A House for Hope

I just picked up a copy of A HOUSE FOR HOPE: THE PROMJISE OF PROGRESSIVE RELIGION FOR THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY written by John Buehrens, former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association and Rebecca Ann Parker, the president of Starr King School for the Ministry.

The book uses the metaphor of a theological house to articulate the 'frames that give our dreams shape and meaning.' Among the ways that this metaphor is used include:

1. The Garden. The authors begin with "eschatology." Eschatology is the topic in theology that deals with the ultimate end of life and of the earth. As the earth is our habitation and since liberal theology places salvation as belonging in this world, the earth and our relationship to it is the focus here.

2. The Sheltering Walls. This is the section on ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church. The question they pose: how can we approach religious communities in ways that promote not competitive parochialism but authentic interfaith engagement and cooperation?

3. The Roof. This is the section on soteriology, our salvation. What constitute's progressive religion's understanding of what we need to be saved from--and how?

4. The Foundations. What about God?

5. The Welcoming Rooms. Pneumatology. How might liberal religion reclaim a doctrine of the Spirit--a pneumatology--that affirms the importance of ritual and art? The authors say: In the liberal heritage, the notion that humanity is created in the image of God is foundational, making reflection on human experience a primary source of theology, and setting ethics and spiritual practice in the context of an affirmation of human powers and capacities.

6. The Threshold. Without pretending to any messianic powers, what is the mission of a liberal or progressive religious community?

Monkey Mind

Our wonderful Unitarian Universalist minister, James Ford, writes on the life of the spirit here. I recommend anything he writes!
http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/2010/04/dont-believe-anything-you-think-path-of.html

Rev. Thom's Reclaiming the Abandoned Places of Empire

My colleague and friend, Rev. Thom Belote, of Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church in Overland Park, KS, has provided a wonderful sermon on the abandoned places of empire and tells the story of the ministry of Rev. Ron Robinson in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Read the whole thing here: http://www.revthom.blogspot.com/ I've included some snippets and a photograph.

Payday loans come to Overland Park...

From his sermon:

The Abandoned Places of Empire. I did not invent the term. This term comes from New Monasticism, one of dozens of contemporary, post-modern, alternative, experimental, Christian movements. (The first of the "Twelve Marks" of the New Monastics is "relocation to the abandoned places of empire.") The New Monastics view the world we live in as comparable to the Roman Empire at the time when the Roman Empire began to disintegrate and collapse. They would say that the United States demonstrates imperialist tendencies, and not just in terms of its international policies.

What are the tendencies of empires? In an empire, the state, the church, and the culture become deeply intermeshed, inseparably interwoven. Empires elevate entertainment and the marketplace as the central focal points of society. The Roman Coliseum and the marketplace of 2,000 years ago are found today at The Legends [an enormous, upscale shopping and entertainment complex] with its race track and Nebraska Furniture Mart. We know the legends of Roman mythology. The Legends of today has a Coldstone Creamery.

Another feature of empire is that it systematically draws the wealth and resources out of some places and centralizes that wealth elsewhere. When the Roman Empire occupied the Holy Land, it taxed the people and sent that money back to Rome. It set the terms of trade and pulled goods and resources from the margins to the center.The Roman religion, first pagan then Christian, preached a message that justified the state.

Today, the New Monastics and other alternative Christian groups are critical of dominant forms of Christianity that legitimize the larger culture. The New Monastics critique the mega-church movement and its shopping mall aesthetics. They express concern towards the Gospel of Prosperity that many of these churches preach, the idea that God wants you to be rich and that material wealth is a sign of holiness. They criticize what they call “cultural Christianity,” a church that implicitly or explicitly blesses the larger culture....

****

I want to tell you a story. It is a true story. It takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is a story of two cities. It is the story of Owasso and Turley, two of Tulsa’s satellite communities. My good friend Reverend Ron Robinson lives in Tulsa. He is a UU Christian and wanted to start a new church. When Tulsa desegregated, the white flight sent people racing to Owasso. Owasso is an affluent suburb completely and completely lacking for liberal religion, or liberal anything for that matter.

Since liberal Christianity didn’t even have a place in Owasso, Ron decided he would start a church there. He called it Epiphany and the church grew 600%. In other words, it grew from a church of two members (Ron and his wife) to a church of twelve. One Easter they managed to get 25 in worship. The church grew dispirited with trying to make itself viable in Owasso. The spirit moved them and they decided to replant their church in Turley.

Let me tell you a little bit about Turley. In the 1960s Turley was a solidly blue-collar town. By the new millennium it had become an abandoned place of empire. It had gone from blue-collar to no-collar. Its residents were either retired or unemployed. Here is what the community looked like: no new housing had been built in decades. There were almost no businesses, no employment to be found, and little if any public transportation. Parts of Turley are unincorporated, meaning no municipal government has responsibility for it. Trash piles up. Feral dogs and cats roam freely. There are few grocery stores and the community had no access to healthy food. There are no hospitals and no health clinics. There are no movie theaters and no spaces for youth to gather. You can’t even get a pizza delivered there.

So, Ron Robinson, his wife, and their 15 year-old daughter moved there and they re-launched the church, calling it “The Living Room.” Its impact was negligible. One Easter the church decided to line Turley’s streets with pots full of blooming daffodils and tulips. People came and cut the flowers or dumped out the dirt and took the pots.

The church changed again. They decided to stop holding regular church programs and to transform themselves into a community center which they called “A Third Place.” Today, the church is a core group of around 8 people. They operate a community center for the residents of Turley. The Community Center runs a food pantry, an extremely popular internet center, a modest library, a community medicine clinic, an art gallery, and a coffeehouse with live musicians. They offer free meals, community classes, a children’s area, a games area, meeting space, a sewing co-op, 12 Step programs, and an animal welfare clinic.

They formed a partnership with the University of Oklahoma which has launched public health and social work initiatives in the town and works to bring community health services to the residents there. They have started a community gardening program. Native American members of the Turley community plant the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash. With a donation of land, they have started a community orchard. They practice what they call “guerrilla gardening” which involves reclaiming abandoned lots or even a median strip or a sidewalk and planting there.

There is hope here, but there is also tremendous despair. Here is one more thing to say about Turley. “A Third Place” community center is actually on the exact same street as All Souls UU Church in Tulsa, the largest UU church in the country. They are eight miles apart from one another. The average life expectancy in the zip code where “A Third Place” is located is 14 years less than the average life expectancy of All Souls’ zip code.

*****

There is wonderful ministry going on all over the country under the Unitarian Universalist label. Thanks to Ron Robinson and his unique ministry.

Introductory Remarks

Hello Rev. Roger Butts here.

This is an attempt to blog for the ministry at High Plains Church. Here you will find news about the church and our various ministries. Here you will find notices about upcoming events. Here you will find sermons, old and new. Here you will find links to blogs and websites we like. Here you will find book reports. If it is related to liberal religion, Unitarian Universalism, Colorado Springs, or High Plains Church you might find it here. Your comments are encouraged. Let's begin!

You can find out about High Plains Church at www.hpcuu.org

Be well!