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