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СВЕТИ ГЕОРГИToday Kathy presented a panel of speakers to explain the eco-spiritual paradigm (paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them.) She said that in Europe, Christianity developed into a paradigm of duality (championed especially by Rene Descartes in the 17th Century.) In this paradigm of duality, one side is deemed the “good” and the other side is deemed the, well, “evil”… or at least “bad”, or “wrong.” One of these dualities is the spiritual vs. natural paradigm. For 17th century Christians, once you build that paradigm, spiritual has to be the good side and that means… wait… nature is the bad side. That lead to some really unfortunate conclusions on the part of Christians… that nature was anti-spiritual.
This was particularly unfortunate because many (most?) of the non-Christian religions were (are?) closely associated with nature and the natural world. In the duality paradigm, Christians (emphasis in the spiritual world) = “good” and NonChristians (emphasis in the natural world) = “evil.” When Christians own the best weaponry, this is not going to turn out well for the religions who glorify the natural world. Twas ever thus… at least since the 17th century.
Shawn told us about the modern Druidism movement. It is way more interesting than you ever thought. Their worship days are all tied to the seasons and the cycle of the year is the cycle of life.
Becca told us about the modern Eco-spiritual movement. Much of which is a movement to save our precious little planet from the destruction of it by those who do not appreciate the spiritual world. (one bit of hope, however, springs from the evangelical movement which is beginning to take note of the problem presented by God… who encouraged humanity to assert dominion over the created world, which probably did not include destroying it.
Thurmon talked to us about native American spirituality. Native Americans have the distinction of practicing the only set of religions that the United States Government has ever declared to be outlawed. It turns out that Americans are very bad at reading the Constitution. George W. Bush tried to get the armed forces to declare Wicca as a non-religion, but the courts intervened. The courts declared that Christians do not get to define other people’s religion as an evil non-religion. I guess someone does know how to read the Constitution after all.
Imbolc is being celebrated by the Three Cranes Grove this afternoon. See http://www.threecranes.org/ for details.
Peace,
Rick
Posted 6 days, 15 hours ago at 2:04 am. Add a comment
БогородицаMadeline, Elizabeth, and Betty spoke to us about Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Evangeline Booth, Clara Barton, and John Lennon. Madeline presented a comparison of Lincoln’s life with Barack Obama’s life. Both served a single term in Congress from Illinois and both came to national attention from a single speech. Lincoln at Cooper Union, and Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Oddly enough, both jeopardized their political career by opposing wars: Lincoln opposed Polk’s venture into Mexico and Obama opposed Bush’s venture into Iraq.
Elizabeth told us about Evangeline Booth and the founding of the Salvation Army. Booth arranged for the Salvationists to accompany the U.S. Troops into France in WWI. They provided the army with much needed care, comfort, food and even entertainment… which the War Department had not seen fit to provide. Clara Barton founded the Red Cross. She started by caring for the wounded in the American Civil War. Interestingly, she never took a side in any debate on politics or morality. She saw suffering, and she tried to relieve suffering, whether brought on by war or by human error or deficiency.
Betty told us about John Lennon and his struggle to bring the idea of peace to the world. She read several rememberances about John Lennon from some very famous people.
The Three Cranes Grove is celebrating Imbolc on Jan 29 at Blacklick Park. Come at 5:30 with Ceremony at 6:30. They are at the heated shelter so don’t worry about the weather.
Next Saturday is the third Saturday (Jan 21) and that means our oun pot luck will be happening at the church. It is National Hug Day, so that is the theme.
Shawn’s birthday is Saturday. Jan’s birthday is the 17th.
Lars is walking now… hold on to your hats.
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago at 1:10 am. Add a comment
David Soliday spoke to us today about his trip escorting college kids to Jamaica to help fix up a homeless shelter in Kingston. He said Islanders are much more relaxed about things and its easy to settle in. The return to busy America was culture shock. He spent some time getting used to the culture shock of being a distinct minority race in a foreign country. He thought painting the homeless shelter was important (it was pretty grim before they started and quite colorful and cheerful afterward) but the importance of it was magnified by the fact that people came to the country to do the work. Staying in America and paying for the paint and labor would not have achieved the same amount of good will. How much difference can paint make? How much difference can good will make?
The children’s story was “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” read in Jamaican Patois.
Announcements: The Ohio Meadville Assembly and the Central Ohio Cluster is meeting next weekend and there is no one to represent our little UUCE congregation. If you have the time, we have the driving directions. We are looking for a volunteer. It is mostly a Saturday event with a few niceties on Friday and a service Sunday morning.
There is a new chore list for everyone to sign up for. We don’t want the same people to do all the work. Share the fun.
Remember the potluck is the third Saturday. This month’s after dinner movie was the modern remake of Homer’s Odyssey: Oh Brother Where Art Thou.
Joys and Sorrows: We lit a candle because the U.S. launched cruise missiles into Libya and we are lighting a candle in the hope that some sanity will come out of this. … although all of us recognize the incongruity of hoping for sanity out of a situation that starts off with the launching of cruise missiles. Barbara is in Westley Glen rehab center and we all wish her the best. A card is always appreciated. We lit a candle in hopes that the fallout from the Japanese nuclear reactors will disburse without doing harm.
Posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago at 11:17 pm. Add a comment
The News is, of course, dominated by news of the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan in the first week of March, but here, for us, the news is dominated by the loss of Shirley DenBroeder. Shirley Jean denBroeder, 75, of Reynoldsburg, passed away on March 3, 2011.
She was born January 11, 1936 in Newark to the late Murrell and Ruth Orr.
She is survived by her son, Jody denBroeder; her brother Paul Orr; her sisters, Nancy Channell, Caroline King, Elizabeth Williams, and Marjorie Bergstrom. She is preceded in death by her parents; her brothers, David Bline, John and Lee Orr.
Shirly graduated from Newark High School. She was a volunteer with the Columbus Metro Parks. Donations are requested to Columbus Metro Parks, 1069 West Main Street, Westerville, OH 43081 in her memory.
A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held later.
In other news, the church (almost) monthly potluck is to be held Saturday March 19. It will be a St Patrick’s day theme, and all who have any kind of music making equipment or a voice should come. We have decided to see if we can actually sing… and St Patrick’s day is the excuse to find out. If it doesn’t turn out well, maybe some merciful person will bring a movie to pop into the DVD machine.
The monthly (really, we do this every month… much more reliably than we do the potluck) congregation board meeting was held Mar 13. Old business: we decided not to have the $200 energy audit but we decided to spring for the $25 energy assessment by AEP. Stay tuned for ideas. On the subject of rental of the facility, we charge $50 for half a day of use. However, we don’t charge the members to use the grounds. So it turns out we don’t collect much because most of the people interested in the place are our members. So we are all encouraged to make use of the facility whenever it makes sense for you.
New Business: Marko is doing well in his new home in California. He is going to be a Father in July. Marko generously paid for 3 years of our website fees, so THANKs MARKO!
We need more people to step up and help with the building. Some more people need to come early and help set up or stay and clean up. We are a small group folks, we can all help a little more so we don’t require the same generous people do these chores week after week.
John Martin is going to be ordained as a minister for the UUCE congregation. We talked about the task of putting on the ceremony, which, for obvious reasons, we don’t often do. Jan found a little guide book online for these kinds of ceremonies, but she thought it a tad sanctimonious. Folks, sanctimony is not our strong suit at UUCE. We need help with this.
And, FINALLY, we are going to have an “Open Forum” Sunday in April. We debated whether the “Open Forum” should be open, or whether the “Open Forum” should be targeted at a topic. We decided that we should use the day to address Earth Day and related environmental subjects. Nevertheless, “Targeted Topic Forum” just doesn’t have the zesty feel of inclusiveness that “Open Forum” has. SO we are going to call it “Open Forum” anyway.
Now aren’t you sad that you did not attend the congregation’s board meeting?
Peace, Rick
Posted 10 months, 4 weeks ago at 9:12 pm. Add a comment
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.
We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.
Posted 10 months, 4 weeks ago at 8:31 pm. 1 comment
