Thursday, March 5, 2009

Saturday, March 14, 2009 Our Next Eucharist


We had a lovely Eucharist on Feb. 28. Our theme was "Communitas."

Part of the shared homily offered by Victoria :
The anthropologist Victor Turner created this word, communitas. Communitas is created in situations where individuals are driven to find each other through a common experience of ordeal, or transition, or marginalization. It involves intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging brought about by having to rely on each other in order to survive.

Perhaps some of us are here to simply survive. Perhaps some of us belong to multiple communities in order to survive. Or we might be here because Sophia in Trinity: A New Catholic Community is a way to survive in the Catholic Church. Or
perhaps you are an LGBT person and hope that you will experience a Queer God in this round chapel. For others, perhaps you are here out of curiosity because you wonder what a woman priest looks like, let alone a lesbian priest!

And our guest musician Evelie Delfino Solis led us in a powerful closing hymn "C'mon people now, smile on each other...everybody get together, try to love one another, right now!" These thoughts took us into our first community meeting. I am including below some of the thoughts that were shared:

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO SOPHIA IN TRINITY? WHY DO YOU KEEP COMING?

• The liturgy is alive: inclusive language, bodied prayer, silence, music
• I came to be part of the full inclusion of women in the RCC and because this is non-hierarchical
• I want to be all of me when I come to church, and I can be here
• I like the music, the call and reponse, the circle and eye contact
• We are seeing the implosion of the RCC, just look at how they are now investigating Catholic nuns!
• I like the preaching and teaching of Victoria
• In the early church there was no mention of priests, only the leadership of elders and house leaders
• This is an emerging community that will hopefully help in creating the emerging church
Richard Rohr tells us there are mediating institutions already happening in the emerging church:
--prayer groups
--Bible study groups
--Service groups
--Centering Prayer groups
--Just Faith groups [you pray and work for justice]
--The New Monasticism
He asks: which ones are we involved with today
• I think the above categories of R. Rohr are further down the path
• I am interested in the ecumenical Jesus and inter-faith work
I would like to see one additional reading from another faith tradition
• I would like to see a Bible Study group
• What I think we are doing here is communal prayer—and I want to learn more about this.
• Answering the question “why don’t we use unleavened bread?” Victoria said she believes the bread should be nourishing on every level.
• All are invited to join John of God parish for Friday nights’ Soup & Scriptures, 6;30p—8:00p
• How are the scriptures chosen that we hear? Victoria responded: so far I have chosen the Saturday readings from the USCCB Lectionary, but we can choose readings from any part of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles
• I would like to see a healing service take place, perhaps ahead of our 10:30a.m. time
• Perhaps we could have breakfast ahead of time?
• I would like to see us create a liturgy for all those “wounded” by the Christian Church [someone added: perhaps all those wounded by religion!]
• At some time, I would like to see us have a healing service without the Eucharist
• Perhaps we could have a healing liturgy once a quarter –without a Eucharist, perhaps followed by a potluck

Following the discussion of 1 hour we decided two items:

1. We will have a potluck following the March 28 Eucharist and continue our community discussions

2. Since we all will gather on Holy Saturday, April 11, at our usual
10:30am time, this would be a good opportunity for us to create a healing service without having a Eucharist.

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