Bangladeshis and Samaritans

This morning I'm wondering if I am a racist. Not a hood-wearing, racial slur type of racist. That sort of activity is abhorrent to me and I'm reasonably sure that it would be for any readers of this blog.

I'm talking about the passive racism that allows me to hear about the deaths of 2,300 Bangladeshis and talk about 10,000 or more without much of a visceral response. If I heard that 10,000 Canadians had died in a natural disaster or any other form of calamity I would immediately respond in some way.

When I think back a couple of years I realize that we did make a contribution to disaster relief for the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. When I read Stephen Lewis' book about AIDS in Africa called Race Against Time I wept. But I didn't finish the book. It was easier to put it down. When I went to see the film Hotel Rwanda I was moved to tears as well. Just so you know -- I rarely "tear up" but this story of genocide in Rwanda touched me deeply as well.

But there is no points system for feeling badly about the plight of others. I have to admit that it is tempting to hurry on past some of these stories. A little voice tells me that life is not as valuable in these cultures and they don't feel the pain of loss the way we do. If I'm honest I know that these are lies of convenience to assuage my conscience.

Jesus told a story about a man who did not hurry on by when he saw someone in distress, lying in the ditch. He stopped, responded with compassion, went the distance. In a time when the planet is our neighbourhood the opportunity to be Good Samaritans is always there. I'm not going to beat up on myself, but I'm not going to just pass by either.

Religion and Ethics

Check out the Religion And Ethics Newsletter provided by PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/index_flash.html
You can subscribe to it so that it arrives every Friday through your email. Each week it offers a number of features and interviews on religious subjects. This week there is an article on the role of monks in Myanmar as well as one on a new Jewish prayer book in the United States. I find it to be very informative and intelligent.

Life's vantage points

Church St. in Bowmanville cleared out in a hurry after this morning's Santa Claus Parade. A short time ago there were thousands of people watching the floats and the bands pass by. The local zoo was well represented with an elephant and a camel and a zebra.

The manse is a prime viewing spot so lots of congregation members assemble on the veranda and the lawn. Folk visit and graze on the cookies and squares and hot cider Ruth provides. Its the fifth time we have hosted the gathering.

This year there were three little ones who were experiencing their first Santa Claus parade. Last year they didn't exist outside the womb. Now they are wide-eyed and eared as the sights and sounds pass by.

Two girls were present who had recently lost their father. What a strange reality for them. My heart went out to them and to their mother. Our new next-door neighbours were experiencing their first parade from the vantage point of their porch. Our elderly former neighbour lived for years in the house and her family would join her for the parade. She died in her sleep in her home last year. Two of her daughters who are grandmothers themselves showed up and we chatted. It just felt right for them to be there for the parade and the memories.

Life is filled with comings and goings. Much of ministry is honouring the passages and helping people acknowledge that God is present in the joy and the sadness. Even the Santa Claus parade offers that vantage point.

Receiving Images

Claudia Tammen Images

The photographer at Ghost Ranch, Claudia Tammen, spoke to us about changing the language she uses about what she does. We speak of "taking" photographs and "capturing" the moment and lots of other imagery which sounds a lot like plundering. She is attempting to use terms such as "receiving images" as a reminder that what happens in her art is more a gift than a hunting expedition. With my background in art history I do feel that there are parallels between the grace received in meaningful images and sounds and the grace received from the God of life.

Take a look at Claudia's work from our time at Ghost Ranch. Her email arrived this morning so this is as current as it gets. http://claudiatammen.smugmug.com/gallery/3807103#219779195

Like a Virgin

I am quite fascinated by this guy. His name is Richard Branson and he is a British gajillionaire.

In some ways he is every parent's nightmare in that he dropped out of school and immediately did well. So much for "get an education or you'll end up digging ditches!" He starts companies with amazing ease and regularity and they nearly all turn out to be a good idea.

It's not the getting rich thing that fascinates me. It is that he has decided to turn some of his manic creative energy and a fair amount of his wealth to addressing global climate change. The profits from his Virgin airlines and other transportation interests will go to develop clean fuels to reduce some of that nasty carbon threatening to choke the planet. His goal is to give away $3 billion over the next ten years.

I like this new breed of philanthropist. Guys (it seems to be mostly rich men) such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and Branson appear to have tired somewhat of simply amassing wealth and are attempting to be as creative in directing it for good purposes. Branson says that he now spends about half of his time on social issues. His foundation recently built a clinic in Africa for AIDS patients and he promises to do more.

Jesus warned us about wealth because the love of money messes us up and distorts our priorities. But he also encouraged the generous redistribution of wealth. You can't give it away if you don't have it. I doubt Branson will be using a food bank anytime soon, but I like his new trajectory.

Adding to the Discussion

After writing today's blog entry I found this article in the Toronto Star about how Christianity is promoted in the United States. It would be interesting to know whether you feel we are encouraging a different approach to the gospel or just peddling McReligion.

http://www.thestar.com/living/Religion/article/275393

Is it Working?

I have a bobble head Jesus --the bobble head Jesus on this United Church Observer cover is sitting on the desk in my study. It is a gift from a member of the congregation who came up with it in the midst of the kerfuffle over the Emerging Spirit and Wondercafe programs that United Church launched last year. It's strange but I never look at this Jesus and consider him irreverent, but some people were offended.

The idea was to go outside of the conventional ways of reaching out to the "unchurched" community and to try to appeal to the 30 to 45-year-olds who are missing from many United Churches. We hav a link on our website to Wondercafe and while I don't visit it often, but when I do I see that many people engage in the discussions.

The current issue of the Observer offers a one-year checkup and concludes that it is difficult to measure the impact. While the hope was a five-percent increase in church attendance by 2009, we really don't know whether this will happen. Maybe there won't be more bums in pews. The "church" some of these people will attend is Wondercafe.

I'm of the school that feels it is important to "think outside the box," or bun or whatever the phrase is now. Obviously some of our old ideas about being the church aren't working well. As long as we make Christ the centre, all things are possible. Could it be that the old may need to crumble before the new can arise?

Oops, my Stereotypes are Showing

This will be my last reflection on my time away since I may well be blathering to myself anyway. When I flew into Santa Fe, New Mexico. I then had to seek out the car rental and drive for an hour and a half through the desert. By the time I got closer to Ghost Ranch it was dark --very dark -- and all I could do was peer into the gloom for the mile markers which gave me assurances that I wasn't as lost as I felt.

I did get there, and when I arrived I discovered that I was sharing a room, something I had specifically asked not to do. I didn't want to go to summer camp! As I talked to my "roomie" my heart sank. He works for Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The founder and director is James Dobson, a far-right Christian whose influence in the U.S. is destructive, as far as I'm concerned. In addition, the guy who would be in the bed five feet away from mine attends the mega-church of 17,000 members where disgraced Ted Haggard was the pastor. Why me God!

Peter is a wonderful human being. He has a doctorate in leadership training and is bright and insightful. He is also compassionate and open in his Christian walk, eager to learn about Celtic Christianity. Speaking of walking, he was the only other person willing to hoof it everywhere at Ghost Ranch rather than hop in a car.

Although Peter is now an evangelical Christian, he has a Jewish and Roman Catholic background and recently began attending mass on Sunday mornings before heading off to worship in the mega-church with his wife and daughter. He told me that he needs the liturgy and the mystery which just isn't there in his congregation. We ended up talking for hours and we promised to stay in touch.


In an email after getting back to Bowmanville I told him that he is a fine ambassador for Christ. I like it when people shatter my stereotypes and I wonder if we were brought together for a purpose. I'm sure I can hear Jesus chuckling in the background.

Thank you, God, for Peter.

Listening for the Heartbeat of God

This is the entranceway into Casa del Sol, the retreat centre at Ghost Ranch. I mentioned earlier that it is several kilometres away from the main cluster of buildings and there is nothing else around in all directions except for cliffs and desert. The wreath is made of red chile peppers, a common sight on porches and doors in New Mexico.

I really enjoyed the people who were part of the study group but I also loved being the only person at Casa del Sol when the program ended. At night the stars were as brilliant as anything I have ever seen and the silence was extraordinary.

Philip Newell has written a book called Listening for the Heartbeat of God and it is appropriate for the feeling I had in the solitude. There are times when we need to open the door of our spirits to attune ourselves to God's heartbeat. The incessant busyness of life, including in the church, can mean that the truly meaningful sounds are lost in the din. In the couple of days at Casa del Sol I found myself writing lengthier entries in my journal and praying spontaneously and feeling a greater sense of clarity about goals for my personal life and ministry.

One of the medieval mystics, Meister Eckhart said "nothing in all creation is so like God as silence." I am inclined to agree. We can't all get away to the desert but we can quiet our spirits enough to listen.

One last thought. Each time I walked through the door in the photo I had to pull the string latchkey to enter Casa del Sol. It made me think of words from a poem by Edward Hays:

Come, O life-giving Creator,
and rattle the door latch of my slumbering heart.

Ghost Ranch continued

Our seminar leader at Ghost Ranch was Philip Newell a Church of Scotland minister and a prolific writer on the subject of Celtic Christianity. Despite his accent he was born and grew up in Canada. We chatted over lunch one day and I discovered that his family spent several years in Oshawa. Small world.

Newell is a thoughtful and poetic writer and it was a pleasure to discover that his demeanour matches his words in print. He travels all over North America and Britain as a teacher but he has the ability to be authentically present to those he is with. This must be a challenge as he moves from venue to venue meeting so many different people.

What did I appreciate most about Philip? He is committed to interfaith dialogue and works with a Jewish rabbi and native leaders during his visits to Ghost Ranch and Casa del Sol. Yet he is very much a Christian. When working with one native leader Newell asked if the Christian emphasis in what was being offered made him uncomfortable. He was assured that this was important, that Philip needed to "bring his own treasure." As someone who has a deep conviction that Christ is my treasure, I appreciated this insight. There are times when I am frustrated with the "one faith fits all" approach to interfaith dialogue which marks liberal denominations such as our own. Yet if we accept our oneness as people of the creator then we can develop the freedom to be different in our expression.

Philip also told us the story of a rabbi who was challenged by a Christian with Jesus' words in the gospel of John, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." What did the rabbi think of this, the Christian wanted to know. The rabbi responded that he couldn't agree more, which puzzled his challenger.

The rabbi then explained that he saw Jesus as embodying God's love, and that love is the way, the truth, and the life. I like the promise of a relationship with Christ that is less about lines in the sand and more about embodying love.

David Celebrating Creation

The official photographer for Ghost Ranch asked if some of the study group would be willing to clamber up a nearby butte so she could include us in photos for an upcoming worship resource. Always ready and willing to head out on a hike, I joined a couple of others for the afternoon ascent while the rest of our gang went into siesta mode.

The photographer, Claudia Tammen, sent this as soon as she got home so I would have a copy. She called it "David celebrating creation."The view was glorious and what you can't see from the photo is that the rock to the right is actually a pinnacle about a hundred metres tall called Chimney Rock. It rises up from the valley floor like...well, like a chimney. I am standing at the edge of the butte and didn't want to step back any further! In the deeper background to the left is Padnernol, a long extinct volcano. It is evident from my attire that it was pleasantly warm in New Mexico, although the staff looked at me as though I was a "crazy Canuck" in my shorts and tee-shirt.

Ghost Ranch was the perfect place to discuss Christ, Creation and Contemplation. We acknowledged that Christians have long been "so heavenly minded they are no earthly good." And if we learn to love the planet that God has created and on which Christ dwelt we may become committed to its care.

Hola!

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

Well folks, I'm back after a couple of days in Colorado and nearly a week in the high desert of New Mexico (6500 feet.) Thanks to the little miracle of commercial flight I was in the tiny adobe airport in Santa Fe at ten yesterday morning, in Denver by noon, and home in Bowmanville by a reasonable hour in the evening. I had a great visit with hospitable friends in Colorado and a spiritually stimulating time at Ghost Ranch, the conference centre run by the Presbyterians in the remarkable wilderness landscape of New Mexico.

I came back to the office to discover my computer is not working and the sermon which I had half finished before departing is in cyberneverland. So I'm toiling away at home unable to access my email or anything else.

Part of my time at Ghost Ranch was in a program called Christ, Creation, and Contemplation with 20 others, an eclectic and interesting group from all over the U.S. I was the token Canadian. The leader was Philip Newell, one of the leading writers on Celtic Christianity and his wisdom was worth the travel.

Then I spent three days in retreat at the creation centre established about four kilometres from the main compound of Ghost Ranch called Casa del Sol -- house of the sun. The ranch is 21,000 acres, so they have plenty of room to spread out. It was a tranquil, astonishingly beautiful spot and I was the only retreatant. Casa del Sol is a refurbished adobe hacienda just down the road from the house owned by artist Georgia O'Keeffe and apparently she would come to Casa del Sol on occasion and climb up on the flat roof to paint. She loved the stark spirit of the landscape and I did too. There is a Roman Catholic monastery, a Sufi Muslim retreat, and a Sikh centre within a few miles of Ghost Ranch so others sense the holiness of this region. This region was a place of spiritual significance for native people long before any of these groups showed up.

I will be back with more reflection in the days ahead.

He Got Away

I received an email yesterday from my colleague whose husband has been so ill. The title was "he got away" which was a reference to her mother-in-law's standard comment when someone died that "he got away." Early yesterday her husband died while she sat at his side.

Several hours after my visit on Friday he began to fail and they knew the end was coming. She called another minister friend who lived nearby to come and say a prayer.

I am still thinking about our afternoon prayer and how when I bowed my head and closed my eyes she asked me to look up. Her husband had lifted up his hand for me to hold while we asked for God's loving embrace and I hadn't noticed. Of course I took it as we prayed. I trust that Christ has taken his hand now and taken him to his eternal promise.

Please pray for his wife and two young daughters.

I'll be back to blogging in a while.

Go right, no left!

On Monday I will fly to the American southwest to visit a retreat centre in New Mexico called Ghost Ranch. The course I will participate in is offered by an Anglican priest now living in Britain but Canadian by birth. Go figure.

I must fly through Denver on my way to Santa Fe, so I will stop for a couple of days with friends who live near the mile-high city. Colorado is the heartland of right-wing Christianity in the States and there are huge, modern and ugly churches all over the place.

This weekend the New York Times has a lengthy magazine article on the shift in evangelicalism in the US. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/magazine/28Evangelicals-t.htmlSome Christians feel burned by the almost blind support of President Bush which resulted in the fiasco of Iraq. Others have grown weary of the unrelenting emphasis on a few issues such as abortion and homosexuality while the environment and world poverty are ignored. An increasing number of evangelical church leaders are inviting their people to broaden their horizons and take a new look at the gospel.

The United Church is a very left-leaning denomination and we pride ourselves in our liberal views and not being fundamentalists. But at times I grow frustrated with our focus on just a few issues at the other end of the spectrum, as important as some of them they may be. What about sharing the gospel with others and figuring out how to be Christ-centred in a pluralistic world? We do this poorly and we appear to be paying the price.

Neither left nor right holds all the answers and we need to be willing to regularly reassess what it means to be the people of abundant life in Christ. The body of Christ must be animated by the Spirit or it will wither and die, at least in some of its expressions. But what wonderful possibilities if we are able to be faithful to the gospel.

Here are the places I will visit and the speaker for my time away.

http://www.ghostranch.org/

http://www.christdesert.org/

http://www.jphilipnewell.com/

Challenging and Real Life Stuff

When I came home late this afternoon I decided to hit the gym for an hour before heading to the church again. I needed the opportunity to let off steam after a tough visit at Oshawa hospital. I went to see the spouse of a colleague who has been very ill. I feel badly for him and for his family as he struggles. It doesn't seem fair and I grow weary of unfairness.

We prayed at the conclusion of the visit -- I couldn't leave without praying --but I still felt rather helpless. As I drove home I realized that a number of colleagues have gone through challenging stuff lately. Diagnoses of cancer and stress leave and more. Challenging and real life stuff -- clergy aren't spared what everyone else faces.

The gym helped and so did the St. Paul's Halloween party planned by Rev. Cathy. Roughly fifty children and young people remembering the saints and showing off their costumes. They were adorable. It was good to see their happiness in the midst of pain.

Another Rendition of the Story

I wish U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was as contrite as she looks in this photo. She spoke this week about the case of Maher Arar which I blogged about a few days ago.

While admitting that the state department mishandled the situation it was an anaemic response with no admission of responsibility and no apology. So Arar continues to be on a no-fly list to the United States and he fears flying anywhere else in the world as a result. Where is the justice?

Dreaming Big

Silken Laumann is the woman in the yoga pose painted by Bowmanville artist Jane Eccles. Silken is also the former Olympic medalist in rowing who now offers inspirational messages at various venues including schools. She was in town for a couple of days this week and we heard her. I can say that she was vibrant and animated and --yes-- inspirational. She was certainly worth hearing as she told the familiar story of personal triumph over what could have been a career ending accident.

If you recall, she was at the pinnacle of her skills when rammed by another rowing shell. Even though she was told that she might someday row again recreationally and walk with a limp this wasn't enough for her. She managed to recover for the Olympics in only ten weeks and somehow captured a bronze medal.

I appreciated what Silken had to say about imagination. She encouraged us to believe in the power of imagination to propel us toward our goals. Of course her personal journey included countless hours of gruelling work-outs and boring repetition but she began with the dream of being an Olympic athlete.

One of our readings for this week says "your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions." This passage from Joel is quoted by the disciple Peter on the day of Pentecost as he invites people to become followers of Christ.

We need to be as imaginative and "dreamy" and Spirit-filled as we can be in a time when many churches seem to be puttering along without enough air in their tires. Another of the passages this week is a reminder to run the race and keep the faith. I hope we have it in us.

The Value of Study

Minutes ago I finished seven weeks of study with a group of about fourteen women (the membership varied from week to week.) The book we looked at, The Rapture Exposed, was daunting at times because it was examining one ot the most challenging and confusing books of the bible, The Revelation to John.

Most mainline Christian denominations studiously avoid the book while some conservative Christians are almost obsessed by it. The wildly popular Left Behind novels are loosely based on Revelation.

What struck me again is how willing this group is to study and grow in faith. The bible can be both transparent and apparently inpenetrable at the same time. We can read passages that speak to us with great clarity and then turn to others that baffle us.

This makes sense, really. The Good Book is a collection of books written over centuries by many authors in diverse cultures. Even though we may believe that scripture is divinely inspired we must "work up a sweat" to understand the bible. I learned a great deal through my preparation and from the people involved. We had some tense moments at the beginning because of our different viewpoints but in the end this was a valuable and faith-affirming exercise.

In November we are going to have an evening study looking at different forms of prayer. If you are close at hand, please join us.

Valuing Each Breath

In life, in death, in life beyond death
God is with us, we are not alone.
Thanks be to God

United Church Statement of Faith

This morning our younger daughter got word that the father of one of her closest friends had died through the night. An active and robust man, probably in his late forties, he suffered a stroke on Saturday. It was so massive that he never had a chance for recovery and his family is devastated by his loss.

From time to time through the years I have been called upon to respond pastorally to those who have experienced sudden and untimely deaths. The worst may have been a family who lost a young child who died because his throat swelled shut as an allergic reaction. His mother responded to his calls in the night and calmed him down and back to sleep. When she went to him in the morning he was gone.

What can we say? These are the times when life seems so unfair and we are left wondering where God has been. I have no real answers other than my sometimes shaky conviction that God never abandons or foresakes us.

I keep coming back to the prayer which I often use in funeral and memorial services which includes the words "since we have been but a hair's breadth from death since birth, teach us how breathlessly close we are to life in all its fullness."

Rendition

The film Rendition starring Jake Gyllenhall and Reese Witherspoon is a fictional examination of the American practice of shipping terrorist suspects to foreign countries which have lax human rights laws. These "renditions" allow for torture which is not permitted within the United States.

As the film opened across North America a real-life rendition story continued to play out. A group of U.S. politicians apologized to Maher Arar, the Canadian who was flown from New York to Syria on vague suspicions of terrorism and without any legal representation or formal charges. Arar was flying on a Canadian passport and was on a stopover on his way home but he was simply spirited away to hell.While the Americans did this, it was with the assistance of the RCMP in Canada. Arar was tortured and brutalized in a Syrian prison and while eventually released and exonerated thanks to his wife's tireless efforts he may never be the same.

The movie Rendition has received mixed reviews, as should the shameful actions of the US and Canadian governments in the Arar case. Both of these countries hold to a rule of law and democratic principles which decry torture and denial of due process for those accused of criminal activity. And both countries were founded on Christian principles which uphold justice.