Religion And Protest - The Ukraine

Today there was an interview on the CBC in which a photographer in the Ukraine described religious leaders in the streets of Kiev, pouring holy water on the protesters.  Christians have too often been associated with defending the status quo and aligning themselves with powerful constituencies.  But the church has never been of one mind.  Christians in Eastern Europe, in the Philippines, in Central America have also aligned themselves with those struggling to confront unjust regimes and move the world in a better direction.  They see this as being faithful to a God who is found among the powerless.

The interim president in the Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, is a Baptist preacher.  In the Ukraine, Baptists are a tiny minority, 135,000 out of 45 million.  Most of the pro-democracy protestors are Ukrainian-speaking Catholics says Olga Rudenko of Religion News Services. 

The new president is reputed to be a great organizer but not so good relating to people.  In this time of political chaos can he represent his people?  Can his skills make a difference?  What kind of spiritual leadership can he offer? 

Our hopes and prayers are with our sisters and brothers.

 

 

 

Peter

Will Religion Rise Again?

Will Boomers return to church?

 

The jury is still out on that. But never say never because Boomers do like to buck the trends, says a recent Christian Century article by Janice Lloyd.

 

Vern Bengston, a professor emeritus of gerontology recently published “Families and Faith” based on a 35 year, six generation longitudinal study of families in California.  Bengston says that as we age, we have more time to consider the meaning of our lives.  We also recognize the march of mortality as friends get sick and die and grandchildren ask deep questions.

 

The “nones,” those with no traditional religious affiliation are growing but they are a varied group.  Some are anti-religious but others are still searching for a religious group that fits their experience.

 

Bengston is an example of someone who has made a shift toward religion late in life.

 

“ I came from a conservative religious family. When I started to question my faith during college, my mother said if she had to do so she would pick Jesus over me. She ended up rejecting me. It broke her heart and mine. I was an atheist for 35 years. But when I retired, I walked into a progressive church on Easter Sunday, heard the choir singing and was utterly surprised by joy, as C.S. Lewis described his own later-life religious experience. I haven’t stopped going to church. If there is a heaven and if my mother is there, I think she’d say “I told you so.”

 

 

 

 

 

Thrice Reflected

Worship at it's best is a dialogue. In my experience, a prayer or a sermon is inspired by some person in the community, past or present.

After I share my reflection on that inspiration, I get still yet another wave of the Spirit wash over me when another member of the community offers their reflection on my reflection on their reflection.  This past week I have been meditating on Priscilla of whom there are only a couple of tantalizing references.  This is Carol's poetic response:

Captivated, Chosen

Who was she –

That Priscilla of so long ago?
What mystery unfolded
To awaken our re-imaginings?
How did she work her way through
The aperture of our consciousness?

Once, long ago
In the days and nights
Of Christ-Light beginnings,
In the time when the very air
Still shimmered with holiness,
Still vibrated with new awakenings

She was there: captivated, chosen

By the holiness of Spirit
To participate, to walk beside
The Saul who had been transformed,
Inspired to record messages
For the suckling church.

Was it she

Who offered courage,
Comfort, solace
To her friend and brother
In his journeys abroad,
To the Paul who gave his all?

Perhaps by our re-membering,

We can read, reflect and dream her back
Into our collective consciousness,
Until, with Prisca and Paul,
We participate in the sacred work
Of resurrecting our faith to new levels of love.

Carol Grace Scott

November 11, 2013

 

 

Prayers of the People

Every Sunday as our community gathers we get a fresh reminder of the our need for one another.

That happens as names are added to the list that is passed from hand to hand among the congregation and then offered up in the Prayers of the People.  It also happens in conversations over coffee after the service. 

This Sunday there were names on the list that refer to situations that are heart-breaking:  the loss of a dear friend to cancer, the death of a wife and mother, the tragic death of a child in Kenya.  There were mentions of illness, and operations and daily struggles of various kinds.

I share the list aloud in the time of prayer but there is much more taking place than that.  People listen and add their prayers and then in the hallways, further conversations lead to a word of support or follow-up action.

Being part of a community of faith offers all kinds of support that makes us more resilient in times of difficulty.  Some times we get to offer that support and some times we get to receive it.  Both of these are a blessing.

The Big Picture

Last month Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow led a workshop in Ottawa on Evolutionary Christianity.  Dowd claims that “science and religion can be mutually enriching forces” in our world.  In one of his books, Dowd quotes Barbara Marx Hubbard’s grateful reflection on the fourteen billion year journey that has brought humanity to our present.

 

“Every entity that ever moved or swam or crawled or flew, every being that reproduced itself, all the vast numbers of species now extinct and presently living who have invented the amazing capability which we have inherited as our eyes, our ears, our organs, our very atoms, molecules and cells – all of these preceding us are represented in our emergence now.

 

We bow down in awe and gratitude for the past.  Without all that came before us, none of us would be awakening now.”

 

There’s a big picture reason to feel thankful this season.

 

 

Birthing Pains

On March 17, the Wesley and Emmanuel church communities will vote on whether to amalgamate into a new community.  From the looks of it, this will happen!

 

 If the vote is “yes”, there will be some change ahead.  Even though we are keeping the Emmanuel name and the Emmanuel site on Smyth Road, the way ahead has been altered.

That change holds promise for us all but if it’s like any other change in our lives, then the shift has the potential for disagreement, upset and spiritual growth.

Parker Palmer, a Quaker and a voice of wisdom that I have often appreciated, speaks of five habits that we can cultivate which will continue to move us forward in positive ways.

1.      An understanding that we are all in this together.

2.      An appreciation of the value of “otherness.”

3.      An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways.

4.      A sense of personal voice and agency.

5.      A capacity to create community.

As a participant and an observer in the steps of this journey toward amalgamation, I have noted that questions and fears have been out in the open and treated with respect. Experienced Presbytery leadership has been crucial.  Individuals in both congregations have taken the initiative to engage and that has made a significant difference.

 

The above five points have been evident in the conversations and meetings that have taken place, which makes me feel hopeful.  If we vote “yes” on the 17^th, then in the coming year, as we explore what this new community will be and do together, it may be helpful to continue to keep these points in mind.

 

We’ve had a couple of new babies born recently at Emanuel.  Another one may be coming soon.  Every new birth shakes up our lives but what joy there is in every new creation!

 

 

Peter

 

Walking By Faith

Our moderator, Gary Patterson, recently had the opportunity to meet with other church leaders in the Canadian Council of Churches. He discovered that other church leaders, from across the liberal/conservative spectrum were facing distrust of institutions, spiritual not religious people.  Apparently we're in the same boat.  Says Gary in his blog,

"Willard Metzger, head of the Mennonite Church of Canada, described his sense of what was happening by imagining the church leadership as being in a boat, trying to go forward but being surrounded by fog. You can’t see what the future church looks like or even where it’s going to be found. But you keep peering ahead, watching carefully, trying to read the currents, hoping you won’t hit the rocks. Always staring ahead, trying to discern what’s out there. Then the fog clears for a moment, and you catch a glimpse of the “new church”…but it isn’t anything like what you thought it would be. And then, just as you reset the tiller, the fog closes in again, and you’re forced to steer by faith once more.

There was talk about this being God’s work—that what is happening to the churches, to all of us, is the movement of the Spirit, similar in many ways to Jeremiah’s understanding of the exile of Israel into Babylon. We are not being called to “fix it” but to discover new ways of being, to discover where God is already doing a new thing and join in.

There's something in the New Testament about walking not by sight but by faith.

with thanks to Gary and to Christine who passed this on.

 

Peter