Earlier this week I was reading an article in the Smithsonian magazine about the year 1908. Wow, what a amazing story! In the article I was reminded that Wilbur and Orville Wright were still trying to fly more than 2 hours at a time at the end of that year! Automobiles were toys for the rich and famous – well, that’s still true – however, in 1908 the average person did not have one and most weren’t sure they were a good idea! Henry Ford would bring out the Model T in 1908 and change so much of our world. Thousands of people were killed each year in work-related accidents; children worked long hours in dangerous condition; there were vast numbers of immigrants coming into the US from both the east and the west. In fact, in the larger cities, gangs terrorized the streets – remember the movie, Gangs of New York. Racism was part of the culture – lynchings were taking place in the midwest and the south. There was extreme poverty and extreme wealth. And with all that, there were major strides and innovations in technology – radio, automobiles, airplanes, synthetic materials – and public awareness – women had begun their struggle for the vote and more equality, child labor laws were being introduced, to name just a few issues. Interestingly, oil was discovered in the Middle East and rights to drill immediately claimed by the United Kingdom. The world was getting smaller – it took days and weeks for news to spread rather than months to years. Isn’t it amazing how far we’ve come and yet how little has changed. As we move into 2008, we live in a much smaller world – it takes only seconds for news to spread around the world – and yet one where there is still fighting for control over blocks of the neighborhood. Women and children still work very long hours in very poor conditions – they’re just not in our neighborhood mostly! Racism still exists – for some more subtly; for others, wrapped up in homeland security. Advances in technology are moving so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up. And public awareness is expanding – more and more individuals are reaching out through interfaith activities, disaster relief, environmental conservation, and a call for peace. Working together as an integrated whole – accepting and celebrating our rich diversity – we can make 2008 more than just another year. There are several groups in the community that are working for cross-cultural dialogue. Reach out – get involved. Make connections with local groups working to conserve our natural resources – recycling, energy conservation. Help build affordable housing locally. Find time to meditate. Think outside the box at home, at your work, at your church, synagogue or mosque. Ask why. Stand on top of your desk to get a different perspective. We can make it a year of unity and peace! Let’s do it!
Archive for the ‘seeing the world’ Category
Another New Year
December 26, 2007Christmas
December 24, 2007One of my favorite carols is I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – the poem by Longfellow set to music. In his poem, Longfellow captures the despair and the hope of a world at war – an individual in pain because of personal loss. He wrote this poem in 1864 – the Civil War was raging – His son had been injured in battle – His wife had died in a fire. The world around him was not a peaceful place! And yet through all of this pain and despair, he found the Source of All Things – He heard the bells pealing peace – reconciliation – forgiveness.
Here are the original seven verses written by Longfellow.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said:
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Several Christmases ago, I went to the Unity songbook to get the words and the page number for our Christmas service. I expected to find five verses in our songbook. Most modern version leave out the two verses specifically related to the Civil War:
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Today, it might be appropriate to add them back in, especially in those parts of our world where war is an every day thing.
I was astonished to see that there were only the first three verses in our song book. The two verses that speak of the despair and grief and that seem to make a judgment about Right and Wrong had also been taken out. Interestingly, this often happens in Unity. Thinking that we are following the Law of Mind Action and removing the “negative” thoughts and judgments, we cut out the grief, the pain, the despair, and the process of discerning. For me, what we are left with is often a veneer of smiles and goodness, a thin layer of ice that covers deep emotions and consequences of prior thoughts and actions that have not been processed and transmuted.
Now please don’t get me wrong – I do understand that when we hold “negative” thoughts in mind, we get more of the same. And that “judgment” when made from our personality can create error thought and actions. And yet to refuse to look beneath the ice to the swirling water is denial – and not in the way that Charles and Myrtle meant when they used the term. In my understanding of their writings, it is necessary that we recognize the situation, the issues, the apparent “reality” and only then are we able to “see” beyond appearance t the truth and how that truth can be restored.
When there is war in our world – bombs and bullets that are killing people – devastating hunger and starvation in a bountiful world – death from treatable diseases – violence in our streets and our homes – when all of this exists, to not feel a moment of despair and pain is to not be human. The power of the Law of Mind Action is that we can acknowledge the condition – the appearance – without accepting it as permanent. We can look deeper into the thought causes of these conditions – the thoughts of fear and lack – and we can, by replacing those thoughts with ones of love, bounty, unity, change these conditions. For as we change our perspective and thought, we will change our actions. As we shift the energy of a situation from fear to love, from lack to abundance, for death to life, we – and all those we touch – are changed.
For me, this is the spirit of Christmas! And so in this Christmas time, reach out to the infinite that is God – the Unity that includes the Duality – and as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did in 1864 – hear the bells peal loud and down – Peace on Earth – Good will to all!
A Quote from Charles
August 23, 2007“All power has its birth in the silence. There is no exception to this rule in all the evidence of life. Noise is the dying vibration of a spent force. All the clatter of visibility, from the harangue of the politician to the thunder’s roar, is but evidence of exhausted power.”
Charles Fillmore
During the month of September, the first of four Seasons for Peace and Nonviolence – the Season for Interfaith Celebration – will begin. On September 11th, there will be several Remembrance Services in the area. On September 13th, we will join Unity communities worldwide in observing the Unity World Day of Prayer, this year’s theme being World Peace. On September 21st, the Frederick Forum for the Seasons for Nonviolence will host the International Day of Peace program at the Baker Park Band shell beginning at 5:30 pm.
All of these wonderful activities will bring people together from a wide variety of faith traditions and walks of life – each one holding his or her dream of peace. In these gatherings we have a opportunity to channel the power of peace to our community and to the world – if only we don’t dissipate that power with soundbites and hot air. Sometimes it is more powerful to stand together in silence than to attempt to persuade with speech – to be open to the energy and consciousness of love and compassion as it moves through us and from us – to keep our hands clasped as we move through the issues. AND so, while I agree with Charles that ‘noise is a dying vibration of power,’ I also believe that words combined with feeling are what we use to bring forth from the silence the world in which we desire to live. So maybe more space between more considered words is what is called for now! May it be so!
The True Church
July 11, 2007Pope Benedict’s recent summary and clarification of Dominion Iesus, a theological treatise about ecclesiology published by the Vatican in the year 2000 during the pontificate of John Paul II, is an interesting piece of work. In his clarification document, Pope Benedict XVI asserted yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church is the “one church” that Christ “established here on Earth” and that other Christian denominations “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense…..”
In the Baltimore Sun we find this quote: “It’s a clarification of the meaning of the word church,” said Lawrence S. Cunningham, who writes a column for the Catholic magazine Commonweal and is a theologian at the University of Notre Dame. “Behind this document is the worry that the language of ecumenism has become too flabby and too imprecise, and too Pollyannish about glossing over real doctrinal positions.” Again from the International Herald Tribune, ‘The document released Tuesday focused largely on the Vatican definition of what constitutes a church, which it defined as being traceable through its bishops to Christ’s original apostles. Thus, it said, the world’s Orthodox Christians make up a church because of shared history, if “separated” from the “proper” Catholic tradition; Protestants, who split from Catholicism during the Reformation, are considered only “Christian communities.” The document repeated church teaching that the Roman Catholic Church alone is the mediator of salvation, though other beliefs can be its “instrument.”‘
Father Johnathan, writing for Fox News, says that this clarification was written for theologian and should not be taken as a press release.
As a person who believes strongly in the power of words and that clarity is important, I applaud the Pope’s desire to be clear, if not his interpretations and methods. And this document does make the position of the Roman Catholic Church clear. Perhaps it would have been better if it had been released only to theologians, because now it clearly has reached the world in “press release-ese”.
The International Herald Tribune headline reads: “Pope restates ‘defects’ of other Christian faiths….” The Baltimore Sun headline reads: “Pontiff asserts Catholic primacy.” The Chicago Sun-Tribune reads: “Catholicism is the only true church, Vatican declares.” ABC and Reuters reads: “Vatican says other Christian churches ‘wounded.'”
As a person who has travelled an eclectic road with God, I don’t need the Pope to define for me what the True Church is. AND if he sees it as part of his calling as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to define it for them, then God bless him. I feel sad that he, and judging by the press coverage, many in the rest of the world, seem to think that he might be the arbiter of this question for everyone else. I believe that his words, regardless of the reasons for issuing them, will not help bring unity and peace to this world. It is my belief that going back to old language, old rituals, old thought patterns will not bring about evolved thinking, believing and doing.
From the depths of my being, I affirm that together we will find new words, the new rituals, the new thought patterns that represent God, the Infinite Spirit, the Eternal One – and that these “new” ideas and concepts will show us how to recognize and apply the truths taught by all the great teachers in a unifying, inclusive, and nonviolent way.
“The church of Christ covers every department of our existance and enters into every fiber of our being.
We carry it with us day and night, seven days of the week. We live in it as a fish lives in water; as we become conscious of its enveloping presence, we are transformed into a new creature. Life becomes an ecstasy, and our cup is full to overflowing.” from Talks on Truth, Charles Fillmore.
God's Not What You Think 