The Kindred Spirit of Christmas

To All Within Our Kindred Community.......Let the World In.......Open Your Arms in Peace

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know or perceive a sense of their own worth until it has been reflected back to them in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”
― John Joseph Powell

“You have to appreciate where you have come from to know who you are in the present and who you would like to be in the future.”
― Truth Devour

“There's magic in recognizing a kindred spirit, and an even greater power in letting yourself love and be loved by them.”
― Jacqueline Koyanagi,

These 4 quotes to me reflect our intersecting journey amongst others in our mutual pursuits of peace. Christmas is a season of remembrance and celebration, for truly “God is with us”. It is within the personal nature of the Christ journey in our midst that we are blessed with the experience of Divine encounter. Through the grace of the incarnate life lived in Jesus our inestimable worth is reflected back to us. This knowledge of who we are and whose we are enables us to envision and become living participants in the fulfillment of that grand vision of "peace on earth, goodwill towards all". Our capacity to create with God is magically empowered in sacred community, in sacred partnership with others of kindred spirit to love even as God first loved us. The journeys continues……  

Together, we comprise a community of kindred spirits that live within the Christmas story and other sacred stories. Our heritage and our legacy intertwine in the shared meaning of “Immanuel”, God with us, a rich global legacy. Within our Christian experience surrounding Christmas, our one underlying essence is that our God, a loving, endearing Creator lived as we in the circumstances of our struggles and journeys to experience and understand our reality of life. The vulnerabilities and suffering, the temptations of power, ego and exclusivity, all were faced. Even as a child forgives and loves unconditionally, so God in Christ offered such grace to bless our lives.

We, amongst many faiths, are kindred spirits made such in our mutual journeys to be one with the Divine and one another. The Christmas blessing is recognition of our oneness beyond nationalities, denominations and faiths. Peace on earth is our vision. Our hope envisions unity in diversity. Joy to the world is our expression of community reverberating through the ages. As we daily take time to gaze upon the mirror of Christ, may we see our emerging selves breaking forth, reflecting our love to others, inviting all to become kindred spirits on our mutual journeys of peace. “God is with us, who can prevail against us” Go forth in Christmas love, joy, hope and peace. 

With Meaning,
Kerry Richards
Director of Mission in Canada
“A Catalyst for Meaningful Expressions of Sacred Community”

Risk to Become

Slowly, dwell upon each word, independent of the whole to experience a personal moment of journey from uttered prayer to spiritual practice, to being led to risk in your discipleship.

Gracious God, Creator and Abiding Presence;
Hallowed, humble and holy is your peaceful countenance. To encounter you is to abandon self, the ego of my humanness, the pride of what has transpired before, the sorrow of what has happened knowingly and unknowingly to cause separation, despair and woundedness. My encounter now is being in the present moment of vulnerable release, my offering of the entirety of self, even the very breath I breathe to “be” one with you. Receive my essence, my “me” as I enter a peace so pure,…. time is paused. Within this depth of knowing, ripples of grace enfold and flow, with unconditional lifeability, blessing each indrawn breathe with a smile connecting the inner and the outward of my soul and being. Quietness, awareness, peace, shalom abide. Breathe shallow not to disturb this gift. God is near, oneness is wholeness, time is eternal and no more…….Brrrrrreathe.

Choose to remain, or to pray, to discern, to become mindful of images, of emerging names, of ideas and feelings. Journal these leadings to prayerfully ponder and dwell upon, for each is a guided blessing of ministry in answer to the “Mission Payer”. “God, where will your spirit lead me today?” With courage follow the spirit into life lived. In faith borne out of your discernment, test the reality of guided empowerment. Risk to become a disciple and your belief will be transformed to knowing and pervasive joy .

May grace abide in your journey. Shalom for all.

submitted by Kerry Richards

Peace amidst the Unknown

As I and all of us ponder the events of yesterday and Monday that touch each of us in Canada, new awareness strikes home. We have watched the unfolding media of of the fateful events that have taken lives. The young reservist soldier is from Hamilton where I live. The images on the news networks are of places we recognize. Canada has been bruised and changed. Fearful vulnerabilities emerge within our hearts and minds. "Not in Canada" we think. This is so unexpected in our land which is an anomaly in history where our country was not borne out of a war of independence but through nation building negotiations. We do experience civil crime, but introduction of planned and fatal aggression against our nation and innocent people are acts beyond our experience that we have empathetically watched from afar in other nations. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those whose lives were taken in these tragic moments. Words cannot express the sincere sympathy of a person, much less a nation. 

Our church vision of the peaceable kingdom as set forth in our church seal envisions a hope for peace, an assured peace in Christ, independent of our outer surroundings, the senselessness around us, beyond all that may bruise and endanger and even end our lives; this is the peace of Christ that passeth all understanding. This image is truly a test of faith to ponder. In the moments of stillness with God today may we invite the peace of Christ to enter our lives so we may become ourselves beings of peace.

May we with this sense of calm, of resiliency, in the face of tragic circumstances, bring peace to our families and our communities that penetrates the anxiety, the tension, the blaming that could so easily emerge and erupt in group dynamics about us. It is in times such as these that faith becomes real, that sacred communities of loving expressions of hope may envelope those about us with peace rather than despair, hate and retribution.

Peace can only be expressed and enacted through people who are peaceful. May we be such people, mindful in our actions of the unconditional loving, forgiving, empathetic, perfect peace of our humble and holy Creator.

submitted by Kerry Richards

The Courage Workshop

I encourage you with all my heart to attend this workshop. I believe it will change your life!

As a spiritual practice, pause, close your eyes and visualize intently those people who are most important to you; your children, siblings and friends. Many of these valued people perhaps also have rich spirituality within their own lives. Imagine you opening the door that allows you to share together with one another in deeper ways, to experience faith together in making a difference in the lives of others. For many, the hurdle has been our “in the box” thinking that what we are doing as church is the only way it can be done. This workshop will be an adventure in creating, discovering, inventing new ways of being the church in the common everyday activities you and those close to you are familiar and comfortable with locally and in the time and place that fits the availability of your lives. So envision you and these friends at Tim Horton’s or the Good Life gym or hiking or playing euchre and within that fun and comfortable setting you share “moments of meaning” together that opens a whole new "you and them experience" of being together. OK, now you can open your eyes.

This can happen, it does happen. The Courage workshop has a leadership team that will guide us through changing our paradigm of church to connect comfortably with those on the outside looking in with pre-conceptions, suspicion, distrust, hurt, busy lives…. And now we have a way and means, learned tools and resources to blend our lives together in new ways. Sure there is still an element of courage needed for 10 seconds to open the door, but the view through the open door is so natural and familiar that the words you will learn to introduce friends will be comfortable.

D&C 163:3 urges us to be “culturally incarnate”. Jesus was the incarnation of God which means “God being with us” where we are in our lives. We are replicating that same notion in the places and life of people. Following the model of Jesus who did not invite folks to the synagogue but to a hillside or lakeside or home or anywhere at all, we need to be “with people” offering today’s parable like stories, videos, questions that relate to the heart of life. These relationships must be mutually authentic but the beauty of a new creation is we, “you and them” creating the model together. You choose the way you make a difference in the lives of others together, you are the church in a new way. You are not alone. There will be many other groups, like yours, that cluster together in the places of your choosing, perhaps even within C of C churches, as often as works, to share ideas, successes, needs and celebrate through music and other expressions of your own creation. We will experience God in us and in each other. These will become expressions of Community of Christ in a new look, feel and richness.

The Courage Workshop brings you and each participant into focus to touch specifically the people in your circle of life. Your life will be blessed as never envisioned before. Your confidence and competence to be a living culturally incarnate disciple will become a comfortable and life changing expression of what you always wanted it to be. You will become surrounded with those who matter most to you in the life adventure that matters most to you. Through engaging in Mission to pursue peace, abolish poverty and end suffering with those who mean the most to you; joy, hope, love and peace will fill your soul and sacred communities of Spirit empowered friends of faith will celebrate one with another.

Come to the Courage Workshop. Decide right now to set Jan 23-25th aside as the wknd that will change your life. Bring those who with you will be your fellow disciples to affirm, encourage and create together. Orangeville is 20 min north of Brampton. The Retreat Centre is where we held the New Hymnal Retreat last March. It is a wonderful facility with classrooms, fireside lounge, chapel, recreation area, shared rooms, dorms, clean washrooms and a dining hall all contained in one building in a beautiful retreat setting. The max numbers are about 80, so get your name reserved now. Cost is $140 + HST = $158 for the wknd.

Contact me with questions, or ideas of music, resources etc you can think of.  

This is a time of creativity, incarnation and joyful celebration ! Be Courageous !  

submitted by Kerry Richards  416-917-9377   kerry@communityofchrist.ca

Yearning to Be

Longing, yearning, searching, hungering, craving, thirsting, wanting, seeking, desiring, needing, wishing, dreaming for, hoping for, praying for…..

There is a deep unsatisfied heart and soul reaching out that in the quiet moments of stillness, fills our beings with emptiness, despair and lack of identity…..or if one has alignment with the source of creation, our God…. We experience joy, hope, love and peace in that moment. I know from being there, that many fear the stillness, avoid the quiet, need the mind to be occupied with continuous busyness, for to allow the silence to penetrate their self-imposed barriers guarding the essence of life, it is a traumatic encounter.

The psalmist captures so well the searching, the journeying, the finding of oneself in the essence of creation, in the enveloping grace of finding and being me. To sense, I am OK, for eternity unconditionally blesses my life in spite of….who I have been. In that pause of ultimacy, there is peace that nourishes my soul not as the world giveth but as a forgiving healing balm. There is hope that illuminates my mind and dashes away the clouds of despair. There is joy that finally I have purpose, freedom and a knowing that fills each breath I breathe. There is love that bursts from my being as I recognize the gift of others in my life to share the reality of life lived beyond me, to collectively fulfill our Mission of the envisioned peaceable kingdom.

I am found! My thirsting is quenched, my yearning is fulfilled, my searching has found a path, my hunger is met, my prayers are answered, my emptiness is filled. I proclaim Jesus Christ! My God has renewed me, opened my soul and given me fresh vision of that which clarifies what matters most. 

How blessed to be, how blessed to be a blessing, how blessed to be in sacred community with Community of Christ.

submitted By Kerry Richards

Blessed to be the Means of Grace

Spiritual Practice: Healing for Broken Spirits “Begin with quiet prayer. Ask God to help you discern some “sore places” in the body of Christ and in God’s creation. Become aware of people who feel separated, wounded, or left out. Reflect on or write a short journal entry of healing words to at least one person who comes to mind. Ask God for words that will touch this person’s broken spirit like healing ointment. Keep this person in your heart and prayers today and act on any ideas that come to bring blessing and wholeness.”

This is one of the many Daily Bread “moments of presence” with God that has touched me with a depth of feeling for so many people that are hurting in so many ways.  I keep a copy of this specific practice on my wall before me as it captures the reality of so many lives that to pray this just once is so inadequate. This exercise has become deeply personal in a heartfelt way when I pray and centre my projected outpouring of care, hope and love upon another. The compassion of Christ is to all, for all and with all. Through empathetic grace of knowing our hearts God implores us to love even our enemies, an expression of love that knows no boundaries; where one of our new hymns envisions both the abused and the abuser encompassed by love.

Broken spirits can be missed by us in the rush of life. I believe through such "moments of presence" and reflection we come to discern through eyes beyond our humanity, the loneliness, the woundedness and the despair that haunts another. This is the beginning place of healing, reconciliation and peace not as the world giveth. There is a realm of living that is illusive; that awaits us to open our hearts to participate in. It is as subtle as a breeze or the fragrance of a flower, but invites us to enter into relationship with our creator who works through us to bring healing and meaning where life’s agonies are suffocating. I pray both for pause in our lives to “come to ourselves” as the prodigal and “become” blessed and a blessing and for those to whom our words and our care might soothe. Ask God and your eyes will be opened to new world.

Submitted by Kerry Richards

Healing - God grant me the Courage to risk.....

Community of Christ has deeply emphasized spiritual practices as foundational formation disciplines that nurture discernment and mindfulness with a relational God we encounter in real time, not as a fictional feel good imagining. We experience a caring, compassionate and unconditional loving God who “Is.” 

Over the past 3 months I have taken an interest in the nature and reality of the ministry of healing, yes, through the Spirit of God. I have read numerous books. I have read about and attended a healing retreat and spoken with practitioners of alternative energy healing. I have also read of the contradictory scientific neurological descriptions of near death and religious experiences. Further I have discussed the pantheistic oneness of the interconnected spirit which permeates all creation and how this relates to healing. I have read about and had conversations about the possibility of Divine intervention and of the diverse perspectives within Community of Christ and elsewhere. I have reviewed the dozens of healings that comprise Jesus’ ministry and in every single case the compassionate Jesus heals the person before him who approaches him in faith or …..  uncertainty.  This is a subject of great complexity at the discussion level. What happens if we take it beyond conversation?

Healing in all its forms is prevalent throughout the ministry of the “human” Jesus (Phil 2:7 ) with the promise that is extended to his Disciples of the same ministry. The modernistic worldview is that God does not intervene, that the "rain falls on all alike” nature of God’s unconditional, pervasive love leaves healing in the realm of human intellect and skill. There is no subjective miracle for one person over another. Is this what we believe despite our proclamation of Christ? I pose this question to each one. Are scriptures a faith story, parable type representation of good living human expressions of “best practices”? Or…. is there an endowing, empowering, healing spirit of God that intervenes in the circumstances of human life? Is this merely a topic for conversation or a moment for truth learned and evidenced through personal experimentation? Is there a difference between the revealed insights of discernment through dwelling in the word or centering….. and the spiritual practice of healing? Is our encounter with our relational God only internal inspirational mindfulness limited to rational human experience? 

My ministry includes the laying on of hands. I pray petitionary prayers to our loving relational Creator whose compassion is boundless and dwarfs my inadequate words on behalf of another. Is my ministry to bring sympathetic comfort and peace….. or granted power to enable the compassion of God to bring wholeness of body, mind and spirit to the person in need? Are interpretations of what wholeness means necessary if a tumour is not made benign or hearing is not restored or pain does not stop? Are we expecting to provide crutches instead of healing? Are we reticent to actually say the words, “be healed by the power of God” Are we offering petitionary prayers when prayers of expectant power to heal are God’s intention? I don’t think healing can be a detached conversation apart from vulnerability to be and know. I believe to understand healing I must experience it through personal trials where I put my life and ministry on the line and risk with compassion on behalf of those in need of God’s blessing. These are my questions and my personal journey going forward? Expect this of me and ask me how my ministry is unfolding as I open myself to new expressions of what Christ's mission means. Do you have the courage to join me? 

Submitted by Kerry Richards