Colonization tragically forced many indigenous people to forget and forsake our innate connection to Earth. But many of us today are beginning to remember. What is taking place in Standing Rock is awakening what once lied dormant in so many of our people: the Earth is our Mother, and Water is Life.
It was late at night when I drove into the conjoined Oceti Sakowin and Red Warrior camp in Standing Rock. I set up camp in the rain with my sisters, crawled into bed, and eagerly anticipated waking up wrapped in the energy of unity that next morning. That is exactly what happened.
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Big hair, big smiles, and a whole lot of love- Wild-hearted globe-trotter Dustin Thomas is making waves from America to Australia with his infectious blend of beat-box/soul-folk. Armed with his voice, a guitar, and universal anthems of …
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Meaning plays an essential role in religion. Clearly understanding this role and applying meaning in sacred dimensions can significantly increase the meaning-yielding power of our Christian faith. It is possible and advisable to place meaning at the center of our faith. Perhaps Meaning-Centered Christianity is an appropriate guidepost for the new Progressive Christianity.
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About our Seminary Programs At The Chaplaincy Institute, we believe that the world is in need of the gifts and talents of every individual called to service. Our Interfaith seminary is dedicated to supporting the unique call …
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From a highly popular and respected scholar, poet and lecturer and one of the nation’s most celebrated authorities on mysticism comes the paperback edition of a brilliant introduction to the essential texts and themes of the great mystic visionaries. Whether it’s based on the Buddhist vision of the Bodhisattva or the Christian concept of service, the mystic’s journey is one take on behalf of all humanity and that journey is the same in all traditions. This wide range of selections brings readers the essential themes and personalities of the mystic experience. Beautifully introduced with practical analysis and vital historical information, “The Essential Mystics” offers extras from many traditions, including Buddhist, Sikh, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Hopi, Aborigine and Kogi.
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Beautiful Chorus is lead by Alexandra Love (of Solillaquists of Sound and Chakra Khan), and it’s core members are Patty, Mila, Anisha, Veronica, Yuki and Olivia, with alternates around the world who join us when they can!
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“Racial antagonism structures our imaginations as does our love of weapons. The former creates our enemies, and the latter constructs a false sense of independence and freedom.”
I don’t know if we Americans, especially Christians in America, want to be freed from our demons. The late New Testament scholar Walter Wink defined the demonic as an array of human and supra-human forces aligned to destroy life. The demonic was both individual and structural, personal and collective, sentient and mechanical. Wink’s expansive way of writing about the demonic sought to capture the dynamic interplay of our being oppressed by evil and our making ourselves tools for evil’s use. Some yield to evil, and others receive the suffering inflicted by such yielding.
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Months ago I mentioned on this blog that I had finally picked up Karen Armstrong’s book, “A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” … Armstrong explains how talkative Christianity became in the West, with its emphasis on doctrine and systematic theology. Instead, in Eastern Orthodox understanding, we need silence to understand/experience God, which I believe is central to a spiritual life.Of course, then we might come back to a religion “of the heart” and the subjectivity that is potentially dangerous. But communing with God was to be of the mind as well, and within the context of a spiritual community and a spiritual tradition that can serve as correctives.
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Watch this inspiring video about Shymaa, a little 5 yr old girl from GAZA whose story is sparking a worldwide movement of love, hope and peace.
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This a remarkable film about interfaith cooperation among youth here in Canada. We Canadians are proud that this kind of interfaith youth cooperation is taking place in Canada. Here is a description of the film followed by a YouTube link that will enable you to view this must-see film.
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We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
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One of the world’s foremost historical Jesus scholars helps the church and its alumni/ae rise above the greatest of Christian treasons: that everlasting peace can only be achieved through the onslaught of divine violence.
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The word “faith” in early Christianity was more synonymous with “courage” than it was with “belief.” Perhaps the most faithful response to terrorism is to refuse to be terrified. In Brussels on Easter they held a …
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As the experience of many gay persons will testify, “coming out” is not a once-and-for-all experience, but a continuing process. So the movement towards the Kingdom, somewhere outside the closet, or the Kingdom’s movement toward the closeted, is one which continues until the final Promise is fulfilled: God’s gift of God’s own future, the Kingdom.
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When you reside at the intersections of multiple identities anniversaries of your civil rights struggles can be both bitter and sweet. And this May 17th was a reminder.
At 12:01 a.m. on May 17, 2004, the city of Cambridge was the first to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. At 9:15 a.m. the first couple was married. Then Cambridge City Clerk Margaret Drury said to Tanya McCluskey,52, and Marcia Kadish,56, of Malden, Massachusetts, “I now pronounce you married under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
Also, on that day was the 50th anniversary of the historic U.S. Supreme Court case of “Brown v. Board of Education,” a ruling that upended this country’s “separate but equal” doctrine, adopted in the “Plessy v. Ferguson” decision of 1896.
While joy washed over me that day knowing my partner and I could now follow McCluskey’s and Kadish”s footsteps and be legally married, we could not rejoice over the limited success, huge failures, and ongoing resistance of Brown that allowed a few of us entry into some of the top universities of this country, as it naggingly continues to be challenged as a form of reverse discrimination.
Yes, God uses imperfect people. As 1 Peter 4:10 says, we should serve with whatever gift we have received.
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