Here are a few of the Facebook reflections I mentioned earlier ... A Compassionate Civilization <<you can get to Rob's blog on the web at compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com>> Thoughts concerning an emerging civilization of compassion based on principles of sustainability, equality, justice, participation and tolerance. Thursday, July 3, 2014 What Is Worth Dying For? <by Robertson Work> Ten days ago an old colleague of mine committed self-immolation. He wasn’t an Asian monk but a Texas minister. He left messages explaining that he did this act as a protest against racism, capital punishment and social injustice. He explained that he loved his life, was not depressed and was not committing suicide but was making a final statement with his death as part of a long life lived for others. He was 79. I remember him as a wonderful combination of gentleness and passion. May his sacrifice wake each of us up to what is worth dying for. Another old colleague of mine is in the midst of a march across America to call attention to climate chaos and the urgent necessity to stop burning fossil fuels and shift to renewal energy. He is 77. He is a strong willed person who has lived a life of caring for others. May each of his steps from West to East wake each of us up to what is worth living and dying for. Another elder colleague of mine goes to the streets of Albuquerque every day bringing food, clothing and concern to the homeless. She is 74. She is a brilliant, passionate person who has spent her life caring for others all over this world. May her loving expenditure wake each of us up to what is worth dying for, what is worth living for. Each of these elders chose and chooses every day to do and to be what is worth living for and what is worth dying for. There is no one right answer. It is a deeply personal discernment and decision that we each must make in solitude and in community. As for me I have decided to engage in teaching, training, speaking, facilitating and writing to promote innovative leadership for sustainable human development, to catalyze what I call a “compassionate civilization” of environmental protection, gender equality, participatory governance, socio-economic justice and cultural tolerance. This is not the right thing to do. It is what I am compelled to do with no assurance that it will make a difference. Dying is a very lively part of life. What for you is worth living for and dying for? How might our living and our dying make a difference in another person’s life, in society’s perceptions and priorities? ......................................... Randy Williams We each have a vision of the emerging new reality that we wish to participate in bringing forth. But, as Martin Buber said, it will not turn out according to our decision. The hard part is, we have to put aside our expectations regarding outcomes, and do what we do simply because each of us, in our own way, has decided it's the right thing to do. I'm sure Charles understood that. Yesterday at 6:16pm · Kathleen Hamm Jones I cannot imagine that Charles Moore would have taken this decision without a thorough review of all the steps and perspectives in this paragraph, not just the last phrase: "The responsible man acts in the freedom of his own self, without the support of men, circumstances, or principles, but with a due consideration for the given human and general conditions and for the relevant questions of principle. The proof of his freedom is the fact that nothing can answer for him, nothing can exonerate him, except his own deed and his own self. It is he himself who must observe, judge, weigh up, decide and act. It is man himself who must examine the motives, the prospects, the value and the purpose of his action. But neither the purity of the motivation nor the opportune circumstances, nor the value, nor the significant purpose of an intended undertaking can become the governing law of his action, a law to which he can withdraw, to which he can appeal as an authority, and by which he can be exculpated and acquitted. For in that case he would no longer be truly free. The action of the responsible man is performed in the obligation which alone gives freedom and which gives entire freedom, the obligation to God and to our neighbor as they confront us in Jesus Christ. At the same time it is performed wholly within the domain of relativity, wholly in the twilight which the historical situation spreads over good and evil; it is performed in the midst of innumerable perspectives in which every given phenomenon appears. It has not to decide simply between right and wrong and between good and evil, but between right and right and between wrong and wrong. As Aeschylus said, "right strives with right." Precisely in this respect responsible action is a free venture; it is not justified by any law; it is performed without any claim to a valid self-justification, and therefore also without any claim to an ultimate valid knowledge of good and evil. Good, as what is responsible, is performed in ignorance of good and in the surrender to God of the deed which has become necessary and which is nevertheless, or for that very reason, free; for it is God who sees the heart, who weighs up the deed, and who directs the course of history." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer Kathleen Hamm Jones And for Charles, this action must have become "divine necessity." And so he is still my prior. Michael Tippett 4 hrs · A radical response to issues a former colleague obviously felt very strongly about. Grace and Peace, Charles Douglas Michael Shaw 19 hrs · I only met Charles a couple of times, so did not know him well. I knew him as a man of vision and compassion, a deep thinker searching for justice. His final act in life punctuated his deep care for justice. May his life and death be long remembered. Judi White Yesterday at 4:07pm · I remember a talk , I recall was given by JPC but maybe not,about whether or not the futurre needs red martyrs or white martyrs - red being physically fighting and dying for the cause, white being those who demonstrate the social change as a vision of renewed community, for example. Charles Moore's passion for creating human was more intense than your average revolutionary. He was presence of the Soul's heart beating. Call it suicide or martyrdom, his choice came from the place where the crying calls us to our dying. Pat Druckenmiller via Ken Fisher Yesterday at 7:56am · I am shocked and saddened by this news. Let us listen to Charles' reasons and act to effect the changes he called for. He was a dear friend and starwart colleague. Ken Fisher Yesterday at 6:55am My old colleague Charles Moore, laments past racism in Grand Saline and beyond. He calls on the community to repent and says he’s “giving my body to be burned, with love in my heart” for lynching victims, for those who lynched and for Grand Saline citizens, in hopes they will address current racial issues. The typed notes relay Moore’s frustration over The United Methodist Church’s positions on homosexuality, over the death penalty, and over Southern Methodist University’s successful bid to be home to the George W. Bush Presidential Center. George Holcombe Yesterday at 2:38am · Our colleague, Charles Moore, immolated himself June 23. He was devoted to ending the death penalty and racism, and equality for the LGBT community. A Memorial service will be held July 12 at Faith Prebyterian Church in Austin. -------------------------------------------- On Fri, 7/4/14, Nancy Trask via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: My Prior, Charles Moore To: "Lynda Cock via OE" <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Friday, July 4, 2014, 4:36 PM Hi John and Lynda and all those who are on email but not Facebook, you must also see the Facebook reflections. Thank you for your words John. Rob Work's reflection also helped me immensely. I will copy and send as soon as I am back to some technology, unless someone else gets to it sooner. G & PNancytrask@rocketmail.com Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message --------From: Lynda Cock via OE Date:07/04/2014 9:41 AM (GMT-06:00) To: 'Order Ecumenical Community' ,'Colleague Dialogue' Subject: [Oe List ...] FW: My Prior, Charles Moore (some sort of trouble connecting with OE/ICA, so sending from Lynda's e-mail, John C.) Charles and I had many good chats and always brought up, with big laughs, our shoot-out at the Late Forrest saloon when I told him I was leaving the Order and he told me I would go to hell and I told him to go to hell. We deeply appreciated each other, all said and done. Last time I saw him was in Chicago a few years ago. We shook hands and held on. I’m so glad. I liked and respected Charles, but hardly understood him, nor him me, I am sure. He was a deeply reflective, deeply sensitive, and deeply everything kind of spirit man. I can imagine the process of his thinking from reading the Holcombe UMC and Randy Williams articles. He sensed his time was running out on how to change history, but by-god he committed himself to doing just that in some way or other. There is a big stir in the institutions and communities mentioned in those news articles, and many people, including us, are brought to a deeper reflection on how we change our nations and the Earth community. He used Bonhoeffer’s decision-making process and obviously very intentionally decided to do what he did. Do I wish he hadn’t? Yes. Do I understand his internal grappling with the state of things these days? I think we all do. Will we be able to forget this event? No. Will it cause us to reflect deeper about our given role in history? Yes. Charles, we give thanks for you and will remember you. Grace and Peace are yours. Journey on. John -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net