Pilgrimage
“If we
think of belonging only as membership in a club, organization, or
church, we miss the point. Belonging is the risk to move beyond the
world we know, to venture out on pilgrimage, to accept exile. And it
is the risk of being with companions on that journey, God, a spouse,
friends, children, mentors, teachers, people who came from the same
place as we did, people who came from entirely different places,
saints and sinners of all sorts, those known to us and those unknown,
our secret longings, questions, fears.”
Diana
Butler Bass (Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the
Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening)
The world we know has
been governed by a patriarchal establishment for as long as we have
memory or history records. That patriarchy has been predominately
ruled by white men, who brought to it their discoveries about power,
science and government. That male dominated world has been essential
to move us out of superstition, through the age of enlightenment and
into the technological age. It requires that the reins to be placed
in a very few hands at any given time; a narrow leadership that rules
for all. But the window of patriarchal dominance is closing. Whether
we call it the Age of Aquarius, or the New Age, or Spiritual
Revival or Awakening, the scope is expanding to include women as well
as men, people of color as well as white, many religious traditions
instead of one or two. The patriarchy represents contraction; this
new spiritual awakening that Diana Butler Bass and others speak and
write about, is all about expansion.
This transition is not
something to fear. It is normal evolutionary movement into a new kind
of human interaction. With the advent of the internet and social
media, the world is connected in a way it has never been before. The
reach is broad and we are venturing out in new directions that are
both exciting and slightly frightening. We don't know where we will
end up because this is a path we have never taken before. We are
pilgrims on the way to a new land. We belong to a new civilization
that is inclusive and cooperative and built upon the strengths of
every member instead of just a few.
We can expect some
turmoil during this time. The way things have always been is not the
way they will be in the future, and there is resistance to change and
loss of power and control. We must be patient with this resistance,
and make space for the members of the patriarchy in the new order. We
need their expertise and experience. And they need us to bring
compassion and empathy to the difficult job of running the world. If
all of us contribute our gifts and abilities and appreciate those of
others, we can make this evolutionary leap. Are you on board?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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