The Double Spiral of the Life of the Spirit

Last week, I was fortunate to see two excellent speakers: Father William Meninger, a Cistercian who was one of the original teachers to return contemplative prayer to the Church, and David Abram: a highly creative cultural ecologist. In some ways they represent two of the deepest aspects of my spiritual life.

David Abram told us about the pervasiveness of the association of the words and concepts by which we express mind, wind, spirit, psyche. Mind, like the earth, is something that we are in. As Paul preached to the Athenians: God is "the one in whom we live and move and have our being." He also told us of the Navajo concept of Nilche' the Divine Wind that surrounds us as well as is in us. The wind without is connected as the wind within. The wind is invisible but leaves spiral traces all over, including our own bodies: tips of fingers and toes, ears (where the children of the wind speak to us as thoughts), and the brain itself.

All of this talk of connection prompted me to rescue the most recent material that I have been working with as part of my order of druids (OBOD). A few years ago they revised the course and also created an audio version to honor the oral natural of the Celtic tradition. It will be good to warm the embers of that fire.

The other side of the spiral brought a wonderful workshop and lecture from Father Meninger on the practice of the contemplative life. He illuminated thoughts from the Cloud of Unknowing, from Julian of Norwich, and other medieval gems of mysticism brought back to light and practice in the past sixty years or so. A deep well from which to nourish the church and all those working towards the kingdom.

As Christianity spread in Britain and Ireland, plenty of Druids became Monks, imparting Celtic Christianity and Anglicanism its distinct cultural flavor. This blending of the natural and the spiritual (as if those are separate anyway) is a rich tradition with a long history. Navigating my place in the flow of those spirals is a pleasure.

May be blessings of the King of the Elements be with you this night!

Good News People

So the new Diocesan Academy for Formation and Mission is well and truly off and running. I had thought to post some themes from our first weekend together, but for now I am going to let that gather some steam and put something different, though not altogether unrelated, on the table. This evening I picked up a half read report from the Church of England on the the work of Diocesan Evangelists. This role is definitely evolving but may become ever more useful as the Church and the World change. The term and the role have some heavy baggage and an inconsistency of example that makes it difficult to recognize. So appropriately enough, this report is called "Good News People: Recognizing Diocesan Evangelists" from Church House Publishing in 1999. Their findings are compelling:

We therefore came to understand the word 'evangelist' as describing someone, man or woman, lay or ordained:
*who goes where the church is not;
*who proclaims and lives the gospel: the way in which this 'proclamation' takes place is essentially contextual, and is by no means limited to preaching or even to verbal communication;
*who interprets the Church to the world and the world to the Church;
*who comes from the centre of the Church and feeds from its riches and is accountable to it as well as challenging it;
*who encourages the whole Church in its work of evangelism, not least by communicating the gospel to those inside as well as outside the Church.

In many ways, this is what I feel called to do, despite the fact it seems like the exact opposite of the natural inclinations of my personality. The life of a monastic does feel like my natural inclination. However, when I met with the abbot of my Benedictine community to discuss some of the possibilities surrounding my call and the education I was hoping to undertake (this was about two or three months before the plan for the Academy blessedly reached me: Good News indeed), she said that what she was hearing was a more active and world engaged life than is possible in the cloister.

We shall see. For now, the end of another day. Amen.

Shaking the Subjunctive

So. Though the new diocesan Academy for Formation and Mission's grand opening is a week from today, we had a bit of a soft opening last night at the home of our new professor. The Dean and Chaplain were on hand to lend their guidance as well. There are a whirlwind of possibilities that remain to be incarnated in our experience and practice, but we are indeed off and running.

The revised syllabus arrived today. There are three main assignments or points to consider at present. The homework itself is the first part of our text and the Book of Acts with a reflection paper. We are also working to consider how to be a praying community together in the time between our intensive weekends. The Dean warned us not to think of this as something that happens every two weeks, but that it is something that is a part of our lives every day. The Dean, another of the students and myself are all part of my Benedictine community. From what I know of the other members of our new academy community, they also are not strangers to fostering bonds of study, prayer, and community while balancing daily concerns. It is still slightly in the future, but I believe we will live into something life giving both to ourselves but also as a source of strength and inspiration that can be channelled into the situation of our lives and ministry.

The third item is to carefully consider the syllabus and to raise any questions and concerns before our first official meeting. In the words of our professor, It is to become a covenant between us and that bears dialog prior to accepting that responsibility. I find myself with one concern. It reads in part, particularly as concerning our research paper, as if we already know where we will end up. In fact the core of the research paper assignment is to delve into sources for the order of ministry to which we are called. Yikes. That is at least half of why I am here: to find the answer to that question. Which order of ministry (lay, deacon, or priest) best enables me "to do the work you have given us to do" (as we pray each week in the postcommunion prayer)?

I started writing this post as a way to get out all the things that I did not want to include in my official response. Because all I could think about were the myriad forms a life in ministry could take. I was hoping to avoid putting all that on the table as part of what my professor had to wade through to understand my concern. However, it looks like even the blog will be spared that morass of subjunctivity. A few sentences from the above paragraph, but a little bit of background concerning my understanding of how discernment was to be part of the work of the Academy. While this is definitely true in terms of as a proving ground, i.e. whether postulants go on to be candidates; I believe the Academy can be a powerful in moving Aspirants to their next stage of formation whether to a Postulant for Holy Orders or some other form of ministry. We would not part of this developing community if we were not apiring to something.

Once again this sounding board has done me a great service just by providing space to type and collect.

Blessings to the ethers of the internet and upon any who happen upon these words. May we all find our place in God's kingdom for there is work enough for us all to do. Amen.

A friend among the Alexandrian Catechists

A nice feature of summer reading is that it seems to veer off the usual paths and scope out some new directions. I found some enjoyable novels but also in the later part of the season have returned a bit to some more esoteric writings. I have unanswered questions in that domain as to how it may be a part of my future. It is a deep well in my spirituality that cannot be shut off without doing violence to my spiritual path. Looking at it from an anglican three legged stool perspective, I have far too much contact with the scripture, tradition and reason/experience of Hermeticism for it to vaporize. It is part of who I am and it is part of my path to God. The best I or any of us can do is to give that path to God to do with it what he wills. We can trust that whatever that it is, it will be its Summum Bonum, its Highest Good.

So before the Academy begins in the Fall (actually the first gathering is next week!), I wanted to look at some old material & and see what new material may be about. As with other areas of spirituality and life in general, there are some very emergent happenings in these communities. In addition to a renewal within the Rosicrucian Order, the Institute of Noetic Science is becoming more and more active. I also found a system called New Hermetics meant to combine the best of magical practice with advances we have had in psychology and the workings of the mind, while letting go of some of the complicated metaphors from earlier paradigms. It seems to be watering some dry Hermetic patches in my brain. It is helping to complete some links and flesh out some of my Kabbalistic knowledge in a way that feels like it will stay with me.

And yet none of this deters me from the fact that my true will (to invoke Thelema which is another whole kettle of fish indeed) is to study, pray, work, and rest within a Christian Context. These past three years have brought possibilities to the fore, like nothing that happened in the decade prior. And yet, as I keep saying in different ways, I know that God will use it all.

Along those lines I found a comrade spirit among the early theologians of the Church. His family's Christianity and his education in secular philosophy (Greek & Egyptian the blend of which would later be foundational to Hermeticism) combined to shape his contribution to the church.

In the article on Origen in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, I found:

He became interested in Greek philosophy quite early in his life, studying for a while under Ammonius Saccas (the teacher of Plotinus) and amassing a large collection of philosophical texts. It is probably around this time that he began composing On First Principles. However, as he became ever more devoted to the Christian faith, he sold his library, abandoning, for a time, any contact with pagan Greek wisdom, though he would eventually return to secular studies (Greek philosophy), from which he derived no small measure of inspiration, as Porphyry (recorded in Eusebius) makes quite clear, as he continued with his ever more sophisticated elucidation of biblical texts.

Origen struggled with where his focus should be, but followed his inspriations and God used it all. I will continue to pray that he does the same for all of us.

Make No Small Plans

While browsing at Powell's, this quote popped out at me as something I needed to hear:

Make no small plans. Thay have no magic to stir humanity's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work... Remember that our sons and daughters are going to do things that will stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon, beauty. Think big.

- Daniel Burnham (renowned architect of the 19th and 20th Centuries)

This is now a couple days later. The seed of this post lives in my twitterstream as: "A whisper: remain open." While I am being called to focus as plans come together for the fall, I need to remember that this is only the beginning of my discernment process. While it is good to avoid extra bagage, projects, and false requirements; it is also good to leave the mind and heart open to big dreams and possibilities, for those which are too small lack the magic to inspire realization. Yet another tasty tension which calls me one more step forward.

Knocking on the Academy's Door

This fall the Diocese is holding the first class of a new local initiative. It is the Academy for Formation and Mission and will be used to provide training to potential Deacons and Priests as well as lay people. This blog has already done me an incredible service by serving as a place to work our ideas and statements that needed to be included on my application essay. This essay is below and though it is really a condensation of things previously posted I include because of the sheer amount that it reveals about me in so short a space (I was limited to one page).

Thank you.

Timothy/Kevin

*****


In 2008, I was confirmed at Trinity Cathedral and entered its Cornerstone Benedictine Community. Both of these events are quite important to me as I now consider my primary spiritual identity as a Benedictine in the Anglican Tradition. In many ways I feel that I have been welcomed home to a place where I can share my whole spiritual journey and join in those of others without being fragmented. Just after my college years, I definitively left the Presbyterian Church after a moratorium on discussion regarding the ministry of gays and lesbians was imposed. I knew that I did not have a place there. My spiritual pursuits had already broadened into less orthodox areas. While retaining the core of my Christianity I explored Rosicrucian mysticism, Kabbalah, and Druidry. For about 15 years, I focused considerable energy into these paths. In 2007, I came to a bit of a crisis point with my mystical studies. I was leading a group in Seattle that was collapsing due to shrinking attendance and facilities issues while my own sense of the numinous all but extinguished. I was to attend a worldwide conference of the Order in Berlin, the week after I resigned my position heading the lodge in Seattle. I knew that I was still called to Berlin but that I needed to let the conference go. It was an excellent time for reflection in a brand new environment. I found myself repeatedly drawn to churches. Upon my return, I became very ill which brought me even further to a halt and a point from which to reflect. There too I found Christian influence. A close friend offered a laying on of hands while I was staying in the hospital. That was probably the first prayer in Jesus name in which I participated for some time (though I had actually attended Trinity regularly for about a year in 2003). This prayer was an axis upon which I turned. I realized two things in that place of non-movement: the need for community and a call back to the church. Slow and steady steps led me to the two events I mentioned at the outset.
All of the bits and pieces, threads and links above contribute to what I hope for in studying with the Academy and the ministry to which it can lead, whether it be lay or ordained, in an intentional community or at work in the world. Even if ordained, I know that the church has need for those of mixed vocations and varying income sources. Form is obviously undefined. That is a major reason that I wish to participate in this educational opportunity under the guidance of the diocese. I trust that the where and how to serve will become clearer in the years ahead. In my return to the church I have been particularly inspired by those working as emergents and how that may provide ways to blossom in a rapidly changing environment. I attended the two Emerging Christianity conferences sponsored by Richard Rohr’s Center. This has inspired a few adult education opportunities at Trinity last year and for the coming year. Using these new understandings, I believe that reaching out and networking to a variety of communities will become increasingly important. Given my attachment to the City of Portland (having come to attend Reed College and feeling called to stay), I hope that I might be a link of mutual understanding between the church and the gay community as well as the “spiritual but not religious.” One thing I know from my esoteric forays is that this identification covers a wide variety of very distinctive stories and religious experiences. We will need Christians who understand the paths they have walked. Priests are called to minister to the whole church and wider community, but evangelism often and effectively involves a bit of specialization. I hope that I might put mine to use in service to God and neighbor in thanksgiving for the blessing it has brought me. Many others may be waiting for an invitation to return or to find a new home.

Kevin Day (kevin7day@gmail.com)
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene 2010

Connecting with the Kingdom

My experiences at the Episcopal Village conference and in reading Dwight Friesen's "Thy Kingdom Connected" keep reverberating. I find more and more examples and experiences of network ecclesiology and missiology. Recently I've found myself connecting through all sorts of ways to Christians in other places and bringing those more distant or weak connections into my primary Christ clusters. From the says the hours with folks at Anglican Cathedral and St. Matthew's by the Sea in Second Life (an framework for creating virtual worlds), following the Presbyterian General Assembly on Twitter, Facebook friending new connections met at a face to face conference to get behind the movement to Believe Out Loud, and bringing these conversations back into my weekly benedictine group meeting. Virtual and Physical; Far and Near; New and Deepening connections: a very Mixed Economy indeed.

And all of this in the past two weeks. This seems like a holy fire worth stoking to see how it may burn bright for the kingdom.

Blessings on the summer road!