| The Church of the South Pacific |
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Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
The Church of the South Pacific now has a Discord server for people of all faiths and none:
https://discord.gg/Pb8bqby Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
Our Father, a poem and prayer:
To Him who holds us in His arms Like newborns; separate one, Never distant one, may your name Be held with with reverence, awe and fear; Weighty, precious and unyielding: Holy, holy, holy - God! Though sovereign, reveal your sovereignty; Though majestic, unveil your majesty: As the oceans mirror the heavens, May all bathe in your compassion, love and justice And so reflect it. Send us your manna, oh Lord; Send us quail in the desert of our lives. Give us honey from the comb And wash the dust from our skin As you dress us in white robes And adorn our fingers with a ring. May we remember your kindness, Servant King, Lest we judge others for the dust they, too, tread. Silence the voices that lure and beguile; Silence the yearnings within Which drive us into darkness And the teeth of wolves. And when the bramble and nettle lie across our path May you, oh Shepherd, Lead us safely back to pasture. Yours is the crown, the rod and the scepter; Yours is the strength to action And your very being is raging fire And rushing water And soothing wind. It has always been thus. It will ever be so. Amen. Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
A Reflection on our Current "Crisis"
I don’t normally do this. To the best of my knowledge, I have not had any of my reflections or articles touch directly upon the South Pacific as a community before, but if this really is a safe space for talking about faith and spirituality then that is at least partly by virtue of its context and it must, surely, speak into that context at times too. It is in this manner, then, that I have felt called to reflect on our current situation this evening.
As many of you will be aware, especially if you’ve ever read anything there before, I’m currently going through the Church of England’s ‘discernment process’, by which I mean the process of meeting, discussing, reading, praying, gaining practical experience and many other things besides which makes up the official part of a journey towards, possibly, being selected for training for ordination in the Church of England. In short, I’m hoping to become a vicar, one day. As part of that process, I meet regularly with a vicar who oversees this part of my journey and we discuss how I fit or don’t fit the current list of qualities that CofE think are needed to be an ordained person. Tonight, we looked at service. I’ve always tried to approach my roles here in TSP through the lens of service. Sometimes I’ve carried that out more successfully than at other times, but it is certainly always my intent to serve the community in one form or another, even if stupid things like my ego or my laziness get in the way. As we were talking about what service is, the forms it can take, I was reminded that I set up this thread as a kind of service too and that, at a time when our relationships within the Assembly feel suddenly so fragile, when I know that many of us are tired, or sad, or anxious, or all of these things and angry besides, that I have an opportunity to serve here, that I can open myself to the region’s pain and be present for it - not as a participant; neither a victim nor a victor - if such there be - but as a servant willing to take that pain on in some way. But of course, service isn’t about me. I was struck by this all the more as my meeting moved on to a passage of scripture, which, it turned out, was the perfect passage to share and reflect on right now. Philippians 2: 1-11 Wrote:1Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. The vicar I was meeting with asked me to speak about which words stood out to me as we read and, with tears forming in my eyes, I could only mouth ‘emptied’ and ‘humbled’. I have tried to approach the heated debate in the Assembly with calm, with reason, with what I hoped were strong, but peaceable arguments to appeal to the other side and get them to see my point of view. I failed. The emotive nature of the debate for some - those who passionately wish to cling to something they know and believe in, those who passionately want to see the region grow and develop in new ways - meant it was never possible to have a calm, reasoned debate; not on the internet, where it is all too easy to mis-read, mis-interpret and then mis-characterise. Very quickly there was a tension between the fun side of the region and this other part, which, whilst we all have done a valiant job of not letting it spill out from the Assembly into other areas of our communal life, has doubtless spilled out into our real lives as stress and pain. I know that I have been more tired this week, more hamstrung by inertia, and more anxious than I have been for quite a while and underneath all of that is a terrible sorrow that is hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t been part of it, because, after all, isn’t this just a game? But the pain is real and the solution for myself, I fear, is to succumb to it, to open myself up to and then to empty myself of all my pride, my ambition, even my legislative good intent, and just seek to serve the community and to help it (and me) heal. The passage above speaks about how things should be between Christians in a community, with Christ, the ultimate example of self-emptying humility as our inspiration and standard, but of course the whole point of Christianity is that we wish the whole world to be like this and that community-standard which the Apostle Paul is talking about here translates to a great many non-Christian aspects of life. And so it seems to me that, as a community, we do need to be of one mind in this. Now, I do not for one moment naively think that that means we will all think the same things, nor do I believe we must all come to perfect agreement on the matters at hand, but we do need to remind ourselves of those things that unite us, of all that we already agree on by virtue of loving and serving this strange online community of beautiful misfits. And part of that, too, is recognising the hurt that we have caused, apologising for it and seeking forgiveness. That doesn’t mean suddenly changing our opinions about a piece of legislation, but it does mean recognising where we have handled our part in it badly and being willing to put that behind us once it has been hung out in the open and seen for what it is. This is what true reconciliation is and it requires us to ‘get over ourselves’ just as Jesus did - he didn’t bank on his status as the Son of God, though he had every right to, but served his followers and accepted death for their sake. We too must not seek our perceived due but must empty ourselves of all of that and come before each other with humility. It is with that in mind, then, that I say this: If my comments and arguments have hurt or offended you in this, then I am truly sorry. It was never my intent to diminish or demean, nor to trample on hopes and dreams, but only to serve in new ways and in fighting for that I have clearly got it badly wrong at times. I have defended my actions in my mind by counting the slights I have felt against myself, but, if I’m honest, I know those were never intended this way, either. So I empty myself of them, pluck the arrows from my skin and drop them rather than hurling them back. I am truly sorry and I hope that I might receive forgiveness for my part. After that, where do we go? I do not know, but I am choosing to empty myself there as well. I will not fight what I have felt to be my cause - nor any other - for the rest of this debate but will, instead, try to remain impartial so that should anyone feel the need to confide their fears or frustrations, then there is at least one person they can turn to in complete confidence who is neither an echo chamber (for well have them, do we not?), nor an enemy. If you wish to take up this offer, you know where to find me. Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
So, having resigned from almost all responsibilities in NS and with a greater need to focus on my vocational discernment and related application, I should probably revive this a bit, eh?
I'd really like to see other people posting here, though. Do you have any questions? Any thoughts or musings of your own on the topics of faith or spirituality? I'd be interested to hear from people of different faith backgrounds (or none) as well, because we could all benefit from greater understanding. I'll try and post a reflection here once the weekend, anyway. It'll be good to get back in the habit. Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
So... That worked out.
But here's a blog post about pilgrimage and videogames. Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond! Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi. Salma 145:8
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