Church News - August

August – the last full month of summer, which is often a break or rest time – is upon us. Soon it will be harvest time for later summer plants. And soon the return to schooling/learning schedules.

All of these are important in a spiritually connected and centered life – rest, harvest, new learning.

Our world is in the midst of the end of the age changes, when typically old established ways of doing things are re-examined, traditions may fall by the wayside, while older networks, institutions and organizations no long effective or outdated, fall as well.

The end times, some call it. An atmosphere of chaos or upheaval prevails. Piscean times are said to have been about the individual’s growth. Even spiritual masters who have had their own retreats without much connection with other masters are facing changes.

Aquarian times are said to be about using the individual’s gifts and talents found in Pisces, but now using them in groups, and groups are becoming connected to other groups.

This time, the end of this age and the beginning of the new age, though, also carries risks for our mother Earth as our misaligned actions have worn her out, so we must be ready to change and adapt even more and more quickly and without delay.

This month in the interfaith world, the Parliament of World Religions (PWR) is meeting in Chicago and thousands of attendees and many religions from all over the world will be represented.

Their website glows with excitement and lists of speakers and events. It is an in-person event. I attended the PWR in Toronto in 2018 and it was an awesome experience of diversity in unity with so many ways to worship God the divine – known by so many names.

Panels and groups of a wide range of beliefs spoke, people gathered to dance in circles, art installations invited personal participation – people learned about others and spoke of their own beliefs, knowledge, and experiences of the divine.

Perhaps it will surprise you that I found it deepened my own spiritual practices and made me love our world and God more as well as my own teacher(s) of choice, Jesus and friends of his – like the Buddha of the new age, Maitreya.

It also made me clearer about service and applying decades of my own learning cycles. I am sorry not to be attending this time.

Wherever you may be in your own spiritual journey, be sure to take time to rest and recharge, take time to harvest what you have seeded and nurtured/watered, and with new vigor, perhaps choose something to study more deeply or something new.

Think about service, as in sharing it with a group, with our community, with our world and with love. And then, do it. This is not a time to be sitting on the sidelines or for being complacent. We each have stories and more to share.

May you have a blessed August and may that light within you glow even stronger with the sharing.