Dear Friends,
When I was six years old I had a vision in the underground tomb of Mother Mary, in Jerusalem at the Dormition Abbey. A dead woman came to life, a sleeping woman woke up, a wooden woman turned to flesh. This God experience has been a guiding metaphor for my life and ministry. The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Black Madonna of the Americas, and the event of her asking and receiving a church built in her honor is alive, awake and real again. The divine feminine face of God is encouraging us to build her a church dedicated to the earth called, Church for Our Common Home. We ask you to help us find a donation of land to build an artist church to pray for the earth. Our Common Home Counseling Center currently funds the ministry of the church with Walt’s work as a marriage and family therapist and Bonnie’s work as a pastoral counselor and spiritual director.
Walt and I are grateful for you, our friends, colleagues and family, and we want to share the good news that this past year, we were granted a nonprofit 501C3 tax status for Our Common Home, a church and counseling center. Although we are not accustomed to asking people for money, the reality is that we depend on tax deductible donations in order to keep Church for Our Common Home alive. If you don’t have money to donate, or don’t wish to donate, we understand and ask that you hold the church in your heart and prayers. We hold you in our hearts and prayers and have enclosed an envelope for you to send us your prayer requests. Please connect us to people who you may know who have land they would like to donate and or individuals and/or organization who may be interested in collaborating with us.
Church for Our Common Home is dedicated to the Earth, the Divine Feminine and the Arts. We worship every Sunday at 5 pm, and celebrate communion with a vegetarian pot luck following worship. This last summer the Holy Spirit called us to take our worship services to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. We do this to save ourselves, for to do nothing is to be in collusion with inhumanity. For six consecutive weeks we made a powerful, prayerful protest to the separation of children from their parents at the border and the refugee crisis caused by our country. Due to the technological genius of Anna Smith, our new Director of Media Communications, we are now able to sometimes offer worship services and other programs on live stream on our church web site. We are committed to experimenting with untraditional ways of doing church and creating beloved community with all earthlings on planet earth.
We are in the sixth extinction of life on earth, one caused by humans, and it is past time we wake up and tell the truth about the root causes of economic greed and power over violence that has caused ecologic catastrophes, wars and resulting humanitarian crisis. There are 68 million refugees, one in every one hundred people on the planet, half who are under the age of eighteen years.
Our vision includes growing our own food and particularly welcoming children and elders as we explore an intentional intergenerational community. Currently, our programs include, Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina (a Benediction reading, prayer and meditation on scripture) regular worship in nature, Taize chanting worship, Prayer and Healing Services, dream groups, newsletter articles and updates, (please sign up on the church website) book groups, and special programs like our upcoming annual alcohol free celebration on New Year’s Eve December 31, 6-9 pm with art making, dream sharing and incubation, a fire ritual, prayers for the 150-200 species of animals who go extinct every twenty four hours at our new Wailing Wall, and walking the snake labyrinth with music and candle light. This past year we participated in two non-violent civil disobedience actions and several protests and marches. A group of us went on a field trip to Salvation Mountain, three of us went to a week and a half workshop in Temecula on how to build a straw bale ecologic house/church, and we had a booth at the Parliament of World Religions in Toronto, Canada. We worked with San Diego 350.org and First UU Church of San Diego and put on an Earth Day weekend extravaganza with a program on the ‘Reunion of Science and Religion’ with the preeminent climate scientist, Dr. Ramanathan, and Dr. John B. Cobb. Jr. the environmentalist, theologian and philosopher in an intergenerational event with live music and dancing, a reception with local earth justice organizations and were gifted with the Sheikh’s vegetarian community meal or Langar. We give special thanks to Dr. Cobb who was the initial inspiration of our church and the first supporter.
Special thanks to the Unitarian Universalist community who has welcomed me back and I am enjoying serving as the Vice President of the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Community Ministers. Dr. Cobb has recently invited me to write three chapters in his current book about ‘Ecologic Civilization‘ and I am honored and thrilled! Our beloved granddaughter Laina joins us sometimes for Sunday worship and it is as a grandmother that I am called to do whatever I am able to do, to create safe, sustainable and loving community for a very uncertain and dangerous future our children and grandchildren are inheriting. Young people are voicing their concerns prophetically and I invite you to be inspired by fifteen year old, Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg on YouTube. She and Laina give us hope for our future. Please stay in touch and send us news of what you are up to and how Church for Our Common Home can support you in the New Year.
Love and blessings always,
Sending love always,
Bonnie
Dear God, You who fill us with courage to stand up to Empire, bless our journey as we work to save our common home Mother Earth during the current sixth extinction of life on earth, the only one created by us humans. You who are the love dance between mother and child, friends and lovers, music and motion, color and light, planets and stars, egg and sperm, you who are the egg that opens graciously and loves the creative force of sperm into transformation and miraculous new life—you Holy Mama, God of Love, Spirit, you who we call by many names, we give thanks for you and the sacredness of all nature that is alive. You who are up and down, in and out and in-between, you who are amidst our interspecies web of life, we give thanks for your unspeakable beauty and vastness. We are in awe and give thanks for our part of your creation. We come this Christmas to stand in solidarity with Jesus and the holy family, with the animals, angels, shepherds, wise men and all those who are humble, homeless, holy and vulnerable. We hear your call to live and work in solidarity for justice and love. Fill us with your love and mercy in a world filled with cruelty and lies and teach us to love our enemies. Help us for we often feel overwhelmed and afraid. Save us from our ignorance and arrogance, wake us up to the suffering of human and nonhuman animals and plants. Inspire us to stop thinking and acting small, but to use our crisis as an invitation for bold genius. We give thanks for the inspiration of the story of Christmas and the teachings of Jesus and Mary Magdalene that open our hearts. May the Christ-Sophia child be born within us this Christmas morning. We ask you for the blessings of a pure heart. Teach us to see with our hearts in the coming New Year. Amen
Photo above under earth photo is of a human sperm cell that measures roughly about 0.002 inches and cannot be seen with the human eye, and a human egg which is about 30 times bigger and is about the size of a seed that can be seen with the naked eye.
“’A myriad of sperm collaborate to place a singlesperm before the egg, which them opens –volitionally—rather than simply being battered or overwhelmed...…The egg opens to a single sperm,’ She (Nancy Denman, a research embryologist) explained,’ For almost twenty four hours there is stillness. Then all of a sudden, the egg starts vibrating violently. “Ignition!!! We all call it.”’ Then she adds parenthetically, ‘Those of us of a more religious bent might be inclined to describe it as “the descent of the Spirit.””
Love is the Answer, What is the Questions?
by Cynthia Bourgeault.
New Year’s Eve Dec. 31 6-9 pm no alcohol, dream sharing, dream incubation, guided mediation, fire ritual, walking the snake labyrinth, with music and candle light and NEW WAILING WALL., please bring finger foods.
Upcoming invitations:
Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer Contemplation of scriptures for Sunday and Centering Prayer, an ancient Christian contemplative prayer practice, every Wednesday 10 am.
Monthly Taize Chanting service first Sunday of every month
Beach candle light worship every second Sunday at Torrey Pines State Park at 5 pm. It gets cold and dark so please dress warmly.
Healing Service third Sunday worship at 5 pm.
Dream Circle every first and third Sunday before worship 3-5 pm.
Committee on Ministry meeting every third Sunday evening after church and pot luck.
Webinar with Environmental Justice Practitioners Network co-sponsored by First UU Church and Church for Our Common Home, once a month call Jamie Long (619) 436-9435.
MLK All People’s Breakfast January 21th, 9-12 noon $75 join Walt and Bonnie buy tickets www.alliancesd.org/all-peoples-celebration-sponsorship
New live stream worship on church web site, some Sunday’s 5 pm (PST) Churchforourcommonhome.com More info call (858) 248-5123
www.churchforourcommonhome.com
Our Common Home Counseling Center’s services: Addiction Issues, PTSD, Individual and Group Therapy, Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, Dream Honoring, Creative Art Therapies etc.
