Yr. B, Wk. 16: Spirituality in the Digital Age by Steven Charleston

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Charleston's latest book relates to our TR.  Holy Synchronicity!

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Worship and Gathering
We spoke our prayer concerns: Marilyn and her dog Ocho; the "Angel" who visits Scott's mom putting her dog out of misery; Susan’s colleague; Jessica’s employee in surgery. Scott led worship with a collect for Epiphany and prayer "Before Worship" from p. 833 in the Book of Common Prayer, delineated for each of us to participate. (We ended the evening with the beautiful prayer "For Quiet Confidence" on p. 832.)

Our gathering question was about our return to routine after the holidays: what's something you enjoyed getting back to? Knowing what to expect is good (tho’ this week wasn’t normal!)... Getting into a rhythm… routine is comforting -- until about 10 am or 2 PM … Nice that Ruthie’s back in school.... Nuno spoke of getting into a new normal with new commitments and a polite, well-trained Standard Poodle C.S.Lewis ("Lewy"), who led his rambunctious sibling around by the lead. (Awwww!)

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

Discussion of the Readings
Regarding the title of our new unit, Scott observed that he had read three different definitions of "spirituality" in the past 24 hours. What does it mean to us? Pete spoke of a force inside yourself that sustains you, leads you, and encourages you to explore. Jessica offered a place between the head and the heart where you have room to grow. Nuno elaborated what this week's author had written, that spirituality is a message to yourself, a communication between what we see, what we feel, and what we believe. We now had three more definitions!

We all had read Steven Charleston's address to a conference from 2014 regarding new ways technology can assist the mission of the Church. "Steven Charleston is a Native American elder, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and a bishop in the Episcopal Church." (stevencharleston.com). He told how a diverse on-line community formed in a "crystalline" manner around meditations he offered every morning on Facebook. A tech-skeptic at first, he became a social media star.

Our own Jessica has been a fan for a long time, now. She responds to his connecting God to the Choctaw "Spirit of Life" and his redefining church as a body in which everyone feels empowered to participate. [Typing this, I realize, that's St. Paul, too -- one body, many members with their own contributions.] Susan found it interesting that the online community clamored to have a print-media collection (what we used to call a book). Here's a sampling of our other reactions to his essay:

• Pete: Charleston's online community is non-denominational and it's there when you want it. "I felt inspired." Pete especially liked Charleston's feeling that people came to his site, not empty and wishing to be filled, but full of experience that they wished to share.
• Susan: He's using the term "evangelical" in a new way. There's a danger: She remembered a "meltdown" of misunderstanding and vicious responses on a professional Listserv from otherwise thoughtful, goodwilled philosophers.
• Nuno: Charleston has an appealing vision of redemption through the sharing made possible by technology. We are less optimistic about that since 2014. There has been a "spiral" downward because of a "lack of human connection." Charleston does elevate the human connection as something necessary that the tech can assist, but not replace.

Scott asked how else we might update Charleston's essay from our experiences since 2014. Our responses followed three different lines:

• Sharing of experience and beliefs is what draws people to social media. Various interfaces allow for artistic expression and collaboration. An online church community could be also a learning community (after the book about revitalizing the Vestry, Beyond Business as Usual).
• Caveat: none of these platforms is as egalitarian as they pretend to be. Neither is print, for that matter. There are controlling influencers behind both.
• While we learned a lot about the potential of online community during COVID, we all long for personal connection, sharing of meals (including communion), singing in chorus.

Nuno, Pete, and Jessica agreed that church members want to get back out into the community to make a difference. This tied to our previous reading, in which De La Torre indicts churches for spiritualizing scripture that calls for literal, physical service to our communities -- feeding, housing, healing.

Theological Reflection
Susan brought us The Jacob's Ladder by Denise Levertov.

We were drawn to the part where "the cut stone consoles his feet" as wings "brush past" on the way down and the "poem ascends." Pete took that as an image of the struggle of life, and that's how we reflected on the image.

From Jessica's rock climbing experience, we learned that finding your footing in the rock is a relief or "consolation." From Susan's vicarious experience of boot camp, and Pete's personal experience of it, we got into the ways institutions can break us down to remake us. It sounds like a bad thing, but we thought about religious communities of nuns and monks, too. When we put "culture" and "tradition" into dialogue, we got these insights: Paul has to be broken down before he can see the light. You have to see the harm before you change your life... Repentance is to acknowledge our brokenness; that‘s different from being broken down.... We let go of our egos -- a painful loss -- to see the truth…There is also relief in giving up the ego we were holding onto… SURRENDER: Jesus broken on the Cross … bread broken for us… Surrender in his last breath… (not my will but thine).

After collaboration in a breakout room, Jessica sent this collect for us:

Dear God, our rock and our foundation: You draw us up out of ourselves and give us strength and relief as we journey through this life. We pray that you assist us in our day-to-day spirituality so that we may ultimately be drawn closer to you. Amen.

For Next Week
We will be doing all the readings for our years listed for Wk. 17, and read the paragraphs for "All Years" in the RRG, pp. 115-6. Jessica will lead worship and ask a question for our gathering; Pete will bring a source for our TR.

We are considering how we can accommodate a change to Nuno's schedule. Now that he's on the board of Wonderful Days School, he will have to miss the last Tuesday of every month. Scott has choir every Wednesday. During just the last week of every month, could we meet on Mondays?

One great thing about our technology is the way we can follow up on what interests us. Every webpage has the potential for self-directed learning. With that in mind, here are some links that relate to what we read and discussed:

• Poems that Scott happened to write on topics that came up tonight: Cliff Hanger, Angels Never Know, and On Track, an expression of how he sees his life after reading Scripture from the Margins.
• Steven Charleston
• Denise Levertov
• We discussed online learning and collaboration. Here's a link to an online gallery for new art relating to Epiphany
• Technology provides us with media for creating and sharing. Scott wrote an article that imagines how creating and sharing could be an integral part of whatever we do at church - study, worship, socializing, community involvement. See Art + Faith: Joy and Discovery in Making Church

Jose and Maria

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We read the Nativity story re-cast by Miguel De La Torres as a tale of José and Maria. Thanks to Nuno for this ingenious image!

Yr. B, Wk. 15: Hands Across Structural Divides

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Worship and Gathering
Cameras off and mics muted, we followed Marilyn's narrated meditation into our personal Advent, awaiting the rising of a star in the east, traveling into our futures, and coming back to tell our present selves what we learned. Marilyn finished with a poem she wrote.

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

Discussion of the Readings
We reviewed the "RESPECT" acronym on the back page of the RRG, knowing that our responses to this week's reading might reveal sensitivities and defensiveness. Marilyn said this group really is good with that "respect" idea, and the discussion, going into overtime, confirmed her view.

We shared how portions in De La Torre's chapters resonated with stories in our own experiences -- as a teacher, a counselor, and a medical professional. Scott shared an experience that opened his eyes to structural racism (see his blogpost The Privilege is Mine. Expressing the same idea through metaphor, he wrote a poem in response to this book, On Track).

We were grateful for a personal story that brought issues into sharp focus. Police, responding to a concerned citizen's tip, never recognized how they were instruments of blatant racism. Officers were both aggressive and fearful. They believed nothing that their target replied to any of their questions. Yet officers left the incident satisfied that they had been fair, reasonable, and professional. "Welcome to Georgia," an officer said.

We looked for what we as individuals can do about the structural oppression that this book has presented to us.

• Don't make assumptions. "All of my worst mistakes have been because I assumed something about someone else." (But engineers have to assume things all the time.)
• Listen. Being aware how oppression can work many different ways is a first step.
• We see the importance now of imagining what Scripture says to people in other "locations" of society.
• Our commitment to Christ is not just personal, but public (De La Torre compares it to wearing a wedding ring)
• Jesus changed one heart at a time, healed one person at a time.
• We understand how images of Jesus can express solidarity with believers of all kinds -- in their ethnicity, gender identity, class.
• We understand how the Euroamerican English-speaking believers' Jesus can alienate people of other ethnicities, gender identities, and classes, who need to see that they are heard and valued where they are.
• Hopeful signs in the news of a change in the attitude "at the center": cities' successes with providing guaranteed income to residents, no strings attached; a breakthrough in preventing homelessness by simply providing a few hundred dollars to repair a car or pay a medical bill, saving thousands of dollars in the long run.

Theological Reflection
Jessica brought us "Shaking Hands," a poem by Padraig O'Tuama commemorating a cordial meeting between women, Ireland's President and England's Queen. Each side had centuries of reasons for resentment and mistrust, and parties on both sides attacked the handshake.

We were struck by the power of similar words juxtaposed in the poem, touch and tough; by the line "solidarity means a common hand"; and by other connections we bring to the poem of "laying on of hands" and how COVID cut us off from contact.

Exploring just the image of hands clasped, we saw how it could be the beginning or the end of a difficult encounter. It's an aspirational gesture. We saw the promise of intimacy and healing in a handshake, even while we acknowledged ways that a handshake can reveal brokenness -- as when our President shakes the hand of an oppressive world leader, or when a handshake becomes an expression of dominance.

We connected the image to our tradition and culture. Two hands together bring to mind prayer. We share the peace. Fr. Vroon's fable of the mean woman in hell and the onion that can save her -- if she draws others out, too. Jesus took the hand of a little girl on her deathbed and raised her up. In physics, two atoms never really touch except to become one -- cf. Xeno's paradox.

Late, we used the chat function to add fitting lines to a prayer. I've thrown in St. Teresa's prayer again, as it relates so strongly to the readings of the past two weeks:

Hands in Prayer Lord, grant us the opportunity to help bridge the gaps and hold more hands, touch more hearts. May we find in extending our hands to each other, that it is your hand taking ours.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

We pray that those with whom we come in contact will see us as living examples of the hands of Christ in this world, reaching out, helping those in need, giving strength to the weak, and being a friend to the lonely.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Holy Spirit, be my hand reaching across the miles to bless my friends in this group. May we all have the opportunity to grasp our loved ones, neighbors, as well as our foes in love and peaceful harmony.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

For Next Meeting, January 10
We're all reading a 12-page essay in the RRG for week 16. Scott will lead worship and bring a gathering question. Susan will provide a source for a TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 14: Reading the Bible from the Margins, first half

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Worship and Gathering
Jessica led a worship service from the Northumbrian community. Because we lit the "joy" candle Sunday, Jessica asked us to share a joy from the past week. Our answers: delighting a relative by helping to spruce up her home... locating a substitute priest just in time for the service... a happy dog in CA ... happy Mom... classes ending... discovering a kindred spirit in a relative we didn't know that well... relief when the trees were removed.

The prayer of St. Teresa that Jessica chose for our benediction could also be a distillation of the interlude book, because both express how Jesus needs more from us than our personal devotion:

Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
with compassion on this world.

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

Discussion of the Reading
We all expressed discomfort with the reading, but Pete said, "Maybe I'm just uncomfortable at the idea of change; I'm okay with being uncomfortable." We seek reassurance in Scripture that we are good people, Scott said, but De La Torre denies us that reassurance when familiar quotes are read to indict people privileged by laws and social norms. He argues that we soften those indictments by reading them "spiritually" instead of "materially." Perhaps De La Torre could have been more diplomatic? Susan proposed rephrasing the messageasked Henry Louis Gates's question, "Can you imagine racism without racists?" We could.

We related to DuBois's idea of "double consciousness." Nuno cited De La Torre's being seen as a man of color in one community and a white man in another. Marilyn observed that art is a way to see ourselves from the outside.

De La Torre's observation about Pentecost opened up a discussion of language in the reading. In the story of Pentecost, Nuno said, "one message reaches people where they are and when they are." Scott was delighted to learn that the Bible in Spanish employs the familiar form of the second-person-pronoun (tu) for exchanges between humanity and the Deity -- demonstrating God's "solidarity" with us and intimacy of the relationship.

The parable of the day laborers had always seemed to me an allegory for faith and forgiveness, but De La Torre's "material" reading (Margins pp.76ff) made (uncomfortable) sense to me. Then I ran across a clever poem that comes to the same conclusion from a secular angle: See Paper, Scissors, Stone by Tom Wayman.

Theological Reflection
We followed the procedures outlined in the RRG, p. 91, working with the provocative word estrangement. We found focus in feelings of being untethered (attenuated), hopelessness. Of the images we came up with that express those feelings, our favorite was a canyon. We explored creation, brokenness, and restoration in that image: feeling of wide open deep gap -- it used to be one piece but it has eroded, and redemption could be a bridge, or Evel Knievel's motorcycle (Snake River Canyon: see pictures), or a flood that fills the gap and creates a new kind of wholeness.

We found connections in scripture and the culture. TRADITION. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain brought low. ...Prodigal son – Jacob and Esau – Joseph and his brothers - Israelites and God, CULTURAL: San Andreas movie starring the Rock – in which a flood reconciles a separated couple. We came up with at least two more Hollywood films with the same story.

Some surprising insights emerged. Each side in a separation is missing something that makes them whole. This describes relationship with God, separated from God. Estrangement is uncomfortable but may in the long run not be a bad thing – it can be liberation. Sometimes you’ve got to let bad times happen, deal with it as you can, and hope for a flood.

Collect in EstrangementDear God, our Divine Restorer, You bind the broken-hearted. We pray that you bridge the divisions within and among us so that we may come together again in wholeness of your image. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen

For Next Week
Marilyn will lead worship and start us with a gathering question; Jessica will bring a source for a TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 13: War in Joshua and the Medieval Church

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Worship and Gathering
We remembered Nuno visiting family in Wisconsin and Pete recovering from dental surgery. Susan led worship from "The Cuthbert Compline," dedicated to a shepherd/bishop of the 6th century. A beautiful meditation by Frederich Buechner was included. Susan let Scott ask the gathering question about the geese flying in vee formation over our state this month: Who has "pulled" for you in the past week? We answered: Students who stimulated the class discussion with good questions, a parishioner who named us on the parish prayer list, the husband who took care of us, a financial advisor who helped us deal with a relative's problems, and an assistant who shepherded the department while we worked full-time on a project.

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

Discussion of the Readings

We started by thinking of Joshua and Judges. Jessica was delighted to set aside concerns for chronology, as the books were put together over centuries with other interests in mind. The books are telling how disparate groups became one nation – incorporating nomad tribes and peoples already present in the land.

Asking, “What do the Israelites get from Johsua and Judges?” we came up with these answers: Identity, Strength, Heroes… and total obedience. Our God is Greater than their Gods – if we don’t succeed, there’s a reason – God punishment. We also see a sense of corporate responsibility: the family of the soldier who kept booty for himself perished along with him.

We all contributed thoughts about the lack of human reaction to the suffering inflicted in these books, charam – total destruction in obedience to God. The same thing is happening in Year 3 – what MacCulloch calls “sanctified bullying.” It was “kill or be killed”: Fear is a subtext in the books, as, Rahab’s motivation to help the Hebrew spies. Kathy observed that our American history books are similarly silent about human reactions to the evictions of native people here. Scott recalled transcripts of American pilots in Iraq bombing with abandon the “insects” below them: warriors who see their opponents as human may open themselves to feelings of guilt that others don't feel.

Y3 contributed thoughts about St. Benedict’s rules and Gregory the Great. Monasteries took on the job of praying and performing penance on behalf of knights who killed enemies in battle. Monasteries did the work (“liturgy”) of salvation while others engaged in every life. We talked of the “Tarriff Books” that specified the costs (in penance) of different sins.

Having experienced Catholic penance in childhood, Marilyn said, “I can see a bridge between then an now, at last!”

Another thread of conversation concerned the “feminine” side of the Trinity, as “the Spirit” was called by some in ancient sources. Y4 was all about finding historical antecedents to the 21st century emphasis on Trinity as something you experience in deep prayer. Susan had read John’s Gospel, an important source of Trinitarian thinking.

Theological Reflection
We've learned that two mentors and three participants do not bring enough give and take to a TR to make the time productive. We skipped the TR this week. We will re-evaluate that decision if absences happen more frequently.

For Next Week
Scott will bring a source for a TR. Jessica will lead worship and ask a gathering question. (She may also be bringing us a "sending prayer" for our Visitor's Center.)

Yr. B, Wk. 12: Augustine, Benedict, and Women in the Background

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Worship and Check-in
Scott opened with the introductory prayer to Nine Advent Lessons and Carols. The gathering question, "Whom have you made happy this week?" elicited stories of a happy dog, the gift of Emily Dickinson's cookbook, a mother in good spirits, a co-worker surprised after surgery to receive a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal that she could eat, Thanksgiving cooking synchronized to the minute by a nerdy spreadsheet, and a patriarch who looks forward to seeing his great-granddaughter for the first time.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Unit 2: Theological Reflection as a Life Skill:
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
St. Augustine's not-so-saintly life story and his contributions to our church started us off. Kathy expressed mixed feelings about him, which led to more discussion. St. Benedict's rule related to the conclusion of the Y4 book on theology: "commitment" in the way you live your life is "intrinsic" to reputable Christian theology.

Susan read about Paul as revealed to us in Acts and letters. Acts parallels Luke like a sequel, its arc following Paul to Rome the way Luke follows Jesus to Jerusalem. The puzzling question is, why does Acts fail to mention Paul's letters, and where in Acts is the theology of Paul's epistles? One theory concerns scribes who took dictation from Paul. Scribes were important to the 1st Year reading from Yee: Jessica's own experience of stories that change from generation to generation helped her to understand how the scribes of the Hebrew Scriptures filter the stories of women from their own perspectives.

Theological Reflection
With Nuno, we saw both sides of a Benedict medallion. The numerous letters are initials of prayers on a table Nuno showed to us.

We came to focus on what might distinguish an object of veneration from a magic talisman. Susan suggested that veneration is intended to align our wills with God's will, while a talisman is supposed to manipulate or bend others to our will. Some of us shared about such objects of veneration in our own lives. We remembered what we read about saints' relics.

Pete opened up a new idea with his suggestion that the ruby slippers in Oz might be a cultural example, because they are a sign "you had the power in you all along." Scott was reminded of a novel by Graham Greene in which a delirious priest goes through the motions of communion with neither bread nor wine in his hands -- and yet this imaginary eucharist changes those who receive it. Nuno reminded us that we received communion vicariously during the worst days of the pandemic, praying for "spiritual communion."

In breakout rooms, the Boys and the Girls responded to the TR in different ways with these collects:

Two Collects in the Presence of an Object of Veneration

Dear God, through whom we experience all good things: We give you thanks for the lives of the saints who have come before us. We acknowledge that you are the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, and all in between. We pray our focus is on you eternally and not of mundane things of this world. We humbly pray these things in your name. Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, the Source of all Holy inspiration: You lift our thoughts from this world to Heavenly things. We pray that you would help us discern your Spirit in all things, so that we might not rely on magic or ourselves but to rely entirely upon you. Amen.

Emailing the collect, Nuno made an observation that his letting us discover things about the medallion worked out well: "Holding back added a lot." That's good advice for future TRs.

For Next Week
We do the readings for week 13. We expect to miss Nuno, maybe Pete. Susan will lead worship; Scott will have a source for a TR. If it's two mentors with just three participants, we may postpone the TR a week.

Yr. B, Wk. 11: Text and Traffic

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Worship and Check-in
From a Jesuit website, Pete selected prayers for giving thanks that fit our different interests and personalities. For a gathering question, Pete asked which we liked better, fixing the Thanksgiving meal or cleaning up after? Only Scott and Marilyn chose the second option. We learned about tater-tot hot dish, sweet-potato casserole with half-and-half pecans and marshmallows, and how to time all your cooking projects with a spread sheet.

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
Jessica started the conversation with a quote from the Y1 text, that “the modern reader of Deuteronomy has to become an interpreter" in the same way that the writer(s) of Deuteronomy reinterpreted Exodus for the situation in Israel centuries later. Scott picked up on translation, which is just one of many angles on any text that a theologian has to be aware of, along with context, history, and a critical awareness of the baggage we ourselves bring to the text.

Translation and text continued in discussion of Islam's first century. Y3 learned that Mohammed's poetry, so beautiful in Arabic, doesn't translate well to English. With just one author, the Koran has a poetic cohesiveness in Koran that our Bible lacks. Pete interested in the poetry of Islam, as the Koran's “divine beauty” is said to need no images. The Koran plays the role in Islam that the Incarnation plays in Christianity. We liked the quote about Islam in the East – “apocalypse was postponed and everyday life took over.” Repeating the author's comment about how Islam spread by the sword, Nuno noted that the Imperial Church had done the same. We saw how both religions got tangled in political power. Islam filled a vacuum left by the Church, which was preoccupied with its own political conflicts.

Susan was delighted by texts, too: Powell provides Matthew's historical context and authorship, audience. Susan enjoyed seeing Matthew’s distinctive approach: loves numbers! Matthew "layers" text from Mark with different purposes and angles.

Pete was delighted by the maverick church in Ethiopia. Ethiopian church celebrates BOTH Jewish sabbath and Christian. There, Pontius Pilate is celebrated because he evidently realized the extent of his guilt and suffered for it. Remembering Jesus Christ Superstar, we went down an Andrew Lloyd Webber rabbit hole.

Houston evacuates for hurricane Rita, 2005

Theological Reflection
The story how Jesus rebukes John and James for wanting to rain fire down on the Samaritans eventually morphed into the image of a driver going "wrong way" through traffic. Our exploration of that image brought us to a more specific situation: EMTs driving towards danger through lines of cars headed for safety.

We connected to the image.

• Action Source: evacuation of New Orleans; snowpocalypse
• Movies: Day after Tomorrow, zombie movies
• Position: “tomorrow is another day” and Mister Rogers, "Look for the helpers."
• Tradition: Looking back Lot’s wife turns into salt. (James and John are lucky they didn’t!)

Our connections graded into insights: War has its own momentum, undertow – we have to work against it or it pulls us in... Go with the flow (or not: Nuno’s story of grabbing onto a sea turtle that dragged him far from shore)... From experience on the Vestry, there are situations where you’ll be challenged to buck a trend / a tide. Don’t be afraid to pause and turn to God. Our personal insights worked into this collect:

Collect for Going Against the FlowProtector and ever-loving father, You guide us even through the valley of the shadow of death. We pray that we may not be led into temptation, but that in times of trial we will run towards you. As you have bound us together in a common life, give us courage to go against the tide and to rescue our neighbors. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

For Next Week
We're taking off the week of Thanksgiving. When we return on Tuesday the 29th, Scott will lead worship and bring a gathering question; Nuno will bring a source for theological reflection.