god can be found...even in times square

well, last night was a total success!

a packed house sat and listened to our own jeremiah witt as he showcased his photography and spoke about the various places that he sees god's handprint.

for years he has been taking pictures of various items and for the past few months he has been taking pictures of things specifically for this event.

however, the power from the night came from the raw honesty and willingness to explore and find god in surprising places that truly impacted the immersion community.

we were shown god in a twisted tree, in rivers, in lakes, in mountains and even in the power of geysers, we saw god in the lone, golden leaf standing out in a snow-covered field. we saw caves as god's 'workshop' where the sense of humour of the Almighty can be exercised. we were shown a bible and told that god is in there. not just because of the words or the book itself but also because it began it's journey as a living tree...the living word come from the living world.

but, where some of us feel we learned something was that jera showed us that god can be seen in things made by people too. from the olympic tower in montreal to the front of our own building, we were shown that a building can show the spiritual journeys of architect to architecture to artisan and artist...each one guided by the creative hand of the creator.

we were shown that god can even be in those places that are out-and-out considered unholy. times square has rarely been seen as a hub of godliness but jera countered that by saying that millions of people have walked through this famous [and infamous] part of new york and if god is with them then god is there. god is no prude...god is a saviour and a saviour goes where the people who need saving are!

in relationships we see god's love and desire for us to enjoy community and to know that we are not alone in this world. friends pick us up and comfort and console us and, in doing that, enact the mandate that we are called to love one another and do unto them what we would have them do unto us.

where have we heard that before?

afterwards people thought that what was powerful was the idea that these pictures communicated: anything can be beautiful when looked at through the eyes of god. one does not have to be wearing a tuxedo or evening gown to be beautiful...the truly beautiful person is the one who possesses inner beauty and character regardless of what adorns their outer person.

the message of the gospel is that god is not a judge of the exterior....but the truest judge of the heart

we listened to christmas carols with rock n' roll beats and some funkier songs that sang of the christmas message of a god who loves us all so much that he went to unimaginable lengths to bring wayward humans back into the fold. it is good to see god in the little and surprising things in everyday life...but it is also good to see god in the extraordinary and miraculous. for our god, this god jehovah....yahweh...elohim...this god, yeshua....jesus is a god of true power and true grace and true compassion and true humility and when we start to see this god every day we can start to become more like this god everyday and in every way.

what a wonderful service to send us all into the christmas season

thanks jera

and merry christmas to all!!

where i see god....through the medium of photography

our very own jera (beloved by all) has been snapping pics and will be sharing with us tomorrow night about where he sees god in everyday life.

this is such a valuable chance for our community to be blessed by the spiritual journey of another.

it is also a chance for each one of us to find a voice and a way to communicate the way we talk to & see god in order to bless others

we are called to follow god and part of that journey means revealing what we are seeing to others...kind of like a tour-guide for the divine.

if there are others in our community who want the chance to use their gifts/passions to communicate god and bring praise to the One from whom we receive those gifts and comfort to our fellow-journeyers please start brainstorming and immersion would love to facilitate such an experience.

looking forward to seeing part of jera's journey....looking forward to seeing how it impacts the journeys of others as well.

shalom.

edenism: we're watching garbage!

we're going to the screening of the film garbage at the immersion theatre house

either meet at walt's house at 7pm

OR

meet at our theatre house for the 730 show

this event is FREE

[click here for directions to the theatre house]

read up on the side what the film is about

it is a perfect addition to our ongoing edenism series where we discuss the spiritual ramifications of environmental issues.

PLEASE join us...if you have any questions email jamie at jamieatwalton@yahoo.ca

thanks...see you tomorrow as we watch 'garbage'

seder meal

last night's meal was a success. many of us gathered around a large table and said prayers together and followed a format similar to the Jewish Seder meal.

the great thing about many Jewish pasttimes is that they are so deliberate and intentional in showing how every action we make during something like a meal can have spiritual significance. we eat bitter herbs to show us the bitterness of the yolk of slavery experienced in Egypt. it also doubles to show us the bitterness of a life lived in sin and far from God.

we dip green herb in salt water and taste the tears and sadness of a life lived in bondage. we light candles and turn on lights to remove the darkness and, in so doing, enact the Light of the World entering into our communal and personal darkness[es].

we say prayers together, each of us taking a turn at leading, to show the priesthood of all believers. then, in the middle we sit down to eat a filling meal and talk about Jesus' attitude towards Gentiles.

we looked at Mark 7:24-30 the story of the Gentile woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus then calls her a dog and tells her that dogs are not deserving of food set aside for the children. she replies that even dogs get scraps that fall from the children's table. Jesus seems impressed and tells her that her daughter is healed.

this story causes some discomfort because it does not appear to be the usual, kind Jesus that is more than willing to heal anyone who comes, he seems rude and dismissive. but the core issue here is in the mission of christ.

jesus was jewish, was a jewish messiah and came to the jewish people.

a gentile had no place in that salvation story. and Jesus says as much.

but then something wonderful happens: the gentile woman gets it!

Jesus has been telling all the Jewish people parable after parable and few seem to get what he is driving at. however, this woman, this pagan, gets what Jesus means and incorporates Jesus' image into her rebuttal.

she knows that she is not a child of God's chosen nation and she accepts Jesus' description of her scenario. and in that humility this woman showed what it meant to be a true follower, she showed true faith, she showed the true character of a child of God. she accepted that even a dog in this man's house was better than being a king anywhere else. she was desperate to see her daughter better and took everything Jesus sent her way...even an insult.

therein lies the power behind Jesus' response to her: he acknowledged her humility and rewarded her.

it is important not to try to wash away the offensive elements of this story because they teach us something about the character of Jesus and how we can approach him.

we are given the delightful ability to walk into the very throne room of God and petition the Almighty with whatever we have on our minds, whether trivial or important. the key to the character of the true follower is in the state of humility with which we approach. do we come in arrogance assuming that God must answer our demands or do we come in humility begging God and accepting whatever we receive?

in other words: are we willing to be dogs in God's house or would we rather be kings in our own?

it is not that God considers us dogs but it is important to realize that the Gentile believers came to the fold later on...were adopted in as it were. we are very much part of God's salvation story now and for that we should be humbled and grateful. but we must never forget that the story came to us from our Jewish brothers and sisters and we cannot understand Jesus unless we understand that he lived and taught as a Jewish man. after all, Jesus was not a christian!

the scandal of the message was that, just before the incident with the Gentile woman, Jesus taught that the Jewish cleansing rituals were not important because it is not what we eat that makes us impure but how we live and what we say. with that Jesus removed one of the great traditions that separated the Jews from the Gentiles. with this teaching Jesus showed that a Gentile could be on par with a Jew in the eyes of God because a Gentile was capable of doing good and a Jew was capable of evil, whether or not they washed their hands before eating became irrelevant.

then Jesus goes on to heal this woman to further prove his point. after all, this woman showed that it does not take a Jewish mind to understand the message of Jesus but, rather, a humble and contrite spirit. coming with nothing to offer and with no hope and a profound understanding that she did not deserve Jesus' favour ending up being the very things that so touched Jesus about this woman and caused him to offer her daughter relief.

the arrogance and entitlement of the religious leaders continually put Jesus off and ultimately led to these conceited individuals crying out for the death of the One they claimed to serve!

so, at the close of the tale, let us christians not make the same mistake as the religious leaders of Jesus' day. let us not approach Jesus with arrogance or with the idea that just because we go to church, or sit on a committee, or attend Bible study that we somehow have earned God's favour. all those things aid us in finding out who God is but these things are all for naught if we lose our sense of reverence and humility.

if we come to God seeing ourselves as unworthy he promises to lift us up and show us just how loved we really are. for the dogs of heaven beat the rulers of earth every time!

seder meal pt II

this post comes from an email between a couple of immersion people. while our discussion was great it barely scratched the surface of this topic. hopefully, this will help clear up some more questions so grab something to drink, get comfy and read away:

Okay, the history of the split comes later on and i think this is worth talking about. God moves where God moves and works with those who respond to his message. In Acts 10 we have Peter receiving a vision where God tells him to eat the animals that are considered unholy by the Jewish dietary laws. He tells God that he would never do that and God challenges him by saying that all things God has made are holy. Jesus would also challenge the Jewish dietary laws in the story right before the one we talked about last night. He told the religious leaders that it is not the food that enters into people that makes them unclean but the unholy words and deeds that come out of them. Once Jesus said that the great dietary divide that separated Jew from Gentile was abolished because it meant that any Jew could act in a way unpleasing to God and any Gentile could act in a way pleasing to God. According to Jesus, the things that made the Jewish people ethnically separate were not the same things that would get them into God's good graces.

So, back to Peter, after his vision he encounters some messengers from a Gentile Centurion named Cornelius who has sent for him because he is intrigued by this new Jewish sect called The Way (what Christianity was originally called).

Peter goes to the house of Cornelius and the entire household accepts Peter's proclamation of the Gospel (do yourself a favour and read it...it's really good) and the Holy Spirit falls on them like it did for the Jewish followers of Jesus on Pentecost.

Then Saul becomes Paul and begins to bring the message of Jesus to his fellow Jews who frequently refuse to hear or believe him. In fact, some even tried to kill him. However, Paul noticed that the Gentiles were receiving the message and asking what they could do to become part of the family. Paul seems to have grasped the grace of Jesus because he did not hesitate to include them in the saving plan of God. In fact, in Romans he even stated that he thought God was using the Gentiles to shame the Jews into realizing that the pagans were figuring God out faster than those who should know better.

He seemed to be convinced that sooner or later the Jewish people would
come around.

Some of the Jerusalem church followed after Paul and tried to convince the
Gentiles converts to The Way that, in order for the message of Christ to work
for them they needed to be circumcised and thus enter into the Covenant of
Abraham that separated the Jews for all others.

Paul was incensed and fought this thinking tooth and nail. He saw this as
compromising the message of Jesus and basically saying that the death of
God on a cross was not significant enough to bring all people into salvation...and it is there that we see the crux of the Jewish Gentile issue.

God always planned to save all people. But the way in which he does it is to get one person on board. That person was Abraham. From that one man a nation was born that would be blessed by God so that they could, in turn, bless the world. He even puts them in the land that was considered the crossways of the ancient world so that every other nation would pass through and hear the message of God. Instead, the Jewish people hoarded the message and used their status to make themselves feel superior.

Thus, when Jesus came he was doing the same thing. He spoke and acted in the ways of the Jewish prophets and referred to the Torah for all his teaching. He showed himself to be the Messiah spoken about by the prophets; although eh was not the kind of Messiah the Jews thought he should be. Sadly, because of preconceived notions of what the messiah should be many Jews missed what he was saying but the dirty pagans seemed to get it (well, some of them anyway). It is a profoundly humbling message to all of us today. WE do not tell God where to go, He shows us what he is doing and invites us to follow, if we continue to refuse we lose out on what he is doing.


By the Gospel of John (A.D. 90ish) there is a noticeable gap between the Jewish community and the increasingly Gentile community of The Way (by then they had adopted the name Christian which was actually an insult leveled at them by people in Antioch...they basically said "Look at all those people trying to be little Christs...Christians!" and our forebears thought that sounded pretty good so here we are). Paul has already written to the churches that God is in the business of adoption and so the Gentile people, while not part of God's original chosen people, have been adopted in and are as much in God's family as anyone. Sadly, once the Christian community received power under Constantine (4th Century) they used their power to punish those they blamed for killing Jesus and the Jewish/Christian rift has grown ever since.

That is a Loooooooong message and it still does not capture anywhere near all the implications of what the Gentile acceptance of God's message means...in fact, that is what most of the New Testament talks about....the alteration...completion....interesting turn taken by God's salvation history.

tonight...excited

so tonight should be pretty cool. we are going to gather for a meal...but not just any meal. a meal that is intentionally about getting to eat and worship as a group.

we are going to break bread in a manner similar to the way in which jesus used to...

pretty cool.

so, for those who read this ahead of time feel free to bring any contribution you want to the meal tonight...if not, that is cool too. there will be plenty for everyone!

check out a meal designed to feed both body and soul...tonight at immersion.

who cares about sunday morning?

seriously, if you ever attend a church service or mass do you ever look around and wonder if this is at all what god had in mind?

we watched a short film from the nooma series last night titled: sunday. [you can check out a preview by going to the 'videos' section of this page]

in the film rob bell sits in a restaurant [presumably after church on any given sunday] as christians, fresh from church, come in and sit down for a post-worship meal.

he asks questions and challenges the religious structures of the day. he quotes the prophet isaiah and he quotes jesus to back up critiques of the 'going through the motions' kind of church experience. he compares an unhappy church-goer to a husband bringing home flowers for his wife because 'it is my duty' or 'because there was a sale and they were cheap' he comments that no wife would want flowers out of duty; she would rather receive them as an expression of love. god is the same: he does not want worship from people trying to assuage guilt or doing it just because that is what we are supposed to do. god wants people's hearts...nothing less, nothing more.

so, after the film we discussed.

many in our community are frustrated with the state of the church today. there is little room for spiritual creativity, and some even feel that the church gets in the way of those who are genuinely seeking after god. imagine that: the church as a hindrance, not a help, to the spritually hungry! can you think of anything that would anger god more?

many people argued that the reason why they continue to come to immersion week after week is that they enjoy the community and the ability to dialogue with other people about matters of the faith. they think it is important to learn what other people think and feel. they want to be challenged and not be spectators to their own faith journey being told what to think by 'experts.'

church is such a strange thing. we gather together to learn about a jewish peasant who lived 2000 years ago and how he died and came back to life and we think he is god. that is weird.

truly weird.

but if it is true then shouldn't a church that holds to the teachings as radical as turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, forgive others, plead for the widow, defend the cause of the orphan, love the marginalized and forgotten members of society as if they were god in the flesh, treat each other with love, be so consumed by love that it becomes the defining trait of your community attract some attention?

should the church of jesus be in decline? i mean, look at the message that we have been given! it is like nothing else...it is otherworldly.

maybe that is the problem. maybe church has taken this message and made it suitable for mass consumption and maybe, just maybe, the church is now teaching the wrong thing. maybe, just maybe, we have become the religious leaders that jesus found so infuriating in his day.

maybe, just maybe, church needs to be re-tooled a bit. otherwise, if we are not preaching the gospel then why should anyone care about sunday morning, wednesday night, bible study or anything else to do with the faith?

can we get rid of christianity and just concentrate on being christian?

if you're interested...

so i have been asked by st john's to come and be the guest speaker at their alternative service this saturday [the 24th].

these services are pretty cool with a lot of drama, rockin' tunes and a good message [well, until this year!]

it would be cool to look out and see some familiar faces in the church when i talk. if you can/want to come meet at walt's house at 7pm...then we'll head over. their service starts at 730.

thanks....jamie

who am i? who are we?

the question of identity shapes our perception and our understanding of this world, our place in it and our relationship with god.

last night dallas shared with us the story of the nation of israel as they struggled with national identity and various crises of faith.

from abram's destined journey from ur to the overly-confident dream weaver joseph's trip to egypt to the wanderings of the people in the desert to the arrival in the promised land to the subsequent babylonian captivity to the return of the people of god to their land under the persian king, cyrus. all stages had their struggles and all parts contributed to the journey of israel's understanding of what it means to be the children of god.

dallas had us break into groups and talk about times when our own identity was shaken. here are some of the answers:

loss of job

media's influence over our body image

crisis of faith

death

illness

rumours

bullying

family dynamics

each one contributes to new questions about our identity. each one challenges the pre-conceived notions we have about ourselves. each one forces us to look at the box we put ourselves, and others, in and rebuild it.

as israel struggled with bondage and captivity and infidelity towards god and even whether or not to build a temple they were learning who god was [and is] as well as who they were called to be.

at the end of the night dallas held up the large poster board with all our situations and identity-influencing factors written on it, opened a can of paint, and covered them with a cross.

identity: it is not about those things, it is about seeing that god became flesh and blood and dwelt among us to show that we are not to build temples to god but we are to be temples to god.

identity: it is not about what others say about you but understanding what god has already said about you: 'while you were still screwed up and not even looking for god, in fact, while you were actively opposing him, god died for you so that you may come to know him. you did not choose him, he chose you.'

'nuff said? easier said than done!

thanks dallas for a good lesson that needed to be said.

David Suzuki Info

For those of you who were at the park clean-up in October we were talking about getting in contact with the David Suzuki foundation in order to learn as much as possible about environmental issues (hedonism vs edenism)

anyhoo, our li'l environmentalist, teija, fired off this email as a point of reference so, if you have the time, take a quick boo at it!

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

thanks teija

do only christians go to heaven? part II

as children adorned themselves in costumes a gathering of people sang some songs, watched some videos and ate some candy together while discussing the fate of our eternal souls.

beth and iain led us in some beautiful music

there was a video about a man in a hole (see below)

we discussed john 14:6

"i am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me."

and asked...what does this mean? is jesus the only way to heaven? do you have to be a christian to go to heaven when you die?

well, that incited some interesting perspectives. people are not comfortable with the idea that something as simple as being a christian is the measuring stick of entrance into the pearly gates. it is hard to argue that saying a prayer and calling on a name can include you and exclude others. people argued that there are plenty of people out there who were not christian but who are great and noble people. what do we do with someone like ghandi? is ghandi in hell simply because he didn't use the name of jesus?

then the point was put forward that just because something makes us uncomfortable does not make it untrue. after all, god is not beholden to us, we are beholden to god.

we do not tell the bible what it says, it tells us. we do not interpret it, it interprets us. we do not clarify it, it clarifies us.

so, where are we left? who goes to heaven?

the problem i have always had with the whole idea that only christians go to heaven is simple: jesus was not a christian.

but we cannot throw this passage out, we cannot lose the theological baby in the bath water of our culture, so to speak. when we read this passage it points us to one and only one conclusion: jesus is the way to heaven...like it or lump it, that is what it says.

but is that the same as being a christian? i think not.

i think in order to be a follower you must be just that: a follower. we then read a story from c.s.lewis' chronicles of narnia the last battle. in this story a young soldier who has followed after another god and not aslan is confronted by the great and awesome lion. he falls to the ground knowing that his hour of death is at hand. still, he is thankful for being able to see the lion before he dies.

but aslan does not condemn the man for his service to another but affords him grace and welcomes him because the good service he had done could not be done to someone evil...evil and good are opposed. therefore, one cannot serve evil by doing good and one cannot serve good by doing evil.

christians can do the work of satan and still call themselves christian. when a christian kills an abortion doctor, or beats up (or discriminates against) a homosexual, or rejects a person based on religion it is quite possible that their 'christian duty' is actually service to the dark lord.

by that logic, can not a person who does not call on the name of jesus serve god? if a persons answers the call of the holy spirit deep within them can their service not be honourable to god, even if they do not know whom they serve (and it can be argued that none of us truly know)?

we left the conversation with this thought (it might seem like a bit of a cop out but i think it is a good place to start): we spend too much time worrying about who is 'in' when that was not the message of jesus. jesus came to this earth, and began his ministry, to show people not how to go to the kingdom of god but that the kingdom was present. what kind of a world would it be if we spent more time trying to bring the kingdom here instead of wondering about what will get us there?

so the answer to the question is simple: do only christians go to heaven? that's up to god.

but christians can also bring heaven here...that is much more profound.

we concluded by watching this video by author brian mclaren...hope you enjoy it. see ya next week.

do only christians go to heaven?

this is the topic of this week's immersion

this is a disturbing question because it deals with a person's ultimate and eternal destiny.

this notion that some people are in and some are out does not sit well with many people and it will be interesting to see where people are at with this question.

so, tomorrow night there will be some music and a video but the lion's share of the evening will be dedicated to discussion.

after all, if we can't answer this then where do we sit?

just because something is uncomfortable does not mean that it is untrue so what do we do with this idea that there are some who are forever cursed or, at the very least, destined to miss out on the love god has for the human race? let's chat.

immersion...not for spiritual tourists

at the foot of the cross

there is little to report about last night because the images stand for themselves.

i am kicking myself that we didn't have a camera there to capture the service because there were a lot of powerful things that happened last night.

we stationed various tables around walt's house with words like 'lust' 'rage' 'indulgence' 'waste' 'pride' and 'gossip' and people were invited to read over our definitions and then look at the art or display pieces present at each station. if something resonated with them they were invited to pick up a stone and carry it with them.

at the end of the stations (there were 13 total) people returned to the main room and we all sat in a half circle and talked. then we played the song fix you by coldplay and people reflected on what the stones symbolized. during the song, as people felt led, we placed the stones at the foot of a cross we had placed in the middle of the room, surrounded by candlelight.

the theology is simple: when we honestly journey with god we begin to become aware of the things in us that are not holy, that can be downright destructive and evil. we become aware of our deplorable condition.

and if the faith ended there it would be a terrible thing. but the point of the journey was one of self-awareness as we all had to pick up stones and admit that we were the bearers of these 'weights of transgression'

but the journey was not about self-awareness or shame. the journey was about the cross. the journey was about taking that step of self-awareness and seeing that, even though we may think we are doing okay, we are in desperate need of salvation.

last night's service was about an image. and the image was the weights that we carried (both literally and metaphorically) being laid down at the foot of the cross.

we entered into that service light...we became aware of our own heaviness...then we were invited to lay down those burdens at the foot of One who loves us so much that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.

salvation begins with awareness of sin but, thank god, it ends with that sin losing all power over us.

next week we wrap up our discussion on conversion...join us.

conversion...what's the point?

knock, knock

who's there?

annoying religious types interrupting your sleep to tell you about jesus.

annoying religious types interrupting your sleep to tell you about jesus, who?

annoying religious types interrupting your sleep to tell you about jesus, because that is how conversion is viewed by a lot of people!

a terrible joke...a disturbing truth.

at last night's immersion service we discussed what it means to be converted. some people had some positive things to say about it...others compared it to certain people who knock on the door and bother you with literature and pamphlets about their religion.

we talked about the biblical character of zacchaeus and his encounter with jesus. we talked about the great lengths this little, despised, and criminally wealthy man went in order just to see jesus pass by. he risked physical harm at the hands of the crowd, he risked humiliation as he climbed a tree to see the One he came to see.

we talked about how, after his encounter with the One who called him by name to come down from the tree and dine with him, he gave away half of what he owned and paid back 4 times what he took.

then we talked about the fact that jesus declared salvation to zacchaeus and his entire home.

why?

something happened in the little tax collector (latin: publicanus) that made him into a new person. he was converted from the crooked money-grubber into a generous and honest person. then jesus ends the story by saying that the son of man has come to find and restore the lost.

it is in the term "lost" that many people get ruffled.

when saying that some are lost and some are found we get the idea that some are in and some are out. some are messed and some are free and clear. that makes people angry.

so let's change what lost means. let's say that lost is not about being condemned but about being in the wrong place, on the wrong path, just some place that we don't need to be. everyone (i think) can relate to that. now, when zacchaeus was stealing from people and taxing them too much he showed that he had lost his way. after his encounter with jesus he had been found...adn salvation had come!

i think conversion is something we don't talk about too much in the ol' ucc but it is essential in order to understand the faith

after all, what is the point of learning all this stuff and going to church if not to become better people?

what is the point of becoming a better person if not to become a good person?

why stop at being good if we are not going to try to attain perfection?

what is the point of trying to be perfect if that is not something we can ever achieve?

and i think it is in these questions which help us see the need for conversion...

we are all, at one point or another, on the wrong path. we are all lost (not damned or even condemned) and in need of guidance. and that is where jesus comes in.

for the kind of conversion that god has in mind does not come from within but from on high. god loves you so much that he refuses to allow us to stay in our lost state...god has come to find and restore the lost. conversion is not about who is in and who is out...conversion is about being set free. like a prisoner getting released from jail, like a sick person at the end of an illness.

conversion. it is not about being made into something you are not, but about being born into something you were always supposed to be...but just forgot along the way.

this is the vid that we used to start the service.

goin' up to the spirit in the sky

well, tonight is all about conversion and the deeper questions about who gets into heaven and why.
it should make for some interesting discussion and, no doubt, some differing views.
the question before all the faithful is: what does it mean to be a follower?

what does this faith journey entail?
what is it supposed to look like?
what is the point of being a follower?

hopefully we'll get some more answers tonight...or, at least, ask some good questions.

18 li'l monkeys came out to play....

well, i must confess that i am impressed. through the rain and cold our community of park-cleaners was MUCH larger than i expected. i honestly thought that maybe 3 or 4 people would come and hang out but i was quite surprised when 16 other people joined melissa and i to clean up donovan bailey park last night.

the night was great...and wet...and cold and then there was the whole "dead frog" incident (some of our group toiled over whether or not to throw out the body of someone's deceased pet frog found in the field or if we should give the poor thing a proper burial....then we turned it over and noticed that this creature was apparently made in china...so i guess that settles it, god is chinese! we threw it out after that). we filled 3 bags with garbage-which was good because that park is actually quiet clean-and spent about an hour doing so.

at the end we took some time to reflect on the fact that environmental issues, when viewed with the idea that god has given this planet to us as a gift, are really spiritual issues.

teija shared with us that she is joining david suzuki's plan to help households to become more environmentally friendly and we look forward to getting more information about that.

afterwards we chatted for a while at tim hortons and then ended the night.

on the car ride home i commented to melissa how much better last night went than i expected and i must share with the whole community that i really think god is taking care, and honouring, this little experiment. we are seeing new faces joining us each week and the discussions are good, the music has been amazing and the spirit is rich and full. truly we have been blessed and i look forward to next week's talk about conversion and whether or not christians are the only people to get into heaven. should be interesting. check out the videos for a cool short film about creation and we'll chat again soon.

ps: oh yeah, and we even had our first "immersion north" team that were out last night cleaning in northern ontario as their way to stay connected with the group even though they were far away...very cool.

tonight, oct 10

okay, so we are good to go for the 1st ever edenism park-clean-up challenge.
the weather is looking good tonight at about 12 degrees. there is a chance of rain so if it gets really bad we'll clean for a while and then head to the tim hortons for coffee and a chat.
hope to see you out there tonight.
7pm donovan bailey park...just look for the immersion sign

check out the video section for an interesting short film (about 8 minutes) called creation about, you guessed it, creation.

edenism

he-don-ism
1.
the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good.
2.
devotion to pleasure as a way of life: The later Roman emperors were notorious for their hedonism.

e-den-ism
1.
reversal of the hedonistic ways of our society which have greatly threatend the health of our planet.
2.
a play on words [see pun] in that it is also an attempt to respect creation and struggle towards a time when the earth was more in balance, i.e. the garden of eden.

edenism is a philosophy/ideology that concentrates specifically on contrasting the aspects of our culture that are seen as detrimental to the health of our planet. within edenism littering, not recycling, using too much energy/water/non-renewable resources and letting one's car engine idle become spiritual issues.
caring for the garden god made for us is part of the mandate of the faithful and we are trying to take that mandate seriously.
that is edenism because, after all, life began in a garden.