Religion
Post about Religious topics. My spiritual journey is a subtopic of this.
What Do You Bring to The Table?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 09/12/2016 - 21:28This coming week, members of the South Central Region of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut will be meeting to discuss plans for our fall convocation and the diocesan convention that will come several weeks after the convocation. At our previous meeting, we had discussed the theme, “What Do You Bring to The Table?” I have been reflecting on this in a few different ways.
Some people may read this and think, that sounds a lot like church governance, perhaps think about resolutions to be presented at the diocesan convention, and decide that this is an example of the sort of dreadful meetings they got tired of before they stopped coming to church regularly. I pray that the convocation and convention will be something completely different. I pray it will be a celebration of all the great ministries of the church, of all the times we are fed, spiritually as well as physically, and that this will help shape the discussions about resolutions, that our convocation and convention may all help us “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”
I live in Woodbridge, attend Grace and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Hamden, and work in Middletown. The Church of the Holy Trinity has a lunchtime weekday Eucharist on Thursdays. It is an important time I take out of my busy work schedule and an important ministry to people like me with busy work schedules. If the parish you attend, and the parish nearest to where you work don’t have a lunchtime weekday Eucharist, you might want to consider it.
For the prayers and reading we use some form of the Lesser Feasts and Fasts. The sermon or homily is typically a brief history of the saint whose life is being celebrated followed by a discussion. This last Thursday, we celebrated the life of Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, whose 233rd birthday it was. We heard about Grundtvig’s “criticism of the rationalist tendencies that were then predominant in Denmark’s Lutheran church” and his beliefs in Christianity as a “a historical revelation, handed down by the unbroken chain of a living sacramental tradition at baptism and communion”. [Quotes from Encyclopedia Britannica] We heard about his interest in poetry and hymn writing. We talked about how Gruntvig reminded us of the wonderful movie, Babette's Feast, the story of a refugee from worn torn France, a master chef and artists, bringing a feast to the sort of Christian community that Grundtvig spoke against.
“What Do You Bring to The Table”
Friday night, Grace and St. Peter’s has a wonderful dinner ministry called “Dinner for a Dollar”. This is the typical soup kitchen. It is a chance for people from all walks of live to sit down to dinner together. For those who won’t accept charity or handouts, it is a meal that you pay for. For those who can’t pay, you don’t have to. Many people give more than a dollar or volunteer to make and help serve a wonderful meal. It is based on a similar meal at St. John’s North Haven. Last night, two people from Trinity on The Green in New Haven showed up to help with Dinner for a Dollar and we talked a little bit about the coming convocation.
Sometimes, like at Dinner for a Dollar, at the program in North Haven, at DESK (Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen) in New Haven, at the monthly dinners at NEON (the Naugatuck Ecumenical Outreach Network), and many other places, we bring the food.
Sometimes, like at Chapel on the Green in New Haven, at Church by the Pond in Hartford, and many other opportunities, we bring the location. Sometimes, through programs like Abraham’s Tent and various efforts with IRIS (Integrated Refugee Immigrant Services) and others, we welcome the strange and provide shelter.
Sometimes, through groups like Episcopal Church Women, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and the Girls Friendly Society, we bring a rich tradition and strong community.
Sometimes, through liturgy, arts, music, and poetry, we bring beauty
All of this brings us together to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” and celebrate feasts that I believe Babette and Nikolaj would have appreciated, feasts together with the regular celebrations of Eucharist are foretastes of that heavenly banquet.
Amanda 4 33
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/11/2016 - 21:16The priest stepped up to the pulpit, motioned to the congregation to sit down, looked around, paused, and then said something like,
“I’m sorry. I just want to tell you how happy I am to see everyone here today.”
What prompted this comment? Was it a prepared part of the sermon, illustrating the text for the day? Was it a spontaneous remark prompted by seeing several people we have been praying for or by seeing people returning with the school year after a long summer? It could have been any of these things. To me, it felt like the Holy Spirit coming and providing words that fit all of these and more.
"what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
I am a writer and at times a photographer. I try to capture those little revealing moments that too often pass unobserved; the poem about something seen alongside the road, the candid photograph that captures the essence of the whole event. That little phrase at the beginning of the sermon seemed exactly like that.
I remember years ago learning about negative space, the space around an object. I learned about John Cage’s 4’33”, four minutes and thirty three seconds of listening to the sounds that take place around a musical performance.
“I’m sorry. I just want to tell you how happy I am to see everyone here today.” is part of that space around the Eucharist. The smiles shared between two people on the prayer list as they knelt at the altar waiting to receive communion is part of that space.
Like the friends of the woman who lost, and then found a silver coin, we were all invited to gather and celebrate. We call that celebration the Eucharist. To an outsider, the fair seems a bit meager; a small piece of bread and a sip of some wine. Yet to those of us close to the person throwing the party, it is the most precious gift we can receive, the body of Christ, the bread of heaven, the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.
At the end of the celebration, we carry that spirit out into the world around us, reminded to tell those we meet, how happy we are to see them, a happiness given to us by God, a happiness reflecting God’s happiness at each person who stops, even for a moment, to experience even just a small amount of God’s love for us.
At Christmas time for the past couple years, I have been Santa to the children that come to the health center where I work. Some chlidren eagerly rush to see me. Others are shy and I beckon to them. I wave. I smile. When they approach, I tell them how happy I am to see them, how I have been waiting for them to come. Perhaps I am reflecting much more than Santa in these words. Perhaps I am reflecting the life of Saint Nicholas upon whom Santa is based. Perhaps I am sharing a little of the love from my Lord, from the Lord of St. Nicholas, and passing it on to the children that come.
As I sat in the pew, I was happy to be there. It had been a very long week for me and I expect the coming week to also be very long, but hopefully for different reasons. It was great to hear that someone was happy to see me, and I remember how much I need to remind people that I am happy to see them.
“I’m sorry. I just want to tell you how happy I am to see everyone here today.”
#MakeItHappen #WhatIMake and Why: A Post Modern Secular Online Video Gospel
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/28/2016 - 08:12This summer, students and teachers at Amity High School in Woodbridge, CT read the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope. The Facebook Cliff Notes version of this says:
A Malawian teenage, William Kamkwamba, taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library.
A slightly longer version can be found in this Ted Talk.
This could be a great starting point for a discussion of colonial and post-colonial literature, perhaps starting with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, followed by Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”. This could then be followed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Half of a Yellow Sun”. Those looking for other forms of accessing some of this might want to watch the movie, “Half of a Yellow Sun”, or Adichie’s TED talk, The danger of a single story . Yes, I realize that Conrad’s Congo, Achebe and Adichie’s Nigeria and Kamkwamba’s Malawi are very different places, but I’m guessing some important things could be discovered.
Perhaps part of that lesson is that what we make matters, and how we make it happens matters. The bigger question is why. Perhaps it could lead to discussions of business ethics, or even deeper into existential questions.
I might start with Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
To me, this is what it all boils down to. The problem is, that in our post-modern secular world, if you start talking about the Bible, God, Prophets, and commandments, you are likely to lose a lot of people. What might this be like in today’s post-modern secular world?
If you were to choose a few videos that grappled with these bigger questions, that go to the core of your existence, what would they be? What would you want people to watch? Would it be some of these TED talks? Talks about creativity?
There are a couple that I would suggest. I might start off with the abridged version of David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech, This is Water. This challenges us to think about who are neighbor really is. Yes, it starts off with the privileged white college graduate as a neighbor and doesn’t get to issues of racism and post colonialism, but it is an important start.
Once you have started thinking about having a little more empathy for those around you, the next video I would watch might be Validation. We need to find out how the people around us need validation and start there.
With these as a solid base, then we can start looking at things like education with Sir Ken Robinson’s Changing Education Paradigms and Taylor Mali on "What Teachers Make"
We can move on to talk about the role of gaming, with Jane McGonigal’s Gaming can make a better world and The game that can give you 10 extra years of life.
We can learn from Brene Brown’s The Power of Vulnerability and Listening to shame.
Without really thinking about those around us, about loving God and neighbor, we may end up just building bankrupt casinos ruining the lives of customers and vendors as we try to make American great again.
What videos would you recommend? What do you make? How do you make it happen? Why?
Collective Effervescence and the Cloud of Witnesses
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 08:03The Epistle reading for Sunday, August 14th included the verse,
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
This has always been a favorite verse of mine, and this past week, I’ve been reflecting on the great cloud of witnesses. I am reminded of those who we can learn so much from by looking at the The Lectionary Page’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and additions from A Great Cloud of Witnesses.
Monday, August 8th was the feast of St. Dominic and I spent a little time reading about the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Order. Tuesday, August 9th was the feast of Herman of Alaska, “a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska”. Wikipedia goes on to say “All biographers agree that at Valaam, Herman studied under Abbot Nazarius, previously of Sarov Monastery, who was influenced by the hesychastic tradition of Paisius Velichkovsky.”
This lead me to do a little reading on Hesychasm, or stillness in prayer. As I spent time reading related topics, I found my way to The Ladder of Divine Ascent. I found a translation online, but I haven’t found a recording of the translation I can listen to on my commute.
August 10th was the feast of Lawrence of Rome and August 11th was the feast of Clare, Abbess at Assisi. A quote for St. Clare has been making its way around the Internet recently:
"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others."
This fits nicely with the thoughts about the cloud of witnesses. We become more like what we love as well as like those around us who love the same thing.
August 12th was the feast of Florence Nightingale. Working in health care, I try to observe this health day, as well as get people to recognize other aspects of her life, around statistics, social reform, and theology.
August 13th was the feast of Jeremy Taylor who “is sometimes known as the ‘Shakespeare of Divines’ for his poetic style of expression, and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest prose writers in the English language”. Part of his writing is recorded on Librivox, so I may listen to some of this later on.
August 14th was the feast of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal Seminarian martyred during the civil rights movement. I thought of Daniels as I prayed for Milwaukee.
Another part of the crowd of witnesses can be found, starting off with this article: Science Says If You Go To Music Festivals, You’re Happier Than Most People.
Can partying be spiritual? Maybe.
The fact you can feel more connected to people around you while enjoying good music is a great reason to actually go to festivals
The article puts it into context by bringing in Emile Durkheim
The phenomenon of shared energy at festivals is attributed to what French sociologist Emile Durkheim calls “collective effervescence.” It’s basically what happens when a group of people get involved in something that allows them to communicate the same thought simultaneously while participating in the same action.
Wikipedia talks about Collective effervescence as “the basis for Émile Durkheim's theory of religion as laid out in his 1912 volume Elementary Forms of Religious Life.”
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life is available on Project Gutenberg, but not on Librivox. It goes onto my reading list.
Collective effervescence, the cloud of witnesses, and becoming like that which we love all has implications for churches. It also has implications for each of us in our daily life, and perhaps especially, in our online interactions.
The Moral Revival
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/14/2016 - 07:37Recently, I stumbled across an article, New group aims to boost evangelical voice. Yet as I read about the group, I would not use the word ‘evangelical’; perhaps conservative, perhaps fundamentalist, but not evangelical. I consider my beliefs generally evangelical and also very progressive. Is Progressive Evangelical even a thing?
Another article I read, Why a stout theological creed is not saving evangelical churches, drew a distinction between white evangelicals and black evangelicals. It notes that the conservative white evangelical churches are declining in attendance. Ideological purity does not seem to be a saving grace.
One of the first articles I came to was 10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Progressive Evangelicals. The first two things mentioned are, “We exists” and “We are not totally comfortable with the terms ‘progressive’ or ‘evangelical.’”
It is a good article, worth reading. It references Sojourners, which I’ve always liked and Red Letter Christians, which I hadn’t seen before. The first article I read there was A Revival to Hope America by William Barber.
I have long been interested in revivals and great awakenings. I have hoped for a great moral revival in our country, and here I find a reference to precisely that. The Moral Revival. Let us hope for a revival based on loving God and not ideological purity.
Between Pope Francis and The Year of Mercy, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement, and Rev. Barber and his friends in the Moral Revival, there is hope, mercy, and love.
