vatican put his book on the Index of Forbidden Books. Why? For daring to redesign theological and seminary education--a task, I might add, that was my preoccupation for 45 years of a redesigned education to teach spirituality to lay and religious alike, beginning with ICCS (the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality) at Mundelein College in Chicago for 7 years; then 12 years at Holy Names College in Oakland, California. During ten of those years Cardinal Ratzinger sought to shut us down and when he finally succeeded, I started up the University of Creation Spirituality with its Doctor of Ministry program to bring work and spirituality together as I laid out in my book, The Reinvention of Work. Chenu wrote two books on work, Spirituality of Work (1941) and Toward a Theology of Work (1955).In one of my visits with him years after I graduated, I told him of my books on Hildegard of Bingen and he told me that he taught courses on Hildegard as well as Mechtild of Magdeburg back in the 1930’s —and with a woman scholar, Jeanne Ancelet-Hustache (who also wrote on Meister Eckhart). In short, he was a feminist in the 1930’s. Chenu found himself in hot water for supporting the worker priest movement in France through his writings. In addition, he marched in protests in the streets on behalf of workers and unions (which in France after the war were quite Marxist at times), and attended union meetings giving feedback when asked about debating views being expressed. For this ministry, he was forbidden to write and was exiled from Paris for 8 years, right up to 1962, the year of the opening of Vatican II.His work with the worker priests, an act of listening to real people discussing their real issues and decision-making, became it seems to me an integral part of the methodology of liberation theology and base communities. He always insisted that laity should have prominence in the church.He used to say: “I never did theology from an armchair.” (Or from an ivory tower of comfortable academia.)On receiving one of my books he would write me back a short note, “we are brothers in communion of thought.” He gave me permission to translate and combine two articles of his that I still refer to these days (and to add a few teachings from Rabbi Heschel) on the very important topic of non-dualism that was so central to him and his mentor, Thomas Aquinas. Called “Body and Body Politic in the Creation Spirituality of Thomas Aquinas,” it was published in my book, Western Spirituality: Historical Roots Ecumenical Routes. There he demonstrates how Aquinas took on neo-platonic and Augustinian dualism that put the seat of the virtues in the mind. He showed how Aquinas broke ranks with them in a big way by placing the seat of virtues in our passions. Aquinas calls the union of matter and spirit, passions and virtues, a communio mirabilis, a “wonderful communion.”Chenu was invited as a “peritus” or theological guide not by a European bishop but by the bishop of Madagascar, a “third-world” bishop of Africa therefore. His influence was felt strongly at the Council and in documents he authored including Gaudium et Spes. One of his favorite terms, “to read the signs of the times,” made its way into several major documents at the Council. Among other things, he worked closely behind the scenes with Eastern orthodox bishops and theologians, thus engaging in deep ecumenism. His ecumenism extended back to 1938 when he urged his students to meet scholars of Islamic mysticism in Paris and helped found an Institute in Cairo for Christian-Muslim dialog. Zen artist Frederick Frank, who traveled to the Council uninvited (there were no artists invited to Vatican II), told me that of all the hundreds of participants, “Chenu had the most interesting visage” and he eagerly sketched him. Chenu insisted on the marriage of spirituality and the arts—it comes through powerfully in his iconic book, Nature, Man and Society in the 12th Century. In class he brought in large picture books of the Cathedrals of the Middle Ages and taught from them, saying that “you cannot understand the theology of the Middle Ages without studying the great art--architecture, sculpture, windows of the time.” The last time I visited him, he was 91 years old and going blind, and he put his arm around me, wagged his finger and said, “Never forget. The greatest tragedy in theology of the last 300 years has been the divorce of the theologian from the poet, the musician, the painter, the potter, the dancer, and the film maker.” No doubt this has something to do with my insistence on using art as meditation as integral to educating for spirituality.A brief note on the fine book, A Coming of God into Time and History. The first essay is written by Ulrich Engel, one of the Dominicans overseeing the Chenu Institute. It is called “The Question of Modernity in Catholic Theology, the dispute over ‘Nouvelle Theologie’ as the Context of M-D Chenu’s book Une Ecole de theologie: Le Saulchoir (1937). It begins this way. “The term ‘nouvelle theologie’ (New Theology) is a battle term. At least that was the case for a large part of the twentieth century, more exactly the periods between the middle of the 1930s and the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)." Chenu and others opposed the “strict division between faith and the world” and tried to “build a bridge between the two.”[3] You can see the roots of the “Church in the Modern world” document of Vatican II right here. A second article, written by Sister Janette Gray, RSM of Australia, demonstrates how Chenu’s insistence on historicity overthrew what he called “baroque scholasticism” and “seminary Thomism.” (He had a colorful way with words--which did not always endear him to anal-retentive academic types.) She cites Chenu, “this scholasticism tended to define intelligibility in a strictly rational way.... Logical formalism has triumphed at the cost of curiosity.” He showed how profoundly “modern scholasticism” deviated from Thomas’s pre-modern spirit and theology, endorsing the epigram, “no theology without new birth.”[4] Chenu, being critical of the hyper rationalism of the modern era, anticipated a post-modern consciousness imbued with pre-modern awareness.A third excellent article, by Thomas O’Meara, an American Dominican, reflects on Chenu’s favorite topics: “History, Culture and Revelation.” He cites Chenu again addressing creativity while taking on contemporary academia: “Cultural dimensions in the course of history go beyond academic teaching. They emerge in new images and lead the religious dimension to find new mental categories and vocabularies.” Invoking Albert the Great, Aquinas’s mentor, Chenu writes that “science was far from complete: new sciences are awaiting discovery. Theology appears as a historical dimension for the life of the church at the same time as the life of the church enters into the breadth of theology.” Says O’Meara, “Chenu was both historian and theologian. ‘History in theology lies at the inner reality of theology itself.’” In O’Meara’s words, “Creation becomes history.”[5] Surely this perspective smacks of Chenu’s often repeated call to “read the signs of the times” that made its way into the consciousness and documents of Vatican II.There is great depth and riches in this book on Chenu. The final chapter is a wondrous surprise—an article by Chenu himself written in 1939, called “Catholic Action and the Mystical Body” which demonstrates his early commitment to values of both Liberation Theology and Creation Spirituality today. Indeed, Gustavo Guttieriez calls liberation theology “a daughter of Chenu.”[6] I call Chenu the father (or grandfather?) of creation spirituality.I rejoice that Chenu’s spirit and story, courage and curiosity, prophetic spirit and critic of modern consciousness, is being remembered at this critical time in human and planetary and religious/spiritual history. As he said to us in class in 1968 as Paris was literally shut down and all schools except ours were closed, “we have been studying history. Here is your chance to make it. Go out and join the revolution. Don’t come to school next week; come back in two weeks and tell me what you have contributed.” He was 76 at the time. And the youngest person I have ever known.~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Read online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 40 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 78 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship (called The Cosmic Mass). His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much-neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Among his books are A Way To God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey; Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times; Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times; Order of the Sacred Earth; The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times; and Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic – And Beyond; Original Blessing; The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; A Spirituality Named Compassion; Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. To encourage a passionate response to the news of climate change advancing so rapidly, Fox started DailyMeditationswithMatthewFox.org[1] Hilary D Regan, ed., A Coming of God into Time and History: The Theological Project of M-D Chenu OP (Brompton, SA, Australia : ATF Press, 2021), p. 14, note 37.[2] See Matthew Fox, The Pope’s War: How Ratzinger’s Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved (New York: Sterling Ethos, 2011).[3] Hilary D Regan, A Coming of God into Time and History, p. 3.[4] Ibid. pp. 23f., 25, 48.[5] Ibid., pp. 71f.[6] Gustavo Gutierrez, “Liberation theology—a daughter of Chenu,” 2004, Copyright by Institut M.-Dominique Chenu Berlin, www.institut-chenu.eu. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By AlbertJesus never tried to teach us a theology. If it was important, wouldn’t he have at least mentioned his theology? When he interacted with people, he loved and accepted them for who they were. He didn’t try to change them and he didn’t try to change the world, except maybe one person at a time. He taught them to have faith and do the right thing. Why do Christian churches, ministers, missionaries, etc. feel the need to force their theology on us? Jesus would not be doing this. In my opinion, no theology is entirely correct, even my own. A: By Dr. Carl Krieg Dear Albert,Fifty years ago I wrote a book entitled What to Believe?? The Questions of Christian Faith, published by Fortress Press and currently available from ProgressiveChristianity.org. In that book I asked fifteen different theological questions, summarized answers that have been given throughout the history of Christian thinking, criticized those answers, and concluded by offering some thoughts of my own. Well, not quite concluded, because now, fifty years later, I have tried to reflect about how my thinking has changed. These reflections are serialized, also in progressivechristianity.org. All of this is to underscore your last comment, that “no theology is entirely correct, not even my [your] own.” Our perceptions are culture-bound and short-sighted, in many ways products of our time. But we can change, hopefully, and grow, perhaps evermore approaching that which is true.There is a difference between thinking theologically and pronouncing dogma. Much to our dismay, there are many churches and clergy who prefer the latter, especially those who proclaim that they alone have the truth, that in order to be “saved” [whatever that might mean], you have to believe that Jesus died for your sins and that the Bible is inerrant. On the other hand, we all do need to think about life and God and about the meaning for which we search, but in that process we certainly must not impose our beliefs on others. If each of us could admit the shortcomings in our perception, the world would be more peaceful and just. Jesus did not have a set of beliefs that he wanted to transmit to others, but he did have an awakened attitude that he tried to teach, challenging people to “have faith and do the right thing”, as you succinctly put it. Love God and love your neighbor. As an illustration of loving confrontation, we read that a teacher of the law came to Jesus and asked “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded, “There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves…and a Samaritan came by…” Jesus did challenge those who were blind to the essence of their humanity, as with this teacher of the law. The challenge was love in action. Part of that awakened attitude was a vision for a different world. The society into which Jesus was born and in which he walked, was a society founded upon oppression of the poor. The rich and powerful ruled without mercy, and Jesus really did challenge that system, not least by gathering a family of friends, a group of about 25 disciples who cared for one another and shared their goods. This vision of a new way to live directly challenged the status quo established and enforced by the rich and powerful, so they had him murdered. If we gather these thoughts together, the sum and substance is that it is integral to our humanity to creatively think theologically without slipping into dogmatism. Beginning with the basic premise, taught by Jesus and others, that love is the way, we need to challenge ourselves and others to continually work toward that higher awareness. Should we succumb to the temptation to impose our belief on others rather than helping them to grow in their own understanding of life and love, then we have ourselves become blind to the truth, and our pronouncements are null and void. ~ Dr. Carl Krieg Read and share online here About the Author Dr. Carl Krieg received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith, The Void and the Vision and The New Matrix: How the World We Live In Impacts Our Thinking About Self and God. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. We also want to highlight the opportunity to become a sustaining supporter. If you are looking for the best way to help us continue to provide progressive Christian resources, become a sustaining supporter by choosing Recurring Donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Part VI Matthew: The Genealogy (1:1-17) Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 7, 2013“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” — that is how the gospel of Matthew begins. The word “genealogy” means “origins,” beginnings. It could thus also be translated the book of the “genesis” of Jesus, the messiah. For “genesis” is what is being described in this opening chapter and Christ is simply the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “machiach,” which means messiah. If the words “genesis” and “messiah” were both used in an English rendition of this text, it would become very obvious that Matthew was a Jew writing to a Jewish audience about the Jewish Jesus to make the claim that he was the expected Jewish messiah. I suspect that all of these things were obvious both in Matthew’s mind and in the minds of the Jewish audience for whom he wrote. Matthew, we will discover later, will divide his teaching of Jesus into five major blocks, just like the Torah was divided into five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So it should not be surprising that Matthew opens his gospel with his account of Jesus’ “genesis.” Today we will circle back to the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel to examine his view of the “genesis” of Jesus.Matthew’s genealogical narrative begins with Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. Jesus is to be heir to and the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. In this “genesis,” Matthew will also touch a second major moment in Jewish history. This was their memory of the days of Jewish glory, the golden age of Jewish history, which they had identified with King David. Among his many accomplishments David had begun the plans for the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. His son Solomon had brought this Temple to completion. As the years rolled by King David, despite many character weaknesses, still had his reputation filled with the mythological content of heroes. Ultimately all Jewish dreams of the coming messiah included in them the re-establishment of the royal house of David as the mark of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Matthew touched all of these bases in his “genesis” of Jesus. He was the son of Abraham, the son of David and the messiah for whom the people yearned.The third experience in Jewish history to which this “genesis” would allude was the most painful moment these people ever endured. They called it “The Babylonian Exile.” It came about after the defeat of the Jews at the hands of the Babylonian army that happened first in 596 BCE and then once again a decade later in 586 BCE, when an ill-conceived rebellion broke out in Jerusalem. To pacify the land, the Babylonians moved significant numbers of the Jewish population to the land of Babylon, where they became an underclass of cheap labor. That kind of exile normally ended in the loss of national identity as intermarriage occurred and the people forgot their own biological roots and places of origin. That had been the fate of the Northern Kingdom of Israel when they were defeated by and exiled into the land of the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. Today, we call them “The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.”Matthew, however, was well aware that the defeated Jewish people survived this crisis of the exile. They did it with Herculean efforts to keep themselves apart from the people of Babylonia. They accomplished this by emphasizing those things that made them separate and different. The Jews of the Exile observed the Sabbath by refusing to work on the seventh day of every week; they adopted Kosher dietary laws that prevented them from eating with and thus from fraternizing with non-Jews, and they placed the sign of their Judaism, circumcision, on the bodies of every Jewish male. Those intense efforts at separation paid off and in time these exiles were able to return to their homeland as a cohesive people. This was the time when they began to dream of the one who would someday come to restore the power and the fortunes of the Jewish people. These were the notes that Matthew struck in his genealogy. He wanted his readers to know that Jesus was the son of Abraham, the son of David and the expected messiah. Despite the boring nature of these opening verses this “genesis” was terribly important in developing the purpose of Matthew’s work.Everyone, including Matthew and his original readers, knew that this genealogy was not literally accurate. It was filled with stylized numbers. All of the great moments of Jewish history were divided, said Matthew, by fourteen generations. From Abraham to David was fourteen generations, from David to the Exile was fourteen generations and from the Exile to the birth of Jesus was fourteen generations. What was that about? Since seven was the holy, perfect and lucky number, the generational dividers were double sevens or fourteen in number. It was an interesting, but historically impossible claim to make. The years between Abraham and David were about 900, the years between David and the Exile about 400 and the years between the Exile and Jesus were about 600. If a generation was 20 years, which would be the average measure in a world where the life expectancy was 30-40 years, the separation between Abraham and David would be closer to 45 generations; between David and the Exile, 20 generations, and between the Exile and Jesus, 30 generations. In the line that connected David to the Exile, Matthew claimed to be following the kings of the Southern Kingdom, but he still left out some kings that were actually named in the biblical story in order to produce his rounded symmetry. Matthew surely knew this. The audience for which he wrote would also have known this, for they were both conversant with the Jewish Scriptures and with Jewish history. Thus it would not have occurred to them to think that this genealogy or “genesis” of Jesus was to be treated literally. That would be the later contribution of the Gentiles who became almost exclusively dominant in the Christian church by 150 CE. Lacking the Jewish knowledge and background to read or to understand these basically Jewish gospels, they assumed that they were reading literal history. I repeat a general theme of this entire series. Biblical fundamentalism was born in Gentile ignorance. It is a “Gentile Heresy!”One other detail in this “genesis” must have leapt out at the original Jewish reader. Four women are named in the genealogy of Jesus, all of whom have their stories told in the Bible itself. To include women in a genealogical line of ancestors, whether historical or mythological, was quite rare because in the ancient world, the role of women in reproduction was simply not understood. Western science did not definitively establish the existence of an egg cell in the female until the early years of the 18th century. People thought of reproduction after the analogy of a farmer planting his seed into the womb of Mother Earth. The role of Mother Earth was to nurture the man’s seed to maturity, not to contribute genetically to that seed. Women were thus thought of as the incubators of life, which was a product only of the male. So, in the ancient world, women did not make it into genealogical lines because they were not thought of as primary contributors. Yet, in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, four women are included. They are Tamar, whose story is recorded in Genesis 38; Rahab whose story is recorded in the 2nd and 6th chapters of the book of Joshua; Ruth whose story is recorded in the book that bears her name and especially in chapter three, and the wife of Uriah, who is unnamed in the genealogy, but since her story is told in II Samuel 11, we know that her name is Bathsheba.What are these women doing in the genealogy? What do they contribute to Matthew’s story? What was his purpose in including them? Why did he name these four and not others? Major female figures in the Old Testament like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, for example, are not included. These questions simply were not asked before the dawn of critical, biblical scholarship, and since these women were hidden in a genealogy, which is so boring that most people skipped over them anyway, their presence was barely noticed until relatively recently. What can we say about them in this introductory study of Matthew? Our answer involves at least three things.First, each of these women was a foreigner, a Gentile, not a Jew. Matthew will open his gospel with a story of Gentiles in the form of the Wise Men coming to pay homage to the infant Christ Child at the moment of his birth. When he reaches his climax in the final chapter, Matthew will have the risen Christ send his disciples “into all the world,” beyond the boundaries of the Jews “to make disciples of all nations.” So breaking down the barriers that divide Jews from Gentiles is a very important theme of this gospel. It is, therefore, not surprising that in the line that produced Jesus four foreign women find a place in Matthew’s genealogy. Tamar was a Canaanite woman, Rahab a citizen of Jericho, Ruth a Moabite and since Uriah was a Hittite, we must assume that his wife was also. Bathsheba’s name literally meant “daughter (bath) of Sheba” and the Queen of Sheba in the biblical story was certainly a foreigner when she came to visit King Solomon. So the first interpretive clue to the inclusion of these women in the genealogy is that none of them was Jewish, all of them were foreigners, “unclean” foreigners.There was one other surprising clue that comes only when these women’s stories are read in the Bible. All of them were, by the standards of that day, sexually-compromised women. One was guilty of incest, one was a prostitute, one was a seductress and the last was an adulterer. We will turn to their stories next week. Until then ask yourself why Matthew would introduce four sexually-tainted women into the genealogy of Jesus in the verses that form the preamble to his story of Jesus’ miraculous birth? Then recall that the Virgin Birth makes its first appearance in the Christian tradition as the immediate follow on to Matthew’s startling genealogy! It is at the very least a strange way to introduce the Messiah.Once the literal prison in which we have confined the Bible has been shattered then, far from being destroyed as traditional Christians seem to fear, our faith is rather opened to new meanings. These columns leading up to Easter are designed to introduce my readers to the kind of biblical debates that are commonplace in the world of academia but which institutional Christian spokespersons are loathe to discuss publicly. This week I examine one more detail in the passion story that we have mistakenly literalized, the unit of time that we call “three days.”~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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cause for bouncing - too many addressees
by Timothy Wegner 09 Mar '23

09 Mar '23

Here's one of my rare posts on using the dialogue and oe mailing lists. The mailman software does not like you to try and post a message with a whole bunch of addresses in addition to the correct list address. I often see someone who appears to be sending something to their entire contact list. When this happens I can't even tell if they meant the message to go to the listserv or not. The best practice is to include just the list address only, with no other addresses. Or, as I am doing with this, to both lists. It's ok to cc just one or two people whose attention you need, but I usually don't even do that. Usually when someone is having a problem I intervene and try to help out. But there are just not enough hours in the day for me to intervene when an attempt is made to send something to a large number of people along with the lists. I just let the software fail to post the message and send the user an error message, and I don't intervene. Of course I am telling you all this because this has happened a lot lately. If you have questions or comments please email me personally, and don't reply to this message on the list, since while necessary, this is really off topic, and I'd like to limit this topic to this one message. I hope everybody is doing well! Tim Wegner Your usually silent list administrator

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3/7/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 07 Mar '23

07 Mar '23

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