Living for the Earth...

Our church, all churches, cannot move quickly enough to align our theology, people and energy with the ecological imperative of our time - the most important challenge any generation has ever faced.

Keep up the good work.

So I haven't checked out wondercafe in a while, but I had some extra time this morning and thought that I'd take a peek! Glad I did!

You see I was signing onto the computer to blog today about the Eucharist...and was jotting down some notes when I came across this blog entry...and had to respond!

To be honest, I don't know too much about the DNA of the United Church. Albeit, it was the United Church New Creed that brought me back into church community about 10 years ago as an adult. Hearing the words of that creed electrified me...and I thought in my head, "Hey...I can say THAT on Sunday!" So off I went. I returned again to a United Church earlier this year, so I am fairly new.

So even though I can't answer your question about DNA, something did pop into my mind when I read the words:

 We are called to love the world as God loves the world, to leave our nets or “business as usual” behind and follow Christ.

Yesterday, I was showing an elementary school environment club a movie about plastic bags and how they came to be used and absurdly accepted in our culture. It was an amazing movie and had quite the impact on the kids. One of the parts of the movie showed people setting up a "psychologist's couch" and office...complete with a lamp and carpet ..in the middle of a sidewalk on a busy street. There was a sign that invited people to lie on the couch and talk to help break their addiction to the plastic bag- an absurd symbol of our consumerist culture.

One thing that I've noticed about the United Church (or maybe it's just the particular church that I happen to go to) is how incredibly open and moving the communion liturgy can be..."felt" by a different part of our brains. I'm not sure that people who don't come through the church doors on sunday morning realize this!

What popped into my mind was this:

Wouldn't it be amazing to take the Eucharist out into the streets? Wouldn't it be amazing for Christians to gather together in circles...in unexpected places to participate in communion! Doesn't Jesus call us to "wake-up"? Could the Eucharist...in a mall, a public park, a street corner...help to slowly wake us up? Imagine the impact of overhearing this from a safe non-committal distance for the first time! Imagine the impact of seeing something out of the ordinary, unexpected...perhaps even creating a thin place in the middle of busyness!

The early Christians had to do this in the catacombs. I wonder....if 21st century followers of the WAY are being called to take these rituals and stories OUT into the world to wake us up from our sleepwalking.

In the world but not of the world...a "mass" movement of the kingdom breaking through...

 Just a thought...

Pam

Hmmm, I wonder why the leadership needs to define its organization's identity?  Re-branding?  Is it feeling adrift?  Does it feel it too, that the great 20th century triumph of the Church, social justice, just ain't what it used to be?  It needs a new social cause to help draw people to it in a contemporary way?

Latching on to saving Creation for human survival is perfect.  After all, environmentalism is about saving our lifestyle, and bringing the benefits of Christian-business-science culture to the poor of the world, in a sustainable way, through technology and Christian care.  That's social justice, protecting humans and providing for them, as good stewards of planetary resources.

I hesitate to support 'Creation Care' as a motto, though.  As any nurse will tell you, their hearts have been corrupted by the 'Care Industry.'  The word has lost its spirit, and feels as spiritually empty now as life in business.

For that matter, 'Creation' has lost some of its 'umph' too.  What is Creation?  Well, it's everything, right?  Is it God's natural earth?  Yes.  But it's also what we are most proud of, modern civilization that has solved most of its big historical problems through democracy, business and science replacing religion, kings, sickness and hunger.

And as the Church supports merely secular society's efforts to save the survival system by recycling garbage into smokestack factories, and replacing 4 billion cars with 4 billion electric cars, the air might be cleaner, but the energy, chemicals and factories producing it might be a little short-sighted.  But it sustains hope, and jobs, though.  We have no alternative.

Is it really offering anything new, that makes the United Church distinct?  The United Church brand of Christianity and spirituality already 'tells' secular society that it is progressive, and that it's not heavy-handed in its dogma.  'Almost secular' is the popular impression.  So its inoffensive, but that just bores people and they ignore it, instead of being compelled to see what is truly different about these Christians from all the others, and secular society as well.  What new relief does it give to spiritual yearning in a spiritless society?

Instead of being 'me too,' why doesn't the United Church distinguish itself using its profound, dormant mark in history?  The first denominations, as I understand it, that came together in unity in 2000 years of Christianity, instead of splitting apart!  Now that's something!

I know the apologists will point out all the typical ecumenical and multi-cultural and ethnically diverse efforts, but is all that really being felt in the pews?  Or is it more the leadership of multi-faiths getting together for coffee in the name of tolerance?  Has an immam speaking at a Sunday service really got the members of both congregations intermingling?  

Imagine, if you will, what would happen spiritually if a United Church congregation practiced Ramadan with its local mosque?  Lent is no longer compelling because it is deprivation, and Christ told us to stop that.  But can you imagine how Muslims, so beseiged since 9/11 would feel if a Christian congregation joined with them in their fast, and celebrated the breaking of the fast together at the end? 

Could our brand of Christianity survive that close contact with a rival religion?  The Catholics or fundies couldn't do it.  They'd just try to convert the Muslims.  We are specially placed to extend our unifying identity the Church was born from, with respect, tolerance and curiosity.  Experience is a far more spiritually powerful than theology.  And all we have to do is pray to Christ, and He'd be there with us!  

Imagine the Spirit, healing and community that would expand from that.  And it would draw us closer to the 'historical' Jesus.  He spent forty days fasting in the desert, before His ministry of universal love.  We would only have to go without food during daylight in the autumn.  Just going without lunch.

Fasting is a small spiritual practice that creates big spiritual results, if anyone's had one.  Native traditions encourage three-day fasts in nature, sitting still and letting the mind and body stop their constant activity and distractions, letting the heart be heard amid the life of God's natural Creation.  Connecting with Creation in a real spiritual way, outside of the suburbs.  With that connection with nature, the concept of fixing the environment like a car engine quickly moves to community with all living things on the planet.  It makes nature real, and the environment just a concept.  Then people will click.

Again, one simple example of acknowledgment with traditional First Nations, with Christ in our hearts, helping us to experience a bit of Jesus' life, a fast in nature, with a people we have disacknowledged in the past.

It is a challenge to an institution so focused on Christ, and getting The Word out.  But if we could create a larger community in 'faith' with these two disparate groups, could Christian unity be far behind?  With Spirit divided and conquered by Empire today, each brand in their own corner just trying to survive, it is only through unity and actual community that it will stand a chance against Globalization. 

The United Church could become a world leader again, just like it was during the social justice heydays of the early 20th century. 

And who knows?  Such experiences with other faith communities might inspire isolated United Church congregations in the same city, to gather together in one place for their own festivities and celebrations of a uniting Church?  It would strengthen the United Church community, not weaken it.

Bringing the Eucharist to the sidewalks and fasting with Muslim sisters and brothers during Ramadan represent the kind of creative commitment which I believe characterize our church at its best. (Members of my home congregation, by the way, do join with Muslim friends at the Mosque during Ramadan.)

All of your energetic comments and suggestions have me returning to read another pivotal General Council document from the '90s titled  Mending the World: An Ecumenical Vision for Healing and Reconcilation.

You've also got me wondering about the creative potential for congregations in 'living into' the radical words of Our Song of Faith.

I am grateful for all of the Spirited faithfulness represented in your comments!

Apparently the General Council hasn't done much on the environment file since 1977.  I have two post-graduate degrees in theology and fourteen years of pastoral leadership experience.  As I sit in my car driving out of a city of 3.5 million souls to serve a town 60 kms away for the past six years, I see little of "the new administrative and organizational goal, namely: The care of the earth and all its implications."  Due to a chronic lack of employment opportunities in Toronto I am compelled to sit in traffic for two hours each day that I go to work.  If the church is serious about a "creative commitment" it would start by changing its personnel and employment practices to represent a greener identity.

Pastor Scott