an original blessing community
May 22, 2014
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eNewsletter from
Chesapeake Creation Spirituality Community
on the Path of Transformation
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Our Business Sponsors
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Chuck makes a donation to Evolve
Chesapeake from every commission received through our community! For your real estate needs in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, or across the country contact: 
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Check out Evolve Chesapeake's online bookstore at: |
Join our Sacred Gathering on Sundays normally at 6 PM at the Annapolis Friends Meeting House, 351 Dubois Road, Annapolis, MD 21401. Click here for directions.
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 The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one
that sings.
- Wendell Berry
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May 25, 2014
Tenth Sunday on the Path of Transformation
justice * shalom * return * sustainability * healing
relieving suffering * compassion * Interference
peacemaking
Sacred Gathering at 6 PM
Annapolis Friends Meeting House
351 Dubois Road, Annapolis, MD
Reflection by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Schwandt
Set-up/Put-away: Sylvia Oliva
Greeter/Usher: Dave Miller
Reader/Communion Assistant: Chuck Riley
Offering Invitation: Dave Miller
Community Hour Hosts: Suzie Robertson
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From Pastor's Keyboard
The Rev. Dr. Wayne Schwandt
Summer unofficially arrives this weekend as we commemorate those who gave their lives in service to our country during war.
As a child our annual Memorial Day Parade left me quite empty as we walked up "cemetary hill" to the War Memorial. I had no emotional connection to what we were doing. I would overhear my parents talk about "Gold Star Mothers," those who had lost a son in war. At the foot of the War Memorial in the cemetary, the children were asked to place the flags they had carried in the parade at the foot of the monument. Not far down the white gravel road through the cemetary was the area where my relatives were buried. I wondered why we honored soldiers who had died, but not my uncles, sisters, and grandmother who were buried nearby.
With age sometimes comes wisdom and I eventually figured out why we did what we did. My faith taught me to love -- even the bulllies who beat me up on the way home from school. I could see no reason not to try to love my enemies in war. My father, in one of his rare comments on his war experience, said, "when you are in a situation where either you shoot to kill or be killed," I had a glimpse of how hard the war had been for him. Even though his buddies rallied around the comraderie of being soldiers together long after the war was over, there was a haunting terror he seemed to carry for the rest of his life. Ironically, he was the most anti-war man I knew as a child. He would not let us play with toy guns -- ever. Not until about a year ago did I know that in the house I grew up in there were several guns -- including one that my maternal grandmother had been given by relatives in Chicago when she moved to the "wild world of Wisconsin."
I grew up to be a pacifist, filing as a conscientious objector when I had to register for the draft in 1971 on my 18th birthday. Much to the horror of my VFW family, Isucceeded on appeal to receive CO status. I wonder how many other boys did that in Walworth County?
While I still believe with the Quakers, that "war is not the answer," I honor the men and women of our armed services who have given the ultimate price for our country. I would now place my little flag at the foot of the War Monument in the cemetary in Genoa City, with much gratitude and respect. And, I have gone to the Viet Nam War Memorial and found the name etched there of one of my childhood bullies, Topper Capezio. I think I wanted to say, "thank you for your service; I forgive you for what you did to me."
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 | Washington, DC photo by Chuck Riley
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From Erine 
"There are times when looking up
is all you can do."
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From On Being Transcript of May 18, 2014 Program on The Kabbalah
Krista Tippett interviewing Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
Rabbi Kushner:
Just because it's God, doesn't mean that you're not obligated to go on doing the best you can with the brain God gave you. And so that doesn't mean, therefore, that you should roll over and play dead or ignore dirt or filth, or terrible things in the world. You're still obligated to do what you've got to do. But you have to understand that if there's evil in me, I can try to banish it. And push it away. But I won't succeed because it's part of me. What I need to do is to find something holy even in it. And thereby try to redeem it and free me from it. And I can do the same thing with the world. I'm not creative or spiritually anywhere near big enough to be able to handle it, but I think I have-this is the right way to go. Well, there- fore, everything in the world that I don't like is there. I don't deny its existence. What - and I especially if I say it's a manifestation of God. It raises a challenge for me, though. What can I do to redeem even this? This terrible thing, or whatever it is. What is holy in it, and I will keep working at it, and that is how I can free myself from it.
Ms. Tippett:
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner says that the Jewish moral commandment, tikkun olam is not so accurately translated "repair the world" as "repair the cosmos." Here is the most memorable way the Kabbalistic connection between Ein Sof and human moral action has been told to me across the years - by the physician Rachel Naomi Remen, as her grandfather told it to her:
Rachel Naomi Remen: In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand, thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world was scattered into a thousand, thousand fragments of light, and they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day. Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It's a very important story for our times. And this task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It's the restoration of the world...... And this is, of course, a collective task. It involves all people who have ever been born, all people presently alive, all people yet to be born. We are all healers of the world. And that story opens a sense of possibility. It's not about healing the world by making a huge difference. It's about healing the world that touches you, that's around you."
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REGISTER NOW FOR A CREATION SPIRITUALITY GATHERING
IN PITTSBURGH THIS SUMMER
Renew your friendships! Refresh your vision! re-Source! your CS Community! Gift your wisdom and skills to the Creation Spirituality movement! On June 20-22, 2014, the Creation Spirituality community will gather at First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh for a time of spiritual renewal for ourselves and our communities. We will deepen our spiritual practices, body prayers, meditative art forms, ritual leadership, and spiritual wisdom to connect more deeply to Source and to enliven our compassionate action in the world. Visit the re-Source! website for information and to register.
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 OPEN ARMS will meet Tuesday, May 27 at 6:30 for supper and discussion of the final session of Painting the Stars. You won't want to miss this one! Contact Pastor Wayne for more information: schwandtw@aol.com |
You can become an individual member of Creation Spirituality Communities or sign up as a participant in the online  community for free. Join our online community, Chesapeake Creation Spirituality Community and take part in the discussion. You can get more information and/or sign up by clicking on the following link: http://originalblessing.ning.com. NOTE: This website is well worth checking out, with its interesting videos of Matthew Fox and others on different facets of Creation Spirituality. You'll also find news of upcoming conferences and much more.
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As of May 22 we have earned $1,641.95 for Evolve Chesapeake.
Join iGive and be a part of the first and largest online network of shoppers, online stores, and worthy causes dedicated to turning online shopping into much-needed donations. iGive is totally free. Plus, you get access to free shipping deals and coupons, on top of the great deals you'll find every day through this network of more than 1,000 stores such as Amazon.com, Pottery Barn, REI, Staples, Petco, Expedia, Best Buy, OVC and more. Best of all, up to 25% of your purchase at each store is donated to Evolve Chesapeake when you name it as your cause.
You can also raise a penny per search at iGive every time you search the web. Try iGive's search engine and you'll see that fundraising for Evolve Chesapeake can be easy and free.
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More Ways to Support our Ministry
Check out our Welcome Table in the lobby. There are books for sale by Bruce Chilton, Matthew Fox, John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and others. You'll also find Rick Dove's large selection of nature photography: 5x7 photocards @$3 and matted photographs @$10. Buying these will help support Evolve Chesapeake's ministry.
And remember, your used cell phones and empty ink jet and toner cartridges can also help fund our ministry. These items fit nicely in the offering basket along with remembrance of time and talent you have offered to our ministries and your financial gifts. Bring them to Gathering with you.
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May Covenant Dates
Birthdays, Anniversaries, Covenant Dates
May 4 Adri Eathorne and Kim Hinken Marriage (2013)
May 5 Adri Eathorne and Kim Hinken Holy Union (2007)
May 6 Linda J. Kahl Death (1998)
May 9 Robert Brian Eathorne Birthday (d. 2013)
May 11 Cynthia Brister Birthday (d. 2004)
May 11 Sean Patrick Riley Birthday (2003)
May 14 Rick Dove and Tom Good Marriage (2011)
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Thank you to all who read this newsletter and to all who send contributions that liven it up! Please send your poems, articles, news, photographs, announcements, etc. to: EvolveSylvia@gmail.com. And we would love to know how we can improve our newsletter.
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There is a spirit that pervades everything, that is capable of powerful song and radiant movement, and that moves in and out of the mind. The
colors of this spirit are multitudinous, a glowing, pulsing rainbow.
Paula Gunn Allen
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If you have a profile on Facebook, become a fan of CCSC (Evolve Chesapeake)
by clicking here. Upload pictures, start a discussion, invite friends.
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and other great websites under Quick Links in the top left column. |
And join us in Sacred Gathering this Sunday.
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