Social Justice: Realizing God's Vision

For next Sunday, August 30, we will return to the Living the Question series to focus on the chapter that explicitly addresses how we are called to work for social justice. From the reading text:

Being a person of faith demands balancing spiritual pursuits with action. In a society which is oftenunjust, inequitable, and whose very structures are responsible for generating untold suffering and poverty, we are compelled to pursue social justice as an expression of hope in realizing a better world.

For many, the thought of seeking social justice is an intimidating proposition. Yet God’s vision for the world can only be realized as each one of us sets ourselves
to practicing even the smallest task toward the goal.

“The prophetic life is one in which you live your faithfulness out of a steadiness, and that is often hard for us to do. We do really good with these rushes of faithfulness (but) the mortal life is the life of the mundane. It is doing the right thing day after day after day and moment after moment. It is not these big movements. It is not these big statements of great profound eloquence. It really is doing it every day. I cannot say it often enough: treating people fairly, decently – respecting them for who they are – knowing that none of us is perfect.”
– Emilie Townes,
Living the Questions

Please join us at 9:45. It's free! Childcare provided! You'll be very welcomed!

Our Eight Points of Progressive Christianity

Well, they're not exlcusively ours. The Eight Points come from The Center for Progressive Christianity a group that we are officially affiliated with. This is important to me, personally, because this website is the portal through which I discovered First Presbyterian of Elizabethton.

Our church website notes that we "affirm 'The Eight Points':

By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who…

1. Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus;

2. Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us;

3. Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples;

4. Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to):
believers and agnostics,conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,women and men,those of all sexual orientations and gender identities,those of all races and cultures,those of all classes and abilities,those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope;

5. Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe;

6. Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in questioning than in absolutes;

7. Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God's creation, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers; and

8. Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege."

Holy Mackerel Hallelueha! Please join us at the Adult Forum on Sunday morning at 9:45 (childcare provided) as we revel in what we believe with lots of personal testamonies.

The Twelve Principles of Creation Spirituality

Our church website contains the Twelve Principles of Creation Spirituality. They, and some related text are copied below.
This coming Sunday, August 16, Rebecca Nunley will give us a presentation on these Principles and their context within our church. Regular attendees recognize Rebecca as one of our best presenters, one who consistently tweaks our hearts and minds to growth, even a little.
Please join us at 9:45. You'll be very welcome.

The Twelve Principles of Creation Spirituality

1. The Universe, and all within it, is fundamentally a blessing.Our relationship with the Universe fills us with awe.

2. In Creation, God is both immanent and transcendent. This is panentheism which is not theis (God out there) and not atheism (no God anywhere).We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine.

3.God is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much God in mystery as the God in history as much beyond all words and images as in all forms and beings.We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one form or one literal name.

4.On our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice that we find out deep and true selves.Through the arts if meditation and selves we cultivate a clarity of mind and move beyond fear into compassion and community.

5.Our inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey involving:- awe, deight, amazement (known as the Via Positiva)- uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go (Via Negativa)- birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)- justice, healing, celebration (Via Transformitiva)We weave through these paths like a spiral danced, not a ladder climbed.

6.Every one of us is a mystic.We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (Via Positiva) as through contemplation and suffering (Via Negativa). We are born full of wonder and can recover at any age.

7. Every one of us is an artist.
Whatever the expression of our creativity, it is out prayer and praise (Via Creativa).

8. Every one of us is a prophet.Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice and that which interrupts authentic life (Via Transformativa).

9.Diversity is the nature of the Universe. We rejoice in and courageously honor the rich diversity within the Cosmos and expressed among individuals and across multiple cultures, religions and ancestral traditions.

10.The basic work of God is compassion and we, who are all original blessings and sons and daughters of the Divine, are called to compassion.We acknowledge our shared interdependence; we rejoice at one another’s joys and grieve at one another’s sorrows and labor to heal the causes of those sorrows.

11.There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one underground river of Divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom collected from these wells is Deep Ecumenism.We respect and embrace the wisdom and oneness that arises from the diverse wells of all the sacred traditions of the world.

12.Ecological justice is essential for the sustainability of life on Earth.Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we commit to live in light of this value; to pass on the beauty and health of Creation to future generations.

Through study, ritual, celebration and action, these communities support justice, compassion, transformation and sustainability for the Universe and for all living beings. To find a list of Creation Spirituality communities on the web, go here.

A poem contributed by Libby Cornett:

this darkness is a rope, not a prison:
hand over hand i haul myself in
to touch your face, the blossom.
my fingers crawl toward heaven
leaving behind whirling shadows;

this darkness is a rope, not a prison.
i follow light through forgotten
canyons and grottos;
i touch your face and know that even the sun
has a mission: as it climbs it grows.

this darkness is a rope, not a prison;
not a cell from which i hasten.
freely, hand over hand i follow to
touch your face,
to open and open like a
night-blooming jasmine,
or a well widening with echoes:

this darkness is a rope, not a prison,
i touch your face, i blossom

-- maurya simon, changing light

Sick Around the World

T. R. Reid is a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post. In 2007-08 he put together a film showing how five rich countries provide universal healthcare for their citizens. (The U.S. is not one of the five.) His film, "Sick Around the World" appeared on PBS' Frontline last April, and it will play again, on Sunday, August 9th, right here at the Adult Forum. The film is almost 60 minutes long, so it will start at 9:45.
Please join us. You'll be totally amazed! Other wealthy nations have actually figured out how to do healthcare for way less money than we spend. If you know a congressman, encourage them to come along. They will be amazed, too! As always, all are welcome.