Basin & Towel

So, here we are exploring the boundaries of our faith. Are we the bleeding edge or the lunatic fringe?

So here I am. In some ways under duress. I have a love/ hate relationship with blogging and I haven’t even started yet. Part of it I know is because I’ve so enjoyed how articulate so many bloggers are as they relate their stories and I’m not sure I could articulate my way out of a wet paper bag. But one thing I know is that I am perfectly ordinary and that there are other perfectly ordinary people out there who may be encouraged by my fumbling around. Maybe my comfort with my imperfectness will make someone else comfortable with their imperfectness and they’ll give themselves permission to try too.

One of the things I’ve appreciated about the emerging conversation (or whatever you want to call it) is that everyone gets to play. There are no benches, no one required to sit out if they are willing to participate. Recently as I was thinking about my resistance to blogging I realized that although I’m not a complete slouch in the thinking department, I’m no Brother Maynard or Robby Mac or Jamie Arpin-Ricci or Grey Owl (to name a few Canadians). But that’s okay. I’ve been known as missionalchickie for a reason. I think my strengths lie in being a practitioner of my faith. (Not to say the above folks aren’t, they do both).

So I guess that’s what I’m offering blogdom. No deep theology (oh how I appreciate the depths some of you go to - I glean so much from your insights and my life is the richer for them) but rubber meets the road practical stories and insights gleaned from walking along the road trying to be like Jesus the best I know how. He’s been amazing in my life. Through the good and the bad, ever faithful, always loving (even when I was not particularly happy with Him).

I’ve been known as missionalchickie but you can call me Di (short for Dianna). I’m abandoning the psuedonym because although I initially loved the word “missional” (I was so disillusioned with the word “evangelism”) I’m not fond of it as a label for me as a person.

(mount soapbox)

I would hate for any one of my friends to ever get the hint of a smell of agenda in me for their lives except for my committment to love them regardless of their spiritual choices. Do I want all my friends to know Jesus? Of course. Can I make it happen? Of course not. Only Jesus can make that happen. All I can do is love tham like he does. Unconditionally.

I would hate if I found out that one of my best friends who is a committed Bahai is only my friend so I would embrace Bahaullah as the most recent manifestation of God. I’d feel targeted and manipulated and somehow less loved. Why shouldn’t people of other spiritualities feel the same from pariah-like Christians? Am I attempting to live missionally? Yes. Is my mission people? No. My mission is to live and laugh and love like Jesus and with Jesus. If people want to follow Him because of something they’ve seen in me, great, but they aren’t my target. Hopefully they are simply the recipients of His love through me. Does that make sense?

(soapbox dismount)

So there we go. I’m Di and I’m a recovering church addict (Hi Di - in chorus). I’m married to a wonderful man, have three amazing kids (6yrs., 4yrs. and 2 yrs.) and a puppy. I have the privilege of journeying along with a great group of people who inspire me to honesty and thoughtful living. I don’t know how often I will be able to post but I’m committed to trying.

See you along the road,
Di

Host: K&DS
Facilitate: KN
Note: Meal, kids included

Jacob Moon in concert, Friday November 25 at 7:30pm at All Saints.

For ticket information, please contact us at info(at)stbenedictstable(dot)ca

One of the Signpost circle of artists, Jacob has just released a new CD entitled “Eventide,” which includes his killer version of Peter Gabriel’s “Come Talk to Me.” For more info on Jacob, you can check out his website at www.jacobmoon.com.

I’ve started thinking about Advent season, which is upon us as of this coming Sunday. Seems early, but it’s like that every year. Odd how we react against how early Christmas arrives in the malls, hot on the heels of Halloween, but we who should want to celebrate it most hold off until the last minute. This is one of the things I like about the liturgical calendar… it begins the new year with Advent, which is about as fitting as I could imagine. I also like the fact that it pushes us into preparation for Christmas… but with referenct to the entire season, and not just the one-day event (or two or three days, depending how many family events are scheduled!).

I started compiling some thoughts on Advent this year, thinking about some things we could do with the kids but which would also draw our hardened adult hearts into it as well. Scot McKnight is blogging an Advent series and has put forth the first post today… more to follow daily in the series (except Sundays), and some other bloggers will likely be chipping in as well.

I’m looking forward to following this series as well as to some study centered on Advent themes as we attempt to establish some deeper Christmas traditions in our family and in our little community. If anyone’s got ideas or resources to recommend, I’m all ears.

Host: B&LT
Facilitate: WS

Details: Saturday at 7:00PM, bring any kind of eats, sweet or savory, and beverages of thy choosing.

Yesterday we met W&J at The Elephant & Castle for dinner, after which we all headed over to Hear the Silence at St. Benedict’s Table. I felt we rushed in a little to SBT’s Hear the Silence, but we were on time, not late. It’s at this point that I will remind you that there’s a second Hear the Silence planned for December 3rd, and I highly recommend it… I quite enjoyed myself, and thought I would share a three-part table reflection on the evening.

The Table: Food
I took a good hard look at the Jameson’s Chicken but opted for the Guinness Meatloaf instead. Those Irish seem to know just the right “special” ingredients to use… ;^) I think I made the right choice. The meatloaf was superb, with a wonderful sauce on the side. A pleasant amount of spice offset by the sweetness imbued by the special ingredient, itself fueled by its own special sweet ingredient, molasses. Now, I am a Guinness drinker & this much is no mystery. Guinness has a special “weightiness” to it, paired with its own sweetness and rightly poured, a beautiful head to top it off. Guinness is savoured, a wonderful mix of weightiness and sweetness that just slides down smoothly, leaving you a silky pleasant aftertaste that says, “I was here” but it does so without attacking the palatte with a “HEY-HOWAREYA?” announcement that screams out its presence as soon as it passes your lips. The Guinness meatloaf compared nicely. This was capped with a very nice apple crumble with ice cream and a good cup of coffee. A good cup of coffee is worth a special mention in most restaurants, and this was such a cup. I was filled to the measure of, “a nice quiet nap on the sofa would be really great about now.”

The Table: Conversation
The company and the conversation was very enjoyable as well… we all remarked trying to remember the last time we’d been out for supper sans kids, but to boot, we haven’t been out together in such a setting in eons, perhaps if ever. I love the feeling of togetherness, camaradarie, and identification that comes from visiting with friends who are largely in the same space as you are. There’s a sweetness from this kind of visiting and sharing of hearts, and this too is filling, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. Times like these make me deeply thankful for having moved on from our CLB and discovered the depth of some of the existing friendships that took deeper root and the new ones that sprang up around us as we began to create community. I was filled to the measure of “we are deeply blessed with the highest calibre of friends.”

The Table: Worship
The room was dark, even for SBT, and the group was small. Precious little was said, and silence was maintained during everyone’s coming and going from the space. The liturgy consisted of two readings (some responsive), songs, and silence… all in proper proportions. Like many of the songs at SBT, each was somewhat repetative. Now, I know that some are really down on repetative songs, but the spirit of these ones must be appreciated… these songs are somewhat folksy, somewhat reverent, and largely from the heart. As these songs are sung and repeated, they work their way into the depths of your soul, and you really feel that they become the cries of your heart to God. It feels that invariably they seem to conclude almost too early yet in just about the right space. For this particular service, times of silence punctuated the space between the songs. Not long, drawn-out, “is-anyone-going-to-say-something?” silence, but pleasant, breathing, feeling, settling silence. Sinking-into-your-heart silence. Cathartic silence. A kind of spiritual taking-it-all-in silence. It was particularly sweet, and particularly filling… the kind of sweet that you think maybe you’ve really never tasted before. The kind of filling that once you’re finished taking it in, you feel almost immobile. Of course I’ve been in some pretty powerful worship times in my day, and had some experiences of God’s presence far beyond what I deserve… but this was different, so restful, peaceful, and powerful. I was filled to the measure of “God, I feel your presence here profoundly, and I don’t particularly want to move. Ever.”

Needless to say, I had a fine, filling evening yesterday. Threefold.

Update: Jamie Howison has posted some reflections on this as well; sounds like Sunday evening was a good time too, sorry I missed it (did anyone else go?)… but just to bring it all full-circle, it ends up at none other than the E&C. btw, the lyrics for the communion song that Jamie quotes are worth clicking through.

A meditative liturgy for the evening - Saturday November 5 and December 3 at 7:00pm at All Saints. This is time of worship built around music, prayer, readings and stillness, led by Gord Johnson and Larry Campbell. Be warned ahead of time: there is no communion, no sermon, no coffee hour, no big social focus… just an opportunity come away into the stillness, move into a space of deep openness to the Spirit of God, and then go quietly into the evening’s darkness.
St. Benedict’s Table: Gatherings

Well, we’ve talked about it and now here we are… a group blog. These are the voyages of a small band of borderline nut-cases in Winnipeg attempting to live missionally, intentionally knitting our lives together as a community. We’ve been at this since (roughly) January of 2005, but some of us have known each other for something approaching 20 years now.

Some of us — or most of us — have become disillusioned with institutional church in its attractional mode and are exploring new modes of expressing our faith. Some of us are living out what has elsewhere been called “a churchless faith” while others remain an occasional part of other church congregations.

These pages tell our story as it unfolds.