Chesapeake Creation Spirituality Community

Comment

Comment by Rick Dove on December 13, 2011 at 4:40am

As we enter into the Christmas season please take time to remember the people that have not yet found a “path” to happiness but are still searching, hoping, and need a respite from the world that tries to hold them down.  For so many people the clouds never part and the morning sunshine never warms their souls.  A kind word to a stranger, an offer to share your walk through the woods, perhaps taking a photo of someone standing near a tree or stream, they may be admiring, so they can enjoy it again when they are alone. Your act of kindness may be just the thing someone needs to open their “cocoon” and spread their wings.  You are a gift to others but they are also a gift to you.  Merry Christmas.

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on November 16, 2011 at 12:43am

Ah, my first reminder of how the website works...only part of your statement is posted on the home page, your whole statement is on the community page and it makes a difference in my thinking.

Yes, I have read Original Blessings, but need to read it again from the perspective of building community.  I haven't read the reinvention of work but since community's must work then I ought to read that book too. 

I guess one of the advantages that I have in relation to talking about connecting creation spirituality principles in an urban aboriginal context is the fact that I am not dependent in drawing upon just creation spirituality concepts.  Those concepts, in part at least, draw from our indigenous cultures and ways of knowing and applies those to the western, contemporary, postmodern and Christian context...so to a degree, aboriginal people have it within ourselves, our genetic make up, generational history, etc., to be organic creation spirituality communities.

Having said that, the connections to "band cultures and societies" so called traditional ways have been re-typed and edited by anthropology and other studies of who we were...so I understand the concepts, implications and effects of those concepts (Noble Savage, egalitarian, nature loving folk) in the pan Indian reconstruction of our remembered memories based on oral tradition.

Then we have to deconstruct colonialism, how our people think about it...how it has replaced God with dependency on government to meet our needs on our own territory cause we can't hunt, fish, gather or use those resources for contemporary economic purposes. 

We need to put the divine back in the center of the picture; that divine has to reflect our earlier aboriginal understanding, we need to restore and balance the feminine in our divine while respecting the masculinity of God..(balancing the non-gender of God while recognizing that God made us in His(her) image...all genders are God...so why not call God She on an equal basis)..that is within our traditional ability.

 

Lot more to say...but 1) Aboriginal people need to reclaim the divine as we understood it, 2) rebuild not construct a community based on the four direction theme of both Creation Spirituality and traditional aboriginal teachings the world over, 3) reinvent or reconstruct how we treat each other in the aboriginal community based on who we were as much as who we can become on our own terms and 4) respecting differences...different people..those who did not fit the mould were often the most powerful spiritual beings...shamans...those of a two spirited nature, the backwards and contrary peoples, the tricksters amongst us and so forth.

What a wonderful project this community stuff...for aboriginal people I guess though we are reclaiming not creating the kind of community envisioned by creation spirituality...thoughts?

Comment by Wayne Schwandt on November 15, 2011 at 10:37pm

Welcome Bruce!  My thirteen years experience of forming the community in Annapolis, Maryland, and watching the formation of numerous communities in my former denomination, Metropolitan Community Churches, I conclude that there is no magic "community in a box" that one can implement and achieve "CS Community."   A number of us are concerned about this topic and I would suspect that one of the tracks of the Gathering 2012 will focus on this issue.  I guess I would find Original Blessing and Reinvention of Work the most helpful of Matt Fox's books in this regard.   So much of the success of a community formation rests on the gifts of the founder.  It is both a blessing and curse for those who feel the urge to create community.   there are many models of CS Community and I hope to contribute to the conversation about what they look like.  What is the model you are invisioning for your work in Canada?  There is also a group of us working towards forming some support around this topic.   Linda Boozer on this site may also be helpful to you.

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on November 14, 2011 at 5:43pm

First question I have is do you know of any books, bibliographies, etc., on the fundamentals of facilitating the development of an intentional community built around the concepts of creation spirituality?

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on November 14, 2011 at 5:42pm

Hello Wayne... as you may remember I was here a few years ago and had a community going called "Aboriginal Theology"; now I am revisiting things and am working on a new community called "Birthing an Aboriginal Cosmic Mass"...I am hoping that you can join me on that site as well...I also look towards learning from your experiences around supporting the development of a creation spirituality community.  Aboriginal Canadians need some form of community and most of our communtieis should be formed on a spiritual foundation and that is what I am working on this year....Hope to hear from you soon and feel free to share ideas...everyone is welcome to participate in the "Birthing an ABoriginal Cosmic Mass" community

Comment by Rick Dove on November 12, 2011 at 7:47am

Welcome Bruce and Meg.  I hope if you make it down this way you can stop in and see us sometime.

Comment by Penny Moulis on June 23, 2011 at 2:03pm

@ Wayne, again

another resource for you might be Believe Out Loud - see http://www.believeoutloud.com/#

Comment by Penny Moulis on June 23, 2011 at 1:51pm

@ Wayne - here is info on a local group connected with the Episcopal Church here. I thought you might like to check it out.

Integrity Virginia Beach welcomes YOU!

Integrity is a faithful witness of God's inclusive love to the Episcopal Church and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & queer community.

We are a ministry for the encouragement and nurture of LGBTQ persons in Christian life and community.  We are equally a ministry of persons offered to the Church and to the world seeking unity and peace in the Body of Christ, justice and dignity for all persons, the end to human oppression, especially the oppression of people because of sexual orientation or gender identity, and the building of a world and a society which are each safer places in which to love.  

 For the latest news check out our blog at www.integritydiosova.blogspot.com

Comment by Wayne Schwandt on December 14, 2010 at 6:28am

welcome Kim!  How do we get others to sign up and participate in this conversation?