Church news: May

Would you ponder: respecting and respectful. What do they mean? How do we act respectfully? By always agreeing? Who or what are we being respectful of? 

We are human, we see different sides, different shades, and having a conversation around differences can help us see the parts or issues not immediately apparent. How do we learn to talk, to converse about the differences? And still be respectful? And integrate them into a whole? Or even into messy compromises along the way to a wholeness.

Those are questions. I don’t have the answers, but maybe I have a few insights. I’d have to listen to you and to others to answer those questions. I’m asking because we are polarized these days, some one way, some another — a phase many of us (humanity) are in.

With the tremendous and beautiful success of the return of Artemis II from a 10-day trip around the moon on April 10, with a crew of four in a very small capsule, we know they had to do some work on how to live together and get the work done that sent them as pioneers up to moon orbit. 

They worked with thousands who supported their mission, at NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and around the world. It represented years of hard work. Christina Koch, one of the four astronauts, observed they became a crew, more than a team, a group working together all the time, “stroking together” every minute, willing to sacrifice silently for each other, dutifully linked. She spoke of looking at planet Earth as “a lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe — Earth and all the blackness around.” And it dawned on her, “Planet Earth, you are a crew.”

We are a crew. We are here to share and to work together and when we do, the result is something extraordinary and the vision of what we, humanity, can achieve together grows, evolves. Those of us who believe we can achieve great things together, we will need to find some ways to shift, no longer content to live at a pole — or choose the habitual paths of destruction and dominance as solutions. 

If we are going to get beyond tears and fears, well, we need to laugh together, agree on some things, but we have to find them first. We have to talk, communicate respectfully. Like the crew of Artemis II, we will not always be on the joy train, but we too can commit to working as crew, as teams that aim to get back on the joy train, which Canadian crew member Jeremy spoke of — and use both our love and our darkness to find the solutions that will work toward a greater vision.

Let’s agree on small things. And find a few more we can smile and laugh about. Begin again the conversations we tossed out a while ago. Peace on Earth — we’d like that but that’s still a way off. 

This month, let’s get back to making connections in small ways. 

Listen to your heart, to the trees, to the eagles overhead, to the birds as they return. Make room for joy, for love, for a spiritual resonance with the divine. And try a few bridging comments with old friends and strangers. Come join us at Trinity. We have ministers of different spiritual teachings and learn from different perspectives finding Christ consciousness and resonance. We meet at 11 a.m. Sundays, excepting Vespers: in May, Vespers is May 31 at 4 p.m. Trinity’s full service schedule is in this All Point Bulletin.