The Long and Winding Road

On March 21 over 40 women gathered at St. Andrew’s in Roswell for the annual Lent Retreat with Bishop Vono. Attendees came from Farmington and Alpine, Alamogordo and Albuquerque, as well as Roswell, Ruidoso, and Carlsbad. Many participants gathered at the Pittman’s the lovely home on Friday evening for informal fellowship with one another and Bishop Vono. It was a beautiful way to set the stage for the retreat on Saturday.

The Bishop’s retreat focus was living and sharing our faith in Lent and beyond. He used the Beatle’s song Long and Winding Road as a starting point. Via a form of Judaic Midrash Bishop Vono introduced the familiar stories of Moses and Paul and Jesus’ Baptism. Participants shared where they found Christ-like Grounding in Holy Ground such as Moses experienced. Bishop Vono encouraged conversation about hearing the Christ-Like Voice that calls us Beloved and into communion with one another. He guided the group to consider how being ‘knocked off our horse’, like St. Paul, can actually be part of the ‘long and winding’ journey to wholeness. The conversation was lively during the discussion time as the women discovered similarities, and differences, in story and experience. 

Bishop Vono asked us to remember that scripture points us to the Divine-human relationship. There are many times when we find ourselves standing on Holy Ground, like Moses at the burning bush. We can then chose to hide our face or to say ‘yes’ to God. Our baptism is the start of the journey during which we make or become a home for God through ever deepening hospitality. God’s hospitality is in us and we must imitate that hospitality and be living water to one another. Baptism is the doorway to God because there is no veil or barrier any longer between us and God. In fact, God de-lights in us and animates us with the light of Christ. God calls us ‘Beloved’. Sometimes we are knocked off our horse, like Paul. In those times, we can discover that the experience and through the Cross we are not really broken, but actually made whole.  

During a delicious salad luncheon, Shelly Currier shared how listening to and obeying the call of God has led her to a ministry very different from her training in nursing. She is the director of WINGS for LIFE in Roswell. These programs include work with children and families, esp. those who are at risk. The ministry is done in schools, through after-school programs, and even in the jail. WINGS for LIFE is a part of the international WINGS Ministry organization (wingsministry.org), which started in New Mexico 20 years ago. Women attending the retreat contributed craft supplies to WINGS for LIFE. 

It was a time of deep sharing, great fellowship, good food (thanks Julian of Norwich Chapter of the Daughters of the King), and  deep learning. 

You can view the videos of the Bishop’s talks on the Women's Ministry YouTube Channel.

Sharing Lent-A Retreat with Bishop Vono in Roswell

All women (lay & ordained) are invited to 

Sharing Lent, a Retreat in Roswell with Bishop Vono, 

March 21 from 8:30 AM-3:00 PM

On Saturday we will hear from Bishop Vono about how to Share our Faith in Lent and Beyond based on Romans 10: 8-9 “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Start the weekend on Friday, March 20 at 7PM with a fellowship gathering at the home of Kathleen Pittman (2 Park Rd., Roswell). We’ll have wine, cheese, and lively conversation.

Hotels are available near the church for those who are traveling. There is not a block of rooms, please make your own reservations by phone or online. Hotels offering a special rate for us are:

Best Western Sally Port, 2000 N Main, Roswell (575-622-6430) 2 Queen beds $79+tax (mention Amy Morales)

La Quinta Inn & Suites, 200 E 19th, Roswell (575-622-8000) 2 Queen beds $84+tax

Holiday Inn Express, 2306 N Main (575-623-2306) $77+tax (mention St. Andrew’s Retreat)

Registration fee of $20/person covers lunch and supplies. You can register for the retreat online or download and mail the form as indicated. After March 1, prices increase by $5. (Some half scholarships are available. Contact Cindy Davis.)

Shelly Currier from Roswell will speak about the WINGS Ministry at lunch. Please bring some of these items to support this important ministry to families: glue sticks, fancy (not yellow) pencils, fun stickers, craft ‘pipe’ cleaners. 

Carpools from Albuquerque may be available depending on interest. Contact Cindy to sign up.

Love as Life in Relationship with One Another, Bishop Vono

Excerpted from Bishop Vono's Afternoon Meditation at the Holy Lent Through Love Retreat at the Cathedral on March 15

The Bishop reiterated his morning message by saying that the relationship of God with us is Love and that is the reality of life. God never lets go. He can take us from bitterness to the wings of eagles. God’s love is divine and God’s love is transforming.

We want to have people look at us and say, “There is the Love of God”. We want God’s love to radiate through us.

During the season of Epiphany we have become conscious of many revelations of God. We may have become conscious of discerning moments and we have been made conscious of the paths of those seeking revelation. In reality the church lives epiphanies all year. Lent also is a time of epiphanies as we ask and discover ‘Who is this Man?’

Bishop Vono explained that Romans 12:9-16 includes the 12 ingredients for living a life in incarnated Christian love. According to John Stott, it is a recipe for Love. The ingredients are Sincere, Honor, Generous, Discerning, Enthusiastic, Hospitable, Tender Affection, Patient, Kind, Sympathy, Harmony, and Humility. These are how the Love of God is channeled to the world.

“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.”

Then the Bishop unwrapped the ingredients with further explanation.

• Love incarnate is Genuine or without hypocrisy. Eugene Peterson expands vs. 9 to read we should “love from the center of who you are, don’t fake it.”
• Love also discerns and holds to what is good.
• Love has tender, that is brotherly, affection for each other. This is the philos affection meaning loving someone as ‘born of the same womb’. Indeed we are all born of the same womb-of God and Christ.
• Love should compete or strive in showing honor, like an athlete who works to get better and better at a sport.
• Love is enthusiastic as in earnest endeavor and aglow with a spirit of service toward the Lord.
• Love is generous in contributing to needs.
• Love gets involved and is sympathetic to each other.
• Love lives in harmony by loving others as we love ourselves-that is to be of one mind.
• Love has humility and is not haughty or conceited. The Bishop referred to Pat Green’s sermon illustration of DL Moody who once was staying with some European clergy in a hotel. The other clergymen left their boots outside their rooms to be polished, as was the custom in Europe. Moody gathered them up himself and polished them for the fellow clergymen.

At the break, Bishop Vono suggested that we re-read Romans 12:9-16 and pray over the ingredients of love to see which one(s) we need to work on.

After questions from the ladies, the definitions of Love, written by the ladies at the start of the retreat were read. Love is:

• Caring deeply for the welfare of another and when necessary putting their needs before your own.
• Praying for family and friends, forgiving those who have hurt us & compassion to those in need.
• Sharing your life with someone, or God, to help and be present as needed without intention of recognition or reward.
• Deep caring and wanting good for the other (person, animal, deity).
• An action that supports the highest good for another.
• The intense sense of caring and needing to belong to another.
• Sharing God’s feelings for you.
• Appreciating and accepting all the ways we are the same and different.
• Joy in sharing both the good and bad aspects of ourselves with another.
• Giving oneself without qualification.
• Seeing Jesus in someone else.
• A relationship in which one is accepting, forgiving, always promoting the other’

 
Below are links to the afternoon mediation by Bishop Vono (in 2 parts because of the length of the total talk).

http://youtu.be/0CnQskRrlNw    part 3

http://youtu.be/HvGkGDvKqnk         part 4

Love as Life in Relationship to God (Bishop Vono)

Excerpted from Bishop Vono's Morning Meditation at the Holy Lent Through Love Retreat at the Cathedral on March 15

There were over 40 women present from around the Diocese for the retreat. We started with Eucharist in the Choir. Pastor Pat Green officiated and preached. She said we are Loved by God and live out this love by loving one another and ourselves.
The prize for coming furthest went to Amiee from Carlsbad and the youngest present was Elizabeth from the Cathedral. Both women got door prizes and 7 other lucky ladies took home a shamrock plant.  

Bishop Vono started by noting that there are many kinds of relationships. There are also many kinds of divine relationships or encounters, too. Jesus calls us to the ethics of Love. However, there are many definitions of love. (The Bishop asked each lady to write their definition of love. These were read at the end of the retreat.) He asked if we are “known by love”.

Prince Andrew, in Tolstoy’s War and Peace says, “Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”

A higher meaning of love is found in John’s Gospel. It has been said that ‘Love is a sermon you live to see and experience rather than hear’. John says that the fullness of God is Jesus Christ, as in John 3:16 and the story of the vine and branches.

What are the implications for believing that God is Love and that we are connected to Jesus? It means that we are connected to God and therefore we [too] are love incarnate. This is because love is the result of connection to God.

Bishop Kallistos Ware said, “The whole person is on the one side open to God, and on the other side open to other people. The isolated individual is not a real person, for a real person lives in and for others. This idea...could be summed up under the word love. We become truly personal by loving God and by loving other humans. By love, I don’t mean merely an emotional feeling, but a fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the energy, of the Creator in us. We are not truly human as long as we are turned in on ourselves. We become whole only insofar as we face others, and relate to them.”

We are not objects or servants or slaves of God-we are friends. Jesus said “I have called you friends,” which is a deeper relationship. We are loved as we love a true friend. Throughout history, many have followed this love: Albert Schweitzer and Martin Luther King to name just a couple.

We are each called to be a vehicle of God’s self-giving love. In First John we are admonished “little children let us love one another…” Love flows through us, to others, then through them to still others, and on and on.

The Bishop noted we receive [God’s] love in order to give it away. Tolstoy said “The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served by others as little as possible, and to serve others as much as possible.” Madeline L’Engle agrees. She says, “Following Christ has nothing to do with success as the world sees success. It has to do with love.”

We are told to abide in Christ be keeping his commandments-the greatest of which is to love others as ourselves. Too often we don’t know how to love ourselves because of our brokenness, sinfulness and weakness. (The afternoon talk focused on Love as Life in Relationship to one Another) When we do abide in love we find our highest joy.

God’s love comes to us on our way to somewhere else. The Bishop suggested we mediate on Life as Relationship to God.  Following questions, the ladies were given time to consider the talk or to just take some quiet time on the labyrinth or saying the rosary with the Society of Mary. There was also a table where 'Love Notes' could be created and the opportunity to pray at the cross. Several ladies took time to check out the books Rickie Sherrill had for sale through Good Books New Mexico.

After lunch Bishop Vono spoke on Love as Life in Relationship to Each Other. His afternoon talk will be posted next week.

Videos of the Bishop's morning talk (in 2 parts) are at:

http://youtu.be/hE5iYHZDB_4     (Part 1)

http://youtu.be/CqfENkTMrms         (Part 2)

Delightful Retreat

Thanks to the ladies of St. Francis on the Hill, El Paso, 40 women from the Diocese of the Rio Grande had a delightful time of retreat, learning and fellowship, as well as delicious food. (You can't have a retreat without good food-right?)

The Bishop was our Keynote speaker. He stated, 'Lent is a serious time, not a somber time'. He told us Lent is a spiritual time to draw nearer to redemptive life in Christ. Our Journey toward humility is our ROAD to JERUSALEM. The Road to Jerusalem is life.

We must head for Jerusalem. The journey is not easy and it is not one we choose for ourselves-we are placed on the road. It is important to understand that we journey not as tourists but as pilgrims. Pilgrims intentionally look for something through which to interpret life. We discover our personal story in the scriptures. As pilgrims we are on a journey to wake up, but we won’t be fully awake until death. We are not alone on our journey, because we are part of a larger community. The Road to Jerusalem is common to all people. None of us will escape pain, rejection, etc. Baptism is the start of our journey.

The second part of the Bishop’s talk centered on how our journey beyond Jerusalem is toward conquering. It is our ROAD to EMMAUS. On the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-32) we find that emptiness is conquered because “Christ emptied himself…[to be] filled with the fullness of grace.” When Jesus met the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, he “opened their minds” to salvation.

The Bishop noted that 'emerging' and 'conservative' church leaders agree that the Church needs to reflect the story of Scripture in everyday practice. “Non-believers don’t want a religious version of what they get at the mall.” They are “searching for the mystery of the ancient Gospel” found in scriptural living.

We need to bring in the Mystery and ask unanswerable questions, because these are the ultimate questions. The Bible is Life Story not a Fairy Tale. True evangelism is Truth-centered, individually person-centered and culturally, actively, life-centered. The Gospel is not relevant if not in context.

Interestingly 85% of Americans say they believe Jesus was raised, but they don’t want to be involved in established religion. Ravi Zacharias was asked by a Hindu: “If the transformation is truly supernatural, why is it not evident in Christians?”

The Road to Jerusalem is full of barrenness, pain, brokenness, dying. The Road to Emmaus is new life and awakening to the truth. It is becoming awakened to the Truth that God is in the midst of all and despite controversies-we are One in Christ. Teresa of Avila said, “The feeling remains that God is on a journey with us.”

There are 4 facets on the Road:

1.      We enter when we bottom out
Only when we release our preoccupation with ‘life’ can we discover life in the devastation. We then become conscious of the Truth and can center in Christ, free from matters of the world.

2.      We recognize and trust the inner way of journey
We have to trust that we are made in the image of God and in so doing we re-member ourselves into community. To do this we have to ‘get out of the way’ and let go. This is alms, prayers, etc.

3.      We face and embrace our shadow self
We must accept the ‘dark’, shadow self and know brokenness. Then we can face the dis-function and repent and let it go.

4.      We reenter the past and release its hold on us.
When we forgive the past and unfinished business, it loses its hold. We learn that forgiveness is ‘divine forgetting’ and move forward on the road to Emmaus.

We have to take the risk of a leap of faith to become more real, more in tune with the Truth. To work toward this goal, across the Diocese, small groups will be encouraged to share their Road to Emmaus stories with the aid of cards that will provide questions for discussion and focus.

Over the next couple weeks, there will be more information about the retreat and follow up discussions here on this blog. We also heard from Susan Hutchins about her ministry of Las Palomas and the Rev. Shannon Collis gave us some inspirational ways to 'pray outside the box'.

In the works is a Google group for the women of the DRG where we can share thoughts and study across the distances. Watch for how to sign onto that soon.

Lively Lent!

This week is the deadline to register for a retreat that promises to be fun and educational and inspirational! "Lively Lent" at St. Francis on the Hill, El Paso will start on Friday, March 1 with dinner (thanks to the ladies of St. Francis!), conversations with Bishop Vono, and some sharing of Lent ideas with Pastor Pat Green of St. Mark's on the Mesa. You can download the registration form or email Cindy if you want to attend!

Throughout the retreat we'll experience ways to live Lent in thought, word, and deed. Come see how Lent is really a time to examine and live more deeply into our Baptismal covenant. Lent is a wonderful opportunity to renew our commitment, made at baptism, to “continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.”
To “persevere in resisting evil, repent and return to the Lord.”
To “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.”
To “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself.”
And to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”

On Saturday morning, we will hear a Keynote talk by Bishop Vono, followed by Eucharist and lunch. After lunch we will learn about the Las Palomas Ministry from Susan Hutchins as a way to "strive for justice and peace...and respect the dignity of every human". Then there will be time for a couple of workshops focusing on hands on and hearts on ways to live a Lively Lent. A prayer workshop will be led by the Rev. Shannon Collis, new rector at St. Francis on the Hill (ways to "persevere, repent, and return to the Lord"). Cindy Davis will lead an introduction to using journals as a study and meditation aid as well as how to use non-traditional books as guides to "proclaim by word and example the Good News". We will end with dinner and closing worship, but hopefully many will return for the Sunday service at St. Francis on the Hill so we can be a lively and visible presence of the Women of the Diocese in action, living out the newly created Mission Statement: "to empower all women in their diverse Christian ministries." 

All who are attending are encouraged to bring canned goods, fabric, or a monetary donation to support the La Coopertiva border ministry at Las Palomas. Women in the program use fabric, recycled bags and other items to make lovely crafts which are sold. Proceeds return to the women to help them break the cycle of poverty.

You can come for just Saturday, if that fits your schedule better. Already women from Albuquerque, Silver City, Las Cruces, Roswell, and of course El Paso will be attending. What a wonderful way to make new friends and learn how to make Lent a time to really live the vows made when you were baptized!

If you cannot come to the retreat, you will find that the Footprints From the Bible blog (by Cynthia Davis) is looking at these same topics during Lent. Watch this blog for a summary of the retreat, too. 

Crazy Quilt Conversations

Women of the DRG met at the Bosque Center for Crazy Quilt Conversations on November 9 and 10. We were the inaugural group to use the Center and found it to be a delightful venue. Two dozen women from across the Diocese gathered the evening of November 9 for a time of fellowship and conversation with Bishop Vono. Saturday was spent in creating a vision for Women in the DRG. With broad strokes, the women painted a dream of active, diverse lay and ordained women involved in ministries both inside and outside of church walls. Participants created a vision of women as leaders empowered with retreats, mission, and education through communication and fellowship.

The final session of the 'Crazy Quilt Conversations' involved planning concrete steps. The steering committee will meet in February to create a mission statement for the Women and set up focus groups to build communication with various demographics to help identify needs and desires of all women.  If you are interested in being part of one of a focus groups, are curious about an event, or have ideas for Women in the DRG, email Cynthia.

Several women's events are already planned:

February 9 Retreat for Women

March 2 Lenten Retreat with Bishop Vono at St. Francis on the Hill, El Paso (co-hosted by St. Christopher's)

March 23 Lent Retreat with Canon Kathleen McNellis at St. Andrew's, Roswell

May 17-18, 2014: A Day for Women with The Rt. Rev. Barbara Taylor Brown

Summer 2013: Body, Mind, Spirit Retreat in Taos

Fall 2013: Women of the DRG Retreat at the Bosque Center

Watch the What's Happening page of this blog for more information about each of these events as it becomes available. 

Over the next few weeks, more of the work from this retreat will be posted here-so check back!