What is Church?

During dinner, my six year old daughter asks, “So Mommy, What is Church about?” I was so excited, my four years of seminary education and eight years of work as a Director of Religious Education, were rushing to my lips, when I was stopped. Every single person at my dinner table (my partner and my other four children) piped up with their answers. I thought they each deserved some reflection.
It is a beautiful place. My partner grew up Catholic and for him church is a place filled with beautiful artwork and music. A place that smells earthy yet has hints of divine presence. Much like the smell of a beeswax candle. I believe church is a beautiful place because we bring our highest aspirations. Our art and song are our best offering of gratitude to the spirit of life that moves through all.
It is a place to worship God. My middle daughter has a strong faith in God, she is a wonderful spiritual being. She loves to come to church because she feels closer to that spirit of life she has named God. It is a felt sense for her. The feeling of church is the feeling of God. I, too, have a strong God image that opens my heart to the ways the spirit moves among us. In worship I see us lifting that spirit up so that all may share.
It is a place to think about the Ultimate Being. My oldest teen son looks at church from an academic perspective. Church is a place to think about important questions of life. His response was also related to my daughters “God”. My son realizes that people have different images of the holy and Church is a safe place to reflect on those images and learn new ones.
It is a place to meet people and do Social Justice. My oldest daughter (11) is all about socializing and social justice. For her the two are linked, you need to be with other like-minded people striving for the same transformational love. Church has been a place for her to express her deepest desires for a peaceful world and a place where she is gaining the tools to create such a world.
It is a place to play and have pancakes. So my three year old has a different view of church. For him church is a place to have fun. He is right. There is so much love in the world the more we access that love through fun, the more we are able to spread that love.
So that was it, no pontificating for me, no sharing my wise response. However, in the end, my education and experience has given me the understanding that the spirit is always moving and my job is to provide the space for people to see it. This is what happens in our church. We provide the safe space for people of all ages to know the spirit in their own way, to share their joy, express their sorrow, and work to make a better world.

Abundant Affirmation

I am growing into my call as a public theologian. Being a public theologian means that I am gifted with the ability to see the Sacred in all facets of life and I reflect on the meaning of the Sacred's presence in our culture, customs, organizations, and traditions. Being a public theologian means I call on my fellow sisters and brothers to act on the core of our shared values; to find ways to spread life-affirming to love to all of creation.

Being a public theologian also means I have the responsibility to acknowledge my faith stance, and be clear about the community from which I draw strength and those who ground my thoughts. My faith rests on two assumptions: 1) The Sacred is the affirming love available to all life and 2) Earth is the embodiment of The Sacred's life-affirming love. These statements are the core of my worship, prayer, activism, mothering, partnering, and learning. Every move I make is based on these beliefs. But today I am nudged to live into my beliefs a little more.

I am involved with the People's Summit, Seattle+10 event with the Community Alliance for Global Justice. This work allows me to deeply consider how the food I acquire affects Humanity and Earth which is the embodiment of The Sacred's life affirming love. The way we as as society gain food, use food and relate to food is a response to The Sacred's offer of life affirming love. I ask you to consider how are your really responding to the Sacred Source of all life? You may begin meal with a prayer or the saying of grace, but did you enter the meal space with reverence? Is the food on your plate sustainable to earth and humanity? Is there too much on your plate when others are in need?

As I learn more about permaculture, and social theory, I understand that earth has the ability to sustain life when life works in relationship with earth. In many ways our "life" as humans is disconnected with earth. In years past, I looked to earth to give me experiences of the divine so that I may be filled. I have learned the presence of Spirit works in the other direction. It is in the caring for earth, which is the response I offer to the Sacred of all life.

I have also learned that humanity has an amazing capacity to learn and adapt if we allow the space for that to happen. Just as our plates are full of food, so too are our brains full of information. I hope to create the sacred spaces for people of all social locations to come together to learn, reflect and support one another in life changes. That is what Seattle +10 is all about, there will be workshops to learn, spaces to talk and reflect, art activities to explore and meals to share and experience the Sacred which lives through and or all.

Now I can not leave our time together without recognizing the life-affirmation happening in my own faith community East Shore Unitarian Church. Through the summer, we began a "Farmers Market" where gardeners would bring extras from their gardens and the church members could buy it. Here is the most awesome part, the money collected from the "Market" goes to Heifer International, which spreads our transformational justice even further. How cool is that? How wonderful it is to be breathing, loving, and praying amongst people who are finding creative solutions with earth to respond to the life-affirming love of the sacred.

Project Transformation- Post One

A friend mentioned that I am always writing and speaking of Transformation. What is being transformed she asked. I said everything. We could really say that the universe is expanding and changing at such rate it means we are transforming continually. The question I ask is "WHO are we becoming?"

I think that is the question I asked myself recently and that is why I am so focused on transformation. I thought about "Who I am becoming?" and I realized I liked the answer.

Who I am becoming- Who I realize myself to be is a person intimately connected to people and earth. What I do, What I say and What I dream are engaged with my faith in the divine which dwells among us on earth.

This mantra of mine has led to significant changes in what I eat, what I wear, how I raise my children, how I engage with my partner, how I work, study, volunteer.

And it means I have to take a long look at the places in my life that are unhealthy. This is where the biggest transformation occurs. It is quite easy to do the things I have always found life affirming. It is another thing to realize there are areas of my life that are unhealthy. I carry beliefs that are soul defeating, or I engage in habits that are harmful to my body. A while back I wrote about Compost, and I began to note what I can change to promote life, what are the "raw" or tender parts of my being that I can use to transform.

So I decided to take on a project, which is aptly named Project Transformation. I want to examine more critically my food intake, and my health/weight. Over the past 3 years I have gained a significant amount of weight and that has affected my mood, health and ability to be the person I want to be. I want my food choices to affirm my connection to earth and at the same time help me become a more physically healthy person. As I look over the landscape of this year (the schedule and responsibilities I have) I am afraid that I will easily fall back into old habits (my usual stress response). I will need to rely on my community for support.

Today begins step one: Careful examination of current habits, and plan for positive change.

Engaged with my garden, my Rodale Basic Natural Foods Cookbook, my local Whole Foods, my beautiful children, my fabulous partner, and my beloved community, Let the transformation begin.

Community Discernment

How do we work together to discern what is best for our community? President Obama is trying to develop a culture of discernment and change does not happen over night. Those of us who want that change have the responsibility to learn eagerly and respond thoughtfully. I believe we also have a responsibility to teach others the art of discernment, especially our children. I would like to schools focus on teaching children to be citizens of earth, not concerned will funneling them into college and career.

As our country tries to address Health care, I am overwhelmed by the shouting (in written and spoken word) It saddens me to see my sisters and brothers not sitting still long enough to listen what others are saying. It makes me think of how I am not listening. I do need to stop the media input and reflect on what I am hearing and what thoughts/feelings/ action arise from information.

How are we doing this as a community? I do not believe big town halls with lots of media coverage is the way to go. I believe it is through the smaller connections in our neighborhoods, in our schools. I would would much rather see the PTSA sponsor a night of education and discussion about Health Care reform and stop organizing ridiculous magazine drives (Talk about media frenzy). Where are the safe places in our communities? Where can we go to safely engage with diverse backgrounds an opinions? I must admit I do not engage many people in this discussion because I do not want to sift through people's anger. However, it someone takes the time to discern and explain their understanding, if someone took the time to think through the issue and not just spout misinformed media, then I will listen, learn and discuss.

How do we make that happen? How do we prepare people for a lifetime of civic engagement with discernment and integrity? What is the role of our schools, churches, libraries, government to make community discernment a reality?

Pages, Words and Connection

Sunday afternoon, I plunged into Cornelia Funke's Inkheart. Your first task after reading and reflecting on this post, is to read that book.

I am the fourth person in my household to read the book, my husband and two older children read the book early summer and my 9 year old daughter and I are reading it together. The characters in the book love books, Funke makes you want to curl up with her book and reminds you of every treasured moment ever spent with the written word. As she lured me into her book, I became more aware of the connection between the words, the pages and people.

I am reading a library copy, which means the pages I turned are not the ones turned by my family, yet we are all connected. The words which spark my brain and dance in my mouth are the same words that sparked and danced for my family. We are connected through the knowing and saying of the story. Story belongs to everyone.

As I caress these pages, I can not help but think of all the people who held the book, curled on their sofas, lying on their beds, or sitting up right at a table. All those people young and old who fell into this story. I wonder how they reacted to the story, did the words tickle their tongues? Did they realize their conntection?

Community Justice System

Yesterday, I attended the orientation for volunteers in the Juvenile detention center. During the workshop, the volunteer coordinator described the center as a place to hold youth for the community. This struck a chord with me. I did not have an image of jail, where the people there had done something wrong and needed to repay their debt. (an assumption I held in my younger years) My image changed to a holding place for youth to contemplate and restructure themselves so that they may return to the community. I clearly see my role in the system to support youth in gaining key life-skills to be productive community members. This, of course, means we must examine the communities to which these youth return. How are we creating places to affirm their new skills and allow them to grow. Our society, as a whole, is failing on this level and I am here to make a change in that system.

This is by no means the end of my thoughts, just the beginning of the justice system and its relationship to communitysteading.

Compost

This week we began our permaculture adventure. We emptied one raised garden bed of stones and began to layer shredded paper and compost. Our goal is to build up the soil in that bed for a winter vegetable garden. I also started seedlings and today a tiny lettuce, basil, onion and radish sprout emerged. I was thrilled to see the seeds burst forth with life. Amazed, and I don't know why; really. I knew if I put a seed in proper soil with water and proper sun it will grow into a plant. I knew this in my head, but today the totality of my being experienced the thrill. Now, because my hands did the work, because the accomplishment has a direct impact on my life, because I worked in gentle cooperation with earth, I KNOW about seeds. It made me think of what resources I have to be a life affirming presence with earth.

Often as I think about life affirming, I think of the seeds; the bringing forth of life. As a mother that image serves me well. But today, as my hands communed with compost, I began to think of dying to new life. I often do not travel this road of thought. I only think of bringing more life or sustaining the life that is here. I do not think about what naturally passes in order to provide life sustenance to others. This is my image of God, the pouring out of life force so that all life may flourish. God dwells in the compost.

The compost is the retainer of past life and the possibility of new life, there is richness in compost that does not exist in other forms of soil. The compost has eons of memory. The compost knows what to do. I think of the places in my own life that hold memory, yet need to die in order to provide new life: what outdated modes of being, what anxiety can be let go, what anger held for decades can be released, not forgotten. But release so that their life may allow my new life to flourish.