Last Spring, during a guided meditation at a poetry conference, we were asked to think about all of the love, goodness, and kindness in the world. We were asked to think about our experiences of this love and to think about this love being available to all creatures.

I was struck by how it related to my poetry, to my experiences working in politics, to my job working in health care. I was struck by how it all fit together, so nicely, into a greater unity. What was my role in this? What should I do to change what I am doing to help share this love more deeply and more fully with the people I run into?

For the following months, I spoke with close friends, whom I believed would understand this, who would have words of wisdom and help me in such a question. Through this, a group has been formed, which will start next month to help me discern things I should do next in my life to help fulfil this desire to share this love more widely.

I am doing this as an Episcopalian, within the Episcopal Church. I am doing this in the context of organized religion. It is part of the process that many follow to become Episcopal priests, and there is a strong chance that this is where my journey will lead me.

I think of this as I read recent articles online about the death of Christianity in America or being becoming emancipated from American Christianity. I read about this on the 35th anniversary of the death of a man whose song “Imagine” is often quoted in the discussions about religion. “Imagine there’s no heaven … and no religion too”.

Many of my friends suggest that the American Christianity that is dying really has very little to do with Jesus of Nazareth whose birthday many of us will be celebrating later this month. Some suggest various denominations of Protestant Christianity that hasn’t strayed as far from Jesus’ teachings about love as others have. Others bewail that the authors have not completely rejected religion.

Some of the folks in this latter camp strike me as radical fundamentalists worshipping their idea of ‘No God’ as fervently and as divisively as any fundamentalist Christian or radical Muslim. Others seem to be searching for ways to share a greater power of love similar to what I am seeking in my discernment process.

As I’ve thought about my own journey, I’ve been thinking of writing about it to help people in their journeys whether or not they might lead to some sort of official role in an organized religion. As I’ve thought about this, I’ve wondered about how humanists seek discernment. What can humanists learn from Episcopalians? What can Episcopalians learn from humanists?

How are you seeking to discover and show love to the creatures around you, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, humanist, or atheist?