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2/02/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Lauren Van Ham: Over the Hills and Everywhere; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 02 Feb '23

02 Feb '23

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Lauren Van Ham | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | "Over the Hills and Everywhere" | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham February 2, 2023It was January, and the words were familiar, “Go! Tell it on the mountain.” The tune was especially fun when we got to sing, “and EVERYWHERE!” In the Sunday School of my childhood, “Go, tell it on the mountain” was a favorite hymn in the season of Epiphany. In these days since Christmas and before Ash Wednesday, the encouragement for us all is to get out there and share the good news that Jesus was born -- Christ’s light is available for everyone!What does this prompt mean for you and me right now, in 2023? What could it look like in our lives and church communities over the next 11 months?If you’re reading Progressing Spirit, I suspect that you are not necessarily someone who leads conversations with mentions of Jesus and scriptural references. You are, most definitely, a deep thinker, moved by mystery or faith and often wondering about the state of our world and how the teachings of Jesus and spirit-feeding community could bring insight and help to the distress so many of us are feeling. As the pain and destructive effects of isolation and division increase, we also continue to experience attrition and closure of many churches.In an article, “American Religion is Not Dead Yet,” from The Atlantic, the authors ask, “Where are Americans finding meaning in their lives? How are they marking the passing of sacred time? Where are they building pockets of vibrant communities? And what are they doing to answer the prophetic call, however it is that they hear it?”For such a long, long time, our church or spiritual community has been the place to which we turn for marking time with seasonal rituals and gatherings to celebrate or honor life’s cycles. We look to our community for a sense of belonging and support. Ideally, the teaching and formation being generated in these spaces stretches us in ways so enriching that we come to new places of understanding in ourselves; and are moved to engage with the world in ways to bring more healing, justice, peace.For decades we have initiated and been part of inspiring success stories, opening our church doors for feeding, housing, educating. Today, church yards are becoming community gardens and outdoor classrooms, providing food and learning spaces for those who live nearby. Other houses of worship are becoming local energy grids with rooftop solar panel installations and battery back-up. All of this is a generous expression of Christ’s love and light for those in and around the building’s footprint and…societal isolation and division persist. Climate chaos, economic breakdown and congressional in-fighting foreshadows worsening difficulties ahead.So, what is our message now, exactly, and where do we share it?Here is the message: the “good news” has always been (and still is) good, and the mountains and hills have always known. They are, after all, among our best teachers and allies. Like the mountains and rivers, the message to be conveyed is ancient and steady, emergent and continuous. Continuously, this message reminds us that we are Life and that All Life is Sacred. When we come into communion with one another and all living creatures, we are better able to see what’s been broken, and to perceive the role we each have. Some of us are called to hospice that which is ending. Clear and good goodbyes are so important. Some of us are about restoring that which, with systemic disregard, has been desecrated. It may feel like too little, too late but it isn’t -- not for that child, not for that tree.When we share the message over the hills and everywhere, it is important to remember that sharing is reciprocal: we tell and we listen, give and receive. Our telling and listening, giving and receiving is needed throughout the larger ecosystems in which we and our church or spiritual community are a part. As integral, interdependent participants, healing and restoring or doing the hard work of reconciliation with the people, land, air, water and other creatures is an essential and rewarding way to right-size ourselves within Life’s goodness.Over the hills and everywhere means beyond the four walls of our buildings and beyond our conventional expressions of caring or outreach. As the church shrinks or evolves, our trust in the good and ancient message fuels our capacity to respond to the pain, disrepair and division in new and changing ways – like understanding our local food systems and waterways or partnering with the city’s urban planners to address increasing pollution concerns, or by expanding our imaginations to better practice healing and repair with the people or other creatures in the places most challenged by degradation or demoralization. If you and your community are interested in taking new leaps in this work during 2023, you might find the suggestions and stories in this guidebook to be useful.The Christ/Life/Love in you and me unites us with the cooperation and creativity that animates the cosmos. When we move from this source, holy epiphanies rush in providing support. It cannot be otherwise. Individually and collectively, this is the message we get to embody with our neighbors, among the hills and everywhere.~ 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 has 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 Carolyn How do I talk with compassion to a neighbor who is afraid we are in the end times? She is a very conservative 80-year-old widow living alone whose daughters will sometimes belittle her faith. She is pleased that I am no stranger to the Bible, and will quote scripture, interpreting it in a drastic way - she is very frightened by the chaos and violence being reported every day, including the effects of climate change, and she takes it all as a sign that we are all doomed until the second coming. I have no interest in entering into a debate with her about scriptural interpretation. Instead, I would like to know how to talk with her gently in terms she will understand. A: By Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Dear Carolyn,Let me begin by acknowledging the compassion and kindness and respect your own words embody.Where I begin with anyone is the recognition that they are a sacred being on their own journey. I have no idea how their life, or mine, will evolve and unfold. There are no predetermined paths or shoulds to the unfolding of a life. In the wisdom of the Enneagram the only Holy Plan is the unfolding, moment-to-moment, of life.I’ve also discovered that the greater my awareness becomes that Boundless Love is Reality as such, I relax and receive another as they are. My agenda, whatever that might be, recedes in importance. When it does arise – which I can feel as a drivenness to change someone or do or say something – I breathe and bracket it; I don’t deny or suppress my desires, I simply and significantly set them aside. What matters is the life sitting across from me. My attention to them – which is kindness – communicates that they matter, here and now. For me, they are sacred as they are. Such kindness is healing.Fear has many faces, but its taproot almost always resolves into our survival drive. I encourage you to converse with compassion as you practice listening with your heart open and knowing that some days will go better than others. Love is the affirmation of the value of what is already present and arising. Explore with wonder – even the arising of fear. For me, this translates into not offering unsolicited information or advice. The most significant gift between the two of you is the field of trust that emerges as you hold one another in respect and mutually honor each other’s life’s journey.If your friend asks a question, it signifies that she is open to receiving from you. My guess is that what her soul seeks most is resonance, not information. Someone who beholds her as she is, with 80 years of life-experience, and does not belittle or dismiss her fears and beliefs. Beneath any presenting desire there is to know about things such as climate change and second coming (and I in no way dismiss the importance of scientific knowledge), is the soul’s deeper longing to rest in our own innate goodness; this awareness alone calm the heart’s fear. This awareness is hers alone to realize. You can walk beside her as she explores – an invaluable gift – but the journey is hers.~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Read and share online here About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D., an Episcopal Priest, works with students of all backgrounds to awaken to the truth of being holy mystery ceaselessly unfolding, which is to realize our Christ heart. His gentle and compassionate teaching is rooted in wonderment and exploration of the spiritual fecundity of the present moment, drawing upon meditation, body practice, and the enneagram. He has been a student of the Diamond Approach since 2006. He received Jukai from Shoken Winecoff of Ryumonji Soto Zen Buddhist Temple in May, 2004, and has been authorized by Senior Buddhist Teacher, Stephen Snyder, to explore use of the Brahma Viharas within the Christian tradition. Kevin is also an authorized Instructor of Diamond Body Practice and a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. As an Episcopal Priest for almost 30 years, he has helped found the Healing Arts Centers at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish in Portland, Oregon and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Marquette, Michigan. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Awakening as Holy Mystery: Realizing Christ Heart, as well as five previous books, Beyond My Wants, Beyond My Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland, I Have Called You Friends, Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms, and My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You. | | | | | | | | 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 Introducing the Gospel of Matthew. Part I: The Gospels are Jewish Books Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 5, 2013The Bible is the Christian Church’s sacred text. We read from it at every worship service in almost every Christian tradition. It is apparently a rather popular volume for every year since the invention of the printing press it has been the world’s best-selling book. It might well be, however, the world’s least understood and probably is history’s most misused book.From the earliest Church fathers in the 2nd century of the Christian era to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 20th century, the Bible was quoted to justify a cruel anti-Semitism.In the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, the Bible was quoted to justify the Crusades and the relentless Christian attempt to kill “infidels,” who just happened to be the Muslims who occupied Christian holy places in the Middle East. In those Vatican-led Crusades, Western Christians, armed with quotations from what they called “the Word of God,” poured a hatred of Islam into the world’s bloodstream, the harvest of which we are reaping today in terror attacks, in 9/11, in the Boston Marathon bombing and in the political chaos that still marks the Middle East. The hostility of the Muslim world toward the West is so deep that we have been politically incapable of helping to direct into positive channels the human yearning for freedom manifested in what we once called “the Arab Spring.”In 1215 this book, the Bible, was quoted to justify the divine right of kings and to oppose the Magna Carta and the rise of democracy. That was one more time that the literally understood Bible was placed on the losing side of history.In the 17th and 18th centuries, this book was used to justify the enslavement of African people and when this slavery was ended on the battlefields of Antietam, Gettysburg and Appomattox, this book was then used to legitimize a dehumanizing segregation. Do not fail to notice that the part of this country in which slavery was practiced the longest and segregation was defended the most fiercely with the use of police dogs, fire hoses and church bombings was then and is still today known as “The Bible Belt.” I know it well; it is my home.This book, the Bible, was also used to deny women university educations, doorways into the professions, including the priesthood, and even the right to vote until the 20th century.Most recently, this book has been quoted to justify a culturally rampant homophobia, to deny gay and lesbian people justice under the law and equality in the recognition of their sacred commitments and solemn vows. Quotations, reflecting profound biblical ignorance, nonetheless ring out publicly as people try to make the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis, some verses from Leviticus and even Paul’s convoluted argument in Romans 1 justify their visceral prejudices. With all of these documented examples of cruelty and abuse based on the Bible, we nonetheless still solemnly proclaim at the end of readings from this book in public worship: “This is the Word of the Lord!” How can a book we call “The Word of God” be responsible for so much hurt, pain and oppression? How can a book that purports to be about the love of God create such carnage? I begin this series on Matthew’s Gospel today by addressing that question.First, some biblical facts. In the standard text of the Bible there are 66 books plus the Apocrypha. Thirty-nine of them are in what Christians call “The Old Testament,” twenty-seven of them form what Christians call “The New Testament.” These books were written between about 1000 BCE and about 140 CE. The oldest written part of the Old Testament appears to be that part of the Torah known as the Yahwist document, and the last part of the New Testament to be written appears to be II Peter. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew, while the original language of the New Testament is Greek. Of note is that Jesus spoke Aramaic, a language related to but not identical with Hebrew. He probably could read Hebrew, but there is no evidence that Jesus either spoke or read Greek, beyond the few phrases that were required to do rudimentary business with a few Greek-speaking merchants.If we are to understand the Bible on any level, the first thing we need to embrace is that it is to its core a Jewish book. Every writer of every book in the Bible was a Jew. There is only debate about one of them. Most scholars now believe that Luke, the name assigned to the author of the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts, which is literally volume two of that gospel, was a Gentile by birth. He later appears to have converted to Judaism as a “Gentile proselyte” and, through that doorway, he came into the Christian movement, possibly through the influence of Paul. So all of the writers of the books of the Bible were Jewish by birth, save for Luke and he was Jewish by conversion. We must embrace this seminal fact if we are to understand this holy book. The Bible needs to be viewed and read as a Jewish book, a deeply penetrating, profound piece of Jewish writing.This means that the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments alike, will inevitably reflect the world view of the Jewish mind. It is written in the vocabulary of Jewish people. It is steeped in the history of the Jewish nation. It espouses Jewish values. It is shaped by the experience of worship in the synagogue. The audiences for which the various books of the Bible were written were also predominantly Jewish. The authors of the books in the Bible could assume a common Jewish cultural knowledge that was present in their audiences, which they did not have to explain. These authors could thus use the familiar and recognizable Jewish story-telling techniques to communicate their message. They could describe the events in their current history by relating them to familiar Jewish events in their earlier history.When we look specifically at the gospels we discover that this Jewishness served the Christian community well so long as the church was made up primarily of Jewish people, which indeed the early church was. By the middle of the second century, however, the make-up of the Christian Church had changed dramatically. People of Jewish origin had all but disappeared from what had become an almost exclusively Gentile body. Christian congregations were made up almost entirely of people who not only did not know this Jewish background, but were taught by the prevailing culture to view anything Jewish with suspicion and distrust. Thus they were not able to recognize in their own Christian scriptures the Jewish symbols, the Jewish references or even the Jewish story-telling tradition. They could not make the assumptions that a Jewish audience would make when they heard the gospels being read. They did not understand how the gospel writers employed the Jewish Scriptures in their narratives. They did not understand its source when a gospel writer wrapped a tale out of the Jewish Scriptures around the memory of Jesus of Nazareth. So these Gentile readers began to make some assumptions about the gospels that the original Jewish audience would never have made. They assumed that the gospels were history or biography. They began to literalize individual verses in the gospels, and to use those verses in debate as if they were the court of last appeal.Next they began to defend the literal accuracy of the entire Bible. They did not recognize, for example, that the story of the wise men was based on a text from Isaiah 60 in which we are told that kings would come to the brightness of God’s rising, that they would come on camels, that they would come from Sheba and that they would bring gold and frankincense. They did not understand that the earthly father of Jesus, known to us as Joseph, was drawn on the pattern of Joseph, the patriarch from the book of Genesis (37-50). Note that both Josephs have fathers named Jacob. Both Josephs are identified with dreams. The patriarch Joseph was called “the dreamer.” He became famous as an interpreter of dreams, even rising into political power in Egypt as the interpreter of the Pharaoh’s dreams. They could not see the connection when in Matthew’s gospel God never spoke to Joseph except in a dream. This Joseph received the annunciation of Jesus’ birth in a dream. He fled Herod’s wrath in Bethlehem after being warned by God in a dream. He left Bethlehem for Galilee and settled in the town of Nazareth in response to a dream. Both were identified with dreams because Matthew patterned Jesus’ father after the patriarch by the same name. Finally, both Josephs played a primary role in preserving the covenant. The patriarch Joseph saved the chosen people from death by starvation in a time of famine by taking them down to Egypt. The earthly father of Jesus saved the messianic child from death at the hands of King Herod by taking him down to Egypt. The New Testament’s portrait of Jesus’ earthly father was a typical Jewish story-telling tradition on display. As long as the gospels were understood as Jewish books and were read primarily by Jewish audiences, these points were clear. When, however, the Christian Church became primarily Gentile by 150 CE, this interpretive key to the gospels was lost. So it was that Christians began to believe that the only proper way to read the gospels was to assume that the narratives were literally true and they began to defend a literal reading of these texts as the only way to read them. Fundamentalism is thus a Gentile heresy.Until the Christian Church can develop Jewish eyes or can begin to read the gospels through Jewish lenses, the wonder of our gospels will continue to be lost to us. Biblical fundamentalism, if not countered, will finally destroy Christianity. That will be the price we Christians pay for our ignorance and our anti-Semitism. The power of our own gospels will be lost to us. They are Jewish books and they must be read with Jewish eyes.The most Jewish of all the gospels is Matthew. Today, I am beginning a new series that will take you, my readers, deeply into the Gospel of Matthew. When this series is complete my hope is that both Matthew and the Bible will for you never be the same.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements A Tree’s View of History: A Conversation with Lacy M. Johnson On Feb 15th The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment and Orion Magazine present a conversation with Lacy M. Johnson on American history and the longleaf pine. Building off her recent essay on the longleaf pine’s integral role in the American slave trade, Johnson will discuss the ways in which trees bear witness to the evolution of culture and what they may be able to tell us about ourselves now. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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FW: Change happens because of people like you....Youth in Climate Action
by Lynda C 31 Jan '23

31 Jan '23

John Gibson and other ICA colleagues in Indianapolis helped initiate this project, now in its …..??10th year or more. Impressive work with young people. I see Purdue University mentioned in the article as part of the research. I know Richard Galbreath was there and Fred Lanphear, and maybe Fred Karpoff. Hats off to them! Celebrating the work that Denver and California and North Carolina colleagues are addressing on similar organizing… that I am aware of. Where else? Lynda and John From: Earth Charter Indiana <shannon(a)earthcharterindiana.org> Reply-To: Earth Charter Indiana <shannon(a)earthcharterindiana.org> Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 3:53 PM To: Lynda Cock <lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Change happens because of people like you. View this email in your browser<https://mailchi.mp/858a14174b32/welcome-to-earth-month-10337229?e=42c03384e7> [Logo]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> Be an Advocacy Superstar! This year we’re rewarding our Indiana climate champions with special prizes! You can pick up a badge in-person at an event or use the virtual badge - Download a virtual badge and see details on how to participate.<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> Superestrella de activismo! ¡Este año, vamos a premiar a nuestros campeones climáticos de Indiana con premios especiales! Recoja su chapa de SUPERESTRELLA DE ACTIVISMO en uno de nuestros próximos eventos o siga el enlace en nuestro bío para descargar el monitor digita<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…>l. [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/4e6372c8-…] [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/2ec2d596-…] Good News! SB335: The Climate Solutions Task Force Bill made possible by youth climate leaders here in Indiana, will potentially receive a hearing as soon as Feb 13. Nothing is set in stone, so we need everyone to reach out directly to lawmakers to let them know why we need this bill to pass. Below are some talking points to help guide your conversations. * Senate Bill 335, authored by Senators Shelli Yoder, Ron Alting, Jon Ford, and Eric Bassler, is Indiana’s first step to taking action against climate change. It would create a task force of legislators and experts to study voluntary, incentive-based climate solutions. * This bill would build upon the immense climate progress being made in Indiana’s industries. It would help these industries and their workers. * Mention that one goal is to study saving taxpayer dollars through clean energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicle projects for governmental entities. * According to Purdue University, climate change is worsening flooding, extreme heat, and crop production. The cost of doing nothing is far too high for Hoosiers! * Mention why you personally care about climate action. Maybe you are passionate about Indiana's water resources, economy, agriculture, public health, air quality, or maybe you are a young person who just wants a healthy future. Calls to Action: Ask your State Senators to communicate their support for SB335 to Rick Niemeyer, the chairman of the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee. Find your State Senator and their contact information here<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…>. Use the Toolkits linked below for help with this process. Contact your State Representatives to Oppose HB1417, HB1420, and HB1421: These utility bills are a huge overstep by monopoly utilities to take more power away from our public utility commission, the IURC, and undermine transparency and fairness for customers. These bills lessen competition and do nothing to help lower electric bills for Hoosiers. You can find your State Representatives contact information here<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…>. Use the Toolkits linked below for help with this process. Advocacy Toolkits: Click the images below to to learn the best practices for engaging with your elected officials. [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/422bedf8-…]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/ffada353-…]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/4aa343a3-…]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> Upcoming Events [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/64f7f955-…] ACT NOW: February 1 | 11:00-1:00 | Indiana Statehouse The statewide youth-led organization Confront the Climate Crisis will host a climate action rally and press conference on Wednesday, February 1 at 11 am in the Fourth Floor’s North Atrium at the Indiana Statehouse. This event, called “Act Now!” and co-hosted by State Representative Carey Hamilton (D-Indianapolis), will bring a bipartisan coalition of youth, advocacy organizations, and legislators together to call on the Indiana General Assembly to take common-sense action on climate change. RSVP<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> A gathering for Hoosier climate leaders Join sustainability professionals, scholars, and climate advocates from across the state to enhance cross-sector collaboration, share best practices, and strengthen Indiana's climate and resilience network. Friday February 17 IUPUI Campus Center 420 University Blvd, Indianapolis, IN 46202 [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/3ebd38a9-…]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> Learn More<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/0498ea8b-…]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> resilience retreat Burnout is a huge problem in the fight for Climate Justice. This retreat is designed to help renew our energy through rest, build resilience through ritual, and inspire continued work through community connections. The event is free and space is limited. Saturday February 18, 1-4 pm Friedens UCC 8300 S. Meridian St Indianapolis, IN 46217 learn more<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> Youth Environmental Press Team Feature: <https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> Students, Experts, Raise Awareness to Endangered Animals Published by YEPT on Jan 12, Written By Helena Wang, first published on Carmel’s HiLite on Jan. 8, 2023. Sophomore Akshaya Lingala folds a blue Post-It note into the shape of an origami blue whale. Since elementary school, Lingala said she developed a passion for whales, but the blue whale is one of over 41,000 species that are under threat of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> (IUCN). Lingala said, “The first time I had ever heard of a whale was in elementary school where we had a whale unit and I learned a lot of interesting facts about the blue whale. Over the years, as I learned more and more about whales, I also learned about their endangerment. It’s extremely sad to see that many whale populations are decreasing and many other animal species are also becoming extinct. People should definitely pay more attention to these species.” >> READ MORE<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [https://dim.mcusercontent.com/cs/4502d6d44c85ac65c23ba15d4/images/57b40b60-…] ECI Summer Camps: We are finalizing the details for summer camp this year and will have an announcement about dates, themes, and how to register in our next newsletter. Stay tuned! SUPPORT OUR WORK<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [Facebook icon]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [Instagram icon]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [Twitter icon]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [Logo] Copyright (C) 2023 Earth Charter Indiana. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Earth Charter Indiana 1100 W 42nd St Ste 220D Indianapolis, IN 46208-3300 Add us to your address book<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/vcard?u=4502d6d44c85ac65c23…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=4502d6d44c85ac65c…> or unsubscribe<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=4502d6d44c85a…> [Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp]<https://earthcharterindiana.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4502d6d44c85a…>

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1/26/2023, Progressing Spirit: Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D.: Friendship, Companionship, Grief, Love; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 26 Jan '23

26 Jan '23

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv4976867166 #yiv4976867166templateBody .yiv4976867166mcnTextContent, #yiv4976867166 #yiv4976867166templateBody .yiv4976867166mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv4976867166 #yiv4976867166templateFooter .yiv4976867166mcnTextContent, #yiv4976867166 #yiv4976867166templateFooter .yiv4976867166mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Friendship, Companionship, Grief, Love | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. January 26, 2023I lost a very dear friend the day after Christmas. I look, out of habit, out of longing, out of love, really, but he is not there. It is as if his singular space – the very soft shape of kindness within my world – has been cut out. Years it took for him to allow me to hold his very tender paws. I began by gently stroking his front legs. Maybe an inch or two. Slowly moving downward. Then we looked into each other’s eyes as I cradled his muzzle and assured him of my love. His head would relax and sit heavily upon my hands. The moment, one day, arose when his paws were in my hands. Afterwards, he would sit on his haunches and place his front paws upon my thighs as I read, and lay his head upon those relaxed paws. Friendship is birthed in a thousand small and significant acts of trust. I recently listened to Brandon McMillan – a dog-trainer extraordinaire – who equated bonding with trust. I believe he is right. As we bond through our touch, our gaze, our voice, our words, trust is in gestation and slowly emerging as the reality of friendship. Many years ago, I wrote a book, I Have Called You Friends. My concern was correcting the parental paradigm of family systems theory as it was being applied to leadership in the church. I found in the Johannine gospel an appreciation of friendship as the core value defining our relationship with Holy Mystery as well as one another. What I did not have in mind or heart was our relationship with the dearest friendships we often experience: our four-footed companions. Companionship We adopted Jackson, a Standard Poodle, about a year after the death of his great uncle, Ciaran. Before that, our lives had been filled with the brother and sister act of the black Labrador/Beagle mutts, Jethro & Ethel, whom we picked from a grocery cart in front of the local drug store. As I child, Lady was our family’s first dog – a stray puppy we discovered on the street in our subdivision. Next was Midnight. I don’t remember how she came into our lives. Then I was off to college. These dogs were my pals, whose presence was unreflected upon and taken for granted. Our daughter and I chose Jackson, a year and a half old (a young adolescenct), not without some trepidation on my part. I had always begun with a pup. But here was a dog with some life experience already under his belt. Would we ever bond, or would he forever yearn for his home life – his family of origin? I have a picture taken not long after his arrival where his muzzle is resting upon the front porch rail, seeming to gaze off into the distance, looking a tad wan and perhaps wondering in what world he had just landed. His heart, I feel, was sad. He didn’t trust us, or me. His friends who companioned him throughout the day were now forever lost. He had been plucked up, whisked away, and plopped down into a new universe of daily life. We once thought that grieving, longing, loving, mourning, were all the province of humans. But we are now much wiser. Mammals grieve and even exhibit ritualistic behavior over the loss of ones they have nurtured, bonded with, trusted, and loved. Meister Eckhart recognized that every creature is a word of Holy Mystery. Every being is an expression of Being, of Word become flesh. Every creature is a soul, which simply and significantly means they are a particular incarnation, embodiment, of Being. They are a living invitation to learn to listen and love – to discover friendship. Somewhere along the way during those early months with Jackson, I listened to a radio interview, where the speaker said that the actual words we use with dogs make a difference. It is not just our inflection that impacts their furry being. I love you. You are beautiful. You are amazing. Words, such as these, shape the sounds uttered from the depth of our soul and land upon others, shaping the space between us and within us. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson points out that homo sapiens and canines have evolved together. Our beings have been intertwined for hundreds of thousands of years. We are who we are in and through each other. Of course, words matter. And so, I began to whisper into Jackson’s ears as we paused during a walk, as he began to freely return to me every few moments from his rambling along a Northwoods trail, as he sat beside me on the floor, and sleeping in my lap – I love you. You are beautiful. Weeks, months, years, passed, and it came to be that whenever I looked down, as I moved from room to room within our home, my companion was there. Ready with a smile. With eyes open and soft and kind and eager. Often – not often enough – I would pause in the midst of a chore, kneel down, gently hold and stroke his soft ears, bring my face close to his nose (often tenderly touching tip-to-tip), receiving a few very special kisses, and whisper, I love you. Maybe it was after our 1,000th walk. Maybe it was during our sacred stomps through the forest trails, when he was free from leash and able to explode and stride effortlessly like a deer floating above the path. Maybe it was while looking out upon the duck pond, pausing with my hand upon his back as he panted with tongue hanging out in sheer rapture of being alive. We were fast friends. Wherever I went, if possible, so did he. Sitting in the back seat he would dutifully watch me enter the store and lead me back into the car with his eyes. He didn’t care what I got. We were together. He was at rest in my presence, and I rested in his. His eyes spoke to me of trust and adoration. He had found a place deep in my soul, much deeper than I had ever thought possible. Grieving and Loving I had just returned home late in the morning from swimming on Christmas Eve when Jackson, usually eagerly waiting by the door to greet me, appeared quietly by my side as I removed my coat, dragging his right hind leg, as if he had pulled a muscle. He was slumping, eyes sad. As the day wore on, he barely moved and only ate treats. Christmas day he simply stayed put on the couch. We knew something was wrong but couldn’t sense what it was. I cradled and carried him into the bedroom that night. And early next morning we took him immediately to the vet. We thought his spine might be injured or a muscle severely pulled. No. We sat stunned with disbelief as the vet slowly spoke words that began to fade into fog – your dog (our dearest friend) has a huge mass on his liver and fluid throughout his abdomen. Love is concrete, specific, particular. When I say I love you. I mean you who are there before me, gracing my life with your singular beauty. I appreciate you. I receive you. I wonder about the amazing mystery of you. You are the gift whom I receive in this moment as the face of Holy Mystery. You teach me about the mystery of love and kindness and forgiveness. I discover that love is truly infinite in and through my trust, my bonding, my companionship, with you. I discovered the depth of my love for Jackson as I wept. As the vet administered the drugs to our friend, we cradled his fading being and whispered I love you, gently holding his face, gazing softly into his eyes, tears falling upon his body and anointing his beauty. He trusted us completely even as he died. Grief and weeping are gifts of the heart. They are not to be dismissed. We do a disservice to our soul if we seek distraction from our loss and our tears. So we now have a large votive candle, surrounded by pictures of our beloved Jackson, which we light each morning. I hold as sacred this grieving for my friend who taught me patience, sweetness, tenderness, and love. He reminded me of the gift of playing, running, panting, and jumping, as well as lounging and being adored. There is no creature who cannot teach us of the ways of love. As this new year begins my heart is very sad and yet very full, because of one of whom my soul does say, I have called you friend.~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Read online here About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D., an Episcopal Priest, works with students of all backgrounds to awaken to the truth of being holy mystery ceaselessly unfolding, which is to realize our Christ heart. His gentle and compassionate teaching is rooted in wonderment and exploration of the spiritual fecundity of the present moment, drawing upon meditation, body practice, and the enneagram. He has been a student of the Diamond Approach since 2006. He received Jukai from Shoken Winecoff of Ryumonji Soto Zen Buddhist Temple in May, 2004, and has been authorized by Senior Buddhist Teacher, Stephen Snyder, to explore use of the Brahma Viharas within the Christian tradition. Kevin is also an authorized Instructor of Diamond Body Practice and a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. As an Episcopal Priest for almost 30 years, he has helped found the Healing Arts Centers at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish in Portland, Oregon and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Marquette, Michigan. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Awakening as Holy Mystery: Realizing Christ Heart, as well as five previous books, Beyond My Wants, Beyond My Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland, I Have Called You Friends, Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms, and My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader “What’s a progressive Christian understanding of things like astrology, tarot cards, or dream-work? Can one be a Christian and engage with those things?” A: By Rev. Roger Wolsey Dear Reader,A growing number of people are asking these sorts of questions. I’m especially aware of many young adults and teens who aren’t (and are!) involved in churches, but do dabble with these things – and with quite a few taking them quite seriously. Within Christianity there’s been a teaching that these things are either inferior, or wayward – if not outright wrong, dangerous, sinful, pagan, and/or of the occult. St. John of Damascus wrote, ”Some pagans believe that the stars and the study of the rising and setting of the Sun or Moon guide the destinies of men, and this is what is called 'astrology'. But we Christians know well that the stars indicate rain, drought, humidity, seasonal cycles, winds and all things of this kind, but they are not signals for our life, since we are created free by the Creator and we are factors of our own destiny. We can truly say that the Sun, the Moon and the stars produce various temperaments, habits, predispositions, but nothing can win over our free will." (On the Orthodox Faith, book II, chap. VII – around 730 AD) However, progressive Christianity freely questions supposedly established Christian traditional teachings – often going back to far earlier perspectives and focuses on what actually works to help humans connect to the Divine and each other, and be at our best. With this in mind, we can remember the story told about magi from the east came to visit the infant Jesus (Matthew chapter 2). They noticed an unusual phenomenon (perhaps a comet, or an unusual planetary alignment) in the night sky looking west. They were likely Zoroastrian priests from Persia. They were warned in a dream not to go back to King Herod, and similarly, Jesus’ father Joseph had a dream warning him to get his family away from Bethlehem ASAP and to do so in a way to avoid King Herod – so they went back to Nazareth travelling far out of the way through Egypt. The Church celebrates how those pagan, gentile magi (the root of magicians) practiced their astrology and imbued meaning in what they saw in the sky – “a new king has been born in the world!” The Church celebrates how Spirit spoke to both the magi and to Joseph through dreams. The Church looks foolish to recognize and honor astrology and dreams during Christmas/Epiphany while rejecting them the rest of the year. A familiarity of astrology (solar sign, rising sign, lunar sign, Chiron return, etc.) seems to be rather insightful and helpful to many people. And many Hindu families consult astrology as part of how they name their children. It isn’t “just a thing of the past.” When and where a person is born is part of the Human Design modality which some people find quite helpful in life. One doesn’t have to view astrology as “determining our destinies.” One can simply view it as a tool that can offer some insight, but we can hold that tool loosely, and still be primarily people of prayer (which progressive Christians tend to have a wide perspective about as well). I view tarot as being between helpful and innocuous – perhaps akin to looking at clouds and noticing what shapes you see; or like noticing images in Rorschach ink blots, etc. “I see an elephant. I see an angry father.” What does an elephant mean to you in your life? What does an angry father mean to you?... With this perspective, one simply brings to what they see in the tarot cards they drew – what is already on their mind – or at least in their subconscious mind. Examples, “How am I feeling abundance in life? How am I feeling desolation or defeat? How am I experiencing a death? What challenges and obstacles are in my life?” They invite an inner conversation and some soul searching. The world needs more of that. I delve into these matters more deeply in “Discovering Fire: Spiritual Practices that Transform Lives” (out in March, 2023, Quoir publishing). ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is a United Methodist pastor who resides in Grand Junction, CO. Roger is the author of Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity and blogs for Patheos as The Holy Kiss. Roger serves on the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org. Roger served as the Director of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder for 14 years and has served as pastor of churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado. He currently serves as the pastor of Fruita United Methodist Church in Colorado and as the “CRM” (Congregational Resource Minister) for the Utah/Western Colorado District of the Mountain Sky Conference. His newest book, “Discovering Fire: Spiritual Practices that Transform Lives” https://www.rogerwolsey.com/author-writer will be out in March 2023. | | | | | | | | 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 On the Importance of Being Ordinary Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 29, 2013Over the past few years, while working on my recent book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, I became fascinated with how the author of John’s gospel develops the characters in his narrative. There are more memorable characters in the Fourth Gospel than anywhere else in the New Testament. The disciple Thomas is simply a name on a list in the other gospels, but in John, he becomes a doubter, placing the term “Doubting Thomas” into our language. John also includes a whole series of other crucial characters about whom none of the other gospels seem to have heard. Among them are Nathaniel, the “Beloved Disciple,” Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman by the well and Lazarus. These characters are so beautifully drawn that they not only become indelible, but their uniqueness raises the possibility that they are more symbolic figures than they are actual people of history. In this gospel, they also appear to represent different kinds of responses to Jesus. When one reads John deeply enough, each character seems to become a personality type whose diversity is sufficient that everyone can identify with one of them. Today I want to lift one of the Johannine characters out of the text and present him to you, my readers, as a possible role model, at least for some of us. His name is Andrew and I call him “The Patron Saint of Ordinary People.” Before the Fourth Gospel appeared, the only thing the New Testament tells us about Andrew is that he was the brother of Simon Peter, who everywhere in the New Testament, is portrayed as a leader. Andrew was thus one with only reflected status, primarily known by his relationship to another. Quite often in our still patriarchal world, women are known only as the wives of their husbands, and children are sometimes identified only as the son or daughter of a famous parent. This was the role of Andrew. Those whose primary identity is derived from a more famous person are not necessarily the stars, they are rather the ordinary people. While we continue to live in a culture of heroes, the world actually turns, I believe, on those who are ordinary people. Reading a history of World War II one might get the impression that America fought and won that war with only three soldiers: Eisenhower, MacArthur and Patton. Yet everyone knows that wars are won or lost not by the generals, but by the fighting, bleeding and dying of the foot soldiers, who are normally nameless. Before John’s gospel was written Andrew was a foot soldier, an ordinary person, identified only by his relationship with another. The Fourth Gospel then adds to that scant biography three short but telling stories. In the first chapter of John we are told that Andrew, the ordinary man, brought his brother to Jesus, thus making possible Peter, the extraordinary man. It was Peter, not Andrew, who was destined to become the first leader of the Christian community. In the sixth chapter of John’s gospel Andrew is the one who brings to Jesus the lad with five loaves and two fish. Given the dimensions of the crowd of thousands that needed to be fed, this gift was hardly a drop in the proverbial bucket. Andrew, however, was one who understood that no person’s gift was so small or insignificant that it could not be used and thus felt that it must be appreciated. The story says that Jesus took this gift and used it to feed the multitude. In the twelfth chapter of John’s gospel we are told that a group of Greek foreigners come seeking Jesus. This would make them, by Jewish standards, Gentiles, who were unclean, uncircumcised, non-Kosher and non-Torah observing people. It is Andrew, we are told, who becomes their guide, for no task is too insignificant for him to undertake. So through the dark streets of Jerusalem Andrew led them to the place where Jesus was. At that moment John has Jesus announce “My hour has come.” He then says: “Now the Son of Man will be glorified.” When I am lifted up on the cross, Jesus continues, “I will draw all people to me” and then the world will know “I AM,” then the world will know the meaning of God. Once again Andrew is the expeditor. He is always an ordinary person, but because he did the ordinary thing, great things seemed to happen all around him. No one is unqualified for this kind of role. Take a moment to recall a critical turning point in your own journey and remember who it was who stood with you at that moment, the one who might have said just the right word causing you to choose one path over another and you now recognize that your whole life was determined by that decision. Was that critical person not just an ordinary man or woman? At the risk of being an exhibitionist allow me to relate an intensely personal story that illustrates for me the role of the ordinary person. My father died when I was 12. My mother had not finished the 9th grade in school and thus had little ability to replace my father as our family’s bread winner. We soon fell into rather precarious poverty. For about two years, I was little more than a radically lost, insecure adolescent. Then someone came into my life through no action on my part. My church in Charlotte, North Carolina, chose a new rector. The year was 1946, World War II had come to an end, and the man chosen had just come out of the navy, where he had served as a chaplain on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific. I do not know the process that enabled him to be chosen, but I do know that this choice determined the course of my life. This man was different from any minister or priest that I had ever known. First, he was only 32 years of age. That fact alone broke my priestly stereotype, for I had never known a priest who wasn’t old. I thought one probably had to be at least 80 to be ordained. Second, he wore white buck shoes. I had never known a priest to wear anything but black. lace-up oxfords. Third, he drove a Ford convertible. I thought priests only drove hearses. Finally, he had a stunningly beautiful wife. I thought clergy wives were dour, wearing only dark brown and navy blue with their hair in a bun at the back of their heads. This woman, however, was dashing and bejeweled. She even smoked cigarettes in a long golden cigarette holder. She was the most sophisticated woman I think I had ever met. I was so deeply drawn to this couple that I volunteered to do anything that enabled me to get closer to them, so I became the only acolyte in my church willing to serve at the 8:00 a.m. communion service. I was not a good acolyte– faithful, but not necessarily competent. My new rector was on the more catholic side of the Episcopal Church and he believed that no one should receive communion without fasting from midnight on. He worried that a bit of undigested toast might corrupt the body of Christ received at the Eucharist. So I came to that service fasting. At that time in my life, however, I was delivering the Charlotte Observer to about 150 houses each morning. This meant I would rise at 4:30 a.m., go to the corner where my papers were dropped off, fold them so that I could throw them on to the lawns of my subscribers, and, then, with my bicycle basket filled, I would set out to deliver them. I arrived home about 6:45 a.m. in sufficient time to shower, dress and catch a bus to my downtown church to do my acolyte duty at 8:00 a.m. By this hour of the morning, however, I was absolutely famished, but still committed to that fast. In the 1928 Prayer Book liturgy, my church used at that time, there was something called the “Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church.” It was two pages long and reminded me of the mercy of God in that it seemed to me to endure forever! Inevitably, before we got through that prayer I began to feel strange, light-headed and very warm. Then I would either faint dead away and have to be carried bodily out of the sanctuary or else I would turn green and throw up leaving my offering at the foot of the altar. I never made it through that prayer. One of the reasons I championed Prayer Book revision in my adult career was to get rid of the “Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church.” Despite this weakness in both my flesh and performance as an acolyte, my rector continued to want me to serve and when that 8:00 a.m. worship was over and I had recovered my equilibrium, this man and I would go half a block up the main street of Charlotte to a restaurant, have breakfast together and talk. I do not recall what we talked about, but I do know that in all my adolescent life, this was the only time an adult talked with me. I had many adults who talked to me or at me, but he talked with me. He even listened to my immature ideas; he asked questions to help me clarify my thinking. It was such a simple thing to do, such an ordinary thing, but to this lonely and lost fifteen year old boy, it was powerfully important and life-giving. I adored that man and wanted to be as much like him as I could be. He became the model for my life and I found my vocation to be a priest in my relationship with him. Was the man a great person? Was he even a great priest? Well, he was to me, but that was not how he was judged by the world. The world saw and judged him to be an ordinary man with ordinary weaknesses. After I left Charlotte to begin my university education he left our church in Charlotte to become the rector of a church in Louisiana. There he fell into an addiction to alcohol. It got so bad that he was finally removed from the priesthood. He died thinking of himself professionally as a failure, but he was a vital person, a change agent to me. The truth is that he was just an ordinary man who simply took the time to talk with a lost teenager. It was something that anybody could have done, but he did it. He was an Andrew. Most of us will not be generals who win battles or elected officials who will rise to political power. We may not become the chief executive of either a small business or of a great corporation, but we can make a difference, a profound difference in the lives of those around us in ordinary ways just by being sensitive, just by being a friend, just by saying the right word at the right time in the right circumstance. We can all be Andrews, the Patron Saint of ordinary people.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Cultivating a Wisdom Society for our World in Transformation Friday, February 17 and Saturday, February 18, 2023 - Virtual on zoom Imagine a gathering of world-renowned women leaders, Dr. Jean Houston, Dr. Anneloes Smitsman, who are on the forefront of pioneering new understandings about human consciousness and our planetary evolution. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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One book left
by David Dunn 26 Jan '23

26 Jan '23

Hi all. I have one copy of “Shaping the Coming Age of Religious Life” left. Free for the postage. Any takers. David — "Mystery, possibility, and the power to choose" David Dunn 740 S Alton Way 9B Denver, CO 80247 720-314-5991 dmdunn1(a)gmail.com

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two common memory books available
by David Dunn 21 Jan '23

21 Jan '23

Hi friends. I have a clean, used copy of Gertrude Foley, et al, Shaping the Coming Age of Religious Life and a new, style shrink wrapped copy of the Jenkins' The Other World…in the midst of our world. If you’ll send postage, I’ll mail the book to the address in the Directory. David — "Mystery, possibility, and the power to choose" David Dunn 740 S Alton Way 9B Denver, CO 80247 720-314-5991 dmdunn1(a)gmail.com

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Yesterday Isobel, today Gene
by James Wiegel 20 Jan '23

20 Jan '23

https://youtu.be/PxdLCgL_F4w Jim Wiegel “…the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk“. The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver

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Good on you, Isobel!!
by James Wiegel 19 Jan '23

19 Jan '23

Uniting Hawkins Place resident Isobel shares some pearls of wisdom for ABC Insights online series Words of the Wise. 😍 Video: ABC Insights | By Uniting | Facebook | | | | | | | | | | | Uniting Hawkins Place resident Isobel shares some pearls of wisdom for A... 864 views, 37 likes, 16 loves, 25 comments, 5 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Uniting: Uniting Hawkins Place ... | | | Good on you Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

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1/19/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Roger Wolsey: All-Loving - a Better Doctrine; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 19 Jan '23

19 Jan '23

All-Loving - a Better Doctrine#yiv2364141215 p{margin:10px 0;padding:0;}#yiv2364141215 table{border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv2364141215 h1, #yiv2364141215 h2, #yiv2364141215 h3, #yiv2364141215 h4, #yiv2364141215 h5, #yiv2364141215 h6{display:block;margin:0;padding:0;}#yiv2364141215 img, #yiv2364141215 a img{border:0;height:auto;outline:none;text-decoration:none;}#yiv2364141215 body, #yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215bodyTable, #yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215bodyCell{min-height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;width:100%;}#yiv2364141215 .yiv2364141215mcnPreviewText{display:none !important;}#yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215outlook a{padding:0;}#yiv2364141215 img{}#yiv2364141215 table{}#yiv2364141215 .yiv2364141215ReadMsgBody{width:100%;}#yiv2364141215 .yiv2364141215ExternalClass{width:100%;}#yiv2364141215 p, #yiv2364141215 a, #yiv2364141215 li, #yiv2364141215 td, #yiv2364141215 blockquote{}#yiv2364141215 a .yiv2364141215filtered99999 , #yiv2364141215 a .yiv2364141215filtered99999 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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215templateBody .yiv2364141215mcnTextContent, #yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215templateBody .yiv2364141215mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215templateFooter .yiv2364141215mcnTextContent, #yiv2364141215 #yiv2364141215templateFooter .yiv2364141215mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Roger Wolsey | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | All-Loving - A Better Doctrine | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey January 19, 2023“Good orthodoxy leads to good orthopraxy” is a common aphorism wielded among conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. It’s frequently worded in a more aggressive manner: “without proper orthodoxy, there can be no proper Christian discipleship.” These claims intend to convey that unless people believe certain doctrines and dogmas – and in a literal way – they are incapable of engaging in doing good in the world. Moreover, such declarations also seek to convey that if, for some freakish reason, some humans do happen to engage in good acts in the world without giving intellectual consent to a proscribed set of truth claims, those good acts are accidents and “don’t count” - they aren’t enough to be saved (get into heaven). Examples of these truth-claims that conservatives claim must be agreed with include: - Jesus is literally God – one and the same. - Jesus’s mother was literally a virgin when she birthed him. - Jesus literally walked on water, turned water into wine, and raised people from the dead. - God is all-powerful and intercedes in the world, performing literal miracles which defy the laws of physics. - Jesus was born to be killed as the requisite sacrifice needed to atone for human sins, and that the literal shedding of his blood was necessary to meet this need (any form of execution that didn’t involve him bleeding would not have been sufficient). These beliefs require subscribing to the theologies of supernatural theism and the penal or substitutionary theory of the atonement. Progressive Christianity rejects both supernatural theism and the substitutionary theory of the atonement. Such rejections are considered blasphemous and heretical to conservative Christians, as they have no form of Christianity that doesn’t embrace those theologies. Such Christians have lived sheltered lives, oblivious to the reality that the 66 books of the (Protestant Bible) – convey an even greater number of theologies. They are uninformed about the variety of Christianities which existed prior to the era of the creeds and doctrines that began when the Roman Emperor Constantine decriminalized Christianity (eventually co-opting it to give Divine sanction to Empire). They are unaware that no Church Council in Church history has ever ruled that any one theory of the atonement is the “one, right, true,” and/or “correct” one. And they are unaware that the moral influence/example theory of the atonement is fully supported by verses in the Bible. Given that state of unaware dogmatic slumber, we progressive Christians who are unjustly rebuked and condemned by conservative Christians can take heart in recalling words attributed to Yeshua of Nazareth as he was dying on the cross – “forgive them for they know not what they do.” I provided the following working definition of progressive Christianity in my book Kissing Fish. “Progressive Christianity is an approach to the Christian faith that is influenced by post-liberalism and post-modernism and: -proclaims Jesus of Nazareth as Christ, Savior, and Lord; -emphasizes the Way and teachings of Jesus, not merely His person; -emphasizes God's immanence not merely God's transcendence; -leans toward panentheism rather than supernatural theism; -emphasizes salvation here and now instead of primarily in heaven later; -emphasizes being saved for robust, abundant/eternal life over being saved from punishing hell; -emphasizes the social/communal aspects of salvation instead of merely the personal; -stresses social justice as integral to Christian discipleship; -takes the Bible seriously but not necessarily literally, embracing a more interpretive, metaphorical understanding; -emphasizes orthopraxy more than orthodoxy (right actions over right beliefs); -embraces reason as well as paradox and mystery — instead of blind allegiance to rigid doctrines -and dogmas; -embraces the insights of contemporary science; -doesn’t consider homosexuality to be sinful; -and does not claim that Christianity is the only valid or viable way to connect to God (is nonexclusive).” p. 63 You’ll notice the mention of panentheism above. It’s a form of theism that has a long history within the Christian faith and is fully grounded in the Bible; e.g., the apostle Paul’s describing God as the one “in Whom we live, move, and have our being.” This theological perspective recognizes that the Divine is fully immanent within all Creation as well as being fully transcendent from it. As I shared in Kissing Fish: “Panentheism doesn’t embrace traditional Christian understandings of the “Omni” qualities attributed to God by some of the early Christian theologians who were influenced by pagan[1] Greek philosophical ideals. God isn’t understood as omnipotent (all powerful). Rather, God is viewed as very powerful – as powerful as God can be and be in authentic relationship to us. It might be said that in creating humans God relinquished some of Her power to us to allow for the possibility of real and genuine relationship. Similarly, in the panentheistic view God isn’t understood as being omniscient (all knowing) either, at least not how that’s been traditionally understood. If God has given us free will and agency, and genuine relationship with God, then God can’t know everything in the future. In other words, God knows all that is possible for Her to know given that She’s turned over some of Her power and agency to humanity. This is still an awful lot of knowledge. It is with this knowledge of the past, the present, and the likely and probable future that God seeks to influence us through the Holy Spirit toward the most ideal and beautiful options in each and every moment. I can’t speak for all of progressive Christianity, but I would like to introduce a new “omni” quality for God, perhaps to override the “omnis” that have been displaced or reinterpreted – “omniamo” or “omniamore”) – all loving. If there is one essential and consistent theme throughout the whole of the Bible it is God’s love. We see that God loves us unconditionally like a protective parent, like a wooing lover, and like a committed lover. God loves us incarnationally, down to earth, and relationally. God loves us like a friend. In sum, God loves us like a God worthy of humans loving Her. We also see that God calls us to love in these same ways, to love ourselves and to love others, as God loves us. Indeed, one of the shortest verses in the Bible is one of the most profound: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8). Progressive Christianity tends to endorse this form of theism because it corresponds better with the fullness of the biblical text, the writings of the earliest Christian theologians and mystics, the insights of contemporary science, and with many people’s lived experiences of God.” Yes, orthodoxy does matter, yet our conservative friends don’t have a monopoly on it. Moreover, I suggest that what they hold as orthodox is often an adventure in missing the point, a missing the forest for the trees that leads to the bad fruit of a false orthopraxy of being judgmental, rigid, and inquisitional, – even to the point of the sin of sodomy – being unwelcoming, inhospitable, and exploitive – which is the last thing we need in the Church. Many progressive Christians embrace the first Creation myth found in Genesis Chapter 1:26, where it says, “And God said, let us create humans in our image,… and God created them, male and female.” The Hebrew word for God here is Elohim which conveys the plurality within the Divine - including the masculine and feminine. We also celebrate how the Divine self-references with the expansive pronouns “us” and “our.” This, coupled with Jesus’ call to embrace non-gender conforming persons (Matthew 19:12); and Paul’s reminder that “in Christ there is no male or female,” helps us embrace and celebrate the full diversity of humanity – including all sexes and genders. Good orthopraxy. The doctrine of the Trinity is paramount to conservative Christians and some of them claim that progressive Christians reject it. That may be true for those who are unitarians, yet many progressive Christians can and do believe Jesus was Divine (in the way that you and I are), and concur that he’s the 2nd person of the Trinity. Progressive Christians honor and celebrate Jesus as a unique and fully incarnate manifestation of God. We live and move and have our being in God, so did Jesus. Many of us view the Trinity as a beloved Christian poem of who God is – ultimate reality which is in dynamic, loving relationship. This view doesn’t see the Trinity as asserting literal ontological reality, but rather as deftly worded devotional poetry. Yet poems don’t literally define things. Like all art, and theology, they point to what is beyond them. Viewed in this way, we see the Trinity reminding us that we exist in relation to others – and that we are called to love ourselves and others dynamically and lovingly. Good orthopraxy. Taking the Bible seriously is another tenet of conservative Christian orthodoxy. And, while progressive Christians don’t consider the Bible as inerrant, infallible, or dictated by Jesus or God, we do just that. We see Jesus’ repeated instructions (and actions that demonstrate them) to love – ourselves, our neighbors (especially those in great need), and even our enemies and those teachings lead us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and to prophetically speak truth to power and work to reduce the number of people who are hungry, naked, unhoused, or in prison. Good orthopraxy. It’s important to realize that none of the people described as experiencing salvation in the Gospels – and in the entirety of the New Testament – subscribed to any of the “required truth claims” our conservative friends insist upon. The orthodoxy that matters is an orthodoxy of the heart – not the head. It’s being open to the inner knowing of God’s omniamo all-loving presence in our lives – and living accordingly.~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Read online here About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is a United Methodist pastor who resides in Grand Junction, CO. Roger is the author of Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity and blogs for Patheos as The Holy Kiss. Roger serves on the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org. Roger served as the Director of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder for 14 years and has served as pastor of churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado. He currently serves as the pastor of Fruita United Methodist Church in Colorado and as the “CRM” (Congregational Resource Minister) for the Utah/Western Colorado District of the Mountain Sky Conference. His newest book, “Discovering Fire: Spiritual Practices that Transform Lives” https://www.rogerwolsey.com/author-writer will be out in March 2023. [1] I refer to these as “pagan” Greek ideals with a bit of sheepish delight. I don’t normally use the word pagan as it’s usually judgmental conservative Christians who wield that term – and they use it in a dismissive manner. I appreciate the irony of pointing out a truth such persons aren’t aware of – that what has become “traditional” Christian theology is greatly borrowed from non-Jewish and non-Christian sources. During the Middle Ages, the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers were “discovered” by the Church – writings that had been kept preserved by Muslims. Much of what has come to be considered “Christian orthodoxy” is actually Platonism. See: Daniel W. Graham and James L. Siebach, “Philosophy and Early Christianity,” 210-212; Cook, “How Deep the Platonism,” 269-286 in Farms Review of Books, vol. 11, no. 2 (1999). | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Jessica I'm tired of people making assumptions every time I say I'm a Christian. I feel like I have to say “not that kind of Christian” every time. Do you have another suggestion for what I could use or call myself? A: By Rev. Dr. Mark SandlinDear Jessica, This is a problem that I've been struggling with as well. I actually have been for quite some time. I can't say that I have THE answer, but I do have AN answer – at least for now. In terms of the Christian liturgical calendar, we've just come out of the season of Epiphany. It is a time when we remember the story of the Magi. As I read through the story, as it is written in Matthew, there was this "thing" that kept standing out for me: everybody was looking for something. At some point, the thought struck me, "according to this story, Christians should be seekers." It's in our ancestral DNA. Mary and Joseph are seeking a place to give birth to their first child. Sometime later, the magi would set out seeking a new “king” – one foretold by the stars in the night sky. Along the way, as they searched him out, as they followed the bright star in the sky, they would run into a different King who was also seeking – he was searching for this foretold king who would threaten his power. Sometime later, Jesus and his family will flee all that they know in search of a safe place to live. The Jewish and Christian religious stories are stories underlined with the constant reality of seeking out something, searching for something. Adam and Eve seek out knowledge. Noah seeks shelter from the storm. Abraham and Sarah seek out the unknown land God sends them to. Joseph seeks to understand the king's dreams and bring his family back together. Moses seeks to bring his people to the promised land. David seeks to become the leader God clearly believes he is. The prophets seek to bring the people of God back to God's ways. Jesus seeks to show us what love looks like. Paul seeks to grow the church in the ways of God. We are seekers. It is our story. We cannot escape it. We should not try. We Christians are seekers. Always have been. Always will be. It's in our ancestral DNA. I can't help but wonder if that might be a worthy goal for many of us: to be seekers. Not believers. Not Christians. Not church-goers. Not Spiritual But Not Religious. Just: Seekers. For now, that's going to be my answer when someone asks about my spirituality, “I'm a seeker.” As a matter of fact, always have been and, hopefully, always will be. ~ Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Mark also serves as the President and Co-executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. His Podcast The Moonshine Jesus Show is on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year? Have you already given up on yours? Are you sick and tired of making resolutions? One of the reasons that we often fall short on whatever resolution we make is that we are too ambitious and don’t have a plan for sustained action. Setting a concrete, realistic goal and determining appropriate steps that can be taken to achieve that goal are the keys to a successful resolution! At ProgressiveChristianity.org, we have resolved to expand the influence of the Progressive Christian Movement. This isn’t something that we’ve decided haphazardly. We know that if we are going to combat the Christian Right and provide an authentic, inclusive movement, we must take things one step at a time and invest in quality programming and resources. We’ve been working on several items diligently over the past couple of years and are beginning to see the fruits of our effort. In addition to the resources that we have always provided, we are working on expanding our “Things that Matter” broadcast to address contemporary issues more frequently, we are creating videos on Progressive Christian theology that can be utilized by faith communities, we are distributing a full 3-year “A Joyful Path” children’s curriculum, we are lifting up more diverse voices of emerging thinkers within the Progressive Christian Movement, and we are in the midst of a massive move of our content to a new website that is much more user-friendly! If we are going to continue this incredible work, though, we need your help. The reason that this organization is thriving is that you have been invested in the work that we are doing. Perhaps an achievable resolution you could make during 2023 is to support the work at ProgressiveChristianity.org on a regular basis. Could you make a recurring or one-time donation to help set the tone for the Progressive Christian Movement in 2023? We appreciate your support and generosity. Happy New Year! Caleb The Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines Co-Executive Director, ProgressiveChristianity.org | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 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 The Need for the Christian to Journey Beyond Scripture, Creed and Church Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 22, 2013Theology is a rational, deeply human, attempt to explain our experience with God. Theology is, therefore, never primary; it is always secondary to experience. Theological explanations can thus never be eternal. All explanations not only will change, but must change when knowledge grows and by so doing will always invalidate previous conclusions. Theology can never be infallible, unchanging or ultimately real. This, however, is a reality that quite frequently cannot be embraced by religious institutions and religious leaders.This means that there never has been an “inerrant Bible” or an “infallible pope.” The books of the Bible are always human attempts to explain a primary life experience, while every church hierarchy, including the papacy, is engaged in the task of trying to determine ultimate truth in a subjective, culturally relativized world. All scriptures and all theological pronouncements are inevitably time-bound and time-warped. A couple of illustrations might help us to see that no human explanation of any experience can ever be inerrant or infallible.Since the dawn of self-conscious life, we human beings have had the experience of watching the sun rise in the east and set in the west That is a phenomenon well documented all over the world, an objective reality. Look, however, at the various ways that this experience has been explained throughout history. The explanations range from the ancient Egyptians, who interpreted this pattern of the sun to be caused by the Sun God riding a chariot across the sky each day surveying the world, all the way to the modern scientist, who asserts that the phenomenon of the sun’s rising and setting is the result of the planet earth turning on its axis every 24 hours, as it makes its elliptical journey around the sun. These explanations obviously vary widely, but note that the experience itself is identical.In a similar fashion an epileptic seizure is another human phenomenon that has been observed from the dawn of time. In the New Testament an epileptic seizure was explained as having been caused by an invisible, demonic spirit suddenly taking over its victim, shaking him or her violently, hurling the victim to the ground and forcing the victim into an unconscious, trembling state until the spirit finally departed as suddenly as it arrived. Modern medicine, however, explains this same experience as a malfunction of the brain, resulting in a cascade of misfiring electrical impulses, which jump the track, so to speak, and thus create the resulting sense of seizure. The explanations are widely divergent, but once again the experience is identical.It is the constant temptation and the regular pitfall of religious institutions and religious spokespersons to confuse their explanations with the experience itself. The gospels, we need to state clearly, are not the dictated word or words of God, but are rather the time-bound and time-warped explanations of the Jesus experience, couched in the language and understandings of the first century. At the time the New Testament was written, no one knew that women had an egg cell, so the story of Jesus’ birth to a virgin could be used to explain the experience, which was that in Jesus they believed they had encountered something, which human life by itself was not capable of producing. In that time, we need to understand that no one quite understood what happens to the body at death. They could, therefore, reasonably assume that the death process could be reversed, if the reversal occurred within three days, after which the decaying of the body became obvious. When the New Testament was written, no one knew about germs, viruses, tumors or cardiovascular disease and so sickness was interpreted as divine punishment for sins committed. That was why it made sense to treat sickness by offering prayers and sacrifices. If we assume, as fundamentalist Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics still seem to do, that the gospel narratives are in fact literal renditions of what actually happened in time or in history, then religion has become idolatrous. It has invested the perfection of God in something that is in fact a human creation. By literalizing the Bible, religious people have also unknowingly literalized the world view of the first century that assumed that anything that could not be understood by first century minds must be a miracle, explained only by an appeal to the presence of a supernatural power. So the presumably “inerrant” Bible of Protestant fundamentalism and the presumably “infallible” theological doctrines of Roman Catholicism, become nonsensical in the 21st century. A Christianity based on those outdated ideas can never be compelling to 21st century people unless they are willing and able to close their minds to modern knowledge. Biblical inerrancy is therefore not just ignorance, it is a distortion of both truth and humanity. To quote the Bible to oppose equality for women or justice and dignity for homosexual people is to confuse the cultural fears of yesterday with ultimate truth. It is also to be pathetically and profoundly uninformed.What then about the creeds? They are fourth century attempts to codify religious beliefs that had been drawn primarily from the Bible. To insist that creeds are unchanging truth or to make creedal faith the hallmark of Orthodoxy is to state something that is absurd. It is to pretend that a quite limited fourth century, Greek-oriented world view is the same as “the mind of God.” So, when we learn that there is no all-seeing God, who lives above the sky of a three-tiered universe, who is always looking down to record our deeds in the record book of life, by which our eternal destiny will be determined, is not to say that there is no God, but it is to say that truth is always relative. Heaven as a place of reward and hell as a place of punishment have become nonsensical dated ideas. So is a Bible that contains the story of the Tower of Babel, the raining of heavenly bread, called manna, from the sky to feed the starving Hebrew people and the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. If the story of Jesus’ ascension literally means that he went up into the sky then we need to embrace the modern reality that Jesus did not get to heaven, he got into orbit or else he escaped the force of gravity and wandered into the infinity of space. Yet, on the basis of those limited, time bound fourth century creeds religious wars have been fought, religious persecution has been carried out, “heretics” have been burned at the stake and “witches” have been hanged to keep alive the myth that human words can capture, in some unchanging form, eternal truth. So often the business of religion has ceased to be the search for truth and has become the activity of mind control.Christians who claim inerrancy for the first century words of the gospels or infallibility for their doctrinal understanding of the fourth century words of the creeds are quite simply delusional people, and in the name of both God and truth, they need to be resisted mightily. Yet the facts of history reveal that Galileo was condemned by the church for suggesting that first century cosmology was inaccurate and Darwin is still being roundly criticized and politically resisted for suggesting that pre-modern biology is simply incorrect. I was both startled and amazed when I read recently a widely reported poll taken in Georgia, which revealed that 73% of the registered Republicans and 53% of registered Democrats in that state still believe literally the creation story in the Bible. This is not a commentary on faith, it is a commentary on how an uninformed faith can impede and distort the educational system of one of the states of this union. To think that an electorate this deeply uninformed can still choose political leaders, who will make laws for this entire nation is frightening!Yet, having now said all of these things, and quite clearly I hope, I still want to tell the world that there is a difference between an experience and the culturally bound explanation of that experience. I still plumb the meaning of the Bible on a daily basis. I still gather in my parish church every Sunday and recite the creed. I do these things joyfully and self-consciously. Am I simply schizophrenic, living simultaneously in two different worlds? Am I being delusional by intention and pretending to participate in rituals in which I do not really believe? No, neither is the case. I am rather a believer, not in a literal Bible, but in the experience to which the words of that Bible point. I am a believer, not in the literal creeds, but in the reality to which those creedal words point. I view the creeds as a love song that my ancestors in faith created to help them process their God experience. I do not mind joining in the singing of their love song. I recognize my kinship with them in the history of my faith’s development over the centuries. The creeds are not for me an imposed girdle into which I have to force my flabby faith. They are not a straitjacket designed to force me to live within the theological boundaries and understandings of fourth century people. They are the dated explanations of an experience that I still believe and acknowledge as real.Yes, let there be no mistake, I am convinced that there is a reality to the experience of God, but I do not interpret this reality as if God is a supernatural being who does miracles. I rather see this reality as a transcendent presence that is beyond human boundaries and that calls me and compels me not to allow those boundaries to bind my humanity into less than it is capable of being. I view God as the Source of life and love, and as the Ground of Being calling me to live, to love and to be. My Christian life is thus a journey for which there is no literal roadmap. I am convinced that if I walk this journey deeply enough and faithfully enough, I will be led beyond all religious forms – beyond scripture, creeds, doctrine and dogma and into the wordless wonder of the true meaning of worship. The Christian Church exists, I believe, to point all of us beyond the boundaries of our own humanity. It is a pity that institutional religion in all its forms does not understand its own message!~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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oe, hello
by Joan Knutson 19 Jan '23

19 Jan '23

Oe https://bit.ly/3CTxycg Joan Knutson

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REMINDER: Info re January 19 Environmental Film: LIVING IN THE FUTURE'S PRESENT
by Ellie Stock 18 Jan '23

18 Jan '23

JUST A REMINDER . . . JANUARY ENVIRONMENTAL FILM: "LIVING IN THE FUTURE'S PRESENT" The Ferguson Eco Team (Ferguson, MO) begins its winter/spring environmental film series, Thursday, January 19, 2023, 7:00 PM (CENTRAL TIME) with the Jeff Bridges documentary: LIVING IN THE FUTURE'S PRESENT. The film will be shown via zoom. A reflective conversation will follow the film. TO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FETJan2023 For more information: (314) 521-8418 or carletonstock(a)aol.comFlyer attached In this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking, Academy Award winner, Jeff Bridges shares the screen with scientists, profound thinkers and a dazzling array of Earth’s living creatures to reveal eye-opening concepts about ourselves and our past, providing fresh insights into our subconscious motivations and their unintended consequences. Living in the Future's Past shows how no one can predict how major changes might emerge from the spontaneous actions of the many. How energy takes many forms as it moves through and animates everything. How, as we come to understand our true connection to all there is, we will need to redefine our expectations, not as what we will lose, but what we might gain by preparing for something different. Featuring interviews with Dr. Piers Sellers (Director of the Earth Science Division at NASA, Meteorologist and Astronaut), Wesley Clark (General, US Army (ret.)), former NATO Supreme Allied Commander), Dr. Leonard Mlodinow (Physicist and Author, ‘Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a time of Change’) Dr. Ruth Gates, (Marine Biologist), Mark Plotkin, (Ethnobotanist), Dr. Bruce Hood, (Developmental Psychologist, Author, The Self Illusion) "A stunning environmental documentary."-IndieWirePresents philosophical, scientific, easily implementable, and potentially course-rerouting fixes.”-Entertainment Weekly "Not your typical documentary vision of doom and gloom on the environment...Managed to find that ever elusive happy medium on a polarizing subject while retaining intellectual honesty...Well-paced and highly thought-provoking throughout...Will spark a much more fruitful discussion on a vitally important problem which affects us all"-The 405 #yiv6195474092 filtered {}#yiv6195474092 filtered {}#yiv6195474092 p.yiv6195474092MsoNormal, #yiv6195474092 li.yiv6195474092MsoNormal, #yiv6195474092 div.yiv6195474092MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv6195474092 a:link, #yiv6195474092 span.yiv6195474092MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv6195474092 span.yiv6195474092EmailStyle19 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv6195474092 .yiv6195474092MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv6195474092 filtered {}#yiv6195474092 div.yiv6195474092WordSection1 {}

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