“I want to bring wholeness of body, mind, and spirit, through embodied sacred practices, that help to heal the stress and trauma and anxiety that so many are feeling”
– Vickie MacArthur, Lethbridge, Alberta
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Topics:
Pursuit of Peace (Shalom) | spiritual practices | Spiritual Formation | Continuing Revelation | Interfaith | Beyond the Walls | Awakening Spirituality | Nurturing Spirit | Samish Island |
Shalom. Namaste. Peace be with you. I’m not sure where my talk falls in this All Voices Tapestry, but I’d like to invite you to take a sacred pause, wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing. Take a deep breath in… pause a moment… then exhale very slowly as you feel your body settling into the chair you’re sitting on. Feel the support of the earth we all share. Feel the aliveness of spirit. Feel yourself as part of this tapestry of community that yearns to create God’s Shalom in the world.
Several weeks ago, as part of the online Spiritual Directors International Conference, I participated in a full day session with Inter-Spiritual Teacher Mirabai Starr called Sabbath: “Laying Down Your Burdens.” It was a spacious day of unplugging from the busyness of our daily lives so we could tune into our inner spiritual landscape. Mirabai describes Sabbath as the intersection between ordinary time and Holy time. It was a day to “Be still, and know” to listen, to heal, to dream. At the end of the day, we were all invited to make a renewed commitment to Sabbath. How can Sabbath time transform our lives and communities?
In a world that encourages us to be more, do more, consume more, we’ve forgotten how to slow down and connect to the One who waits for us. As Mirabai says “It’s so difficult to fit Sabbath into the tyranny of our life.” Even our church life often becomes more doing, and not enough being. We find ourselves tired and burnt out, rushing from zoom room to zoom room these days, breathlessly imprisoned in our tiny square. I find myself wondering what kind of creative energy might be unleashed if we truly took time for Sabbath in our lives?
As a yoga and meditation teacher, some of my students jokingly refer to me as the “Queen of Relaxation,” teaching embodied ways of slowing down to heal and release tension and trauma from our bodies, our minds, and our souls. However, I haven’t always worn this crown very well. I too get caught up in doing too much, trying to balance the demands of family, my yoga studio, my church life, my personal life. But God has a way of surprising and nudging us.
My roots run deep in Community of Christ. I grew up going to church twice a week, once on Sunday morning, and often a Wed night prayer service, as well as attending many camps and reunions. I always felt deeply nourished by this supportive church community, but something was missing for me. I had a deep longing to connect to God in a deeper, more contemplative, and embodied way. I wanted to feel God through my skin. I wasn’t sure how.
In my late twenties, I began a spiritual journey into yoga and meditation and other eastern practices. These spiritual practices have continued to nurture me and have become a mainstay of my daily practice. As I traveled to retreats, and ashrams and temples from many different traditions, this spiritual journey began to point me to the mystical and contemplative underground current of all religions. As I began to teach yoga and meditation in classes and retreats in my surrounding community, I wondered if these spiritual practices could nourish my own Christian community?
I began to share the gifts of sacred breath, embodied spirituality and contemplative practice. This was many years ago, and I was met with mixed reactions: some were curious, but others didn’t understand and weren’t always kind or welcoming. I felt the disappointment and pain of not being seen and accepted for who I was and who God created me to be. I’m not the only one. I know there are many of us throughout this church community, many who live on the fringe, and many who have left, who feel that our spirituality, our way of connecting with God or Spirit or by however you name the Great Mystery, wasn’t always fully accepted, or embraced. The Christ in me weeps for all of us who have felt that pain.
Still, the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Shekinah, continues to breathe new life and swirl Her creative energy in surprising and unexpected ways in this community that has always tried to stay true to diversity in beliefs, and practice and points of view. It’s not an easy space to hold. As a church that has stayed open to new revelation, new light, new ways of embodying and naming the Christ, I find hope in the new and creative ways that the church’s Spiritual Formation team is inviting us all into more intimate communion with God. I find hope that even in the midst of a pandemic, we are finding ways of gathering in the “Temple of Zoom,” reaching out through emerging congregations like Beyond the Walls, in ever fresh and life giving ways. I find hope in the growth of the Nurturing Spirit ministry that Debra Donahoe and a dedicated team on the west coast have offered through in-person retreats at Samish Island, and now offer through Creating Connection’s online “Afternoons of Nurturing Spirit” and monthly Satsang singing circles. I find hope in the church’s emerging online community “Awakening Spirituality,” that seeks to reach out to the “spiritual but not religious,” those who are hungering for spiritual connection, but who do not find it in traditional religion or church.
My prayer is to stay open to new possibilities, and to do the inner work that makes me more aware of my own judgments and biases, so I can remain open to the diversity of spiritual gifts both within and outside this church. I want to be a bridge, someone who honors the gifts of contemplation and slowing down, but who also takes compassionate action in the world. I want to bring wholeness of body, mind, and spirit, through embodied sacred practices, that help to heal the stress and trauma and anxiety that so many are feeling. I want to be a bridge between those who seek God in traditional ways in a church community, and those who seek to know God through a multiplicity of practices and religions. I want to be an instrument of peace in this wild and wonderful symphony of life.
Several weeks ago, as part of the online Spiritual Directors International Conference, I participated in a full day session with Inter-Spiritual Teacher Mirabai Starr called Sabbath: “Laying Down Your Burdens.” It was a spacious day of unplugging from the busyness of our daily lives so we could tune into our inner spiritual landscape. Mirabai describes Sabbath as the intersection between ordinary time and Holy time. It was a day to “Be still, and know” to listen, to heal, to dream. At the end of the day, we were all invited to make a renewed commitment to Sabbath. How can Sabbath time transform our lives and communities?
In a world that encourages us to be more, do more, consume more, we’ve forgotten how to slow down and connect to the One who waits for us. As Mirabai says “It’s so difficult to fit Sabbath into the tyranny of our life.” Even our church life often becomes more doing, and not enough being. We find ourselves tired and burnt out, rushing from zoom room to zoom room these days, breathlessly imprisoned in our tiny square. I find myself wondering what kind of creative energy might be unleashed if we truly took time for Sabbath in our lives?
As a yoga and meditation teacher, some of my students jokingly refer to me as the “Queen of Relaxation,” teaching embodied ways of slowing down to heal and release tension and trauma from our bodies, our minds, and our souls. However, I haven’t always worn this crown very well. I too get caught up in doing too much, trying to balance the demands of family, my yoga studio, my church life, my personal life. But God has a way of surprising and nudging us.
My roots run deep in Community of Christ. I grew up going to church twice a week, once on Sunday morning, and often a Wed night prayer service, as well as attending many camps and reunions. I always felt deeply nourished by this supportive church community, but something was missing for me. I had a deep longing to connect to God in a deeper, more contemplative, and embodied way. I wanted to feel God through my skin. I wasn’t sure how.
In my late twenties, I began a spiritual journey into yoga and meditation and other eastern practices. These spiritual practices have continued to nurture me and have become a mainstay of my daily practice. As I traveled to retreats, and ashrams and temples from many different traditions, this spiritual journey began to point me to the mystical and contemplative underground current of all religions. As I began to teach yoga and meditation in classes and retreats in my surrounding community, I wondered if these spiritual practices could nourish my own Christian community?
I began to share the gifts of sacred breath, embodied spirituality and contemplative practice. This was many years ago, and I was met with mixed reactions: some were curious, but others didn’t understand and weren’t always kind or welcoming. I felt the disappointment and pain of not being seen and accepted for who I was and who God created me to be. I’m not the only one. I know there are many of us throughout this church community, many who live on the fringe, and many who have left, who feel that our spirituality, our way of connecting with God or Spirit or by however you name the Great Mystery, wasn’t always fully accepted, or embraced. The Christ in me weeps for all of us who have felt that pain.
Still, the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Shekinah, continues to breathe new life and swirl Her creative energy in surprising and unexpected ways in this community that has always tried to stay true to diversity in beliefs, and practice and points of view. It’s not an easy space to hold. As a church that has stayed open to new revelation, new light, new ways of embodying and naming the Christ, I find hope in the new and creative ways that the church’s Spiritual Formation team is inviting us all into more intimate communion with God. I find hope that even in the midst of a pandemic, we are finding ways of gathering in the “Temple of Zoom,” reaching out through emerging congregations like Beyond the Walls, in ever fresh and life giving ways. I find hope in the growth of the Nurturing Spirit ministry that Debra Donahoe and a dedicated team on the west coast have offered through in-person retreats at Samish Island, and now offer through Creating Connection’s online “Afternoons of Nurturing Spirit” and monthly Satsang singing circles. I find hope in the church’s emerging online community “Awakening Spirituality,” that seeks to reach out to the “spiritual but not religious,” those who are hungering for spiritual connection, but who do not find it in traditional religion or church.
My prayer is to stay open to new possibilities, and to do the inner work that makes me more aware of my own judgments and biases, so I can remain open to the diversity of spiritual gifts both within and outside this church. I want to be a bridge, someone who honors the gifts of contemplation and slowing down, but who also takes compassionate action in the world. I want to bring wholeness of body, mind, and spirit, through embodied sacred practices, that help to heal the stress and trauma and anxiety that so many are feeling. I want to be a bridge between those who seek God in traditional ways in a church community, and those who seek to know God through a multiplicity of practices and religions. I want to be an instrument of peace in this wild and wonderful symphony of life.
