Progressive Spirituality

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:46:00 +0000

Reshaping

Christianity

Mysticism, Spirituality

and Global Faith

John Hetherington

A

Free to Believe

Booklet

Reshaping Christianity

Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith

Contents Page

1. Introduction 2

2. A changing Christianity 2

3 Surveys of contemporary Religion and

Spirituality 6

4. Progressive Christianity 7

5. The New Spirituality 8

6. A Perennial Philosophy 10

7. The Implications for Christian Doctrine 12

8. Rediscovering Mystical Christianity 14

9. Relating this to the world’s faiths 16

Sufi Islam 19

The Bahai Faith 20

10. A final challenge to the churches 22

References 24

Introduction

This booklet in the Free to Believe series is ambitious in its scope, as it seeks to relate evolving Christian belief and practice to developments in both the emerging “New Spiritualities” and the major world faiths. The issues raised are relevant to those remaining in, but on the edge of, Christianity; as well as open minded practitioners of the other historic faiths and participants in the newer forms of spiritual practice.

Globally, we are witnessing increasing tension and schism in Islam and Christianity as modern and post-modern ways of ‘knowing’ challenge the core assumptions of what are at heart ‘pre-modern’ faiths. The increasing global reality of travel, trade and the internet could shape a common understanding, but also generate a significant destabilising backlash. This Pamphlet explores a possible way forward.

A changing Christianity

In Christianity, a growing movement for change is occurring not just in liberal contexts, but through direct movement from evangelical and catholic positions. Ways of knowing or experiencing the divine, as the ‘ground of being’¹ rather than a God ‘out there’, are increasingly capturing the interest of those leaving dogmatic religion, or exploring beyond ‘theism’². Liberal reflection on the authority of the Bible has been underway for over 150 years, with the application of scientific analysis and ‘historical-critical’ methods to key sources.

As that knowledge spread across wider western society it began an apparently unstoppable process of loss of allegiance to traditional faith and doctrine. The pain of this loss of faith in the modern world was famously captured by Matthew Arnold:

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.³

For those hanging on to ‘traditional’ faith (Catholic, Reformed or evangelical) since Arnold recognised the trend, the health of Christianity in the west has never looked so bleak. There has been continuing decline in church attendance to as low as 3% in the

. Modernity drove this trend until the 1970’s, and ‘Post Modernity’ was initially seen as a further challenge to the faith, since practitioners had absorbed modernity’s unfolding scientific insights.

What is new is that post modernity, through its re-awakening to the ‘spiritual’ or ‘mystical’ is now opening up new avenues of faith exploration for some beyond the old evangelical / liberal divide. For others, the “melancholy roar” provokes a pulling up of the drawbridge and a retreat to historic fundamentals rooted in formulations reflecting ‘pre-modern’ faith.

Dave Tomlinson’s book, The Post Evangelical⁴, first exposed this situation in 1995. He acknowledged the “growing discontinuity” of many nurtured within the evangelical milieu who had “growing difficulty in reconciling what they see and experience in evangelicalism with their personal values, instinctive reactions and theological reflections.” Tomlinson argues that both liberalism and evangelicalism are “two sides of the same coin” as they “find their natural cultural roots in modernity.” Citing the liberal American theologian Walter Wink⁵, he notes that, “after a long search Wink became convinced of the need for a theology and spiritual life which, whilst incorporating the fruits of the critical age, press on to a more holistic consciousness than objective knowledge can achieve.”

Gordon Lynch (Professor of the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck, University, London) has also written about his journey from evangelicalism in Losing my Religion⁶, but has recently set out his analysis of the emerging encounter with what he calls The New Spirituality⁷. His book subtitle, An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the 21^st Century describes the research. It first reviews the roots of the new, progressive spirituality, its ideology, and its organisational emergence. Its approach is captured by his sub headings to Chapter 2 – The Ideology of progressive spirituality:

· The unity of the ineffable and immanent divine – the guiding intelligence behind evolutionary process and the energy of the universe itself

· Pantheism / Panentheism – replacing a transcendent, patriarchal view of God

· Mysticism and the divine feminine – using symbol and liturgy, encounter with nature and celebration of the feminine in God

· The sacralisation of nature – affirmation of the material and nature / life as participation in divinity

· The sacralisation of the self – as a manifestation of the divine – with human consciousness derived from the supra-consciousness of the “All”.

· Understandings of Religion – as culturally and historically bound and thus metaphorical – enabling a growing spirit of ‘ecumenism’

· The deeper cultural roots of progressive spirituality show underlying coherence, reflecting adaptation to modernism, liberalism and welcome insights in quantum physics and cosmic ‘unfolding’.

Lynch also includes the first survey in print of networks such as Free to Believe and PCNB (TCPC in the States), which support this new territory.

The Australian, David Tacey⁸ has also written in this context, commenting “Religion taught me to find God in heaven; aboriginality has shown me how to find the sacred on earth.”

I have made this journey too, from a mainstream Congregational upbringing in Lancashire, to conversion through the Manchester University Christian Union, eventually moving to post-evangelical liberalism while training as a non-stipendiary minister in the URC on a diocesan training course. This booklet arises from my desire to share this process of ongoing change – and my excitement at where the journey might take us.

My aim is to suggest a way forward for people of all Christian backgrounds that will enable us to embrace insights from both the new spiritualities and other faiths. A chorus of voices now proclaim that Christianity must re-embrace the spiritual, the mystical in ways that make the mystery of God real in human experience. My italics indicate the need to unpack each of these slippery terms. Karl Rayner⁹ said, “The Christianity of the future will be mystical, or it will not be at all.” He considered that all human beings have a latent awareness of God, who he describes as “absolute mystery”

This call to mysticism will not be easy for those whose faith journey has been rooted in accommodation to the religious critique posed by modernity where God is simply the “religious ideal”¹⁰. They will think us delusional, as all this must also seem to Dawkins¹¹. It will be hard also for those from more conservative faith backgrounds who cannot accommodate the necessary theological reorientation. However, it may be welcomed by those who can find ‘God’ in these very different contexts.

Surveys of contemporary Religion and Spirituality

The Religious Studies Department at Lancaster University chose Kendal, in

Cumbria

, to research levels of involvement in both the old “religion based” and new “individualised” spiritualities, as practiced in a small town of some 27,000 souls in the north of

England

. The resulting book The Spiritual Revolution – why religion is giving way to spirituality¹², was written to bring the research to a wider lay audience. It has driven wide interest in a phenomenon that everyone in the Christian church needs to comprehend.

At the heart of the research is a distinction identified between those who see ‘life as religion’ and those who seek ‘subjective-life spirituality’. There is ample evidence that religion is in decline, while ‘spirituality’ is growing – but what is spirituality? The authors identify the “massive subjective turn of modern culture” with a profound rejection of the authority claimed by ‘religion’. They caution that, where the word spirituality is used in Christian circles it traditionally references the transcendent, not an experience that flows “through one’s own subjective life”, though there are overlaps. They suggest that “forms of the sacred that are compatible with the turn to ‘subjective’ will be faring better than those that serve to reinforce ‘life-as religion’ modes of existence, which emphasise a “transcendent source of significance and authority.”

The Kendal Project looked at the ‘congregational domain’ and the ‘holistic milieu’ and found that there are “two worlds” in Kendal with the subjective turn “far more evident in the holistic milieu than in the congregational domain”. They are “largely separate and distinct worlds” - with the exception of the Unitarian Church in Kendal. Interesting! My suspicion is that the age profiles of the two domains are significant markers. Their conclusion on the ‘congregational domain’ is stark. They predict a decline to virtual extinction over the next 20-25 years, with attendance by 2030 below 1% of the population. However, they predict that the ‘holistic milieu’ will grow to 3% of the population, “high enough to bring about a spiritual revolution.” But what of the 96% who are into none of this? There is a vital ‘mission’ here.

Progressive Christianity

My own experience in Kendal broadly confirms the analysis from the Heelas and Woodhead project above. Yet it is not that simple. Over recent years there are emerging in Kendal and many other

towns and cities¹³, groups of Christians who are exploring beyond the edge of traditional Christian faith. They remain active in the congregational domain, but are meeting to explore the growing literature and experience the lengthening speaker list of open, progressive and liberal forms of Christian faith. The Kendal Ecumenical Group (KEG) with which I have been involved alongside others with a Free to Believe and PCNB background, has provided the opportunity to hear locally from Jack Spong¹⁴ and Richard Holloway¹⁵, to name but two, and share in ongoing study of, for example, the Living the Questions course¹⁶. All of this has broadened our insight beyond the textbooks – allowing those involved to meet real practitioners of the “new Christianity”. Recently KEG has begun to engage across the faiths, sharing experiences with Sufis and Bahá'ís, of which more later.

Adrian Smith¹⁷, a Roman Catholic Priest, author of ‘Tomorrow’s Christian’ and many other books addressing this theme, has been another leading explainer of these trends – helping to map out what would characterise a contemporary, open and accepting way of life earthed within the Christian spiritual tradition.

The main challenge now for open Christians is to reach out and explore the complex networks and individuals who are in what Heelas and Woodhead call the ‘holistic milieu’. If the Kendal survey results indicate a national trend, it is clear that most open Christians (still in the congregational domain) remain unfamiliar with the holistic milieu and thus misunderstand it. At root, we both seek the same journey into the experience of the one God. For both, experience and practice matter more than doctrine.

The New Spirituality

There is a growing spectrum of credible writers and spiritual teachers with an increasingly high profile role in drawing together the holistic milieu into a more coherent framework of belief. By its nature, the new spirituality comprises many spiritual paths which are being pursued by those who do not directly follow one of the recognised eight or so historic faiths. A look at the literature demonstrates that the historic faiths are a core source of the wisdom the new spiritualities advance. Christian and Buddhist writings, as well as aspects of psychology, are regularly quoted.

One significant example is found in the writing of Eckart Tolle¹⁸ – author of The power of the Now and A New Earth. His website illustrates this reworking of Christian and other religious language. For example: “In the Gospel story of Mary and Martha, Jesus says to Martha, ‘You are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful.’ (Luke 10:41) As I was writing A New Earth, people would sometimes ask me, ‘What is the new book about?’ And invariably, my answer would be, ‘I only ever write or speak about one thing.’ What is that one thing? Spiritual awakening.”

For Tolle the key is the Now. He suggests that for most of us life is one damn thing after another – rushing here and there, too busy with work or other commitments to ever be still and expand our God consciousness. Most days we never get beyond the constant internal prattle of our minds and ego – regretting the past – planning the future – never ever stopping long enough to discover our real nature – that we are part of the ‘immanent¹⁹’ divine being and becoming.

At heart, the historic faiths also provide ways of realising a person’s spiritual development in the here and now. Yet, in an age suspicious of dogma and authority, seekers are doing their own investigating. As the Kendal Project points out, the faiths need to be better informed and in touch with this trend.

Neil Donald Walsch²⁰, writer of the fascinating trilogy, ‘Conversations with God’, sets out a comprehensive ‘theology’ of the way we and the world are. A selection of his key points illustrates the genre:

“Life is an ongoing process of creation... We call forth what we think feel and say... The soul creates, the mind reacts... The soul understands what the mind cannot conceive... Your feelings are your truth... Be in the present moment... “

He reminds us that God is critical of religion – God is known intuitively. However, that inner sense can get blocked by religious claims and requirements which go counter to common humanity. He puts in God’s mouth some telling criticisms: “Religion ordered men to bow down before God where once man rose up in joyful splendour. Religion taught you need intermediaries – when you were already living your life in goodness and truth. You are all priests. There is no original sin.” This repeats the view on sin well expressed in the 80s by Dominican Matthew Fox²¹. It has, down the millennia, been religion’s task to introduce human beings to the God within – the ‘life force’, the ‘being-ness’ in whom they subsist.

Both authors provide a challenging set of pointers to living out our true nature, and in so doing re-appraise Judaism’s and Christianity’s emphasis on sin and judgement. Yet none of this is really new.

A Perennial Philosophy

Aldous Huxley²², writing in 1946, referred to a “Perennial Philosophy” – a term coined by the German philosopher Liebniz. This refers to a way of understanding which is immemorial and universal – in which a person recognises a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds – with an ethic that places our end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent ‘Ground of all being’, the mystery of ‘Thou art Thou’²³.

For Jews, Christians, Muslims and Bahá’ís, this is both the absolute and immanent “I am” introduced in the Old Testament. The path of the spiritual seeker is to come to know this Being in his or her own being – in his or her soul. To borrow a term from Buddhism – we are to become ‘enlightened’. There are numerous passages in the writings of every religion seeking to say the same thing – not just in the western faiths but in Hinduism and Buddhism too. At heart all the religions and spiritualities are or were in the business of supporting their adherents as they journey into “the experiential knowledge of God”²⁴.

Thus a key challenge for both traditional and progressive Christians is to realise that Christianity can no longer be seen as the only route by which God has been, or can still be, truly known. This understanding makes clear that there have and always will be many pathways to individual spiritual enlightenment. God’s universe is a place of infinite and ever growing variety in which the historic faiths will remain, while increasingly be seen to embody the basic unity of all faiths and spiritualities.

A key implication of this is that the age when Christians can be exclusive is over. The era of mutual interfaith acknowledgement is inevitable as we become a “global village”²⁵. There is thus hope that, while the faiths and varieties of individual spirituality will persist, we will mutually recognise one ultimate Being – one transcendent yet immanent reality – unfolding within our amazing planet and universe.

The Implications for Christian Doctrine

All this has, of course, significant implications for the doctrinal basis of Christianity. Traditional Christianity as it emerged from the Constantinian settlement, but not from the mouth of the original Jesus, interpreted New Testament texts to imply that we are sinful failures destined to live in fear, without God’s self sacrifice in Jesus. Contemporary Biblical scholarship, summarised in depth by David Boulton²⁶, notes that “Decades of painstaking historical Jesus research have not produced a scholarly consensus on who the man Jesus was”.

What consensus there is across the ‘New Spirituality’ implies that what Jesus actually taught is: that each of us is capable of living, being and loving to the full now – doing the “greater things” John’s Gospel says his followers would do. The ‘Kingdom of God’ metaphor is, in this perspective, an internal state of being and living – as well as a future vision of a reformed world society. “Heaven is within you”²⁷. The Christian ‘Good News’ becomes the realisation that we are, here and now, in and of God, loved without limit and free of condemnation – called to ‘live in the light’.
So, of course, our Christology²⁸ needs to be restated too, by utilising ‘historical-metaphorical’ ways of telling the Jesus story. The sources combine memory and testimony, while the language combines memory and metaphor. This leads to the distinction Marcus Borg particularly highlights under the terms, pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus²⁹. The exalted language of ‘Son of God, ‘Lord’ ‘Saviour’ is post-Easter metaphor, and can thus be recast. Our approach to Jesus then becomes ‘following him’, not ‘believing in’ him. And his challenge? To centre our lives in God and participate in God’s passion for the world – to change the world!

Radical spiritual explorations, rather than traditional faith teachings, broadly identify a set of common perspectives on the nature of reality, human life and the way to experience God. These perspectives are being explored in significant ways, both within the ‘holistic milieu’ and increasingly on the edge of the ‘congregational domain’. Stephen Mitchell³⁰ sets out 4 key descriptors of this God:

1. Creation is an ongoing present process [in God]

2. God is coming to be.

3. There is not God and some “stuff-out-of-which-he-makes-his-creatures”. Without the ever sustaining presence of God, everything collapses.

4. God is the source of all things [‘good’ and ‘bad’ – my addition], God is being-ness itself, reality itself.

What I think is going on in all this, is that Christianity and the new spiritualities are re-discovering what was always at the heart of the Christian faith – and other faiths too: that in mystical experience or spiritual encounter we can come to know the One, the All. Paul surely understood this when he explained, within the Roman Imperial context, that; “As your [6^th Century BCE] poet said, ‘In him we live and move and have our being’”. This “Unknown God” is the God of Christianity’s beginnings, not the divine ‘Mr Fix-it’ of later orthodoxy.

The intellectual search for truth – necessary as it is – cannot alone meet humanity’s need to return home into the life in God in which he/she exists. Without that inner light we and humanity can feel lost and confused about who we are and how we should live. We become driven by our ego and develop ‘hardened’ hearts. It is this dilemma from which post-modern insight and the new spirituality can free us.

There is now an exciting possibility of mutual exploration between progressive, open Christians, practitioners of the new spirituality, and the open forms of other faith traditions.

However, we need to tread carefully! We must not reject the clear insights of the enlightenment rationalist project which have opened up scientific understanding and technology. Dawkins has a point!

What we claim for God and human experience of the divine needs to be critically assessed – there needs to be evidence to set alongside experience of the spiritual. Our new ways of defining God and understanding physics, evolution and the workings of the human mind must also be open to ongoing scientific and theological dialogue. There is not space in this booklet to cover such a vast subject – but scientists with a Christian perspective, like Keith Ward³¹, John Polkinghorne³² and Arthur Peacocke³³ have written many helpful books, as have practicing scientists with an open mind, such as Paul Davies³⁴.

Rediscovering Mystical Christianity

Marcus Borg, in a Conference at the Sheffield Centre for Radical Christianity^35,36 in April 2008, explored this resurgent focus on the spiritual in Christianity – what he calls “Mysticism” – within the Christian way. His full notes (slightly edited) are included as an Appendix – with due acknowledgement.

Borg states clearly that for him “mystical experience makes God real”. He uses mysticism as a broad term for experiences of the sacred, while recognising its ambiguity in contemporary culture, in theology and in the academic world. But of course mysticism is not new. For medieval Christianity, mysticism is the, “cognitio experimentalis Dei” — the experiential knowledge of God. He quotes William James, writing 100 years ago, who identified two primary features of mystical experience: A sense of union, connection - with God, the sacred, and a sense of illumination - an experience of enlightenment. Borg suggests they involve a non-ordinary state of consciousness, and a momentary softening or disappearance of the ‘self/world’ distinction, of ‘ego separation’.

Secondly, he lists instances of the occurrence of Mysticism within Christianity, noting that the central figures of the Christian tradition have all had mystical experiences. He then outlines what the impact for Christians and Christianity in our time would be if we took mystical / spiritual experience seriously. He suggests it would modify our view of the symbolism of the word God, and our sense of the reality of God, taking us from supernatural theism to panentheism. A key point is that Mysticism takes seriously “the turn to experience” of modern and post modern culture.

Thirdly, Borg explains what he calls Open hearts and Thin Places. Pointing out that the Christian life has an inner dimension and outer dimension. He endorses the phrase ‘Thin Places’, taken from Celtic Christianity, to mean “places” (times, practices) where the separation of ordinary consciousness from consciousness of God becomes “thin” and concludes by saying that the goal of the spiritual life (and the height of mysticism) is union with the will of God.

The point of this summary of Marcus Borg’s views on the mystical in Christianity is to remind us that these ways of knowing, rather than believing, have long been found in Christianity. They are similarly found in both the emerging spiritualities and at the heart of the mystical traditions in other faiths. This is what we would expect since God expresses the unity in what is.

This rediscovery of the mystical and spiritual in Christianity challenges us – as reformed Christians – with our historic emphasis on ‘word’. Change is already happening as post-modern influences reshape our worship. Mystery, meditation, light and colour have become more acceptable. The austere and plain do not mirror creation’s riotous enthusiasm! Our churches will continue to empty less we accommodate this spiritual revolution, and the “subjective turn of modern culture”. We have been warned.

Relating this to the world’s faiths

To conclude, I’ll explore how we can take on board the best insight of the two western faiths which followed Judaism and Christianity.

The primary challenge for Christians in working with other faiths is rooted in our traditional Christology, summarised the arguments on page 13. If we are freed up to follow Jesus, rather than believe in doctrine about Jesus developed to define the post-Easter Christ in terms of sacrifice-salvation, then the whole task of engagement becomes radically changed. The ‘Christ of Faith’ is set free too – as we “belove”³⁷ Jesus and follow his example of a life centred in God, with a passion to change the world.

Then we are free to respect others similarly centred and energised. Thus, alongside Jesus, a series of ‘enlightened’ human beings also became divine Messengers, anointed ones (Christs) and Wisdom Teachers. Each primary prophet’s teaching became the foundation of a major world religion. The messengers have included Abraham, (Krishna), Zoroaster, Moses, The Buddha, Muhammad, Guru Nanak and Bahá’u’lláh. Interestingly, Matthew 10, 40-42 offers, in a possible reading, a highly relevant reflection on God’s call to “receive his prophets” and serve the, ”little ones” of the world. Our own New Testament thus called us to listen to future prophets.

These prophets still challenge us to step beyond our everyday lives and concerns. Each one has sought to enable us to change so that we can live with the ‘Being’ of God at the still centre of our lives, set free increasingly from anxiety and fear. The word’s faiths can, in their different ways, free us up to become aware that we live ‘in God’, whatever our religious or other background. This enables us to pursue compassion, justice, peace, sustainable living and acceptance of others – now. These ways of being are the marks of God’s unfolding purpose.

The western faiths each sprang from the same root, as one ‘people of the book’³⁸, with Islam and the Bahá’í Faith later also acknowledging the Old Testament and the Gospels alongside the Koran. Until recent centuries each faith developed a distinct human culture, and interaction was limited. The development of humanity was not ready for a single faith and common understanding. However, there are those who hope the time is near when this can emerge, as the global village enables increasing numbers to see what is happening in the world wherever it takes place.

These and other faiths, as well as Christianity, are of course not monolithic in either beliefs or practices. And there lies the rub. The historic faiths have each evolved significantly and diversified in ways that emphasise belief on the one hand as against experience of the ‘divine mystery’ on the other. It is as an offshoot of the latter that “new spiritualities” are emerging in the 21^st Century from earlier beginnings.

As we have come to realise down the centuries, belief as opposed to knowing God can be very dangerous. It has made people do terrible things to defend their own faith’s beliefs. In each faith there are those who live loving, compassionate, peaceable lives, because they truly live within the love and compassion of God. Others wage sectarian or religious wars in defence of sometimes arcane ‘belief’. Our history, as children of the Christian Reformation, reminds us that our forefathers in faith were of that mindset too.

At the heart of Jesus’ message is a simple call to live without anxiety about our past mistakes or our future path – “consider the lilies”, “take no thought for the morrow” -- but also warnings: “Nobody who takes his hand from the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom”. It is a mistake to think of the Kingdom of God as a future goal; as these sayings make clear. We are called by Jesus to live in the ever present ‘Being’ or “is-ness” of God – Now! This Christian “good news” is the same good news at the heart of all faiths and spiritual practices. It is the call to Kingdom Living. As we clear our minds from the clutter of the everyday we can be reborn into the realm of God’s being - now! There is a Sufi saying that captures this: “Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time.”

Knowing more of other faith traditions is thus of key relevance and challenge to Christians. So to conclude I’ll refer to the two faiths which are particularly challenging to Christian understandings of Jesus as the ‘Christ’, the ‘Son of God’ – since they post-date Jesus and the development of Christian orthodoxy. First Islam (in its more mystical Sufi form) and second the Bahai Faith, given its claim to offer a specific revelation for the new global age. But as we approach our conclusion, let us bear in mind the wisdom of the Dalai Lama who said that even as we come to understand other faiths, our primary task is to move deeper into the wisdom already within our own faith.

Sufi Islam

Islam is a religion that was aware of Judaism and Christianity from its birth. It fully acknowledges Jesus as God’s “messenger” alongside key Old Testament prophets. Of course Islam rejected some of the doctrine added by the church, in particular the Trinity. Muhammad’s message was quite clear – that human beings need to turn wholeheartedly to God, living faith out in everyday devotions – the Pillars of Islam - that bring the faithful into inner awareness of God’s Being.

By the 800’s the Sufis³⁹ emerged as a protest movement against the excesses of the Islamic Empire, reacting against its materialism and inhumanity. They reminded their fellow Muslims that their God was supposed to be compassionate, all-loving, all-merciful. As Sufism developed it emphasised an inward religion of the mind and heart – developing ways to experience the mystery of Allah. Through the Kendal Ecumenical Group, I and others have experienced the way Sufi Islam lives its faith through its Zikr service – men, women and children chanting and moving together in heightened experience of God. Sufi’s believe that perfect self-understanding leads to the understanding of the Divine. This is based on a typically succinct saying of Prophet Muhammad: "Whoever knows oneself, knows one's Lord."

Sufis acknowledge that the ways to reach God are ‘as numerous as the number of people on earth’, but at root require abandonment of false pride and the following of a path of selfless service to humanity.

For Sufis there is ‘one human brotherhood and one morality that blooms in deeds of service’. They are sceptical of churches and shrines. Rumi, the famous Sufi poet of the 13^th Century said, “I gazed into my own heart; there I saw him, nowhere else.” They also see each religion as different lights: “The lamps are different, but the light is the same: it comes from beyond. If you keep looking at the lamp, you are lost. O you who are the kernel of Existence, the disagreement between Muslims, Zoroastrians, Christians and Jews depends on the standpoint”⁴⁰. We have much to learn and respect from this long existent scholarly and progressive face of Islam.

The Bahá'í Faith

Finally I’ll highlight some of what I’ve discovered about the Bahá'í Faith. Again, I have had the opportunity to share in its festivals locally in Kendal.

Bahá’ís⁴¹ proclaim that the latest of God’s Messengers - Bahá’u’lláh - brought new spiritual and social teachings for the coming global age. The 19^th Century was a time when the world was becoming fully aware of the diversity of human cultures and religions. Bahá’u’lláh, is a title that means "the Glory of God". He was born on 12 November 1817 in Tehran, Iran⁴². His given name was Husayn Ali, and he was the son of a wealthy government minister, but devoted his life to the poor. The Bahá’ís were persecuted in the beginning – being seen in

Iran

as “a radically modernising movement within Islam”⁴³.

In April 1863, Bahá’u’lláh and His companions camped in a garden on the banks of the Tigris River for twelve days, where Bahá’u’lláh revealed He was the Promised One foretold in all the world's scriptures.

Bahá'u'lláh said, “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens”; and that, as foretold in all the sacred scriptures of the past, “now is the time for humanity to live in unity”.

The core elements of Bahá'í thought include these key ideas – which make deep sense to me:

· Independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition;

· the oneness of the entire human race,

· the basic unity of all religions;

· the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national;

· the harmony which must exist between religion and science;

· the equality of men and women;

· the introduction of compulsory education;

· the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty;

· the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations;

· the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship;

· the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations;

· the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind.

The Bahá'í Faith is now a recognised worldwide religion with its world administrative centre in Haifa, Israel. There is, Bahá’u’lláh insists, “but one human race”. Thus inherited notions that a particular racial or ethnic group (or religion) is in some way superior to the rest are without foundation. Similarly, he explained that the revelations of the messengers of God are our collective human legacy.

A final challenge to the churches!

As Christians we are called by Jesus to begin a journey of discovery in this life – to experience the God who is both within us and ‘more than’ us. We are called to awaken to the truth that our being, our life, is but an expression of the great “I am” that shouts from every atom, star, galaxy and life form in the Universe. There are numerous passages in the writings of every faith that seek to say the same thing.

To build God’s future, the core message of all religions and all spiritual searching is that we need to discover ourselves, discovering fresh ways of living in the now of God’s reality. We can do this within our own faith background, without converting to another faith or insight. But from this generation on we must be open to all that God has made plain through the insights of all the faith founders and the countless other deeply spiritual human beings.

The time is now very short to learn to live sustainably and in harmony with one another on this planet. Yet, together, we can change the world!

Bahá’u’lláh said: “all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled — what harm is there in this? … Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come.…”

These are exciting times!

John Hetherington, Kendal – July 2000

References

1 Paul Tillich – part of his Systematic Theology - “ground of being” is used in answer to the ontological threat of non-being [ontological = the study of being]

2 For a full exposition see Jack Spong’s “A New Christianity for a new World” Harper SF, 2001 – pp 72-77

3 Matthew Arnold, Poetry and Prose, ed. J. Bryson (London 1967) pp144-5. Cited in Stephen Mitchell, ‘God in the Bath – Relaxing in the everywhere presence of God’, O Books, 2006.

4 Dave Tomlinson, “The Post Evangelical, SPCK, 1995, p2

5 Walter Wink, Transforming Bible Study, Mowbray, 1990, Ch 1

6 Gordon Lynch, Losing my Religion – Moving on from Evangelical Faith, Darton, Longman and Todd, Ltd, 2003

7 Gordon Lynch, The New Spirituality – An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the 21st Century, I B Taurus, 2007

8 David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: the emergence of contemporary spirituality. Routledge 2004 p7

9 German Roman Catholic theologian behind

Vatican

2 – who shaped modern Catholic understanding.

10 Don Cupitt – After God: The future of Religion, Weidenfied and Nicholson, 1977

11 Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion, Bantam Press, 2006. [Also see

12 The Spiritual Revolution – Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead - Blackwell Publishing, 2005

13 Listed on the Progressive Christianity Network Britain (PCNB) Website: http://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/index.php/locations/

14 John Shelby Spong (www.johnshelbyspong.com) - author of many books including “A new Christianity for a New World”, Harper SF, 2001 and “Jesus for the Non-Religious”, Harper SF,2007

15 Richard Holloway - Doubts and Loves – What is left of Christianity, Canongate Books, 2002

16 Living the Questions (Resourcing Progressive Christians) - http://www.livingthequestions.com/

17 Adrian B Smith – Tomorrow’s Christian: A Framework for Christian Living, O Books, 2005

18 Eckart Tolle - author of several books on Spirituality, including ‘The Power of Now’ and ‘A New Earth’ : http://www.eckharttolle.com/

19 In this Pamphlet ‘immanent’ refers to God’s indwelling in the world rather than his transcendence – depth rather than height – “Presence” to quote Tolle.

20 Neale Donald Walsch, – The Complete ‘Conversations with God’ – an uncommon dialogue. Hampton Roads Publishing, Putnam New York: http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/index.php?p=About

21 Matthew Fox, Original Blessing – A primer in Creation Spirituality, Bear and Company”, 1983

22 Aldous Huxley – The perennial Philosophy, Fontana, 1946

23 ibid, p14 – “Thou are Thou” - Sanskrit translation “tat tvam asi”. The last end of man is the, “unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground”, p33

24 Thomas Aquinas’ (1255-74): his definition of mysticism.

25 Tony Blair, The Times 14^th June 2008 – “As the world becomes smaller, the need grows to understand each other’s faiths grows”: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tony-blair-as-the-world-becomes-smaller-the-need-to-understand-each-others-faith-grows-846964.html

26 David Boulton - Who on Earth was Jesus: The Modern Quest for the Jesus of History, O Books, 2008

27 Luke 17:21

28 Christology – the doctrine of Christ

29 see Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus again for the First Time, Harper Collins, 1995 – pp 15-17

30 Stephen Mitchell, God in the Bath, O books, 2006 – Chapter 3 “In God”

31 Keith Ward, God, Faith & The New Millenium – Christian Belief in an Age of Science, Oneworld, 1998

32 John Polkinghorne, Science and Christian Belief, 1993-4 Gifford Lectures, SPCK, 1994

33 Arthur Peacocke, Paths from Science towards God – the end of all our exploring, One World, 2002 – see particularly his definition of panentheist Reality (God), pp129-130

34 Paul Davies, The Goldilocks Dilemma – Why is the Universe just right for life?, Penguin 2007

35 CRC website: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/

36 Tapes and notes are available from CRC: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/resources/past-conferences

37 Before around 1600 the word ‘believe’ had much more the connotation of commit to, love; rather than the modern ‘believe in propositions about’.

38 In Islam, the "People of the Book" (Arabic أهل الكتاب, Ahl al- Kitâb), are non-Muslim peoples who, according to the Qur'an, received scriptures which were revealed to them by God before Muhammad

39 Sufi Islam - International Association of Sufism: http://ias.org/ or in the UK – the Sufi Muslim Council: http://www.sufimuslimcouncil.org/index.php

40 Sufism, A S Barnes and Co., Inc, 1976, p103 & p68ff (English modernised)

41 The Bahá'í Faith - http://www.bahai.org/ - with further links

42 Source for this section – Hatcher and Martin, The Bahá'í Faith – the emerging global religion, Harper and Row, 1985, plus material on the Bahá'í website

43 Ninian Smart, The World’s Religions, Cambridge University Press, 2^nd ed, p498

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:19:00 +0000

This was an attempt to learn the Chakras location and meaning.

May help some of my readers:

The Energy of Life

My Crown sings

in perpetual awareness of higher consciousness

to reveal a Violet lightness:

Source of beauty, creativity and self sacrifice.

At the centre of my vision resides mystical insight

There I “see” with my Third Eye, in Indigo hue,

Prism of intuition and understanding of the way.

From my throat is voiced to the sky

the Blue sound of Self expression,

in true communication of Spirit.

The core of all being inhabits my Heart

waving rhythmically in a field of verdant Green

while at home Love dances perpetually.

My Self-worth is upheld through my Solar Plexus

Sun Yellow the colour of ego, intellect and clear thinking,

Connecting strength, confidence and good humour.

Deep is feeling and joy rooted in my lower abdomen.

There self-respect abides while Orange glows

in its success and freedom.

Upholding all - the base of my spine - source of power

Whose colour Red symbolises self awareness,

Built on solid ground, deep rooted and vital!

From denominational Christianity to Global Faith

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:58:00 +0000

Grange over Sands – 4th September 2011 [NB - I used a much edited version of the Sermon on the day]

Sermon (Part 1)

My spiritual journey - From denominational Christianity to Global Faith

I thought it might be interesting to share something of my spiritual journey, before getting into the meat of my sermon. I was born in Chorley in Lancashire and attended the local Congregational church school in Chorley. My Grandmother was into Trades Unionism, but my Father’s gentle influence reached back to his father’s strict upbringing. His father was a very “Victorian” CofE Stipendiary Reader in Penrith. From my dad’s bookish presence I was schooled in Temperance and Science Fiction, and he gave me a deep awareness of the bigger picture. There was world religion on his bookshelf. It made me argumentative in RE lessons at Bolton School.

By the 6th Form I was slightly rebellious, but at University in Manchester I was soon “converted” to Anglican Evangelicalism [Holy Trinity Platt Fields – Michael Baughan (Vicar)]. I was on the Christian Union Executive and later had links with Pentecostalism. I drifted away a little after my return to Chorley from where I commuted to Salford to work as a Planning Officer. However, I began lay preaching in the Congregational then later the United Reformed Church (by then in my early 20s)

After marrying Val, we lived and worked Aberdeen, attended the village Kirk (Presbyterian) near Aberdeen at Skene, but after only 18 months I moved back south to Kendal where James and Lindsay, our children were born. I became active as a leader in “Sunday School” and also “lay preached” around the South Lakes and up Penrith. I then felt “called” to trained for, the then new, URC Non Stipendiary Ministry. I chose to train ecumenically on the then, Carlisle Diocesan Training Institute course. It was a tough time in full time work at the County Council with small children! I was Ordained 1986 serving at Carver, Windermere – by which time I was post-evangelical, as my training was
open and exploring!

My Forties were an activist phase, basically getting on with my job, preaching on Sundays around Cumbria, and

very active across church structures, on endless Committees, but with strong ecumenical interests being developed. I was Chair of Governors at Kirkby Kendal School for a few years. I was very much involved in conceiving the Social
Responsibility Forum with Ruth Clarke & was for many years on its Environment & Energy Groups. I saw my work and practical Christian engagement as linked. I was gradually promoted in my work, which was planning related - covering energy and the environment, with a major nuclear waste, nuclear power and environmental role for my employer CCC.

As I reached my fifties I was reading widely in the sciences (Dawkins et al), leading to a brief “non-realist” phase in terms of my preaching & writing. In the late 1990s I helped ‘found’ the Progressive Christianity Network Britain

(and was on its Executive until last year). Working with the Kendal Ecumenical Group I started a local PCN Group –
reading key texts, watching the DVDs and going to conferences with authors such as Jack Spong, Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan, who reshaped my theological understanding in a Christian context. All this set me free to explore liberal and progressive theology – with no limits – and helped me grow! I remain on the Committee of “Free to Believe” – the mainly URC open network.

Sources of theological awakening
My first personal sense of encounter with the “divine”, after my University conversion, was triggered by early retirement from Cumbria County Council at the end of 2006 (after I was off work for several months with stress problems). Nevertheless I later started my own Planning Consultancy! So now – here I am in my early 60s! I guess

that I’m slowly awakening to what was my problem – being into everything – instead of just BEING! I think I
am realising that western Religion is interpreted as being about DOING!, in other words, it is guilt based and culture bound. Doing is not experiencing God, so, I readily admit I have had a limited prayer or spiritual life for the past 40 years, much more it has been about intellect not the heart. I am still “Living the Questions”, exploring to what or to whom am I praying and respecting? This also is “doing”, but a necessary stage.

Drivers to theological awakening

I have to admit that all this has brought increasing disillusion with standard Christian religious beliefs. I find much Christian doctrine totally disconnected with contemporary understanding in the sciences and its relationship to other faith insights. For example, I find Christianity’s “only way” claims personally difficult. To me God must transcend any and all faiths, for the God of “all that is” in our amazing universe – must be always mystery and yet source of our awe and wonder.

I am thus more and more experiencing the possibility of “awakening” through other sources of global wisdom and spirituality. Living faith is a “Way” rather than depending on Religion’s “beliefs”. I am recognising, with millions of others “on the edge”, that we can be ‘spiritual’ without being ‘religious’ (in the negative sense of having to believe particular things). I am awakening to the new - but old! I now see (intellectually) that there is a new story which integrates scientific understanding, the “evolutionary story”, and the felt experience of the “All”, as Michael Dowd puts it in his book, “Thank God for Evolution”.) This for me is the felt inner experience of “Life, Love, Being” that is shaping a new Spirituality - aboveand beyond historic western religious doctrine - but not its long mystical tradition.
It was after reading afresh in the Christian mystical tradition as well as those of other faiths that I wrote “Reshaping Christianity” in 2008. [It can be purchased from Free to Believe - see link:

So, increasingly, like Elliot, I am "Knowing the place for the first time” It is from my own experience of the mystery that life has now danced into being more than I could ever imagine. So - before talking through my Booklet .... A poem I wrote to Iona. It is an important place for me as some of you will know.

SERMON PART 2 - Reshaping Christianity

My sermon now summarises my Free to Believe Booklet – You can find the link to the site here: http://www.freetobelieve.org.uk/booklets2.html.

My Booklet explores developments in the world faiths and what are called the “new spiritualities”. It embraces the clash of the pre-modern, modern and the emerging world, which risks tension and schism – but also offers hope for mutual understanding. It also explores how Christianity is changing, as new ways of looking at “God” are
becoming necessary – the “God” in the evolutionary process of becoming – Life, Love & Being. Poetry and poetic prose best captures the reality that we name God. As John O’Donohue puts it in Anam Cara, “Silence is the sister of the divine.” “You must make a space for it so that it may begin to work for you.” “Friendship mirrors itself in the
silence between.”
Recent research predicts a continuing decline in church attendance to as low as 3% in the UK over coming years. However, what the academics call “post modernity”, will through its re-awakening of people to the ‘spiritual’ or ‘mystical’, begin to open up new avenues of faith exploration beyond the evangelical / liberal divide. Dave Tomlinson’s book, The Post Evangelical, first explained this situation in 1995. He acknowledged the “growing discontinuity” of many

nurtured within the evangelical milieu. Gordon Lynch (Professor of the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck University, London) has also written about his journey from evangelicalism in Losing my Religion, but he has set out his
analysis of the emerging encounter with what he calls The New Spirituality. It is from these and other sources that I have found my way of looking at church and life and God very differently.

There is a growing common theological underpinning for this. Gordon Lynch identified many of the key ideas. God
– the All – is the guiding intelligence behind evolutionary process expressing in the energy of the universe itself. Pan(en)theism is replacing a transcendent, patriarchal view of God. Mysticism and the divine feminine – using symbol and liturgy and encounter with nature people are able also to celebrate the feminine side of God. More and more people are discovering the sacred in all of nature and are affirming the material aspects of nature and its gift of life as participation in divinity.
This way of thinking emerged in the 1970’s with the book Original Blessing by Matthew Fox. People of faith are more and more celebrating themselves as sacred – as a manifestation of the divine. They sense that human
self-consciousness is derived from the supra-consciousness of the “All”. In addition they begin to Religion differently – as culturally and historically bound and thus metaphorical – enabling a growing spirit of ‘ecumenism’ and interfaith encounter.

The future of faith will be a return to its mystical roots. A chorus of voices proclaim that Christianity must re-embrace the spiritual, the mystical, in ways that make the mystery of God real in human experience. Carl Rahner said,

“The Christianity of the future will be mystical, or it will not be at all".
He felt that all human beings have a latent awareness of God, who he describes as “absolute mystery”. The Celtic way
is also deeply connected to the mystery of the divine “being” – using a Trinitarian motif in its worship and engagement. This call to mysticism will not be easy for those whose faith journey has been rooted in accommodation to the religious critique posed by modernity where God is simply the “religious ideal”. My story has followed this path
and I expect many of your spiritual journeys have too!

Surveys of Religion & Spirituality were undertaken by Lancaster University which explored the way “religion” and “spirituality” interact in Kendal. The Religious Studies Department chose Kendal, in Cumbria, to research levels of involvement in both the old “religion based” and new “individualised” spiritualities. The book based on the research is, “The Spiritual Revolution – why religion is giving way to spirituality. “
The research distinguished between those who see ‘life as religion’ and those who seek ‘subjective-life spirituality’. The authors identify the “massive subjective turn of modern culture” with a profound rejection of the authority claimed by ‘religion’. They caution that, where the word spirituality is used in Christian circles it traditionally references the transcendent, not an experience that flows “through one’s own subjective life”, though there are overlaps. The Kendal Project looked at the ‘congregational domain’ and the ‘holistic milieu’ (e.g. Yoga classes / body-mind-spirit) and found that there are, “two worlds” in Kendal, with a self-developing spirituality: “far more evident in the holistic milieu than in the congregational domain”. The project predicts a steep decline in traditional churches over the next 20-25 years. The Unitarian Church in Kendal was noted as an exception, as it also embraces nature based and other faith adherents

In addition, Progressive Christianity also exemplifies this change, as, over recent years, there have been emerging in Kendal and many other UK towns and cities, groups of Christians who are exploring beyond the edge of traditional Christian faith.PCN Britain Local Groups, such as Kendal Ecumenical Group (KEG), and nationally Free to Believe, MCU, the Iona Local Group, etc – study books, host conferences with noted leaders, watch DVDs and
follow Courses – like “Living the Questions”.
There is a growing Speaker and Conference Circuit – with Jack Spong, Marcus Borg, John Bell and many others. However, most “open Christians” hang on in the congregational domain out of loyalty, supported by new open hymnody: e.g. Wild Goose and the late Fred Kaan’s great hymns.

I have also been exploring beyond my tradition through contact with the, “new spiritualities” and open faith communities, and am more and more into Interfaith issues, as people in the South Lakes and Cumbria have developed the South Lakeland Interfaith Forum & the Cumbria Interfaith Forum networks. I am secretary of SLIF.

Finally, to finish this address, I want to explain about what are often called, the “New Spiritualities”. A growing spectrum of what I regard as credible writers and spiritual teachers, are taking an increasingly high profile role, by drawing together the “holistic milieu” into a coherent framework. The new spirituality comprises many spiritual paths which are being pursued by those who do not directly follow one of the recognised eight or so historic
faiths, though many remain deeply influenced by them.
The historic faiths remain the core source of the wisdom the new spiritualities advance.
The goal of all such paths is “spiritual awakening” and its method is “meditation” and “silence”. Christian mystical, Vedanta (Hindu) and Buddhist writings, earth based spiritualities (“pagan”) as well as aspects of

psychology, are regularly quoted. The wisdom of the pre-modern is alive again! Leading teachers include the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle. Also, Neale Donald Walsch – as well as others such as Gill Edwards, local author of “Conscious Medicine”, have wisdom to share! The teaching is:“Life is an ongoing process of creation... We call forth what we
think, feel and say... Be in the present moment...”

As a “cross fertilisation” of religious ideas - now growing rapidly, as east and west share common insight,

an open approach across the world’s faiths offers a vital opportunity to shape a global spirituality drawn
from the world’s meditative traditions. This is now urgent – in the face of climate change and the consequences of human excess. To change the world we need to challenge traditional culture and religion – but not by confrontation – by education and engagement. This, so far, has had little impact in the more fundamentalist expressions of each religion – but it needs to have - as it is beliefs and the fears they provoke that drive hate and war. It is socially

and politically the challenge of the century, as recent events in the Middle East and now in Britain show. Hope arises, however, from the increasing emphasis on meditation practice in Christianity and in Interfaith contacts - with many local groups across the UK linking contemplative tradition and practices.

Contemporary mystics, such as Eckhart Tolle, are increasingly recognised as key western leaders in the movement to “awaken” individuals to the “presence” found in times of stillness: He says:

“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world”.
Worldwide the emphasis is increasingly on meditative practices to still the mind’s endless chatter and our focus on “form” (things). This does NOT mean leaving our religions and their heritage – it means absorbing all the world’s inherited wisdom and practicing a Way – but not one bound by belief & doctrine. Future spirituality will be about PRACTICE – knowing God!

I hope this address has informed and encouraged you to explore your faith and its impact on yourself and others – while having open hearts and minds to discover the voice of the divine light in our midst.
Rev''d John Hetherington - john.hetherington@pcnbritain.org.uk

Magic of Soul

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:45:00 +0000

Hi everyone who reads my blog - check out Mark Townsend's "Magic of Soul" site. Also the FACEBOOK Hedge Church - its growing and exciting.
Mark is being ordained to a new ministry on Saturday 18th June 2011. Lots of info - and links to his new role. John

Evolutionary Christianity

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Hi everyone on my Blog - I am posting a link here to the Evolutionary Christianity website: http://evolutionarychristianity.com/blog/ What keeps drawing me back to the site is the breadth of contributors - but I just picked up on from the site of the passing of Judy Cannato - an amazing writer on spirtual evolution and the evolutionary story. Do check it out and lets see what we think. And check out Judy's many books. They take you there!

And just to whet your appetite further check out this endorsement:
What others are saying about Field of Compassion:

“Judy Cannato writes like a poet, visions like a mystic, and weaves a story that is original, provocative, and inspiring. Her ability to integrate the wisdom of field theory, Christian compassion, and personal narrative ...provides the reader with nourishment for intellect and spirit alike. A message of reassurance and hope for troubled times.”—Diarmuid O’Murchu,author of Quantum Theology

"Synthesizing the brilliant insights of our era’s most significant scientists and spiritual teachers, Judy Cannato provides an effective process for embodying this new understanding. Field of Compassion is a gateway into the future of the human species.”—Brian Thomas Swimme, co-author of The Universe Story.

I have read both of these and found them transforming!

GO buy!!

An open and progresssive global faith

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:44:00 +0000

John Hetherington [P2S Associate] explores the 7 Points of his vision for the global religion and spirituality of the future.
[Reproduced from the Article Posted on www.permissiontospeak.com]

The Unitarian approach to faith and life offers a caring, open-minded way of thinking, which encourages seekers to follow their own path. Unitarianism has increasingly drawn me over recent years from my own Reformed heritage as a former Congregationalist. However, I remain for now a 'self-supporting' minister in the United Reformed Church. The Congregational and English Presbyterian Churches, later joined by Scottish Congregationalists, became the United Reformed Church (URC) in 1972. The URC and Unitarian churches thus reach back to the early (16th Century) at the beginnings of the European struggles for religious freedom and tolerance over and against monarchical state religion, .

Unitarians and liberal progressive in the URC (and in other denominations) draw on many religious sources and welcome people across a wide spectrum of open-minded views. The URC retains a somewhat more Calvinist perspective, with evangelical and liberal / progressive wings. Unitarians are united by shared values, not by creed or dogma.

Unitarian and other progressive, open, liberal Christians yearn to explore, unfettered, the full range of contemporary religious and spiritual insights. Ours is a broad faith that allows people to explore the full range of contemporary understandings of the "mystery" of life and Being that we call "divinity". We are people who "Live the Questions" not expecting to be given fixed answers. We must hope that forever, now, we are past imprisoning or killing one another on the basis of belief or doctrine, though that is not the worldwide perspective - yet!

I am more and more drawn to a Unitarian Universalist position, content to embrace all those progressive values and ideas that have paved the way to open exploration of the world's faiths and spiritualities. The hallmarks of this openness should be reflected in all aspects of our thinking and living.

A word hear on Trinitarian and Unitarian belief. I share my ministry across both traditions. For me the "divine" is not definable - certainly not as a "God" out there beyond the sky, who sent a literal "divine Son" to save humanity. The "God" I know is found in the midst of life - at the depth our being and doing. That beingness is where east and western religions can come together. Trinities crop up in religions east and west and each reflects a way of entering into the mystery of our humanity and divinity and the connectedness we address as Spirit. To me God must remain a mystery - through which I sense God's 'presence' in all that is in "creation" and also thus "in" us humans (and nature) - beyond any defining. As Karen Armstrong says in her, "The Case for God" we must look for God in "mythos" not "logos". God cannot helpfully be defined as unity or trinity - only experienced.

Jesus thus remains my source of connection to the divine, but other faith founder also had that connection, too. I find the doctrines hammered out in the 4th Century under Constantine incredible when viewed as "logos" - but deeply powerful when entered into as mythos.

Given this perspective, I want to share with you SEVEN POINTS that I have come to see as my vision for the global religion and spirituality of the future. See what you think!

So, my First Point: It is in personal encounter with the mystery and wonder of life that we find our deepest selves. When we sense the "spirit" within, lifting us to moments of transcendent "knowing", we glimpse a foretaste of a "divine loving presence" that will ever hold us.

I believe that the heart of all religion and spirituality arises from human encounter with the "spirit of life" that is fully present in us and our world. It's not surprising we start each service at Kendal Unitarian Church with "Spirit of life come unto me".

"Spirit of life come unto me. Sing in my heart the stirrings of compassion. Blow in the wind, rise in the sea, move in the hand giving life the shape of justice. Roots hold me close, wings set me free, Spirit of life come unto me, come onto me."

My personal perspective is that, as evolved human beings, we are more than "flesh and blood" - we are eternal souls journeying to find joy in our hearts and wisdom for our mind, through the sensed presence of "divinity" within. I sense deeply that we are sparks of the divine life sharing a journey of discovery - connected to the source of all that is.

Second Point: We have discovered that in human lives, words and deeds - prophetic women and men have and are being "energized" to confront the "powers" of structural evil - with justice, compassion and love.

There is more to heaven and earth than most human beings experience. Life is hard and brutal for many. We have down the millennia been blessed with stories that can change things, if we will but listen. The normal modes of civilisation are, for a few, to rise tyrannically to the top of the pile and oppress the mass of the people. Inspired women and men have spoken out and sacrificed their lives to confront such systemic evil - as in Libya now. We must always be prepared to take risks for the future.

Third Point: We know that down the ages, prophets, sages and wisdom teachers have made the "light within" clear to us, and to peoples everywhere. We thus recognise Jesus, in particular, as our model for a life lived in love, compassion and service to others.

There is an enormous literature from west and east that speaks to us of the insights being experienced across our planet from growing awareness of Hindu and Buddhist and other teachings, and the practices being followed. We need to be open to practices of mindfulness and prayer that have often been lost in the western faiths. Meditation and mantras, ritual and chant, stillness and silence - are all increasingly recognised as global phenomena. One "divine light", recognised in tribal peoples and civilisations across the world.

We now know, in this global age, that we can read and absorb all that insight; and be changed as a consequence. We can at least glimpse what it means to be wise, enlightened and loving. I thank God that this chain of messengers has opened the way to justice, peace and love for all - even if we still have a long way to go in our climb to global unity in diversity.

We should always be deeply thankful for the man Jesus who came in the line of inspired prophets within Judaism - and for the recognition of his early followers that, in him, there was a shining depth to his life, love and being that caused many to embrace his "WAY" within their Jewish context. It must remain our model.

Fourth Point: We have the freedom in Unitarianism to explore the wisdom found in all the world's religions (west and east) - and from them find inspiration for our ethical and spiritual life, and help to develop practices to open heart and mind.

There is much I do not understand in my own faith heritage, but I increasingly believe that we are on the verge of a global civilisation, whose deep roots of "practice" have arisen in India, China, Egypt, central Asia and in tribal settings. I firmly believe that Unitarians and other progressive Christian groups have a mission to work across faith boundaries to develop common explorations. As the Baha'i faith is the most recent world religion, it has also sought to integrate the whole picture into a common global ethic.

We must search for "ever new" explorations of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Baha'i writings and consequent teachings - which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbours as ourselves. We must search for "ever new" explorations within eastern religious and spiritual insights, as found in Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and Sikh thought and practice.

There is a beautiful translation, by Alan Jacobs, of the Isa Upanishad, which Mahatma Ghandi regarded as one of the most important in Indian scripture. It captures the essence of eastern insight:

All is perfect, so perfectly perfect! Whatever being lives, moves and breathes on the earth, at every level from atom to galaxy, is absolutely perfect in its place, precise and choreographed, because "That" flows from the Glory of God, the Lord, the Self, Consciousness, the Source, Awareness, Peace and Love, and is therefore perfect. When you surrender your ego to "That", you will find true happiness. Never envy the place of any other man or woman.

We need to be cautious when we hear people talking of Christianity "being the only way".

All I am discovering, points to there being many paths to the truths about us human beings and our spiritual nature. Insight comes from all that Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and Bahaullah taught. We need to hone our critical faculties to test faith assertions. Unitarians need to ensure they play a decisive role in the global Councils of faith to get their point across.

The era of Christian exclusivism is ending, leading us to an era of mutual inter-faith and inter-spiritual exploration.

The Sufi path in Islam has produced some of the most powerful poetry and insight into God's presence in us. For Sufis there is, "one human brotherhood and one morality that blooms in deeds of service".

They are sceptical of churches and shrines. Rumi the famous Sufi poet of the 13th Century said, "I gazed into my own heart; There I saw him, nowhere else." They also see each religion as different lights: "The lamps are different, but the light is the same: it comes from beyond."

Bahá'u'lláh (the prophet of the Baha'i faith) said: "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens"; and that, as foretold in all the sacred scriptures of the past, "now is the time for humanity to live in unity"

I am personally convinced that the inspiration for change will only come as we explore the more mystical Christian paths, and connect them with the insights being experienced across our planet from growing awareness of Hindu and Buddhist and other teachings, and the practices being followed. We need to be open to practices of mindfulness and prayer that have often been lost in the western faiths. Meditation and mantras, ritual and chant, stillness and silence - are all increasingly recognised as global phenomena.

Fifth Point: We must embrace Humanist teachings - which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.

People who are a-theist (unhappy with the traditional concept of a Father God "out there") are of course welcome in Unitarianism, for there is much to redefine and explore together. Agnostics are our also our brothers and sisters - because none of this is certain or defined precisely! Writers like Ken Wilbur are exploring an Integral approach, with concerns that link science and faith, and social and cultural issues, to help bring about a connected global understanding.

Sixth Point: We must embrace earth centred spiritual teachings which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

"Pagan" has become a pejorative term - harking back to, what I sense was a deeply real attempt by pre-historic and early cultures to understand and thus "worship" the "gods" of season and places. It must have seemed to be a capricious and dangerous world. There is much to rediscover in the exploration of "earth based" teaching.

I see much to rediscover in the exploration of "earth based" teaching. Unitarians, I know, do appreciate the Pagan, Celtic, Druidic insights that have produced some of the most powerful poetic spiritual verse I know. You may well recall the words of Celtic Christian saints - inheritors of the earlier faith of these islands.

Seventh Point: We should be excited, too, by the new emerging forms of spirituality that embrace the possibility that we can explore connection and healing.

Some of you may have come across the "Celestine Prophecy" series with its 12 "Insights" of a future global connection being enabled. Other writers like Neale Donald Walsch and Eckhart Tolle, as well as writers on "Conscious Medicine", are part of a growing scene exploring the nature of life and soul - the divinity within. Unitarians will freely want to explore this growing area of encounter, practice and healing.

So - to finish:

My 7 Points will, I hope, be memorable and helpful in stimulating you to think further, "outside the box". I always enjoy breaking boundaries - and I welcome your ideas and reactions.

In other words, I want to challenge you all to be risk takers, people open to the call of "spirit" and "insight". We are, I am certain, called to be explorers beyond "orthodoxy" of belief and be open to the excitement of exploration and the joy of new discoveries made and interpretations heard.

We should (to borrow a Baha'i term) be a "House of Welcome" to those with open minds and hearts - supporting one another in our "Way" while fully respecting other's ways. These are exciting times to be part of!

In my Booklet, "Reshaping Christianity" I expand on the new forms of open spirituality. To order a copy go to the Free to Believe website: www.freetobelieve.org.uk

Twitter / Home

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:59:00 +0000

Twitter / Home: "http://progressivespirituality.blogspot.com"

Longing is the universe evolving.

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:33:00 +0000

Longing is the universe evolving. Love is the glove enveloping the formless form. Sing, sing of the light. The starlight born of darkness.

And what of you and me? Was our soul-light born then too? Ready made seed: divine spark. Waiting, waiting down the eons.

I, in this moment know myself. Present! Full! Graced. Given. Dance, dance with me now. Maker of worlds! Life giver.

I am here living, aware, joyed. This, "little thing" held in my gloved hand. Looking in and out - seeing all that is. In this I am alone but also everything.

That is the wonder of it all. To see, to love, to be! To be beyond strife and striving.

Let poets speak. Let songs be sung! No random words - save the well chosen. It is all we have to praise the mystery of being.

Yet - even poets are silenced in that ending, when the heart drowns in love.

Copyright John Hetherington Feb 2011

.

Living the Egyptian Dream

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:31:00 +0000

I have just read a fascinating piece, posted by Peter Smith reflecting on an article published in the New York Times, on the mistakes of US western policy towards the middle east. It was a brilliant analysis of the issues of why western nations got it wrong.

It sent me off dreaming of how the rest of this Century could evolve. This is my hope.

Democracy globally will be a natural part of our coming 21st C world - with respect for human responsibilities (as well as rights); and of leaderships that uphold the spiritual values of justice and compassion.

We need just as much a sea change in the Western Democracies as in those states that have other cultural roots, such as China, India, and the Islamic and Orthodox Christian nations such as Russia.

Words like mutuality, respect for difference, simplicity, need to be the hallmark of our common global future.

I sense we are on the cusp of a new global cross cultural understanding of the sort of planetary culture and set of values we will need to put in place for the rest of this century.

In my view, it will be individual, local, trans-national and "spiritual" - deriving ideas and values from past traditions in religion and culture, as well as from a basic humanism.

The era of monolithic nations and empires is fading and a much greater sense of being part of a common humanity is growing.

It will not be easy to fashion this - but I trust and hope that its development will deepen into a new compassionate globalism. One World - of respect and pluralism, environmental care and justice for the impoverished.

The historic faiths and their practices will still be deeply present in most communities, alongside more free-wheeling spiritual journeying, but with an openness and progressive approach based on tolerance of difference.

There will be an inherent internationalism and globalism - where extremes of poverty and great wealth are seen as unacceptable.

Politics will change to allow wisdom and insight to be the predominant reason for participation as service - not for power or reward.

These are exciting times to be alive. We must all, "Live the dream!"

.

Hedge Church - Reflections for the 30th January to 5th February 2011

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Hedge Church Posts - January 30th to 5th February 2011

Sunday 30th January – Be in communion with all that is!

The Universe has been singing its song and dancing its dance for over 13 Billion years! On this “Sun” day we are being called to enter anew into the wonder of our ancestors, who gazed into the night sky, sat around desert campfires, ventured into the glory of high places, understood the forest and attuned to the divine presence within all things.

As dawn broke they rejoiced at the Sun’s awakening bounty and its promise of warmth and gift. Around them was danger, life in all its fullness – food to hunt, grasses to shape into bread, fruits to eat and ferment for glorious celebration.

So - on this Sunday we are being called afresh, in our time and place, to walk the way of that other “Son of Man”, who once broke bread and shared wine with his friends in communion with the whole of creation and life.

Monday 31st January – “That art thou.” [Tat Tvam Asi – Sanskrit]

According to Aldous Huxley, writing in 1948, there is a “Perennial Philosophy” that takes us beyond our small corner of understanding. It is not new, but constantly needs repeating in a world where peoples are divided by religion and politics and fail to see the depth, breadth and height of what we are and what this world is. The “good news” is that we are all more than our “Ego”, our sense of Self, but are part of the divine Ground, the “immanent, eternal Self”. Our task in our life on earth is to find out this truth of Who we really are. William Law said, “Though God is everywhere present, yet God is only present to thee in the deepest and most central part of thy soul.”

The path to that understanding and experience is life-long. It is a “Way” that needs to give serious attention to the world’s sources of spiritual insight. The world’s scriptures are all in translation on the Web to be read and internalised. They open to us ways of thinking beyond our particular cultural and religious context. The Universe story (which I mentioned on Sunday) also informs our spiritual journey, as we wonder at the diversity of the world’s faiths and practices. Our path to enlightenment is not about knowledge, but about aligning the heart with the ‘divine Ground’ through practices to awaken heart and mind. And that path is for everyone.

Tuesday 1st February – You will do even greater things!

My favourite New Testament Passage is this: John 14.8 to 14.14. In it the author of John’s Gospel writes of Philip’s request to be shown the Father. Jesus explains that, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. He points out that his words – his insights - come from the Father. Jesus then suggests that his deeds are the work of God.

Now this is the amazing thing – Jesus was not the only one to be indwelled by the Father. The ancient sages of India also knew that God was within – “That art thou”. Jesus knew his earthly life was ending, but, hey – honest truth – you will do, “even greater things, because I am going to the Father”. And so was born another company of Christ followers, whose lives would be forever changed as they discovered the presence of divine life at the heart of their very selves. The rest, as they say, is history!

Wednesday 2nd February - Love and Death

For a United Reformed Church minister I’m getting well into strange territory these days. My latest journey of discovery is into writing poetry and studying the world’s mystical writings. There is a glorious wealth of material that can change hearts and minds – not all from within my Christian home base. So for today I want to commend three poet-mystics I am sure you will have come across.

Death is today’s theme!

First from the New Testament [Paul on Resurrection]
For just as all people die because of their humanity [union with Adam]
In the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ.
And from Julian of Norwich – God the Creator, Lover and Keeper
In this little thing [the whole creation] I saw three properties.
The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.

And finally from Rumi:
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.

Reflect on your fears and hopes as you meditate on eternity.

Thursday 3rd February – finding your Soul’s heart.

I don’t know how many of you reading this have been to Iona – that centre point of the Celtic Christian revival. For those in the know, this is a really special place for me and my partner, Mandy.

I wrote this poem as an invocation of the “Spirit of Iona – Soul of my Heart”. Use it to touch the heart of God in that natural beauty of the west of Scotland and Ireland, or anywhere that is special to you:

Iona - Soul of my heart,
Trinity of grey and green and blue
Where Columba's House sings praises.
To reach you is always hard, deliberate.
Winding roads, high passes, uncertain passage.
You are not easily known, you require of the pilgrim an "Opus Dei".
High as the mists that touch the summit places,
Veiled from track and machair - unsure cloud of heaven.
Lost coast of gentle fear, when confusions obliterate the way.
Stupendous as the storms on your western shore.
Tranquil as the whispering sound of lapping waves by the Abbey.
Heard, but melding to Your mystery - individual wavelets but one Ocean.
Why come to this outpost of isolation?
Because you may glimpse glory! Yes - because of that!
For the realm of God is close here - every heart unveiled.
Carry back this story of pilgrimage and joy.
Stay still and silent here - let its well of hope cleanse and renew.
Expect blessing, find love, above all find Life here in all its gentleness and fury.

Inspired by a storm raging in Kendal on the morning of 7 July 2010. I penned these few lines of reflection drawing on a time last October when I was on retreat on Iona. [Poem © John Hetherington 2010 – Email john.hetherington@btinternet.com]

Friday 4th February – The power of Stories

One of my favourite poet / storytellers is Paulo Coellho. Another, very different, is Kenneth Steven from Perthshire, Scotland – where he writes tellingly of the everyday world of nature around him. I include a link here so that you can learn more of his evocative writing: http://www.kennethsteven.co.uk/

I find more and more that it is from the poetic heart’s imagination that the deep meanings and secrets of faith and life are revealed to us.

The Alchemist - probably the best know of Coelho’s writing is: “about magic, dreams and treasures we seek elsewhere, and then find on our doorstep”. Following the Christian or any other faith path is demanding (often because it has accreted much that is binding rather than liberating of the human spirit). So deep spiritual themes are better told in story and parable, and wrapped tight with mystery, than being theologised upon. It is rare to find theology speaking to the human heart.

God is mystery!

In the Alchemist, Santiago, an Adalusian shepherd boy, dreams of travelling. He discovers how essential it is to listen to the wisdom of our heart and following our dreams.

How often do we hear from pulpits that life is indeed about dreaming, longing, discovery and acquiring wisdom – which is not the same as knowledge. Never forget to follow your heart’s insight and be open to the wisdom that will then reshape you.

Saturday 5th February – A final reflection on nature and humanity (and our dog Wesley)

I will return today to where I began last Sunday, with the Universe story and human development. To make sense of the story think Dog! At some point a canny wolf crept into a human encampment and ran off with a trophy – some half cooked meat. The day after he came again and nearly became the tribe’s dinner. But in the end he stayed and became a half-wild pet dog! They still are.

I take Mandy’s dog Wesley out on walks and we have great fun – the latest game is fetch the stone (sticks are boring!) Well most of the time he exercises me on one of two beautiful limestone ridges (The Helm and Scout / Cunswick Scar) that overlook Kendal, Morecambe Bay, and the Lake District. He’s a really lucky dog. He takes in the smells! I get to see the boring views! It’s a good symbiosis.

Well, I’ve been pondering. The life forms in the Universe must be near infinite – but on earth we have dogs (and maybe cats or budgies). We have flowers, and trees and plants in enormous variety. And if we don’t do something soon it could all be gone as we know it! But the earth will continue for more billions of years yet. Life on earth is impermanent – as the Buddha explained. There is this life we know – and once to die – maybe more, past or future lives we can be aware of in some way.

When I am with Wes on the Scar I have a deep sense of peace and that the place has a deep history of human sensibility. It’s the sort of experience you can also get in a great Cathedral or a long ruined building. These are “Sacred Spaces”, with timeless qualities, of an ever pervading natural or human presence. Castlerigg Stone Circle is another nearby source of peace for me.

Living Spirituality

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:08:00 +0000

Living Spirituality

[Article Copyright - John Hetherington - December 2010 - for publication in the Newsletter of the Progressive Christian Network Britain.]

On a showery Saturday in November my partner Mandy and I, and a Buddhist friend, drove from Kendal across to Sheffield to attend a Conference organised jointly by St.Mark’s Centre for Radical Christianity[1] (CRC) and the Living Spirituality Network[2] (LSN). LSN was relatively new to me, perhaps surprisingly.

It is part of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland. LSN aims to:

“be an open space for theological reflection and exploration
ask questions which deepen and challenge us, and move us forward
'fly kites'
live the tensions that arise in spirituality
listen and respond to the people the churches do not meet - both inside and outside the churches.”

LSN’s webpage, points out that LSN exists for people who are exploring the meaning of spirituality both within and beyond the traditional churches. So it provides supporters with information, contacts and encouragement as they seek to understand and deepen their spiritual lives.

However, LSN recognises that, “while many people pursue their spiritual quest within the traditional Christian churches ... the spiritual and religious landscape is changing dramatically. Some continue to participate in church services and groups, but find most of their spiritual needs met outside them.” Their view is that, “Many spiritual seekers today have little or no experience of formal religion; and for significant numbers of others, traditional religion provides neither a context nor a language which is helpful or meaningful on their journey”. As people both in and beyond “church” explore and deepen their spiritual experience, practice and commitment, many of them are looking for information and for companionship. They seek access to new thinking, new ways of seeing and new experiences, and for new opportunities to connect with fellow travellers - kindred spirits - embarked on a similar quest.

LSN links across a wide range of organisations and bodies – though PCN Britain is still not formally one of them. Among the organisations that are linked are CRC, CANA[3], the network of Christian Meditation Groups[4] (in the John Main tradition), the network of Julian Groups[5] and significant communities such as the Iona Community[6], and Corrymeela[7] in Ireland. Although the Findhorn Community[8] is not on the LSN list, it is also an ecological and spiritual community celebrating open spiritual inquiry and practice. Having been there, it is clearly deeply involved in the development of a “living spirituality”.

The exploring mindset of PCNB, Free to Believe, the Living Spirituality Network and other related networks should enable bridges to be built across this rapidly expanding spiritual landscape. There is a growing interest in spirituality as evidenced by the relatively large viewing figures for the recent TV series[9] “The Big Silence” which has sought to bring “spiritual awakening” to a national audience.

Back in September 2008 I authored for Free to Believe a booklet entitled, “Reshaping Christianity – Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith”. In it I explored the exciting story of the growing attention now being given to mystical writings in Judaism, Christianity and Sufi Islam. I also touched on the growing significance of the Baha’i faith. My booklet[10] (available from Free to Believe, price £2.50) also looked at the surveys done in the UK on the “new spiritualities” and their “belief” systems, and how there are more and more participants in the many open and varied forms of spiritual practice. In it I suggested that orthodox interpretations of Christian doctrine based on a “God above the sky” perspective, as opposed to a “Ground of all Being”, or especially a “God Within”, perspective must be taken less and less seriously. From a Celtic Christianity perspective “all that is” in nature is the divine domain. The new spiritualities and the new physics increasingly share common ground and invoke a form of “process theology” with God present both in the timeless realm of spirit and through the evolving gift of the physical universe[11].

Many open hearted people are indeed finding ‘God within’, in forms such as Quaker silence and in the practices of Christian meditation and its Vedanta / Buddhist forms. Traditional Christian doctrines are increasingly being challenged by these perspectives, and by the growing, “turn to experience”. All this is evidenced in falling church attendance, but growing participation in the many forms of “spiritual practice” now available. I am increasingly convinced that it is to the new or rediscovered forms of mystical spirituality and experience that we must look.

So what is the future? Is it likely that the tradition of attending church is only hanging on in those churches which support a “social network” format for the elderly? By contrast, some liberal / progressive churches (and PCN Britain Local Groups) are providing a safe place for erudite discussion of the nature of God. There are also churches (often held in community buildings) that are characterised by loud music and choruses, i.e. “evangelical” celebratory styles of worship, whatever the doctrinal approach. The social action style of Christianity that many churches aspire to is, of course, an entirely valid and vital component of a faith born in the justice milieu of the Old Testament Prophets and of course of Jesus of Nazareth and Paul who challenged the powers and empires of their day. Today, interfaith exploration is increasingly being seen as a profoundly important component of people’s faith and spirituality in the “global village”. It is too early to write “church” off.

In my booklet, I quoted Dave Tomlinson from his book “The Post Evangelical”, who, like many others, had shared my journey from Christian Union to Liberal Protestant, via disillusionment and through to the next obvious step – the journey inward to a new mysticism and spirituality. The mysticism of the early Jesus movement seems to have been lost or suppressed in the period that followed Rome’s takeover.

Spiritual depth, in today’s context, is more and more likely to be rediscovered in the living out of a personal spiritual journey, but one shared with others in small groups, who study together the world’s store of mystical writings in small groups. It needs situations where participants are comfortable with the traditions of the ‘broad catholic’ spectrum (Lectio Divina[12]), where retreat and meditation provide sources of inward experience and insight. Another growing practice is the “pilgrimage” – as for example my life changing journey to Iona – on a Retreat led by "The Sacred Space Foundation[13].”

For others, poetry (across a spectrum from the Christian Mystics, via Rumi and the Romantic Poets, to modern verse) encompassing both religious and spiritual dimensions, is increasingly significant. Sources of poetic meditation that have meant much to me recently are the works of Kenneth Stephen[14] and the late John O’Donohue[15].

So, it was a delight to be at Sheffield as we listened to the speaker Eley McAinsh[16] who, in two lectures and two periods of shared meditation, gave a clear overview of the breadth of contemporary spirituality. Amongst others, her talk drew on Baron Freidrich von Hugel, who argued that there are three dimensions to the authentic religious life – institutional, intellectual and experiential, and Ken Wilbur (one of my favourite modern thinkers) who has sought to add “contemplative knowledge” to the scientific quest. Eley commented that spiritual experience, meditation and contemplation are what lie at the heart of the “Spirituality Revolution[17]”. She sees mysticism and spirituality as closely related but not interchangeable. Both involve direct personal experience of the divine ground. Many within PCNB will recall Marcus Borg’s Sheffield lecture[18] with his quotation of Karl Rahner’s phrase, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he or she will not be at all.” For Borg, mysticism is about experiencing God, the Sacred, or Spirit as Real (my underlining).

Eley also quoted key authors such as Gordon Lynch (Professor of the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck University, London) who has mapped out the changes now rapidly occurring. He has set out his analysis of the emerging encounter with what he calls ‘The New Spirituality’ in his book, subtitled, ‘An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the 21st Century’, which describes his research. It first reviews the roots of the new, progressive spirituality, its ideology, and its organisational emergence. Its approach is captured by his sub headings to Chapter 2 – The Ideology of progressive spirituality:

The unity of the ineffable and immanent divine – the guiding intelligence behind evolutionary process and the energy of the universe itself
Pantheism / Panentheism – replacing a transcendent, patriarchal view of God
Mysticism and the divine feminine – using symbol and liturgy, encounter with nature and celebration of the feminine in God
The sacralisation of nature – affirmation of the material and nature / life as participation in divinity
The sacralisation of the self – as a manifestation of the divine – with human consciousness derived from the supra-consciousness of the “All”.
Understandings of Religion – as culturally and historically bound and thus metaphorical – enabling a growing spirit of ‘ecumenism’
The deeper cultural roots of progressive spirituality show underlying coherence, reflecting adaptation to modernism, liberalism and welcome insights in quantum physics and cosmic ‘unfolding’.

Gordon Lynch also comments that, “people are engaging more and more deeply with the meaning and significance of spirituality in contemporary life and culture.” My view is that films like Avatar express a hunger for a lost innocence and engagement with the natural world of which we are fully part and share responsibility for[19]. There remains both a justice and subversive political perspective to the mystical and spiritual path. Dorothee Soelle[20] proposes that mysticism is about, “the breaking through of wisdom”.

So, to conclude, I fully agree with Eley McAinsh’s summation in her afternoon lecture, “Mysticism .. is a way to participate in transformation. The physicist Paul Davies says, ‘we have to embrace a different concept of understanding ... the mystical path is possibly such a way’.”

In 1994 James Redfield wrote a novel, the “Celestine Prophecy – An Adventure”, in which a lost manuscript was found that spoke of a coming time of human development and a recognition of our capacity for change. It had the drama and tension of all such novels (also made into a film), but behind it was a view that new spiritual capacities were emerging in our evolution as a species. Perhaps it might just be that in the years and centuries ahead the insights of today’s “new spiritualities” and the recovery of the mystical path might just mean that human beings – whether people of traditional faith or newer paths – may find that they indeed live in God – Love – Spirit, or any such interchangeable terms, and that humanity can indeed become more that it has ever imagined.

John Hetherington is a URC Non-Stipendiary Minister, and works as a Planning Consultant. He has written a number of published articles for both PCN Britain and for Free to Believe, in particular his booklet, “Reshaping Christianity – Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith”. He helped launch the South Lakeland Interfaith Network in 2007 and is beginning work on a Book to further develop the theme of Mysticism and contemporary Spirituality in greater depth.

References:

[1] CRC: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/news-and-events

[2] LSN: http://www.ctbi.org.uk/200

[3] CANA: http://www.christiansawakening.org/

[4] CMUK: http://www.christianmeditation.org.uk/public_html/web_new/home_main.php

[5] Julian Groups: http://www.julianmeetings.org/index.htm

[6] Iona Community: http://www.iona.org.uk/

[7] Correymeela: http://www.corrymeela.org/

[8] Findhorn: http://www.findhorn.org/aboutus/
[9] The Big Silence: http://www.beunos.com/bigsilence.htm
[10] Reshaping Christianity: Mysticism, Spirituality and Global Faith – by John Hetherington
A reflection on emerging spirituality and its implications for Christianity and all global religions.

(See FTB Website for ordering and payment information:

http://www.freetobelieve.org.uk/booklets2.html)

[11] See by way of example Adrian B Smith: God Energy and the Field.

[12] http://lectio-divina.org/

[13] Sacred Spaces: http://www.sacredspace.org.uk/courses.html

[14] Kenneth Stephen: http://www.kennethsteven.co.uk/Books_of_Poetry.php

[15] John O’Donohue: http://johnodonohue.com/

[16] Eley McAinsh, Director of the Living Spirituality Network and BBC Religious affairs producer, including the BBC's Radio Four program "Something. Understood" talked at the Priory

[17] David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of contemporary spirituality; Routledge
[18] Marcus Borg’s and Eley McAinsh’s lectures can be ordered from the CRC website: http://www.stmarkscrc.co.uk/resources/shop---cds-and-books
[19] See my Blog: http://progressivespirituality.blogspot.com/

[20] Dorothee Soelle – German Liberation Theologian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothee_S%C3%B6lle

In Search of Spiritual Knowing

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:36:00 +0000

This article was posted in Reform - a United Reformed Church Publication - in the June 2010 edition

We are part of a universe which expanded from ‘nothing’ some 13.7 billion years ago. The 4.6 billion year evolutionary story of life on earth climaxed with our varied societies and their belief systems. Science sees all this as the by-product of an endless series of challenges and chances. Yet, humans appear to be the only species on earth that has evolved enough to sense our separation from ‘all that is’, with the language to express the fear, love, curiosity and joy this engenders. Religion evolved as a by- product of our need to make sense of this alienation.

We are increasingly discovering that there could be a way to get back to the “knowing” that our ancestors perhaps innately experienced – that they and ‘All that is’ are One. At the personal level my recent faith journey has caused me to move beyond the old religious paradigm (requiring hierarchy and control, orthodoxy and orthopraxis) to discover the space where insight and feeling can awaken heart and mind. Many are again seeking a more mystical path to a spiritual ‘knowing’.

More and more I see God in all things – not as a static, distant, theist Being, accessed through religious structures, but as the ever present and engaged Reality that is ‘becoming’ in the Universe’s unfolding. This God has been constantly walking with us on the evolutionary path to human life and being as it is on earth today. The story, as observed by science, does not preclude the possibility of a deep timeless connectedness (‘God’) in which all life and being subsists, which has long been the truth experience of mystics. The Universe is a glorious evolutionary ‘difference engine’ – always creating the wonderful, the bizarre and the awesome. No human, leaf, sunset or snowflake is the same! Evolution is the unifying ‘great story’, if complemented by the theology of a God present in its unfolding.

God’s creative process of evolution exposes all creatures to a painful food chain. Societies develop by warfare and evil empires. On the other hand, evolution moves forward through the ‘still small voice’ of God’s prophets of justice and the wisdom of God’s messengers – Jesus included. ‘Prayer’ can be influential when it brings people together in significant numbers to challenge injustice and the systems that drive it. Whatever our understanding of God, each human life matters in the unfolding story. Increasingly I want to own a sixth sense of intuition as part of what prayer is. The ‘Universe’ or ‘God’ or ‘collective human concern’ speaks and challenges in this spiritual dimension. This is the place of prayer where our ‘thought’ and the ‘Universal thought’ align.

The experience of saints and mystics, of every faith and culture, is that God’s call to play our part in the story is usually subtle and ambiguous. My own experience is that that the ‘Divine’ is found in both the ‘still small voice’ heard from our ‘heart space’, and in the depth of feeling and awareness that can come to us in meditation. It is from the stillness that ‘intuition for change’ can emerge of great power and depth. I believe that God’s creativity creates by offering us true freedom; we are called but never coerced. Where we do engage freely, the possibilities are immense.

For us to truly pray, we need to become aware that conversation with God is possible within the ‘holiness’ of a deeply purposeful life. This insight has inspired great human beings to plunge the depths of life – implying real communication with God. Such conversation also means experiencing challenges of loving – and allows the possibility of change in God. ‘God’s Will’ is not a given, but a part of the conversation. So, prayer is that two-way mutual cry of tenderness that characterises our way of being human in relationship and in our being: loving the ‘All’.

Prayer is also about mutuality – a coming together just for the joy of it; when we are enraptured by creation, when we pause long enough to still our minds and desires. The long-term future of this earth calls us to know that we all are one – while remaining unique and different. My prayer is that all will come to know more and more of the ‘Life, Love and Being’ that launched evolution. That Life still longs for all to awaken and know this Reality in the depth of every human life. When God’s ‘Love is all around’ in creation, people are constantly able to surprise us with joy and hope! So, let us pray!

Copyright - John Hetherington

June 2010

To subscribe to Reform email: reform@alliance-media.co.uk
Or browse to: www.urc.org.uk/reformsubscriptions

A prose poem of awakening humanity

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Ascent - an awakening.

Knowing nothing
of right and wrongdoing
Self awakens.

A human being stands tall
on an ancient shore
for the first time.

See, she is coming too.
She also knows Self.
We are
Two in One, Us.

Flesh and blood, evolving,
copying ourselves
into infinite difference.

We were our cousins once,
Subtle in difference,
enjoying the tree canopy.
Knowers in a gentler way.

We will become even more
Through our tomorrows.

Older than eternity
Inhabiting feeling
Their senses reach out.
Thought gathers.

Sand, sea and infinite sky
are nominated.

Alone still,
their beingness cries
in ecstasy

Seeing, touching, smelling.
Sensate explorers!
Form is formed within.
Love is shared.

Thought follows thought
In a crescendo of insight
This is that.
For, in this beginning was the Word.

Now is old.
Yet, there was a before.
A prior union
of creating from love.
Yes, we remember!

Ah the dancing fields.
Infinite energy
Interpenetrating.
Timeless time.
Every thing from no thing.

Re-live the act of becoming.
Awaken to glory and gift.
I AM all for you.

That was OUR
Infinite choreography
Infolding into fire.

Let there be light.
Let life evolve.
Let being become.
For this is what I AM.

Light, Life and Being at play.
ONE and ALL

This is your meaning
and purpose.
Infinite eyes
Infinite imagination
Infinite love

ONE emergent
In each individuated being.
Touched by grace
Loved always, never judged.

Evolving into infinite difference
Thinking, choosing, free at last!
Partnering divinity,
co-creators of an infinite future.

Living on worlds beyond number.
Beings in infinite form.
Love my infinite gift.
Ah, we remember!

In this is joy.
In this is the eternal
ecstasy of being.

Let me never forget.
I know now
And I understand.
And that is everything.

Copyright
John Hetherington
May 2010

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there."

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:22:00 +0000

"Life in all it's fullness"

What the mystics across the faiths have discovered is that there is a "field" where all duality fades away. Where I-Thou becomes One. A place of integration and infinite possibility.

It is a place where each of us has the potential to 'become' a contributor to the One. A place where the Christ can be content with dying because Life can never die. For, "where Love is" there is Life.

The shared space where Life and creative silence dance, is also where other dualities spin into oneness - the "singing field" of all that is.

It is the "field" where religions lose their boundaries, and human beings rise above themselves to touch raw spirit - spreading wisdom and practices - that can open an ever widening circle of love.

There is always choice in a freely offering Universe, where countless life forms and intelligences are evolving. Yet it seems that even iindividual choice is somehow framed by the Unity of Yes and No.

The insight that comes from all this is mystical and fluid. It crosses religious and spiritual categories. it seems to get to the heart of everything - Love.

Love is the force, the Way, that permeates all that is, beyond all other natural forces known to science. And we human beings are often suddenly torn to shreds and recreated when Love comes raging through human hearts.

There are many loves that make up Love, the heart of God's Beingness. Indeed ancient and modern societies know of many loves: powerful Eros, gentle agape, compassion, depths of friendship and many more shades of love.

For without question the Universe is a 'love present', a gift, a grace, and indeed another, less tamed, force to it's cousins, gravity and light - and all the fundamental energies of the cosmos.

As I write this I see in mind and heart what is going on in creation. A vast cosmic symphony: of energy becoming manifest through life evolving, and love becoming, and mind emerging, to be given a "god like" freedom to become and become and become.

It literally blows the mind when for a moment we see that Whole, that divinity of which we are but part. And Yes, we are God, becoming! Love, Life, Everything!

Why all this? I have no clear idea, but it seems these intuitions and sensed experiences are a foundation for what comes next - to discover life's purpose.

Again, there is 'non-duality', no right and wrong, just the 'field' of Being, Becoming through it's creatures, it's dancing energy and above all it's Heart of Love. And I think that is it.

And I thank the Universe for it's gift of life and love and sentient being.

We are embodied life, set free to be all we can be, to live life to the uttermost, to love wastefully. That is the heart of every faith and spiritual practice - and when we "see" this and are "enlightened", then we understand to the very depth of our being that 'All that is', is Love manifest.

But, after that we are on our own, though never really alone - living and loving and being all we can be - as co-creators in the divine life. The oft hidden secret of the faiths and spiritual paths is that we are divinity living itself and loving herself and being himself. 'No-thing' becoming 'Every-thing'.

Human beings have evolved on this small planet in a Universe of infinite Becoming, Being and Loving.
Human beings are just one example of God's exploring, caught up in some inkling of understanding and appreciation of what IS.

All that is written above is just, to you the reader, to get "back to where you started and know the place for the first time". (TS Elliot).

For we are on our own, autonomous and free to choose. No right and wrong, no condemning, no fear, no last judgement. Just explorers in the sea of possibilities. Scary!

No help unless sought by opening to stillness - by practices to open heart and mind, or by sharing with our fellow travellers; looking for pointers from the wisdom traditions and faiths and myriads of spiritual paths.

The world is changing fast and not necessarily for the better, but it is entering a possible period of unity (or at least slowly moving in that direction) where like God, unity in diversity is how things are and will become.

We are each free autonomous human beings - dancing with divinity - often mindless - but hopefully more and more "aware" of 'what is' - as mapped out in the opening section of this blog. There is no question that if we see things this way it is awesome, both for our better understanding and to help frame the loving choices.

Human beings cannot avoid choices, indeed in one sense that is what God's universe exists for. We are in one sense free, to simply choose to follow our hearts and be as loving and compassionate as we can be to the circles of love that would be hurt by our choices.

Or, we can weigh those consequences and hurts in the balance and make a judgement, not that one is wrong or right, but whether or not the choices and impacts will be more loving on a wider basis. It is not about right or wrong but about Love and intuiting the optimum balance from our choices.

In the end, it seems to me, that the test is the extent that Love and Life and Being are optimised and others are set free to have new and greater experiences, even through pain.

To sum up:

This Universe is a gift of Love from emergent divinity, presence.

Our path is to connect as fully as we can into that Presence, where Love takes hold of us.

Our path is to grow in compassion and love in all its forms.

For, in a way we are "Gods" - the eyes and ears and mouth of the Source, in his, her, it's, Being and Becoming.

We are free autonomous beings on a journey of exploration into Life, lived in all it's fullness.

And for that we should always be thankful.

John Hetherington

Copyright 2010

My Selection of Must Read World Religious and Spiritual Literature

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:00:00 +0000

I thought I'd start off a sharing of my most appreciated books from the literature of 'spirituality', but also sources on the web for out of copyright material. So here goes, not in a particular order, but trending from those most influential to those I still value.

I would love it if readers would add to my list with their suggestions. I will keep this up to date on Facebook and my Blog - this is just a starter.

First - contemporary writers and novel format material :

Kahil Gabril - The Prophet and other works: http://leb.net/~mira/
Paulo Coelho - particularly The Alchemist and the Zahir
Good Compilation of English "Spiritual poets" from Bede to the 1920s - The English Spirit (The Little Gidding Anthology of English Spirituality) DLT

Film - to be added

e.g The Matrix, Avatar

Books I have in my Library:
Radical Amazement - Judy Cannato ["Awareness of the Divine begins with wonder" - a Herschel quote]
Integral Life Practice - Ken Wilbur and others: http://www.integralinstitute.org/?q=node/1
Ken Wilbur - A brief History of Everything
David Tacy - The Spirituality Revolution
Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now
Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations with God - and many more

Christian Writers:

Marcus Borg - Reading the Bible Again for the First Time & Meeting Jesus Again for the first time (and almost everything else he has written)
John Shelby Spong: Liberating the Gospels, A new Christianity for a New World (and most of his books since - including Jesus for the NOn Religious and Eternal Life - A new Vision.
Adrian B Smith - Tomorrow's Christian (O Books) and lots more
Deepak Chopra - Quantum Healing and lots more
John Hetherington - Booklet "Reshaping Christianity - Mysticsm. Spirituality and Global faith" - avilable from Free to Believe: http://www.freetobelieve.org.uk/booklets2.html

Christian Scriptures - Psalms, Wisdom, Proverbs, Gospel of John and early Pauline genuine epistles. Gospels of Mary (see: http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm)
and Thomas (see: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html)
and the Pistis Sophia (http://www.gnosis.org/library/pistis-sophia/index.htm).

Also see: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/index.htm

Other Christian writings: St Augustine - The City of God - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.toc.html
Also The Confessions of St Augustine - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions.html
Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love (14th Century): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian/revelations/
William Law - (17/18 C) - A serious Call to a devoit and holy life: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/law/serious_call.html
Thomas A Kempis - The Imitation of Christ: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.html

For the whole corpus visit and search in http://www.ccel.org/ and http://www.sacred-texts.com/

World Religions:
Taoism - The Book of the Way: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm
Zoroastrian: http://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/index.htm
The Vedanta (Indian Religious Scriptures): http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/
Covers: Vedas (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm),
Upanishads (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm)
Bhagavad Gita (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/agsgita.htm)

Buddhism: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/index.htm

Islam: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/index.htm [Includes a full range of Sufi material - Rumi poetry can be found here: http://allspirit.co.uk/rumi.html
Bahai: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bhi/index.htm [Also see: http://www.bahai.org/]

Sites cover not just English translations - but references more general text.

[TO BE UPDATED - so keep popping back, please and add your own lists.]

Copyright © 2009: Rev John Hetherington. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for this content to be reproduced upon condition that full acknowledgements of author and copyright details are made. John Hetherington - January 2010

Christianity and Easter Symbolism

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:31:00 +0000

I picked up the following ideas from a post on Facebook - linking to a Website http://www.truthbeknown.com/easter.htm - almost all of it ties back to the information in "The Pagan Christ" which I read recently [a very good read] and is the foundation of many esoteric belief systems. It sure makes you think!!

You will need to visit the link above - for the full explanation of the dates that make Easter move - and were known many thousands of years ago. It is a fascinating and scary article. Page down to find the text after the book adverts.

There is a really good argument that Christianity started as just one of several mystery cults which were common across the Roman Empire and, via the fertile crescent, go back to the Egyptian and north African civilisations and through Persia and Afghanistan on to India and even China, with the festivals also linked (by communication or because the dates are global) to other cultures in the Americas and South East Asia and even to Australia and other ab-original cultures and belief systems. The astronomy and skills needed to work it all out go back to thosands of years BC and were progressively refined.

It is fascinating that the early Pauline Epistles have no literal historical Jesus - just a conversion or awakening experience - that led Paul to to proclaim that the God 'in whom we live and move and have our being' is to be known in the incarnation of the Crossified One.The Gospels link this to an historical Jesus figure - but by the time they were written the myth was being adapted to the Judeo-Roman world, and the historicity is suspect. The package of early Christian practice and belief is best gleaned from Paul's letters.

The New Testament is thus a reworking of the myths of the Sun God, and his Divine-Human Son [Horus in Egyptian religion or with other names in other places] which couches the ancient myth in hidden language under the cover of a literal story about a Divine- Human Jesus figure who lived in Galilee, was cruxified [crossifiied] and raised (ascended) to the heavens. Christians need to take seriously the propect that their core beliefs are really a lieralising of a long standing myth - though of course "myth" does not mean an 'untruth', rather the telling of a powerful truth in coded ways.

The common core of almost all religions worldwide is that in our humanity there is also divinity. The Horus / Jesus figure is thus 'everyman' / everyone. The role of the religions is to awaken us to the divinity within so as to enable 'return' / reurrection. The package of belief in which you wrap the myth is neither here nor there - what matters is the truthfulness that lies hidden at the core of the myth - the divine presence in all that is.

The Gospels are as good and well written a literalisation as any to capture the truth of the human - divine leader (avatar) who dies and is raised - just as the sun dies in the autumn and rises in the spring to bring new life. I can still go to churches and enter in to the mythic story under its literalising crafting - and use the framework to remind me how to live - in recognition of the divinity in humanity, the power of of that presence to enlighten and change us, and the joy of the company of those on the way - even though I more and more think that the story that infuses Christianity is not a history at all, but a powerful mythic truth about the way this universe is, and the way we should live in it.

Your views most welcome.

An alternate Easter Day Gospel

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 07:21:00 +0000

On the first day of the week Mary of Magdala went to the garden tomb with spices to anoint Jesus body.

Finding the stone rolled away, she went in but found the tomb empty, Fearful she cried bitterly because of her deep love for The Teacher whom she loved with all her being: body, soul and spirit.

As she turned to leave, wiping her tears away with her long hair, she glanced across to where a man stood in gardner's clothes, She rushed across to ask why Jesus body had been moved. Her heart began to pound as she got nearer, for a glimmer of recognition struck her - was this her lover? Her teacher and friend? Was it possible? The man turned to her and opened wide his arms just as he had been hung on the Friday cross.

She ran to him and clung to him, wrapped by those strong arms. He held her tight as they kissed passionately. After many minutes of heart rending joy and sorrow Jesus said to her, do not cling to me any longer Mary, there is God's work still to do.

My life is returning to God, your life continues here. You are my friend and companion always. You are to continue in my name as Teacher of the ways of Knowledge, with my commission to lead and teach my followers. I will come soon to you all as you gather the scattered ones back to the meeting room where we shared supper. So be strong - I live as all shall live - remade to know more and more of my wonders. Do not let the hateful and the prejudiced scatter my Friends.

Remember all the words and ideas we have shared, the stories from lands afar and from our own people. Remind them of the joy of life and the wonder of love. Remind them of the simple life and the compassion that must flow from all who will know of me in the future.

Above all tell them of my infinite love - gifting the world and cosmos, of the myriad forms of spirit infused life on world after world. Remind them that the Creator knows this humanity and has shared the wonder of human being too, and found the joy of infinite giving in our passion together. I am who I am and you are also who You are.

Tell my disciples that each and everyone of you has life in me and I in you. Make this day a Holy Day for laughter and feasting, for passion and compassion, for the ache of loss to be filled by loving friends and friendly lovers.

Do not let the angry men and fearful women twist the truth, or make the simple complex, or turn our story into anything that diminishes the literal truth that the spark of divinity is in you just as divine life and light is in me too in this humanity - the glorious work of eons of letting life be life.

Kiss me Mary, cling to me, for we are one.

I have other life forms to awaken across the infinities of space and time.

You have known me most fully and my love remains true. Love others as I have loved you, that is the measure. But never stop loving yourself if you fall short or struggle with the burden of living and loving to the full. There are no ranks, no prizes, no second bests in my creation, no heirarchy to my love.

What is is what is. This is my simple good news. Tell this to my followers and teach them simply and in depth the knowledge I have given and will keep on giving to humanity.

I am going on to other mansions, other worlds of similar beauty, to draw them to me in the highest form familier to each world. Then shall all be one, and all that is shall sing and dance and live and love beyond all imagining.

Listen Mary, in that place of fullness you will live as I live, full of joy and in infinite friendship, knowing as I know, that everything shall be well and life shall stand always.

Go now to my friends and tell them of what you have seen dawning this day, and the words I have given you to share. See even now I am fading from you. Do not cling to me - remember this life is for passion not fear. Love me always as I have loved you. My Mary, my love my friend.

With that the Jesus Mary knew faded from sight as the sun rose. And full of joy Mary ran to awaken her friends with the good news. Jesus is not dead. He is living in the All that is his God and our God.

------------------

Let us today 2000 years on, also listen to the words given to Mary and the words he gives to all who have ears to hear.

Religion and Spirituality - understanding the common gound.

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:55:00 +0000

I have just published a Note on Facebook on my recent pondering about why we squabble so much about religion, spirit and scientific materialism. Views welcome.

My views are, should it come up:

That this universe is deeply connected - and that the connection will be scientifically demonstrated at some point.

That what we call 'God' or 'Life' or 'Love' is a 'Reality' in the sense that we are part of "All" that IS (the I AM of the old testament and John's Gospel).

That human beings can have (inner) awareness of the "Presence" (in life and love and being) of a divine light - a Reality perhaps coexistent with (pantheism) the Universe or perhaps both in and beyond (more than) our known Universe (panentheism).

That there have been many human beings who have been so open to the "presence" or the "Spirit" of the divine - known as much in our inner depth as in the world of form (life and beauty in nature and other human beings) - that they have made a deep mark in history. as religion founders, shamans, wise men and women etc (Abraham, the prophets, the Buddha, Lao Tse, Jesus, Muhammud, and other religion founders (actually it was their followers) and philosophers like Aristotle - even Isaac Newton)!
But that they are not of a different "substance" from us - just more deeply infused with the light of the divine thatn most if us - who are not truly "awake" to see.

That awakening is a goal for all intelligent beings, but a hard path - because in some ways it makes those who seek the Way different, and thus called to risk and challenge - and thus open themselves to ridicule or presecution or hate.

I am also aware that this is not the way Christianity is increasingly interpreted. It seems to me that what has happened is that after the Western enlightenment science and experience of the divine were divided - with experience of the divine being split as "life as religion" (orthodoxy of ancient words and practices) or "life as experience" (exploring paths to personal awakening to the inner light and presence). All 3 are warring somewhat and are scornful of the other paths. But all are ways to "gnosis" - God, the divine, is neutral surely about what little beliefs / doctrines we humans invent. God, the divine, is neutral surely about the practices we adopt to help us touch "presence" - neutral about hymns and words and chants and meditations. God, the divine, is not interested in what our science is beginning to tell us because s/he knows. BUt s/he honours all three ways that we search.
What we need to do is grasp the big picture that embraces the hsitory of all human culture and will see us one day among the stars within the physical reality of the universe and deep within as our religions and sporitualities take us there too, so that more and more we are both aware of the God within and the God without.

If we all on this small planet took this view then there would be an end to injstice and war, and the planet would be sustained and managed well. Anyway - that is my dream.

Christian Antecedents - The Pagan Christ

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:24:00 +0000

This Blog is excited tonight. I have nearly finished reading Tom Harpur's "The Pagan Christ - Is blind faith Killing Christianity". Its subtitle is "Recovering the Lost Light". Its that I want to review tonight.

However, at our Progressive Christianity Network Britain session tonight we were looking at the Jesus Seminar's work in 'de-mythologising' the Gospels - basically how they concluded that very little of the New Testament is presenting the actual words of an historical 'Jesus'. To learn more about the Seminar's approach check out, "The Five Gospels" - link here: http://www.westarinstitute.org/Polebridge/5gospels.html.

I was a bit of a pain to my colleagues, because I had been excitedly reading "The Pagan Christ" and was trying to point out the differences and points of converegence of the two approaches.

As I see it, the Jesus Seminar was primarily composed of scholars who bought in to the view that the gospels carry much that, to the modern mind, would be regarded as 'myth'. So, to make sense of them we need a thoroughgoing process of de-mythologising. Hence the search to draw out from the "myth" a core of sayings that reflect the words of a 'Jesus of history'. Unsurprisingly the scholars found very few sayings to be authentic and ranked as definite "red letter" words of Jesus.

By contrast Tom Harpur is one of a growing number of scholars who would, rather, want Christians to be into a process of re-mythologising the Gospels. Tom Harpur argues that, "to take the Gospels literally as history or biography is to utterly miss their inner spiritual meaning." He calls for a return to an "inclusive religion" capable of helping us, "regain a true understanding of who we are, and are intended to be." The Jesus Seminar, in seeking to de-mythologise, and thus downplay the hope of finding clear evidence in the gospels of the words of Jesus as a historical figure, are potentially missing the point. The Gospels are not a history, but a carrier of "story" and "myth" - which needs to be set free to work on our souls.

I love Tom's quote from Dominic Crossan (one of the Jesus Seminar Scholars) in the introduction to Chapter 1, "My point .. is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally." The book's thesis is that, "The Christian Church made a fateful error ... in a competitive bid to win over the greatest number of the unlettered masses", when it took a literalist, popularised, historical approach to sublime truth." "The transcendent meaning of glorious myths and symbols was reduced to a farrago of miraculous or irrelevant, or quite 'unbelievable' events."

Tom Harpur relies heavily for his thesis on earlier books by Gerald Massey and Alvin Khun, which have unearthed amazing parallels between the New Testament and the foreshadowing of almost all the gospel stories in "pagan" sources, often pre-dating the gospel versions by millenia. He sets out how an allegorical, spiritual and mythical approach to the Bible and Christian faith solves the enigmas of scripture and the Christ story, which makes the, "Bible stories come alive".

The heart of his argument is that the ancient world had deep insight, recognising, "our own potential for Christhood, and for experiencing the indwelling spirit of God here and now." The mythos has the power to frame a "cosmic" faith that resonates with the natural world and our humanity. What Harpur has uncovered is that deep similarities exist between Christian beliefs and the earlier Pagan religions. He argues that, "the Bible in general, and the New Testament in particular, actually copy or repeat motifs laid down centuries or millenia before.

He points out that a "true myth" is, "more eternal than its meaning in history". Moses was an Egyptian name and Jesus figures in Egyptian lore as Iusu / Iusa, meaning the "divine Son who heals and saves". There was an Egyptian Christ named "Horus", who had a mother called Isis - forerunners of the Madonna and Child. Other names and place names from Egyptian religion are used in the Bible. Beyond the names and their links is a common theology from across the "pagan" world - based on the Osyris myth - that, "the incarnation of spirit in human flesh" is, "in fact the oldest, most universal mythos known to religion."

We are encouraged to recognise that "myths aren't fairy tales" and that, "myth was the favorite and universal method of teaching in archaic times." Myth, like a Shakespear tragedy or comedy, is capable of carrying universal truth - acted out in ritual, made flesh in story - with no-one in the ancient world blind to the power of myth and story to change people. "The myth itself is fictional (or only loosly tied to history), but the timeless truth it expresses is not."

In this Blog I will conclude by retelling the central "Christ Myth" - the ancient story behind the New Testament themes - all of which are borrowings of the ancient myths previously played out by the "Sun Gods" Osiris and Horus in Egypt or Hercules in Greece. These myths were there to symbolise the point that, "the prime datum is man (humanity) himself, a spark of the divine fire ... and buried in the flesh of body to support its existence with an unquenchable radiant energy." The ideal person - Adonis, Mithras, Khrishna, Christ, symbolised the divine spark in every human being. Similar myths were universal across other cultures.

The conclusion is that the "myth" of God incarnate is an (almost) human universal - but for the west after Constantine, Christianity forgot its origins and imposed credal belief on the masses, who then burned all the ancient books of wisdom, and set back civiliation by hundreds of years. What Paul and the early Christians knew was a very different faith - in which:

Christ is the name given to the presence of God within - "Christ in you, the hope of glory"
The Christos is known by many names, present in all humanity
Everyone will come to realise his or her spiritual power (as did Jesus at his baptism and Paul on the Damascus road)
Doctrines, creeds, dogma and institutional religion has masked the inner light
The gospels are a drama about the Christos - with Jesus a symbolic personification
Jesus' birth, death and resurrection are events happening within us
We must release the divine within to spiritualise our nature - as fragments of God with divine potential
Religions and spiritual paths free us to commit to the eternal Christ experience.

Much more can be said, but to me this way of looking at the basis of Christain faith is truly liberating. It frees us from the literal, to experience afresh the power of story, of universal myth, and the life changing realisation that we are blessed as a spark of God's light, called to live in enlightenment, now and beyond our earthly lives.

John Hetherington - 11th March 2010
[This summary and reflection fully acknowledges the copyright subsisting in, "The Pagan Christ" by Tom Harpur- Walker and Company New York, 2004.]

Facebook | Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:35:00 +0000

Facebook Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:08:00 +0000

This was posted on Mark Townsend's Facebook.

I wonder what readers of this Blog think,

I love your expression "inter-spiritual" Mark - I think I mean the same thing in my Blog Title "Progressive Spirituality". The key is that "religion" or even "faith" do not do justice to the breadth of the movement that is growing - as evidenced just by my Facebook feed [though yours will differ depending on who you have friended]. I am convinced that a radically seperate view is convergent across open minded Christians and those follwing many other faiths and practices.
The breadth is huge - and coveres indigenous religions, the "Pagan" foundations from the interchange of ideas across north Africa, the Middle East and into India - in the millenia before Jesus, and indeed in the Druidic / Celtic forms of Christianity in these Islands that followed. [I read a fascinating piece yesterday that pushes writng - with symbols common to the Americas, Eurasia, and Australia - being thousands of millenia sooner than previously evidenced.]

A "theology" that goes back to the pre-Christian period and I think represents what the core understanding of the ancients was, and again works for us is this - set out by Gordon Lynch - Prof at Birkbeck University, London. He says the ideology of Progressive Spirituality is (with some bracketed additions of mine):

• The unity of the ineffable and immanent divine – the guiding intelligence behind evolutionary process and the energy of the universe itself

• Pantheism / Panentheism – replacing a transcendent, patriarchal view of God

• Mysticism and the divine feminine – using symbol and liturgy, encounter with nature and celebration of the feminine in God

• The sacralisation of nature – affirmation of the material and nature / life as participation in divinity

• The sacralisation of the self – as a manifestation of the divine ( with human consciousness derived from the supra-consciousness of the “All”).

• Understandings of Religion – as culturally and historically bound and thus metaphorical – enabling a growing spirit of ‘ecumenism’ [interfaith / interspirituality]

Gordon notes that "The deeper cultural roots of progressive spirituality show underlying coherence, reflecting adaptation to modernism, liberalism and welcome insights in quantum physics and cosmic ‘unfolding’."
I think a new re-alignment along these lines would be very powerful indeed - and needs to be built from outside present structures (of particularly Christianity) but supported ny those who stay in the strictures to call for change within. So both are needed - pioneers to work to build community outside - while those within for now keep pushing and explaining. I also see a "real world" wisdom that would seek to form new collectives of "inter-spirituality" being formed - perhaps taking on religious buildings, or meeting in homes rented places, in self-supporting foundations - with a national charitable base - to build the inevitable growth than will be needed in these transitional times from the old pardigm to the new paradigm expressed in Gordon's "ideology of progressive spirituality". There will be no barriers and an open table.

Enough for now. John

Please sign the Oneness Day Petition

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:48:00 +0000

I declare:

1. That the message We Are All One, inter-related, inter-connected and inter-dependent, with God/Life/One-another, is the one spiritual message that the world has been waiting for to bring about loving and sustainable answers to humanity’s challenges.

2. That the world does not have to be the way it is – and that individual people can change it, using the power of spiritualcitizenship.

3. That humanity is good and has unlimited potential, and that social transformation starts with personal transformation. I therefore recognize the importance of connecting with my divine essence and inner wisdom throughout my life’s journey; allowing the finest and the highest levels of human potential to flourish for the benefit of all.

4. My aspirations to support spiritual principles, global ethics, and universal values such as respect, justice, peace, dignity,freedom, responsibility and cooperation, that underlie this declaration.

5. That human beings need each other to survive on this planet. I recognize that we are all in this together and that community flourishes as we learn about each other and revel in the wonder and beauty of our diversities. I declare that I am playing my part to help to bring about a culture in which we, the peoples of the world, can address our common global concerns in an holistic, positive and transforming way and live together in peace with one another.

6. That Oneness contains All of life – also the parts that we regard as the “other”. I realise that wholeness and togetherness can only be experienced through the recognition of the uniqueness, beauty and purpose of all aspects of life, and that this recognition starts with my Self.

7. That I am part of the emerging consciousness that promotes a spirit of openness, enquiry, connection and relationship with myself and the entire universe, and who continues to recognise the wonder, beauty and mystery of it all.

8. I declare that the time for change is now, and I declare the importance of a day set aside for all of humanity to come together as one human family, to discuss, celebrate and experience Oneness.

To sign up go to the Humanity's Team website: http://humanitysteam.org/

Progressive Spirituality and Religious Fundamentalism

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:15:00 +0000

I have been pondering whether I need to get agitated as a progressive Christian with the fundamentalisms on both sides - atonement / sacrifice theology on the one hand and hard ‘scientism’ on the other.

I am pretty sure that I will primarily remain a Christian progressive, but will always struggle with the metaphor of atonement - though I of course understand intellectually what was being explained. But I think progressives need to better understand how the ‘myth’ (story) of atonement works, and why it has become so central and so defended without nuance. [I see clear explanation in the story of the Prodigal Son and the ever loving father - no sacrifice was required by the Father, though ‘sacrifice’ was made by the wayward son by the act of “turning” to return to the Father. The Father’s arms are ever open, the son just needed to understand that at last!]

We can go even further into “inter-faith” and the “new spirituality”, which can push progressive buttons at the other wing of the spectrum. Increaaingly there are lots of common understandings on ways of incorporating “spiritual practice”. My reading of Paul helps us see that faith and doctrine is never “black and white” - spiritual growth is a dialectical struggle, as insight wars with tradition, until a breakthrough, and then on to the next struggle, and next breakthrough. (Its been that for me intellectually and in my spiritual journey down the decades. From University evangelical, to liberal, to progressive, to my growing move to incorporate inter-faith and the new spiritualities into my frames of reference.)

In the end I come back to Jonathan Sacks “Dignity of Difference” book. Looked at from ‘height’, there are many pathways to the One, and all are “true” in a sense; or better, the “mythos” for each path contains Truth, but can never bound True Truth. Increasingly I “know” that the more we see the “landscape of many paths” the more we can root back in one path, even a pretty orthodox Christian one, and take from that overview the equivalence that we glimpse in other faiths and spiritual teachings. Nature shows that infinite difference is to be celebrated, not forced, something equally relevant to the ‘natural selection’ of ‘ideas’ (memes), which are tested and honed (integrated) into the next best stage of our understanding by evoltionary means.

This is something Progressive Christians and SBNR folk need to be very aware of. In my view we must take time, and allow, for dialogue with fundamentalists and evangelicals. I know I am becoming more “neo-orthodox” as I try to ‘feel’ these things rather than always rationalising them. Indeed I have now integrated much of my Charismatic and “guidance” experience as an evangelical as being a “true” experience of “spirit” in action. God acts from within us - and is not ‘external’, so its us who change whenever we are “led” or have our hearts “strangely warmed”; and in my view each step must be integrative, not a point for throwing away our past theological “meme”.

The early Christian communities post resurrection experiences of Jesus, and Paul’s visions of being called from place to place on his travels, are typical of biblical stories progressives struggle with when starting from the rationalist paragdigm. But increasingly I see that there is a fruitful place for dialogue here. Call is consequent on the openness (faith) of those “called”. So, based on my point about seeing the whole spiritual ‘Landscape’, what is described in the NT is no different from the vision quest of indigenous peoples and the whole gamut of ecstatic and practical spiritual encounter in nature, and mediatation techniques to engender different states of consciousness, etc, in some Christian forms and in many of the world’s faiths. And so, hard though it is to make sense of this, given the “law” context in Judaism and the guilt context in Christianity, it is not a defensible answer to get cross about particular atonement theologies!

In my professional life I am a huge fan of facilitated dialogue processes of conflict resolution, and it seems to me that theology desperately needs the humility to engage from wherever people are at. Just because we have “integrated” progressive insights into our Christan paths, or gone beyond to integrate global faith understandings, or go beyond that to explore alongside the “free spirits” out there, it does not mean we should give up on the need to dialogue with all people of faith or none - for all conversation that brings people to awareness, including us, needs to be tried.

Also posted on the Progressive Christianity Network Britain's Forum: http://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/index.php/forums/
And on my Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/john.hetherington?v=app_2347471856&ref=profile in the Notes Section.

Spiritual books - suggestions and comments please

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:28:00 +0000

I thought I'd start off a sharing of my most appreciated books from the literature of 'spirituality', but also sources on the web for out of copyright material. So here goes, not in a particular order, but trending from those most influential to those I still value.

I would love it if readers would add to my list with their suggestions. I will keep this up to date on Facebook and my Blog - this is just a starter.

First - contemporary writers and novel format material :
Kahil Gabril - The Prophet and other works: http://leb.net/~mira/
Paulo Coelho - particularly The Alchemist and the Zahir
Good Compilation of English "Spiritual poets" from Bede to the 1920s - The English Spirit (The Little Gidding Anthology of English Spirituality) DLT

Film - to be added
e.g The Matrix, Avatar

Books I have in my Library:
Radical Amazement - Judy Cannato ["Awareness of the Divine begins with wonder" - a Herschel quote]
Integral Life Practice - Ken Wilbur and others: http://www.integralinstitute.org/?q=node/1
Ken Wilbur - A brief History of Everything
David Tacy - The Spirituality Revolution
Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now
Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations with God - and many more

Christian Writers:
Marcus Borg - Reading the Bible Again for the First Time & Meeting Jesus Again for the first time (and almost everything else he has written)
John Shelby Spong: Liberating the Gospels, A new Christianity for a New World (and most of his books since - including Jesus for the NOn Religious and Eternal Life - A new Vision.
Adrian B Smith - Tomorrow's Christian (O Books) and lots more
Deepak Chopra - Quantum Healing and lots more
John Hetherington - Booklet "Reshaping Christianity - Mysticsm. Spirituality and Global faith" - avilable from Free to Believe: http://www.freetobelieve.org.uk/booklets2.html

Christian Scriptures - Psalms, Wisdom, Proverbs, Gospel of John and early Pauline genuine epistles.
Gospels of Mary (see: http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm)
and Thomas (see: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html)
and the Pistis Sophia (http://www.gnosis.org/library/pistis-sophia/index.htm).
Also see: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/index.htm

Other Christian writings: St Augustine - The City of God - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.toc.html
Also The Confessions of St Augustine - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions.html
Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love (14th Century): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian/revelations/
William Law - (17/18 C) - A serious Call to a devoit and holy life: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/law/serious_call.html
Thomas A Kempis - The Imitation of Christ: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.html

For the whole corpus visit and search in http://www.ccel.org/ and http://www.sacred-texts.com/

World Religions:
Taoism - The Book of the Way: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm
Zoroastrian: http://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/index.htm
The Vedanta (Indian Religious Scriptures): http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/
Covers: Vedas (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm),
Upanishads (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm)
Bhagavad Gita (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/agsgita.htm)
Bahai: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bhi/index.htm [Also see: http://www.bahai.org/]
Buddhism: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/index.htm
Islam: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/index.htm [Includes a full range of Sufi material - Rumi poetry can be found here: http://allspirit.co.uk/rumi.html

Sites cover not just English translations - but references more general text.

[TO BE UPDATED - so keep popping back, please and add your own lists.]

Copyright © 2009: Rev John Hetherington. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for this content to be reproduced upon condition that full acknowledgements of author and copyright details are made. John Hetherington - January 2010

Spiritual Progressives

noreply@blogger.com (JohnHet60) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Just to mention that I came across this site. Its main approach is:

We are an interfaith group also open to people who are "spiritual but not religious," agnostic, or atheist, as long as you are willing to let all of us bring all of who we are to the table.
We are creating the world we believe is possible through action, spiritual support and advocacy. Tikkun Magazine provides the intellectual support for our movement.

We believe the world is friendly, that there is enough and that we are all interconnected. We believe that love, kindness, care and generosity can be part of our daily lives, actions and our politics. We speak of our highest ideals and support one another in our own development and spiritual path.
Clicking the post title takes you to the Site

Link: http://www.facebook.com/john.hetherington?ref=profile#/group.php?gid=4770638813&ref=search&sid=654632032.457110463..1