"Linger Lovingly" by Carmel Boyle

https://youtu.be/OXyOxP_j7Bk

"My Soul's Desire" by Carmel Boyle

https://youtu.be/pKVU8kqzPVM?list=PLZA6YfDglvry8OdiDsuWHB_Or4Lu1ijwn

"On the Eve of Ordination" by Lynn KIinlin ARCWP

A murder of crows

A congregation of alligators

Perhaps even a parliament of owls

Not a flock of sheep

A  bunch of priests and a bishop

moving alongside, not behind Jesus

They’ve had me in a witness protection program, you know

It works just fine

They do the witnessing

I get the protection.

They live and think and pray

with deliberate love and willingness to go where

ministry takes them.

Meanwhile, I savor

Discernment undercover

Safe harbor with a front row seat on fishers of souls

Gracious suggestions, not commands or demands

Osmosis learning, invisible and enveloping

These months of candidacy have been an Emmaus power walk to exercise my fledgling faith.

Tomorrow, I will stand ready to witness

But I stand on their shoulders

In mutual assured protection

Let the Body of Christ be assured:

There will be many more streaming out of witness protection with original blessing

A cacophony of gadflies

A tower of giraffes

A changing of the guard

Global Ministries University: Newsletter/Summer 2017

http://secure.campaigner.com/csb/Public/show/hhkxd--cs82t-8q71a21

The Global Notebook                                                      Quarterly Publication July 2017      Vol X Issue 3 Global Ministries University continues to expand its horizons! We hope you find the articles in this newsletter enjoyable and enlightening! Message from the President GMU Graduate Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Ordination FCM and GMU Interfaith Conference Held on June 3, 2017 GMU Retains Outstanding Faculty GMU Aims to Give Students a Meaningful Experience  ____________________________________ Message from the President During the week preceding Easter of this year Marita and I traveled to Kenya for the sixth annual interfaith leadership training conference sponsored by Global Ministries University. This year’s conference was the most successful to date since we had our most committed and enthusiastic group of teachers who have taken this course with us. We had nine Christian and nine Muslim teachers in the group and they were also equally divided between women and men. As part of the follow up for this course we have introduced a mechanism for us to continue contact with the teachers through social media and a follow up meeting with them in November of 2017 led by other members of our training team. As part of the preparation for the 2018 course that we are planning Marita and I had the opportunity to take part in a week long seminar on Peace Education at the Maryknoll Mission Institute during the week of June 17 to June 23, 2017. It was conducted by Father Elias Opongo, SJ, Director of the Peace Education Center at Hekima College in Nairobi. Father Opongo has agreed to join our Paths to Peace faculty for the 2018 teacher training program in Mombasa, Kenya. You can view a picture Father Opongo and myself on the GMU Facebook page. After taking part in the Kenya teacher training program I traveled to Thailand for meetings with officials of Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. This visit had been arranged by Doctor Ron Naksaone, noted Buddhist scholar and prior Director of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. Doctor Nakasone also has had a long relationship with the Religious Studies Department of Mahidol University and now serves as a GMU faculty member and consultant for our relationship with Mahidol University. GMU has had a Memorandum of Understanding with Mahidol University for the past nine years and we are eager to continue this relationship as a new Dean of Religious Studies takes up leadership of the Religious Studies Department later this year. Our visit attempted to clarify  some of the procedures that have made it difficult for American students to register for the Joint ThD  and PhD program that we have developed with this university. I will have more information on the status of this program later this year  Gerald Grudzen, PhD ____________________ GMU Graduate Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Ordination On July 22, the feast of Mary Magdalene, Rev Juanita Cordero will celebrate the tenth anniversary of her ordination as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest (RCWP). Juanita has established her own faith community in Los Gatos, CA and has been a leader in the San Jose area in many social justice Issues. She and Rev. Penny Donovan, also a woman priest and GMU student, have developed a collaborative ministry which is well known in their local area. Juanita and Penny have also taken part in International Theological Studies in Jerusalem and been part of interfaith programs with the Muslim Community located in the Palestinian territories and also in Santa Clara County. Juanita completed both her Master of Theology and Doctor of Theology degrees with GMU. Penny and she also serve as mentors and advisors to other women seeking ordination. GMU has pioneered theological education for nontraditional students for the past 15 years and we are proud of our graduates who have gone forward to establish fruitful and unique ministries.  __________________ FCM and GMU Interfaith Conference Held on June 3, 2017 The title for this daylong conference was Interreligious Dialogue and Human Rights: Affirming Our Solidarity. The idea for the conference emerged about six months ago when John Raymaker, a GMU faculty member and longtime member of FCM, indicated an interest in coming to the US from Germany and participating in a conference which would help to expand the vision of FCM to encompass more of a global perspective such as the Paths to Peace Kenyaproject of which John Raymaker has been a major supporter. The idea for such a conference would include Interfaith Dialogue with the US Muslim community. John had been in touch with Rev. Diane Dougherty, the southern region VP for FCM and she had agreed to provide hospitality for John when he would come to the US. The Atlanta area was chosen as the site for the conference as Diane, who resides there, is actively involved with several human rights organizations. Another significant reason for choosing this area is that Professor Richard Penaskovic , an FCM member in Alabama, has had extensive previous contacts with the Atlantic Institute, a major Muslim organization in the Atlanta area as a presenter at Interfaith Conferences. The Istanbul Cultural Center, a sister organization of the Atlantic Institute, agreed to host the event and provide a major speaker for a discussion of human rights abuses in Turkey  by the government of Prime Minister Erdogan.  The Istanbul Cultural Center is located in Alpharetta GA, a suburb of Atlanta. Through the initiative of Rev. Diane Dougherty and her extensive interfaith network, a number of interfaith groups took part in the event, including representatives from the Bahai community in Atlanta, an Interfaith Women’s Network led by Muslim and Jewish women, a Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and an expert on nonviolent social change, Professor John Tures, from Lagrange College in Lagrange, Georgia. Gerry Grudzen, President of Global Ministries University and his wife, Marita Grudzen as well as other FCM members were prominent in the meeting as workshop facilitators and speakers. In addition to Rev. Diane Dougherty, Gerry and his wife Marita presented a summary of the Paths to Peace Kenya interfaith project as the opening presentation for the conference. Muslim and Jewish interfaith leaders complemented their presentation with reflections on the connection of the interfaith movement in the Atlanta area with concerns for human rights issues such as Islamophobia, racism and immigrant rights. At the end of the daylong conference, members of the Istanbul Cultural Center prepared a Ramadan Iftar dinner for all of the participants. Approximately 60 people attended the daylong conference and about 120 took part in the dinner. On Sunday morning following the event the FCM/GMU planning team met to discuss how to publicize the conference and possible ways to develop future events using the Internet as a possible vehicle for participation in such events.  John Raymaker, Richard and Nancy Penaskovic, Diane Dougherty, William Weiskopf, Gerry Grudzen and Marita Grudzen took part in the assessment and future planning on Sunday, June 4. Each member of the planning team agreed to promote the spirit of this meeting among their own networks.  ____________________ GMU Retains Outstanding Faculty Global Ministries University students have the advantage of taking courses that are facilitated by highly qualified instructors. In order to be a part of the GMU teaching staff, instructors must hold a graduate degree in their area of study, however, most of them hold doctoral degrees. Furthermore, many of our instructors also teach at other universities, hold additional prestigious positions and/or are published authors. Following are two instructors who have recently had their books published: Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan teaches several courses for GMU and is Dean of the Doctor of Ministry and Master of Divinity degree programs. Dr. Meehan received her B.A. from Immaculata College, M.A. from Catholic University, and Doctor of Ministry from Virginia Episcopal Seminary She is an ordained Roman Catholic Woman Priest, a spiritual director, conference speaker, consultant in women's spirituality. She is also the founder and producer of a TV program, GodTalk, hosts a blog and is author of over twenty books. Here is her latest book: The Healing Power of Prayer: New Expanded Edition which can be ordered from Create Space or Amazon. Dr. Joe Holland is an eco-social philosopher and Catholic theologian in the intellectual school of humanistic-ecological postmodernism. Joe holds a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in the field of Social Ethics, as well as a B.A. in Philosophy and M.A. in Religious Studies from Niagara University. In addition to teaching a course for GMU, entitled ‘Catholic Social Teaching," he is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy & Religion at Saint Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida. Dr. Holland has authored several books, and his latest is entitled Postmodern Ecological Spirituality.  Go to Pacem in Terris Press for a complimentary copy of cover through Chapter 1 and toAmazon to purchase.  ___________________ GMU Aims to Give Students a Meaningful Experience Many universities provide their applicants with a set program and require them to take specified courses in order to earn their degree. It is the goal of GMU to give our student a meaningful experience, an experience that will truly assist them after they graduate. Our students are adult learners and most of them have a very good idea of what courses will benefit them the most and therefore are given the opportunity to custom-design their program. On the other hand, if they do not know what courses to select, our staff is very happy to provide the assistance they need. However, we go beyond this very beneficial feature… students also have the option of changing their courses at any time for a small fee. We have students that enroll in a program with a particular ministry in mind but then change direction, in which case they can also change their courses. Our students are not stuck in courses that no longer benefit their goals. We welcome our students to contact the central office if they wish to change a course(s). Contact Us Follow Us Unsubscribe Global Ministries University 29910 Murrieta Hot Springs Rd. Ste. G 526. Murrieta, California | 92563 Tel. 866 419-8020 Fax.858 810-1954

Retreat Evening: Blessing of ARCWP Ordinands in Albany, New York

ARCWP  prays for and blesses Lindy,  Peggy , Lynn  and Anne (not in photo) in preparation for their ordination on July 8th in Albany .

"Time for a New Spiritual (not Religious) Order?" By Matthew Fox, It is a blessing to be on the Margins of the Church, Bridget Mary Meehan

Bridget Mary's Response: I think Matt Fox's insights are wise words of advice for all reformers in new movements.  I feel blessed to be on the edge of the margins of the institutional Roman Catholic Church because women priests are not accepted by the all-male boys-only club. So, we are free to live our vision of mutual  partnership in the community of the baptized. We are making a way by walking together with our inclusive communities. We support one another in the divine dance of life and love in the Heart of the Holy One! Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, www.arcwp.org Speaking of a need for a Reformation makes me question whether the time has arrived for a new religious order that is in fact not tied to a particular religion but is a Spiritual Order, one that might help people of various religious faiths and none to gather around a common value and focus. I think our times call for a focus on the sacredness of the Earth and all her creatures. Therefore I propose a new order called “The Order of the Sacred Earth.” Its members may come from any and all life-styles, married, single, celibate, gay, straight and from any and all occupations so long as their work mirrored the values of honoring and supporting the Earth and her creatures. Blue collar and white collar workers would be welcomed. People of all religious traditions and none would be welcome. What then would bind them together as a community? A common vow. One that reads like this: “I promise to be as good a mystic (that is, lover) of Mother Earth that I can be and as good a prophet or warrior defending Mother Earth that I can be.” The Order would be established on this common vow and it would provide both a focus for our life decisions and our citizenship but also a community of support to assist one another in the living out of our values and commitment. It would represent a new stage in religious history actually, a leap forward in our spiritual evolution because it would take us beyond denominationalism and hurl us into the deeper calling to be mystics (lovers) and prophets (defenders of what we cherish). It would allow people to stay in their respective traditions or to move beyond them or to be one foot in and one foot out. Thus it would set a new standard for Deep Ecumenism or Interfaith, Interspirituality existence and work. Why am I so confident that the time has come for such a new kind of order? First, because it is clear, as Bishop Spong has pointed out, that Christianity must change or die—but I also believe other religions are equally challenged today to move beyond their literal teachings to a deeper expression of the very essence of religion—Gratitude and Compassion, Awe and Creativity, Justice and passing on the Earth as the splendid and grace-filled being that it truly is. Whether we talk of the Earth and her creatures as the “Cosmic Christ” or the “Image of God” or the “Buddha Nature” all traditions are trying to wake us up to a sense of the sacred which surrounds us and feeds and nurtures us but which we can all to readily take for granted. How can we possibly say that we love our children (and their children and grandchildren to come) if we are leaving them a despoiled planet, a diminishing planet, a sick planet with untold species going extinct and with seas rising and great cities soon to be inundated with salt water? How can we possible say we love God if we are oblivious to our neighbor—whether that neighbor be another two-legged one or a grand species such as the elephants or tigers or polar bears and others? Once we get over our anthropocentrism (what Pope Francis rightly calls our “narcissism” as a species), we recognize not just the good Samaritan serving his ailing neighbor but we recognize all who are working to heal the plight of so many species being threatened by humans pre-occupied with their own agendas. I am also convinced that it is time for such an Order, an Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE), because of my reading of Christian history. Ours are not the only times that the Christian religion found itself running out of steam, hijacked by forces eager to use it for their own political and economic ends, boring the young people on a regular basis, offering up stale and often dead and idolatrous forms of worship. But in other eras when the Christ path was hijacked or sold out, the response was to reinvent life styles that more clearly mirrored the message and person of Jesus. Such was the case in the fourth century when the “desert fathers and mothers” withdrew from the cities after the marriage of the church and the empire to seek a more authentic life style. Such was the case in the sixth century when St Benedict gave birth to the monastic system which was to preserve much of culture and healthy religion for many centuries during the cold and “dark” ages in Europe. Such was the case when, at the end of the twelfth century the marriage of feudalism and monasticism was choking healthy religion and new leaders such as Francis and Dominic sensed the need to break from the privileges of monasticism and get more real and more involved in the poverty movement that backed the serfs and the young and, with Dominic, the newly “secularized” university system which separated education from the monastic establishment for the first time in many centuries. A similar cultural upheaval in the sixteenth century that grew out of cultural breakthroughs such as the invention of the printing press and that gave birth to the Protestant Reformation and to the opening up of new markets and new continents and encounters with new peoples in the newly “discovered” Americas and in Asia. I think a good argument can also be made than in many respects the various Protestant denominations that began in the sixteenth century were a kind of “lay orders” insofar as they arose in response to corruption in the dominant church structure (what we know today as Roman Catholic Church) but that each denomination, like many of the Orders through the centuries, had their unique form of polities and of worship and training of clergy, etc. The Jesuit Order founded by St. Ignatius in the sixteenth century was another response to the corruption of the dominant religious paradigm. One important lesson to learn from the history of religious orders is that they can be very readily co-opted by powers that be, both ecclesial and secular powers and combinations of the two. No better example of this need be offered than the fact that within one generation of the founding of the Franciscans they were enrolled by the Vatican to partake in the Inquisition. The same is true of the Dominicans. I maintain that Francis saw the handwriting on the wall when the ecclesial powers took his order from him (including his desire that his brothers not become priests but stay out of that clerical status and mindset) and that his being stripped of the very brotherhood he had launched brought about his broken heart, his stigmata, and the end of his life. This lesson from history is one reason I insist that an Order today ought to be spiritual and not religious, that it should owe no allegiance to any particular religious hierarchy or headquarters but should pick up the sign of our times which is the reality that human consciousness is outpacing religious institutions and that the very essence of religion, spirituality, is what needs to be preserved at its best and carried on. And this is what the Order of the Sacred Earth would be about surely. And this would happen on a post-denominational plane, in a time of deep ecumenism and interfaith and interspirituality. This sense of interfaith would also lie at the heart of the new Order. What unites the members is not their particular religious affiliation or identity (or lack thereof), but their common vow to protect Mother Earth and her creatures, humans included. One’s allegiance will be to that reality and that shared value and that criterion that will become the litmus test for being a participating member of said community or Order. Agnostics and atheists I could see as part of the movement. The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heshel declared that there are three ways to respond to creation: To exploit it; to enjoy it; or to accept it with awe. This latter way is the starting point for recovering the sacred. And recovering the sacred lies at the heart of the Order of the Sacred Earth. To recover the sacred means not to take nature or creation for granted and to explore that part of ourselves that rejoices to be in the presence of the Holy even on a daily basis. But it also means to fight and carry on the pursuit of preserving the Sacred, preserving Mother Earth in all her beauty and diversity. It means taking on those enemies of the Earth from Climate Change and pumping of CO2 into the atmosphere to destroying forests and soil and rainforests and countless species headed for extinction. One’s way of battling on behalf of Mother Earth may vary broadly—from supporting political movements to running for office oneself to employing sustainable ways of living in one’s life style and work places to educating others, to raising money for eco causes, etc. etc. What it does not mean is doing nothing. Or remaining silent. Or contributing to the ongoing pollution of our greatest inheritance and our greatest gift we bequeath to our descendants—the health and well being of Mother Earth. The Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE) is scheduled to launch this Fall. Indeed, we intend to have the first day of public vow taking to be winter solstice, 2017, and we hope to live stream it from many sites where people might gather to make a commitment. (2017 is the 500th anniversary of the launching of the Protestant Reformation marking Luther’s pounding of theses at the church door in Wittenburg, Germany). While I am a founding elder and intergenerational wisdom is at the core of the vision, still its leadership needs to come from 30-somethings whose generation is called to stand up at this critical moment in Earth history in a special way. Currently a couple of 33 years old, Jan Listing and Skylar Wilson, are leading the project with me. A book entitled Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action in which Skylar and I offer essays laying out its philosophy and Jan and a number of other responders offer short essays of vision and hope for OSE will be available in the Fall in a private edition and publicly in the Spring from Monkfish Publishing Company. ~ Matthew Fox Read the essay online here. About the Author Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 60 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the FleshTransforming Evil in Soul and Society, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved and Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest

People's Catholic Seminary: A Journey to Spiritual Transformation, Empowerment and Equality, Check out our new website!

https://pcseminary.org/

Power Causes Brain Damage by JERRY USEEM How leaders lose mental capacities—most notably for reading other people—that were essential to their rise

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/

...."Recalling an early experience of powerlessness seems to work for some people—and experiences that were searing enough may provide a sort of permanent protection. An incredible study published in The Journal of Finance last February found that CEOs who as children had lived through a natural disaster that produced significant fatalities were much less risk-seeking than CEOs who hadn’t. (The one problem, says Raghavendra Rau, a co-author of the study and a Cambridge University professor, is that CEOs who had lived through disasters without significant fatalities were more risk-seeking.)

“Hubris syndrome,” Owen writes, “is a disorder of the possession of power.”

But tornadoes, volcanoes, and tsunamis aren’t the only hubris-restraining forces out there. PepsiCo CEO and Chairman Indra Nooyi sometimes tells the story of the day she got the news of her appointment to the company’s board, in 2001. She arrived home percolating in her own sense of importance and vitality, when her mother asked whether, before she delivered her “great news,” she would go out and get some milk. Fuming, Nooyi went out and got it. “Leave that damn crown in the garage” was her mother’s advice when she returned.

The point of the story, really, is that Nooyi tells it. It serves as a useful reminder about ordinary obligation and the need to stay grounded. Nooyi’s mother, in the story, serves as a “toe holder,” a term once used by the political adviser Louis Howe to describe his relationship with the four-term President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Howe never stopped calling Franklin.

For Winston Churchill, the person who filled that role was his wife, Clementine, who had the courage to write, “My Darling Winston. I must confess that I have noticed a deterioration in your manner; & you are not as kind as you used to be.” Written on the day Hitler entered Paris, torn up, then sent anyway, the letter was not a complaint but an alert: Someone had confided to her, she wrote, that Churchill had been acting “so contemptuous” toward subordinates in meetings that “no ideas, good or bad, will be forthcoming”—with the attendant danger that “you won’t get the best results.”

Lord David Owen—a British neurologist turned parliamentarian who served as the foreign secretary before becoming a baron—recounts both Howe’s story and Clementine Churchill’s in his 2008 book, In Sickness and in Power, an inquiry into the various maladies that had affected the performance of British prime ministers and American presidents since 1900. While some suffered from strokes (Woodrow Wilson), substance abuse (Anthony Eden), or possibly bipolar disorder (Lyndon B. Johnson, Theodore Roosevelt), at least four others acquired a disorder that the medical literature doesn’t recognize but, Owen argues, should.

“Hubris syndrome,” as he and a co-author, Jonathan Davidson, defined it in a 2009 article published in Brain, “is a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has been associated with overwhelming success, held for a period of years and with minimal constraint on the leader.” Its 14 clinical features include: manifest contempt for others, loss of contact with reality, restless or reckless actions, and displays of incompetence. In May, the Royal Society of Medicine co-hosted a conference of the Daedalus Trust—an organization that Owen founded for the study and prevention of hubris.

I asked Owen, who admits to a healthy predisposition to hubris himself, whether anything helps keep him tethered to reality, something that other truly powerful figures might emulate. He shared a few strategies: thinking back on hubris-dispelling episodes from his past; watching documentaries about ordinary people; making a habit of reading constituents’ letters.

But I surmised that the greatest check on Owen’s hubris today might stem from his recent research endeavors. Businesses, he complained to me, had shown next to no appetite for research on hubris. Business schools were not much better. The undercurrent of frustration in his voice attested to a certain powerlessness. Whatever the salutary effect on Owen, it suggests that a malady seen too commonly in boardrooms and executive suites is unlikely to soon find a cure."

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