Contemplative Group

Tonight's discussion went in some interesting and important directions. We began by discussing the need to control again, and we noted our desire for Order and Certainty. We quickly realized that exploring the Mystery of the Divine is both beautiful as well as disturbing. For, journeying the path of Mystery can also make us uncomfortable in that we do not always understand it...it is incomprehensible. As we are used to explaining and comprehending various problems, delving into incomprehensibility is often foreign and even frightening to us.

What we discovered is that exploring Mystery must always be tempered with a certain amount of Responsibility...for ourselves as well as those around us. We realized that moving into Mystery often makes us uncomfortable because we are used to equating simply waiting with inactivity and passivity. We are used to "doing" and controlling and shaping the outcomes in a given situation. Interestingly, however, passivity and letting go of control need not always be viewed as negative. Non-action is also a type of action when it is intentional. We must form and re-form ourselves in order to prepare ourselves for right action. That is, in order to be motivated by compassionate engagement with the world around us in a responsible way, we must also be willing to appreciate the Unknown Mysteries of this Life, learn from it, and incorporate it into our daily lives.

I am reminded again of the analogy of water from last week. A rushing river is formed and channeled by its environment. It does not force itself onto that environment but is shaped by that environment. Yet, water also exerts its own force onto its surroundings as well. Over time, its own force can be felt and seen. Simply "being," water eventually cuts its own path while still remaining fluid and adaptable enough to its surroundings. It is not that a river is passive. Rather, its patience and consistency, its active non-action alters its surroundings while also allowing itself to be re-formed by those same surroundings.

Human and Divine Responsibility are difficult questions, and we must continue to struggle with them. We must be honest with ourselves about our questions, the Unknown, and even the anger that often accompanies that incomprehensibility. We do not let ourselves be tossed and driven by any passing wind, but we also must embrace the mysterious unknowability of that fierce wind.

For further contemplation: "The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way, and resides at the center of the circle."
Lao-Tzu, Tao-te-Ching

We cannot control everything, but we do not simply remain passive either. We engage action through non-action. We approach responsibility through compassion and mystery. Sometimes it is difficult in its incomprehensibility, but the difficulty does not force us into apathy. Indeed, non-action is far from apathetic resignation. Those around us make their own decisions. Those decisions can be horrific and disturbing, and we must be ready to take responsible action towards those decisions. Yet, the mystery of those decisions remains, and we are not responsible for others' decisions. Indeed, it is impossible to be so, and we would drive ourselves mad believing this to be true.

Does "letting go" signify passivity?
Do we feel helpless at the center of the circle? If so, why?
How much control do we believe we should have over Life?
Is it our Responsibility to control the Mystery of Life?
Why do we seek possession of Mystery?
Are we actually called to do this?
Do we equate participation in Mystery with control?
Do we equate Responsibility with control?

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...

Contemplative Group

Tonight, we were back to our usual setup, and sadly, the labyrinth is put away. However, we had a good group, and the candlelight with the paintings from Beep Beep Gallery was beautiful.

We focused again on letting go of expectations. We discussed how expectations can be good, life-giving, and hopeful, but it is when we let these expectations become unrealistic that they become harmful to us. Expectations can hinder us and keep us trapped within a life of self-judgment and the fears of perfectionism that are rampant in our society. Unrealistic expectations seem to stem, according to our discussion, mainly from our need to exert control in our lives. However, this control is only ever an illusion that keeps us perpetually frustrated. We seek control, and when we cannot control our situations and environment, which we never can, we become frustrated and disappointed by the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves and those around us. Instead, we must be Generous in offering Grace to ourselves, those around us, and the ways we perceive our reality.

A helpful analogy voiced in the group was that of water. Water is fluid and adaptable, allowing itself to be formed by its environment. Yet, in its ever-changing flow, it also exerts its own force on the environment around it. It maintains a sense of balance. It adapts to obstacles, but over time, it also exerts its own force on those same obstacles. It alters its course, but it also changes that same course through its persistence and forgiving fluidity. It does not seek control. Rather, it continues on its journey without seeking control. Becoming more like water, we learn that we must be adaptable...and patient. Things do not happen when or how we desire them to happen, but by remaining fluid AND true to our own journey, we remain true to who we are and also free ourselves of the illusions of control and fear that dominate our lives.


For further contemplation: One cannot force a butterfly from its cocoon. It must emerge in its own time.

One must allow a young shoot to grow at its own pace.

Consider the lilies of the field.


Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can....

Holy Saturday Vigil

Many of us gathered at different times from 8pm until Midnight on this Dark and Holy Saturday to hold Vigil. The Loft was lit only in candlelight, and we came to sit, pray, reflect in silence, and walk the labyrinth. It was a time of silence and reflection as we meditated on the death of Christ in preparation for the celebration of Easter Sunday. We held on to our fragile hope, and we remembered the beauty and splendor of Christ's life...and death.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...

Service of Shadows

Our Good Friday service was beautiful, meaningful, and very moving. We began in dim light with candlelight and ended in silent darkness as we journeyed together through the Seven Last Words of Christ....to the grave.

Through spoken words, sacred music, artwork, powerful imagery, prayers, and poetry, we explored the depths of Christ's darkest hours. We remembered and we grieved for our loss.

As we continue our Holy Week journey together, we will be holding Vigil on Dark Saturday from 8pm to Midnight. Come join us when you can for however long you can for silent meditation, reflection, and labyrinth walking with candlelight, artwork, and music.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope that you will join us when you can...

Maundy Thursday

The Maundy Thursday service was a beautiful expression through artwork, song, silent reflection, word, Holy Communion, foot washing, and labyrinth walking. It was a truly moving service.

We explored the tension between the life and death of Christ, and we experienced the radiance of opposites that are present in our daily lives. We celebrated, remembered, and grieved for the loss we feel at this time of the year as Christ underwent the Passion. We focused on the liminal space each of us lives within in our own lives, and we discovered that living a life of paradox is not only healthy and healing but also embodies the life of Christ and his journey to the cross...and the grave.

For further reflection: A poem for Maundy Thursday -

This Last Supper
This Last Breath
His Last Sermon lived out…even to the cross

We share and commune
We wash feet
Tentative and unsure,
We bare our toes
Wondering at the beauty and meaning of this symbolic act

The altar is bare
The garden is still fresh and fragrant
All is quiet before the storm
But soon, He will be gone from us…

Stay, stay, stay…
Frightened and hopeful
Scared and trusting
We are caught, trapped here
Sheep without a shepherd
We grieve…we mourn…and we remember


As our Holy Week journey takes us deeper into darkness and loss, we will reflect on the Seven Last Words of Christ at our candlelight Service of Shadows tonight.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you can join us when you can...

Contemplative Group

This week, we continued our journey through the labyrinth by contemplating the "self." It was a wonderful expression of communal practice through the questioning and questing of subjectivity.

As we journeyed together, we discovered that we do not possess one, unified identity. Rather, we explored the depths of our fragmented subjectivity. We let go of the illusions and fictions we hold together around a unified identity, and we endeavored to delve into the many masks we wear in our lives.

As a spiritual practice, the practice of subjectivity is a difficult path to follow because it comprises who we "are" at any given moment in time. We attempt to present this unified "self" before God, but when we do so, we are not being completely honest with our "selves" or with God. For, we are multi-faceted and polysemic expressions of the Divine, and we must embrace our multiplicity. Whatever we think we are doing, we are always already constructing our subjectivities in the background of who we believe ourselves to "be."

Like a set designer of a play, we construct props and sets for the play of our "self." Some are forgotten, some are altered over the years, some are given too much attention, and some need to be destroyed. By holding on to certain aspects of our "self," we are limiting our own spiritual growth and healing. It is only through the intentional practice of letting go that we truly come towards wholeness within the fragmented multiplicity of our own subjectivities.

For further contemplation: "To be a self is to possess and to be possessed by a name. For every self, the primal scene is the scene of nomination - a scene of naming and being named. This nomination is a vocation, a call that is both a blessing and a curse. A name awakens identity by calling forth, setting apart, establishing difference. Only by a name can the slumberous innocence of anonymity be overcome. This 'gift' is not, however, a simple given. Vocation poses a task - the task of a lifetime. Thus 'the difficulty begins with the name.' The identity bestowed by naming opens rather than closes the drama of selfhood. By marking the paradoxical coincidence of freedom and fate, the name forces each self to decide 'How One Becomes What One Is.'" Mark C. Taylor, Erring: A Postmodern A/theology

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome in this place. We hope you will join us when you can...

InTown Movie Night

We had another great night serving the homeless a meal, vitamins, toiletry kits, and popcorn for the movie! Tonight we showed The Matrix, and we all really enjoyed it. We will be showing the entire Matrix Trilogy over the coming months. Remember that InTown Movie Night happens on the first Thursday of every month.

This is an exciting opportunity for the church to serve the homeless community in Atlanta. We are all together on this journey, and we must practice hospitality and vulnerability in all aspects of our lives. Serving the homeless is a reminder to us all that we are surrounded by a broken world, and we are all in need of healing. InTown Movie Night allows us to offer the castout and marginalized in our world a place of safety, nourishment, and rest...if only for a brief time. And, if we are open and vulnerable, it allows us to learn something about ourselves as well.

Just as we practice meditation through our contemplative group on Sunday evenings, offering service to others through hospitality and vulnerability is a compassionate expression of active meditative living...of re-claiming the sacred art of living intentionally for all of humanity through the holy act of caring for ourselves and for those others around us who share in this journey with us. By cultivating a spirit of vulnerability and hospitality in our daily, spiritual practices, we come to view the world as an opportunity to participate with and express compassion to each of us who are in need of healing.

If you would like to volunteer, just come to the church at 6:15pm on the first Thursday of each month. We would love to have you join us in this sacred practice of service to others.