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7 March 2016: Generous Hospitality Session 4: Making Room for Others led by Ian

We considered the similarities and differences between dining at Know college and the work of Mother Teresa’s order in Kolkata.  Both offer hospitality involving serving and receiving, start with prayer, are communities with a spiritual dimension, discussion and person-to-person interaction takes place.  Both have rituals and enable a cross fertilisation of ideas.

The physical context in which both take place is very different – Knox (as portrayed) very old school English, sense of tradition, dressing up to make / reflect / acknowledge a special occasion.

We acknowledged that the incidences and parables in Luke challenged the establish social norms of the times by reversing them – turning them up side down.  The rabbi invites Jesus to a meal (why would he do that?), Jesus keeps him waiting by healing someone (not very polite to keep the host waiting), Jesus heals on the Sabbath, Jesus challenges the established seating hierarchy, the rich wont come to the feast so the outcasts of society are invited.  The invitation also eludes to the Pharisees ignoring Jesus’s message, which is accepted by those on the edge of society – the blind and lame, etc – i.e. the Gentiles.

We were concerned about the openness of the parable invitation to a meal – it’s not appropriate to invite strangers into one’s home.  Perhaps the issue of hospitality could be turned around by asking– ‘Who can I be a neighbour to?’  An immediate response could be assisting the recently arrived Syrian refugees.

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29 February 2016: Generous Hospitality Session 3: Welcoming the Stranger led by Adrienne

Offering hospitality to strangers is very hard – so we need role models and experience.  Mother Theresa and Brother Roger of Taize were mentioned.  We noted that Roger was killed by an outsider who had accepted hospitality with the Brothers.  We contrasted the story of the history of the persecution of Huguenots who still offered hospitality to Jews fleeing Nazi’s in occupied France with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Strangers can be intimidating. The ‘natural’ inclination is to be make negative assumptions about strangers – though it’s a matter of good practice to be a little cautious until two-way trust is achieved.  Need to be discerning.

Regarding being hospitable to strangers, we need to be careful about not only who to invite but also the environment where the hospitality will be offered.  A neutral venue is easier for all involved – so not in one’s home but a café, restaurant.  The WCC street parties are a good and neutral opportunity to engage in hospitality.

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22 February 2016: Generous Hospitality Session 2: Gifts of Hospitality led by Linda

no notes

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15 February 2016: Lenten Study Generous Hospitality Session 1: The Generosity of God led by Ron

We explored some examples of ‘hospitality’ – suggestions included welcoming, acceptance, open, being active, social, interactive, spending time.  We acknowledged that hospitality is easier to express with people we know.  How to offer hospitality with neighbours and people we don’t know?  What should the churches role be in engaging in refugee situations – in NZ and elsewhere, child poverty?

We discussed some of the issues of engaging with people – some just accept what they are told and don’t engage by asking questions; perhaps they are uncomfortable with complications so ‘KISS’.  We reflect views of our experiences, need to values their experiences (even if they don’t agree with ours) to meet them where they are.  Apathy is a greater danger than diverse views.

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7 December 2015 – ‘Christmas is Coming’ led by Clare and John

We enjoyed a light hearted discussion of our best loved/remembered symbols, carols and mementos of Christmas’s past. Our memories are sometimes very different reflecting north/south hemispheres and cultural practices.  Underlying all were the common themes of love, joy, peace and hope embodied, as always, in a new born baby.

A good way to end the year.

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30 November 2015 TED Talk ‘Can Prejudice ever be a good thing?’ presented by Paul Boom led by Cristina

Prejudice and Bias: Us vs Them

  • natural among humans: People are swayed by feelings toward their own ethnic group

Holocaust – was this the result of a tragic flaw on Germans? Exaggeration of what is normal in all of us

 

Stereotypes- not arbitrary

– based on experiences in our world that lead to generalisations

– for the most part, we are good at this

– 3 basic assumptions: age, sex, race (We are influenced by factors we are not even aware of)

Old Testament: Love thy neighbours  New Testament: Love thy enemies  What motivates us?

In making judgments,  be motivated by REASON, PRINCIPLE, and CONSCIENCE

We are but one of the multitude in no respect better than any other in it.

REASON – can cause us to override out passions, to extend out empathy

-can motivate us to create customs & laws that will constrain us from acting upon an impulse

PRINCIPLE – of impartiality – found in all of world’s religions (golden rule), philosophies

– judge morality from an impartial point of view

 

Prejudice and Bias illustrate a fundamental duality of human nature:

– Feelings, instinct and emotions affect our judgments and actions

– We are also capable of rational deliberation and intelligent planning

We can use these to accelerate and nourish our emotions and in some cases, staunch them.

It is in this way that reason can help us create a better world.

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23 November 2015: ‘The Story of the Jews’ a DVD led by Hugh

We watched the first programme of a series which explored the history of the Jews in ‘Old Testament’ times.  Archaeological exploration started in the mid 19th century by Europeans hoping to find and map the actual locations of events recorded in the Bible. Needless to say that this proved to be impossibly difficult!  Mt Sinai is mostly likely to be located in Saudi Arabia; despite extensive searches no evidence has been found for the Exodus.  David and Goliath could have taken place as a clash on the border between coastal people (Philistines) and hill people (Jews) at the site of a fortified town.  [Archaeological evidence suggests the coastal people ate pork but the hill people didn’t.]

After the forced exile to Babylon, some Jews went to Elephantine – an island in the Nile at Aswan. Here a temple was built which surpassed the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem until it was destroyed by the Egyptians because it challenged the supremacy of their sun god. Eventually Jerusalem allowed the temple to be rebuilt, but banned animal sacrifices so it would be regarded as inferior to the temple in Jerusalem.

The Greek influence was by way of a soft emersion (acceptance/parallel beliefs and expression) which could have destroyed Judaism.  The Jewish Testament was translated in Greek.  Amazingly the because of the history of very faithful/accurate copying of texts, the Dead Sea scrolls use exactly the same script as the present day and are easily readable.  Josephus’ account of the sacking of Jerusalem in 66CE is the only reliable, eyewitness record.  He notes that the Romans were being used by God to punish the Jews as he (God) had used the Babylon’s before.  [This remarkable observation just shows that political and religious ‘spin’ has a long history and how any event good or bad can be positively attributed to God at work!]

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16 November 2015: Mindfulness led by Noel

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2 November 2015: 2 TED Talks: Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf on Compassion; Alaa Murabit Role of Women in Islam; led by Heidrun

Firstly: Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf combines the teachings of the Qur’an, the stories of Rumi, and the examples of Muhammad and Jesus, to demonstrate that only one obstacle stands between each of us and absolute compassion — ourselves. See https://www.ted.com/talks/imam_feisal_abdul_rauf

Each of the 114 chapters of the Quran starts with “In the name of God, the all compassionate, the all merciful,” but this is not the common perception of Islam. God’s primary attribute is compassion. Rauf’s view is that all people need to put aside their ego, their ‘I’. ‘There is no room in this house for two ‘I’s’. This is the teaching of the Sufi tradition of Islam – of which Jesus was the greatest prophet. Rauf gave support to the Charter of Compassion. We all need to ‘lower and control’ our ego. Compassion is a common aspiration across all religions.

[In my view it’s not the role of god to be merciful/compassionate towards humankind – after all we done nothing to require mercy; we have to learn to be compassionate towards each other, to break down barriers of fear of people not like us.]

Secondly: Strong faith is a core part of Alaa Murabit’s identity — but when she moved from Canada to Libya as a young woman, she was surprised how the tenets of Islam were used to severely limit women’s rights, independence and ability to lead. She wondered: Was this really religious doctrine? See  https://www.ted.com/talks/alaa_murabit_what_my_religion_really_says_about_women#

Religion has been misused to the detriment of humanity; need to reclaim religion to progress peace and conflict resolution. When she moved back to Libya as a 15yr old she was confronted with ‘haram’ religiously prohibited and ‘aib’ culturally inappropriate not experienced at home in Canada. Murabit has used reason, argument and the examples of women leaders found in the Quran. Women have to be present (‘at the table’) if their points of view are to be heard and equal rights upheld. Traditionally religion is controlled by men, who then give it their outlook and agendas. Women need to assert their place at the table so as to change the messages, provide an alternative narrative. Alaa founded a group “the Voice of Libyan Women” which has made some slow progress in post-Arab Spring Libya. Also need to be strong to stand up to insults, ridicule and threats from the entrenched powers feeling they are under threat themselves.

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19 October 2015: TED Talks led by Adrienne

Don’t rely on a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie. A simple lesson that we are all aware of but easily forget – writers/commenters/spokespeople provide views which are seen and filtered through their eyes. Their view is not the only view, the actual story is something that could be quite different. This is very apparent when books or experiences in one cultural context are read in a completely different cultural/country context. This was Chimamanda’s experience reading English children’s book in Nigeria. The stories portrayed a completely unexperienced existence. Single source stories can distort truth and create biases.

In discussion we noted that we generally have single sourced stories in the Bible – the gospel’s based on Mark. We can gain a wider, fuller understanding through historical discoveries of the life and geo-political events that were occurring at the same time. These knowledge can round out the events in the Bible, provide context and suggest why things were recorded the way they are.

‘The story we tell about Poverty is not True’ by Mia Birdsong. Tackling of poverty in the US has met with only limited success because the drive, ambition, creativity entrepreneurship of ‘poor’ people has not been utilised. Are ‘poor’ people really a problem to be solved by imposing solutions from outside. Better argues Mia, to provide resources for poor communities to develop and provide support from within.