June 2018
Dear Friends,
We have lots of exciting news! James Long and Dan Ahlgren have become our first charter members and both have agreed to serve on the Board of Directors of Church for Our Common Home. Our California tax exempt status has also been approved AND, Dan, James and I are all sighed up for a one week straw bale workshop the first week of October in Temecula, to learn how to build a straw bale church building and community for Church for Our Common Home! You are more than welcome to join us and we will also enjoy camping and sleeping out under the stars in Temecula which is just about 50 miles north of San Diego. The workshop costs $800 so please check it out
www.strawbale.com
and join us. Once we have taken the workshop we will be able to host a similar workshop for the participants to build our straw bale Church for Our Common Home, a church dedicated to the divine feminine, Mother Earth and AWE, Art, Wisdom and caring for the Earth. Kind of like the way communities here in America would gather historically to raise someones barn in a day and
then everyone would do the same thing for each other.
Our plan is to ask owners of land here in San Diego to donate an acre or more for us be able to create a church that is an
ecologic intergenerational community for community
makers
caring for children, praying, worshiping God/dess, growing
our own food and spiritual awakening as we create a new religious story for our time. If you have land that you would like to donate to the church or know anyone who might, please let us know or if you have any ideas on how we can be gifted with some land for our eco-village. We are following in the footsteps of the great ecologic saint in Christian history, Francis of Assisi as well as a woman he loved and who loved him deeply, that has been too often left out of history, Claire of Assisi.
In 1205, at the Church of San Daniano in Assisi, Italy, which later became St Clare’s first monastery, St Francis had a vision while he was in prayer before an icon of Jesus.
Jesus said to him "Francis, Francis, go and repair my house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." Later Francis realized that Jesus had not meant an actual building but that he was being called to repair the love, spirit and devotion to God's magnificent creation. Our vision is to follow in the footsteps of Claire and Francis, a couple like Jesus and Mary Magdalene who loved each other deeply and supported one another's calling to be of service and follow in the kenosis of Jesus self-emptying love. Like Mary Magdalene who was with Jesus when he died, Clair was with Francis when he died, and like Mary Magdalene, Claire lived years later continuing in his work.
I believe we we need more intergenerational communities that join the old with children and some single parents who need grandparent adults to love and care for them. Older people similarly often don't live near, or for whatever reason, are not in close relationship with their grandchildren. Church for Our Common Home can reconnect older adults with children. Come join our prayer, conversations and pot lucks as we share and envision what kind of eco-friendly religious community we will create together.
Other news is that I was nominated to be the Vice President of the Unitarian Universalist Society for Community Ministers and will attend my first board meeting next week via the internet. It is a privilege to serve in this way and I look forward to learning more about what other UU community ministries are doing across the country and how we can support one another.
This Sunday June 10th a small group of us are going to the Otay Mesa Detention Center to witness and protest the separating of children from their families that the US government is currently engaged in.Join us at 9 am.
Sunday in the afternoon also on June 10th we will also watch the live stream of the Poor People's campaign from 3-4:30 pm before we car pool to
Torrey Pines State Park Beach for our second Sunday practice of worshiping outside at the beach. Find us near the parking lot and park ranger station
and we will have our large earth flag so you will be able to find us easily.
Special thanks to James and Kaori Long who gifted us with a beautiful Shinto ritual, as well as a Japanese translation of our closing prayer, St Francis Prayer, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace. We all enjoyed Kaori's delicious Japanese soup, and rice balls. Check out some of the photos from our worship service.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6VeKbxG66aAaWHEf6
.
We send them prayers for safe travels for they are currently on a grand adventure in Japan. James even posted a photo of himself wearing a Church for Our Common Home T-shirt on Facebook! James continues to astound us with his abilities to stay connected on the internet, write blogs and we loved having him participate in worship on live stream Facebook while he was in Japan, as well. The internet is an outward manifestation of the mystical truth of our oneness and interconnectedness on earth.
Dan is our techno genius who has gifted us with the miracle of connecting us with James on Live Stream on Facebook as well as doing our live stream on Earth Day. He has also volunteered to help us paint the dance floor of the Mary Magdalene Cafe on a few Saturdays this summer and we hope to begin an inter-generational dance class for children and adults. We will share more about Dan and James and their many talents, gifts and passions.
We are still reflecting and giving thanks to all those who worked on our earth day weekend event with First UU Church of SD and 350.org and will continue to process and integrate the great wisdom offered us by Dr. John B. Cobb Jr and Dr. Ramanathan. Please check out some of the photos and thank you to all who worked on the event.
http://www.churchforourcommonhome.com/photo-gallery/
One of the prayers written on the paper flowers left on the altar from earth day reads, "Mother Earth- You are the planet that we live on. The stuff we love to do on you makes us feel great!! Love, Emma"
Dr. John Cobb wrote in 1971 in his prophetic book,
Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology,
"Belief in the Spirit is no grounds for complacency. There is no guarantee that people will respond to the Spirit's promoting in sufficient numbers and with sufficient sensitively to begin the healing of the planet. The future can be different from the past. Therefore, there is hope. Where there is life, there is hope."
May we give thanks to God's pulling us forward, with the promise of love and hope as we create a new cosmic story for our time.
Love always,
Bonnie
P.S. Field Trip Saturday June 30th
to Salvation Mountain, Slab City and East Jesus an Artistic Community on Saturday, June 30th. We will be leaving at 4 am in order to miss the heat of the day. This should be a wonderful source of inspiration
Leonard Knight created a beautiful place dedicated to the idea that God is Love.
Weekly Lectio Divina
and Centering Prayer
Contemplation of scriptures for following Sunday and an ancient Christian contemplative prayer practice every Wednesday, 10-11 am.
Monthly Taize first Sunday of every month.
Monthly Prayer and Healing Service third Sunday 5 pm
.
Dream Circle
every first and third Sunday before church 3-5 pm.
The first and third Sunday of every month we have a dream circle immediately before worship from 3-5 pm and invite you even if you barely remember your dreams,
for in our experience just attending a group where people share their dreams, often increases dream recall.
Our Common Home Counseling Center’s services
: addiction issues, PTSD, individual and
group therapy, Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, etc.
