Yr. B, Wk. 4: Happy 5873!

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Worship and Check-in
Last week, Nuno hand-delivered apples with honey to dip them in, rambutan and kiwi fruits, and candles [see photo: Still Life in oils by Scott -- with help from Android photos]. On Zoom, we lit our candles and enjoyed the treats while we recited prayers and readings for Rosh Hashanah -- the Jewish new year (5873, for those who are keeping track). The worship concluded with an awe-inspiring recording of the shofar.

Nuno's gathering question was about sweetness we anticipate in the new year. Answers included retirement, more retirement, healing, companionship, settling into a new job, and a new ministry. Spoiler alert: Disney World, too.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
Our discussion started with amazement: how small yet influential Jerusalem is, how Israel has maintained its identity when the other cultures of its day are long-forgotten, and how MacCulloch brings things together with geography to achieve a synthesis better than the previous two years of readings (though those readings may have prepared the ground for this understanding).

Another theme in our discussion was about the academic approach to theology in Ford and in Yee's introduction. "It seems to take away from the divinity of the scriptures," Jessica said. Scott was pleased to learn from Ford that religion departments no longer "pretend" that their studies can be "neutral" with regard to the traditions that they study. In Collins, Susan found the caution to be aware of the "lens" we use to look at scripture, as many categories important to us today wouldn't even make sense to the authors of these ancient texts.

We made a stab at clearing up some confusion. When MacCulloch wrote of rationality superseding "received" wisdom, was he putting reason up against revelation? We remembered how Galileo hit a wall when he questioned the "received wisdom" of Aristotle's teachings about physics and astronomy. Pete wondered at the returning exiles' antipathy to the Jews who stayed in Jerusalem. The attitude came from several factors: those returning had been the elite, they had developed a new kind of book faith to maintain their identity in exile, and they placed a premium on keeping themselves apart from the other cultures around them. They considered themselves keepers of the pure faith, while they were actually innovators!

We stepped back to look at our discussion itself with theological perspective questions: where did we see building, breaking, or bridging?

• Yee’s intro is defining marginalized people, how they are defined as marginalized – helping to bridge from academic writing to the other chapters.
• Collins is building an argument in his values book.
• MacCulloch is doing all three: building up of the nation of Israel, bridging Christianity to Jewish tradition, and breaking in the exile of the Jews and how they had to maintain their identity through that…
• Scott (after Marilyn) – reason building on and sometimes breaking the wisdom of the past…

Theological Reflection
These first weeks, we're playing with elements of TRs in our reading discussion, as with the perspective questions above.

Instead of new TRs, we each get to practice looking for what God may be showing us in our own lives. This night, it was Susan's turn, with lessons learned from travel abroad.

For Next Week
Susan will lead worship. Pete and Marilyn (Zooming on a plane!) will share portions of their spiritual autobiographies. Kathy will observe without camera or microphone while she recovers from foot surgery.

We're praying for safe travel, healing, and Kathy's Home Owners' Association.

Yr. B, Wk. 3: Perspectives on "Strength"

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Worship and Check-in
Pete brought a variety of prayers with the theme of "strength," tailored to each of us. For example, Pete gave Marilyn a prayer for strength to help a friend in need. For himself, he chose a prayer for mental and physical strength at work:

As I go to work,
Be with me Lord.
Be the patience when I'm frustrated.
Be the endurance when I am tired.
Be the wisdom when I am uncertain.
Be the inspiration when I'm out of ideas....

Naturally, Pete asked about any time in the past week when we'd needed strength. After everyone had responded, we reflected theologically on our answers.

[PHOTO: The Parthenon atop Athens. The Greeks and Romans certainly exalted strength of body and mind -- and buildings -- in their culture. See more in the TR section below.]

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Marilyn.

Discussion of the Readings
Our discussion covered a wide range of associations beginning from Jessica's confusion shading into delight that a book about the Hebrew scriptures should begin with a survey of ancient Greek and Roman culture. Unfortunately, Scott put the data in the wrong file and then overwrote it.

We also reviewed the class banner, and discussed a couple of additions to our list of cultural do's and tabus: confidentiality and the truth that what we get out of EfM depends on what we put into the work.

After our discussion, Scott shared his five-minute response to the "Self" prompt on page 34 in our RRG. Feel free to use the same prompt when your turn comes, another prompt, or some combination.

Naturally, Scott has posted his essay "Prep Kid in a Factory" on his personal blog The Word Sanctuary.

Theological Reflection
We stepped back from our experiences of "strength" in our check-in to look for connections to other sources of wisdom.

The first images that came to mind were "empire" and "power" from our culture. Such images are also present in the Psalms and chronicles of our religious tradition, but we found another thread in "Christ Culture" of strength through servanthood -- endurance and service to others as leadership.

Pete shared a position from military culture that strength is endurance, getting the job done, not speaking about any pain you feel; but, Pete said, that's a false strength, as not speaking can be harmful. We did think of St. Paul's toughing it out and his uses of images of athletic strength in his letters. Kathy pointed out that Paul always acknowledges that the strength is not his own, and he "boasts" in his "weakness."

For Next Week
Nuno will lead worship; Susan will share a chapter of her autobiography. We're all reading what's listed for Wk. 4 in our RRG. They all have to do with the early history of Israel and gender.

Report from Mentor Formation Training 2022

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At 2pm Thursday through Sunday, I joined a group of wise and kind mentors to work on Theological Reflection ("Deepening TRs") with trainer Steve Isham in Vermont. We met on Zoom from many places, as far west as Des Moines, as far north as New Hampshire, and as far south as me. Over those days, I worked in breakout rooms with all the others: Leslie, Theresa, Tom, Jane, Anna, and Frances. "You're here for growth," Steve said. "You don't have to prove yourselves." That was a relief.

TR & carts [Photo by Scott with Brandy, Sunday]

We followed familiar EfM protocols with participant-led worships, taking time to set up class norms ("covenant"), presenting our spiritual autobiographies on the Year B theme, and "gathering" questions. Steve used those to practice aspects of TRs. So he picked up a line from worship about "opening our eyes" and asked for any eye-opening experience in our week -- and then asked what could be a TR from our responses. Another time he asked what animal we associate with TRs (dogs go wherever their interest takes them, an octopus that latches onto things in many directions, a peacock that unfolds, and Tom, who said TRs can "be a bear").

Steve had us take time to find our own ways to explain why we do TRs to anyone new to the process or skeptical of it. TR is a way to see God at work in our experiences and our world... TRs give us a different way to appreciate the texts and beliefs of our faith... We bond over the common project and have fun... In TRs we create new parables from the materials of our own lives. A skeptic needs to know what's in it for us? and everyone needs to understand that the outcome is never known in advance, and there are no certain answers. (I shared my favorite Picasso quote, "If I know what it's going to look like, I don't make it.") Steve does partial TRs with his group in the weeks before the process is introduced in the curriculum; he just doesn't use the terminology.

Perhaps the best answer emerged on the last day when Steve asked us a gathering question about the "apply" part of a TR: how has the TR process "applied" to our own lives? A TR about those shopping carts that people leave in the parking lot changed one man's habits. Parents worked through a TR at a time of shock and grief to reach a position of calm and strength. All of us agreed that the process has become a part of who we are.

On the last day, we all participated in two TRs. Theresa asked Tom and me to try a "dilemma" TR, and Tom had a story about what to wear to church on a hot day. Everyone benefitted from seeing how this treacherous approach to the process can go off the rails, and we had a lot of laughs. The other group led us in TR on a "provocative word" estrangement that took us to emotional places, and we ended up seeing estrangement as a "desert" in a relationship, taking strength from the many figures in our tradition whose ordeals in deserts eventually end in reconciliation, salvation, promises fulfilled.

I should mention that Frances and I laughed a lot exploring a metaphor: it's like your candle just set fire to the altar during a wedding. We imagined Lucille Ball in that situation, and Frances drew on Dolly Parton's perspective -- accepting her mistakes, embarassed by nothing.

Yr. B, Wk. 2: Our EfM Class's Culture

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Image: A banner representing our class's culture, with images selected by participants. The tree and rainbow represent this year's theme of living faithfully in a multicultural world. So do the joined hands, which also represent mutual support. The image of the sacraments represents both our communion with each other and our grounding in church tradition; the EfM logo represents our grounding in the practices of this program. The Oz image recalls how participants over the years have found resonance with the theme that what we think we need most is something we already have. (Sorry, Pete, that Dave Matthews didn't make the cut.)

Worship and Gathering
Marilyn brought an olio of prayers from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, from Iona, Reverend Sloane Coffin, some in third person and some personal (like the Psalms!), all different expressions of the need for God. This fit the theme of "living faithfully in our multicultural world."

Marilyn asked us to share any experience we'd had in the past week that was a "hint of heaven." Scott and Susan both rejoiced over the amazing grace of a dog who was lost, but now is found. A dog figured in Marilyn's story of a soup chef who served her "heaven in a bowl." Nuno rejoiced in a turning point for his father. Jessica told of good news for the worshipers in her morning prayer group. Pete told how relieved he was to get the phone call at 3 a.m. that "I'm home safe."

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Kathy, preparing for surgery.

Discussion of the Readings
We each came to the class prepared to discuss something particular from the reading in the RRG. We highlighted these ideas:

• Challenges to listening - awareness that our body's response may be a motion of the spirit or a reaction of the intellect.
• The demographic diversity of religions in America since 1965, and how little personal experience we've had with it.
• "A vision that is loved provides energy" for ministry, which is defined here as helping to bridge the "gap" between God's dream for humanity and the current reality.
• "Less a clash of cultures than a marbling" : two perspectives on that quote.
• The fact that EfM does a version of this listening lesson every year attests to its being essential to the program, not just a means to an end.
• Desmond Tutu's expansive view of family and faith: there are no outsiders, only insiders.

Everyone contributed to our list of what we DO, what we DON'T do, and traditions we CHERISH.

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Yr. B, Wk. 1: How Multicultural Can We Get?

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There was a lot of energy in our first meeting! We had encouraging messages before and after the meeting: We're getting the band back together again!... I'm looking forward to tonight! ... Good class tonight! It's so good to see everybody!...

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Worship and Check-in
Because Zoom forced an update on some of us, we started a bit late. After everyone had introduced themselves by name, occupation, and the story of how EfM interested them, Scott led worship from the Reading and Reflection Guide.

Check-in was the main point of this first evening. We quickly got to know our two newest members via slides and the 3-2-1 questions sent by email: 3 places you visited, 2 blessings you received, 1 blessing you gave. We had slides for the first six; Kathy instead used her camera to show us her new back yard.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
We had little to say about the intro to EfM, which most of us have read many times, except for Nuno's comment that he's very excited by the emphasis on multiculturalism.

Scott pointed out that EfM is a "culture" and the chapter was one way we cultivate it. He wondered what other "cultures" we in the group might represent. We added a dozen cultures to a list and got to know each other a little better in the process. Then we used "chat" to type in phrases from one of our own "cultures" that others wouldn't recognize:

Scott: "The Center Cannot Hold!" English majors (but Jessica knew Yeats anyway)
Nuno: Southern Dad Jokes/Terminology Jawl-P, Jeet, Kinjac, etc.
Kathy: centripetal family
Scott: "not since Carrie..."
Marilyn: The Sepulveda Pass (HINT:we've seen it in lots of movies)
Pete: Differential Equations
Jessica: PHI, HIPAA, and the ACA
Marilyn: A snagged dew claw
Susan: tenure and promotion
Nuno: serigraphy, intaglio, lithography, collagraph
Marilyn: Craft service
Pete: f'c
Marilyn: Collapsing trachea
Pete: Dave speak

Theological Reflection (TR)
Next week, we'll begin a series of spiritual autobiographies. These may lead to our first TR.

For Next Week
Marilyn will lead worship and provide a check-in question. We all read chapter 2. Preparation of our spiritual autobiographies is a personal exercise -- only a small portion of it will be shared with the group. Scott and Susan will go first.