10-15-2010, 05:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-15-2010, 05:44 PM by Questioner.)
Richard, for me church was not very much about guidance or affirmation. It was about community.
People who meet together in person regularly, in order to share the spiritual journey.
To be quietly humble, together, before the Mystery of life... whatever they call it.
To share songs together, happy, joyous, wondering, amazed, pensive, downcast, the whole journey of emotions through faith. There's a reason the Psalms are still popular.
To listen together to one person who provides an opinion about what stories of holy words and deeds from the past might mean to people today; and to share, together, an attentive attitude about how spirit can inform everyday life.
To pray together with hands and arms linked, together inviting Heaven's help.
To know of each other's sorrows and joys, and care about them.
These are not matters of intellectual agreement, or winning approval for thinking the way that authorities dictate or that peers approve of. In fact, the more intellectually doctrinaire a religious organization becomes, the less likely I am to feel at home there. The ultimate extreme on the downside was the cult of my youth, where apparently nobody actually had any feelings, and the only things to do were to abdicate one's own choices and conscience for someone else's bland intellectual assertions.
My ideal church would have the physical, emotional, and social experiences of the church I enjoyed.
If there was something like this church that included the Ra books, Baghavad Gita, Buddha's sermons, the Tao, I Ching, Tarot and humanistic philosophy alongside the Bible, it would be pretty much ideal for me.
Basically, the ecumenical philosophy, social justice and open sharing time of Unitarianism - the only church experience where I've not needed to shut off any of my thoughts to fully join in the sermons. But without the upper-crust blue-blood starched-collar formality I've encountered as a prominent theme in Unitarian congregations.
Plus Quaker peace and meditation, without the stridently evangelical Christianity I've encountered as a theme in the Quaker congregations I know about.
Plus a great choir and a congregation that knows how to sing classic hymns in four part harmony.
Plus a rockin' band with worshipful songs about inviting the infinite divine light to heal our chakras.
And no rituals where you need a reference card to remember when to stand, when to sit, and when to say things in a language you don't understand.
Put all that together, and it would suit me just fine.
Add a handbell choir and orchestra for Christmas and Easter, and celebrate the Jewish, Muslim, and Pagan holiday calendar too.
I don't know of anything like that. Heartfelt Christianity often comes pretty close, except for the dogma. Unitarianism is close to perfect intellectually, but expects "Sunday best clothes and manners."
In my work as an engineer, and my life as a friend and family member of emotionally dysfunctional nerds and geeks, my intellect got more than enough of a workout anyway.
I couldn't have put it into words back then, but I can now. This was all about feeling and moving, together with other people, towards aspiration for union with divine love.
People who meet together in person regularly, in order to share the spiritual journey.
To be quietly humble, together, before the Mystery of life... whatever they call it.
To share songs together, happy, joyous, wondering, amazed, pensive, downcast, the whole journey of emotions through faith. There's a reason the Psalms are still popular.
To listen together to one person who provides an opinion about what stories of holy words and deeds from the past might mean to people today; and to share, together, an attentive attitude about how spirit can inform everyday life.
To pray together with hands and arms linked, together inviting Heaven's help.
To know of each other's sorrows and joys, and care about them.
These are not matters of intellectual agreement, or winning approval for thinking the way that authorities dictate or that peers approve of. In fact, the more intellectually doctrinaire a religious organization becomes, the less likely I am to feel at home there. The ultimate extreme on the downside was the cult of my youth, where apparently nobody actually had any feelings, and the only things to do were to abdicate one's own choices and conscience for someone else's bland intellectual assertions.
My ideal church would have the physical, emotional, and social experiences of the church I enjoyed.
If there was something like this church that included the Ra books, Baghavad Gita, Buddha's sermons, the Tao, I Ching, Tarot and humanistic philosophy alongside the Bible, it would be pretty much ideal for me.
Basically, the ecumenical philosophy, social justice and open sharing time of Unitarianism - the only church experience where I've not needed to shut off any of my thoughts to fully join in the sermons. But without the upper-crust blue-blood starched-collar formality I've encountered as a prominent theme in Unitarian congregations.
Plus Quaker peace and meditation, without the stridently evangelical Christianity I've encountered as a theme in the Quaker congregations I know about.
Plus a great choir and a congregation that knows how to sing classic hymns in four part harmony.
Plus a rockin' band with worshipful songs about inviting the infinite divine light to heal our chakras.
And no rituals where you need a reference card to remember when to stand, when to sit, and when to say things in a language you don't understand.
Put all that together, and it would suit me just fine.
Add a handbell choir and orchestra for Christmas and Easter, and celebrate the Jewish, Muslim, and Pagan holiday calendar too.
I don't know of anything like that. Heartfelt Christianity often comes pretty close, except for the dogma. Unitarianism is close to perfect intellectually, but expects "Sunday best clothes and manners."
In my work as an engineer, and my life as a friend and family member of emotionally dysfunctional nerds and geeks, my intellect got more than enough of a workout anyway.
I couldn't have put it into words back then, but I can now. This was all about feeling and moving, together with other people, towards aspiration for union with divine love.