Hello Friends,
As many of you know, I can be quite opinionated on various
subjects, not the least is the perils of organized religion. I often blame the vehicle
for, in my opinion, the failure of the drivers and passengers. When Trish and I
were married, we had a wonderful non-denominational minister, and at one of our
pre-wedding meetings, she did offer this
to Trish; “you will be quite lonely on your spiritual journey.” She was
referring to my very reluctant participation in any organized spiritual path.
It was a fair statement, and was given without any malice, for this minister
was quite wonderful.
It’s 22+ years later, and I’d say she was quite correct in
her prediction pertaining to 2/3 of that time. About 7 or so years ago, Trish
saw a “sign.” It was an actual sign for the New Church of Boulder Valley. She
casually informed me that she wanted to go check it out, and wondered if I
wanted to come along. To her surprise, I said I did. We were weathering some
rough times in our marriage, and were working very diligently on communication
skills, and I just figured that a little spiritual guidance could be a positive
addition.
Well it’s 7 years later, and they still welcome me through
the doors whenever I want to participate, which I can tell you means that this
community is very versed in “Tolerance” It is a Christian based theology, and
there are a few issues I have with the doctrine, such as not yet allowing women
ministers, and the whole marriage = 1 man & 1 woman thing. The depth of
these and other issue are constantly being mined, and it is my very optimistic
expectation that this congregation, one of many worldwide, will eventually sort
these issues out, pretty much the way the country is doing it, very slowly, but
progressively.
I've never met a more loving community anywhere I've traveled;
these people are completely authentic in every way. I've enjoyed taking part in this community,
enjoyed the message of love that is central to the every sermon. Live music is
also an integral part of the whole experience. When the music of The Beatles,
and Eddie Vedder, to name just a couple, are mixed in with the older standards,
it elevates the message for me.
The New Church was founded in the 1700s by Emmanuel Swedenborg,
and I have to tell you this cat is quite amazing.
He pretty much spent the
second half of his life writing volumes about the inner meaning of the stories
that make up the Bible. There is some incredible content here folks!
So each year the church has a “Spiritual Growth Campaign.”
And it is broken up into small groups hosted by individuals at their homes, and
at other unique locations. This year, one such location will be a local pub. I’ve
participated in a couple of these over the years, and have always come away with
a great experience.
A few years ago, I helped setup a system to stream the
Sunday services on the Web. And I thought it would be interesting to put
together a small group of people to participate in the actual 7 week campaign via
Skype, but also broadcast it out on the Web for anyone to pop in and have a
look at what was going on. At this time, I haven’t had anyone sign up, but I
still plan to go ahead with the Web broadcast, and invite anyone to stop in and
have a look. I haven’t worked out all the details, but I’ll be online next
Monday from 7:30-9:00 PM (so if you don’t get ESPN, or looking for a MNFB
diversion, drop by.
You can get to the “Watch
Live” link on the Church’s Website:
Or by clicking on this link:
I
’ll be doing a couple of updates this week with a little
bit more on what’s happening, so if you’re interested, check back later.
Ozzie
Ps You can also view all the small group options if you are
interested in one of those:
