Retreat 2012 Day 5

No beaches last night - yesterday was break camp day and start the journey back to Hampton. We managed to have everything broken down before showers came.

I have been reflecting this week on the story of the Macedonian Call and who may be calling us as a church. But sometimes there can be a danger in this.

On one of the nights while walking the beach or mostly granite type rock (Blandings Turtles make their nests on rocky beaches - they avoid gravel and sandy beaches), I noticed a quartz rock. Turning it over I saw the vein of fool's gold. This brought to mind the stories of gold mining in the area and those who had been fooled by the wrong rock.

In reflection I saw this as a warning to be careful as one determines Macedonian Calls. We have to be wary of choosing the fool's gold of Macedonian Calls.

Retreat 2012 Day 4

Another night without me seeing a Blanding turtle lay - this time on Heber 1. It was eerie until the mosquitos came out and the fish started jumping for them.

I had an interesting conversation about camps while I was at the Park library posting my blog. I was wearing my Camp Ta-wa-si shirt. (Ta-wa-si is the camp for Chignecto Presbytery and beyond). She was involved with a camp in Nova Scotia for which Linda did training in the early 90s.

Our conversation was about the role of Christian camp in providing a place for youth. It included discussion of how youth often feel unwelcome when they leave the excitement of camp and attend church services.

The encounter left me wondering if youth are issuing us a Macedonian call or have they simply written church off as irrelevant.

Retreat 2012 Day 3

Last night was a strange night for turtles - some on the beaches but none laying. The night was hot - I was in short sleeves and a bug jacket. I did not need the bug jacket.

Yesterday I started the second book which I brought with me - Bill Blaikie's The Blaikie Report: An Insider's Look at Faith and Politics. Bill was one of the resource people at the Atlantic Seminar in Theological Education which I attended last week. His introduction refers to political life as a vocation like ministerial call.

In the context of the Macedonian Call, that go me thinking about how we as church take what we do as a spiritual urging from God. In the United Church we often become hesitant about speaking of that which we do in spiritual terms. I often wonder if the 1988 decisions regarding opening of ordination regardless of sexual orientation would have been received with less controversy if the General Council commissioners had been more open about the sense of the movement of the Spirit experienced at that General Council.

I also suspect that finding our Macedonian Call will come from looking at the gifts and talents a church has and then building a group sense of vocation.

Retreat 2012 Day 2

Last night it was across the lake to Atkins beaches. Again turtles on the beach but none laying. It was cool on the back last night.

Today's reflection came as I started reading Don Schwietzer's collection of essays AHistory The United Church of Canada. As one who researches and writes in the field of Canadianization of churches I am been looking for the the themes which dominated Canadian church life prior to union - the settlement of the Canadian West, a unique responsibility to foreign nations, and the protestantization of Québec.

As a church we came into being because we felt that we had a Macedonian call from Western Canada, countries such as China and Japan, and from the citizens of Québec. The reality of the world and the passing of time is that those reason for being are now completed or passé or both. Crucial for us today is the question upon which I am reflecting this week. Who are the Macedonians today for us?

Retreat 2012 Day 1

For a number of years, often every second year, the way I have finished the program year has been to have a retreat week in the Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia. I act as a “mid-wife” to Blandings Turtles (Blandings Turtle population restoration is a major long term project in the park). This gives me time to reflect and see to plan for the next. Nothing like watching a turtle make up her mind whether to lay eggs, to give one time to reflect.

This year I am using Acts 16:9-10a as my reflection point:

During the night, Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia who was standing there and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” After Paul had seen the vision, we began looking for a way to go to Macedonia. (CEV)

Monday night sitting on Heber 3 waiting for a turtle to decide to lay or not (she didn't - three test holes no labour) gave me time to think about who the Macedonians are in today's world. Who is it that is expecting us to “come over”? That thought took me to the a disturbing question - “do we care?”

Has Christianity become so selfish that we do not hear “Macedonians” anymore? The last year in Hampton suggests that may be we are blind to Macedonian calls, but perhaps need to be more intentional. So much of Christianity today has become about personal salvation, self fulfilment, keeping our local congregation open, that we have lost the essence of what Paul experienced - a change of direction and focus.

Up a Tree

The little fella above, with a litter mate hidden behind the tree were struggling with the lessons which they had learned a few days previous. Linda had watched a mother raccoon teaching her kits how to open – and close – our cooler. Fortunately we secure our dry storage and coolers with stretching that the raccoons cannot undo (although they did eat through one of two on the cooler).

The two kits above were now on their own. The lessons were over. They had to forage on their own. Life was not as easy as they hoped – for they had been scared up the tree. The human with the camera was not helping matters. Shortly after this photo was taken they did get back on the ground.

Relfections on General Council Excutive

Reading David Hewitt’s tweets as he attended General Council executive reminded me of a lecture I heard at AST late 2004 or early 2005. Dr. Marsha Hewitt of the Toronto School of Theology questioned the usefulness of Post-Modernity for doing theology. David tweeted after a presentation about Post-Modernity. My fear is that the United Church may be getting caught in a past world.

In the fall of 2005 I went to Mount Allison Universality in Sackville, New Brunswick as Interim Chaplain. There I listened to students reflecting on how out of touch their professors were when they talked about post-modernity.

This has led me to conclude that the time known as Post-Modernity is over. That it served as a time of cultural liminality leading to the neo-modern world of the 21 ^st century. Finding a place in that neo-modern world is the challenge for the church.