Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky

beyond former forms, what would a new faith community look like?

2009-10-20T08:36:00.001-04:00

I can hardly imagine a better topic for thinking Christians, in the face of such systemic abuses of trust, to be taking about.

I would like to help keep the conversation going, but from a different perspective, that is,, what would am empowered worshiping fait community look like if power distributions were led by the example of Jesus Okay?

Some principles and practices...
1. Everyone’s journey is sacred, unique, and to be nourished by the community. This means listening and affirmation, and when needed, input of a different sort.
2. All Wisdom traditions are honored. All paths are holy, and the Tremendous Mysterium is to be found everywhere, not just in buildings, Icons or sacred places.
3. Love, acceptance, understanding, listening are the measures.
4. No one is in charge. Leadership is shared and emerges as needed. Power is facilitative.
5. No creeds, codes or cult is required.
6. Listening is also without words, in some shared silence.
7. In the first round or sharing there is no interruption and no discussion.
8. Personal honesty, vulnerability is respected and honored.
9. Power in this group is distributed, collaborative, facilitative,
10. No one in this group has any “sacred power,” or even elected power. We call no one “father.”All power is shared, facilitative, collaborative/ You might say we function as “soul friends.” I might call our spirituality “Celtic,’” but if I did it would be sure to challenged by one of our members as to the imperfection and misleading of all labels and words.

Ths is the description of our SGN network process we have been using now for 10 years. We are amazed and delighted in the simplicity and heuristic power of our process. No single one of us has created this. It has just developed

We do not have a large group, but one that is very faithful, most driving 25 miles plus for regular Sunday meetings, which is only part of our community activities. We are ourselves amazed that this motley crew has held together for this long and in doing so many things.

BTW, in teaching and consulting for some years I have been using various explanations of power for managers., and managers in training. It is urgent for the manager who would be effective today to understand the various uses of power, whether it be position power, personal power, relationship power, or expert power, or some other brand or dimension. Little of this awareness as Dorothy and Cait note has filtered much into religious or pastoral settings. Except in clinical pastoral settings.

My own use of power is, I think, primarily facilitative, I am a bridge builder, storyteller, dream-catcher, envelope stretcher...I believe in people possibilities and vision power.

My current creative project is developing exercises to help others embrace the precious uniqueness and power of their own story. I ma leaning a workshop soon in this and developing several courses with my own materials.

Love and Peace.
Paschal

SGN 20th Anniversary Reflections

2009-08-27T10:27:00.000-04:00

Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky
Anniversary Reflections. |August . 2009

Here in Lexington, Ky, we celebrated this week our 20th birthday. Twenty years of meeting weekly, with seven Days of Recollection and four 3 day retreats each year. We have published a regular newsletter and sponsored some six interfaith conferences, most held at the Catholic Newman Center in Lexington.

This is quite incredible. A motley crew of renegades from religious orthodoxy, all very different, but with similar strong desires to seek, search, shape and share out own spiritual paths. It is amazing when we look back. We have met together for this quiet meditation and personal sharing of our journeys for over a thousand Sundays. .. It is as if we have found a spiritual home in this sharing that keeps on drawing us together.

We remain small. To our disappointment tour group ha snot grown much. Regulars are about eight, with another 8 more coming to occasional functions, such as Days of Recollections or Retreat.

When we add up those totals they seem unreal. We have held 240 Days of Recollection, 80 retreats over these 20 years. We each seem to feel that this kind of regular facing of our own unique spiritual journeys with each other has become a vital part of our lives. That this diverse group has held together for this length of time is, even to us, a shunning achievement. When we started in 1989, we could never have guessed...

No one person is in charge. Leadership is shared. Decisions are by consensus. When differences seem irresolvable, we return to meditation and discover they soon dissolve. I believe SGN would continue without any one of us.

Personally, I believe it is the power of Grace, an amazing grace found among this motley diverse crew sharing their spiritual journeys. We have found that there are not many others willing to share at this level. I doubt if any if us have ever left a gathering without feeling refreshed. This is amazing in itself.

When I reflect on the meaning of this group to my own spiritual life, I can scarcely put it into words. I am sure that at least three of my ministries have originated because of and with the help of this spiritual home. The Fierce Landscape prison ministry, the Wedding ministry and the storytelling ministry. Therefore the influence of this group on me is rather immeasurable.

Respectfully and humbly submitted.
Paschal Baute
August 25, 2009/ s
on 20th birthday memo

Friends of the Labyrinth

2008-05-18T14:47:00.000-04:00

FRIENDS OF THE LABYRINTH
An Invited Get Acquainted Meeting
Saturday, May 24, 10 til ?
Invitation from Paschal and Janette Baute
and SGN members

We are inviting “friends of the Labyrinth” (from web locator) to a meeting to share interest and enthusiasm in promoting this spiritual experience.

Paschal and Janette, aided by Turner Lyman, dedicated our new Labyinth last fall. It was built over the summer in our Retreat Center, next to the Amazing Grace Wedding Chapel --off Winchester Road, U.S. 60. We are also blessed to host here the regular meetings of the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky for the last 18+ years. This meeting is hosted also by our Spiritual Growth members.

Come and join us, Share your own labyrinth project and experience. Bring pictures. Tell your own story. introductions, brief history of the labyrinth, and then we shall share and learn from one another. Afterwards we are free to leave or wander and, if so led, to walk the new labyrinth.

Turner Lyman, architect and engineer of this labyrinth will be present. If there is enough interest, we may plan to meet again at another labyrinth site in Central Kentucky for ongoing sharing, learning and experiences.

RSVP is necessary, please. This meeting is open to invited friends, not the general public. However, you may bring a friend. RSVP is necessary by May 17. Paschal and Janette will provide coffee, tea, ice tea and lemonade. Brown bag it if you want to share over lunch about noon.

You will find a nice picture of our labyrinth at www.paschalbaute.com; click on the wedding couple logo and then on the Amazing Grace Chapel page, click on “photos” near bottom right. I had great joy constructing this in honor of my friend John McGill and we included several cairns.

Please also find our Labyrinth Blog, telling of our history, fourth blog down, opposite picture on the Writing page, (web logs button 2nd from top)

You may also find more informnation about our labyrinth at our Labyrinth website

Paschal Baute
Pastoral Psychologist and Storyteller
4080 Lofgren Ct.
Lexington, Ky
tel (859) 293 - 5302
Email: pbbaute@paschalbaute.com

Map and directions will be sent or forwarded upon receipt of RSVP.

Can we teach religion, a.k.a. "universal faith" in our public schools?

2007-08-25T20:06:00.000-04:00

The Way We Live Now

Universal Faith

By NOAH FELDMAN

Another school year, another round of controversy about religion in public education. This fall, two new yet already divisive publicly financed schools are set to open: the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn and the Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Fla. Both describe themselves as nonsectarian institutions that emphasize a particular language — Arabic and Hebrew, respectively — and both have been criticized on the assumption that they will be organized around the distinctive cultures (and thus religions) associated with those languages. Meanwhile, at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, a small firestorm has erupted over plans to install foot baths in school washrooms to help Muslim students perform the ablutions required for daily prayer.

In each of these cases, education officials seem to be making an effort to accommodate a religious community. And in each case, this perfectly understandable impulse has led to criticism that the concession oversteps the separation between church and state. The uproar over Khalil Gibran has reached a fever pitch, and the founding principal has already resigned.

Americans have been debating the place of God in schools almost uninterruptedly since public education got its start in the country nearly two centuries ago. As the United States becomes more religiously diverse, its collective uncertainty on this issue becomes all the more salient. The Supreme Court, with its confused and confusing doctrine on the establishment clause, has not provided the guidance to resolve these problems. The court tends to ask whether a state’s action has a “secular purpose” or whether it “endorses religion.” This reflects the widespread, everyday assumption that you can easily tell whether something is religious or secular. Yet in practice it can be hard to say. Indeed, to what extent the state’s action is religious or not is often precisely what needs to be explored.

The source of the confusion is the mistaken notion that the categories “religious” and “secular” are strictly binary, like an on-off switch. It’s true that some things are inherently religious, like a prayer or a church or a Torah scroll. (It would be impossible to make heads or tails of them without reference to their religious nature.) But it’s also true that many things that are not inherently religious are not inevitably secular either: they can be infused with religious meaning through the intention of a believer. A gymnasium or a warehouse has a perfectly secular use but also can be consecrated by worshipers who invoke God’s name there for purposes of worship. Examples of what you might call “dual use,” such things can be at once secular to one person and religious to another.

The most convincing interpretation of our constitutional tradition is that the government may not engage in or pay for conduct that is inherently religious but may accommodate religion when the steps taken to do so are not inherently religious in themselves. The phenomenon of dual use suggests a helpful way of restating this requirement: the state may expend resources to accommodate activities that are religious in the eyes of the believers as long as those activities can still be performed by the general public that interprets them as secular.

As it happens, the largest accommodations of religion are those that Americans rarely notice, precisely because the accommodations serve both religious and secular ends. Closing the government for one day a week, for instance, is not inherently religious; but if one day is to be chosen, it is perfectly reasonable to accommodate the traditional custom of Sunday Sabbath. It would be wrong to call the Sunday Sabbath “secular.” But the fact that many Americans loyally attend to their N.F.L. needs on the same day that many honor their faith shows that the religious character of Sunday is only one side of the dual-use coin.

By these lights, installing foot baths in the University of Michigan’s washrooms is a permissible, dual-use accommodation. It would be different if Michigan were planning to build ornate ablution fountains like those outside mosques. Those structures, designed to glorify God by preparing the faithful for prayer, are clearly religious in themselves; non-Muslims would never think to wash their feet in them. But Michigan’s showerlike basins will be functional in design and open to all, as evidenced by the jokes they have occasioned about the value to all college students of an occasional foot washing.

The public schools at the center of the other recent controversies, however, seem to represent accommodation of the single-use variety. Khalil Gibran, administered by the New York City Department of Education, is a watered-down, American version of the British and Canadian models of state-run religious schools catering to Muslims. The school’s name, borrowed from a noted Christian-born Lebanese-American writer of universalist sympathies, appears calculated to signal that the school is not narrowly Muslim. Yet Islam will presumably be taught — it would be educationally indefensible to teach Arab civilization without including it — and enrollment seems likely to include Muslim students in disproportionate numbers. It is difficult to imagine the city sponsoring such an institution without the impetus to maintain warm relations with its Muslim community in the wake of 9/11.

The Ben Gamla Charter School, for its part, claims it will teach Hebrew without inculcating religion. But the school, headed by an Orthodox rabbi, appears to be a version of the nondenominational Jewish community schools that have proliferated recently across the United States. The name Ben Gamla is taken from an Israelite high priest, said by the Talmud to have provided for Jewish schools throughout Judea.

Teaching religious ideas as an academic subject can, of course, be a prime example of dual use, since such ideas may be studied critically without embracing them. But if a school employs religion as the organizing principle for a curriculum inextricably intertwined with a single religious faith, dual use is unlikely to emerge. Studying religious doctrine as a set of ideas to be believed is inherently a religious act — in fact, Judaism traditionally considers the study of God’s word the very essence of religious devotion.

Although it cannot be known for certain before they have begun instruction, Khalil Gibran and Ben Gamla seem poised to teach religion as a set of beliefs to be embraced rather than as a set of ideas susceptible to secular, critical examination. What, after all, is the point of a Jewish cultural school if not to bring the students to appreciation and acceptance of Jewish values? And what are those values if not the outgrowth of Judaism’s millenniums of religious faith and practice? Not that Judaism without God is impossible. Secular Zionism sought to redirect yearning for God’s redemption toward a national homeland. Likewise, Arab nationalism was born from the effort to supplant Islamic religious membership with a secular, cultural identity. But in both cases, the surgery designed to excise God was only partly successful, and there is ample reason to anticipate a recurrence in the classroom as there has been in the rest of the world.

The encouraging news is that beyond the headlines and controversies, it is possible to find common-sense solutions to the problems of church and state in the schools. In the small coastal school district of Wiscasset, Me., this school year will see the continuation of a “wellness room” that was opened last spring for students and staff members to use outside of class time for the reduction of stress. No sooner had the wellness room been proposed than questions were raised about what stress-reduction practices would be permitted there. After all, prayer can reduce stress, and then there are the quasi-meditative practices like yoga and reiki, often of religious origin, which many Americans use for relaxation and recreation.

Fortunately for Wiscasset, the school superintendent, Jay McIntire, framed a sensible solution. His policy states that religious practice is allowed in school spaces outside of class time when it is not led or coordinated by school officials — which means that no practice of stress reduction would be excluded on religious grounds. The unspoken principle behind this rule is that the wellness room is an example of dual use: it may be used to reduce stress through religious and nonreligious means alike.

Even this reasonable policy, though, still requires the school administration to make the tough decision of which practices are in fact religious and to ensure that no school staff member administers those. There is no simple solution to this inevitable problem. Wiscasset’s policy is on the right track: it asks whether the practice involves acknowledgment of a higher power. Here, too, without the help of the courts or the legal academy, this unsung school district has come up with an approach deeply grounded in America’s church-state traditions: as long ago as 1776, the Virginia Declaration of Rights defined religion as that duty that every man owes to his creator.

Noah Feldman, a contributing writer for the magazine, is a law professor at Harvard University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Quinceanera ceremony for 15 year old Latina young women.

2007-05-01T16:19:00.000-04:00

Quinceanera ceremony
A passage ritual for 15 year old Latina young women and ceremony of intiation and gratitude given by the father. Information here collected from Internet: Introduction, Celebration, Outline of Mass and Readings, Two main parts: Mass and the pageant. Gifts.

Introduction

The Quinceañera or Quince Años (sometimes represented XV Años, meaning "fifteen years") is, in some Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas, a young woman's celebration of her fifteenth birthday, which is celebrated in a unique and different way from her other birthdays. In some countries, such as Puerto Rico or Peru, the word Quinceañero is used instead of Quinceañera when referring to the celebration.

The word is also used to refer to the young woman whose 15th birthday is being celebrated (analogous to the word cumpleañera for "birthday girl"). The closest equivalents to the Quinceañera in the English-speaking world are the sweet sixteen or, in more affluent communities, a debutante ball at the age of eighteen. In some cases, the birthday girl has a choice of a quinceañera, a trip, or a car.

Celebration

This celebration marks the transition from the childhood to womanhood. It serves as a way to acknowledge that a young woman has reached maturity.

While this traditional celebration is still practiced nowadays in Latin America and Latino communities in North America, it is sometimes observed by other events that focus more on the quinceañera's wishes (e.g. world traveling). However, in some cities the Baile de las Debutantes (Debutantes' Ball) is also celebrated.

Some other traditions observed in the celebration include the giving and throwing of a quince doll. The display doll signifies the young lady's last doll as a child and the throwing doll, usually a Barbie type or any other is fine too, is thrown by the young lady to the other female children in attendance much as the garter is thrown in a wedding. The celebrant is wearing flats, or flat shoes for the celebration but after the inaugural dance the father of the young lady, who is sitting in a chair in the center of the dance floor, removes her flats (girls shoes) and puts her high heels on signifying her becoming a young lady.

The traditional color of a quinceañera's dress is pink but now in modern cultures the guest of honor picks the color of the dress. She also wears a tiara because she is a princess in God's eyes that night. She holds a court with 14 girls (damas) and 15 boys (chambelanes) which including herself would equal 30 people, or, 15 couples (to represent each year). At the party the court does a waltz and a surprise dance. The girl also dances with her father but first changes from flats to heels to represent the first time she can wear them (the same with makeup). She could also get a doll with the exact same dress she has on to signify that this will be the last doll she ever will receive. In the past the party would show the girl is ready to be married, but now in today's culture it is so the girl can date.
__
Outline
MASS READINGS AND PRAYERS, ETC.
Ceremony Outline
1) Entrance Procession

2) First Reading

3) Second Reading

4) Dedication Ceremony - Lighting of the Candle
A) Renewal of Baptismal Vows and Profession of Faith (with lit candle, then someone holds it until the Prayer of Dedication)
B) Blessing of Gifts (all but Bible and Rosary)
C) Presenting of the Gifts
D) Blessing of the Bible and Rosary
E) Presentation of the Bible and Rosary (with monition from priest)
F) Acceptance by the Community (applause)
G) Prayer of Dedication (by the quinceaneras)
H) Expression of Gratitude by parents
I) All go to Mary's alter for dedication and to give thanks (the quinceaneras place the candles back on the alter, take the bouquet of fresh roses, and go to Mary's alter with their parents.)

5) Prayer of the Faithful

6) Offertory Procession (quinceaneras bring the Bread and Wine up to the alter)

7) Communion

8) Final Blessing and Recessional
The 1st Reading
A Reading from the Book of Jeremiah

The word of the LORD came to me thus:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations,
I appointed you.

This means that long before you were born, God knew you as a person. Before you were born He dedicated you; He knew you would have a special misson. As a prophet to your own family and friends. He knew the infulence you would have on others. He knew you would speak as a prophet when you are honest, truthful, and concerned for the World of God in the lives of others.
"Ah, LORD GOD!" I said
"I know not how to speak; I am too young"

This is true. You don't know how to speak at times so that you may be understood and apperciated. You are too young, but you have something to offer: Your love, your youth, your hope, your trust, your honesty.
But the LORD answered me.
Say not. "I am too young"
To whomever I send you, you shall go:
whatever I command you, you shall speak.

You speak from your experiances. You speak because the LORD gives you what to say. you must speak in His name. You must speak about what you believe in; what you hope for, what you love.

"Have no fear before them, because I am with you, says the LORD."

Do not be afraid, God who has given you life is and will be with you. He will be present to be your Strength, your Courage, your Hope. He will always be with you.

Then the LORD extended His hand and touched my mouth, Saying, See I place my words in your mouth!

This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms to root up and to tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and to plant.
The Word of the Lord
A Reading from Paul to the Corinthians

If I speak with the human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and, with full knowledge, comprehend al mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love's forbearence, to its trust, it's hope, its power to endure.
This is the Word of the Lord.

The Quinceanera's Prayer of Dedication
I offer you, O Lord, my youth. Guide my steps, my actions, my thoughts. Grant me the grace to understand your new commandment to love one another, and may your grace not be wasted in me. I ask you this through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior and Redeemer.

Oh, Mary, my mother, present my offering and my life to the Lord: by my model of a valiant woman, my strength and my guide. You have the power to change hearts: take mine then and make me a worthy daughter of yours. Amen.

__

Two main parts
Mass and Pageant
____

The Quinceañera has two parts—the mass and the fiesta—and both events are filled with symbolic gestures and moments. Like most celebrations, the extent to which the Quinceañera is celebrated has as much to do with social class and family status as the individual wishes of the birthday girl. But there are some aspects that are common to all Quinceañeras.

For the ceremony in the church, the sweet fifteen girl most of the times comes with seven to eight young couples, symbolizing the number fifteen. Two little kids are chosen to carry the pillows. The boy carries a pillow with the shoes, her first high heels, and the little girl carries a heart-shaped pillow with the crown.

The most symbolic act during the Quinceañera is the changing of the shoes. The girl’s father switches her shoes, from the flats she arrived in, to the high heels she will leave in. Shoes and crowns play a pivotal role in the birthday girl’s transformation in the eyes of the community from girl to young woman.

At the fiesta, the father dances with his daughter and then the mother takes her and dances with her until they get to the make-believe throne. The crown is put on her head by the mother, and when the girl is sitting, the father comes and takes off her sandals and puts on the high heels. Then the father takes his princess out to dance again and from there the party continues.

Maintaining tradition takes work and Panchita does what she can to make a girl’s sweet fifteenth birthday a special one, including working closely with the girl and her family.

Traditional Gifts

1. Traditional Gifts to the Quinceanera have special meaning for the celebration, and their honored significance relates to the Quinceanera's coming of age. The Traditional Gifts are special signs of loyalty and commitment to God, family and the community. Where the celebration includes the Mass of Thanksgiving, the gifts are presented to the priest for special blessings.
TIARA
Denotes a "princess" before God and the world; a triumph over childhood and ability to face the challenges ahead.
BRACELET or RING
Representing the unending circle of life, it symbolizes the unending emergence of the young woman's abilities and future contributions to society.
EARRINGS
A reminder to listen to the word of God, and always hear and respond to the world around her.
CROSS or MEDAL
Signifies faith - in God, in herself, and in her world.
BIBLE (or PRAYER BOOK) & ROSARY
Important resources to keep the word of God in her life.
In some Hispanic cultures, the gifts are given to the Quinceanera by "padrinos" (also called godparents or sponsors) specially chosen by the family. The padrinos who give the Traditional Gifts are formally recognized, and often are part of the procession for either the church or reception ceremony, or do the presentation of the gifts to the priest for the blessing.
The TIARA also plays a role in the actual Quinceanera ceremony. It is traditional for the headpiece worn by the Quinceanera to be ceremoniously replaced with the TIARA. The "crowning" is done either by her parents or the godparent presenting the gift. A scepter is also presented to the Quinceanera at the same time. The scepter, being an emblem of authority, signifies authority (and responsibility) now being given to the young woman for her life. This ceremony usually takes place at the reception.
The Traditional Quinceanera Gifts are the distinctive, precious treasures for the ceremony; a cherished custom that highlights the Quinceanera celebration.

End.
Collected by Paschal Baute, May 1, 2007, Lexington, Ky. Amazing Grace Chapel.

Diversity Awareness Training.

2006-08-19T09:42:00.000-04:00

Announcing
AN EVENT IN A SERIES
BUILDING A MORE CARING COMMUN ITY
Welcoming Diversity Awareness series I
The Color of Fear Film and Workshop:
How we allow fear and anger to control us
concerning our differences.
September 11, Monday
5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Lexington, Ky
Fellowship Hall, LTS
Lexington Theological Seminary
Simultaneous translation in Spanish.

A three hour Interactive Workshop.
The Color of Fear is a dynamic workshop organized around the insightful, groundbreaking film about the state of race relations in America as seen through the eyes of eight North American men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent. In a series of intelligent, emotional and dramatic confrontations the men reveal the pain and scars that racism has caused them. What emerges is a deeper sense of understanding and trust. This is the dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen sometime in our lifetime. Reference: see website. www.stirfry.com

Participants are asked to engage with one another on this deeper level of awareness of the impact of our feelings of anger and fear about differences in color and race. The result is a powerful and moving experience that is conducive to creating a more caring community.

Facilitator: Rev. Jim Thurman, M.A., Associate minister, Shiloh Baptist Church where he also directs their prison ministry. Jim facilitated the first Color of Fear workshop in 1997 while serving as President of the Lexington Network. He has authored two books: Essays in Christian Thought and A World Gone Mad, and is a former contributing columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He is a community activist, teacher, father, grandfather and great grandfather

Sponsoring Agencies and community groups will reserve a table for six persons, for a total offering of $20.00 per table. As of August 19, Saturday, five tables are left for reservation. Churches, agencies and organizations are invited to apply. This is required training for volunteers in the Spiritual Growth program for men and for women, featured in the Herald-Leader Community page on August 16.

CONTACT
Paschal Baute, Pastoral Psychologist
Amazing Grace Chapel
4080 Lofgren Ct. Lexington, Ky 40509
tel 859-293-5302
email: pbbaute@paschalbaute.com
Suggested closing date for sponsorship is August 25.

Note from Paschal: this is one of the most powerful experiences in diversity awareness that I have participated in. All our prison ministry volunteers are required to attend this. Expect a moving, participative experience.

Outcomes reported by SGN members

2006-05-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Outcomes affirmed by SGN members (reported by a survey in 1993):

Connection with the infinite through each other, sense of genuine caring for each other; Learning from other's centering, sharing, care and companionship; Acceptance of more than one way, learning from our diversity; Tolerance for humanness, our errors and dissonance; Feeling of the potential for growth and new understandings; Guidance with respect to individuality: each journey is unique; Frequent practice in the communication of valued thoughts & feelings; Commitment to working through misunderstandings and conflicts that arise; Learning to take risks to make ourselves vulnerable with each other; Sharing of responsibility--value placed on all offerings and gifts; Mutual respect for the process.. learning detachment from our personal agendas; Sharing insights from many sources: poetry, music, painting, dance, drama; Learning to bear with the unpleasant aspects of others, overcoming self-centeredness; The practice of listening skills and learning compassion from others; Learning to appreciate the value of silence and becoming quiet inside; Sharing stories & opportunity to share & develop personal gifts and talents; Open discussion of spiritual ideas, beliefs, with all questions being valued; Learning to accept my individuality and think for myself by seeing others do so; Studying books in common and discussing them, shared prayer; Developing a spiritual vision through the inspiration of others; Learning to be realistic. becoming grounded and practical and seeing reality more the way it is, instead of the way I want it to be.; Learning the ability to tolerate ambiguity and respect for God's time..."When the student is ready, the teacher will appear..."; The shared value of principle of Inner Guidance...accepting sacred space around us, between us and within us; More fun when we do this work with others, laughter, humor, joy, Etc.

SGN Process and Seasons of the Soul

2006-05-01T05:49:00.000-04:00

The SGN Process and Seasons of the Soul.

Visitors can find the SGN process jarring and even discomforting upon the first visit. We aim to incorporate the best of all Wisdom traditions in a way that helps each person with the basic questions: Who Am I? Why Am I Here? and What is the Meaning of My Experience? Our exercises are aimed to help the individual come to new realizations concerning their own unique journeys. We have no doctrine to teach, except that each of us has direct access to Mystery, the Mystery of our own lives. We are present to assist each other and ourselves in this process.

If we consulted the wisdom keepers of all cultures over the millennia of human existence, we would learn there is no one recipe for spiritual growth. Nor could there be found a specific ritual for spiritual development. The paths of human spirituality are as varied as the people on them. But what we can find in search the wisdom of the ages are four processes, like seasons of the earth, which nurture the health of the human spirit.
• Centering: a time of solitude to quiet the heart, separate from distractions, and tune in to the voice of the higher Self.
• Emptying: Cleansing the mind and heart of releasing pre-occupations, old thoughts, habitual distractions, toxic attitudes, ego-perceptions, undue stress, etc. that occupies and obstructs one’s focus of attention, thus becoming a roadblock to one’s human potential.
• Grounding: Accessing one’s deeper self, feelings, intuitions, the particular wisdom of one’s own heart, in owning all of one’s parts and one’s history and temperament.
• Connecting: Two parts: Listening to others deep sharing without judgment, and sharing one’s own insight, passions, disappointments, and dreams: what moves our hearts.

These four processes done in community enrich the lives of all members of our collective community, offer grounding, hope and renewal for others. Like the seasons of our planet, these processes are both subtle and dynamic, comforting and challenging, and provide a sense of balance between the three sources of spiritual well being: relationships, values and a sense of meaningful purpose in life. Our weekly meetings and other regular activities are aimed at supporting and enhancing these exercises for all members. We take a closer look at each:

Seasons of the Soul
Autumn: Centering, Soul Searching
Winter: Emptying, Cleansing
Spring: Grounding, Intuition
Summer: Connecting, Sharing

Centering: We become still, quiet the mind, and enter the heart, by sitting calmly in quiet concentration. We unplug from the external world, becoming aware of our "monkey mind" jumping all over our internal world. We begin to explore the vast landscape of the human soul. Many wisdom traditions teach this process: Be still and know that I am God. (Psalms 46:10). The shorter days of autumn gently usher us into a more interior state of awareness of transitions.

Emptying: We house-clean our inner home of non-essentials, detaching, letting go, releasing everything which does not serve the ongoing growth of our souls. We can become aware of habitual distractions, even personal addictions and attachments. The emptying process, paralleling winter is the most difficult: a winter of discontent, a dark night of the senses or of soul. We become aware of and release our ego-attachments to make room for new ideas, insights, and enlightenment. Awareness arrives only from a deep internal quieting.

Grounding: A deep receptiveness follows the emptying process. This may be just a very deep quiet and peace, or a time of revelation and resolution with regard to relationships, experience, values or direction of one’s life. It is better not to expect anything to happen at this point, but to cultivate the deep awareness and receptiveness during one’s daily life and routine, what Buddhists call mindfulness, or intentionality, in all one’s doings. Journaling is sometimes used.

Connecting: We usually emerge from the three previous states in a new openness for listening and relationship. We have come to realize that we are constantly in relationship with everything and everybody, a deep association with people and nature: earth, trees, animals, and our environment. An acceptance of our inter-dependence on all of humanity and the natural world is embraced. We are invited to understand, to love and to share our own individuality and gifts.

In reconnecting with our deeper selves and with one another, we are invited to dissolve ego boundaries, avoid "turf" issues, and to build bridges. We can experience a new summons to become instruments of peace and caring for others. We accept and own the connection that already exists between all peoples and all the wisdom traditions. We are ready to discover and embrace that which is common to all the teachers of the wisdom tradition throughout the ages.

One of the distinctive features of our SGN process is that we believe and practice a discipleship of equals: all are learners and all are teachers. Paschal has named this Equalog, that is, a discussion between equals, not simply a back and forth exchange, which is the root meaning of the word dialogue. All decisions arise from a shared circle of leadership, appreciating the diversity of gifts among us. We believe that this is the grounding and the strength of our SGN process that has given us ongoing energy to provide our weekly support groups, our monthly days of recollection (third Saturdays 10-3), our quarterly retreats, our free lending library and newsletters, and our Many Faces of Spirit community conferences in Lexington.

SGN is a nonprofit educational organization. We do not charge for any events, but all are open to all comers. We accept donations for the out of pocket expenses for printing and mailing newsletters, and other bulletins.

11/7/01 pbb, Seaward, Oates

Brief History and Aims

2006-05-01T05:45:00.000-04:00

PREAMBLE, read at the beginning of each workshop.

2006-05-01T05:39:00.000-04:00

Spiritual Growth Preamble

We come together to give and receive help, sharing experiences on our spiritual journey. Although we have each chosen our own methods and teachers for our personal path, we value being open to what others have to share.

Beyond words, methods, or creeds we gather to give each other our love, support and acceptance. We especially welcome those who may doubt or question our beliefs and practices, for we all have much to learn: none of us can presume to have the whole truth or final word about this Vast Mystery that is our existence. We recognize that we are each at unique points in our growth, and that what is appropriate for one of us, may not be for others. Our group purpose is not to push people to grown, but to create an environment and an atmosphere where each of us feels encouraged and empowered to grow at our own self-chosen pace.

In order to nourish and protect each other, we encourage confidentiality in our meetings. The depth at which we feel secure in disclosing ourselves depends on our level of mutual trust. When feedback seems appropriate, we strive to give and receive it thoughtfully, prayerfully, and in the leading of the Spirit. When grievances arise among us, we bring them into the light of open dialogue. We hold ourselves mutually accountable, and listen respectfully to each other. Thus we resolve our differences, forgive each other, and resume our relationship on our spiritual journey with a deeper understanding.

Many of us feel that sharing the teachings, practices and rituals of various denominations and spiritual systems enriches our personal path and contributes to the worldwide process of tolerance and understanding. If, however, you feel a any time that something being done in the group compromises your religious or spiritual principles, please let us know ,and feel free to step out and stand apart with respect for others. Be assured that the group has great respect for your personal choices, and that we will love you whether you agree with everything we choose to explore or not.

Sometimes in our spiritual growth work we experience pain, or emotional or physical disturbances. If you are experiencing anything of this nature, please share it with one or more of us privately. Times of discomfort have come to all of us in our growth, and we value the opportunity to help each other get through these growth pains.

Remember this is your group even though this may be your first meeting. No one person is officially in charge of our process. Our success depends upon each of us taking part in the group in every way we can. The only requirement for fruitful participation is an openness to growth and a willingness to be completely honest.

We welcome you to our gathering. We are happy that you have chosen to share with us your spiritual journey. May we all grow in love and understanding together.” This Preamble has been used for 17 years by the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky, For more information see blog at www.paschalbaute.com/writing
or call 859.293.5302, Email pbbaute@qx.net

Easter Sunday, 2006, April 16

2006-04-16T09:04:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday, 2006

One pointedness. Attention.
I am blessed beyond compare.
I can never be grateful enough.
Awareness of everything, every moment, just as it is happening.
We cannot teach this. We can only help others prepare for it.
In doing so, maybe help ourselves.
The mind is too busy protecting its turf, past, present and future.
The analyzing mind is a friend aiming to protect us.
But it is addicted to its purvey, to its protectiveness,
to its supposed power, and turf.
The undisciplined mind is arrogant and rampant.
The mind is also an enemy, full of itself
full of unnecessary trivialities,
too ready to dally.
(Maybe most of us live with the mind
and heart of a ten year old. . )

Single pointedness, focus, flow and engagement
can only come with practice. But this practice is also
a caging of the tiger which will continue to pace
relentlessly.

Words, words, words.
Taking everything apart.
Nothing is perfect.

Yesterday on a warm, beautiful Spring day,
surrounding by birds singing, redbuds blooming, and
water bubbling, lake fountain, a few experienced
meditators once more entered into
the state of focus, flow and engagement.
Slowly, reluctantly, with mind resisting
tooth and nail, we became quiet,
totally still to the Present.
Only the Present.
And when it happened, after a while,
it was awesome for most of us.
A powerfully moving experience
of simple fully time-less presence.

Something powerfully connected
emerges at that instance.
We are connected at once with everything
in the universe, and can only be there
just as it happens.

There is no nostalgia, simply Presence.
O’Donohue has it right
Beauty only visits, never lingers.

We can only set the stage,
learn to ignore the monkey mind,
and return again and again to
this moment.

Time does not exist.
It is a construct upon reality.
There is only past, present and future,
and maybe these too are illusions.
The present, just as it is happening
right ...now! Is all we have.

We are blessed, truly blessed, in that moment,
and not for any thing or any purpose:
simply fully present

Paschal Baute
April 16, 2006

Day of Recollection
Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky

Bodily or Spiritual Resurrection? Good question! Read this:

2006-04-13T20:02:00.000-04:00

You Mean Jesus Didn't Have a Bodily Resurrection?
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060413_no_bodily_ressurection/
Posted on Apr. 13, 2006

By The Rev. Madison Shockley

Hallelujah! Easter is almost here. Aren’t you glad? What’s that low sigh I hear? Ohhhhh that’s right, you’re one of those progressive Christians. Easter is probably the most conflicted time of the year among progressive churches, even more so than Christmas. Even a progressive Christian can reasonably assert that Jesus was really born, even as the debate goes on among others about how he was born. But this is not so with Easter. Either he was resurrected or he was not. And when we say he was not, then someone somewhere will quote I Corinthians 15:12 to us, "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?"

Rather than reading this and thinking, "Oh my, how can we even speak about whether the Resurrection is real or not?" I find this passage liberating. For when we understand the full context of this passage, we realize that inherent in Paul’s question is the fact that a significant number (significant enough for him to address it) of Corinthian Christians did, in fact, say that there was no resurrection of the dead. It is important that we realize that resurrection was an intense debate in the Corinthian congregation. Interestingly, Paul first falls back on the "received" teaching that he had passed on to them. Then he begins his own theologizing about resurrection and by the time he is through the resurrection of the 'body' has been totally spiritualized.

According to Burton Mack, this spiritualization of the Resurrection was in keeping with the Greek sensibilities of the Gentile Congregations of [the] Christ that were springing up in the eastern Mediterranean regions of the Roman Empire. Greek notions of immortality did not include the body. Immortality was more a matter of the mind or spirit leaving the body to experience eternal existence.

Paul anticipates the objections in his argument. Verse 35 says, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’” You bet we want to know that! His answer to this question would be considered heresy today by fundamentalists and many conservative-traditional theologians. "It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body." Did I read that right? Paul just said there is no resurrection of the "physical body"! In spite of his opening homage to the received "gospel," his own theology essentially undoes any literal interpretation of the resurrection of the body.

So all you progressive Christians rest assured as we celebrate Easter, we are in good (if unexpected) company as we continue to ask questions, challenge dogma and seek to understand God not through blind obedience to tradition but with our eyes and mind wide open.

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2006 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

CHAPLAINS IN THE WORKPLACE

2006-03-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

Chaplains in the workplace
ARTICLE IN

Workplace chaplains are no longer the surprising exception, but a benefit welcomed by most employers.

By Joseph Allen
(September 19, 2005)

Twenty years ago, any casual observer who discovered a chaplain working in a corporate office to help employees deal with financial, emotional and familial concerns and other stresses of everyday life would have raised an eyebrow or two.

Fast forward to the present, where workplace chaplains are no longer the surprising exception but a benefit appreciated by most employers who welcome the additional help that chaplains offer with no strings of reciprical faith attached.

“We’ve had chaplains in our workplace for about five years now with strong, positive results,” said David M. Weekley, chairman of the board of David Weekley Homes, a homebuilding company with locations throughout the Southeastern United States. “Chaplains in our workplace have definitely improved morale by helping to create a nurturing environment where employees feel at ease and feel that the company is looking out for the employees’ well-being.”

Weekley’s company is one of many that employs chaplains as part of their staff. The diverse array of small businesses and large companies that have chaplains include Pilgrim’s Pride, a Texas-based poultry processor and the second-largest chicken producer in the United States; McKibbon Hotel Properties, a hotel management company in Georgia that trains its associates in service and leadership; McKinney Aerospace, a service center for large business and private jets; and McLane Pacific, a wholesale distribution center that serves the Western United States.

“The number of chaplains in the workplace is definitely expanding,” said George A. Langhorne, director of Chaplaincy/Pastoral Counseling Services for the American Baptist Churches. “We never [imagined] over 20 years ago that there would be a strong demand for workplace chaplains in businesses that range the gambit from small, family-owned businesses right on up to international Fortune 100 companies.”

The Houston-based National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains — an organization representing workplace ministers, priests, rabbis and laypeople — estimates that there are now nearly 4,000 trained and certified workplace chaplains working for businesses across the country.

“After World War II, employers hired former military chaplains to deal with labor unrest and problems caused by alcohol abuse, family breakup and other internal and external stresses,” said Diana Dale, executive director of the institute. “By the time companies pioneered early employee assistance programs in the 1950s, many workplace counselors were really clerics with additional training.”

Chaplains are not exactly a 20th-century innovation to American workplaces. “All throughout the 236-plus years of the United States’ existence, chaplains have been providing counseling and help to employees,” said Gil Stricklin, president of the Dallas-based Marketplace Ministries.

In just the first six months of this year, Marketplace Ministries has added 150 full-time and part-time chaplains on its nationwide staff, Stricklin said.

For decades prior to Sept. 11, police and firefighters employed chaplains at their station houses. In the late 1920s, construction companies hired missionaries to serve tent camps for workers building roads.

“People became more aware of chaplains in the workplace after the terrorist attacks of [Sept. 11], when police and fire chaplains played a more visible public role in providing aid and comfort,” Stricklin said.

“Chaplaincy in private industry has steadily increased during the past 15 years to a point where they have a more significant presence nationwide in the [American] workplace,” Dale said.

National and global social and political upheavals of the past two decades are reasons for the increase in chaplains in private business and industry, Stricklin said. “Chaplains humanize the workplace, especially when you take into account that about 70 percent of the work force does not have a priest, rabbi, minister or imam that they can turn to in times of personal need,” he said, quoting a 2001 employee benefit survey conducted by the RoperNOP, a market research firm based in New York. “It’s quite common for workplace chaplains to perform marriages and funerals because they are the only significant spiritual influence in employees’ lives.”

“Human resource managers typically just aren’t trained to provide emotional and spiritual support to their employees,” said Jo Schrader, executive director of the Association of Professional Chaplains, headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill. “HR managers are great when describing company benefits and rules and regulations, but they often fall flat in providing the emotional comfort an employee may need. Workplace chaplains are a resource HR managers can use.”

Workplace chaplains are specifically trained to provide counsel in the workplace when employees request it. They follow strict rules about worker confidentiality and freedom of religion. No proselytizing is allowed, according to the code of conduct outlined by the National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains (see “Thou shall respect others,” p. 13.) “We don’t want chaplains in the workplace that are there to convert people instead of helping them with the issues that are troubling them and their families,” said Langhorne, of the American Baptist Churches. “The workplace is not the proper environment for a chaplain to evangelize in.”

“Among the typical types of services a workplace chaplain can provide to an employee is financial and debt counseling, marriage counseling, and alcohol and substance abuse counseling,” said Dwayne Reece, vice president of Corporate Chaplains of America based in Wake Forest, N.C. “Workplace chaplains are also trained to intercede if domestic abuse is suspected and provide help, if needed and asked for, to the victims.”

“It’s important to remember that the employee has to come to the chaplain,” said Schrader. “The chaplain in the workforce never takes the first step in interacting with an employee.”

Education is the key in the making of a workplace chaplain. To meet the great demand businesses have placed for qualified workplace chaplains, Dallas Theological Seminary offers courses on corporate chaplaincy in its masters of theology program. Denver Seminary also offers corporate chaplaincy courses for students who want to make an impact outside the traditional pulpit arena.

“While most of our chaplains have bachelor’s of arts or bachelor’s of science degrees in biblical studies, around 80 percent of our chaplains have master’s degrees in divinity, ” said Reece.

“Yet just having an undergraduate degree in biblical studies and/or a master’s degree in divinity does not make a priest, rabbi, minister or imam qualified to become a workplace chaplain,” Reece said. That requires additional training before a chaplain can step one foot inside a business and begin ministering to the needs of the employees there.”

Each year the Association of Professional Chaplains offers 300 priests, rabbis, ministers and imams the opportunity to become board-certified workplace chaplains. “One of the first things a chaplain learns when they are undergoing training for the workplace is that they are not there to usurp the role of the traditional human resources manager,” Schrader said.

Joseph Allen is a freelanc

A GLOBAL ETHIC, by Ingrid Shafer,

2006-02-21T16:27:00.000-05:00

Planting Seeds of Loving Kindness:
A Meta Religion to bridge chasms and celebrate creative spiritual diversity
Ingrid Shafer 1974

The time has come for a new religion--not to supplant or replace the religions of old, but to connect, complete, and complement them. The time is ripe for a new faith--a faith without a church, without an anointed priesthood, without offerings and buildings and material trappings, without all the symbols of wealth and power which have polluted the waters of religious intention since times immemorial. This new faith transcends all religions by accepting their partial validity while denying that there is any One True Path or exclusive mode of salvation. This new faith can be followed by adherents of all religions and none, simply by appealing to their own basic tenets of love and mutual cooperation. It demands of them only a deepening of their commitment to the highest ideals of their particular faith (in the broadest sense to include secular humanism, for example) and the willingness to accept truth both as having a transcendent ground and as an organic, dynamic function of space and time.

This new faith is a way of life to be practiced every moment of every day according to one's capabilities. It assumes that everyone, even the most hardened criminal and social outcast, knows occasional moments of goodness, and knows them for what they are deep in his heart. It does not demand but invite--invite to love, to share, to forgive, to care--as much or as little as one can for the time being without causing excessive discomfort to oneself. It is not a faith for martyrs and demands no feats of self denial and self-flagellating altruism. It simply reminds us to attempt to live up to the best we can be at any given moment, and it assumes that as human beings we can, in fact, be centers of love and light. It does not saddle us with shame and guilt and secret fears. Because we are human we may fail; because we are human we can succeed!

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives; the past has no power over us; we can atone for the sins of our past in and through the positive thoughts and actions of the present and future.

There are no church services, no sacraments, no sermons, no specific commandments--apart from the insistence on leading our lives in the spirit of truth and love, and on treating others fairly, as equals, as persons worthy of respect, the way we would want them to deal with us. There are no prayers for personal gain or miraculous intercession into the inexorable workings of nature. The only prayer which followers might find helpful is a quick thought which requires no particular bodily attitude or sacred environment: "Divine source of love and truth, be my guide through darkness and confusion." This prayer should be repeated as many times during the day as opportunities for rash and unloving actions arise. The thought alone might stop the lying word, the destructive act, the vengeful plot.

We shall never know how far our influence extends. Like engenders like. If we do good we not only develop a personal habit of doing good but we plant a seed which might fall into fertile soil and take root in the minds and hearts of others. If we do evil we also plant a seed, and it too can grow within us and the soul-soil of others. Let us determine today to plant as many seeds of loving kindness as we can. Let us envision those seeds taking root and growing into a forest of healthy trees which will crowd out the tangled underbrush of envy, hatred, and deceit.

Peace, Ingrid
The Global Ethic Project

Ingrid Shafer

2006-02-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

SUMMARY EVALUATIONS OF SGN WORKSHOP ON STORYTELLING, on Feb 18

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP WAS
The Mix. The email update, reminder over time. Information e.g. who had RSVPs and the outline of the book you used helped me get ready better for the meeting. I THINK THE BEST IS THROUGH THE SAFE PLACE YOU MAKE AND THE DIFFERENT PEOPLE YOU DRAW

FOCUSING ON LISTENING.

Very interesting. Learning from everyone present. This incited a deeper thought process into my own stories. Nice learning environment.

Excellent presentation and helpful format. Stirred an increasing interest in stories and storytelling - and will certainly help me in my journey.

Meaning of stories. Required reflection. Like the use of stages for story research. Listening to others’s stories.

Structured casualness of the format. Small groups and background mix of the group. Others’ stories that help me remember my own stories. The textbook used. The perfect environment for a workshop. Techniques used to help use probe memory deeper.

Reflection, digging deeper. Small groups allows insight. Communication. Enjoy hearing other stories, learning from others experiences. Need and appreciate feedback. Excellent learning experience.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
A. Provide different weather! Actually I love the snow today, but I am sorry it made driving difficult for some.

How to recognize a story, how to draw a story out of past experience. I am sure I have lots of stories but how to remember them, recognize and related them to others.

Maybe more technique tips?

Have continuing sessions? Nor criticisms of workshop as is.

Maybe choose two or three participants and encourage telling to a group (however this is threatening to me) Thanks for a great day!

Get text to participants ahead of time. Work on timing per exercise. How much time individually needed to write down our thoughts . How much is needed by the group to share and discuss individual results. Some need more or less of the other, and it varies.

I sense there was more to cover. Perhaps start earlier or extend by an hour.
Hope you offer more workshops.

Building Authentic Community via Storytelling

2006-02-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

February 2006 SGN workshop:
BUILDING AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY VIA STORYTELLING
Presenter: Paschal Baute, Ed. D., and SGN staff.
February 18, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Potluck, at Paschal's conference room (directions below)

People of ancient civilizations have all known a wisdom via storytelling. Stories map our inspirations, our hopes, our memories and our dreams. There is a wisdom in each of us we do not even know we have. We introduce a creative collaborative process to access and recapture this wisdom: relearning how stories can guide, summon and empower us.

Paschal will demonstrate how to create quickly a felt sense of rapport for a workshop, convention or gathering by using stories and storytelling. This workshop is a method for creating an environment where people appreciate the diversity of gifts among us and collaborate to enhance our mutual trust, hope and vision. It teaches effective skills for authentic community across boundaries.

This learning-by-doing method is known by various names: "Jumpstart Storytelling" or better, "Springboard Storytelling" and storytelling as knowledge management. A list of resources is provided for this emerging art and skill.

Educational Objectives. Participants will:
1) Appreciate storytelling as a bridge builder for creating authentic community.
2) Learn the power of accessing stories for effective collaboration in changing worlds.
3) Practice this method for welcoming the diversity of gifts among us.
4) Begin to trust one’s own wisdom to influence others to find their unique stories.
5) Have experienced a model for leading others in the use of stories and storytelling
AUDIENCE INFO: No background or training necessary.

PRINCIPAL PRESENTER:

Paschal has been developing storytelling as a tool for building bridges and changing worlds for various groups. He used storytelling to present workshops to Ohio Psychologists in two recent retreats with the theme of the Union of Psychology and Spirituality. He is a Board Member of the Kentucky Storytelling Association, and is currently helping plan a Storytellers festival program at the Berea Arts and Crafts Fair, May 20 and 21.
For more information, see his web page at www.paschalbaute.com/writing. Then scan down right sidebar to “Amazement” storytelling blog.

Paschal has been applying psychology to the workplace for some 33 years to over 50 companies in central Kentucky. He has presented workshops for many professionals, and is the author of Win - Win Finesse: the Art of Dealing Positively with Negative Feelings and Hidden Lions: Preventing Personal, Career and Company Self-Sabotage Currently he is Coordinator of the Human Resource Management Program for the School for Career Development, Midway College. Midway, Kentucky. He is also adjunct faculty there, teaching Ethics, Theology, Philosophy and Business Communication.

This workshop is open to the public. SGN does not require registration fee but RSVP is required by date of Feb. 11. Tel 859-293-5302: or email pbbaute@paschalbaute.com Conference room is at lower level, 4080 Lofgren Court, Lexington. This is just off US 60 Winchester Road, near the Clark County line, five miles east of the Man O War Extension. This workshop is sponsored by the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky, now in its 17th year.

Celtic Spirituality workshop, Lexington, Ky, Saturday September 17, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

2005-09-12T07:10:00.000-04:00

At Paschal's retreat center and home conference room on Winchester Road, we will hold our September Day of Recollection from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. September 17, Saturday, with potluck. All are welcome. Reservations are necessary. Telephone 859-293-5302.

Directions: come seven miles east from intersection of Interstate 75 and Winchester Road, to Lofgren Court, last subdivision before Clark County. Turn right and then first left. Mail box has 4080 on it, with white brick posts at entrance.

We shall explore together concepts and attitudes of Celtic Spirituality. Please refer to the blog on "Celtic Spirituality in Kentucky" via www.paschalbaute.com/writing

Please come and share with us on this day.

(signed)
Paschal, Ann Siudmak, Mike Kavanaught and other SGN members.

For an orientation to our SGN work you may wish to visit a previous post here at 1/11/05 explaining SGN philosophy with our Preamble.

A Theology of Openness

2005-07-27T22:34:00.000-04:00

A theology of Openness
begins with several revealed truths, but radically interpreted.
Essentially it is a radical view of the theology of the Holy Spirit.
I have not called it this but written about it several times under
other headings (listed later).
In psychological terms it is a matter of heart, not of mind.
It is also based on a depth psychological understanding that
we are each blessed, gifted and good in ourselves (see writings on
Celtic Spirituality
but we are also sincere and innocent self-deceivers,
who without openness and feedback
are likely to undermine both ourselves,
our families and our places of work and worship.

A Theology of Openness also places the ultimate criterion of faith and love
in a hospitality that welcomes and embraces the otherness
of the Other, the stranger amongst us.

What we discover is that when we risk being authentic and sharing our brokenness and giftedness, we actually create community, by that very process. It is also the power of the personal story. IT is also the power of an incarnational Presence fully recognized and reverenced.

1. We are all incarnations of the Spirit. That is we are not humans trying to become spiritual, but spiritual beings trying to realize our humanness. This means that there is a deep yearning in the human heart that no creature can fill. Only the love of God and neighbor. We already ARE God's poetry, his music, his songs, trying not to sing off -key, but in harmony with all of creation.

2. We are not moved or motivated to any transforming of our basic self-centeredness, except via something, person, crisis or story that challenges us to think outside our usual comfort zones. We are too much creatures of habit, not doing the good that we could do, and instead doing the evil we pretend not to. (Paul)

3. We cannot grow beyond the identities formed by our families and our society or by our churches except by risk and vulnerability in sharing of our inner life with others. This suggests that most of what is done in churches is not transformative. Ritual or preaching seldom evokes personal risk. Faith concepts do not motivate or change anyone. Religion for many remains “notional.” For example, one can attend a hundred or a thousand Masses over a life time and never listen to another's pain, even the loneliness of the person next to one in church, while still feeling affirmed with one’s religiosity.

4. All incarnations tend to become idols. All conceptualizations will become dogma which freezes us to the past, and gives us a platform to judge others. We will tend to make objects, rather than valuing the subjectivity, the divine "Thou" of every person and every created thing.

5. Therefore, Process Theology and the monograph of Martin Buber, "I-Thou" are primary sources. It is the process itself, not the product, the journey not the end that is to be cherished. This means, in part, that human experience in personal search is the ultimate criterion. We are encouraged to discover our own paths wherever that leads.

Too many religious people say to someone hurting: "Here is the solution, take my belief about that, and you will be okay. This is the answer I have found. Just believe these things and you will be alright, (and a good Christian, Catholic, or whatever...) That is, believing people ask us to accept their beliefs as the answer to our search for our own wisdom, for our place in the universe, whether we can make sense of the mystery that surrounds us.

It is our aim to examine the priority of our experience because 1) this is the common experience of us all; 2) this is the very first step towards faith in a transcendent Being, and 3) we believe that those religious organizations that present God-concepts to potential members without helping them examine their personal spiritual journey are violating the natural process and integrity of the searching soul, at a time when the seeker may be particularly vulnerable.

6. Jesus instead of being a model of sacrificial love, with his Death and Resurrection primary, becomes rather the model of full humanness, in his acceptance of all, especially the outsider and the stranger. The humanity of Jesus comes to the fore as well as his teaching method of parables. The power in the way of the parables is that the response was left to the person. "When the student is ready the teacher will appear." –zen saying.

7. This theology accepts the richness of all Wisdom traditions. It is also non-conceptual, non-doctrinal, non-ritualistic, and without any code other than that of the Golden Rule. It is very similar to Quaker spirituality, and believes that everything else besides the Golden Rule are human trappings and add-ons. Learning to truly love others as ourselves is the epitome of the Shema, the Wisdom of Jesus and finds correlative basics in all other wisdom traditions.

Actual Practice in the SGN of Kentucky meetings.
Sundays at 5.
After some brief drumming, there is shared silence of 15-20 minutes. Then each can speak without interruption or comment re one's spiritual journey that week. This usually takes 45-60 minutes. If time is left before 6:30, we can share themes that emerged.
All other workshops and retreats.
Days of Recollection 7 per year.
Retreats 4 per year.
Other activities.
These activities begin with a period of shared silence. Any lesson, or presentation is kept short, to 15 minutes (usually using story or personal anecdote and ending with several questions for the inner life), then we return to journaling, for about 20 minutes, sharing only then in small groups of three, before returning to the large group sharing for discussion. At the end, we return to shared silence. This method encourages the inner search, values authenticity and at the same time builds community.

All sharing is held with respect and honor, with seldom advice offered unless asked. We are honoring the Presence in each by listening from the heart and loving the person in their own particularity. This means that the deep sense of reverence is often experienced by the individual as a "gentle sweetness" and loving kindness of the entire meeting. An awesome Presence is tangible. This is the only religious or worship service we have--usually, although occasionally we will on retreats have a more traditional prayer service, some singing or a Eucharist.

What is "held up and honored in each meeting" is the shared humanity of each, in all our brokenness and giftedness. Thus, we could call this a theology of story, or a radical theology of the Holy Spirit already among us, a reverential Emanuel meeting, or a revering by active listening of the Incarnation in each person. Spirit is already Present: we are simply becoming quiet and still enough to recognize its diverse voices already among us. We come from and welcome all Wisdom traditions and do not judge any of them as "better than."

I will relate this approach to the thematic practices of all Wisdom traditions later. We will soon be completing 14 years of this work together in central Kentucky.
www.lexpages.com/SGN

Paschal
5/6/03

Righeousness is a Horse Named Trojan

2005-07-15T07:49:00.000-04:00

(How differences and dissent is necessary for growth in wisdom)

RIGHTEOUSNESS IS A HORSE NAMED "TROJAN"
An Appreciation of diversity of human gifts and the sacred necessity of dissent
is necessary for community and for growth. Note: I define two types of temperaments that are opposed in many ways and propose that understanding these and the necessity of dissent
is necessary today for community.

Copyright, Paschal Bernard Baute, 1992, 1999

Catholics today (indeed Christians of varying stripes) are separating themselves or allowing themselves to be separated into two ideological camps. Each camp is convinced of the righteousness of its position. I want to propose that the opposing views are governed by different mind-sets, each a distinct way of viewing reality, and that they find their genesis in specific temperament styles. What I hope to define is that dissent is not only inevitable to the process of growth, but also necessary for wholeness, holiness and authentic community. My experience as a psychologist is that the current impasse and polemic is directly related to the lack of understanding of the value of these differences between people, between what we can call Guardian and Pilgrim personality types. They are not always dichotomous but in fact can exist as a continuum in many persons.

This understanding is based upon much clinical experience, but also validated in research. In repeated research it has been found that the temperament style that prefers sensing and thinking is more likely to hold traditional beliefs than Christians who prefer intuition and feeling. (1) I call these two different approaches to reality, to life, to relationships, to ethical values, the Guardian and the Pilgrim type of temperament. On the popular DISC instrument used by many of the Fortune 500 companies, the Pilgrim is high D or high I, and the Guardian is the high S or high C. Those with both high D and high I will be more visionary concerning results and people, and those with both high S and high C will be more stubborn about change, more righteous, even rigid.

I suggest that the Guardian type of temperament seeks certainty, finality, decisiveness, order and organization. Reality must be clearly defined, particularly divine reality. No question is to be left unsettled. The Guardian temperament has to belong, but only to that which is structured and final. It wishes to preserve all that is good and holy, no matter the cost. Dissent is regarded as destructive of unity, disloyal, messy and deserving of nothing more than suspicion. The Guardian looks to the past and to its preservation.

The Guardian has a parental perspective; a sense of responsibility for others, a natural respect for authority, and a desire for hierarchy and titles. There is a strong sense of the history of the organization with a dedication to its traditions, norms and procedures. The need for security, stability, rules, regulations and standard operating procedures prevails. That portion of reality which can be controlled must be rendered predictable. Generally serious and concerned, the Guardian wants to protect, stand watch and to warn of potential dangers.

The Guardian looks to precedent and to a notion of tradition marked by a virtually immutable continuity. Innovation is viewed with suspicion. "If it is working, why change it?" is a motto. Terms such as "pillar of strength", "salt of the earth" and "backbone of society," describe their temperament orientation. Dissent is viewed as undermining authority and fracturing unity; it is wrong, abhorrent, willfully factious, and to be withstood at all costs.

Yet there is much to be valued in this sense of reality. This type of temperament has built and still sustains most of our societal institutions. The Guardian gravitates to and prospers in positions of authority in all our organizations. When they are not administrators, they make loyal and dedicated followers. Guardian types are estimated to constitute about from one-third to one half of the population, as measured by Jungian typology.

ANOTHER VIEW OF DISSENT

The temperament type which I shall term the Pilgrim has a different perspective of reality. The Pilgrim believes that the church only through the catalyst of constructive criticism can be truthful and honest, and ultimately holy. This is because its leaders are human with all of the foibles and imperfections endemic to the human condition. Pilgrims view the failure of the Christian Churches to confront the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany from 1932 to 1945 as a sin-filled and evil participation, even acquiescence, in the Holocaust. To them, the Church of history has been oppressive of human freedom and an obstacle to the development of modern science. They also know that beliefs one age has held vigorously have been seen by a later age as historically biased and even corrupt, such as the practice of slavery and racial discrimination within the American experience. They remember the pervasive sense of sin and guilt within the Catholic communal dynamic before Vatican II. There is shame, and indeed pain for the harm and guilt that their church has imposed upon all kinds of people in previous centuries--even torture and death--all in the name of God, because "error had no rights."

The Pilgrim temperament believes that the Church cannot be faithful to its vocation without facing up to and honestly confronting its failures, its blindness, and its historical infidelities. Without doing this, there is great pretense and illusion. Sincere believers have inflicted enormous harm because of their inability or unwillingness to critique themselves or be critiqued. History graphically demonstrates the lack of courage, compassion, and fidelity to the Gospel on the part of Church leadership, even at the highest levels. But to the Guardian mentality, these views are heretical and should not be given a hearing in any official forum or orthodox media.

An insistence on dialogue and dissent, the Hegelian dialectic if you will, can be regarded as more American, English or French rather than Germanic, Eastern European or even Oriental. It is the conviction of the Pilgrim that freedom of inquiry is integral to authentic religious community. Conversation and argument are a sine qua non. All of authority and tradition itself must be subject to scrutiny and validation by the test of experience and reason. If nothing else, the lesson of Viet Nam was that our leaders can lie unabashedly and spill innocent blood unconscionably. Therefore, sincerity of belief is never sufficient criterion, no matter how intense the persuasion. Motives of power and privilege can just as easy influence religious authority. Dissent always deserves a hearing even when it is wrong-headed. Dialogue and confrontation are critically needed in the quest for a deeper understanding of truth and the integrity of the community. Pilgrim types are estimated to comprise from one-fourth to one-third of the population, most likely "intuitives" according to Jungian typology. A spectrum of loyalties lies between the two extremes.

The point of intervention for the Guardian types is Scripture, Creed, and Code. These constitute immutable doctrine which must convert the world--a world intrinsically evil that has nothing of value to teach the Church. Revelation is final and complete; they are its guardians sustaining all others with the answers they already possess. God is transcendent Otherness-- the same yesterday, today and forever. Grace is found through approved channels.

The Pilgrim, on the other hand, believes that the church must be constantly and insistently challenged by the world. The American experience and all contemporary thought, whether religious in origin or not, have something instructive to offer the church. "Every heresy is the revenge of a forgotten truth." The Pilgrim discovers truth outside traditional sacred texts, finding an emerging immanence of God everywhere: through reason, through people, through nature and science. Nothing human is alien. Reality itself is heuristic of God-- Who is ever new and different because a more profound understanding of truth is constantly emerging. Grace and serendipity are almost synonymous.

Guardians are more static--feet firm planted and grounded. Pilgrims are on the move, always arriving, never arrived. For the Pilgrim questions are basic to the life process. The Pilgrim sometimes strays off the identified path, curious to search and explore. Guardians tend to be home-bodies. They stress unity; Pilgrims, freedom. Guardians highlight authority and control; pilgrims emphasize autonomy and the right to explore and dissent. Guardians are preservers; Pilgrims innovators. Guardians are either-or; Pilgrims are both-and–more inclusive. but each orientation is vital and necessary for wholeness, holiness and community. Please be reminded that these are mainly tendencies and may sometimes co-exist in the same person.

DISSENT INTENDED BY GOD

Each of these temperament types is in fact engaged in the same quest. Each sees reality not as it is but as it wishes it to be, and thus, distorted. Each naively demands the other accept reality as they see it. Enneagram theory explains nine basic illusions one of which each of us occupies. Each view is partial, needing correction, needing the differing gifts of others to form community, even to be whole. The evitable selectivity of human perception is one of the psychological bases forming our need for Church as the complete revelation of Christ in His Mystical Body. We cannot know God in His Totality without the dynamic of others. We can know ourselves and our projection of ourselves upon others, not the Stranger in our midst.

In dialogue with others, we become corrected and enriched by their point of view. Without this correction, our bias prevails both for ourselves and for anyone over whom we exercise influence. So long as we experience only our own kind, we are never confronted by those who differ with us or from us. This limits us to a subjective perception of reality, partial at best. For the sake of wholeness and community, encounter with others, even those proposing egregious dissent, is necessary and constructive. These are the psychological reasons why community relationships are essential for growth. Liberation theologies propose that the poor and disenfranchised offer a necessary corrective perspective to the Western privileged church.

Because our world-view is limited by our subjectivity, neither personal growth nor authentic community can occur without acknowledging genuine differences. To say, "I dissent" is to say "we exist in relationship–but I must express my differences in order to be an authentic member here." Authority imposed from the outside both limits and deters the formation of community, and, in fact, inhibits the Spirit working through the People of God. Yet neither the Catholic layperson nor simple priest has any voting rights today vis-a-vis pastor or bishop, an exclusion not found in other confessions. I know of religious communities that have been decimated because dissent was not allowed by the authorities. In the third week of November of 1999, two Southern Baptists churches were excluded from their conference for their inclusive ministry to gays and lesbians, after asking for dialogue from their conference, which was refused. The inclusiveness of Spiritus Sanctus, Catholic parish in Rochester, New York, was reason for diocesan disciplinary actions against pastor and staff.

The right and ability to dissent was the foundation of the American experiment. Without giving voice to and legitimizing dissent through ballot and the democratic process, we would still be wallowing in monarchy, dictatorship, oppression, and the denial of human rights. Europeans do not have the tradition of dissent as a way to truth as do Americans. In 1991, we witnessed most of the Communist world shifting to governments in which dissent became legitimate. The current Pope facilitated this movement by encouraging The Solidarity opposition in Poland. Yet he refuses to allow the same legitimacy of dissent within his own Church. Without the Period of The Enlightenment, The Church would still be what it too often had been historically, an arm of the government to guarantee and insure conformity. Unfortunately, as the pages of history too graphically reveal, the Church as institution has been the stalwart protector of the status quo, silenced the prophets of every age, and resisted all change. It resisted every movement to give rights to people. Inequality, we were told, would be corrected in heaven.

Jesus was a dissenter, alienating even his own family. He resisted The status quo of the Pharisees and Scribes. He identified with the alienated and the disenfranchised. He confronted, challenged, corrected, and broke with tradition for The sake of tradition. His face-off with the religious authorities of the time led directly to His death, yet He surrendered so masterfully to His state-sanctioned execution that he offered hope and transcendence to all the oppressed of history. He came to free us from oppression of every kind. Until we experience His radically liberating Spirit with its right to search and inquire as integral to the modern Church, we will continue to miss the radical discipleship He wants to empower.

The right to dissent is imbued, then, with holiness poured forth by God who introduced difference and diversify so that we might learn from and grow through one another. When differences are respected and honored, dissent can challenge, invigorate, enhance and heal. It can lead us out of ourselves to a new awareness of others, a recognition of the incompleteness of our own truth, and a renewed wonder of The mystery of grace. Dissent can be both creative, constructive and instructive in the dynamic movement of the human towards the Divine, the wholly Other. Yet without respect for personhood and dignity of others, dissent becomes destructive. The encounter with human diversity while listening and valuing that diversity, coupled with the realization of how the idealized ego will inevitably fail in objectivity, is a necessary step towards the integration of The individual with consequent wholeness and enhancement of true community. What is fascinating to a psychologist is how consistently blind people are to the coloring of their own perspectives. We have no way of grasping the fallibility of our views, except by listening to others.

ADDITION TO CERTAINTY AS AN EVIL

As a pastoral counselor and psychotherapist for thirty years, I have had personal experience with the great harm done by well-meaning Catholic authority. Because of its profound effect on me, but also because of temperament, I can most probably be classified with the Pilgrim group. I firmly believe that until the Church can in all candor critique itself and repent of its obsession with power and privilege, it can be neither honest nor holy. It will continue to be irrelevant to most of society. It will maintain its pretensions, and worship its hidden idols, while failing to respect the call of each of us to be intimate and equal co-creators with God, enjoying and fulfilling the genuine freedom of the children of God.

A key problem in all of this is that the Guardians are the ones usually in charge, who set the agendas, who are more willing to silence and ostracize those who take exception. Guardians are often imbued with a metaphysical certitude that their view is the only one which must prevail. Their subjective view of reality is not viewed as partial, as needing any correction or balance. Their view is the only allowable one. I suggest that this dynamic absolutizes the pathway to God, rather than worships this mystery we call God. Guardian types tend to absolutize their own authority, and are threatened by any challenge to the status quo. They alone are on the-side-of-the-angels; those who differ must, per se, be further from God and grace. Someone has remarked that it is the visionaries who start new organizations and then the guardians and stabilizers take over and make them so rigid that the younger next generation of visionaries leave to start over.

What each view forgets is that we hold our perceptions of mystery only through grace, through the giftedness of faith. The only fitting response to this is a radical humility and awe in the presence of The unfathomable mystery we call God, and great respect for human differences.

Awe and wonder in The presence of this mystery brings great respect for The diverse expressions of this mystery in and through others and a willingness to be instructed by the views and journeys of others. John XXIII said: Unity in essential matters; freedom in doubtful matters; love in all matters.

References
(1) Personality and Christian Belief among Adult churchgoers. Journal of Psychological Type. 47, 5-11, 1998. Francis, L. J. and Jones, S. H. Abstract found in Journal of Psychological Type, 50, 39, 1999.

Discussion, Please?

Meditation for Day of Recollection, May 21, 2005

2005-05-23T06:33:00.000-04:00

HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED, A Midrash.
(How Organized Religion Misses the Message of Jesus)

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and gathering them around him, taught them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are the meek...
Blessed are the merciful...
Blessed are they that thirst for justice...
Blessed are you when persecuted...
Blessed are you when you suffer...
Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven...

Then Simon Peter said, "Are we supposed to know this?"
And Andrew said, "Do we have to write this down?"
And James said, "Do we have to show our work?"
And Philip said, "May I go to the washroom?"
And Bartholomew said, "Do we have to hand this in?"
And John said, "The other disciples didn't have to learn this."
And Matthew said, "I don't have any paper."
And Thomas said, "Will we have a test on this?"
And Judas said, "What does this have to do with real life?"

And Jesus wept...

They asked him about his tears. He said “oh my children, I have been with you all this long, and you still do not understand?”
So like a good teacher, who knows that repetition is necessary, on another occasion, not on the mountain, but in a level place according to Luke (chapter 6) , he addressed them and shaped the message differently so maybe they could hear it this time.

Happy are you poor, for the Kingdom of heaven is yours.
Happy are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Happy are you who weep now, for you will laugh,
Happy are you when men hate you and reject and insult you...
How terrible for you who are rich now; you have had your easy life.
How terrible for you who are full now, you will go hungry.
How terrible for you who laugh now, you will mourn and weep
Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you....

And Peter said, Let’s build three tents here so your glory can be manifest.
And Jesus said to Peter: Get behind me Satan, you still do not understand.
And Jesus Wept again, and determined to speak only in parables.

Then the church came, and within a few hundred years,
what they all remembered was that he was born of a virgin, suffered, died and rose again.
They decided that believing in those articles of faith was redemptive and saving.

Jesus came and preached the gospel, the church came and preached Jesus.

And Jesus still weeps, because church is not what he intended. Organized religion, creeds and codes are not what he wanted. He never said “ Go to church on Sunday.”

He never preached himself, yet many today preach Jesus.
“It is not about me,” he would say.
It is about loving God and our neighbor as oneself.

It is not about judgment, but about loving.
My people, too many of them, use their faith as a means of judging others.
You use my memory to abuse others, persecute others?
What a terrible perversion this is.
“Do you think I wanted belief in me to be used to judge others as further from God?
“How can you use your view of my Word, or the Prophet to kill or abuse one another?

“I promised heaven only to those who loved others, totally and completely, as I have. Namely those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, visit the sick and those in jail.

“I also promised hell to those who don’t do these things. See my words quoted in Matthew 25.

How many believers are made sure, feel guaranteed by their participation in churchy things? As if singing and preaching and public praying saved anyone?

“Where today shall I find my true followers? “

SGN Archives

2005-03-10T12:43:00.000-05:00

SGN Archives

NEXT RETREAT, Mar 14-16, Loretto Knobs Haven

2005-02-21T21:36:00.000-05:00

Weekday Retreat from Monday Evening til Wednesday noon.
We shall explore Celtic Spirituality as a source of guidance for our spiritual journey. Cost is $70.00 for two nights lodging and six meals, from Monday supper to Wednesday lunch. Reservations by March 4. More information available via SGN Newsletter, or inquire of Paschal. email address: pbbaute@paschalbaute.com, mail address: 4080 Lofgren Ct. Lexington, Ky 40509, or tel 859-293-5302.
Loretto Knobs Haven is at the Loretto Motherhouse, near Springfield, Ky, off the BlueGrass Parkway. directions available. About 1.5 hour drive from Lexington.
You may read the posts dealing with Celtic Spirituality on Paschal's various blogs, or in a number of other resources: John O'Donohue in The Inner Landscape (audio tapes), his books Anam Cara, and Beauty, and Celtic Spirituality: Listening to the Heartbeat of God, by J. Philip Newell, Paulist, 1997. These can be ordered via "Spiritual Reading" link (bottom) at my homepage site: www.paschalbaute.com

Some thoughts from Celtic Spirituality:
The presence of God is within all peoples.
Creation itself is sacramental, the Living Word of God
If we deny our humanity, via shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, or religiosity, we do not discover and release our Truest Selves.
All the world is God's Dwelling Place.

PRAYER how does it work?

2005-01-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

Why does it transform people?
What is "Spiritual Growth?"
See complete post on Healthy Spirituality blog
www.healthyspirituality.blogspot.com

NEW INTERFACE

2005-01-14T22:56:00.000-05:00

This use of the new blogging technology, we hope, provides a new interface for our SGN to dialogue and to collaborate. This is more intuitive, easier to use and more inviting discussion and interaction. We want to build a place for people of faith to collaborate and build community online, both locally and globally.

When you register to become a SGN blog member with Tim Stamps or Paschal Baute, you will receive new posts automatically to your email box. Soon you will be able to post a response to the dialogue on that subject directly to the web log from your email box. We can then have a more immediate dialogue online with people with similar interests in their respective faith journeys. Return your request either to SGN@lexpages.com or pbbaute@paschalbaute.com. You will receive an invitation within 24 hours.

January workshops in Central Ky

2005-01-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

I just came to your site from the Humanitarium link!
I have been in an active spiritual path for over a decade
and really delighted to see your network with open
views. I have started giving personal transformation
workshops in public libraries; and have started
networking with like-minded people and groups.
Would love to know more about your work and
your meetings and gatherings.

Peace & joy
Mita
http://www.seek2know.net

PS: I would very much appreciate your help in passing my
workshop info to anyone who may be interested.

--------------------------------------------------------

How To Live Deliberately on Purpose and Joy

January 16, Sunday, 2:00 to 4:15 PM
Lexington Public Library, Beaumont Branch
OR
January 21, Friday 3:00 - 5:15 PM
Georgetown Public Library
Cost $15, students and groups of two and more $12 each
Preregister by calling 859-455-8642

http://www.seek2know.net/workshopldpj.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Brief history, activities, beliefs, themes and outcomes

2005-01-11T20:18:00.000-05:00

The Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky (SGN) was begun in 1989 to foster spiritual growth and guidance. It has evolved into a genuine community whose decision processes are based upon group consensus. Currently seven type of activities are regularly offered: weekly meeting, monthly Day of Recollection, quarterly retreats, community wide gatherings to respect all Wisdom Traditions, study groups, a monthly newsletter and a small free lending library. In 15 years SGN has sponsored some 60 retreats and 100 Days of Recollection. The community supports itself by means of voluntary service and donations. No fees are charged.

SGN believes that every person has direct access to the divine, so shared silence in the Quaker tradition is employed to give time for the group to center from an inner source. This is the spiritual basis for our work together, with the belief also that each journey is instructive for others, that we are all disciples. SGN has developed a process for building community that was presented at the '92 FCM Baltimore Assembly. Much small group discussion is used, with a model of shared leadership without "expert power" or "position power." We were also participating members of the '93 World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago and again at an FCM meeting at Columbus, Ohio, about seven years ago.

Themes of the SGN gatherings have been diverse and inclusive: Twelve Steps, Inner Divine Child, Feminine Spirituality, Images of God, Native American Spirituality, Our Addictive Culture, Friendship, Discovering One's Spiritual Gifts, Meditation, Trust and Forgiveness, Healing, Liberation and Islamic Spirituality, Discernment, Voices of Women, Telling your Story, etc. We have also sponsored Jesus Seminar meetings and offered instruction on meditation to the community.

Outcomes From SGN Gatherings Reported by Members

A group atmosphere of Divine Love
Getting perspectives different from my own
Greater openness to Mystery
Better self-management
New ideas for growth
Support for me just as I am
Camaraderie
Ability to handle Conflict
Insight into myself
Reassurance on my own journey
Connecting with others serious about their journey
Ability to worship with others in a nondogmatic environment.
and many others.

For many previous postings, SGN activities since 1989 see archives.
For many articles on the interface between psychology, wellness, spirituality and religion, see
Articles by Paschal Baute

Please request a brochure from one of our regular members: Paschal Baute, email pbbaute@paschalbaute.com, or Ann Siudmak or Mike Kavanaugh, email annsiudmak@kih.net

Discussion invited.

This Interfaith Fellowship webring site is owned by Spiritual Growth Network
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SGN PHILOSOPHY? Our Preamble

2005-01-11T19:21:00.000-05:00

Note: This is Our Preamble which is read at the beginning of all SGN workshops. Our experience is that this preamble helps create a safe environment for people to be open and honest, and still feel accepted, affirmed, and encouraged. This may help set the stage for our work together in this adventure to use the internet to explore and share our spiritual journeys in a larger way.

"We come together to give and receive help, sharing experiences on our spiritual journey. Although we have each chosen our own methods and teachers for our personal path, we value being open to what others have to share.

"Beyond words, methods, or creeds we gather to give each other our love, support and acceptance. We especially welcome those who may doubt or question our beliefs and practices, for we all have much to learn: none of us can presume to have the whole truth or final word about this Vast Mystery that is our existence. We recognize that we are each at unique points in our growth, and that what is appropriate for one of us, may not be for others. Our group purpose is not to push people to grow, but to create an environment and an atmosphere where each of us feels encouraged and empowered to grow at our own self-chosen pace.

"In order to nourish and protect each other, we encourage confidentiality in our meetings, the depth a which we feel secure in disclosing ourselves depends on our level of mutual trust. When feedback seems appropriate, we strive to give and receive it thoughtfully, prayerfully, and in the leading of the Spirit. When grievances arise among us, we bring them into the light of open dialogue. We hold ourselves mutually accountable, and listen respectfully to each other. Thus we resolve our differences, forgive each other, and resume our relationship on our spiritual journey with a deeper understanding.

"Many of us feel that sharing the teachings, practices and rituals of various denominations and spiritual systems enriches our personal path and contributes to the worldwide process of tolerance and understanding. If, however, you feel a any time that something being done in the group compromises your religious or spiritual principles, please let us know ,and feel free to step out and stand apart and witness whenever you feel it appropriate. Be assured that the group has great respect for your personal choices, and that we will love you whether you agree with everything we choose to explore or not.

"Sometimes in our spiritual growth work we experience pain, or emotional or physical disturbances. If you are experiencing anything of this nature, please share it with one or more of us privately. Times of discomfort have come to all of us in our growth, and we value the opportunity to help each other get through these "growth pains."

"Remember this is your group even though this may be your first meeting. No one person is officially in charge of our process. Our success depends upon each of us taking part in the group in every way we can. The only requirement for fruitful participation is an openness to growth and a willingness to be completely honest.

"We welcome you to our gathering. We are happy that you have chosen to share with us your spiritual journey. May we all grow in love and understanding together."
-end of Preamble.