October 2021

Peter Fitch reminds people about the different characters in Jesus’ story of The Good Samaritan. Then he shares ideas from Martin Buber about a sliding scale between ego and personhood. Some people are so detached from others that they are almost all the way over to the ego side, while others are so connected that they are almost all the way toward personhood. This leads to the question, “What is a person like?” Many responses from the people gathered help to answer this question and give insight about how to get there.

Rick Coates and Jessica Williams shared music/poetry.

We had a great service today; everything felt special. Songs before and after the talk were by Amanda Leighton. The poem, “Missing: Mother God”, was by Jessica Williams. Instrumental piano as a background to prayer was by Michael Leung. And the talk, on finding and living in peace, was by Eden Jersak. She taught about the need to moderate our desire for “performance” with the priority of “presence.” Then she gave ideas about how to find peace and how to live in it in such a way that it affects our world.

Today Brad Jersak spoke about the conversions that we experience when we turn from illusions of shame and addiction and self-absorption toward the Light of God’s Presence. Drawing from ideas related to Plato’s cave as well as several New Testament passages (John 1, 2 Corinthians 3 and 4), he inspired people to turn towards greater clarity and freedom. Music was by Peter and Zoe Fitch and each song had something to do with the theme of “home” or “homecoming.”

Peter Fitch read Psalm 34 and asked what a naive interpretation of this psalm might indicate. Then he showed a talk by Kate Bowler called “Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lies I’ve Loved.” Then he read Psalm 34 once more and asked people if they saw any deep truths within the psalm that still rang true after Kate’s talk. There were many rich comments. Music today was by Jacob Rose, including 3 original songs, and a couple of the songs were accompanied by Sarah MacPhail as she and her husband, Tim, were visiting from Germany.

Peter Fitch read Psalm 34 and asked what a naive interpretation of this psalm might indicate. Then he showed a talk by Kate Bowler called “Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lies I’ve Loved.” Then he read Psalm 34 once more and asked people if they saw any deep truths within the psalm that still rang true after Kate’s talk. There were many rich comments. Music today was by Jacob Rose, including 3 original songs, and a couple of the songs were accompanied by Sarah MacPhail as she and her husband, Tim, were visiting from Germany.