School Uniforms

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$12.00 = one school uniform for a child

Did you know that while some third world "public" schools are free, many children are prevented from attending because they cannot afford to purchase the required school uniform? Or that every year, 75 million children are not in school -- 2/3s of them girls?

This fall, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Jeffrey Lee, decided to do something about that. He challenged every Episcopalian in the diocese to purchase one school uniform for $12. Monies donated will go to Episcopal Relief and Development (er-d.org) who will ensure that children can attend school.

If you donate a uniform, you will receive a gift card suitable for gift giving. The card announces that a uniform has been donated in the recipient's name. The cards are available through me. All proceeds will be directed to Episcopal Relief and Development.

Donate here.

Who are They?

The New Emergents

They are Christo-centric, not Church-centric. They're holistic, earthy, incarnational and relational. They seek to practice what Phyllis Tickle calls “radical obedience” to Jesus’ ways. In other words, they believe that Jesus meant what he said.

The Emergents believe Jesus and the 1^st century church are worth emulating. They are not intimidated or impressed by ecclesiastical hierarchy, and they're not distracted by the “holiness” (or assumed holiness) and privilege of clergy.

Perhaps Jesus was the first Emergent. He entered a world where hierarchical Judaism was at war with itself, split between varying sects of Pharisees and the Sadducees, some who were obsessed with Temple rituals and obeying the 613 Mosaic Laws, and another group following the teachings of Rabbi Hillel, who embraced the idea that how our hearts are is more important in God’s eyes than all the Mosaic Laws. In her new book, A Case for God, Karen Armstrong contends that Jesus embraced this new gospel of radical compassion. She writes,

“[Jesus] was asking his disciples for commitment. He wanted disciples who would engage with his mission, give all they had to the poor, feed the hungry, refuse to be hampered by family ties, abandon their pride, lay aside their self-importance, and sense of entitlement, live like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and trust in the God who was their father.”

Emergents in the 21^st century embrace this Way. They entered a spiritual desert pockmarked by warring factions of Christians and simply sought Jesus. They are more apt to find Jesus in the world than in a church. They see Jesus in the faces of the poor, the sick and the marginalized. They wonder whether “program based” churches only want what their demographic represents, and are not really interested in their spiritual journeys. Captivated by the ancient, Emergents long for the simplicity of the first century house churches. They study source texts such as The Didache, The Bible, Justin’s First Apology and Augustine’s Confessions to recover authentic Church. Lastly, they seek to emulate "church" as it was before it was polluted by politics and by “the Institution.”

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Speaking of Avatars

Modernity into Post – Modernity

There are two terms being bandied about in theological circles: modernism and post-modernism. We hear that we live in a “post-modern world” which would cause many folks to ask, “What was the modern world then, if we have already entered a post-modern world?” As we try to grasp the concept of Emerging church, we need to understand these terms.

Modernism brought with it reason, optimism, universality, and objectivity. In America, it was a natural response to our collective loss of innocence during the traumas of two world wars. Modernists embraced normalcy and assimilation. We embraced science as a provable, rational way to solve our problems, as in: “There’s a pill for that.” In modernity, we embraced sameness, and encouraged our children and newcomers to “fit in” and to live and dress like the Cleavers. We celebrated being collectively white and middle class. Mystery was out; reason was in. Foreign was out, American was in. Spirituality was out, science was in.

Post-modernity, to risk an over-simplification, is essentially the antithesis of modernity. If modernity was vanilla ice cream, post-modernity is cappuccino macadamia nut frozen yogurt. Mysticism – to post moderns – is enjoying a renaissance. Traditions from other cultures and from bygone eras are embraced and adapted for Christian use. (Icons, prayer beads, Sufi wisdom literature, and labyrinths are examples.) Recovering our ethnic backgrounds and bringing them to the common pot brings a rich deep flavor to a community. In addition, the post-modern church is becoming technologically savvy. Several mainline denominations are investing serious money in virtual reality worlds. Today, we can attend regularly scheduled worship services online at Anglican Cathedral in a virtual world known as Second Life.

The question becomes: Can an online priest absolve the confessed sins of an avatar?

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Milkweed and Chaos

Milkweed – and Chaos

My Lectio Divina passage this week was Genesis 1:26-31. I considered the phrases “God’s image” and “be fruitful,” but the loudest “whispering” I received was just one word: “Everything.”

The meditatio portion of my prayer continues. As I walked through the woods out at our cabin, I was still chewing on why God wanted me to hear the word “everything.” I saw, and picked, an unopened milkweed pod. Mostly, I looked forward to getting back home and opening it in the warmth of my kitchen, to see, once again, an example of God’s order and beauty in all things.

God creating perfect order out of chaos. When I got home, I resisted opening the pod, and abandoned it on the counter, waiting. A day later, some fluff puffed out of the pod. I never touched it, but daily it changed. More and more fluff burst forth. The metaphor shifted. I had intended the milkweed pod as an example of God’s creative desire for order and beauty over chaos – but now it was just an example of chaos. It had morphed into a pile of fluff!

Did my humanity cause the chaos? Did our original sin (and my picking it) cause it to revert to chaos? (Now there's a meditation!) And medatatio continues. God still whispers the word “everything” into my heart. And perhaps the milkweed pod’s return to chaos is part of God’s plan too. Maybe even chaos. Everything.