JOYFUL WANDERING -- 53

+ This post includes entries from May 8, 2015 until May 20. Latest entries are at the top.  If you would like to contibute, write JW in your subject line and send it to john@abundancetrek.com or make a comment on my Facebook page if you are a Facebook friend of mine.

+ I just submitted an article for our Presbytery newsletter:

35 years ago, General Assembly declared its commitment to peacemaking. Now we are being asked to renew this commitment by considering the following 5 affirmations:  

     "1.     We affirm that peacemaking is essential to our faith in God’s reconciling work in Jesus Christ, whose love and justice challenge hatred and conflict, and whose call gives our church a mission to present alternatives to violence, fear, and misused power.

     "2.     We confess our complicity in the world’s violence even as we pray for the Spirit’s courage to “unmask idolatries,” to speak truth about war and oppression, and to stand with those who suffer, and to respond to acts and threats of violence with ministries of justice, healing, and reconciliation.

     "3.     We reclaim the power and authority of Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Reconciler, who proclaims God’s reign, who inspires the prophetic church, forgiving, healing, and undoing violence, and who overcomes evil through the cross and resurrection.

     "4.     We seek to understand the nonviolent revolutions and armed struggles of our time by drawing on the traditions of Christian pacifism, just war, just peacemaking and active nonviolence, and by cultivating moral imagination through prayer, study, and engagement with friends and enemies. Even as we actively engage in a peace discernment process, we affirm our responsibility of continuing the long tradition of support by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for our sisters and brothers who serve in the U.S. military, veterans, and their families.

     "5.     As disciples of Jesus Christ, we commit ourselves earnestly to seek and promote loving, nonviolent responses to conflict in our daily lives, in our communities, and in our world, and to risk calling our nation back from the practices of empire to the highest ideals of our heritage, and to practice boldly the things that make for peace."

MICAH, our Presbytery committee on Mission and Social Concerns, has been doing some reflecting and responding using the traditional process of Lectio Divina. We would now like the Presbytery to join us in this process so we can add our collective voice to the reflections and responses of our denomination which are now being collected. Before the May 26 Presbytery meeting, please consider each affirmation separately (or choose one) using the Lectio Divina process. Whether or not you will be at that meeting, you can do this and we would love it if you would send your reflections and responses to MICAH member John Wilde at john@abundancetrek.com. You can find several Lectio Divina methods on the web. Here is a link to the Contemplative Outreach page on Lectio Divina: http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/category/category/lectio-divina. Their brochure is found at  http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/sites/default/files/documents/lectio_divina.pdf