Greetings Fellow Bloggers!
As a new person to this blog site I’ve been busy digesting the many recent blogs and comments and feeling very energised and excited by it all. I now feel compelled to share some of my thoughts and responses that are crystallising having immersed myself in this rich pool of reflections and challenges.
I’ve been thinking about what God is to me and my overwhelming sense is that God is Love- simply that. The other stuff like Peace, Joy, Understanding, Acceptance,Truth, flow from this primary source and force.
Then I think, so what’s my relationship to God, and I come up with myself as a channel, as in the St Francis of Assisi Prayer- ‘Make me a channel of thy peace……’
How do I become an effective channel? By keeping my heart and mind open, and by an attitude of humility. Oh, and also by creating the space. Space as a ‘fertile void’, from where truth can emerge.
It strikes me that just as we don’t have to go looking for worthy causes to support, so we don’t have to go looking for this deep knowing. It’s there, or should I say God’s there, if only we allow Him/ it in.
Isn’t this what your saying Craig when you talk about our ‘inner guide’. For me ‘the way’ emerges from ‘the space’, they feed each other.
I’m embarrassed by the simplicity and obviousness of what I’m writing, but maybe that’s my ego coming in.
I don’t think God confines ‘Himself’ to working through believers. Guess this is where the ‘That of God in everyone’ comes in. It occurs to me that some of God’s finest work is through atheists and agnostics. They don’t carry the same religious clutter that can get in the way so much. I love the story of the ‘Good Samaritan’ in making this point.
I’m really glad that people are talking about how we can be more Inclusive.
I realise right now that I’m more interested in whether we are friendly enough, rather than whether we are religious enough. We acknowledge that we are a Society of socially privileged types. The question seems to me to be not ‘how do we attract a more diverse membership?’ but ‘How much do we really care about being more inclusive?’ I wonder if our real work in this area is to prepare the ground. Do we first need to become more aware of our secret fondness for sameness and compatibility? Our hidden prejudices, and fear of difference? I must confess I feel very comfortable in our Meeting most of the time. I am after all, white and middle class and well educated, but some recent events have really shaken me up and woken me out of my complacency.
Warm wishes
Chrissie