From 1975 through 1991 I was active in addressing World Hunger issues as part of my work as a United Methodist minister. I was part of a team providing education on hunger issues and raising funds for projects to alleviate hunger. I became aware that while we know how to solve hunger issues, we are reluctant to take the actions to do so. One dynamic in that is consumerism. We think that by consuming more an inner hunger can be satisfied. It cannot, it is a spiritual hunger.
I started exploring neglected spiritual practices such as meditation and shared those with others. One of the books I read was Original Blessing by Matthew Fox. I subscribed to Creation Spirituality Magazine where I noted the ads for summer workshops. In preparation for a summer workshop in 1994 I meditated for openness to whatever might evolve during that week in discernment of my sexual orientation with which I had been wrestling for many years. Through body messages, the experiences of the workshop classes, dreams, and conversations, my discernment confirmed I am gay. At the end of the week I pledged to the participants that I would return home and live with honesty and authenticity.
There were many challenges to doing so including ending a marriage, dealing with the fact that as an openly gay person I would no longer be able to be a minister in the UMC, and deciding where my life was going. I often felt I was standing on the edge of a cliff about to step off into nothingness. Each time that happened I received a card or a phone call from one of the participants in the summer workshop. They had become a nongeographical community, the members of which seemed to intuit when a word of encouragement was needed.
In the fall of 1995 I began studies at the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality. I was interested in the work being done integrating the wisdom in all spiritual traditions and the new science. The pedagogy which included both left and right brained learning also appealed to me.
In the fall of 1996 I went to work at the University of Creation Spirituality (which Matt Fox founded after the ending of ICCS) where I was extremely blessed in working with Matt, the staff, students and extraordinary faculty. I had moved through the via negativa and entered into the via creativa. One of the great joys for me was advising students on their dissertation projects which were expressive of all the paths of CS including a strong commitment to practicing the via transformativa of justice making and celebration.
It is with great joy that I am able to continue engaging with the widespread network of people who a part of the Creation Spirituality movement. I'm excited that Creation Spirituality Communities, Inc. is becoming a focal point for encouraging, sustaining, nurturing and networking that community.
