As we enter Holy Week, we remember the holy work of Jesus in order to take up that work in our own lives and for our own time.
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
How Jesus Waged Peace Throughout Holy Week
Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide. What if we've embraced the wrong one?
Mother Earth weeps for her children— day after day, rain drumming down. She cleanses herself and cleanses us—
Meet Charlie Starbuck, a volunteer in San Francisco, locally revered for the thousands of street trees he's planted. In this free Humankind episode, we also hear from the organization Charlie works with, Friends of the Urban Forest, as well as the city’s official Urban Forester, an employee at the Department of Public Works.
What forms do your communion elements take during this time of Shelter In Place? See mine, below this entry... from Palm Sunday. Mt Hollywood Church is urging people to take pix of their home-made communion elements - whether wine and bread, milk and cookies, juice and cereal - and posting them on social media
Progressive Christian Spiritual Curriculum that is Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, and Non-Dogmatic. This is Year One of our A Joyful Path curriculum for ages 6-10. 38 Lessons.
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*** This page has moved - please click here to Order Hard Copy and DVD. To see all Purchase Options Please Click Here.
In A Joyful Path, Year Two, we focus on some of the main tenets of Progressive Christianity and Spirituality, giving our children the foundation they need to walk the path of Jesus in today's world. It has stories and affirmations written to help children clarify their own personal beliefs while staying open to the wisdom of other traditions.
Every Sunday I stand at the altar and preside over a mystery. A mystery that has its roots in the events we remember this Holy Thursday. On Maundy Thursday, we gather together to contemplate MYSTERY. We know what will happen tomorrow as Good Friday plunges us into darkness. So is it any wonder that we cannot fully comprehend this MYSTERY.
A Rationale for Religious Ritual When the Rationality of Words Fail Us
When there is an absence of conscious symbolic ritual, what happens with such a lack of awareness about the power that signs and symbols play in our lives, and the depth or richness of value and meaning they provide? How can we otherwise express what is ultimately inexpressible?
The psychologist and genius Otto Rank, author of the classic work Art and Artist, said that if you want to know the soul of a nation go to its architecture first. Notre Dame de Paris and the entire gothic revolution of the 12th century Renaissance that it encapsules (along with Chartres Cathedral 30 miles beyond Paris), tells us much about the soul of France. And our own souls.
The Christian tradition is now in the midst of Holy Week, the high holy days of our religion, concluding the season of Lent, the six-week period of repentance, prayer, fasting, and reflection in preparation for Easter. The language and tone of Lent address the ego, known in traditional language as our ‘sinful nature.’ According to traditional Christian theology, Jesus died to ‘save’ us from our inherently depraved nature inherited from Adam & Eve, because we can’t do it for ourselves. For the sake of biblical and religious literacy, we need to acknowledge a disclaimer.
The wise and teaching Jesus proclaimed an egalitarian ethic of loving and serving others, even our enemies, as ourselves. The compassionate and practicing Jesus worked and advocated for equality, justice, and mercy for the despised, poor, sinful, and oppressed. The judicious and brave Jesus decried the hypocrisy and illuminated the spiritual perils of the wealthy, powerful, haughty, judgemental, and privileged. The betrayed and arrested Jesus commanded the nonviolent laying down of swords and the restoration of severed ears to hear. The tortured and dying Jesus exhibited forgiveness to those who persecuted him. The resurrected and empowered Jesus encouraged and gave the gift of peace to all who would follow his example and go forth to revolutionize relationships with all humanity and creation.
I am indebted to Amy-Jill Levine's book "Short Stories by Jesus" and Bernard Brandon Scott's book "Hear Then the Parable" for challenging me to look beyond the Christian bias of interpreting Jesus' parables through the lens of the repentance and forgiveness and attempting to hear this story in ways more in keeping with Judaism.
Darkness envelops our world and our lives. Shadows enshroud our spirits. We come to pay homage to one who tried to bring
O God, who grace feels abundant in our sunshine, but far removed in our shadows: We have come today to bear witness to Jesus’ suffering and death upon a cross. We are appalled at the injustice and inhumanity — not only of his last day, but of days in our lives when we hear about greed, corruption, discrimination, hatred, violence, and death.
"For all Children and the Next 7 Gerenations, We Stand United with Standing Rock, All Waters of the Earth, and All Life."
We offer this timepiece on a day that ushers in a new era for all protectors and people alike. An era that will need music to act as the thread between front lines and front doors. Stay in the prayer. We stand with you. For all our relations.
This hauntingly beautiful Hungarian folk song has enchanted many a musician. Across the world you can hear it sung in wildly different styles, always adapted for the region of the singer. Here is beautiful 3 part harmony version, sung in the traditional Hungarian style by my women's trio Wild Honey.
Nicole Sangsuree Barrett
"Earth My Body" was written and performed by Nicole Sangsuree though the opening and closing chant is a very old song with an unknown author. The song was recorded and produced by Jeremy Davidson in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., and the video was filmed at many locations in Thailand by producer and filmmaker Emma Carroll (Wee Earthlings). The experience of writing, recording and then filming this song has been part of a healing awakening for Nicole.
Return of the Bird Tribes is a prayer of Hope. A remembering and an embodiment of the higher dimensional consciousness that knows no separation from the Source of all that is. Sung in a light feathered language, a song, of a bird who sings in reverence to the Maker. Merging organic percussion & instrumentation with dawn sounds of the Australian bush & a fierce tribal future bass. Return of the Bird Tribes calls to the part of ourselves that remembers the spirits of the stars & that we are vast noble, ancients returning.
“Mindfulness is "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally." ... It could have been at the mouth of one of the shallow caves carved by Nature out of the limestone cliffs of Mount Quarantania, facing Jericho on the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to the southeast, that Jesus sat to gaze at forty dawns in the wilderness before he began his ministry. This 40-day season of Lent invites us to join Jesus in practicing mindfulness as he did in the desert.
O God, our Divine Parent, may your presence be ever revered. May your peace and justice dwell among us. May your love and compassion live within and between us. Nourish us daily with the necessities of life; sustenance for our bodies, and inspiration for our spirits.
Written by Rev. Irene Laudeman
This service is appropriate for a small congregation of 20-60 people. The service is conducted in two settings:
The practice of creating Stations of the Cross for meditative reflection on the final hours of Jesus' life is a very old one. To this day, many Catholic and other churches have gardens or sanctuaries in which the stations are situated.