Each VMM missionary takes personal responsibility to seek and pursue
fullness of Christian faith in his or her own situation and
lifestyle. And, aware of the support and prayer of the whole VMM, our
task is to be true Christian witnesses in the world, with that
freedom and flexibility that invites and embraces all.
Spirit and Lifestyle
"We are all called, ultimately, to wholeness and holiness, and that
insistent urge for fullness resides within each one of us. We cannot,
however, become whole whilst we experience ourselves as separate
(physically, mentally, or emotionally) from the anawim - the poor and
the disenfranchised. Although many people have an opportunity to live
on the margins through their work with the marginalized, it is those
who allow themselves to be transformed by them who are truly the
icons of a new interconnected vision of the world. The very survival
of our planet is dependent on such transformation and vision.
"We are all affected by diminishment and poverty whether we see it or
not, are conscious of it or not. At some unconscious level we too are
diminished - and we know it. Something is missing, something is not
right, and we feel restless in that empty space. St. Augustine said
that we are made for God and our hearts are restless till they rest
in God. I would add that our hearts are restless until all God's
people live in peace and have access to the basic necessities of
life. We will all know woundedness until we heal we heal our world,
for all that is connected. Whether we recognize it yet or not, we are
all interdependent. We are one body - our whole planet one living,
breathing, multifaceted glorious creation of God....
"Most of us, thank God, are not called to live on the extreme margins
of society in order to be faithful. But all of us, at various points
in our lives, are called to step out in pursuit of integrity and
justice. When we do take such timid yet brave steps we may be sure
that our souls will be stretched and we will see a little clearer our
horizons widened..."
Edwina Gateley from Christ in the Margins
Some good news in today's paper: The Beaver Lake Cree Nation, 240
kilometres northeast of Edmonton, is suing the Alberta and Canadian
governments - and, by extension, every citizen of the country - over
oilsands development on their traditional hunting and fishing grounds
and a UK bank, The Cooperative Group, a financial services company
based in Manchester, England, together with a BBC documentary crew
and four UK print journalists are supporting them. The Oilsands has
earned Canada bottom ranking among developed countries in the World
Wildlife Foundation's climate change report card.
Cecily
7/14/2009
We recognize that we need each other. We are a community-based
movement that stresses and encourages the value of praying together,
working together, and sharing our Christian journey. We believe that
it is through our shared and reflected experience in family and
community that we will truly grow together deepening our spirituality
and making a difference in our World.
Spirit & Lifestyle
Today, I want to continue quoting from one of Edwina Gateley's
reflections in Christ in the Margins.
"When we do take such timid yet brave steps we may be sure that our
souls will be stretched and we will see a little clearer as our
horizons are widened. The process is always somewhat painful -
stretching often is - but if we are not to be seduced into becoming
part of an unjust system, we must be open to seeing more clearly and
living more deeply than we often do. Our relatively comfortable
lifestyles can leave us disconnected to what is really going on in
the rest of our world. Understandably we probably don't really want
to know what's going on anyway - we are aware that all is not well.
News of famines, disasters, and real and imagined threats break
unbidden into our suburban lifestyles. We are well aware that the
whiff of evil is never very far away. Given that reality, and in
spite of the faith that calls us to be fearless in the pursuit of
truth and justice, it is tempting to simply hunker down and hold onto
whatever but of security and comfort we can. Rather than confronting
the shadows of our world we are seduced into an apathy that leads us
to deny the truth and to hide beneath those very shadows - thus
becoming, ourselves, part of the world's darkness.
"The alternative to denial is very disturbing. But we have to be
disturbed until the Realm of God becomes a reality. We cannot but
respond when the restless grace of God moves in our guts, stirring us
to be vulnerable to conversion - to the stretching that carries us
forward in the pursuit of truth and love. Even in the midst of our
anesthetized lifestyles - especially in that very environment of
relative comfort and safety - we are never without an invitation to
be more than we elect to be. Those who choose to live on the margins
beckon us to reject the lie of individualism and self-satisfaction
and listen to the deeper calling within."
If I had read this a decade or two ago, I might have been tempted to
say that it was exaggerated - "the whiff of evil is never very far
away" - but as I have become more and more involved in today's
international, national, and local "issues," the call made by Edwina
becomes more and more urgent. We have to be disturbed. This weekend I
watched "Addressing a "Public Option" for Health Care on the Bill
Moyers Journal on PBS on Friday evening and got up at 6 am on Sunday
morning to watch it again. The stench of evil is overpowering. You
can find the transcript and comments on www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/
blog/2009/07/assessing_a_public_option_for.html
Cecily
7/28/2009
Whenever possible, therefore, VMM missionaries live together in small
groups, or renew and strengthen each other through visits,
correspondence or regular shared activities.
Spirit and Lifestyle
"We hunger for communities of meaning that can transcend the
individualism and selfishness that we see around us and that will
provide an ethical and spiritual framework that gives our lives some
higher purpose." Michael Lerner, Politics of Meaning.
In a couple of the groups to which I belong, we have noted that
newcomers attend one meeting or two but then do not return. One or
two in a given year become a member of the group - just enough to
replace those who leave after several years for very good reasons.
And yet we would like to have more members. Murray Dobbin suggest
that if progressives, whether in unions, activist groups or political
parties, don't soon begin doing politics differently - radically
differently - they will fail to show that a "better world is
possible." Dobbin points out the lock that consumerism has on Western
so-called civilization is formidable - a virtual death-grip on our
culture and our future as a species. We are defined more and more by
what we have, less and less by our relationships to family, friends,
colleagues and community.
American rabbi and radical Michael Lerner blames what he calls
"secular fundamentalism" - the tendency amongst mainstream activists
to stick rigidly to a rationalist and technocratic interpretation of
both politics and culture. He calls for a culture of meaning which
"posits a new bottom line. An institution or social practice is to be
considered efficient or productive to the extent that it fosters
ethically, spiritually, ecologically and psychologically sensitive
and caring human beings who can maintain long-term, loving personal
and social relationships. While this new definition of productivity
does not reject the importance of material well-being, it subsumes
that concern within an expanded view of 'the good life': one that
insists on the primacy of spiritual harmony, loving relationships,
mutual recognition, and work that contributes to the common good."
So, what do we do? In one group we went on a two-day retreat -
together at a lakeside cottage provided by a religious community. We
shared in meal preparation. We prayed together and shared. We had two
child minders and two children who joined us for meals. And next
September? We will contact personally and individually those whom we
think might join us and we will spend more time sharing and listening
to each other at meetings. We'll try to be more welcoming. Certainly
the way we have grown together is through our shared activities.
Wherever we are we all need to "renew and strengthen each other
through visits, correspondence or regular shared activities."
Cecily