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.

Cuban Health Care, a First-Hand Report

This coming Sunday, August 2, we are lucky to host Dr. Nancy Lanthorn who will speak on her recent trip to Cuba for the purposes of learning more about a strong health system in an impoverished country. Here's her synopsis:


"In Feburary, 2009, Dr. Lanthorn spent ten days in Cuba visiting various urban and rural facilities in three different areas to observe the Cuban health care system and the mental health care delivery system. She met with physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers and observed them at work. Although the educational system was another interest, there was not time to visit schools except at the University Level. She has prepared a program which provides highlights from this trip and will contrast the Cuban system with that of the United States. "

As a brief bio:

"Dr. Nancy Lanthorn is a licensed clinical psychologist practicing in Johnson City, Tn. After completing the program at the University of Wyoming and an internship at the Greater Kansas City Mental Health Foundation, Dr. Lanthorn worked for an educational cooperative with four school systems before entering private practice. Since then, she has practiced in Kingsport, Colonial Heights, Gray and Johnson City. "

Please join us. You'll be very welcomed.

Public Health in America

For this coming Sunday, July 26th, we are lucky to have as our presenter, Dr. Randy Wykoff, Dean of the College of Public Health at ETSU.
Randy will give a general presentation as an overview of public health issues facing our region, and the nation and he will present specific community-based interventions we can pursue to make things better.

Dr. Wykoff is fairly new to the area. He arrived at ETSU in 2006, and he has been making things happen since. It was Dr. Wykoff that brought Vice President Al Gore to speak at ETSU, and short afterwards David Kessler, former head of the FDA, as part of an outstanding seminar series that has been chocked full of public health luminaries.
Dr. Wykoff is in the midst of a distinguished career in Academic Public Health. He has published numerous noteworthy articles in prestigous journals, including the "New England Journal of Medicine." Dr. Wykoff worked at Project HOPE and at various positions in the federal government. He is a phyhsician trained in pediatrics, preventive medicine, and tropical medicine.
Randy earned his BS, MPH and MD degrees at Tulane. He enjoys Mandolin, Fly Fishing, and Kung Fu. He and Janine have five children.

Fell behind of Posting : Sufism and Creation

If you're one of the ones of people who look at this blog you'll not that I fell off the wagon with regular postings for July 12 and July 19.
Quickly, on July 12th, Rebecca Nunley gave another of her excellent presentations, this one on an overview of Sufism. Among other things, Rebecca gave us 10 Sufi thoughts:

There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being, none else exists.
There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all Souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the Light.
There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of Nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.
There is One Brotherhood/Sisterhood, the human family, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God.
There is One Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfills the life's purpose of every soul.
There is One Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience, together with a sense of awakened justice.
There is One Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, in which resides all perfection.
There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom.
There is One Moral, the love which springs forth from self-denial and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
There is One Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers through all aspects from the Seen to the Unseen.

Thanks Rebecca.

On July 19 Dwight Cope lead the group with a presentation on Creation Stories from te LTQ2 series. I'm sure it was good.

Thanks Dwight.

Lives of Jesus

For Sunday, July 5 we will continue the LTQ2 series with the chapter on the Lives of Jesus. Here's the introduction to the reading:

"From apocalyptic firebrand to mystical faith healer to political insurrectionist, the various images of Jesus are celebrated and defended by true believers of every theological and political stripe. Walk into the narthex of any number of Protestant churches and you’re likely to find the sentimental blue-eyed, pink-skinned Jesus of artist Warner Sallman gazing beatifically upon your comings and goings. Enter the neighboring Catholic church and you’ll probably find the image of a beaten, bleeding, emaciated man suffering on a cross.


From the Gospels to illustrated Bible storybooks to portrayals in film, Jesus has been the subject of considerable “spin” over the ages. Each tradition and each individual puts their own emphasis on this remarkable figure. For many middleclass Americans, the ideal Jesus is the gentle, upstanding, right-thinking (and often somewhat androgynous) suburbanite with good posture. The notion that Jesus might have been a short, dark, Middle-Eastern peasant rabble-rouser is so far from many people’s capacity to comprehend, that all reason is rejected in favor of the gauzy Aryan visions of early childhood. A blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus, meek and mild, is such a stalwart icon of Western culture, that to suggest anything contrary or corrective to that image is tantamount to heresy."

Please join us. We'll be glad to see you.

Torture is a Moral Issue

Nancy Barrigar will be our presenter next Sunday, June 28.

Here's her synopsis of her talk:

Can torture be justified in certain circumstances? Do "harsh interrogation techniques" make Americans safer? Can cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners be morally justified?
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center showed that support for torture actually increased among those who attended church more frequently. With a brief PowerPoint presentation we will look at the results of the survey. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. We will view and discuss an 18-minute video from NRCAT entitled "Ending U.S.-Sponsored Torture Forever"

Ending US-Sponsored Torture Forever from Steven D. Martin on Vimeo.

And here's Nancy's brief bio statement:

An Elizabethton native, I have been a member of First Presbyterian since the early 1980s. My undergraduate degree is from King College with a major in psychology, and I received a Master of Arts in Teaching from ETSU. I spent 20+ years as an educator, the great majority of that in early childhood education. Since its inception, Gary and I have been co-moderators of the Peacemaking Committee here at First Pres. Peace, environmental and social justice issues are important in my life. Raising awareness regarding these topics seems to keep popping up on my to-do list.

Please join us for the Adult Forum, Sunday morning at 9:45. We'll be happy to see you.