Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Monday, 9 July 2018
Wednesday, 4 July 2018
Spirituality/Secularism in the Parliament of Australia
The Lord’s prayer would be abolished from the start of Senate sittings and replaced by a statement that includes religious and non-religious beliefs, under a push instigated by the Greens.
On Wednesday the Greens senator Lee Rhiannon will move a motion for a Senate inquiry into the proposed alternative: “Senators, let us in silence pray or reflect upon our responsibilities to all people of Australia and to future generations.”
The move is supported in a letter signed by progressive religious leaders including Fr Rod Bower, of the Anglican parish of Gosford, the reverend Margaret Mayman, of Pitt St Uniting church, and rabbi Jeffrey Kamins of the Temple Emanuel at Woollahra.
Guardian Australia understands the Greens believe they have enough support to set up an inquiry. Senators Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick confirmed Centre Alliance will support the motion, although Patrick noted this is “not the same thing as supporting replacing the prayer”.
Griff suggested the alternative prayer “ensures the moment is more relevant and personal for the individual”.
Senate sittings begin with the Lord’s prayer, a Christian prayer including the words “our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”.
Rhiannon said the statement that opens parliament “should be inclusive of people of all beliefs and faiths”.
“The Greens are suggesting the proposed new opening statement be referred to the Senate’s procedure committee for a public inquiry that better reflects the secular nature of our country and our parliament,” she said.
“A secular nation like Australia should be free from religious bias and not impose religious influence on citizens or parliamentarians.
“We should work for religious tolerance in the structures of government.”
Mayman said it was “time for the Senate to move on from an opening prayer that belongs to the era when Christianity as the majority religion in Australia was given precedence over other faiths and belief systems”.
“It is time to embrace words that are inclusive and respectful of religious diversity,” she said.
“The archaic language of the current prayer suggests that religious ideas are anachronistic and irrelevant in a pluralistic society.
“The use of the Lord’s prayer is not respectful of Christian faith, as it reduces the prayer that Jesus taught his followers to pray to a rote recitation in this context.”
The letter signed by religious leaders notes the Australian Capital Territory’s legislative assembly begins with a similar non-denominational statement.
“We believe this statement more accurately reflects the multicultural nature of our diverse communities,” it said.
The letter was signed by the Tibetan Buddhist Society of Canberra, the Lebanese Muslim Association at Lakemba and the Quakers at Surry Hills.
Friday, 16 February 2018
The tastelessness and self-centerdness of American and Christian exceptionalism
Will be heading over shortly to make remarks at The National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Great religious and political leaders, and many friends, including T.V. producer Mark Burnett of our wonderful 14 season Apprentice triumph, will be there.“This ought to be good,” I thought, in the same way that a multiple-car crash on the interstate is “good.”
This is not the first time that the annual prayer breakfast and “The Apprentice” have strangely melded in Trump’s imagination. Last year at his first prayer breakfast, the newly inaugurated President opened by wistfully noting that leaving “The Apprentice” was “when I knew for sure I was doing it”—“it” being the Presidency. He followed by noting how spectacularly unsuccessful his replacement, movie star and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, had been.
And we know how that turned out. The ratings went right down the tubes. It’s been a total disaster . . . And I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings, okay?
And have a nice breakfast.
Truth be told, Trump’s remarks at the breakfast last Thursday turned out to be a disappointment for those hoping for the latest random, off-the-wall, totally offensive Presidential sound bite. It also was a disappointment for anyone expecting that something thoughtful or insightful might be said about prayer or faith. For those, however, who can’t get enough of American exceptionalism, “We’re #1,” and a Christian nationalism built around the conviction that God likes us best, it was a speech straight out of central casting. A few highlights:
- Faith is central to American life and to liberty. Our founders invoked our Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares, “In God We Trust.” And we place our hands on our hearts as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proclaim we are “One Nation Under God.”
- Our rights are not given to us by man, our rights come from our Creator . . . That is why the words “Praise Be To God” are etched atop the Washington Monument, and those same words are etched into the hearts of our people.
- So today, we praise God for how truly blessed we are to be American.
- So today, inspired by our fellow citizens, let us resolve to find the best within ourselves. Let us pray for that extra measure of strength and that extra measure of devotion.
- As long as we open our eyes to God’s grace and open our hearts to God’s love, then America will forever be the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a light unto all nations.
The President’s speech writer gave him all sorts of red meat to throw to his base, as well to those who like their prayer and faith seasoned with assurances that we are God’s favorites, God’s most recent “chosen people.” And he threw the meat effectively.
There are all sorts of ways to push back, of course, starting with pointing out that the word “Creator” in the Declaration of Independence and the word “God” on our currency and on top of the Washington Monument refer to an impersonal and shadowy Deist God, a divinity so different from what those obsessed with Christian exceptionalism imagine their pet Deity to be as to be unrecognizable. But as a college professor, I know that history lessons and textual analysis tend to have little impact on what people choose to believe. We hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see, until someone or something jars us into awareness. Trump’s National Prayer Breakfast remarks last Thursday left me longing for just such a jarring occasion.
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/freelancechristianity/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast/#cUrURJrMKcDV1fU6.99And if you have read this and you think that Trump is God's pick for President of the USA, you might like to read this article
Saturday, 22 July 2017
In my soul there is a temple --- Sufi mystic Rabia al Basri
“In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.
Is there not a region of love
where the sovereignty is illumined nothing,
where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,
where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?
In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church
that dissolve, that dissolve in God.
By Rabia of Basra (c. 717-801)
who is considered the most popular and influential female Muslim saint in the Sufi tradition.
Born nearly 500 years before Maulana Jalaludin Rumi,
she - perhaps more than any other poet - is said to have influenced his writing.
This poem has come via Jessica Morrison on Facebook
And from Lyndon Marcotte’s blog, InHabitude
Monday, 17 July 2017
Anglicans and Muslims together in their place of prayer
Anglican priest, Reverend Peter Humphries
speaking with Aisha Novakovich
Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Benedict - author of The Rule, founder of Western Monasticism
From the blog of Malcolm Guite
A sonnet for St. Benedict
On July the 11th the Church celebrates the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the gentle founder of the Benedictine order and by extension the father of Monasticism. A moderate and modest man he would have been astonished to learn that his ‘simple school for prayer’, his ‘modest rule for beginners’ led to the foundation of communities which kept the Christian flame alight through dark ages, preserved not only Christian faith, scripture, and culture,but also the best of Classical Pagan learning and culture, fed the poor, transformed societies, promoted learning and scholarship, and today provides solace, grounding, perspective and retreat not only to monks and nuns but to millions of lay people around the world.
Here is my sonnet for Benedict, drawing largely on phrases from the Rule, I dedicate it to the sisters at Turvey Abbey. It appears in my second book with Canterbury Press, The Singing Bowl
Here is my sonnet for Benedict, drawing largely on phrases from the Rule, I dedicate it to the sisters at Turvey Abbey. It appears in my second book with Canterbury Press, The Singing Bowl
As always you can hear the sonnet by clicking on the ‘play’ button or the title.
You sought to start a simple school of prayer,
A modest, gentle, moderate attempt,
With nothing made too harsh or hard to bear,
No treating or retreating with contempt,
A little rule, a small obedience
That sets aside, and tills the chosen ground,
Fruitful humility, chosen innocence,
A binding by which freedom might be found
A modest, gentle, moderate attempt,
With nothing made too harsh or hard to bear,
No treating or retreating with contempt,
A little rule, a small obedience
That sets aside, and tills the chosen ground,
Fruitful humility, chosen innocence,
A binding by which freedom might be found
You call us all to live, and see good days,
Centre in Christ and enter in his peace,
To seek his Way amidst our many ways,
Find blessedness in blessing, peace in praise,
To clear and keep for Love a sacred space
That we might be beginners in God’s grace.
Centre in Christ and enter in his peace,
To seek his Way amidst our many ways,
Find blessedness in blessing, peace in praise,
To clear and keep for Love a sacred space
That we might be beginners in God’s grace.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Friday, 2 October 2015
Faith Communities Council of Victoria - FCCV - October 2015 : Events and News
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