Sowing Seeds Today for Tomorrow

I had decided that today that I would write about planting seeds for the future.  Low and behold the Society of St, John the Evangelist (SSJE) word for today (Brother Give Us a Word) is just that “seed”.  Here is the offering for today. 

Seed

The desire to meet Jesus directly is a good and healthy desire. It is a healthy desire to cultivate, day after day, with the seeds of prayer and work. The good news is that Jesus is already available. If you feel the desire to meet Jesus directly, that means he is already calling you. God is already at work inside of you. Br. Jack Crowley, SSJE

 

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or a case of synchronicity.  However, I am glad that it confirmed for me that this should be the subject of today’s musings.

So, the question arises, what are we going to plant today that we want to harvest tomorrow for the world we want?  I suggest that you consider planting four seeds that each represent a value which you would like to see bloom and grow and become the crop which will help the world become the one we want for ourselves and the next generations.  I chose four seeds as four is the number of wholeness and completion.  Each seed can represent a quality that you want to care for and see bloom into something wonderful in your life and the life of the world.  As Br. Jack states, “a healthy decide to cultivate, day after day.”  These can be values and characteristics that you want to cultivate in yourself as that is always the place to start. 

The four seeds that I want to plant and cultivate are, peace, joy, hope and love.  I will incorporate these values into my daily prayers and in my relationships with others.  I am not suggesting that this is easy but remember that the longest journey begins with a single step, however small. 

May you be blessed to plant seeds on your journey. 

  

Where Two or Three are Gathered Together

Recently, the Pew Research Center published data on worshippers in the United States.  Here are the basic findings along with selected comments by respondents on participation by Americans in Worship:

Why some Americans prefer in-person religious services.

Some 17% of U.S. adults regularly attend religious services in person and watch them online or on TV, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Roughly three-quarters of this group – making up 13% of all U.S. adults – say they prefer attending in person, while 2% prefer viewing services virtually and 2% have no preference.

Among those who prefer in-person religious services, the most common reason respondents give is a stronger sense of connection and community with fellow participants. About half (52%) say this – more than three times the share who name any other reason.

Another 8% of these respondents cite the quality of the worship practices at in-person services, saying that things like communion and singing can’t be replicated online:

“As a Catholic, you cannot receive communion at home.”

“For over 60 years I have been a church musician (organist/pianist) so congregational singing is very meaningful to me. Also, I think it is important to see, talk to and encourage my fellow believers.”

“I enjoy taking part in the service; i.e., singing hymns, taking communion and seeing other church members in person.”

I found some of this information surprizing.  For instance, the number of respondents who attend worship services regularly is only 17%.  This seems surprizingly low to me as I was under the impression that the United States was an exception to the rule for countries in the Western World that attendance in worship was in sharp decline.  If these results are to be believed – and I don’t have any reason not to believe them - this is also the case in the United States.   

Checking these results on the internet (which of course could be wrong) another source stated that 27% attend worship more than once a month.  This is the generally accepted criteria for regular church attendance.  So perhaps the decline is not as great as the Pew Research would indicate. However, the same source noted that pre-pandemic in 2018, the number of people who attended regularly was 42%.  We might conclude from this that the reason for this decline is the pandemic in which attendance in worship was restricted and discouraged. 

In comparison, data from StatsCanada reports that in the last available data 2018, 23% of Canadians attend church services at least once a month.  So, Americans still are outperforming Canadians on that front.  I couldn’t find any post-pandemic stats for Canada.  But if the Canadian trend follows the American it will probably show a significant drop as well.  This raises significant questions for the future of church – or at least church attendance in both countries.

Much of worship was done through social media during the pandemic.  There has been lots of speculation about this being the future of worship.  However, speaking from experience, it has severe limitations as a worship experience.  I found some of the results of the Pew Research data to be revealing on this front.  The connection to the community expressed in the Pew results (52%) are not surprizing.  Community has been a strong pull to worship throughout the history of people worshiping. 

The importance of music is also not surprizing to me as a lifelong member of church choirs and one of the factors that I have found important to my experience of worshipping God. One thing that I find interesting is that the quality of preaching did not appear on the Pew results.  It might fall under the general response of the quality of the worship (8%).  This is hardly encouraging to those of us who believe that the proclamation of the word is central to worship. 

There is much to consider in this information for people contemplating the future of worship.  Will the on-going decline in how we worship continue unabated?  Will on-line worship be an attractive alternative in the future?  If so, what does the church writ- large need to do to make it successful.  The present attempt by many congregations to put the present form of worship on-line has been rather unsuccessful in my humble view.  IF we are going to do this there needs to be a major rethinking of how platforms such as Zoom and YouTube can be used successfully for worship.  What production facilities and skills are required and what form should the worship take.  For Anglicans and Catholics and other Eucharistically based denominations, how do we do this on social media i.e., what are the implications  theologically possible or appropriate for worshippers attending through social media e.g. is an exclusively on-line congregation truly a worshipping community? 

Perhaps there needs to be a complete rethinking of what it means to worship and how we worship.  One of the important factors in worship for me is the experience of the divine.  I believe that this is central to many people and is reflected in the sense of community and in such things as music and the Eucharist and yes and even the preaching.  Unfortunately, it seems to me that many people, especially in mainline Protestant churches, don’t have an experience of God that they can identify as such. 

Those are my thoughts and musings on this for today.  May you be blessed to have the experience of the divine, however it manifests itself, on your journey.  

 

A Day that Lives in Our Memories; A Reflection on 9-11

Where were you on that date?  There are certain dates that most, if not all, people who were alive and more than a few years old, remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.  In my lifetime, the first such date was the assassination of JFK (initials are all that are necessary).  I was coming home after school, living in Fort Qu’Appelle Saskatchewan.  Then there was the landing of the first men. on the moon.  There are some other dates that stand out during my life – like the election of Donald J Trump as President of the United States.  However, the one that is most prominent in my mind that happened 22 years ago today.  It is a date that doesn’t require a year.  It is just September 11^th.  That now has the shorthand of 9-11 which is telling. 

For me it is particularly poignant because it was my first day at Huron University College in London Ontario, as I embarked on a journey which would lead to my ordination as an Anglican priest.  After my class was finished, I went over to the student centre at the University of Western Ontario – as it was then known (now just Western U.)  In the common area I noticed that everyone – and there were many people gathered – were completely mesmerized looking at the TV monitors suspended from the ceiling.  As I looked up, I saw that it was what turned out to be a live picture of the Twin Towers in New York.  As I looked a plane flew into one of the towers.  It turned out to be the second plane.   That was a momentous and tragic beginning to my formal theological education which has continued in one way or another – formally and informally - to this day. 

I imagine that most, if not all of you, remember the circumstances when you heard the news.  In my view this is probably the most significant event in our lifetime and probably beyond.  One reason for that is the almost complete reordering of the world since that day: the Iraq war, the reality of Global Warming Crisis, the pervasiveness of social media, the lack of trust in our institutions, COVID, the crisis of refugees at the borders of Western Countries, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and even the return of inflation.   September 11 seems to mark the beginning of the remaking the world so that it is in many ways a completely different one from that pre-9-11 world.

The question that I believe we all face is, how do we respond to this not so brave new world that we find ourselves living in?  Many of us are in survival mode.  We are hunkering down and hoping the next big change doesn’t overwhelm us.  I recently ventured into the AI world of ChatGPT after resisting that next new thing.  I was amazed at how it responded and the speed in which it responded to my request; a 500-word essay on The Jungian Collective Shadow.  I used some of the response in formulating one of the editions of these missives.  The potential for this development - probably for better and worse - staggers my imagination.  I want to cry out – the robots are taking over!  Perhaps we all should listen to the warning of Robbie the Robot, “Danger Will Robinson.” 

When it comes to change, I think of the joke, how many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb?  Answer, we don’t change, we’re Anglicans.  That now applies to all of us.  Change will happen to us whether we want to or not.  How are we going to respond to the change?  Even we Anglicans are being dragged kicking and screaming into realizing we must change.  I don’t have any real answers - probably no one has the one easy answer that we would all like.  However, one possibility is to embrace hope.  I think of the wonderful response by the people of Gander Newfoundland to 9-11 and the commercial planes that were diverted to that airport in response to 9-11.  It was memorialized in that wonderful musical, Come From Away.  They could have turned their backs and said it’s just too much and anyway its not my problem.   But they didn’t and their response resonates to this day.  That gives me hope for the future – the ability of the human spirit to respond with love. 

Hope is todays word of the day from the Society of St. John the Evangelist:

To be patient means to tolerate or endure discomfort and suffering without denying them. Feel the pain, express it, groan, and then look beyond. Trust that God is both real and active. Hope acknowledges the present suffering while also believing in what lies beyond it.  Br. Luke Ditewig, SSJE

May you have hope on your journey in this brave new world.

 

Me and My Shadow part 2

Last time, I began to explore the concept of the shadow in Jungian psychology.  I introduced the concept of the personal shadow which is, in effect, the unacknowledged aspect of a person – often negative but also positive.  This was a brief introduction to the concept and there is much more that can be explored by engaging with Jung’s writings as well as the many Jungians who have written on the subject.

I will turn now to the concept of the collective shadow to again give you just an introduction to the concept and perhaps whet your appetite for a deeper dive.  A deep dive is apropos of the subject as we are entering the concept of the Collective Unconscious developed by Jung.  The Collective Unconscious is the part of the psyche (the whole person) which is universal and common to all people.  It is comprised of archetypes which are intrinsic, universal symbols or images that influence and direct human behaviour and relationships with others.

The shadow archetype, in effect, manifests itself in the othering by groups of people directed to groups and individuals who carry the unacknowledged aspect of the originating group.  An example of this is the persecution of Jews throughout history and particularly by Hitler and Nazi Germany.  Looking at the current situation we see the hatred and anger which is aroused in some groups by tyrants and tin-pot dictators as seen, for example, in the January 6^th attack by supporters of Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol.  It is also telling to note that the Russian president, Putin, justified his invasion of Ukraine by claiming it was to eliminate the Nazi elements of Ukrainian society.

From this, I hope you have a small taste of what the shadow does in the world and in our individual lives.  Dealing with the personal and collective aspect of the shadow is a challenge on a personal basis and daunting on the collective manifestations.  What we can do is to start or continue to be aware of our personal shadows and how they impact our relations with others.  I invite you to look for those dark figures in your dreams that are active outrageously and also, to recognize in your conscious lives where your reaction to people and events are out of proportion to the situation.  In all this, remember that the shadow is part of you and to deny it is to make it stronger.

May you be blessed to recognize and acknowledge your shadow on your journey.