reflecting on the Christmas Story Event

Cheryl Lawrie posted this blessing on her blog:

Go into the world
and into this most remarkable of weeks.
Be confident
that even in the midst of our
chaos and celebrations
hope is pushing its way into our world
again
in a story as old as the universe
and as new as this moment.

We offered it to the 15 people who gathered for the first Esther Project story event. In our new pattern of gathering as a community of faith, story and creativity, we will be spending time with one story from the biblical narrative each month or so (with variations on the pattern for lent, etc.). We will spend three weeks 'encountering' the story, asking questions, making connections between the story and other biblical and non-biblical stories, our own lives, and beginning to imagine retelling the story for our own context. On the fourth week we will create a story event, an alternative worship space in which we will offer the fruit of our discoveries in prayer, conversation, silence, music, liturgy, art ...

So through Advent we were encountering the story of the birth of Jesus as it appears in the gospel of Luke. And we spent much of our time wondering about the 'marys' and 'shepherds' in our time. I won't repeat that here - you can find it on the Esther Project website if you're interested. What I will say is that through these weeks we have had something of an extended 'aha' moment, having found at last, a shape to our gathering that fits our hopes and dreams for this new community.

And having made that particular discovery, after much struggle and discerning, we were confident in our invitation to others to enter the story event space and share in our discoveries and thanks to the Spirit for the Story.

The process of putting the space together was wonderfully collaborative - or at least that's how I felt, and I hope the rest of the group also felt the same. In our third week of encountering the story we pulled together what had been important discoveries for us from spending time again with the story of Jesus' birth. As we talked, made suggestions about how to craft the space, a shape began to emerge, which I plotted out. We then each took elements of the worship event to prepare, and emailed back and forth with the further nutting out of our story event. I found it a really energising experience, in what was a difficult week personally, and am so very grateful for the gift of creativity, of community, of Spirit and of story.

The space itself was just what we hoped it would be, and we received positive responses from those who came and experienced it, some looking forward to the next story event at the end of January.

It is so rewarding to have a dream, a vision, for a renewal of the shape of church, and to see it begin to take shape in The Esther Project. The core team who are helping to bring this community to life are a wonderful group, and my hope is that those who would like to check out this community will pluck up the courage (coming along for the first time is always scary) and enter the story space, to see if this might be a life giving community for you too.

Christmas Story Event - The Esther Project

venturing beyond the edge of our own tradition

Last night I was at a dinner of people that gather in a couple of groups that Nicholas Rundle coordinates. 

Some are people from a Philosophy Cafe, which sounds interesting - they're toying with the idea of a series of conversations next year around Moses and Socrates ... 

Another group was people who meet for meditation led by Nicholas, an Anglican priest, and a Buddhist monk. It was interesting to talk with Nicholas, hearing his approach to leading such groups in a way that honours where people are, what their different ideas are about Spirit, mystery, Sacred. 

It's got me thinking about that fine line we walk, along which we seek to meet people where they are at, honour the humanity of all and the different ways we all nurture our spirituality, an also seek to live out our ideas about the Sacred with integrity. 

I wonder how much of our own faith tradition we need to set aside in order to truly honour the traditions of others, or whether it is possible to avoid being one person within our own communities of faith where there is more freedom to explicitly name and celebrate the truths we find in our own stories, and being another when we are meeting with people of different traditions ?? these are questions I suppose many are asking, and have found answers they can live with, or interfaith relationships wouldn't be thriving in as many circumstances as they appear to be. I don't pretend to have any answers to these questions, and to be honest, I am not even sure these are the questions to ask. 

I feel very new to the interfaith relationships, and know there is so much to learn. 

I hope I will persevere, though, because I do believe that through The Esther Project we have an opportunity to build peace and understanding through the shared stories of the Abrahamic faith traditions. The shared nature of these stories is so often ignored by Christian community. I would like to think we can let go of our fear of difference, and embrace the mystery of the movement of the Spirit, in order to let God be God, bigger than we could possibly imagine, and utterly unable to be pinned down within one set of ideas, traditions, dogmas, or another. 

continuing to encounter the story of Christmas

The Christmas spirit is simply having faith that the story may be made real again: That love will be born, even here - Cheryl Lawrie.

Join us for a sacred story encounter on Monday December 14, 7.00 – 8.30 pm, Christ Church Wayville – 26 King William Rd, as we hear the story of the birth of Jesus as told by Luke - how might that story become real for us?

You are also invited to join us for a sacred story event on Monday December 21, at the same time and place ... how might love might be born for us, even here? Wine and cheese provided.

The Esther Project welcomes people from all faith traditions to share in the life of our community.

Contact Sarah on 0408 087 754 for more information or email contactus@estherproject.unitingchurch.org.au.

mothers, children and chocolate

A person I've met through The Esther Project has introduced me to Compassion.

We were talking last week and this at our Story Encounter gatherings about the difficult conditions in which Mary gave birth to Jesus, and wondered about women today still giving birth in 'back rooms' and laying their new born babies in 'mangers'.

Rose shared with us that yes there are many women in this situation, but that there are groups offering help and hope to these women. One such group is Compassion, and their 'Bundle of Joy' campaign not only give women in developing nations a chance for access to health care support, but offers education about being a mother and caring for a child.

And today Rose emailed me some information about a group campaigning for an end to child abuse through trafficking and forced labour. The focus of their efforts at the moment is Nestle, whose chocolate is made from cocoa beans sourced mainly from the Ivory Coast, where children are forced to work in the plantations. Check it out here.

I know there are many groups offering support to people in developing nations, and asking for your help. I put these here because they are two groups I didn't know about, and these campaigns appeal to me - especially the calling Nestle to account, whose behaviour has been unethical for years.

So hold these groups and the others you know of in your prayers, and if you have time, inclination and resources, offer your support to those in need this Christmas.