NEWSLETTER # 5. November 2008

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EVENTS
Reflections on CSC’s Summer 2008 Event
            by participant Carol Kilby, D.Min…

Event & Education for 2009
          Summer 2009 – Mark your calendars
          Asheville, NC July 17th to July 24th  2009

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ARTICLES

New look, new feel, new CSC website
          We found a much more community-oriented approach…

Financial Matters
          Report from our treasurer...
 

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EVENTS
Reflections on CSC’s Summer 2008 Event
 
What I did this summer -or-
My Trip to the Centre of the Universe.  Honest!

by Carol Kilby

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Matthew Fox's dangerous and devious publication, Original Blessing we’d Prius’ed (drove via Hybrid) to Indiana.  And we celebrated, ‘Big Time!’

We celebrated that, despite severe environmental threats, we live in marvellous times. There are many inspired and transforming leaders, Matthew Fox, the Dominican’s answer to Darwin, being one. Declaring to the religious world that human origins spring, not from sin but from blessing, Fox debunked the doctrine of Original Sin in 1983. The fifth century beliefs, that all creation is fallen, separate from God, and only to be returned to a state of paradise at the second coming, Fox showed were just plain wrong. Neither biblically based or taught by Jesus, these beliefs have perilously justified a devastating relationship to the planet in the industrial era. Creation, corrected  Fox, is spirit-full, and a revelation of divine presence and grace. A creation-spirituality tradition, traceable to 900 BC, he claims can lead us to better revere our Mother Earth.

With other alumnae from the former University of Creation Spirituality, we celebrated that we come from Original Blessing - sometimes known as The Big Bang. What's the original blessing? That we are part of a communion of subjects not only on the 3rd rock from the sun, but in the universe. We are not ‘meaningless in’ or ‘separate from’, but ‘central to’ the cosmos. This, according to authors of The View from the CENTER of the Universe. They were speaking metaphorically, not geographically. Nancy Abrams showed we humble homo-sapiens not as flawed, but as the centre of all possible sizes in the universe. At this time our physical frame has evolved to the right size to carry a brain able to comprehend, via telescope, imaginations, and language, the miracle of existence. Also, in that the sun will become a red giant star in another six billion years making earth uninhabitable for our kind of biology, these are Gaia’s middle ages. With song, dance, and apples, we celebrated these Big Times, ie., these decades which are filled with unique opportunities to provide our descendants an expansive future.

To illustrate this prophetic power, scientist Joel Primack took us, via actual video images gathered by the Hubble Telescope, into space. Traveling at the speed of light we moved into the Milky Way Galaxy, around Orion’s belt, past the sword, and swoosh, into outer-space, past Andromeda, toward the Virgo Cluster, half a million miles passing every second. It was thrilling, But then, like a child joyfully exploring the Woods who suddenly steps over her comfort-threshold and is suddenly fearful, we gladly turned homeward. Like Dorothy back from Oz, we returned with gratitude, and with our eyes truly opened, there’s no place like home.

So what did I learn from my summer holy-day in deep space? In reality, there is no centre of an ever rapidly expanding universe. Nor is the human-centric fascination any longer useful. But with the universe as central to our world view, focusing on where in time and space we are as a species, we can travel beyond religious fundamentalism and fatalism, as well as secular cynicism. Celebrating these ‘Big Times’ will aid us to work, play, and live with a resurgence of Gaia-centred compassion, commitment, and creativity. 

That's what I did this summer. Write and tell us about your experiences and how they made you fall more in love with life on earth!

For Gaia, Carol Kilby  info@gaiacentre.org

Gaia Centre for Eco-Spirituality and Sustainable Work is a retreat and learning organization. It's headquarters is in the awe-filled  Haliburton Highlands of Ontario, Can.

www.gaiacentre.org

 

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The Third Annual Creation Spirituality Communities Event will be July 17th- 19th 2009 followed by a Week-long Course and Art-As-Meditation in Creation Spirituality.

         

 

 

 

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A new look, new-functioning website…

A few brave pioneers have helped us to test the waters on a new approach to our CSC website, which can be found at http://originalblessing.ning.com , and soon will be the default website when you visit www.creationspirituality.info .  

The new website is built on a platform of social networking, and so allows (in fact, relies on) multiple authorship and contributions.  The content is driven by the interests of those who participate.  Videos, pictures, forums (fora?), blogs, audio… as well as pretty standard textual content can be a part of this new site. 

Come and have a look, and join in!

 



 

 

 

 

 

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From the Treasurer…

The CSC gathering in Greencastle Indiana was a blessed event in many, many ways – including financially. During event planning, the board and event committee set forth the prayerful intention that sufficient financial resources be available to provide:

·        an excellent value in place, amenities, content and connections

·        scholarships to individuals needing financial support

·        honorariums to community members providing special service to the event

·        fiscal responsibility – covering all expenses

We are very pleased to report that all these goals were achieved and we even ended with a positive balance of $530. In addition, the CSC community made an offering on the last night of the event. A total of $2978 was collected.

Thank you to everyone who made these financial blessings possible. I am reminded that the word currency comes from the same root word as current – a steady and smooth onward movement. As we build this work of creating Creation Spirituality Communities, we are manifesting the smooth and steady flow of resources to support the work. That is an exciting blessing indeed!

—Diane Wolverton