Members: Thomas, Eugene, Mariel, first year; Erica, second year; Scharme, third year; Bill and Lynne, fourth year; Scott and Susan, mentors. Absent: none.
To get started, we brought "brown bag" dinners. Tom read Compline, and we shared answers to his question, what does the Christmas season mean to us now?
Because our theological reflection in the second hour was a demonstration of ideas discussed in the first hour, I'll recap the readings later.
An Experiential Theological Reflection (TR)
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| Mariel's object for Theological Reflection had us thinking "Outside the Box" |
Mariel brought us a box, decorated with images of face, ears, and arrows with mottoes “ongoing” and “going on." She simply invited us to respond, and watched from a corner. After we all hesitated, Susan opened the box. We unpacked layers of past and present, diaries (one blank), a ledger from a blacksmith’s business, family photos, a Texas license plate, an old wind-up clock, layers separated by different kinds of paper or cloth.
Reflecting on feelings as we'd unpacked the box, we identified thrill at discovery, resistance to a new kind of TR, hesitation to connect with intimate family materials, curiosity, and melancholy. Our thoughts were variations on the basic qiestion, “What’s the principle or meaning behind this selection of objects?"
Considering theological categories, we decided “the world” of this micro-archive was created to be layered in time-and-space, interconnected, meaningful, purposeful, narrative. “Brokenness” lay in missing or fading pieces, and so much life not recorded. We saw “judgment” in what made us hesitant: the blank diary (“so much not written”) and fear of what opening the box might commit us to. Redemption lay in our decisions to engage with what we found, and enlargement of our sense of ourselves, as our little community worked through the materials.
Looking for analogs in our tradition, we listed “Let us now praise famous men”; the canon itself; the story of Josiah’s reading scriptures found among artifacts; the re-enactments of past in liturgy, such as the Passover Seder and Christmas service; and our church building and furnishings.
We bought into the experience with personal stories of the old answering machine that preserves the voice of a late loved one; the mother's cedar chest; sorting through an estate; the underlined passages in books that we read years ago; conversation with grandparents; sadness in browsing through objects in an antique store, removed from the places where they had meaning; and a first experience of Episcopal liturgy.
Readings: Morgan, Fighting with Scripture and Holmes, "A Spiritual Person"
We
found in our engagement with Mariel's box of memories an experience of
Morgan's over-arching idea that truths emerge through the "dialogue"
among layers of our tradition and our personal experience. Leaving out
the past leaves us with an impoverished understanding of what's newer;
one side doesn't have to be wrong for the other side to be right. (Read
a reflection on Morgan in Smoot's personal blog.)
We also found elements of "spirituality" in our communal experience of reverence and commitment to our exploration of the artifacts.
But our first responses to Donn Morgan's
Fighting with Scripture had been expressions of disappointment that he didn't finally tell us how to
choose among the clashing threads in the Bible.
We came around to
acknowledging that his final pages do give practical advice for dealing
with tension ("and tension can be a
good thing" Susan reminded
us), including several ideas built into EfM program, such as communal
prayer, an emphasis on connecting through stories rather than through
argument, and "holy listening," i.e. attending to a person's words and
body language while suspending our urge to plan a response.
Urban
T. Holmes writes of strong negative responses to the word
"spirituality" during the Sixties and Seventies (when he was
instrumental in creating EfM). Times have changed, we agreed. We all
liked his formulation:
prayer : spirituality :: eating : hunger
Collect for Reflection on the Past
O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come: We know that we live in communities of past and future generations: Make us ever mindful of opportunities for holy listening, that we may engage reverently in dialogue between past and present.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Next week:
Food and Worship provided by Bill and Lynne at their home, 5664 Harbormist (all one word), Powder Springs 30127.
If you can't come, please let us know!
Readings: Week Seventeen in the RRG.
We will take the next Tuesday off, returning January 2.
