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Cosmic we are all one St Mary’s Matters

St Mary’s Matters Issue 43 I 2016 I $31 Contents The Ferment of Becoming Trevor Parton of Separateness David Cantwell Cosmic Unconsciousness Tony Carroll The Necessary of Touch Ann Ooms David Pincus From the Stillness Tansky A Reflection on Cosmic Consciousness Barbara Fingleton Cosmic Consciousness Peeling Onions Bob Aldred owever we interpret this topic, one thing is clear. HWe need to take responsibility for the bit of the Creating Room to Read cosmos that at our door. Kathy Hedeman We take care of each other, we rail against the injustices Cosmic Consciousness we see perpetrated in our , and we have Carolyn Vincent respect for the on which we live. A Cosmic As a and as individuals we can move Shar Ryan towards a sense of interdependence and connection Creator of the Cosmos with all about us. Anne Maguire Re-Imagining Luke We are lucky to have such a long standing relationship Greg Jenks with Micah. This helps us to pursue our goals of and . And the we share with this body of people reminds us to keep living by the words of its Brian O’Hanlon eponymous : Sonnet Live justly Perrier tenderly Learning from a Place of Conflict Walk justly. Anne Brown Clearly this topic resonated with the creative minds At the Beautiful Brookfield Centre in the community as a number of excellent poems Photostory were submitted. These included one titled ‘Creative Presence’, the author of which I cannot remember. If SMX - Worth Pursuing the Dream? s/he lets know I will acknowledge it in the next Terry Fitzpatrick edition.

Within Me, In This Moment Our opening story is an extract from a Christian Shiloh Moore Brothers’ publication and sets the tone exactly for this topic. Last Chance Margaret Clifford If you enjoy the content of this issue or if you disagree with what you read, do please write to the editor. We at St Mary’s are happy to publish your letter in the next edition. Photostory T he Editor Creative Presence

2 St Mary’s Matters The Ferment of Becoming

ook around and see what is happening present to us in almost every aspect of ‘.’ Lto our world. Ferment is everywhere. its and poignancy. The ferment of The is in trouble, the animals are becoming continues as an epic story still Brian Swimme, speaking about Teilhard in trouble, the earth is in trouble. The striving for fulfilment. de Chardin, in an interview entitled The rhetorical question is always ‘What is Divinization of the Cosmos explains: going on’. There is no single answer to this The other quote is from process is present from the very beginning, but question. It depends on what your world philosopher : ‘You in an implicit , and the is view, your is. can only interpret the past in terms of the accomplishing this great work of making present. The present is all that you have.’ explicit. Why do have restless hearts? To (Body and - Lecture 3) This is taken borrow the language of Pierre Teilhard de to mean, as Whitehead explains, that as The Passamaquaddy people see Chardin we could say that it was a of you are faced with interpreting the past themselves as participating in this work the universe in a ‘ferment of becoming.’ it can only be dealt with satisfactorily if in a unique way. I think this is also ‘The It seems that the Universe has been you bring to it your own contemporary Great Work’ of Thomas Berry. In this ‘becoming’ for the past 13.7 billion years, metaphysical viewpoint. Thomas is offering us a cosmology to and has now reached the ‘restless heart’ help us define ourselves in this 21st stage. serves a purpose Century. in an intimately connected universe. Everything has a role in the continuously Back in 1926 Teilhard de Chardin in the self-organising epic in which we final paragraphs of his celebrated The participate. If we want to know our role Divine Milieu wrote about this creative in this epic, I think we have to ask our ferment: hearts this question but not expect an answer in grammatical English. , lift up your head. Look at the immense crowds of those who The scripting of the Universe Story build and those who seek. All over the is not in concrete, except for the world, men are toiling- in laboratories, guarantee that what we have done in in studios, in deserts, in factories, the past and what we do in the present in the vast social crucible. The constrains what we may do in the . ferment that is taking place by their The hidden and mysterious agency that instrumentality in and and fuels our universe and that none of us is happening for your sake. knows precisely, manifests as an innate Open, then, your arms and your heart, and spontaneity present in like Christ your , and welcome our planet, that has brought us through the waters, the flood and the sap of several extinction processes to where we . are on our beautiful blue-green paradise, If you bring to it the same and that has gifted us from the when in which it was established, then do This last page is well worth a read for we were all stardust, engaged then in its not expect . Do not expect those unfamiliar with his work. He own ‘ferment of becoming.’ There are two transformation. Einstein and Thomas wrote this at a time when the notion quotes that might be apposite here. One Berry remind us that the problems of the of the earth community was not yet is from Teilhard de Chardin: ‘...everything present cannot be solved by the same well accepted in the West, and his work is the sum of the past’ and ‘... mindset that created them. comes across as being somewhat human- is comprehensible except through its centred. .’ and the one is The American Indian gives us an insight into the of the human Thomas Berry’s contribution to the In one sense our bodies/minds carry in the story of cosmogenesis. thinking of Teilhard with which he was the traces and results of the moment of very familiar, is to offer us a deeper the great flaring forth, the formation of This tradition is extremely cosmological. connection to the more than human stars and galaxies from the primordial Their clothes, tents and world and link it more closely to our interstellar dust, the cosmogenesis of expressed an attachment to the world consciousness of the . elements in the heart of supernovas, the that is rarely matched. Their place in Trevor Parton (@RubidaTrevor) formation of Earth and the of the scheme of things is expressed very life. We are carrying the whole history poignantly in song: We make a road for Photo: Hop Pea (Flinders Ranges of the past right here in the present. We the Spirit to pass over. (Passamaquaddy from the Newsletter of the Centre for are dazzled by its beauty and integrity. traditional song) The insight here is to Ecology and Spirituality After millenia of on our world, give us a lead as to the role of the human science, , and in the progressive manifestation of Spirit, have brought this story ever so more what Teilhard de Chardin named as

St Mary’s Matters 3 Myth of Separateness: and how it keeps us blind to the oneness of life n June 2015 a group of concerned ‘There is nothing to fear.’ Ipeople gathered in the foyer of Parliament House. Using the name ‘Love ‘Your body is simply an makes a Way’, they began to sing a song .’ ‘Where were You?’ It was a peaceful protest in response to the treatment To this day it was of asylum seekers in the country. You probably the most happy, could not get a more obvious example of peaceful and calming how separateness is used to justify the ninety minutes I have treatment of these people. experienced in my life and I saw something Our actively and deliberately in Trish fundamentally dehumanises them. They restrict change that day. As you . They want us to see them all know, her happy as the enemy – as separate from us. disposition and From separateness comes fear and from are quite remarkable and David with his wife Trish and daughter at Richmond, fear we manifest bigotry, , remain ever since. Tasmania. One of David’s favourite places. and violence. We become blind to the oneness of life. It wasn’t about fighting in the here has been a cancer. It was accepting it as it is, walking vital part in lifting me up when I felt The word ‘God’ has been tainted since with it and knowing that her real self overwhelmed. Many in this community mankind began to create the current main cannot die. have been incredibly supportive of us stream image of the divine. When I use over the past few years. But the ego is the word ‘God’ in this article, I do not From this encounter the real message of powerful and will always try and keep us mean a bearded man sitting on a cloud the became clear. Whilst the in a state of separateness. issuing judgments and interfering with the fundamentalist is almost entirely world. When I use the word ‘God’ I mean focused on (the man), the real When we see God as a separate entity we the unknowable of our lives. message and deeper understanding of the have already lost the battle over the ego Spong described it as the ‘Ground of our resurrection was ‘The Christos, The Christ and the illusion of separateness. When Being’. ‘God’ is for me the indescribable (The Spirit)’. we petition God for ‘things’ as we have force of love, of oneness with all life both been brought up to do, then it is doomed past and present. Jesus was the man. The Jesus of the to failure. clearly understood that he was not I sat with my wife Trish in November 2012 ‘a body’ and that his life was not who he Separateness is evident when religion when the doctor told her breast cancer was. He was the Christ. In Ephesians 4;6, tells us we are broken and need to be had spread to her liver and it was now the scripture says ‘God is all and in all’. fixed. inoperable. Chemo was her only option now, no cure is expected but there was Dr Phil saw the ‘Christos’ in Trish. He saw Separateness is evident when religion for keeping this disease at bay for that she didn’t need to ‘fight anything’. tells us we are lost and need to be found. a considerable period of time. That was Nothing was attacking her, the real self. three years ago and she is still going Her body is irrelevant. The Christ is in her Separateness is evident when religion strong in spite of enduring almost five and in all. tells us we are unworthy and need to be years of toxic chemo drugs. saved. Journey forward almost three years since The only time I saw her show any Trish’s diagnosis. She continues along Separateness is evident when religion was when we walked out of the . the same path with a sense of calm and tells us we are righteousness and it is all She said through the tears, ‘I am going to resolve. She is not fighting cancer. She is others that need our brand of . fight this thing’. accepting of it, and continues to journey along with it. has often become a dumbed down The next day we met with our spiritual process of grovelling before an angry and mentor Dr Phil Harker a Psychologist and I am not sure I can say the same about vengeful God figure, seeking the removal friend since the late 80’s. myself. Much comes from or fixing of the very things this phony attachment. My own struggle with letting gave us in the first place. This is Phil kept saying a few things back to Trish: go of the things that do not has not prayer. This is religious nonsense. ‘You are not a body.’ been difficult. I find myself often seeking ‘Christ is all and in all.’ attachment to the separate self, the The is clearly struggling separate Trish and the separate things like to return to its gnostic roots. The current ‘The Christ is in you. You cannot die.’ our home and possessions. I must say is meeting strong resistance on ‘You cannot fight what is not real.’ that this community and my involvement all fronts by fearful men deluded by

4 St Mary’s Matters separateness. I doubt he will succeed A young South African tourist caught up in fundamental change in could in bringing about any true reforms and the midst of the Paris attacks wrote of her some semblance of peace emerge. the church may ultimately decline. The ordeal. At first she described the terror. empty promises of separateness are Yet as she wrote her graphic account Perhaps the best response I can find now being laid bare to all. I believe that it became clear that this was a story of came from none other than the Dalai nothing the church can do will save its hope. In the midst of her despair and Lama. fate. Ironically I believe the only way to sheer terror she felt a sense of save the church is to let it die. No longer and peace with recalling the ‘We cannot solve this problem only bound by dogma and fear, the church in a of those whom she loved. Those who through prayer. I am a Buddhist and I different form may manifest. helped her. Those who she saw die. believe in praying. But humans have created this problem, and now we want So what is Prayer, as I believe there is an I can’t help but align this with our God to solve it. It is illogical. God alternative? the mystical message of the resurrection. would say, solve it yourself because you Prayer is a call to . Love can conquer fear. Love can conquer created it in the first place.’ hate. Love can conquer separateness. Prayer is opening your mind to stillness. Jesus is a of the separate body, So how do we all move forward in a broken and vulnerable. Yet the true world that is clearly broken? Prayer is seeing the Christ in all. essence of the Christian story is not about a dead body rising but about the We need to understand that hysterical Prayer is not seeking answers but is just revelation of the real self. If we are truly is not the way into the being content to stay with the question. walking in this path with authenticity we future; it is the last gasp of the past. surely cannot join the chorus of those We must be vocal in actively opposing Prayer allows one to see the illusion seeking retribution. Justice yes. But all forms of bigotry and hatred. This of separateness empowering action of retribution will simply lead to reciprocity community in particular has been , and . of violence. consistently at the forefront of standing with the marginalised. There is even Prayer opens the door to oneness. Separateness, which pits human against more need for this community to human, each seeing each other as the continue to be a light and a beacon of When one does not see separateness problem, separate from one’s self is a hope. then one cannot possibly treat a , powerful force which it appears mankind a prisoner, a drug addict without cannot escape. We recognise that we are all one compassion One cannot see a person humanity and that the illusion of without seeing oneself. I recall the powerful gospel message of separateness is keeping us blind, Jesus’ last words on the , ‘Forgive fearful and violent. We can immerse We wonder why the world is such a them Father; they know not what they ourselves in prayer. Not the prayer of violent brutal place, seemingly devoid do’. How relevant this still is today. The . Not the prayer of exclusion. But of love and compassion. Mankind, it Jesus figure, brutally bashed, tortured a prayerfulness that brings us closer to appears, has not learned much over the and mocked refused to give in to anger ourselves, opens our minds and guides us past 2 millennia. The world is broken. The and violence spawned by separateness. to gentle action. myth of Separateness keeps us blind to the oneness of life. The terrorists who He saw his attackers not as separate, but Today let us ask ourselves how we can carried out the Paris attacks bear witness as part of the one human consciousness. make a difference and how we can foster to the futility of separateness. Seeing peace. themselves as messengers of a clearly Imagine what goes through the minds impotent god, they sought to create as of across the world, especially Jack Spong said: ‘The spiritual task much horror and fear as possible. those living in Western countries, every today is to seek oneness with God, not time these attacks are perpetrated in magical intervention by God.’ their name. We do not seek David Cantwell to blame all for actions of those that bomb clinics, yet everyday Muslims appear to have to Live for today. justify and re-justify their innocence. Always see the

Religions have survived this long by embracing Ted and Louise and institutionalising Baby with a peace symbol is held by a Muslim mother. separateness. Only through

St Mary’s Matters 5 Cosmic Unconsciousness: a Grandfather’s Musings

hen a little baby smiles at you it and innocence, the evangelical Wis because it can see the fairies, requirements to enter the kingdom of according to Celtic , whereas . They have a beautiful our earthbound eyes are blind to . of spirit which allows them to admit There may be something in this, I truly their need of a cuddle or a pat or simply suspect, after many wonderful hours a gentle voice to help them find restful over the past weeks spent with our latest sleep, ‘perchance to dream’. We, on the grandchildren, Oliver and Evelyn. We all other hand, can be too proud to admit come from stardust, the wisest scientists our need for others. Why? Because we ‘Where did you come from, baby dear?’ say. We were ritually reminded every Ash do not believe in our hearts that the The reply mirrored Wordsworth … Wednesday that we were dust and would poor and helpless and marginalised and ‘Out of the everywhere into here. one day return to dust. Perhaps they persecuted could be truly blessed in ways And where did you get those eyes of meant stardust but were too frightened of beyond our materialistic dreams. Do you blue? the Inquisition and all that. The innocent really wish you had won seventy million Out of the sky as I came through.’ minds of babies have not yet been diluted dollars last week? by ‘reality’, so called, and seem to have We are necessarily part of the cosmos, we have lost, and not just the ability These little ones who absolutely rely and and nurture shapes our to see fairies. on us are not perfect and have not yet way beyond our control. Reach been affected by an unreal demand for for the stars. Maybe, like ET you simply Wordsworth in his Ode to Intimations of that becomes an unbearable want to go home. Mortality suggests that, ‘Our birth is but a burden for too many in later years. sleep and a forgetting’. This short reflection was triggered by the My mother believed, tongue in cheek, two babies only a few weeks old. Some of Then later adds,‘but trailing clouds of that Masefield’s description of, ‘a wet our other grandchildren are experiencing glory do we come from God who is our sheet and a flowing sea and a wind that the very important nursery rhyme/fairy home’. follows fast’, could just as easily refer tale part of their cosmic where to minding problems as nautical they will learn the of elfland, as These little ones, just wakened from their yearnings. But I digress. G.K.Chesterton so aptly describes it. But cosmic sleep, encourage reflections about that is another story. the eternal questions of life and . A poem I heard in days gone by asked the Tony Carroll They can also teach us so much about question:

Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax during the ordinary. That’s just living, Heartbreaking, -healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful. L.R.Knost

6 St Mary’s Matters The Necessary Miracle of Touch

Walk as if you are kissing the linguistic units: this and this. So there is a strong, unconscious connection earth. Thich Nhat Hanh between language, sight and and contemporary science is starting to would like to write about the necessary grapple with the limits of this. What if we Imiracle of touch and keep in mind an could reconfigure our of being image of Jesus immersed in a crowd. He is here a lot more in terms of touch? surrounded by those who came not only to hear him speak but also just to be in his Because, while truth is a matter of presence. They clamoured to be healed seeing, when we speak of the heart and and cleansed and felt compelled not only connection, of real intimacy, we generally to hear his words but also, often, to reach refer to touch: I feel out of touch, we Twenty five percent of Australians today out and touch him. Again and again, he have lost touch, we must keep in touch live on their own and this number will reaches out to touch them, allowing them and it really touched me. A , probably keep increasing. It is the same also to touch him. This is an image of music, nature, a loving act. When we elsewhere in the developed world. Jesus the healer, his heart and hands open refer to touch, it has an of Smaller , affluence, a high to us and the world. wordlessness, as if touch needs nothing placed on , and else to be said, is an end in itself. To be . The fastest growing group of For humans, sight is the dominant sense, deeply touched is to be, often, beyond people living alone are women over fifty. taking up a larger part of the brain than words. I am one of those women. For some, the sense of hearing, or smell. We is preferred and embraced, and are so dependent on it to constitute We can exist as intelligent, functioning for others it is sometimes appreciated, the way we ‘see’ ourselves and the people without a sense of sight or but increasing is also one world that our metaphorical language is hearing or taste or smell but can we even of the major social problems we now predominantly visual, so that we even conceive of being without the sense of face. Many people are quietly, privately describe our other senses in terms of contact with others and the world? If dealing with their loneliness with much sight and space. We talk of feeling up, we see a baby alone and crying, our first daily , and fear. Are down or flat, we talk of temperature instinct is to pick her up and give her we becoming a people less physically and music going up and down, of being the physical contact we feel she needs. proximate to one another and what might close to or distant from someone, of Babies given insufficient, nurturing touch be the long term consequences of this as getting to the top and being blinded not only suffer psychological damage but a culture? by passion…. It is so embedded in our cognitive impairment; in other words language and the very way we represent without proper touch, babies’ brains Najibeh, from , in my current and believe in reality, that we don’t even don’t develop properly. As human , English class, lives alone, her notice it. Significantly, visual metaphors without being in touch, we cannot live as members in different countries, in a room are inextricable from how we represent well as we should. The images of orphans shared with four other migrant women, truth: we have insight, see the light, alone in cots in poor and crowded in a boarding house with shared kitchen become enlightened and awakened, orphanages touch us to our core. It seems and bathroom. The components of her live in blindness and darkness. Seeing is humanly unbearable. aloneness are multiple and acute and she believing. doesn’t even have the to express I was in hospital once in and feeling her feelings to herself. She sometimes However, seeing requires a certain alone at the time. The nurses were very cooks lovely food for me and we like to distance; get too close to something busy but one young nurse came in to hug. The concrete reality of the loneliness or someone and our eyes can’t focus. see how I was and I told her. She asked and untouchedness of many Furthermore, we can only see something if I would like her to rub my back and here, displaced from family and from a if our eyes separate it from something gently did so. I still remember the absurd culture where extended family living is a else and so also in our language we can amount of relief and comfort it gave me , is very, very tough. only communicate if we can separate . After a while she stopped, she said she should go, and I asked if she could Loneliness is partly so feared, I think, just touch me for a little longer. And she because at the level of our existential did. I have never forgotten her intuitive humanness we know that it is only a ’s kindness. When we are really vulnerable breadth away from all of us, at any time: and the protective shells of ego, a tiny twist of fate and circumstance. and security fall away, we return to our Perhaps the potency and complexity of essential human need: the need to be in the image of Christ on the cross is in part touch somehow and to be touched. This due to his physical separation from those is where Christ, the miraculous healer, who loved him. He is placed out of their finds us. Continued on page 8

St Mary’s Matters 7 Cosmic Consciousness

NOTHING need have existed charge, varied by even a small percentage, and that, even if there were humans would not exist on the earth. some things in , As the late (read the list need not have Wonderful Life for a start) wrote, human included the human race, let life is an accident and, if the whole history alone me. of the world were played again, there is no certainty that humans would exist. The next question is whether the cosmos had Next I compare the small time that I will a creator, or whether it live with the vast amounts of time before created itself. I believe the universe runs down into a cold, stable there was and is a creator, state. And, as Louis Armstrong used to take this term to mean the individual but am not foolish enough to consider I sing ‘I think to myself / What a wonderful human’s consciousness of the cosmos. I I can prove this. But neither can anyone world’, I realise that I need to consider consider that having some realisation of prove to my satisfaction that there is no what a great I have and feel grateful the of the universe enriches my creator. for it. life and allows me to take a wider view of the of my existence. Next we can think about the fact that I believe that the most important thing for there are humans. Scientists tell us that if me to consider is the fact of my existence I start with Descartes’ assertion that ‘I a number of the physical measurements and the opportunity I have to enrich my think, therefore I am’. This sounds self- e.g. the strength of an electron’s electric life and the lives of those around me. evident but it at least reminds us that David Pincus

The Necessary Miracle of Touch

Continued from page 7 with others and our world. Imagine if this fundamental was the ground of reach and capacity to comfort him, with our children’s education. Imagine if being the added mockery of the vinegar-soaked in touch, capacity for intimacy and even cloth extended to him on a stick, and in skilful, physical touch were highly valued. his existential, human aloneness, he cries Imagine if a capacity for relationship was out: ‘God, why have you forsaken me?’ a wisdom to be cultivated and respected. But this is bookended with the equally There is an intrinsic femininity to this potent image of the Pieta: his mother and how feminine is the beloved image finally holding him in her arms. How very of Jesus with his long, flowing locks, differently these two images of death soft, flowing robes, gentle face and open are! Imagine if Jesus had not been put hands. on the cross but rather lay dying, mortally wounded, in his mother’s embrace, Whether we are in close, human company surrounded by those who loved him. Stained glass window depicting Jesus or not, we are always, for we cannot Could we then have had him say, ‘God, touching a lame man. be otherwise, completely in touch. It is why have you forsaken me?’ with the just that we have distracted ourselves, same significance? issue of blood says within herself, if I can with our mind and other senses, from only touch the hem of his garment, I will experiencing it. It is not a matter of I am an Alexander Technique , be made whole. We cannot will into being seeing or seeking, because when we a form of holistic body work which in perfect relationships, but we always are deeply in touch questions don’t involves me putting my hands on a person have the opportunity to return to the need to arise and the distance between throughout the session. The only way healing that comes with being in touch ourselves and the world disappears. my hands will be able to teach another with what is. (Visual metaphor again.) As an Alexander person anything, to facilitate their well- technique teacher, when I am doing being, is if I understand, using Alexander Imagine we said not that I saw my mother a very, very good job, the separation Technique methods, how to be more but that I touched her, not that I went between your body and theirs becomes knowingly in touch with myself and, in surfing but that the ocean touched me, somewhat immaterial and blurred. Alexander Technique terminology, to not that I took a walk but that I kissed the (Another visual metaphor!) leave myself alone. Only then can my earth. Would our world become a little hands listen to the other. gentler, kinder and quieter? When Jesus places his hands upon the Ann Ooms blind, leprous and dead, he offers them a It is only when we are wisely in touch with way to start a new life, being as he is and ourselves that we are able to be in touch inseparable from him. The woman with

8 St Mary’s Matters From the Stillness

Such stillness in the branches Silhouetted against western horizon Cloud clad Orange seeping through Ocean heaving Sighing Moving Terns chatter Norfolks still Ancient Reaching to the clouds As does my spirit Grounded and ephemeral Light and pulsing From the stillness In the planet Michael Tansky

St Mary’s Matters 9 A Reflection on Cosmic Consciousness As Love Manifesting Love’s consciousness is creative Extending and manifesting Its infinite potential Its inclusive boundless goodness Displaying the essence of itself

Nothing is denied its creation Every aspect contains the whole The Source where it abides The One Life that never dies Regardless of its changing form

Sure there seems a dark world The product of misperceptions Perfect Love sees Not judged as good or bad Respecting the gift to manifest

Love knows nothing can destroy The essence of itself It knows it is the remedy. Where cries are heard Compassionate hearts create

Love’s powerful gentle Light Resurrects and creates new wonders Opens awareness of its splendour Its amazing network of One Being The magnificence of what is

Love is all powerful Love is all embracing It is home to peace and Joy. In its perfect fullness In and beyond visible manifestation Where Love is all there is Words fall into Silence.

Barbara Fingleton Influenced by ‘A Course in ’

10 St Mary’s Matters Peeling Onions Or The Problems Progressives Have with Prayer t Mary’s in Exile has given us the rather than a male or female being. Sfreedom to exercise intellectual integrity. To bring under the microscope This leads us to deal with prayer from a all that we have been taught about God, new as Progressive Christians. life and death. Without the fear of mortal David Tomlinson, another modern or charge of blasphemy, we can Progressive and an Anglican Vicar, in happily question and discard the illogical, his book, Re-enchanting , historically and scientifically false, and looks at his faith from a new perspective, the obviously nonsensical components of recognising that our faith is not some orthodox Christianity. stagnant, unchanging system.

In doing so we have peeled the onion To quote him, ‘The priority of the of and , discarding the Ancients at prayer gospel lies not with textual debates and personal and interventionist God, the … but with the liberation of historical Jesus, the of a literal human instinct to seek out human beings to be the whole persons , and the many rules and help through prayer. that they might be: spiritually, physically, imposed by the Church. Even here, in the Of The Faithful, psychologically, emotionally and socially.’ we see the tension between the rational This approach was to lead us to a new thinking that rejects the notion of an Progressives like Spong, Tomlinson, paradigm, we thought! But has it? Peeling interventionist god, and the instinct to and others, do not peel away orthodox away this onion eventually may lead to seek help from a higher power, when Christianity, but re-examine, re-interpret nothing in which to believe: only time human intervention is unable to do more. and revitalise our spiritual life to enable in which to ponder the , us to meet life with a renewed faith and without the guidance of a Biblical or This instinct to prayer demands that we hope. doctrinal compass. adopt a belief system that includes prayer to seek answers from a supernatural The Progressive writer that opened for For the purpose of this article, I will use source, or find an alternative. Common me the new way of understanding prayer prayer as an example of the Progressives’ alternatives are , , was Harry Emerson Fosdick in his book, predicament. It will not answer the tough , and Free Thought. These The Meaning of Prayer. Let me give you a questions about prayer, but simply ask options fail to consider prayer as taste of his view. what is it, and why do we do it. efficacious. The options also reject the spiritual realm. ‘We must think of prayer as separable For if there is no interventionist God, from religion; we must ask not only what why do we pray? Where do we gain our To put aside prayer from our life has its our desires are when we pray, but what spiritual guidance in moral or ethical consequences. are dominant in daily business; what dilemmas? Or resilience in of grief we really are after in our innermost and crisis? What shall we do when our The value of prayer is in the spiritual ambitions; what is our demand on life. seem dashed? Where do we turn attributes it instils. Prayer can be shown Prayer, in this more inclusive sense, is the when all human avenues for help for to be an avenue to express what we settled craving of a man’s heart, good someone we love are exhausted? love and care about, gives a platform or bad, his inward love and determining to express our and hates, our desire.’ If we dismiss prayer as a futile endeavour, desires and fears, our striving for values with what shall we replace it? Peeling the necessary for to be safe. Prayer is This paradigm of prayer recognises onion can leave us in tears. our expression of hope, our inner desire that we all have a spiritual component for peace and goodwill, our plea channel to our life. The spiritual soul of our However, being progressive also gives us for justice, a heartfelt demonstration of identity, and the spiritual culture we licence to seek new perspectives. love, and much, much, more. share as a community, a large role in determining our identity. I want to share with you the perspectives It is not to be confused with the creation of some Progressive Christian writers on of a silence within, or the emptying of the Prayer pervades our meditation, prayer, to enable us to move from peeling mind through meditation. , our passion for love and the onion to planting a new garden in justice, our hopes for the future, our tears which to grow new understandings. In summary, prayer is the means of our for the suffering, our joy for the blessings engagement with the spiritual. Or in that we and those we love, enjoy. The first writer is Nicholas Wade and his terms of our liturgy, to engage with the book, The Faith Instinct. Creative Spirit. The of reinterpretation applied Wade demonstrates that across all to understanding prayer, can be applied and there is The concept of the Creative Spirit rings to all components of our Christian belief. from at least 50,000 years ago of the true for me, as it re-images God as Spirit

St Mary’s Matters 11 At SMX we describe ourselves as ‘leaving spiritual instinct in faith and hope. was not only progressive by questioning the hut’ of security to explore new the unquestionable in order to appreciate ways of understanding the meaning and Prayer and many other religious practices, more the Creative Spirit. Kierkegaard’s purpose of life. The example of the hut cannot be dismissed. It is against was also of the school of Absurdity. This is that of people on a journey who have our natural instinct. We need a new school recognised that there is a limit to spent time in the safety of a hut along enlightened way of living out the spiritual. our of the creative spirit. the track of life. The safety and security is embedded in orthodox teachings. Let me finish with the progressive Danish We then can take the , or theologian, Soren Kierkegaard who asked in his words, embrace the absurd, not Some choose to stay in the hut, but the the question, ‘What does it mean to be a rejecting what we don’t understand, progressives leave in the knowledge Christian?’ This challenged the underlying such as the mystery of life after death, they are venturing into the unknown. Danish Christian culture, which was or anything outside of human power we If we extend this, we may say they are similar to questioning motherhood and instinctively hope for in prayer. They are searching for a ‘light on the hill’ that pie and went up like a lead balloon. new spiritual frontiers to discover. will throw new light on the mystery of His challenge was to question not only Bob Aldred the creative spirit. We are following our our belief, but how we live. His challenge Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

ave you ever raise healthier children. When a woman performance closely, and keep their Hwondered has finished school, she is treated better running costs low in innovative ways. whether your by the community and is more likely to They use frequent flying points for travel, hard-earned dollar vote. have a ‘No Rovers’ policy, and use achieves its real donated office space and land transport. purpose when John Wood loves playing with numbers. For nine consecutive years, Room to Read you donate to a USA spent $9 hundred billion on the wars has received the USA Navigator’s charity? in Afghanistan and Iraq over ten years…. highest rating of four stars for financial If just 10% of this money was put towards accountability and transparency. This book, Creating education, with $9 billion, fast-moving Room to Read: groups like Room to Read could work with Some of their fundamental policies A Story of Hope local to construct 272,000 include the importance of educating girls, in the Battle for schools, resulting in more than a million and an insistence on local community Global Literacy gives a behind-the-scenes new classrooms. At 25 children per participation and co-investment in their view of how John Wood and his team classroom, we’ve just impacted 25 million projects. have created a transparent, financially students. accountable organization, Room to Read. Creating Room to Read is a real insight This book builds on John Wood’s original into the issues behind an NGO. Their motto, World Change Starts with account How I Left Microsoft to Change Educated Children underpins an ardent the World, but it’s easy to pick up the If you would like to borrow a copy of this belief in the value of education. Educated story. Whilst trekking in Nepal, he book there is one in the SMX library people make more money and are more encountered a school that had no . Kathy Hedemann likely to escape poverty. Educated parents He collected thousands of books and delivered them to Nepalese schools. He gained so much satisfaction from seeing the value of educating kids that he left Microsoft and started Room to Read. In December 2015, they celebrated the incredible milestone of impacting 10 million children across Africa and Asia through education.

With John Wood’s Microsoft background, Room to Read is a lean, nimble organization, run like a Girls’ education is crucial. When you business. They set bold goals, track Community involvement in school building in educate a girl, everything changes. Nepal.

12 St Mary’s Matters Cosmic Consciousness: What is our relationship with each other, our community, our planet? volutionary thinkers, futurists and our circle of compassion to embrace all Escientists, the likes of Teilhard de living creatures and the whole of nature Chardin, Einstein, Buckminister Fuller, Sri in its beauty. The true value of a human Aurobindo and so forth have all spoken being is determined by the measure and of the reality of our interconnectedness. the sense in which they have obtained Everything in the entire cosmos is liberation from the self. We shall require connected. In other words everything a substantially new manner of thinking if exists only in relationship. humanity is to survive.’

Quantum has proven this to be That new manner of thinking is the true at an energetic level. For example thinking that we are all one - not separate when there is a major catastrophe from each other. The illusion is that we community can be completely open, anywhere on the planet, we feel a sense are separate from each other- in this honest, authentic and vulnerable towards of sadness. Consider the analogy of a net. three dimensional realm. And when we each other. When we can be transparent When we tweak one end of it every part come to really understand and integrate with each other, there is no of gets affected. our oneness into the very fabric of our another, even at the level of mind. everyday thinking and acting, we would ‘Ubuntu’ is a South African word which be so different with each other, we would When we are able to be fully present with means ‘I am because you are’, implying effortlessly transform our world. We each other without any filters of previous that I exist because you exist. We are would experience heaven on Earth. To experiences of each other, when we can therefore hardwired to connect with each quote . ‘Heaven is the listen deeply to each other, when we can other. of our oneness.’ see each other ‘new’ in every moment, listen with empathy and compassion, we King said, ‘We must all To answer the question above, If we will not only feel the other person’s pain learn to live together as brothers and really felt our oneness with each other, but we might even recognise the same in sisters or we will all perish together we would spontaneously be responsible ourselves. We will realise our sameness, as fools. We are tied together in a for each other. The question would not our oneness! single garment of destiny, caught in an even arise. In the Bible it says, Adam fell inescapable network of mutuality. And asleep but nowhere does it say he awoke. Often when one person shares from a whatever affects one directly affects all Human consciousness is asleep at the place of vulnerability, others resonate indirectly. For some strange , I can moment. We have forgotten our oneness. with that person on some level, for never be what I ought to be until you Our interconnectedness. That is the we are all human. We all have the are what you ought to be and you can reason for so much pain and suffering in same issues, just around a different never be what you ought to be until I am the world. set of circumstances and when we what I ought to be. This is the way God’s have the courage to share from a place universe has been made. This is the way it What practical actions can we take to of vulnerability and feel heard, we has been structured.’ remember our oneness in this three- will achieve what is termed as true dimensional realm of consciousness community. ‘True community’ is a state of And so in a nutshell if everything is where everything appears to be separate, being with each other. It is what I dream interconnected then it would follow that to the physical eye at least. That is the of and strive my damnedest to achieve: everything is interdependent, all beings illusion. to shed the Egoistic crust that stops - humans, non-humans and the whole of me from being vulnerable and thereby nature in its entirety. Living a life of service, I believe, is our experiencing myself and others as love. natural state in this three- dimensional When we say we are all one does that ask world. If we felt totally connected to I believe it is our natural state to take care us to have some responsibility in each of ourselves, the divine within ourselves, we of each other when we feel our oneness, these realms? (Each other, Community, would feel totally connected to a starving our connectedness. The key word is ‘feel’. Planet) child at the other end of the planet and Our egoic minds have concocted umpteen we could not but live a life of service to ways to avoid feeling our . To ‘A human being is wrote, alleviate the suffering of those kids simply feel deeply is to be alive, to be human, part of the whole, called by us, universe, because we would feel our oneness with to be fully experiencing this three a part limited in time and space. We that child. We would feel their pain, like a dimensional realm that we have been experience ourselves, our and mother and a child. thrust into via these embodied forms we feelings, as something separate from call our bodies. the rest. A kind of optical delusion of I see building ‘True community’ as a consciousness. This delusion is a kind of pathway to achieving this wondrous How much of what we assume to be true prison for us, restricting us to our personal possibility. The possibility of realising may turn out to be an illusion? And does desires and to affection for a few persons and experiencing our oneness. ‘True it matter? nearest to us. Our task must be to free community’ is when all members of a Continued on page 14 ourselves from the prison by widening

St Mary’s Matters 13 A Cosmic Experiment ‘The old will have to crumble before the new life can burst forth.’

omewhere I read this sentence which This is not about the future of Smade me put pen to paper - religion but about the future of our planet - the future not just As a mother who gave birth to a number of the human race but of LIFE of children I must take issue with the on this planet. I am certain that wording of this sentence. Rather than evolution itself will continue but ‘crumbling’ I found that becoming a the earth could no longer be a mother opened me to a whole new major player and it would take way of thinking. I want my children and millions of years before there is grandchildren and all future generations once again the confluence of all to be able to enjoy the things that we the elements that have enabled have been fortunate to experience. us to enjoy our privileged place in this beautiful and inspiring ‘...the necessity of opening the hearts and minds I have a very intimate awareness now of universe. of those who follow me.’ are the words of Shar as the necessity (the urgency) to open the she contemplates her responsibility to her eleven minds and hearts of those who follow We have before us two choices. children. me. If we, as members of the human We can choose to recognise race, do not open ourselves to the beauty our responsibility to accept our and wonder of the universe and the role and accept too that we have to be a rocky planet which once saw the dawn awe inspiring experiment of evolution in humble enough to listen to that voice of of a new era and the prospect of ‘Heaven which we are intimately involved we will God (of BEING) within each of us. The on earth’ and instead made the selfish be responsible for the death of not just second choice is whether we continue to decision to claim dominion over life itself. a civilisation but perhaps the death of a imagine that we are here as of the Shar Ryan cosmic experiment that has taken millions universe and did it all by our own efforts of years to develop to this stage where If we do this we will condemn the world humankind are invited to collaborate. not perhaps to extinction but to becoming

Cosmic Consciousness Continued from page 13

Absolutely everything we can see with drop them because if I don’t acknowledge have heaven on earth. Some call it the our naked eyes and touch and feel and them then they just get repressed and second coming of Christ Consciousness. think in this three dimensional realm pop up somewhere else at a later stage. of consciousness is said to be illusion To feel is therefore at the crux of our by physicists, scientists, evolutionary Acknowledging and experiencing our human experience. How do we feel thinkers and spiritual mystics. In fact, it emotions fully is acknowledging our deeply? is said that we are all experiencing one humanness in this realm and I believe it massive hallucination. is the gateway to experiencing our true This has been the biggest, most delicious nature. Love. Our Godness, here on earth. learning of my own life. To endeavour The only time when we are not This is the journey. This is why we are to feel all my emotions and to cherish experiencing or hallucinating is when here, I believe. Heaven is the perception them. I have never felt more alive. And we experience ourselves and others of our oneness. (A Course in Miracles) knowing that they are all an aspect of as ‘Love’. Because ‘Love’ is what we the illusion helps me drop them… but truly are. It is the core of what we are. Jesus was one such being to have truly only after feeling them, experiencing Everything else is illusion. lived in the three dimensional realm of my humanness. Oh to feel! Oh what a illusion but knew he was not of it. He said, feeling! Does it matter? Absolutely yes. This is the ‘Be in this world but not of it’. He was human journey, to experience ourselves thus able to see everyone through eyes Every cell in my body is alive. And I am and everyone else as Love. This helps of love. He demonstrated the possibility loving Living! me cope in my own life. Whenever I feel of human consciousness to experience anger, sadness, frustration and so on, I ourselves and each other as love (GOD) in ‘I want to be fully used up when I die. immediately recognise that I am caught this world of illusion. He demonstrated it Life is no brief candle to me, it is a sort in the illusion. In fact that is the sign was possible. of splendid torch that I have gotten hold for me. I stop, acknowledge the feeling of and I want to make it shine as brightly of anger, sadness, frustration and so It is my personal mission to work towards as possible before it on to future forth, I acknowledge being in this three that, that possibility of experiencing generations.’ George Bernard Shaw. dimensional realm and only after I have myself and others as love and I believe Carolyn Vincent really experienced those feelings do I that when everyone can do that we will

14 St Mary’s Matters Creator of the Cosmos

Creator of the Cosmos You are the one You light the night skies With cascades of stars Your golden sun orb Radiates perpetual light and warmth Your breath can change the forces Of nature from fury to calm You paint your and butterflies With a rhapsody of colour Your will can open the earth’s crust To release massive destructive forces You give the earth’s tidal As the stark moon waxes and wanes Your design of our green planet Is a miracle in itself Your execution of earth’s life forms Is brilliant in its complexity In humans you have given Your pinnacle life form choice And the gift of reason and responsibility Perhaps this was your one error Or is it your divine challenge? And always your pledge to the world is love For as long as time continues You are the one. Anne Maguire

St Mary’s Matters 15 Re-Imagining Luke

n traditional liturgical communities The external challenge was the power Iacross and around the world of the and especially the people observe the eighteenth of ongoing tensions between Rome and October as the feast of St Luke. That is the , with rebellions and uprising not a custom that has survived in our in the late 60s, the 80s, 115–117 and exile from the church up the road, but 132–135 CE. The Christians were caught I invite you to join with me in giving between a desire to operate under the attention to this special day. legal protection of being a Jewish , and the need to demonstrate to Rome On this day one can expect to hear that they were not a strange bunch of about the legacy of Luke. We Jewish rebels. Having a leader who had owe to his literary imagination the cycle been executed as a rebel was not really of the Church Year. a good marketing strategy for that time and place. Some and pew sheet editors will venture to tell people that Luke was The internal challenge was a rising tide a gentile medical doctor from Antioch in of Christian anti-Semitism, especially Syria and a companion of Paul. associated with a church leader called Luke imagined by Andrea Mantegna. Marcion. Marcion proposed that Others will extol his value as the primary Christians jettison all vestiges of their historian of early Christianity, while Jewish legacy. He rejected the violent others may talk about his excellent Greek Paul, we can see that the Pauline and tribal God of the Old Testament, and language skills. He had the best Greek of in early Christianity dominates the New he proposed a new Bible that comprised any of the people who contributed to the Testament. simply The Gospel ( about Jesus) . and The Apostle (the letters of Paul). Paul’s legacy was not always so esteemed In some places the will focus in earliest Christianity, and his heavy Marcion’s ugly found a ready on theological themes in the double imprint on the New Testament may be hearing in a context where it was good volume of Luke and Acts which we largely due to the work of people such as to demonstrate loyalty to the attribute to this otherwise unknown Luke. Empire by denouncing Jews. Had his ideas author. Worshippers will hear about won the day, Christianity would have been Luke’s interest in the Spirit, his respect For most of the last 2000 years Luke has even more anti-Semitic than it would for women, his concern for the poor, his been seen as a companion of Paul, but soon become, as it often has been, and in preservation of major parables, and his that is no longer a viable option. More some expressions remains to this day. interest in the wealthy. likely, Luke comes from the generation after Paul; or even the generation after Luke and Marcion were both fans of Paul. Others will reflect on the significance of that. They probably both misunderstood and Luke’s Gospel being followed by a second misrepresented Paul. But Luke rescued volume, known to us as the Acts of the The opening paragraph of Luke’s Gospel Paul from Marcion and promoted a . (1:1–4) is one of the few places where of Christianity that valued its Jewish past Luke speaks in his own voice. He tells us while claiming a place in the Again, for some people, the big news is that he has a purpose in writing. He has of the Roman empire. Luke valued the that Luke was (supposedly) a companion a method. And he has sources, because past, understood the present, and forged of Paul and in some ways his biographer. he can access the earlier written works a path into the future. His legacy has We are not going to do any of those created by those who went before him. shaped Christianity for much of the last things. 2000 years. That pushes Luke forward to a period We know nothing about the person who after 100 CE, and perhaps as late as the I want to suggest that Luke offers an composed the Gospel of Luke and the middle decades of the second century. attractive template for us, a community in , except for what we transition. can glean by close attention to these two This is not the time or place for a lecture books. on the of Luke’s two great literary To unpack that I need to divert to works, but I invite you to think about the Matthew ever so briefly. Bear with me. Together they comprise almost 25% significance of Luke writing to meet the of the New Testament. With another needs of the church in his own time about In Matthew 13:52 we find this short but 25% of the NT coming from the Pauline one hundred years after . powerful parable: ‘… every scribe who has letters, and since ‘Luke’ (as we call this been trained for the kingdom of heaven anonymous author) was a serious fan of The diverse and still marginal Christian communities at that time faced two major Continued on Page 18 challenges.

16 St Mary’s Matters Awareness

t has been said ‘we are spiritual beings The mouse sees the green tree, but to on a human journey.’ what extent does the mouse know that I it is seeing the green tree? It is the part Or to have Pierre de Chardin’s words of you that knows you are sitting on the backed up by quotes which are attributed chair. to Jesus, ‘God is within you and around you’ or ‘greater is He that is in you than Awareness is our essential nature. The he that is in the world’; and another, ‘I am experiencer of experiences has qualities the resurrection and the life. Whoever generally associated with the Divine. in me though he die, yet shall he When the mind is silent and no longer An artists impression of the C14th live, and everyone who lives and believes troubled with concerns for the past known as Julian of Norwich. in me shall never die’. That is a really big or future, we connect with our sense She is thought to have had powerful deal! of true self: the Divine within. In this ‘awareness’ experiences. experience of pure Being we find a steady It does seem that it is difficult for us to unshakeable peace that is not dependent had become consciously available to me. grasp the significance of these words. on what we do in life, who we are, or When we do grasp them, they completely how the world is treating us; we find the Meditation in the Buddhist tradition and transform our lives. ‘We are Spiritual fulfilment we have always been seeking the Christian Spiritual tradition comment beings on a human journey.’ Why is it - the peace of God that lies beyond all on Awareness, but not on our subjective so difficult? Perhaps it is because in our understanding. internal experiences’. formative years we were offered very little knowledge on what these sayings This peacefulness is apparent in modern Around five years ago one Saturday were about. These sayings support day Spiritual , It can be seen in morning, lying in bed half awake, half the Spiritual tradition in Christianity. Thich Nhat Hahn, Laurence Freeman, asleep, just lying there, a strange inner A modern day form of expression is to Leonard Jacobson, The Dalai Lama, Shri voice came to my mind. ‘They are say: ‘We are awareness having a human Ramans Maharishi and, perhaps to some separate’ it said,. I was experiencing experience’. Awareness, otherwise known extent, even Pope Francis. These people a powerful sense of awareness at the in the Christian tradition as consciousness exhibit a smooth flowing in the time; ‘what’? I heard myself think. or spirit, is at the core of all the world’s body when walking or sitting, gentle ‘They are separate’ said the voice, ‘they major Spiritual traditions. breathing, even a gentle smoothness are separate, they are not connected’! in their patterns. Their faces Epiphany! My internal sense of Here are some Jesus quotes, from Rex are evenly balanced with an openness information and my awareness are Weyler’s book The Jesus Sayings. These of Presence, their listening is attentive, separate; They are separate! I can just be sayings support the importance of and their eyes are soft and bright with a Awareness. awareness. balanced ratio of macular to peripheral vision. History has demonstrated to us that some •There is a light within: look and you will individuals have had powerful awareness find it. When the mind is silent, and the experiences. Such individuals arise thoughts, feelings and across all the major spiritual traditions. •When you find the light within share it memories, with which we habitually The Christian tradition includes St Paul, with the world. identify, have fallen away, then what Master Eckhart, St John of the Cross, remains is the essence of self, the pure St Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich. •The divine kingdom is within you and subject without an object. What we then In our modern secular times there are around you. find is not a sense of ‘I am this, I am that’, Eckhart Tolle and the Australian Leonard but just ‘I am - awareness’. Jacobson. Such people reach a level of •It is like leaven in bread, a tiny force that Awareness way beyond my energetic, affects everything; observe the world Way back in 1975 as a young psychologist pleasant level of arousal. They reach a before you here and now. in , while attending one of level of awareness that is union with the my group training sessions, I had an Divine. •Otherwise avoid rules and follow the experience of self- knowing: it just truth you discover yourself, act from happened, It was like a pleasant energetic A wonderful of these higher awareness, not from habit or . arousal of openness throughout my body, states of awareness (consciousness) is with my mind in pleasant open silence. provided by the Christian mystic Brother So, ‘Awareness’. What is it? Why it is The senior training psychologist told Wayne Teasdale in his book, The Mystic considered spiritual? me that was ‘awareness’. Certainly my Heart. I shall say just a little about what thoughts became very clear, my feelings Teasdale calls ‘partial Presence’ as this Awareness is our capacity for experience. were very strong; my not so vivid images is closest to my own level of spiritual It is not just seeing the green tree; it is improved and my various body sensations development. knowing that I am seeing the green tree. came alive. In short my internal universe

St Mary’s Matters 17 In partial Presence there is an expansion ‘you shall have life everlasting’. Again of awareness, love and compassion the great spiritual masters express towards the suffering of many others, much about such knowledge. even globally. As well there is some sense of enhanced wisdom and knowledge of Modern spiritual teachers insist that what the spiritual in the universe, including is important for the spiritual journey is to experiences of a temporary, complete have a quiet mind. So I will finish with a . However on many occasions simple lesson that you can practise, that the sense of desire remains intact. One is brings you into awareness, into the quiet flicked back to the modern material world mind. This lesson is based on the work of of and chattels and competition. It Peter Russell. is said then that the sense of desire has not yet been transcended. Thich Nhat Hahn is a modern day • Sit comfortably on a chair, with your spiritual leader who exhibits the spine erect (or use the support of the If I had reached a higher level of characteristics of peacefulness chair). awareness, these are some of the and compassion. characteristics I would share with others • Just attend to your breathing body- who have also reached this level: experienced this oneness. the flow of the in breath and the out breath. • The overwhelming conviction that • There is an extremely warm feeling what I thought was Brian O’Hanlon - of inspiration - we see the Divine in • Just sit being with your body and your me, is completely superficial. Really, I everybody else’s eyes. The Beloved breathing - just being with your body. am an expression of an eternal ‘I AM’, is in all. Everybody is playing out an a spiritual being on a human journey. essential part in this colossal drama. • Soften your eyes, (open or closed). We can even feel it in our enemies. • There is no longer any separate me. We feel that we love everyone; we • Notice the comfortable energy and There is just this great happening gain wisdom and mystical knowledge. silent mind - . going on. This happening is God or the Will of God, or the doing • There is great wisdom and knowledge In the Christian tradition, the silent mind of God. The Taoist would call it particularly in relation to what is: ‘Be still and know that I am God’ or to the ; the Buddhists, ; the happens after death (the soul and summarise the message of Jesus, ‘all that . Many experienced spirit move to another realm). There I am, you are’. Spiritual Teachers report having is knowledge in the Jesus injunction Brian O’Hanlon Re-Imagining Luke Continued from page 16 is like the master of a household who traditions, and refashioning older brings out of his treasure what is new traditions, to serve his purposes and to and what is old.’ (NRSV) meet the needs of the church in his time.

While Luke did not know, or at least did Luke invites us to assess the traditions we not preserve, this parable of the scholar have inherited and start all over afresh. prepared for God’s kingdom, he certainly seems to fit the description very well. Luke does not ask us to discard everything from the past, but he does invite us to Luke was a scribe trained for the kingdom catch a fresh glimpse of the God who of heaven. feeds the hungry and overthrows the powerful. Luke delved into his sources to find just what was needed for his own time. Luke was convinced that God is at work in the world for good, and he invites us Luke does not ask us to discard everything Luke valued the past but critiqued the to see where God is at work now and join from the past, but he does invite us to traditions. He thought he could present a that project ourselves. catch a fresh glimpse of the God who more accurate account than any of those feeds the hungry and overthrows the who had gone before him; including, I For all these we can celebrate powerful. suggest, Matthew, Mark and John. Luke today. . Greg Jenks Luke was not afraid of creating new

18 St Mary’s Matters Sonnet

All fear, they say, is about the future, And all fear’s origins are in the past; Yet fear, like love, is felt in the present. Whereas love ministers and gives succour, Fear turns love’s into an orgy Of despair.

As a welcomes spring You open up before me - daring me To meet in present time; yet, dare I? Dare I dive into the heart, mind, and soul Of you? I know that you are bottomless And I am afraid of death. I’m autumn And not spring; nature’s winds are all askew: You breathe out and I in. Yet, all that breathes Dies, and all that dies exhales breath anew.

Robert Perrier

St Mary’s Matters 19 Learning from a Place of Conflict

’ve been part of a research team of them anyway – were Iworking, off and on, in Ghana and responsible for their own Liberia over the past couple of years. war, there are multiple circles The research has been about exploring of responsibility that ripple local sources of security, peace and outwards – many factors justice in people’s lives and who local supporting that brutality. people go to for security and justice. There were individuals of Recently I was in Liberia for a few weeks. outstanding sadism. And there I found the experience of spending were many desperate people this short time in Liberia powerful and trying to change things in moving. On reflecting and writing about the ways they thought were these experiences I am hoping to show available. But at the same how what I learnt demonstrates our time, one of the reasons that Women demonstrate for peace. child soldiers have become so fundamental interconnectedness with Oliver, in Wild Geese, says: ‘Whoever prevalent, as they were in Liberia, is that all dimensions of life, and about letting you are, no matter how lonely, the world modern weapons are now so light and so that understanding ground and shape the offers itself to your imagination,’ ways we be and act in the world. There easy to come by, with so many produced are some particular ways that recognising and in circulation. This is a production line How do we respond to these situations? interconnectedness might orient us. for weapons producers, which are all over We can go as aid workers - and there can the world – Britain, , the US, China, be a lot of good in that. But we can also I want to draw out the real difficulty of Russia. I’m not saying that to produce recognise that we too have something to making sense of what is going on in areas indignation but to observe the factors learn about being human. It’s very hard of life that are of key importance to us that go into violence. We condemn one for us (and my apologies for this – other people’s lives, other places and thing – the sadism – but still tend to let term here) to see ourselves as other than cultures, but also aspects of our lives, our the other go. the bearer of healing, of righteousness, place in this living web of being and the of capacity, of what is comparatively right •And for Liberia then there was Ebola. ways we, collectively and personally, make and good, of the right policy, the the worlds we inhabit. So what I want to right transitional justice approaches and Having said all that, so many people say about this brief time in Liberia moves so on. Of course, we do have a lot more survived – the war, the atrocities, the between those two themes. money, and that can be important. And Ebola, the generations of extreme in different ways we do carry within and •Liberians have lived through an awful lot injustice; so many people were and are amongst ourselves things of value to – a long and vicious civil war played out in still working to maintain not only their offer others – as they do for us. Medical a series of instalments that emerged out own but others’ lives, were and are assistance, educational assistance and of generations of entrenched injustice and working to create spaces of peace and so on, but more generally, we have the impoverishment and marginalisation order, to keep producing food, to heal important experience to share, and so do of the majority of the population; a war each other from the effects of what they. ‘Tell me about despair, yours, and I that was marked by severe atrocity and they have suffered. One of the reasons will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world has left clear trauma. But when the civil that’s given for why Ebola was brought goes on.’ war ended – or perhaps simply stalled – under control in Liberia much faster than it was in Sierra Leone was because the the leaders of the warring factions mostly So what is it to be grounded, a bit at government, but perhaps particularly the got positions in government. Meanwhile least, in our interbeing? Part of it might people leading the international efforts, most of the underlying causes of the be that we go as human beings, ‘frail worked more closely with traditional war have not been addressed in any and imperfect’, to be with other human healers in Liberia, not in terms of using meaningful way, and twelve years after beings. We bring our bits of knowledge, their methods, but in terms of building the end there aren’t yet clear that but there is so much, it seems to sufficient trust with them to be allowed they will be. There’s a strong sense of me at any rate, that is really hard to into their networks, so that the traditional injustice – coming out of the war, but also understand. Some of this is because healers, in time, introduced health out of the unmet drivers of the war. There of different cultures, the sometimes workers into their communities and are also deep divisions and lack of basic sharply, unexpectedly different but them some . Just as women’s trust, coming out of the war again, but overlapping ways that we understand and groups, bringing in both Christians and also out of the conditions that led to the shape our experience. Liberia is a place, Muslims, came together to push to war. like many others, where many people end the war - and played a real part live with a very lively sense of their •While you can give accounts that put in that. There is tremendous strength interdependence, not only with other the violence of the war into context, it’s and capacity in the everyday lives that people, but also with the natural world, nevertheless hard to grasp the brutality many people are already living. And dry and the world of the unseen, of spirits. of it – of what human beings can do to humour. People are often very impressive, Most Liberians experience deeply their each other. And while Liberians – some in a kind of edgy, tough way. As Mary interdependence with nature and with

20 St Mary’s Matters the world of the unseen. There is much situations, on understanding what we to be learnt here too, but this sense of don’t understand, but it might also be connection with nature is not always the worth recognizing that there’s probably interbeing that Thich Nat Hanh speaks going to be a lot we don’t understand and of – some of it at least seems too infused that we get wrong – and that’s okay – but with fear. There is great scope for sorcery that we are still engaged in relationship and, not surprisingly given the history and exchange, still inevitably part of of the last few centuries or so, and the the family of things. When reading the current conditions, some of that is very Gospel I can see connections between Dealing with the Ebola epidemic. violent. Even when it’s not violent it’s compassion, recognizing that we are part of each other, and seeing judgment simply very ‘different’ and that can be that the country bears. I’m thinking of in that light, but also recognition of not challenging. But this bears on the nature Liberia now, and the particularity and knowing – that there are things we don’t of some of the forms of healing and of difference of that place, where these know and probably never will. Christ with social order and security that people offer questions must have a particular register, the woman taken in adultery draws in each other, and so it raises questions but these questions are also ones that those who would accuse her, but he also of how best to engage with it. However we’re all cycling through – what are we sits writing in the dust. What on earth is we might engage, it needs to be taken doing to each other; how do we work that about – writing or drawing is a highly seriously, and engaging might involve a with the legacy of what has been done; significant activity, perhaps particularly in kind of conversation that has to be open what do we offer each other. We learn an illiterate society, but it’s a mystery. to our own values and the expression something from talking or being with of our values, but that isn’t judgmental. each other. Part of the power of talking It’s often important to work on getting There’s a place for judgment – in this with people in Liberia is how it confronts a better understanding, but there’s country where there’s a yearning for you with people who talk directly to you also something about realizing that in justice and to move past violence – but out of a place of pain, despair but also our different ways we are also part of judgment doesn’t occupy all the space. toughness and aliveness. We are part of ignorance. The wild geese announcing our that conversation, but we don’t often get part in the family of things are speaking But there are other things that are hard to to see that so straightforwardly. It’s a rare in a language we might realize, but can’t understand: the scale of harm that people gift when we do. have done and do to each other, and how control. Anne Brown Liberia and Liberians are going to move It’s important to keep working on how to out of the legacy of suffering and damage respond to these questions in particular At the Beautiful Brookfield Spirituality Centre

David and Sophia make Lovely ambience in the Brookfield Chapel. Our hosts, Heather and David, relax great music. in Brookfield’s garden.

And perfect for meditation. Brian says a few words on mindfulness.

St Mary’s Matters 21 a SMX - Worth Pursuing the Dream?

Chairperson’s Report 2015 play in September. t times when I look around at our Aageing and dwindling community I This year marks the 20th year of Micah sometimes wonder should we call it a Projects. I still remember the early years day. I can ask myself, is it all worth it? But sitting around the meeting room in St there are many moments such as the one Mary’s House debating what was the I am about to share with you that spur me best way to set up such an organisation. on and encourage me. I remember the debates about the use of St Mary’s house, and how they An encouraging which stays with were centred on how best to utilise this me this year was when representatives limited resource. We wanted to make an from the Board and the Community Faith improved response to the way people Council were sitting around the table who were homeless were treated, at the Queensland Theatre Company especially those who found themselves and we were deliberating about giving in trouble with the and regularly permission to David Burton to write a found themselves in the watch-house adult has the right to a home, an income, play about our story. Wesley Enoch the because of being intoxicated. We wanted healthcare, education, safety, , company’s Artistic Theatrical Director families to have supported and stable and connection with their community of came in and spoke passionately from accommodation where children could choice. the heart. He said that what we did as a feel they belonged and were at home and community was inspirational. We took loved. At the very heart of Micah has been a on the big guys when we took on the woman with remarkable abilities and Roman Catholic Church . We refused to We wanted young women who found talents. A woman who has displayed continue to live under the oppression of themselves pregnant and parenting and again and again courage and resilience the Big Corporation. Our story is universal. lacking family support to be supported when times have been hard and the road Our story represents the millions of and cared for and appreciated. ahead rough. Karyn Walsh has been the people who live under the oppression of rock in the storm carrying the light of undemocratic systems where people feel We wanted people who had been abused hope amidst despair and despondency. misrepresented and ignored. Our story in State or Church to be She has carried the vision and believed deserves to be told, Wesley continued, supported and have someone who could in what Micah was capable of achieving. because the St Mary’s In Exile story is assist them to find their voice. Peter Kennedy once described Karyn as the little and small taking on the big and the most insightful person he has known. We wanted people with severe disabilities powerful. It’s about standing firm in what This year Karyn steps down as a Board to have a home and to be cared for, away we believed and it’s about standing up member of St Mary’s In Exile. She has from the larger sterile institutions which for justice. It’s about refusing to live in been an invaluable member of the Board once they endured. a system that compromises central core and for this we are forever grateful, but values and beliefs. As Wesley spoke it the work load of Micah has put increasing We wanted all this and more because was a moment, for me at least, of feeling pressures on her time and energies. She we had heard the words of Jesus in proud of what we did as a community. hopes to continue to contribute to our Matthew’s Gospel ‘whatever you do And not be like the Exiled Israelites from deliberations as a Board and is happy to these the least of my brothers and the Old Testament story of when they to join us whenever her expertise is sisters, you did it to me.’ We believed were exiled in the desert after fleeing the required. in the innate divinity and dignity of each oppression of the looking back person and valuing and appreciating this and thinking that the days of oppression Micah is forever appreciative of the in any way we were able. The words of didn’t seem too bad from the vantage ongoing support from the St Mary’s the prophet Micah became our mantra ‘to point of the searing heat of the desert. In Community .The Queensland Government act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly those days of doubt we must remember has been a huge sponsor of Micah. with our God.’ This became our mission the days of compromise and the Without the support of the Queensland statement, it’s what we strove to achieve oppressive patriarchal belief systems that Government, Micah’s donors and and it became our name, MICAH. Micah keep women marginalised and oppressed, supports, Micah could not provide the Projects believes these three people of homosexual orientation vital Community services that it does. are in common with all people striving for marginalised and the majority of the a world that supports the dignity of each people voiceless and unrepresented. Our community is worth maintaining and human being and a just society. Micah’s Wesley Enoch reminded me of that and growing. The Board in consultation with vision is to create justice and respond I am grateful to him for that passionate the Faith Council and the SMX community to injustice at the personal, social and encouragement to forge ahead in Exile has spent much time and energy in the structural levels in church, government, despite the occasional doubts. Thank you last year in developing a strategic plan to business and society. At the heart of what to all those who came forward and spoke guide the next five year period. Micah believes is that every child and with David. We look forward to seeing the

22 St Mary’s Matters a

Through the about what they were undertaking. Connections group Where one grew frustrated, another we have striven continued to trust. Where one took heart to maintain better from the adventure, another started to relationships with turn back to the light of the hut. It was a members of our own strange and unprecedented situation for community. At our them all. The only ones who knew where Sunday there they were going were the ones who is often insufficient turned back, for they were turning to light time to speak with and familiarity.’ people for any length of time and get to But anyone embracing the future know one another. did not have ready-made answers to Through a variety of questions from another age. Those who activities sponsored embraced the future were grounded by connections we Members of the board: Neil Wilson, Doc Ortiz, Annie Collette, in that ever loving presence that is not are able to build better Terry Fitzpatrick, Kate Flamsteed, Michael Kelly, Margaret easily named and defined, boxed and relationships. Wheat. (Missing Jenny Ryan, Paul Roberts) packaged. These embracers of the future had experienced and known, felt and The Board and Faith Council subsequently The Cluster groups trusted this presence over many years. prioritized items from the Forum and have over many years have provided a place In this presence there is no us and them, since developed business and operational of connection and belonging. These no convenient separation. It was the plans to support implementation. gatherings have formed the backbone of dream of Jesus, the reign of God he spoke what makes our community tick. much about, ever present and close at Currently the Board is working with hand. It infused everything, and it was Inkahootz - designers of Micah’s Speaking of our liturgies, they continue to something to sell everything for. Resting publications & website - to formulate a be the focal point from which everything in this presence they moved forward with visual identity for St Mary’s Community occurs. They are the place where we a quiet confidence that Julian of Norwich prior to launch of a formal document gather and connect, inspire and invite, the 14th Century English Christian mystic (scheduled for early 2016). pray and contemplate. So many do so expressed many years ago, ‘All shall be much to make our community what it is. well, and all shall be well and all manner We have been fortunate for the last six of thing shall be well.’ years to have had a good friend in the I would like to finish with that what has Terry Fitzpatrick Union Movement who continues to offer become for us a well-known parable, The us hospitality in the TLC Building. Ron Hut - but this time I would like to change Monahan president of the Queensland the ending. Council of Unions has been our patron throughout this time. ‘It was a time for the travellers to move out from the safety Those times when we have not been able of the hut. The hut they were to use the TLC Building for our liturgies in was familiar and well-lit, this year we have been able to go to the but they knew that it could beautiful Brookfield Spirituality Centre. no longer serve them. It was And those times we needed to use a time to venture out into dark liturgical space the Merthyr Road and and unfamiliar terrain, to seek West End Uniting Churches have been out a new place of life. As they there to provide support. moved away from the hut, the light its windows cast on the This year we have enjoyed our increasing world outside grew dim, until links with the Queensland Community there was very little to guide Alliance and the many value-based them. They had to move along organisations that form this Alliance. tentatively. The directions they Many of us have known one another a decided on were often mistaken long time and those not so long, but for and they had to rely on each all we have shared the good and not so other for any progress they Faith Council members: Marg Ortiz, Maureen good times together. There are many made. Hennigan, Pam Kreuger, Brian O’Hanlon, Terry moments we share together that we Fitzpatrick. (Missing Andrew Kennelly, Margaret could take for granted. Not all shared the same feelings Lawson, Margaret Clifford.)

St Mary’s Matters 23 Within Me, In This Moment

In my body I , captured In my mind I feel anxiety… oh, but In my spirit I free… and In my soul I am whole. Shiloh Moore

Shiloh Moore shown here with the beautiful she created.

24 St Mary’s Matters St Mary’s at Christmas

The Christmas Party at Merthyr Rd Uniting Church

St Mary’s Matters 25 . Last Chance. Which path? Which path will humankind take?

The well-worn path of I am the centre I am not you my , my God our borders, our species a spirit of scarcity a stance of certainty fear disguised as control endless power-seeking striving, strutting forward unconscious and disconnected?

It’s a well-used narrow path that has a certain ending.

Or will we take the path rarely used of late?

To navigate this track we need new vision a total reprogramming of our world view a huge heart a humility to listen deeply to all other beings to learn and embrace all of the cosmos and know at our deepest level we are all connected all part of the I am all responsible for each other all co-creating as we go hurtling forward trustfully bound together in an ever-evolving ever-expanding universe. Margaret Clifford

26 St Mary’s Matters . St Mary’s at Christmas The Children’s Pageant

Sean and Sinead ready to perform in the pageant. The little ones performing a Christmas story. Annette makes fine Thanks to Annette and ’s great work. adjustment to the star.

The young people add a special something to our choir at Christmas. Hailey and Rebecca introduce the Hudson and Tanasha get ready pageant to go on.

Barbara with Annette and family. Granddaughter Hayley (see photo above) was called After the AGM at Common Ground. Chris plays piano on to read part of as Peter and Annie trip a light step or two. the pageant. And at other times ... At the Christmas Dinner.

St Mary’s Matters - Edition 43 Editor - Margaret Ortiz Sub-editors - Jan Murray Printed by John Hallett Finances - Doc Ortiz Joan Mooney Xavier Grafix

Articles, poems, letters, photos are always welcome. Send to [email protected] You are invited to contribute financially to the work of St Mary’s Community in Exile by donating to: St Mary’s Community Ltd, BSB 064- 131 Account 10339414, Commonwealth Bank, West End.

St Mary’s Matters 27 Creative Presence

I find myself standing on a platform made of stars shiny silver six-pointed stars

it has no edge, no wall, no barrier it is no bigger than my own two feet

yet when I stand on it I feel completely safe

from this lookout high above the Milky Way I can see from the stars themselves In the deep night sky right down to the sticky brown resin on the bud of a chestnut tree beside an old abbey wall

as the colours form on an at the base of the trunk I am the yellow splash and the orange thumbprint I am the silky softness of the purple petal

just as I am the crust that forms as the resin cracks on contact with the cool morning air

I am also on a platform of silver stars watching while creation pulses matter emerges and intention crystallises into Beauty

28 St Mary’s Matters