Our sources for wisdom are diverse
This week we consider the third section of the draft document, VisionWorks (2009), which is titled “Our sources for wisdom are diverse.” Gretta Vosper elicits input from the congregation about different ways in which our lives can be enriched by wisdom.
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Our response to life is love
This week we consider the second section of the draft document, VisionWorks (2009), which is titled “Our response to life is love.” Jeff Bower leads a conversation about the nature of love, eliciting input from the congregation that reflects a wide range of experience and understandings.
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Our Grounding is Interconnectedness
Members of West Hill United Church have been revisiting the document we call “VisionWorks” – first created in 2004 – revised in 2006 – and reworked again as we seek to reflect in words an evolving understanding of the values we choose to guide our living. Gretta Vosper reflects upon the first section of VisionWorks (2009): “Our grounding is the interconnectedness of all life.” She begins by looking at the process by which this document has emerged, going all the way back to days of the early church before any Christian community ever felt it necessary to nail down its beliefs or creeds or commitments or values. The kernel of early Christian communities was an abiding commitment to living with unconditional love, and like those early communities, our commitment sets us at odds with the dominant culture. Why? Because it is right. But, of course, there’s more to it than that …
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Song of the Open Road
In the second part of their meditation, Ken Ramsay and Janice Meighan introduce Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of the Open Road. They use the poem to facilitate reflection on important themes we all encounter as we journey along the open road: our bodies, our relationship with the other and with the earth, wisdom, death, and courage to journey alone. They present the meditation as a liturgy, and after each theme, they invite people to come forward and light candles.
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