Mar/Apr 2020 Newsletter

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Zoom Liturgy of Compassion
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Recently, Board Member Rev. Jerry Maynard held a powerful and timely Liturgy of Compassion via Zoom. You can view the recording by clicking on the graphic here:
Community Leaders Monthly Connections
Are you a leader of an existing or newly forming Creation Spirituality community? Join us on the monthly Community Leaders Zoom call!

To join the email list for CSC Community Leaders, receive a reminder email with the link and updates, please email judyshook@aol.com. To join the monthly call follow this link to join the Zoom call: https://zoom.us/j/635474888

The next calls are on April 13, May 4, & June 8 at 11AM EST/10AM CST/8AM PST. 
Mark David Gray works from his studio in Milwaukee. His work addresses presumed societal and religious dogmas and myths, while his unabashed use of bright colors help accentuate and bring to the surface the hidden dramas of communal interaction. His work also prods the viewer towards self-reflection and the possibilities of meaningful community beyond age, race, gender and position in society.
Enough
by Mair Honan

Sometimes,
one gull
flying slowly,
low,
overhead,
is enough,
enough reason
to love this mystery.

Sometimes,
the long shadows,
growing across
the late afternoon grass
Is enough,
enough reason
to stop worrying.

Certainly,
in the deep dark,
the real night sky,
alive with energy beyond count,
Is far and enough reason
to kneel.
Spirituality and the Coronavirus
Soul-Work in Apocalyptic Times
by John Robinson

Why am I here? What did I come here to do? And what do these questions have to do with the Coronavirus pandemic?
 
Understanding the Work of Soul

Malidoma Somé, an initiated West African shaman with a western Ph.D., talked about soul-work one day in a Mendocino Men’s Gathering. He explained that in his culture’s cosmology, spiritual elders in the pre-life realm meet with each soul planning a return to Earth to help them choose their specific purpose in coming back. Once an appropriate task is identified, the individual is sent forth to be reborn but soon forgets the plan. Each person carries the seed of that sacred mission within. At some point along the road of life, an inner clock starts ticking and restlessness ensues because the individual unconsciously knows that their soul’s work is still undone. This same disquiet arises in personal or collective crises. Spiritually speaking, such agitation is meant to draw attention to the unfinished work of the soul. Finding our purpose in life and its crises, therefore, is about remembering why we came and discerning what this soul-work is right now. Whatever your religious or spiritual beliefs, Malidoma’s explanation represents an archetypal description of the soul’s calling. Here’s a personal example.

At the callow age of 14, I underwent open-heart surgery for the correction of a congenital atrial-septal defect. The operation saved my life but nearly obliterated my soul, for during surgery, I woke up feeling hands working inside my heart. It’s called anesthesia awareness and happens when anesthesia levels fall too low to maintain unconsciousness while paralyzing neuromuscular blocking agents prevent the patient from communicating this horror to OR staff. I repressed this horrific trauma for decades until a defibrillating shock administered to convert a heart arrhythmia shattered my defenses and I had to relive every devastating second of the surgery. I broke. Unable to hold the emotional pain of others, I gave up my work as a clinical psychologist and returned to school for a doctorate in interfaith spirituality. Yet all the while, I kept wondering – and asking! - why must I suffer this immense anguish only to lose my professional identity, career, income, and psychological community. At the culmination of my studies, however, I began writing again and seven books poured forth over the next decade articulating the surprising spiritual realizations I came here to share. Thank you, Malidoma!  
 
Finding Our Soul-Work in the Coronavirus Crisis

If I had kept trying to return to my career - and believe me I tried for a long time, more depression would have followed, for depression often signals the betrayal of soul. Eventually, I understood that my childhood trauma represented an unfinished adolescent initiation. The initiation was incomplete because it lacked the ritual structure, sacred purpose, and community participation to unveil my soul’s deep calling and unique gifts. Absent this sacred container, and to protect my fragile childhood ego, the revelation fell into the darkness of the unconscious. Forty years later, with the clock ticking loudly, it was time to uncover my soul’s vision. In this fashion, the personal discovery of soul-work often requires many crises, bringing up the issue over and over, until we finally pay attention to the call of soul. Which leads to discernment.

As a psychologist, minister, and mystic, I view discernment from a spiritual and depth-oriented perspective where it implies a prolonged and heartfelt search for one's truest vocation or calling. Why am I really here? What did I come here to do? These kinds of questions inspire a new experience and interpretation of our personal problems. Difficult times, too, invite us on a vision quest for the work of our soul. Moreover, as a depth-oriented psychotherapist, I learned that anything we can experience deeply and honestly will change, and it will change us. And, as a mystic, I learned that consciousness is itself sacred, and anything held in awakened consciousness becomes sacred, including our suffering and our work. To find the vision of our soul, therefore, we need to let feelings “grow us” emotionally and then sanctify our work in sacred consciousness.
 
Tools for Beginning the Search

What is soul-work in the Coronavirus crisis? The answer, of course, is absolutely personal - it is unique to each of us. Because only you can answer that question, here are three tools for opening your sacred calling.
 
Reframe Self-Quarantine as a Spiritual Retreat. In the worldwide pandemic, we are asked to self-quarantine. Rather than constituting a prison of interminable boredom, make seclusion a personal spiritual retreat, an opportunity to reflect on the work of your soul. Happily, there are many ways to do this – meditate, pray, dwell in deep silence, write in your journal, analyze dreams, consult the Tarot or I Ching, read the great spiritual writers, teleconference with a therapist or spiritual director, or initiate creative phone discussions with close friends. But keep in mind, revelations don’t always come quickly or easily; they need to mature like newly-planted bulbs and we need to clear the weeds of everyday distractions and misleading beliefs.
 
Access Your Soul’s Nature.  You can also access your soul’s nature and work more directly. To begin the search for your soul-work, try these two exercises.
 
* Pick a spiritual question that appeals to you from the list below, write a spontaneous answer (don’t censure anything, just free associate), then ask the same question again and write another answer, and keep repeating this process for several minutes. You may end up with as many as 5, 10 or 20 responses. When no more new answers arise, review your responses, underline the ones that feel most authentic, and write about what you are learning. Then repeat the exercise with another question. You may wish to focus one or two questions at a time, returning later to explore others. Here are the questions. Add your own later if you wish.

  • What did I come here to do?
  • What is the nature of my soul?
  • What brings me the greatest joy?
  • What brings me to life?
  • What breaks my heart?
  • What is the spiritual meaning of this pandemic?
  • What is my soul-work in this crisis?
  • Where is God in this struggle?
  • How is my soul experiencing this situation?  

* Have a Dialogue with Your Soul.  Here is a simple but powerful visualization exercise for meeting your soul. Find a comfortable spot to sit, have paper and pen handy, then clear your mind and follow these steps:

  1. Imagine that you can see your soul somewhere in the room. Take your time. Let his or her image spontaneously come to you. Where is he or she standing or sitting?
  2. Let the image become clearer. What does your soul look like? Start writing. Describe its physical appearance, clothes and age. What is his or her expression, mood, attitude or emotional energy? Let the image become clearer little by little, as if adjusting the lens on binoculars to bring something into focus.
  3. Welcome your soul in whatever way you like. How does your soul respond to your reaching out?
  4. Now begin writing a dialogue. You might start by saying how you feel, what’s been on your mind, or asking a question. When you’ve expressed yourself, sense the soul’s energy and let your soul respond. Record the response without censoring or judging it. Accept whatever is said and then write your reaction.
  5. Continue in this fashion pursuing any topics that are important to you. Consider asking if your soul-work involves new learning, caring for others, making amends for past lives, awakening our gifts for the world, or pursuing additional spiritual growth and transcendence?” You will know that the dialogue is authentic if your soul responds in ways that surprise, teach or affect you emotionally. The soul’s vision always provides new information.
  6. You may also find your soul being more assertive than you would have expected, pushing you to your express your gifts the world. The prophet archetype of the soul soon or later insists on action.
  7. When the dialogue feels complete or runs out of gas, stop, reread it, and write your reflections on what was revealed. What did you learn? How do you feel? What was your soul’s message?
  8. When the conversation feels complete, thank your soul and say good-bye until next time.
 
Practice Mystical Activism.  When you can’t go out into the world to do soul-work, consider the power of mystical activism – the intentional awakening of divine consciousness in your life and work. In this heightened, thought-free awareness, we discover new skills, including ways to change the world through unity consciousness; opening a mystical channel to the “other world” to seek help from deceased loved ones, ancestors, angels, spirit guides, and the divine; and initiating dialogues with Creation, or even Coronavirus, to find out what this crisis means on a spiritual level and what else you can do even in seclusion. The other good news is that the outdoors is not off-limits at this crisis, so go outside and awaken the mystical perception of sacred reality, which is a powerful experience for inspiring more soul-work. Instructions for these and other practices can be found in  Mystical Activism: Transforming a World in Crisis.
 
Humanity’s Collective Soul-Work

An unfolding series of world-wide crises now confronts humanity, including, but not limited to, the coronavirus, climate change, the population explosion and the coming economic chaos. Is yet another spiritual task required of us in this apocalyptic time, one common to the whole of humanity?

Abraham Maslow, the father of humanistic psychology – the “Third Force” of American psychology, and its wonderfully enlivening concepts - “hierarchy of needs,” “peak experiences,” “self-actualizing personality,” suffered a severe heart attack in his early 60’s and died several months later. In the intervening months, a time of very fragile health he called his “post-mortem life,” Maslow’s personality changed dramatically, shifting from a nearly workaholic level of ambition and productivity to a steady state of transcendent calm, characterized by a deep serenity, unitive consciousness, spontaneous spiritual insights, and pervasive perceptions of radiance, beauty, and the miraculous nature of being. He called this new state of consciousness the “ plateau experience ” and said he could awaken it voluntarily and remain “turned on.”  

Similarly, Pierre deChardin, the French philosopher, paleontologist, Catholic priest, and mystic, coined the term “noosphere” to describe what he sensed as an emerging collective level of unity consciousness, a superintelligence infusing all of us with trans-human awareness and intelligence. Aldous Huxley, too, suggested that an awakened intelligence was coming that would allow humans to transcend their individuality, accelerating curve of spiritual evolution. I believe Maslow, deChardin, and Huxley were describing an enduring state of mystical consciousness that will evolve one day for all of us, transforming our lives and our work.  

As a mystic, I sense the potential for “plateau” consciousness emerging in these catastrophic times, but its full realization is up to us – we must each take responsibility for our own awakening if we are to serve humanity’s transformation. The means of our awakening is mystical consciousness, a skill I have been writing about for twenty-five years. And here’s the bottom line: either we bring forth this new state or we destroy ourselves. We walk this razor’s edge every day. In sum, our collective apocalypse can represent a major turning point in human civilization, moving us from the sins of greed, power, and patriarchy, to the all-infusing love and unity of the omnipresent divine, if we follow the path. Such is our collective soul-work.
 
Conclusions

Reliving my heart trauma triggered a personal apocalypse but this it wasn’t my ending; rather it initiated the universal symbolic passage of death and rebirth - the death of my old life and the birth of a new and spiritually deeper one. I believe this passage also informs our collective apocalypse, representing the ending of an old and corrupted stage of consciousness and the birth of a new and more universally loving one, if we respond from the deep place of soul and wake up in time.

Why are you here? What did you come here to do? And will your discovery of soul-work and mystical consciousness help you rise to the challenge of these catastrophic times to serve the world? As problems multiply in these expanding crises, may you unwrap your sacred gifts and help awaken humanity’s sacred consciousness. Let me know what you discover.
John Robinson   is a clinical psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry, an ordained interfaith minister, the author of nine books and numerous articles on the psychology, spirituality and mysticism of the New Aging, and a frequent speaker at Conscious Aging Conferences across the country. His new book,  Mystical Activism: Transforming a World in Crisis , argues that a mystical awareness of life is critical to our survival in the rapidly approaching climate crisis. You can learn more about his work at  www.johnrobinson.org
Non-traditional Maundy Thursday Seder
by Roxanne Whitelight

Here you will find a Maundy Thursday Seder-like service designed for individuals or church families living in diaspora (apart). It follows the basic outline of a Passover Seder but includes and remembers the life of Jesus and the current situation of Pandemic that we are living under.

It was written especially for a Lutheran Church, where their Bishop is asking them to fast from communion until the community is back together. If you don’t have that direction you can easily insert more tradition institution and consecration language.

This can be observed in several possible ways:
  • People each have a copy of this Haggadah or order of service and can do it on their own.
  • People on livestream, zoom, or facebook-live as a leader led event with everyone participating at home with the items listed. If due to travel or shopping restrictions all of the items are not available, having a picture of them would work in a pinch. Don’t eat the picture!!
  • A pre-recorded leader led service where people then pause the recording and speak the prayers and blessings themselves.
I am sure there are other ways I have not thought of. 

Forgiveness is requested for any sacred cows that might have been tipped during this development. I have not included the Hebrew for these traditionally very beautiful Hebrew prayers for simplicity. Please excuse and correct typographical errors. If you want to shorten it you can eliminate the blessing of Elijah's and Miriam's cups.
I appreciate your suggestions and feedback.

Part of my motivation for doing this is that Maundy Thursday is actually my favorite observance during Holy Week and I wanted to incorporate the elements of Passover, last supper, and our current situation together.

Please feel free to use all or part of this in your personal observance or with your community. Credit for its development is appreciated.
Maundy Thursday Seder for A Church Family in Diaspora during a Pandemic
by Pastor Roxanne WhiteLight, DMin
Setting the Table
Place before you on a plate the following items or pictures of the following items:
  • A glass of wine or juice for everyone at the table. Where ever it says wine, juice may be substituted.
  • Bone from animal like chicken wing
  • Hardboiled egg
  • Celery leaves or parsley
  • Bitter herbs/ horseradish or something that tastes bitter or strong, small ginger slice would work
  • Small bowl of Apple sauce
  • Matzah bread or crackers as available
  • Small dish of salt water
  • Glass for wine or juice
  • Extra glass for wine of juice
  • Small pitcher with water and small bowl to catch the water
  • Cup of water
  • Candles (2)

Setting the context
Read scripture from Mark 14 regarding Jesus gathering with the disciples to celebrate the Passover meal.

Lighting the Candles
The candle lighting at the seder meal is much like that of the Sabbath meal, full of reverence and meaning, recalling for us the beginning of creation when God said let there be light. As you light the candles say:

Blessed are you, our God, Creator of the Universe, who has sanctified us with laws and commanded us to light the festival candles. Feel free to name a specific intention or person as you light each candle.

Introduction
Read aloud: The seder is a time to remember. It is a time to remember hardship and deliverance. It is a time to remember our wandering and our coming home. It is a time to remember our desolation and trouble and a time to remember God’s overcoming presence in our lives. It is a time to be instruments of God’s justice by inviting all who are hungry to come and remember with us and be fed. (or in our case to share food with others later).

Blessing first cup of wine
Similar to the Sabbath meal, the seder meal blesses wine several times during the meal. Say:
We praise God, Creator of Everything, who has kept us alive, raised us up, and brought us to this moment of remembering.
Drink some of the first glass of wine.

Everyone washes their hands
If you are observing this meal without others you can pour water from the pitcher over each of your hands. If you are observing the meal with others you can take turns pouring water over each other’s hands. In many religious traditions, washing is part of the preparation ritual for worship. As Christians, our water rituals are to sprinkle holy water or remember our baptism. As you pour you say:
We remember the blessing of water, gift of life.
We remember the well provided for the Israelites while they wandered in the desert. We remember our baptism. We remember Jesus washing the feet of his followers and setting the example of servanthood which marks us as members of God’s family.
We remember all of us who now wash our hands to reduce our spreading of the corona virus. We remember the healthcare workers who wash, and wash, and wash to try to keep all of us safe.

Acknowledging both the joy and sorrow of life
Read : In this season we honor the renewal of the earth through the coming of spring and newness. We also honor the sorrow of our ancestors in slavery in Egypt, the sorrow of Jesus as his disciples betrayed and abandoned him, and our sorrow and fear during this pandemic. Life is always a mixture.  
We take the celery or parsley, which reminds of new growth and dip it in the salt water, which reminds us of the tears of Israel when they were enslaved, the tears of Israelites during the holocaust, the tears of Jesus as he wept for Jerusalem, and the tears of our own lives, past and present. Eat the parsley dipped in salt water.
We cut and share the hardboiled egg . Say: We eat this egg as a symbol of spring and new life. Then say: Beloved God, we come to you in this time that contains growth and death, newness and sadness, courage and fear. Bless us as we draw near to you.

Breaking the bread or matzah
Take the bread in your hands and say: Blessed are you, our God, Creator of the Universe, who has sanctified us with laws and commanded us to take this bread, give thanks for this bread, break this bread and share it with all who are hungry. We eat this bread without leavening remembering our ancestors as slaves in Egypt, when liberation was at hand, having to leave and flee with whatever dough was available, before it even had time to rise. We eat this bread remembering Jesus who took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, this is my body, when you eat this, do it remembering me, whenever you eat this, I will be with you. We eat this bread remembering all who are hungry this night. Those who have lost their jobs to the pandemic and who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Thank you oh God for daily bread.
Break bread and eat it.

Blessing second cup of wine (refill glasses)
Say: We praise God, Creator of Everything, who has kept us alive, raised us up, and brought us to this moment of remembering.
Drink some of the second glass of wine. Say: We drink this wine remembering all of the ritual moments in Jewish life, most especially the beginning of the sabbath where we welcome God’s time into our lives by blessing wine and breaking bread. We remember Jesus taking the cup, blessing it and saying, this is the cup of the new covenant, a new promise with God. Whenever you drink this remember me, whenever you drink this cup, I will be with you. We remember all who drink this night to medicate themselves to make more manageable their fear of the pandemic, for their family or for themselves and we drink remembering all of those who are struggling this night to maintain their sobriety. As we partake of this drink, we give thanks and ask for blessings for all in need.

Asking the four questions
This is a traditional part of the seder that starts with the question, “why is this night different from all the rest”? If you are observing with others you can share the questioning and responding, if you are observing with no others being physically present with you, read and respond yourself.
“why is this night different from all the rest”? It is different because we are usually observing this night physically together to remember the last Passover Jesus had with his friends.
“why is this night different from all the rest”? It is different because we have been asked to fast from traditional communion by our bishop, until we are all together again.
“why is this night different from all the rest”? It is different because we are not only remembering the sorrow of Jesus’ passion but our own ever-present sorrow and fear regarding this pandemic.
“why is this night different from all the rest”? It is different because we are united with people around the world who are struggling to understand and cope with the significant changes we have already experienced and those that are to come.

Honoring the bone of the animal that gives its blood to protect us.
In the story of our spiritual ancestors, the Israelites, God gave them a symbol to protect them from the plagues that were visited upon Pharaoh. Say: We honor the sacrifice of the animals that serve and protect us. We honor the sacrifice and obedience of Jesus. We pray that you would provide us with the same kind of wisdom, charity and cooperation that will allow the worst devastation from this pandemic to pass over our houses.
 
Making a sandwich to remind us of the bitterness and sweetness of life that come together.
Take another piece of matzah or cracker. Put a bit of horseradish on it and then a larger helping of apple sauce. Add another piece of cracker to the top. As you eat the sandwich pray . Oh God, we know that whatever bitterness, disappointment and fear that come into our lives, by being open to your presence you provide for us a hint of sweetness and comfort to help us step through the difficulties of life. Just as you prompted the woman with the alabaster jar to give comfort to Jesus, so you anoint us with your holy oil of redemption and promise to never leave us comfortless. We lift our prayers for your comfort for those suffering with this new disease, and our fervent prayer is for effective treatment and a vaccine to present itself very soon.

Blessing third cup of wine (refill glasses)
Saying: We praise God, Creator of Everything, who has kept us alive, raised us up, and brought us to this moment of remembering.
Drink some of the third glass of wine.

Blessing the cup of Elijah and all of our spiritual ancestors
Say: We fill and lift this extra cup to honor all of the ancestors in the faith who have shared the cup of life in the name of our God, especially Elijah. We honor their unseen presence with us this night.

Blessing the cup of water that is Miriam’s cup.
Say: We lift this cup of water in the name of Miriam, the sister of Moses. The well that sustained the Israelites in the desert and wandering time is called Miriam’s well. We also honor the deep reservoir of blessing that you bestow upon us every day oh God.

Final Blessing
Say: At this time oh God, we find ourselves living in social distancing. Some of the children of Israel have been living in diaspora for a long time. They conclude the seder by giving thanks for this time of remembering together and they end by saying, “ Next year we will observe the Passover together in Jerusalem”. Tonight, we affirm, next year we will observe Holy Thursday physically together. All say together: Next year may be together. Amen

Closing hymn optional: Whom shall I send?
Mother Gaia State of the Earth Address
Mare Cromwell is a humble servant to the Great Mother. She is an internationally-known Gaia Communicator & Priestess, Author and Healer. Some might call her a Medicine Woman.  Mare’s work is to support the birthing of the New Earth emerging now.
 
Mare has studied with Native American elders for 25 years along with other gifted spiritual teachers. Mare’s healing practice is based in western Maryland and she is a former worm herder. She absolutely loves to lead ceremony, and is a huge fan of Sacred Silliness.  www.marecromwell.com
Come plan our Next Gathering!
Calling ALL! Would you like to help shape our next Creation Spirituality Gathering? Spots are now open on the Design & Planning Team. Come and share your talents to make our next Gathering the best one yet!

A Creation Story
by Patty Kay

And God breathed. 

Ruah!

That first breathe, Ruah, was of God, by God, and for God. And all that follows will be the same.

Now Ruah was infinitesimally tiny, and far, far hotter than most minds can imagine. And all things that people can see, touch, feel, hear, and smell will come from it, including those very senses and even ourselves. Ruah was blessed with its own divinity. Everything that is my God was contained in that less-than-a-speck. It was a singularity.

Divine Law suggests things go forth and multiply. Ruah experienced a quantum flux and inflated to a size that could be held in the palm of a hand. And all that happened quicker than the speed of light.  Time, space, and matter emerged at a velocity so intense that everything in it was homogeneous. So it was that our Universe was made. And God found it good.

God gazed upon the Universe and said, “Change!” Differentiation is born. And in a matter of microseconds to minutes, the symmetry existing briefly in the Oneness was broken as Nature began her long journey into the space that had been created. And space grew with it. All sorts of forces and subatomic particles and energy fragments appeared as things cooled. And those things began to build what we could recognize as the world we observe as it expanded evenly in all directions as waves of Divine potential.

The ways of Evolution are at least as mysterious to me as Divine ways. And both are sacred to me, even if both leave me in a state of perpetual confusion. Change is inevitable and science is bravely figuring out the material reasons for it. Theologians are endlessly discerning the Divine. But this is my story and both science and religion are Truth to me, even if neither happened exactly the way I think. Carl Sagan called us star stuff, and I believe him.

The Universe came to be nearly 14 billion years ago. Our solar system didn’t even begin to form until the Universe had been doing its business for 9 billion years. Our planet emerged from our solar system that formed around our sun. And all That was the result of one of those pillars of clouds and fire spoken of in Exodus. It is all a pattern, a Pascal Mystery, if you will. Miracles are the norm.

The Universe Story gives me the same sense of awe I felt as a child learning of God. One thing that isn’t so mysterious to me is that the stories we have told ourselves have not worked well for life. I will not blame us for not knowing what we know now. But I will hold us responsible for all that happens going forward. We’ve become aware of the devastation our way of life has wrought. We need to heed that Divine call to Change.

There was a time in the existence of humankind when our place in the Universe was better understood. We need to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Let’s recapture that sense of awe and appreciation for the abundance that brought us into being. Let’s relearn to respect the Earth from which we came. And let’s learn to tamper our “progress” with regard to the future generations we only dream of. I want to give them what was given to me.

Get Left with God
by Seth Wilpan

Liberals and progressives have to come back to god. That doesn’t mean we have to stop being atheists. We just have to allow ourselves to use that word, god, to express the source of our passion for justice. We have to admit that the wellspring of our commitment to peace and justice and, yes, love, is mysterious, and the word god is useful for signifying that mystery. 

I understand the aversion to the word, having shared that aversion for many years. The word is too closely associated with religious dogma, and worse, with misguided religiosity. Religion has always been susceptible to serving as an instrument of politics rather than as a vessel of spirituality. That’s why there’s such a clear distinction between the mystical and official versions of every religious tradition. In what I’ll call the right-wing resurgence that emerged from the ashes of the Goldwater presidential campaign, god became one of the tools of manipulation. God decreed in the bible whatever the hell they wanted him to decree and the preachers who benefited from laissez-faire capitalism found a new and fertile basis for a confidence scheme were only too eager to serve as propagandists. 

God said it was bad to be a homosexual. God said women should stay in the kitchen. God said sex was bad. God said abortion is murder. God said drugs were bad. God said war is OK. God said segregation is OK. God is an old white man. Jesus is a young (handsome) white man. God said if your suffering it’s your own damn fault. God hinted that the only sanctified being is the straight white male. No wonder liberals and progressives wanted to distance themselves from God and expunge him from our vocabulary.

But we threw away the baby with the bathwater. God is a great word. Everybody knows what it means. Never mind that it means something different to everybody. That’s part of its beauty, not to mention its utility. You can invoke god and everybody knows what you’re talking about, even though it percolates down through everybody differently. It’s like in yoga class everybody will express downward dog slightly differently, but they’re all in downward dog. 

Liberals and progressives are typically deeply pious people. To what do we attribute our dedication to fairness, our calling to protect the vulnerable, to prevent suffering, how beauty inspires us, our subservience to truth? We name it the unknown mysterious source, the unknowable power of the universe, and by other such poetical and contorted locutions. Just say god. Get over it. If we start saying it, we can detach it from its association with the old white man.

Are you going to tell Rev. William Barber that god is not real? Get with the program. Get left with god. God give us strength.
Hallelujah!
by James Irving Mann

Eagles spread their wings
in praise and in adoration
as they manifest
the existence
of Divine Intelligence.

Lilies dance with the wind
in beauty and in splendor
as they demonstrate
the elegance
of Sacred Thought.

Fireflies shine their lights
in joy and in wonder
as they reveal
the reverence
of Supreme Knowledge.

Rabbits hop across the fields
in glee and in jubilation
as they illustrate
the mystery
of Grand Design.

Earthworms wiggle through the soil
in persistence and in insight
as they proclaim
the doctrine
of Eternal Wisdom.

How do you celebrate your creation?

Cultivating a Vision
by Gail Sofia Ransom

While I’ve been sheltering during the Corona crisis, I’ve had time to clear out my inbox, including emails, solicitations, and updates from the Boston Globe. As I clicked away, I tunneled backwards through time: 3400 cases of COVID-19 on March 27. Delete. March 24, 1159 cases. Delete. Then 413. Delete. Forty one. Click. Eight. Click. Zero. All those days of fear and quarantine deleted.

I arrived at March 3 and was shifting through the usual chatter: messages about the Democratic primaries, (Would Warren endorse? Would Bernie give in?), AI facial recognition, the Supreme Court docket, minor fluctuations on Wall Street, Groupon Getaways, and some sort of virus in China.

What was it like, way back then, to spin through my days unrestricted? Attending meetings. Driving for pleasure. Singing in harmony. Hugging my friends. Like a pixilating image on our iPhones, the civilization we had created over centuries was coming apart. Although I deeply mourn the cause, the result is what I had prayed for – a reversing of the ravages of the capitalistic system whose competition and greed had taken the life out of everything it touched, including the Earth itself. 

For years I have both warned and feared the wrath of Gaia for what we have done. I thought her seas might rise up and swallow our shorelines while her winds ripped up our homes and drought inhaled our harvests. But here, in just a few weeks, the venomous spores of the coronavirus have done what reason and outrage could not. They stopped our wild rushing for more, slowed us down, gave us time to reflect on our lives, and reintroduced us to our families. 

I am at the vulnerable age for Corona, so my daughters have wanted me to stay inside except for an occasional walk. Over the weeks as I walked, the grey days of late winter have slowly given way to spring. Just this week, I saw tulips pushing through the soil. Magnolia and forsythia were forming buds, eagerly waiting their moment to flourish. A light green haze hovered among the trees poised to explode across their branches.

“What? Are we really going to do this?” I exclaimed. “Do we get to have another spring? Are we allowed another opportunity to thrive?” 

The budding branches nodded in agreement. All around I saw gardens at the ready. Plantings stretching their limbs. This is creation’s way. Civilizations eventually come to an end, but new life keeps pushing through. The First Path invites the Second. The Second Path leads to the Third, which inevitably leads to the Fourth. Over and over again. All is not lost. We humans on this planet get yet another chance to live honorable, soul-driven lives, as part of the creation that formed us.

People have suffered, served, and died because of Corona. They have lost lives, livelihoods, loved ones, and hope. As in any war, those who survive it are beholden to honor those sacrifices by living differently, by allowing new possibilities to take root, by creating a world community through our common grief and gratitude. Our visions and imaginations have the power to transform when we cultivate and nourish them. What could this life look like if we cherished every creature on Earth? How would people live together, survive the winters, sing their songs?

In response to the devastation of the Corona pandemic, I plan to spend time each day imagining and envisioning a new era for the human family. Every time I meditate, I plan to invite divine wisdom to move through me and cultivate a vision. I hope you will join me. This sacred work should not be left to chance, or to greedy power mongers. It’s the mystics who can create a new world community, one that is creative, interdependent, soul centered, and just.
Small Groups Zoom into Covid Crisis
As the Covid crisis grips all parts of Earth, we strive to connect and build community even amidst restrictions on group gatherings and social distancing. For those of us at Rossmoor’s Center for Spiritual Cultivation which is a Creation Spirituality Community, we’ve moved to utilizing Zoom for our gatherings. 

This has had the happy consequence of more frequent meetings for our group. Marcia Flagg, our founder and spiritual director, has managed to add a zoom account. As a group meeting at a retirement community, many of us are challenged with aspects of technology. The patience of Rick, her partner, has facilitated our meeting.

Today we discussed Rupert Sheldrake’s chapter on Reconnecting with the More-Than-Human World from Science and Spiritual Practices. We start off with a quick greeting and check in. Today we sang together our gratitude to all different species and to their place in Creation. Marcia then asks questions which provoke participants to consider their response and, perhaps, to share. Today there were 17 of us. We also relished a deep period of meditation together. I leave you thoughts from those gathered there today:

The irises are blooming, the Cherry blossoms, too. The sun shines more as pollution is lifted. It is a time to notice things. Matthew Fox spoke this week of taking a sabbatical in his meditation comments, suggesting Covid is a sabbatical of sorts. It is a time to stop. To reflect, to meditate, to rethink, to reorient. It is a time to reflect on our privilege as well, on our blessings. It is a time to grow food, to grow flowers. Take a 5 gallon pot and grow things! Daikon! Carrots!

One Chaplain trained in Sufi tradition shares her experience as a Hospice chaplain meeting by phone instead of in person. She shares the unexpected consequence that conversations are deeper, people more motivated to attend, to feel, to connect than they were in face to face meetings.

Everything emanates from the Divine Mind. What does it look like to be living on this planet efficiently? Who is directing our future for us? Now we suffer from a heavy consciousness of separation from the planet, from each other, from God. We must formulate our vision for what we want. We must not allow others to dictate what our future should be like. We must increase our focus, our vision ,our consciousness, our willingness to change the world.

The wisdom we share with one another, the energy and grounding of spirits with community outreach is what sustains us in these times of great need. May you find the community you need to sustain you. Let us know how we may help!

Carolyn Million
Small Group Development
Creation Spirituality Communities
In Celebration of the Order of the Sacred Earth
by Kristal Parks, M.A.  

A star studded night sky...
Mountains blanketed in freshly fallen powder...
Meadows splashed with brilliant wildflowers...
The mating call of a bugling elk...
The cacophony of song and sound of birds at dawn...
Baby elephants cavorting with delight...
The intoxicating fragrance of a stargazing lily...
Peacocks with feathers in full fan...

God in drag, all.

I am wildly, madly and passionately in love with all of Creation, from the tiniest ant to the most magnificent whale and am doing everything I can to protect these beings who have no voice but ours. So, when I heard that Matthew Fox, along with Skylar Wilson and Jennifer Berit Listug, were starting a new order called Order of the Sacred Earth, I sprang into a pirouette and have been twirling in joy and gratitude ever since!

To be a member of this order, all you have to do is take a vow: 

I promise to be the best lover and defender of Mother Earth that I can be.

How cool is that?! So simple. But maybe not easy. Mother Earth demands everything of us. Total commitment. No wiggle room allowed with this vow!

One of my favorite quotes from Gandhi is: "Think of the poorest person you know and ask yourself if your next act will make a difference to that person." I paraphrase that for myself to say: "Think of all the destruction being done to Mother Earth and ask yourself if your next act is loving and defending Her."

Maybe this could be a kinda mantra that we utter throughout the day and when we are facing a number of choices. I think that's what it means to make a promise. We keep it close to our heart and actions.

Coronavirus, in my opinion, is giving us a great gift... an invitation to take a deep look at what we are doing to Mother Earth. As a biologist and activist, I see a connection between the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. The planet is a vibrant, dynamic organism. And like all living things, seeks to rid itself of anything harmful and threatening to its wellbeing. There is nothing more threatening to Mother Earth than us, we human beings! We are like parasites, destroying nature as we gobble everything up in our greed, excesses and war mongering. 

To me, Coronavirus is like a prophet of old: "love and defend Mother Earth or else." We have been given many warnings by Mother Earth, but we haven't changed too much. Well now we have a very stark and horrifying example of what the "or else" means. Who would ever have guessed that a teeny tiny virus could bring the whole wide world to its knees and cause the stock market to plunge?

As a Native American friend said to me: "Mother Earth knows how to take care of Herself." Indeed. To tell you the truth, the power of Mother Earth makes me giddy. Ecstatic even! The crises of our time is like the pain of a womb about to birth us into our next evolutionary leap. 1   What a glorious time to be alive! I am excited about the possibilities facing us in spite of the fact that we are teetering on the precipice of annihilation. 

You see, this is the awakening of humans to the realization that non-human beings are Nations unto themselves with divine and sacred purposes of their own, apart from how they benefit us. It is the time of the Great Liberation... of the four legged, finned, feathered, creepy crawlers and rooted ones. Yes, their time has come. Hurray, hurray, hurrah!

Each thing that exists, marmot, tree, rock or bee, is an expression of the Creator, revealing something about His/Her character. An otter, His playfulness; an elephant, Her gentle power. When any of these beings goes extinct, so does that expression and revelation.  Forever .

Sentient and sacred, all of them. Here to praise and serve God in their own way. A dandelion as a dandelion; a spider as a spider. Nothing makes me fall on my knees in praise and adoration of the Creator faster than the sight and sound of geese flying over head or wild bunnies hop, hop, hopping across my yard.

It is time now to abandon our speciesism and remove the chains of terror that most animals feel because of our use, abuse, beating, and eating of them. To harm these, even the least of them, is like (dare I say it?) doing it to Christ Himself. 2 When sacred rivers are polluted, amazon forest cathedrals cut down or the earth heated so that polar bears loose their habitat, it is to me, blaspheme.
                                                           
If we look closely, we will see a causal connection between the slaughterhouse killing of 56 billion (!) animals 3 per year, and global warming, famine and pollution. As Thich Nhat Hahn poignantly states:

“Every day forty thousand children die in the world for lack of food. We who overeat in the West, who are feeding grains to animals to make meat, are eating the flesh of these children.” 4

Instead, let us extend the imperative of Love and Non-violence to embrace all beings. And do eco-justice from the point of view, and in collaboration with, Mother Earth and Her critters. They have knowledge and abilities we can’t even begin to imagine and are worthy to be our mentors and elders. Perhaps Coronavirus is more friend than foe and, like an elder, giving the clarion call that none of us can ignore any more. Death is the ultimate "or else".

During the 10 years that my organization, Pachyderm Power! Love in Action for Elephants, worked in Kenya to stop the genocide of the Elephant Nation, I had the great fortune of collaborating with local tribes, especially the Maasai and Samburu. They told me that if elephants go extinct, humans will lose their soul and go crazy. Well, elephants are on the verge of extinction (about 100 killed per day!) and the world has gone stark raving mad. These indigenous tribes understand the deep connection and inter-being we have with the non-human world. 

My own intimate embrace with Mother Nature began years ago when I was lured into a forest for a prolonged retreat. I had gone there for a sabbatical of silence, reflection and inner healing after having done hard time behind bars for non-violent peace actions. I moved into a small, rustic, one room cabin high in the rocky mountains. I spent my days walking in the forest, sitting by streams, watching and listening. Mostly listening. After about two years, nature and silence taught me this:

At the core of all that exists, in every blade of grass, howling coyote and quivering aspen leaf, there exists an energy and vibration of joy, not unlike a giggle. 
 
When we love and defend Mother Earth with all our heart and actions, She will guide us in how we are to protect Her, and it will be fun because the energy of the Universe is Joy. So let us, with loving support of each other, heed Coronavirus's warning; take and keep the vow: I promise to be the best lover and defender of Mother Earth that I can be; roll up our sleeves and get to it! Don’t forget to bring your banjo and dancing shoes!

 
1  Andrew Harvey: The Hope

2  I extrapolate Christ's "In as much as you do this to the least of them, you do it to me" to include all God's creatures. See Matt: 25: 34-40

3  See www.AnimalEquality.net

4  Thich Nhat Hanh: Creating True Peace, p. 77.

Kristal Parks is a life long activist, contemplative, author, speaker, elephant conservationist and biologist. In 2005, Kristal founded Pachyderm Power! Love in Action for Elephants which worked to stop elephant genocide in Kenya for 10 years. She weaves a tapestry of justice woven from various shades, hues and textures of interconnected and interdependent liberation movements.  KristalParks.com or PachydermPower.org
Jerusalem
by Therese Mughannam

Since Trump’s so called “Peace Plan” was revealed, I have forced myself to look at the long view of history for perspective, especially in relation to Jerusalem, the place of my birth. It calms me to recall that Jerusalem has survived a very long and turbulent history, which I cannot do justice to here. But I will offer the following:

Jerusalem is infinitely more than a place on the map. It is an ancient city, 40 centuries old, hugely significant for the Israelites of the Hebrew bible and of course made prominent by the fact that Jesus preached his message, suffered and died there. Jerusalem, known as Al Quds in Arabic - the holy place -was considered the center of the world by Christian Europe and depicted as such on European maps for centuries. In fact, there is an ancient carved stone in the church of the Holy Sepulcher, which proclaims Jerusalem as the “navel” of the world. Despite the troubled political scene today, and especially today, Jerusalem continues to have enormous religious significance for the three monotheistic religions: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim.

All through the centuries, over and over again, Jerusalem has been conquered and subjugated by various empires in the region. Interestingly, Christian armies, like the Crusades, were devastatingly violent and brutal, even to the indigenous Christian Palestinians, my ancestors. Some Muslim leaders on the other hand, like Saladin in 12 th century, invited Jews back to Jerusalem to live, which they did and increased their numbers in and around Jerusalem.

The Israelis who control Jerusalem today have not been as generous. A recent article in the New York Times about Trump’s so called peace plan explains that the Israeli government has insulted the Palestinians by “giving” them Abu Dis for their capital. Abu Dis is an impoverished village outside of Jerusalem, some would call it a slum, with no access to Jerusalem’s holy sites. It sits behind the Wall of Separation Israel erected in 2005. The glimmering Dome of the Rock or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher aren’t even visible from Abu Dis.

When the UN arbitrarily partitioned Palestine in 1947, the line of division went right through Jerusalem. Many, including the Vatican, urged that such a universally important city be internationalized. But the new Israeli government had other plans for Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem against international law in 1967, and to this day the Israelis have complete control over all of Jerusalem with its more than 300,000 Palestinian inhabitants in the eastern part of the city.

I was born in Jerusalem, a few months before the partition of Palestine, which makes me older than the state of Israel. I consider it a magnificent gift to have been born in such a resplendent and archetypal city and I gladly bear the burden of responsibility to the destiny that gift has given me.

Because of the universal and religious nature of Jerusalem, I, and many others, believe that it should belong to every human being. Numerous people from different faiths do relate to this universal quality Jerusalem has. It’s happened to me so often that when people find out that I was born in Jerusalem, they express a feeling of awe, which often embarrasses me, and I try to break by jokingly telling them they can touch me if they want. I’ll recount one incident that happened. True story:

My mother had passed away in 1988 and the following year on All Souls Day I took my toddler son with me to the cemetery as the bishop of my diocese was going to say Mass for the Dead at the cemetery chapel. After the services, people gathered outside around the bishop in conversation. I also went, and being reverent in those days, I asked him, still dressed in his liturgical vestments, to bless my little son. He did, then he asked me where I was from. To say from Palestine was still unnecessarily provocative at that time, so I told him that I was born in Jerusalem. The bishop immediately knelt before me and said: “Please, give me YOUR blessing.” I was shocked and embarrassed and quickly took his arm to lift him up off the moist grass. 

Of course, that bishop didn’t know me from Adam or Eve. But he knew the religious and archetypal significance of Jerusalem and held in the highest esteem any person or thing connected to it.

Jerusalem is so much bigger than any one people or religion and must belong to all people of faith. My heart exults with joy and hope whenever I hear the words of the prophetic vision and promise of the prophet Isaiah: ‘’Rise up in splendor Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines upon you.” That Light is from a Holy City, Jerusalem, which belongs to all humanity.
Mother Earth: Catholic Church's Emerging Acceptance of New Age Spirituality
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

The Roman Catholic Bishops conference of Italy published a prayer to Mother Earth in April 2019. The conference did this with a special focus on the Amazon synod which occurred in October 2019. This breakthrough is being equated with the Catholic Church's emerging acceptance of both, indigenous people's and  New Age spirituality .

The National Catholic Register and EWTN, an American-based, global television network, are, together, promoting a two-Bishops lead vile campaign against Pope Francis and the direction that the Amazon synod is taking the church. In a National Catholic Reporter article title  Amazon synod has set Pope Francis' professional haters on edge   ," its author, Michael Winters, wrote: Cardinal Raymond Burke and Kazakhstan Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider were leading a "campaign" against the pope and the Amazon synod's working document. Mr. Winters also wrote: In this internet age, an auxiliary bishop from Kazakhstan can make a splash, but the particular vehicle for Burke's and Schneider's vile insinuations is the National Catholic Register, an arm of EWTN.

Traditionalist Catholic, Michael Matt, editor of the conservative Catholic publication,  The Remnant Newspaper , is a  prominent member   of the Burke and Schneider lead vile campaign. In a video by Mr. Matt titled " POPE SACHS CHURCH: Vatican Embraces United Nations Goals " there is a picture of John Lennon and Pope Francis together, with the words " Imagine  THAT" displayed next to them, indicating that the Amazon synod (as Matt says in the video) helps the Church promote its global agenda to fulfill Lennon's (in general) vision, as presented in the lyrics of the Beatles' song  Imagine . Matt also produced a video titled:  Hippies in the Vatican: A Groovy Kind of Synod .

The leading Protestant opponents of the New Age are making the same - hippie New Age spiritual philosophy -  connection   as Matt is, to a prophesied "coming era," that will be ("if conservative Christians cannot stop it") ushered in by the pope and the United Nations.

Fr. Mitchael Pacwa, a renowned expert on the  New Age , condemned what he believed to be idolatry at the Amazon synod on his weekly program on EWTN. He talked about the indigenous people's 'Pachamama' (Mother Earth) "idols" that were praised and blessed at the Synod on the Amazon. He also said: "The bishops conference of Italy published a prayer to Pachamama." Concerning the thinking that influenced the publication of this Inca prayer to Mother Earth, he said: "This is New Age like thinking that goes back to the 1970s."

Wikipedia says: "From a historical perspective, the New Age phenomenon is rooted in the counterculture of the 1960s." The Beatles' promotion of Hinduism, according to Wikipedia, "kick-started the Human Potential Movement that subsequently became New Age." The 1960s counterculture, as stated by Wikipedia, "used the terms  New Age  and  Age of Aquarius  to refer to a coming era."

In the early 1970s, I  prophesied  to family and friends that the Roman Catholic Church was going to accept the hippie spiritual philosophy. I believe that it is all coming together now, just as I predicted.

********************************************************************************

News : The internationally renowned spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest and eco-theologian, Reverend Matthew Fox, presents Daily Meditation (DM) Facebook postings. On Rev. Fox's December 10, 2019 (DM)  Facebook post  he presents a 173 word reply comment to my comment, which is a presentation of the above article. This article/comment of mine that is posted on Fox's Facebook site has an introductory sentence that reads: If the Roman Catholic Church would recognize the existence of Mother Earth, and then develop a respectful and loving relationship with her, this, I believe, would help heal the world.

Michael Matt video (1.): In Michael Matt's Sep. 23, 2019, video titled  ECO-SOCIALISM: Francis & the Amazon Schism   Mr. Matt says in the 6:45 to 7:42 section of the video that Pope Francis's theology "is like the theology by John Lennon." A part of the Beatles' song  Imagine  is then played. Mr. Matt then says the pope and his advisers are "like old hippies, they are like a bunch of old hippies who still think  Imagine  is cool." And then a little later in the video Matt says that "the Jesus that Pope Francis talks about is kind of like the Jesus of the New Age." So, Matt evidently believes that Pope Francis has a hippie New Age theology.

Michael Matt video (2.): In Michael Matt's March 30, 2018 video titled  NO HELL BELOW US? , which are lyrical words in the Beatles' song  Imagine , Mr. Matt comments on Pope Francis's "heretical" bombshell whereby he reportedly told his good friend, atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari, that there is no hell. A segment of this video (3:50 to 4:06) presents John Lennon singing the words NO HELL BELOW US. In the video Matt lays out a plan for what Catholics might do to keep the old Faith despite Pope Francis's promotion of modernist hippie revolutionary theology.

Mr. Matt uses a segment of a  video  by the co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance, Lynne Twist, to confirm his belief that the Pachamama (Mother Earth) Movement, including the Amazon synod, is about being, as stated by Twist, (1.) "a hospice to the death of the old structures and systems that no long serve us"  (Matt believes that Twist is including the Catholic Church here) , and (2.) a "midwife," to help them give birth to their emerging new structures and systems that we now know in the 21st Century will serve us. (An article of mine on this topic is titled,  Global Paradigm Change .)

I n a January 10, 2020  article  by Michael Matt-he wrote that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò proclaimed in an  InsideTheVatican.com  interview that: "The [Amazon] Synod working document testifies to the emergence of a post-Christian Catholic theology, now, in this moment." The acclaimed beginning of "the emergence of a post-Christian Catholic theology" as stated by Vigano, is what I (a few years ago) prophetically announced had already begun. I also prophesied that this emerging theology would eventually develop into a theology that would be used to establishment a "new post-Christian Catholic Church." These prophecies of mine are presented in a few articles of mine, including one titled  Mystical Paradigm Shift And A Post-Christian Church .

The Amazon synod's  final document  mentions mother earth three times. "The wisdom of ancestral peoples affirms that Mother Earth has a female face." Nature itself is treated as a person in the document. Twice, in the document, the "rights of nature" are recognized. Two articles of mine on this topic are located at (1.)  here  and (2.)  here .

In a September 25, 2019 article titled  How The Amazon Synod... Promotes The Worship Of Mother Earth , an article published in  The Wanderer , a conservative national Catholic weekly newspaper, its author, Rey Flores, identified Gerhard Cardinal Mueller as a world-renowned activist who was protesting against the direction that Pope Francis's Amazon Synod Spirituality is taking the Catholic Church. And, in the article, Flores also states that Mueller has criticizes the synod document for its “hippie” language, such as “ecological conversion” and “mother earth.”

The Amazon Synod Spirituality actually reduces Mother Earth to a less-than-divine entity who is syncretized/inculturated with Mother Mary and then HONORED, not "worshiped".  ref.

Google has my definition of the  hippie New Age spiritual philosophy  placed on the very top of its list of information about this topic.

"A special United Nations event was recently held in celebration of 'The Spirit of the United Nations.' Open to all U.N. staff and Non-Governmental Organizations, the program featured an opening 'blessing song on behalf of indigenous peoples,' an expression to 'thanks to Mother Earth.' And a special rendition of the former Beatle John Lennon's song, ' Imagine ,' was played to those gathered at this event." This quote is from an article of mine tilted " UN, Natives And Hippies Unite To Save The World. "

Michael Matt videos...
(3.) A part of a  video  by Michael Matt (including frame 11:05 to the end of the video) is about the Amazon synod and some other topics touched on in the above article.
(4.) A Michael Matt  video  about Democratic party leaders praising Pope Francis.

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION!  Toward A One-World-Government and One-World-Religion

In a February 28, 2020,  Remnant  newspaper video titled  VATICAN'T: Catholic/UN Population Control  there is a segment (7:04 - 7:22) wherein Michael Matt, the newspaper's editor and video's narrator, presents part of a papal introductory video about a Vatican project, "a global educational pact," wherein Pope Francis says "It (the educational pact) needs to be revolutionary." Matt then says: "We have the hippie guy, he says he is going to start a revolution." Matt then presents a picture of Pope Francis and John Lennon together with the words "Imagine THAT!" in the picture. Then a part of the Beatles' song "Revolution" is played, wherein John Lennon sings: "You say you want a revolution."

This pontifical project or global educational pact will be signed on October 15, 2020. The project aims at primarily educating the world on how to end the global climate crisis. It calls on all nations and peoples to an "ecological conversion," to help "achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals." In response to the world's ecological crisis and other global treats Pope Francis has called for the establishment of a "supranational, legally constituted body," or one-world-government to help heal the world. The educational pact also focuses on inter-religious dialogue. The pact, according to critics, promotes religious indifferentism and syncretism, aimed at achieving inter-religious harmony and, ultimately, a one-world religion.

Here's the link to a Michael Matt article, titled:  The Hippie Pope's Green New Deal

More news:

There is a 2/10/2020 Facebook  post of mine  about a 5/10/2020 Michael Matt video, titled  DONALD TRUMP: Vatican Public Enemy No. 1

On the  ChurchMilitant.com   site there is an October 20, 2019,  article  posted about "A Dutch bishop [Robertus Mutsaertsis] condemning the Amazon Synod for attempting to turn the Catholic faith into a 'new religion' by 'embracing pantheism' and recognizing 'pagan superstition as a source of revelation.'" ... "There is a 'single mention of Jesus,' in the synod's working document, he wrote in a Thursday post on his blog, 'but not as Son of God and Savior,' but as 'Jesus the philosopher, revolutionary and hippie.'"
Want to Review Books?
From time to time (and now more frequently than before) your newsletter editor is approached by authors within our community who are offering their books for review and promotion. If you are interested in reading and writing up reviews of books focused on creation-centered spirituality, please let us know. The books will include poetry, theology/philosophy, memoir, art, etc. We would be interested in relatively in-depth and objective reviews of books. Please send a message to newsletter@cscommunities.org
New book from Matthew Fox!
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas
A stunning Spiritual Handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of a mystical/prophetic genius offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
What is Creation Spirituality Communities?
Creation Spirituality Communities, Inc. (CSC) is a network of individuals and communities who are grounded in the sacredness of all creation and seek to connect to the spirituality of creation through mysticism, creativity, and cultural transformation.

CSC includes people from many spiritual traditions, cultures, races, sexual identities, and ages. They come to Creation Spirituality through the writing and speeches of Matthew Fox, through articles and videos, through conversations with friends, and through study at one of the Creation Spirituality universities – now the Fox Institute of Creation Spirituality.

Creation Spirituality Communities provides avenues for gathering together, being inspired, and embodying the CS message of compassion, co-creation, and transformation. We are led by a nine member board of directors and supported by our members.
Below are the Creation Spirituality Communities that we are aware are meeting on a regular basis. If you are participating in a community or CS circle that is not included on this list, please let us know by writing to contact@cscommunities.org.

If you are the convener or leader of a CS community, you are invited to an online conversation on the first Monday of every month at 11:00EST. Please let us know if you are interested!

LIST OF CREATION SPIRITUALITY COMMUNITIES:

Creation Spirituality Communities
contact@cscommunities.org | www.cscommunities.org