Charleston: Encountering the Feminine Spirit

Charleston: Encountering the Feminine Spirit

Georges de La Tour. The Newborn

“There is no power men can devise that can overcome the strength, dignity, and courage of women. Trying to deny women’s rights is like trying to outlaw life itself. The Spirit that stands by her sisters is eternal. The Mother who defends her daughters never sleeps.”—Steven Charleston Daily Facebook Page.

I first encountered the feminine Spirit of the God of my understanding in the 1980s. I became acutely aware of the masculine slant in the language and practices of the liturgy in my tradition. There was no honoring of the feminine in language or church practices. So I tried changing pronouns in the service, which worked for a while. 

The altar party was composed entirely of men. I longed to worship with other women, maybe even—heaven forbid—around an altar. So we started a group on Saturday mornings, using our church facility to study and explore feminine spirituality. We soon drew a large crowd. How comforting to know that others were hungry for this facet of the divine. 

After a few years, as more women from different traditions joined the group, the words and practices became even more radical to me. Finally, I knew I had to decide: remain in my tradition and wait for change, or join in practices now in territories too foreign to me.

I decided to stay with my tradition. Soon, I saw improvements. Our Prayer Book was revised to use less masculine language. In addition, the Church gave women more significant roles. As of 2019, women comprised 18.9% of active bishops and 40% of priests in my tradition.

I know and believe in the feminine Spirit of God that Bishop Charleston speaks of. It is a power that visited my mind, body, and spirit when I least expected it, and for some time I could not understand it. At the time, I lived in the masculine world of medicine. Suddenly, I saw a unique way of looking at things, valuing relationships, and solving problems by caring, relating, pausing, and listening to and respecting others. 

I do not know why this power awakened me. It felt like a Damascus Road experience. I had no choice but to pursue it. It felt like another pregnancy. Perhaps this nudge came from one of my deceased grandmothers, who lived under masculine rule yet subtly tried to accomplish something different. I know only that my job now is to treasure the gift of the feminine spirit, to pass it on, model it, and encourage it in my children and grandchildren. I know it can change the world, just as it changed me. 

Joanna.   https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Interconnection of Prayer and Service

Nouwen: The Interconnection of Prayer and Service

Prayer and service: we fill the pots to the brim. Christ changes the water into wine.

“Life becomes an unbearable burden whenever we lose touch with the presence of a loving Savior and see only hunger to be alleviated, injustice to be addressed, violence to be overcome, wars to be stopped, and loneliness to be eased. All these are critical issues, and Christians must try to solve them; however, when our concern no longer flows from our personal encounter with the living Christ, we feel an oppressive weight.”

A key question arises: “Can we see Christ in the world?” The answer is, “No, we cannot see Christ in the world, but only the Christ in us can see Christ in the world.” This means that through prayer, the Christ within us opens our eyes to the Christ among us.”—Henri Nouwen in The Road to Peace (Orbis Books, 1998).

Nouwen reminds us that prayer and service can never be seen as conflicting or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action becomes powerless piety, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation.

When we pray for others, we stand in God's presence for them, just as Christ does for us. Praying for others takes us out of our heads and places the world's problems in God's presence. Nouwen reminds us that when we pray for the world's endless needs, our soul expands and brings them into God's presence. 

But we cannot embrace the world; but God can.

When we connect to God’s Presence, we are no longer victims of the fear, hatred, and violence that rule the world. In God’s Presence, we connect with the Christ within us and see the Christ in others. Our hearts of stone break, and we feel compassion as we pray for others. Our prayers are energy, pulses of Hope that connect with God’s greater energy that surrounds us.

We are filling the water pots to the brim. The wine-making is God’s. We remove the stone. “Lazarus, come forth,” belongs to God. We are the dry bones. Putting on flesh and breathing are God’s.

We are called to prayer and service together, not one or the other.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com  

Flexible Bible

Flexible Bible

“Mary Cosby used to begin her New Testament class by bending her soft-cover Bible and saying she preferred a Bible that was flexible. Then she would say, ‘The Bible is not a manual for morality but a mirror for identity.’”—Carol Martin, Bread of Life Church, “A Mirror for Identity,” InwardOutward.org, Church of the Saviour..

My first introduction to this more profound and flexible approach to Bible study came through a small group at St. Mark’s in Little Rock in the 1980s, led by Dick Moore in a room above the children’s classrooms, which we called “the upper room.” As we studied the books of the Bible, Dick reminded us that the Bible was a roadmap, not the destination. 

I think of old friends like Carole and Gary Kimmel, who were in our class and now live on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I remember Betty and Brady Anderson well. They later became Bible translators in Tanzania, Africa. Brady was later appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as the American Ambassador to Tanzania. They taught me so much. Together, we uncovered new insights from the Bible that had never occurred to us.

As we saw God present in the lives of people in the Bible who were like us—with gifts and faults—we also became more aware of the Holy Spirit at work in our own lives and in the lives of others. We saw that the Holy Spirit's relationship did not end with first- and second-century Christians; instead, the Spirit continues to lead us today. If we believe only in a strict, literal translation of the Bible, we deny the Holy Spirit's continued presence in our lives today, which will bring us more good news. 

I share with you the Bible I received from Bishop Maze twenty-five years ago, at the time of my ordination. It is also flexible.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/daily