Worship – We conclude the Six Stone Jars series this week with communion. The scripture is Luke 6: 27-38 and honestly, it’s one of the most challenging passages to preach right now. Love your enemies… I’ve been wrestling with it all week and still no clear path ahead.
The Leadership Team met Wednesday evening, a summary will come out next week. Each time we meet, one of the leaders takes a turn to lead us through a ‘Spiritual Grounding exercise, the purpose of this is twofold, to develop the habit of speaking of faith within the leadership and to develop the skills in spiritual leadership. Jackie Clark led us through an exercise last night where we reflected on hope, peace, joy and love with coloured pencils and markers. Mine is below.
I’ve been feeling overwhelmed this week, even as I seek to breathe deeply, tend to my spirit, hold on to hope(!) and act when I can. For instance I wrote a letter to my MLA this week, voicing my concern about the sweeping changes to democratic processes the provincial government is tabling in the legislature. But it’s been tough… the weather is not helping and then I read an article entitled The Antidote to Overwhelm and Despair: Three Circles of Responsibility. You can read the entire article bb clicking on the link, although it’s primarily directed to preachers, but it was this part that really resonated with me: In her book The Lightmaker’s Manifesto: How to Work for Change Without Losing Your Joy, Karen Walrond cites Jane Mosbacher Morris, founder and CEO of TO THE MARKET, an enterprise fostering the economic empowerment of women globally, on how to face overwhelm:
“I think it’s very easy to get into what I call a despair spiral, or analysis paralysis, when trying to figure out how to tackle a problem. So I think my answer is the same, whether the question is about activism or any other challenge: I focus on the three circles that I’m in the middle of, concentric circles that surround me. The first, small circle represents what I can control. The second, larger circle that closes the first circle is what I can influence. Then the third, largest circle is everything else. So for me, focusing first on what I can control and influence is a helpful mindset.
If you are wondering how to respond to current events, here is a great article from Broadview.
Broadview is publishing a special 100th anniversary of the United Church edition; you can make a donation and have the name published in that issue; that has to happen by March 15th. If you’re not a subscriber, and would like a copy, let Cathy in the office know as we’ll be placing a bulk order on April 1st. You can get all the details here.
St. James United Church Dartmouth 