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A Fitting Complement
We had a good time last night at our weekly VBCC gathering. We got to hang out with new friends Peter and Amber, getting to know them a little better. And of course there was the ever-present snacking session. We also, after all that, adjourned to the living room/sanctuary to recite the Nicene Creed, then took up our ongoing discussion of the Merton quote that Alan has been posting in stages here. Of course, the portion that we discussed last night is the most recently posted portion of the quote (see just below). It was very cool to talk about what God has in store for us, as individuals and as a community of believers. So, it was a very nice complement to that evening to wake up this morning to the following quote in my CQOD mailing:
"There are, I should say, four elements in a redemptive community. It is personal, with things happening between people as well as to and in them individually; it is compassionate, always eager to help, observant but non-judgmental toward others, breathing out hope and concern; it is creative, with imagination about each one in the group and its work as a whole, watching for authentic new vision coming from any of them; and it is expectant, always seeking to offer to God open and believing hearts and minds through which He can work out His will, either in the sometimes startling miracles He gives or in steady purpose through long stretches where there is no special "opening". It may fairly be said that unless one enmeshes himself in this "redemptive fellowship" of the church, he lessens his chances of steady growth and effectiveness, in his Christian life and experience."
~Samuel M. Shoemaker (1893-1963), The Experiment of Faith [1957]
| posted by #Debi | 7:04 AM | 1 comments |
Monday, September 13, 2004
suspending monthly gatherings
We've had a pretty good season of having monthly Gatherings on the first Saturday of each month - hosted at the facility of our friends at Church of the Apostles. We thank them for their hospitality. We've decided that it's time to suspend these gatherings though. We may do this again in the future, but now doesn't seem the time to continue. So, there will be no further first Saturday Gatherings of vbcc. We will continue to meet on Tuesday nights at 7pm.
I put this on the vbcc site and wanted to publish it here too. Like I said up there, it just doesn't seem like the time for this right now. It hasn't really been what it needed to be. It has been good "practice" though, for when we'll need a Gathering like that.
| posted by + Alan | 3:47 PM | 0 comments |
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
love & living - part 3
Another good discussion on the second part of our Merton passage last night - this time with two new friends. We actually found that I had mis-typed a part of the quote on part 2 - I fixed it - it's not right below. It appears now that God really DID wish to come and pitch his tent among men. Wheeew. I'm glad. Anyway, we'll be continuing our discussion next Tuesday night with the following passage. I'll be careful this time.
This is precisely the "new commandment" which is at the heart of the "new covenant" or "New Testament," that is to say, the new relationship between man and God, the very essence of the teaching of Christianity. The teaching of the Gospel is that men are no longer servants of God, no longer bound merely to complex ritual observances and obscure legal systems known only to experts. Men are free from the domination of abstract religious systems that can only be understood by specialists. They are sons of God and brothers of one another, united in a community of freedom and love in which their law is love and in which they are guided by the Spirit of God dwelling in the Church and in each of its members - the Spirit of sonship, of freedom, and of love.
| posted by + Alan | 7:23 PM | 0 comments |