No, nothing here about Copenhagen... I haven't yet read much of what's unfolding there. But let me tell you about something that's happened here...
The heat from the climate change debate in Australian politics, resulted last week in what can only be described as the complete meltdown of the conservative opposition party. We have the Westminster system of government here, and presently the centre-left Labor Party is in power; the centre-right Liberal (oxymoronically named) Party is in oppositio…
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Added by Matt Henry on December 9, 2009 at 11:00am —
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My wife and I took our two daughters to see a wonderful film a couple of weeks ago: The Fox and the Child. We had heard it was French and English, and our daughters (thanks to their mum) speak some French. It turned out to be a French-made film dubbed into English, and narrated by Kate Winslet. The dubbing was fine, as there was not a lot of on-screen dialogue anyway.
I'm happy (and lazy) enough to link the official trailer (below) and a blurb from the makers...:
The Fox And The Child recoun…
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Added by Matt Henry on November 22, 2009 at 9:16pm —
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Added by Matt Henry on November 1, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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Every night my wife and I alternate in putting our two sweet daughters to bed, which is of course a multifaceted ritual of pyjamas, teeth-brushing, face-washing and teddy-bear relocation. The better part of the time is reading stories and singing songs. Each one of the girls picks a story, and we sit on the bed and read one, then the other, and follow it with as many songs as it takes to take them off to their dreams and rest (for the younger, this can be a whole concert).
A couple of nights ag…
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Added by Matt Henry on October 26, 2009 at 11:22pm —
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The most identifying characteristic of Creation Spirituality is the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality. There are more
principles of Creation Spirituality than just the Four Paths, but many of those other principles find common ground in other places (which is good!). The Four Paths, however, are really the cornerstone of a Creation Spirituality mindset. The paths are the v
ia positiva,…
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Added by Matt Henry on October 4, 2009 at 8:32pm —
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Deep Ecumenism - Coexist
I have a really ratty, worn-out guitar case that has bits of vinyl dangling off it, chips out of the plywood, and one broken latch. It’s adorned by a few stickers to add some character; not the customary geographical name-dropping, but one’s a funky little bird drawn by an artist friend of mine, another is an Originally Blessed bumper sticker, and the third is a bold white-on-black “
COEXIST” sticker, much like those on the front page of the site just now. That on…
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Added by Matt Henry on September 13, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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If I was asked a handful of years ago to nominate from my Australian experience an example of an artist-prophet, the choice would’ve been easy: Peter Garrett.
He was the lead singer of the hugely successful and long-lived rock band, Midnight Oil.
I met him when I was a teenager, and his physical presence alone could…
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Added by Matt Henry on September 7, 2009 at 11:04pm —
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A messy nest indeed!
Welcome to the many, many new members who have joined over the last month or so. In fact, it's still a relatively fresh "welcome" to all of us here, as the site is just now one year old! In that year, the site has...
~ welcomed 25,000 visits from 10,000 unique visitors, viewing pages more than 150,000 times
~ 79 songs
~ 797 photos
~ 133 blog posts
~ 69 videos (some of which are multiple videos in one)
~ 46 Communities
~ 146 forum topics
~ and, most excitingly and important…
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Added by Matt Henry on August 13, 2009 at 9:20am —
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Right across the street from the
Jubilee! Community in Asheville, NC -- the wonderful hosts of the event last month for Creation Spirituality Communities -- is an outdoor climbing wall: the kind of building-side challenge that is speckled with oddly-shaped and variously-coloured blobs that serve as climbing "holds."…
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Added by Matt Henry on August 11, 2009 at 10:37pm —
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...I was taken aback most happily by the number of people for whom this web community is important.
Expected:
That I'd meet old friends who I've known in the flesh and online: delightful!
Hoped-for:
That I'd meet new friends in the flesh that I'd only previously encountered here: wonderful!
Anticipated:
That I'd share with others there the sadness that some friends couldn't be present for one reason or another.
Unexpected:
That I'd find myself in many conversations talking about folks fro…
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Added by Matt Henry on July 24, 2009 at 9:05pm —
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Hello Friends!
I hope that wherever you are in beautiful Earth that you are well, that you are embracing and embraced by the challenges, beauty and hope that we share as ones who embrace the blessing of it all.
I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know of a coupe of things happening on the website and beyond, and invite you, as always, to share your ideas and thoughts. Since the last “State of the Website” blog, we’ve had about fifty new members join. Have you had a chance to welcome the…
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Added by Matt Henry on July 10, 2009 at 1:04am —
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I stumbled upon this little video the other day, and I think it serves as a great little teacher of something about the four paths of Creation Spirituality...
One of the things that Matt Fox teaches about the four paths is that the necessary flow in and out of each other: "Like a spiral danced, not a ladder climbed" is how its expressed in the
principles of Creation Spirituality.
Another thin…
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Added by Matt Henry on July 5, 2009 at 9:23am —
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At a job-related seminar a few days back, we were asked to recall what we were doing with our energy 12 months ago. Normally this would pose a big challenge for me, since my "episodic" memory is a bit lack-lustre. On this occasion, however, it was easier to recall, since about this time last year I was pretty immersed in the final stages of the book
Originally Blessed.
In describing the project to my colleagues, I was reminded of how much I think the project reflects Creation Spiritualit…
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Added by Matt Henry on June 28, 2009 at 8:37pm —
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I write these thoughts occasionally as a way to be explicit about the principles of Creation Spirituality, for many who come to this online community are new to CS, and are still familiarizing with different words and concepts. I try to ground these concepts in relatively accessible things – in places where I find Creation Spirituality.
Below the main part of this reflection are some quotes and songbites to fill it out – so there’s sort of a reader’s digest version above the ========== line.…
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Added by Matt Henry on June 8, 2009 at 6:54pm —
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Hey, I'm going to be on the radio in a few hours...
A religious affairs editor at ABC radio (Australia) had had an interest in
Originally Blessed, and told a colleague to include me in something or other about "What is God?". So I've had about 2 hours notice, will have another handful of hours 'til it's a live show. Did I mention it'll be 3am here? So that's promising ;) I dunno about the show or presenter or anything, so I'm either brave or foo…
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Added by Matt Henry on June 2, 2009 at 6:32pm —
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Hello friends,
Thank you for being present as a part of the Creation Spirituality Communities website - it is a "place" that continues to unfold and grow in fascinating ways. It's delightful to see people join the site almost every day; some have regarded CS as the definition of their faith for many years, while others have stumbled (or Googled) upon these ideas and convictions which are the foundation of the site and its intentions.
In this brief update, I wanted to do two things.
Firstly…
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Added by Matt Henry on May 31, 2009 at 10:30pm —
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Every one of us is a prophet.
Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice and that which interrupts authentic life.
This is one of the Principles of Creation Spirituality. For me, the word
injustice usually conjures mental images firstly of large-scale situations. I know that the person who quickly comes to my mind in response to
justice/injustice is Martin Luther King, jr., and his issue was no small thing. But of course, injustices can be rather…
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Added by Matt Henry on May 14, 2009 at 11:48pm —
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Hello friends, thank you for being a part of this Creation Spirituality online community.
A few updates and what-have-you to let you know what’s been evolving on the website.
~
Welcome to all our new members! We continue to be a growing bunch from various places geographically and spiritually. I encourage all of us to explicitly make each other welcome, and to remember that unless we type in some words, nobody knows we’re here! Consider taking the time even just to let others know that…
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Added by Matt Henry on May 3, 2009 at 1:38pm —
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How great is it that in the
news we can read new information and discoveries about our creation story?!?
Creation Spirituality celebrates the ever-unfolding story of the cosmos as
our creation story; and by
our, we mean yours, mine, the frogs,the rocks, the trees, the dinosaurs, bacteria, Earth, moon, Jupiter, Andromeda and beyond and beyond and beyond. The Universe Story, the unfolding cosmology, is the one that unites all the diverse beings in this amazing and terrifying…
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Added by Matt Henry on April 29, 2009 at 8:59pm —
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So for Christians, which is not all of us, it’s approaching Easter. It’s much easier in the northern hemisphere for folks from different traditions to find some common energy with the Easter energy, because the season is one of new life. For those of us in the southern hemisphere, things are beginning to cool down and turn brown – so seasonally speaking, Easter is a bit misplaced for us. But that’s OK, we’re pretty resilient down here in the better half :)
Some of those turning-brown things at…
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Added by Matt Henry on April 10, 2009 at 2:44am —
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