Alberta
Northwest Conference Listening Year
Phase 2 – Casting Seeds
An Invitation through Popular or Liberation Theatre
to Live Creatively in the Present
Written by Lloyd Lovatt, Pleasantview United Church, Edmonton, with help from Norma Gutteridge and others.
Liberation Theatre:
Liberation Theatre is socially aware and politically conscious
theatre developed along with liberation theology and inspired by Paulo Freire's
Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Liberation Theatre uses various
uncomplicated, accessible, interactive techniques to empower an audience to
find its own voice in relation to a particular challenge. The goal is less a
theatre product and more a process of learning, investigation and exploration.
Potential solutions to personal, political, vocational or social problems can
be suggested by actors and audience and then enacted, if desired, to find the
best solution that is then applied in the community’s life.
Purpose: to provide participants with an opportunity to imagine a faithful future for ANW Conference, after touching upon UCC/ANW historic notes, through what might be considered an acted-out version of a history wall.
Part One: A Methodist church in Calgary, 1905.
Hamilton Eamer and
Forrest Turner
Voice over and projected on screen: On May 17, 1905, in a Methodist church in Calgary, Alberta, delegates rise from the afternoon session of a meeting of Alberta Conference of the Methodist Church and assemble for a photograph before a half hour break, and then supper.
At that very same time a massive asteroid is approaching the planet earth, passing well within the orbit of our moon, between the earth and the late afternoon sun. At the precise instant the photographer squeezes the shutter release and flash, the shadow of the asteroid sweeps across the foothills and over that church building.
‘Stardust sound and or
star sprinkles on screen’ just as flash flashes.
Hamilton Eamer: What was that?
Forrest Turner: What was what?
Hamilton Eamer: Something just came very close, just as that sulpher flashed.
Voice over and
projected on screen:
No one else on the entire planet noticed.
Part Two: A farm in northern Alberta in 1958.
Hamilton Eamer and the
Soundstreet family: Emma, Graham, and Little Todd
Voice over and projected on screen: Fifty-three years, two months, nine days and 22 hours later the asteroid returns on its very next orbit. It heads across the orbit of the moon, on a path that will soon take it seven thousand kilometers above the planet, high, high over northern Alberta, and a farm in the Judah district.
Emma Soundstreet (ES): We have to get out the door. We should be at the church in ten minutes and we haven’t even left the farm yet. I’m so late and disorganized. Forty kids in our little Sunday school. We’re bursting at the seams, and trying to use decades old, hand-me-down materials designed to help children learn to read. It’s 1958, for gosh sakes. We have radio and people are talking about television. Refugees from all over Europe have been moving into the community. We need something better, so WHEN WILL THEY HAVE THAT NEW CURRICULUM READY FOR US!!??
Graham Soundstreet (GS): It’s OK, Emma, we’ll just do the best we can. We’re lucky enough to have a summer student, so we worship and have Sunday school every Sunday all summer long! That’s pretty good for a remote rural community. And besides, if you ask me, I’m not sure why they’re spending so much money to develop a new curriculum. Christian teachings are timeless. We just need to stick close to what the Bible teaches. We don’t need to change.
Projected
on screen: All: But you did change!!
(pause, tilting head)
GS: What was that?
ES: What was what?
GS: Something just came very close …
Little Todd Soundstreet (LTS): (screaming) MOM!! DAD!!
ES & GS (turn toward sound) What?!?
LTS: A man in Great Grandad’s photograph talked to me, just now!!
ES: Now Little Todd Soundstreet! You know photographs can’t talk!
GS: Just a minute Emma! Todd, what did the man in the photograph say?
LTS: He said …
Hamilton Eamer (HE): There it is again!
LTS: “There it is again!” That’s what the man said. “There it is again!”
GS, ES, & LTS (all together, looking at photograph): Who are you?
ES: And there what is again?
HE: My name? My good folks, I am Hamilton Eamer. And it just passed by again, and I have a pretty good feeling that it is not 1905 any more.
ES: 1905. Good heavens, no. It’s 1958. Hamilton Eamer, 1905 was when this photograph was taken, and … how come you are in a photograph taken in Calgary in 1905 and you can talk to us in Judah in 1958? Photographs can’t talk.
HE: In 1905 I would have said the same thing, but now I think I know what happened. It’s that asteroid. There is an asteroid made of pure deuteronomite, and I think every time it passes close to earth from now until eternity, I am going to come back to life. I am quite sure it had something to do with that camera. It was exactly when that stinky, sulphery flash exploded to take our photograph in 1905 that I could feel the presence of the asteroid the first time, the asteroid that just passed by again. You can actually feel it.
GS: I felt it, too. It is as if something really big passed by - much closer than the moon.
HE: And you folks, when that asteroid passed by and I woke up, you were talking about the Bible. Now, I am talking to you from a photograph of a Methodist Conference on a shelf in your living room. So you must be Methodists?
ES: Methodists! Good heavens, no! Well, maybe in a way we are. My mother was born Methodist. In fact, my grandfather was part of the same conference in 1905. He’s in this same photograph as you. This is him over here (point to a different place in the photo). Forrest Turner.
HE: Forrest Turner! You are Forbey Turner’s granddaughter?
ES: Yes. My name is Emma Soundstreet. My mother is a Turner.
HE: Forbey and I are friends; uhhh, were friends, I guess. We spent so many hours getting to know one another every time the church brought us together to do its work. We actually became close friends – always disagreeing mind you. We couldn’t agree on anything.
“A Methodist Church in every town and village,” I’d say. Get those immigrants into Methodist Churches before the Baptists or the Roman Catholics get them! Methodist churches dotting the plains and lining the rivers!
But then Forbey would say, “Now, why do we need to build a building of our own in every community just to have ten Methodists in it when we could work with other Christians?”
Yup, Forbey would be for the Union churches. At least that’s what they started calling them. But I would say, “We can do this our selves. We don’t need to change!”
One:
We don’t need to change.
All:
But we did change!
HE: But wait a minute. You said that you were not Methodist … What are you then? You changed? I suppose you joined a Presbyterian Church, or an Anglican one? I knew it! I knew it wouldn’t work. We should have done this ourselves.
GS: No, no, that’s not it, Hamilton Eamer. It worked very well. It’s the whole church that changed.
One: We can change!
All: We did change!
We now have The United Church of Canada, ever since 1925., Methodist, and some Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches – and those early Union churches. We still talk with others about joining – the Anglicans, for example.
HE: How can this be? The Anglicans will have you drinking. Why can’t people just go on being Methodists, and teaching the faith to the children, and looking after families. There’s lots of work to do just keeping alcohol out of the district. If you join other churches, you just give up on your goals, the things you believe in.
ES: Well, it is true, times do change. You hear United Church people tell stories about Temperance and then talk about having a beer at home. We don’t usually drink in front of each other, mind you. (pause) Alcohol seemed to change when people came home from the war. Some of the older folks were pretty upset about that.
HE: War? Were there troubles?
ES: I doubt you could even begin to understand, Hamilton Eamer. There was so much pain and sadness in the world in the forty years following your conference meeting in 1905. The wars were not here in Alberta, but many of us lost family. My cousin was killed when his airplane crashed in France.
HE: What is an airplane?
GS: Oh, poor Hamilton Eamer, it must be hard for you to understand. For now, just think of it as a new way to die in a war. Myself, I am a veteran as well, and I can tell you it is not easy to live with some of those memories. Sometimes it is even hard to make myself go to church. Christianity rose to the occasion in different ways during those wars, but the church failed, too.
ES: We have a summer student with us, and she talks about how she is learning a kind of ministry that is not just about getting people into churches. She talks about how the church and its ministers are needed to help our country move toward being a healing presence and trust-building leader in the world. A young man from a community close to here became a minister and then a military chaplain during the war. He came home and left the ministry. He became a psychologist. He said he believes helping people who are dealing with psychological turmoil is a kind of ministry that people need just as much as we need worship leaders and pastoral care givers. In fact, some people are saying we need to change our ideas about ministry –
One:
We needed to change.
All:
And we did change.
ES: Some people
are saying we need to change our ideas about ministry so that ministers can
work in non-traditional roles like that.
It’s going to take a lot of organizing and persuading. We need all the ministers we can get – for congregations like ours.
HE: Did I hear you say “She?” You have a student minister who is a woman? She?!?
ES: Yes, there are some, and they are certainly welcome! I’m not saying there isn’t a controversy about it. But the church is trying to follow the Spirit and try new things. Some of those things will help women take a greater part in leading us. All you need to do is be open to a little change, and you find out just how different and good the future can be.
One:
Above each blade of grass there is an angel saying:
All:
Grow! Grow!
HE: But it sounds like it is a hard time because of those wars.
GS: It was a hard time – because of the wars, and also because of a global financial collapse, a Great Depression, between them. And we have a long way to go to find real, lasting peace. But that is why people are such strong supporters of the church right now. We know our society must change, and spirituality is one way to find the power to change. Add to that the baby boom. The church is obviously in for several decades of growth with lots and lots of members. I just can’t imagine the church ever being small again!
HE: Baby boom?
ES: Picture this, Mr. Eamer: Young adults put off marriage and children for five or six years because of a war, and then the war is over. What do you think might happen then?
HE: (hesitates, thinks) Ahhh. I get it. Babies, lots of babies, big Sunday School classes, and a question: “What is it those children need to learn so they can be faithful in a very different time?”
ES: BINGO!
HE: Bingo?
GS: Never mind. But that describes much of our task in congregations, presbytery and conference. How do we be Christian in a world that wants new goals and new ways of attaining them?
All:
Grow! Grow!
GS: But tell me, Mr. Eamer. When you were building the Methodist Church in Alberta, what were your goals? What did you believe you were building?
HE: At that first Conference meeting in 1905 we believed we were building a church to serve a British-like society here in this Dominion. And this: We were doing our best to make a future for the Aboriginal People, because their land was being taken up for settlement and progress. So we wanted to help create a peaceful merging of cultures as new farms, new cities, and new railways were being established. We knew it could be done badly, and we wanted to do it well. I hope “well” is what happened.
ES: Well, good for you, at least in part. There has been much good because of the churches and because of your dreams in 1905, Mr. Eamer. Our neighbour returned from the war with a bride from the Netherlands, and our new blacksmith in town was once a German soldier who invaded the Netherlands at the start of that same war. Now they are both part of our church. There they were, standing together scooping ice cream into cones for children at the church picnic last week. How could that have happened without the Gospel?
GS: The United Church helps to operate Indian Residential Schools – the same ones you might remember as Methodist schools, Hamilton Eamer. I hope those schools are working. Some of us are not sure. About a year ago we visited an Indian Residential School. Compared to many of our rural schools, the Residential School seems to have modern things, but we could feel sadness in there, too. I’ll never forget that visit and those children. Our student minister said last week that doubt is not the opposite of faith, and I confess that I have some doubts.
ES: Sometimes it feels hard to be a Christian in the world. It is easy to stay in our congregations where we usually agree with one another, and our choices are simpler. But, in many ways like in your Methodist Church, Hamilton, the United Church of Canada is feeling a call to be active in a changing, complex world. Sometimes it’s hard to know what that means, and so there need to be supports for our congregations so that we can seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Just like you said, we know this can be done badly, and we want, with all our hearts, to do it well. I think our Conference is changing right now so that we can experience that kind of support.
Grow!
Grow!
HE: It feels to me that The United Church of Canada is a faithful descendent of the very best of the Methodist Church, Mr. and Mrs. Soundstreet. (Feels himself weakening as the asteroid crosses the moon’s orbit, continuing on its way) It’s getting too far away! The asteroid is taking my strength away, and I’m returning to the cosmic wilderness. Thank you so much. God bless you and good by-y-y-y-e.
ES, GS, LTS: Mr. Eamer? Mr. Eamer? Goodbye to you, too. Oh, and thank you so much.
ES: I can’t believe that just happened!
GS: (looking at watch) But look! It’s an hour earlier. What did just happen?
ES: I don’t know, but the asteroid is gone and now we are early for Sunday School. Let’s use that time. We have a church to build!
Questions for Reflection:
1: What’s missing? What would you change?
2: What surprises? What felt particularly meaningful?
3: What does the Soundstreet family believe the mission of the church in their time (just before 1960) has become or is becoming?
4: What do they believe they need from Conference?
Part Three Conference Office in Edmonton, 2011.
Hamilton Eamer and Ren Turtlebright
Voice over and projected on screen: Fifty-three years, two months, nine days and 22 hours later, on September 8, 2011, the asteroid falls once again into this part of our solar system, across the orbit of the moon, and high over central Alberta. Just as its faint, fleeting shadow races toward the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, a supplementary meeting of Alberta Northwest Conference Budget Committee rises for a break after a difficult afternoon. Ren Turtlebright walks through the office, headed for the door and a little fresh air, calculator in hand.
Ren
Turtlebright RT (to self): These numbers. …Now what? (shakes calculator) Why won’t this calculator work?
Anyways, when I add the two columns, it comes out to more than we can seriously consider – what with some presbyteries struggling. It’s not there.
HE: There it is again.
RT (to self): No, I tell you, it isn’t. It’s not there
HE: Yes it is! (raised voice, trying to get attention) The deuteronomite asteroid is here. It came back and here I am again!!
RT: What? Who? Where?
HE: Down here in this photograph.
“First Alberta Methodist Conference – Calgary 1905.”
RT (Looks at photograph): Now look at that, a talking picture frame. I guess it was only a matter of time. Hello there little man in the e-frame. That’s pretty good resolution.
HE: Do you know the Soundstreets?
RT: No, I don’t know Soundstreets, but there should be a way to access FaceBook. If I can just get rid of this cute little man. Let’s see, there’s no track ball, no mouse …
HE: You can’t get rid of me, not until the asteroid is heading back out across the moon’s orbit.
RT: Hey! Who are you? You’re not virtual at all.
HE: Now listen, I won’t comment on your virtues and you just leave mine alone, at least until we get to know each other a little!
RT: No, what I mean is that you are a real man in an old photograph. At first I thought you were a virtual man, and this was a tablet or something.
HE: I have no idea what you are talking about. My story is simple in comparison. I am Hamilton Eamer, and I come alive whenever my asteroid passes by a copy of this old photograph, taken of me and other members of Alberta Conference of the Methodist Church in 1905. I take it that the present moment is, let’s see … about 53 years after 1958. Is that about right?
RT: Yes, that would be 53+58=111 .. . uhh 2011. You are absolutely right, but how did you figure it out that way?
HE: Well, it would be John Kepler’s Third Law, I guess. But I go by the evidence. It is 53 years, now, since meeting the Soundstreets, and the orbit of asteroids is …
RT: You have to tell me how asteroids figure into this!
HE: Well, just when the photographer took this photograph in 1905, a huge asteroid passed right between the sun and the church in which that photograph was taken. What that means, is you and I have the next several minutes to have a conversation that neither of us will ever forget … and that’s going to be a long time for me.
So,… once again, my name is Hamilton Eamer. You are …
RT: Ren Turtlebright.
HE: And where are we? This is a photograph of a church, but this space doesn’t look like a church. It feels more … industrial.
RT: We are in the Conference Office – Alberta Northwest Conference of The United Church of Canada.
HE: So you are probably going to tell me that Conferences have offices. Ren Turtlebright, I think I just heard you going over some numbers. Let me guess. It’s budget time, right?
RT: It always feels like budget time, and it’s very worrisome. But it is not just about resources. It is about effectiveness, too. How do we use our resources to enable, empower the United Church in this part of the country? It’s a matter of enough financial resources and younger people to be a strong United Church presence in our conference.
HE: Well there should be lots and lots of young people. The Soundstreets talked about the Baby Bang …
RT: Baby BOOM.
HE: Right, the Baby Boom, which means that you must have lots and lots of people in your churches.
RT: That’s not how it worked out, Hamilton Eamer. Our churches did actually grow small again.
HE: Why? Was there another Great Depression? Or war?
RT: For the most part these have been times of peace and great prosperity, but that has not brought prosperity for churches. It is almost the other way around. People have commitments to other things now. It has been that way for some time. Some say our country has three generations of people who have no practical, personal knowledge of what it means to be Christian or part of a church.
HE: I sailed from Bristol on a steam ship in 1895. When we were sailing into Halifax Harbour I saw a great sailing ship sitting there. She looked great from a distance. Then, when we sailed past I could see that it had run aground, and no effort was being made to refloat it. Just because we have steam ships doesn’t mean we can get rid of sail.
RT: If you are asking, “Does the church feel a little bit like that sailing ship right now?” I would say, “Yes, in some ways.”
We are afloat, mind you. We still help a lot of people, and we provide community to many, many more. We have hundreds of congregations around Alberta, northeastern British Columbia, and in Canada’s north. But here and across Canada congregations are closing pretty rapidly right now. It is a little bit like we have run aground in some ways.
HE: But in other ways?
RT: I am fiercely proud of The United Church of Canada, Hamilton Eamer. I think John Wesley and John Knox would be proud of it, too. Alone, and together with other churches, we live the justice-seeking and reform traditions. It wins us support, it wins us critics, and it leads to a gentler world.
HE: Well that part has not changed then. Yes, I certainly remember the critics. That’s why I was especially careful to keep letters from supporters. Otherwise you start thinking it’s all critics.
I take it, based on what you have said, that The United Church is somewhat prophetic? If there are lots of critics, it often means there is a prophet around somewhere… What are some accomplishments that make you especially proud?
RT: So many things. Walking in the name of peace. United Church people can be found working to turn the world from war. It seems to be working. Though there is a long way to go, there seems to be much less stomach for war than there might have been years ago.
At the same time, one of our oldest generations now is made up of those people who were young adults during the Second World War. I don’t know how they did what they did. It must have been very difficult, and in many ways it still seems to define them.
HE: Do you mean to say that now, in 2011, there are still people who remember that same war Graham and Emma Soundstreet remembered 53 years ago? That means those people must be at least in their 80s and 90s! That’s impossible.
RT: No, Hamilton, not impossible at all! Longevity is one of the great gifts of our time. How many generations would you say you had in your congregation in 1905, Hamilton Eamer?
HE: Umm, let’s see. Children, youth, parents, a few grandparents, that’s four generations, I guess, with the older ones being in their 60s. Frances Montgomery was in her 70s, but it’s not possible to get to church when you are that old.
RT: Then you
will be surprised to know that most Church Boards have at least one member who
is in his or her 70s, if not 80s.
There are five, maybe six generations now.
All: We have changed!
RT: Churches provide an excellent place for young and old to get together, and for people to be active in their advanced years. We count on people advanced in age. We would have no church without them.
HE: “Advanced years.” “Advanced in age.” What are you getting at? Are you saying people can go ahead in age and back up? Have you learned to control time?
RT: No, no, not that. Sometimes people don’t want to be called “old” and, I have to tell you, in our society there is some fear of aging. We live in a society that does not always like older people and is not sure about children, either. Therefore, many people try to choose language that does not label other people. You will be familiar with the word “mankind.” Well, many people today are more likely to say “humankind.” It is called inclusive language. Just like so many other things, once you get used to using inclusive language, you tend to forget you are using it.
All:
We can change!
RT: You forget you are using it and before you know it our language is less male, less heterosexist.
HE: Less hetero-what?!?
RT: Less heterosexist. You know, we are struggling against homophobia?
HE: Homophobia? You’ve lost me!
RT: We are working together to make and keep our society safe for homosexual persons.
HE: H-o-m-o-s-e-x …. Umm, hem, hem .. H-o-m-o-s-e-x ….
… Do you know what you just said?!
RT: You mean homosexual? I am talking about lesbians, bi-sexuals, ..
HE: (covers ears, looks around to see if anyone has heard) You can’t say those things. Look at me, I can’t even get that word out my mouth.
RT: Now, Mr. Hamilton, are you saying there were no homosexual people in your church?
HE: I don’t know. I don’t think it was any of my business, so we just treated everyone as if we were all … as you say… h-e-t-e-r-o-s-e-x-u-a-l. Everyone seemed to be ok with that.
RT: Well, maybe they were, and maybe they were not. Maybe church was just not a safe place to talk about it.
All:
Grow! Grow!
RT: In my lifetime our society has changed at the deepest levels around sexuality. I am one of those Baby Boomers. When I was very young I don’t think my parents were able to say those words either, and now we are requiring each other to accept one another as fully whole human beings. That is a lot to ask of one another, yet we are asking it.
All: We can change!
HE: Well is there marriage, then?
RT: O yes. Marriage is still a popular institution. It is changing, mind you. And, as I said, we are a society that is committed to creating safety for all people and for relationships that make us whole. Therefore, marriage can now include people of the same gender.
Most of us believe there are more divorces now than there were in 1905, which is probably true. But we also work hard to keep marriage and any relationship from being a hiding place for sexual violence, or any violence.
HE: Do you know what you are doing, Ren Turtlebright. You are using language that most of us a century ago did not know how to use, or just used in dirty jokes, and you are making a better world by doing that. If that is what your church is doing, then maybe it does not matter how much money it has, or how big it is. The kingdom of God is like yeast. Maybe your church is like yeast.
RT: Yes. Ummm … the realm of God, the beloved community, God’s new time.
HE: Let me guess… It’s my use of “kingdom” that you are aiming at right?
RT: Good for you, Hamilton Eamer. You pick up things well. It takes time, patience, conviction, courage, and love.
All: And we can change!
HE: The Soundstreets, the family I met in 1958, believed that the United Church of Canada in those days was feeling a call to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God in a changing, complex world. It sounds like they knew what they were talking about. What was it, most of all, that has helped the church in that work, Ren Turtlebright?
RT: You know, Hamilton Eamer, it’s easy to say that we can disagree with one another, but sometimes tolerance of disagreement is kind of conditional. Sometimes we agree to disagree, but the disagreement stops us anyways, because we are afraid of upsetting people. But Micah, the prophet who wrote those words, “seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God,” well, he would not abide that kind of hesitancy, would he?
We needed to find ways to get past that, so that we could act in love even if that action might provoke conflict. So there has been pain, and there has also been profound reconciliation. Our conference helps us through those things – through contract workers, and through paid staff. Presbytery helps by supporting and training our Ministry and Personnel Committees in congregations. We try not to ignore conflict, and we try to be gentle with one another. We ask each other to take responsibility for the healing we need to do.
All: Grow! Grow!
RT: I don’t think we take it lightly when we say our diversity makes us strong.
HE: Conference has an office, and now I hear you mention Conference staff.
RT: I guess we assume it has always been that way. Yes, since the 1960’s we have had paid staff, all part of the dream to make The United Church of Canada a strong, constant instrument of change throughout Canada. It feels strange to say it that way, but I think that has been the hope. One time we felt listened to a lot more, and now we are more like yeast, as you say. And, it’s not without conflict, mind you!
HE: Are all your congregations the same, then?
RT: Heavens no! Some are very traditional, some are quite innovative and experimental. If you walked into some of our churches you would feel quite at home. In some you might notice you are the only person who is ethnically European. There are Chinese and Korean United Church congregations. Our congregations are very diverse. There are many First Nations congregations.
And the truth is, Mr. Eamer, some of our newest congregations are wholly of a particular immigrant culture. Let’s say immigrants from Nigeria, for instance, gather together to create a Nigerian Methodist congregation. Some congregations like that search out a wider church organization to be part of, and so they negotiate joining The United Church of Canada as a whole congregation.
And, there are some people asking just what a congregation is these days. So our staff are people that help us to be strong in all that diversity – tradition, culture, and a radical vision.
HE: Two more questions. First, how is it going with the Anglicans?
RT: We created a hymnbook together and we are good friends, but they are still Anglicans, and we are still United Church. And you have another question?
HE: The Indian Residential Schools. They didn’t really work, did they?
RT: No. The strength of The United Church includes First Nations members and leaders, but the Residential Schools were not a good way to achieve that strength. In spite of an early vision otherwise, and in spite of the best intentions in your day, Mr. Eamer, the legacy of the schools has been lost parenting skills, lost traditions, lost connection, poverty and painful memories. For some, they were times of sexual violence and other violence. There is much ongoing work, in our church and in our country, to provide people with opportunities to heal.
All:
Grow! Grow!
HE: There must be a great desire to retreat inwards.
RT: But retreating inwards is never the way, is it?
HE: No, it never is. We know that there are ways to do things badly and well. Jesus creates a vision for God’s new time, a vision to help us, and Jesus commissions the people to follow that vision. It is rarely as simple to do that as we want it to be, but it is never impossible.
RT: There is a church to build.
HE: Ren, the asteroid is about to cross the moon’s orbit. I must go.
RT: Will I remember this?
HE: Yes. Goodbye, Ren Turtlebright, and thank you.
RT: Goodbye, Hamilton Eamer, and thank you!
Questions for
Reflection:
1: What’s missing? What would you change?
2: What surprises? What felt particularly meaningful?
3: What does Ren Turtlebright believe the mission of the church has become or is becoming?
4: What do you believe Ren needs from Conference?
5: Name some “asteroids” that bring influences of various kinds into the life of our society and church.
(Asteroids are neither right nor wrong, they just are. Some asteroids
have power to obliterate us, but they almost never do. Some can be fairly
predictable once detected. Who knows? Passing closely enough, they could remove
junk like spent boosters left over from our earlier moon shots. And, if we use
all our resources to try to rid ourselves of an asteroid, some amateur
astronomer is going to spot another one next week.)
Part 4 – To be
created as part of the Listening Year Process
One idea to introduce
this task:
Voice over and projected on screen: The asteroid returns fifty-three years, two months, nine days and 22 hours later. It is on the leading edge of the 2064 Winter Solstice. It crosses the moon’s orbit, draws near to the earth. The day is short. Shadows are long.
Questions: