Pastor Dawn Begins a Summer Series - BRUNCHtalks: A New Way of Gathering in a "Progressive Christian Laboratory

How do we articulate the new theology we are learning? Pastor Dawn is beginning a new series called BRUNCHtalks to explore a new way of gathering in a “Progressive Christian Laboratory.”

Read her introduction below and listen to the attached YouTube video called: BRUNCHtalks1 Progressive Christian Religion - to re connect.

https://youtu.be/Zic-51ar-gE

 

BRUNCHtalks1 – Religion: to re-connect

by Rev. Dawn Hutchings

BRUNCHtalks have begun! We are exploring a new way of gathering, in what will be a kind of progressive Christian laboratory. The video is an edited version of our gathering that was filmed using a stationary camera. We are learning as we go. Have a look and feel free to add a comment. Our goal is to spend summer Sundays learning new ways to articulate what it means to say we are: Progressive in approach: Christ-like in action! Click here to view the notes that form an outline of the gathering.

Religion is above all else an art form. Religion begins with awe and wonder and -and moves into the realm of story as we try to express our experiences of awe and wonder. Some of us tell the stories with words, some with music, some with painting, or sculptor, others tell the story in dance, we humans are creatures who find, interpret and express meaning. Like all artforms religion takes practice.

Religion is never quite perfected.Religion evolves as the artform is reinvented over and over again. The root of the word religion is “l i g” lig, which is also in the word “ligament.” It means to connect, to join together, to unite, to bring everything together in one body or one wholeness. The little word “re” simply means “again.” Religion is a word that means to re – connect, to put together again. Religion is about binding us together into ONENESS with the ONE who made us.

Religion is about connecting us to God, to Creation, and most importantly to one another. We re-connect through the various religious artforms that express the who, what, why, and the how of who we are. Imagine what it might mean to practice the art of re-connection from the perspective of Progressive Christian Religion.