Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

THE GENIUS OF ANGLICAN SPIRITUALITY by Ron Dart

I have, in the last few essays, highlighted two obstinate and pressing facts. First, there is a growing interest in spirituality, contemplation and the mystical in our broader culture, but spirituality is often seen as opposed to the repressive nature of religion. Second, authentic Christian spirituality is historic and corporate, grounded in the stone quarried wisdom of the past and communal. This means that genuine Christian spirituality questions and doubts the spirituality is good, religion is bad model and paradigm that envelops us these days.

It is one thing, though, to suggest that Christian spirituality is both historic and corporate, but we soon face another dilemma on the contemplative journey. The question is this: whose interpretation and understanding of the historic and corporate notion of the church should be trusted and why? It is in the answer to this question that the genius of the Anglican way has some insight to offer.

May They Be One: Postmodern Congregationalism and Spirituality by Ron Dart

"May They One as We Are One"
Jesus

Christian theology, at its deepest and best, is contemplative theology. Contemplative theology threads together, in an intricate and subtle way, life in Christ, life in the church and life in the world. Unity and integration are held high.

Just as Jesus Christ is one with the Father, and the Father, Son and Spirit are One (one substance, three persons), so those in Christ are meant to embody and live forth the full life of God. This is the ideal and goal. Therefore, Christian spirituality, if it is true to its inner nature and high calling, is meant to ponder the meaning of our Oneness in God, in the Church and grapple with what this means, as agents of justice and peace, in the World.

Anglican Letter to the P.M.

June 20, 2006

The Rt. Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0A6

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

The Justice and Peace Unit of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of New Westminster would like to add our voice to those who call for the role of the Canadian military in Afghanistan to turn from military involvement to active support for peacemaking and reconciliation.

The areas in which the Canadian military is making a positive difference in Afghanistan seem to be in police training, rural development, land mine clearing and repatriation of refugees. These are practical and useful to the Afghan people. The other part of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, of military combat, is the destructive aspect that will not bring peace, and will not help the people re-build their lives.

Canada has got to move our military away from participation in combat and move it actively to support the Afghan Government's initiative: "National Peace and Reconciliation Commission." The Afghan government needs enhanced technical support to make such an initiative meaningful.

Our Canadian military could support such a national peacemaking initiative in helping concretely with the mechanism to make these meetings happen. There are many groupings in Afghanistan who have national concerns and they are being lumped in with terrorists. They are not terrorists. They do have national and regional grievances and want a way for these to be heard.

Canada is in the position to invest in peace in Afghanistan as part of our contribution to peace and stability in the country. The National Peace and Reconciliation established by the Afghan govenment is poorly resourced and does not have the technical capacity to run peace dialogues between various groups. Canada could help this to happen, and do what needs to be done to create an atmosphere of trust by helping in this way and getting out of the combat role.

This gap which exists right now in Afghanistan, in which very little is happening to get a peace and reconciliation initiative on a national level off the ground and working means more deaths every day. Canada could make a real difference for peace and save lives of Canadians and Afghans.

As Christians we believe that we cannot do violence to create peace. Jesus showed us in his life that violence needed to stop. We teach our children that they must solve their differences with words, and then we take our country into military combat. There can only be lasting peace when we do the long and hard work of peace. We are not helping the Afghan people at this time by having our Canadian soldiers be part of combat.

We can serve the real needs of peace with the direction of the Afghan government, by giving the technical and logistic support and the leadership needed to help bring people together in regional meetings across Afghanistan for peace and reconciliation talks.

Canada needs to live into the contribution we can make to peace in our world in Afghanistan and Darfur and other regions in the world. There, our presence as peacemakers and peacekeepers will make a long lasting difference to the lives of many.

"Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silence of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and duty."  Archbishop Oscar A. Romaro.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Margaret Marquardt
Chair, Justice and Peace Unite
Dioceses of New Westminister

The Rev. Don Johnson
Chair, Social Justice Committe
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada

CC: The Hon. Bill Graham, MP
The Hon. Gilles Duceppe, MP
The Hon. Jack Layton, MP

The Way Down is the Way Up: A look at spiritual formation by Lorie Martin

I have encountered and treasure special new friends from my readings, namely Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey and St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul. These two men are from different times and different places and yet they share common ground on spiritual formation, ground that you and I share too. Perhaps that is why they can so easily and quickly be called “friends.” These dear brothers have shared deep secrets of their hearts and they have identified with our common pain and struggle as well as our desire to see the face and hand of Jesus and the joy He brings us.

Frederick taught me to watch and value little things along the spiritual journey. John showed me with words what I live and there is great relief for my heart in knowing that someone else has walked this path and that I’m not alone in this journey.

Both writers have exposed for me the very “new-to-me”, but extremely important element of “time” on this path. The very fact that I could hardly sit still long enough to delve into the lengthy but beautifully written stories by Buechner, was a sure sign that this is all taking just a bit too long for my unwise, and at times, zealous heart.

St. John taught me that it may require extended periods of time to pass before one is really free from the things they most desire, and that this harsh cold fact might actually be a good thing. Buechner’s testimony made known that “becoming” has so many layers or sides to it that there is no other way but to endure time and to let it do it’s good shaping.

The “depth” of spiritual formation is another common element I noted these two men share. Buechner encourages us to “not loose track of what our journey is a journey toward, and of the sacredness and high adventure of our journey. Nor…does life allow us to loose track of the depths for long.” In Dark Night we are called to the depths – “until the Lord shall have completely purged it after the manner that He wills, no means or remedy is of any service or profit for the relief of its affliction; the more so because the soul is as powerless in this case as one who has been imprisoned in a dark dungeon, and is bound hand and foot, and can neither move nor see, nor feel any favour whether from above or from below, until the spirit is humbled, softened and purified, and grows so keen and delicate and pure that it can become one with the Spirit of God…” “Deep is this warfare and this striving, for the peace which the soul hopes for will be very deep; and the spiritual pain is intimate and delicate, for the love which it will possess will likewise be very intimate and refined.”

Another highlight is learning of the gift of “peace” that one receives along the pathway. The peace Buechner describes as “true peace, the high and bidding peace that passeth all understanding, is to be had not in retreat from the battle, but only in the thick of the battle.” The battles are many and fierce. And some are just way too long! Some may be surprised by a visitation of the Divine that rocks their world. “My house being now at rest”, my favourite line in Dark Night is a clue into the teaching and experience  of St. John.

He describes it further… “the soul is combated and purged after two manners – namely, according to its sensual and its spiritual part – with its senses, faculties and passions, …and desires, the soul attains to an enjoyment of peace and rest… in order that they may go forth to the Divine union of love, … first reformed, ordered and tranquilized with respect to the sensual and to the spiritual…”

Another statement that brought some light was, “For the world’s sake”.  The thought of being perfectly “spiritually formed” while being alone or in seclusion seems wrong. Buechner’s revelation and one of my favorite messages in Sacred Journey captures this: “there is no fun in being famous unless everybody is famous.”

Time, depth, peace and giving are journey mates that take us “the way down” and in being formed by them, we arise to “the way up.”

Mysticeti Discernment by Brad Jersak

When it comes to discernment, we are and should be like the mysticeti. What are the mysticeti? Some sort of mystical magi? Not at all... that's just the technical name for our friends, the baleen whales. I believe that with those great baleen strainers of theirs, they have the corner on discernment and we might learn from them.

Mountains of the Mind: Review by Ron Dart

MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND: How Desolate and Forbidding Heights were Transformed into Experiences of Indomitable Spirit

by Robert Macfarlane (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003) - Review by Ron Dart

O the mind, mind has mountains -  Gerard Manley Hopkins

 From death in valleys preserve me, O Lord -  Robert Macfarlane (p. 9)

 Have men and women, throughout the long stretches of human history, taken to the mountains the way we do in our time and ethos? Have white crowned peaks, rock diadems and spear spires always drawn the curious, energetic, skilled and interested? Have mountains always been a place of allure, delight, charm and attraction? Or, is the passion for the mountains and out of doors hiking, climbing and glacier traverses more a product of the last few centuries? If this is the case, why is it? And, deeper yet, what are the reasons (complicated and diverse though they might be) that women and men take to the mountains, challenging rock rims and high perched peaks?

Rene Girard and Violence by Wayne Northey

Originally presented at South Langley Mennonite Brethren Church, April 29, 2001.

Love to God and love to neighbor are like two doors that open simultaneously, so that it is impossible to open the one without opening the other, and impossible to shut one without also shutting the other. –Søren Kierkegaard

Introduction

The Anglican apologist C.S. Lewis wrote of reading George Macdonald for the first time, and knowing he had just crossed a great frontier. About ten years ago, I was asked to review René Girard's Violence and the Sacred (1977), and felt a similar sense of having encountered a "great frontier". Evangelical author Donald Dayton wrote of so connecting to Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics that he fairly had to go out for regular walks during reading them to burn off the excess energy. Likewise, in engaging Thanksgiving weekend the recent anthology of Girard's works entitled The Girard Reader (1996) while accompanying my sons salmon fishing on the Chilliwack River, at times it was all I could do to restrain myself from overwhelming the roar of that river - and totally embarrassing my sons! - with wild cries of YEEESSS!!!

Emperor Bush, Pirate Bin Laden, Calvin College, and the Gospel by Wayne Northey

"The king asked the fellow, ‘What is your idea, in infesting the sea?’ And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, ‘The same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because I do it with a tiny craft, I’m called a pirate: because you have a mighty navy, you’re called an emperor.’ (St. Augustine, Concerning the City of God Against the Pagans, trans. Henry Bettenson, New York: Penguin Books, 1984, IV, 4, p. 139).”

In The Vancouver Sun, June 13, 2005, the headline read: “BUSH AS SCARY AS BIN LADEN: POLL.” The article began: “Canadians believe U.S. President George Bush is almost as great a threat to our national security as Osama bin Laden, according to an opinion poll obtained by the National Post.

Bringing Life to the Killing Fields with Brian McConaghy - Interview by Brad Jersak

Ratanak means precious stone or gem in the Khmer language. In this case Ratanak was the name of a little girl who, in late 1989, lay in a hospital in north west Cambodia. As her mother looked on, the doctors tried to save her life. There was no medication or medical equipment available to save her. This event inspired Brian McConaghy, a decorated member of the RCMP, to create the Ratanak Foundation, : a relief and development organization dedicated to bringing spiritual hope to the Khmer people by assisting Cambodia rebuild the social and medical services which would have saved the life of the little girl named Ratanak.

"can a statue cry" by fiona

not even the dead left now in that lonely valley
the killing fields stripped of their booty
nothing left for the vultures to pick on
untouched for 40 years, the skeletons lie where they fell
ragged cloth blowing in the breeze 

He says this is part of His garden
and the day has come for Him to gather in the lilies
to bring them home
but who would venture into such a haunt?
who would dare tread where so many have been slaughtered?

the dead Christ's body still visible in the dirt
his neck snapped and bent backwards awkwardly
flesh gone, but bones still in place
testament to the truth
'what ye have done to one of the least of these 
you have done unto Me' 

will the birds ever sing again in this place?

the Gardener walks south
out of the great entrance to the graveyard
His arms laden with wreaths of lilies
symbols of death and life at one and the same time
his eyes burning hot with orange fire 

so this is all that remains
this is the remnant
the corner torn from the mantle 

can a nation be built from a remnant?
can a person be formed from a fragment?
can anything whole come from something so incomplete, 
so fractured? 

and what use is a bunch of lilies?
is their sole purpose to sit in a vase? 

the child sits in the refrigerated truck
that place assigned to her
she leans over to the man-sized statue of Jesus,
rests her head against His stony cold leg and whispers
'even if you never speak to me,
if you never smile,
if you never grow warm beside me
if you are always this man of cold cement
I will always love you 
and my heart will always thank you for searching me
out in the valley of death' 

can a statue cry?
this one has two tears 
which didn't make it half way down his cheeks before
they froze solid 	

('fiona' means white or lily)