Over the past few years, I have been connecting with people outside of the traditional denominational institutional "Box". Some of them are atheists, New Agers, and Druids, etc. Some still feel a connection with Christ Jesus but not with Church. Some have said I am the only Christian (and even priest) they have ever felt comfortable with. I even have a dear friend (an atheist or agnostic) who refers to me as her priest! She often tells people that, "My priest says that I'm a Pagan!" -which is both a kind of joke between us but also an expression of endearment.
Hedge-Priest: It seems I am becoming somewhat of a "Hedge-Priest"!!! lol
This term usually takes on the definitions of a: rustic, outlandish, sometimes uneducated or illiterate, poor, mean, itinerant vagabond priest, without benefice or home, but one authorized to perform the Rites and Sacraments of and by the church. For those who know me...See any resemblance? haha
However, I've also heard that the term Hedge Priest is also a variant of the terms Hedge-Witch or Hegde-Druid. A Hedgewitch, has traditionally been seen as a shamanistic person who can cross the “hedge” or boundary between this world and the other. The Hedgewitch is usually a solitary practitioner, but may be attended by assistants. Her main function is as mediator between the spirit world (the Divine) and people. She may also work as a herbal healer and midwife.
The term has also been applied to John Ball, an English Lollard Priest (c. 1338[1] – 15 July 1381), who was part of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. According to Wikipedia, "He is said to have gained considerable fame as a roving preacher — a "hedge priest" without a parish or any cure linking him to the established order — by expounding the doctrines of John Wycliffe, and especially by his insistence on social equality" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ball_%28priest%29).
Hmmm. Well, I'm just a simple Christian Priest but I do have a certain spiritual affinity and connection with both the Celtic Christian tradition and the Contemplative/mystical/monastic expressions of the Gospel and church history; and I am very interested in Inter-Religious/Inter-Spiritual dialogue. As an Anglican Priest (albeit a more Contemplative one), I love both the more traditional (Rite One) and high church expressions but also feel a much more earthy rustic spirituality-which unfortunately the institutional aspects of the church too often get in the way of.
My ministry, small though it may be, does seem to be moving more and more outside the hedge of traditional parish ministry; providing friendship and Spiritual Direction with people wherever they are in their journey.
Some of these changes are a result of my own spiritual growth process; together with certain guiding theological principles. One of these was the difference between the Roman and Celtic Model of Evangelism. The book, "The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West...Again" by George G. Hunter III, addressed and confirmed certain principles I was learning by personal or mystical insight.
In the Roman Model, the Gospel was preached primarily within the boundaries of Roman civilization and culture. The Gospel was proclaimed, if one accepted it, then one could be made a member of the church. It was a Belief before Belonging system. However, in the Celtic Model, the Gospel was taken outside the boundaries of language, civilization and culture; and was shared openly with people at the crossroads of life. It was a Belonging before Belief system.
Together with the spiritual principle of the Anamchara (or Soul-friend tradition, a borrowed druid practice), who would come alongside of people and walk alongside of them in their spiritual journey in Christ, offering spiritual counsel through spiritual friendship; not just ministry from a pulpit or lectern. and its much more personal and earthy.
Yours,
The Rev. Father Jerry "Aidan" Hix, O.S.C.
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Raimon Pannikar's- Christophany- The Fullness of Man
I have just started reading Raimon Pannikar's Christophany- The Fullness of Man, together with a group. here are my first thoughts...
We have only just begun our journey into Pannikar but already I feel we are swimming in deep waters. Awhile back I was reading a book by Dr. Craig T. Isaacs "Revelations & Possession: Distinguishing the Spiritual Experience from the Psychological", where he describes the experience many have of reading Carl Jung,
"Reading Jung has been described as diving in the ocean. Often one will read his work and believe they have understood it, only to be dragged back down deep in the ocean, struggle to breathe believing all is lost, only to surface and again find one’s bearings. So, too, Jung will be intelligible, then we will get lost, only to find a statement we can grab onto like a raft in the sea, and then hold onto it with tenacity for fear of being drowned again. For this reason Jung has often been misunderstood because his thought has only been taken in part. However, we must not take only a few statements he makes, hold on to them like life rafts and move only from them; rather, we should attempt to comprehend the whole that he is putting forth. Therefore, for both our understanding of this process of the development of consciousness, as well as to further expand upon the concept of objective spirit, it is necessary to pursue a greater understanding of spirit, especially as presented in Jung’s thought."
This quote about the experience of reading Jung seems quite appropriate here as we begin our journey into Pannikar's Christophany, perhaps even more so.
Due to many factors, in my personal life, family, marriage, ministry, and changes in polarity from my own spiritual practice of contemplative prayer and related studies, I have already been feeling this experience of having the floor of old ways of believing, belonging and being swept out from under my feet; or having the vessel of myself being wrecked against these waves of the ocean that seems to drag me down deep, only to resurface, gasping for breath and trying to find my bearings again. All the while, trying to hold onto a plank of flotsam and jetsam. Sometimes the plank I am holding onto seems to be my own spiritual practice or the writings of Keating, Griffiths, Bourgeault, etc., while at other times the experience of both my spiritual practice and reading authors of such deep thoughts seem to be the wave itself washing over me to destroy the old securities and consciousness.
Even now, in the beginning, in the Foreword to Christophany, we already meet deep waves of Pannikar's thought and can almost feel the palpable force of his being and presence as a manifestation of the very things he alludes to. He writes not only from his intellect but from his being. It pulls us down to depths, to meet him where he is. This is the difference between Christology and Christophany. The former is the making of dogmatic statements or moralizing's based on the life and sayings of Christ but usually misses the deeper meanings of Christ which lead to transformation of consciousness and being; whereas, Christophany presupposes that we cannot only experience Christ for ourselves but can also have the same experience Christ claimed to have with the mysterious being he called Abba.
Although I already feel I am being pulled down to unfamiliar depths, I also feel a kind of sapiential awakening and recognization. And I am becoming so much more grateful to have a plank such as the ---- list to hold onto as I plunge again and again into the deep ocean's of change and shifting polarities; especially now, as we are (or at least I am) entering what I already feel to be deep waters- a place where deep calls unto deep.
-Aidan+
We have only just begun our journey into Pannikar but already I feel we are swimming in deep waters. Awhile back I was reading a book by Dr. Craig T. Isaacs "Revelations & Possession: Distinguishing the Spiritual Experience from the Psychological", where he describes the experience many have of reading Carl Jung,
"Reading Jung has been described as diving in the ocean. Often one will read his work and believe they have understood it, only to be dragged back down deep in the ocean, struggle to breathe believing all is lost, only to surface and again find one’s bearings. So, too, Jung will be intelligible, then we will get lost, only to find a statement we can grab onto like a raft in the sea, and then hold onto it with tenacity for fear of being drowned again. For this reason Jung has often been misunderstood because his thought has only been taken in part. However, we must not take only a few statements he makes, hold on to them like life rafts and move only from them; rather, we should attempt to comprehend the whole that he is putting forth. Therefore, for both our understanding of this process of the development of consciousness, as well as to further expand upon the concept of objective spirit, it is necessary to pursue a greater understanding of spirit, especially as presented in Jung’s thought."
This quote about the experience of reading Jung seems quite appropriate here as we begin our journey into Pannikar's Christophany, perhaps even more so.
Due to many factors, in my personal life, family, marriage, ministry, and changes in polarity from my own spiritual practice of contemplative prayer and related studies, I have already been feeling this experience of having the floor of old ways of believing, belonging and being swept out from under my feet; or having the vessel of myself being wrecked against these waves of the ocean that seems to drag me down deep, only to resurface, gasping for breath and trying to find my bearings again. All the while, trying to hold onto a plank of flotsam and jetsam. Sometimes the plank I am holding onto seems to be my own spiritual practice or the writings of Keating, Griffiths, Bourgeault, etc., while at other times the experience of both my spiritual practice and reading authors of such deep thoughts seem to be the wave itself washing over me to destroy the old securities and consciousness.
Even now, in the beginning, in the Foreword to Christophany, we already meet deep waves of Pannikar's thought and can almost feel the palpable force of his being and presence as a manifestation of the very things he alludes to. He writes not only from his intellect but from his being. It pulls us down to depths, to meet him where he is. This is the difference between Christology and Christophany. The former is the making of dogmatic statements or moralizing's based on the life and sayings of Christ but usually misses the deeper meanings of Christ which lead to transformation of consciousness and being; whereas, Christophany presupposes that we cannot only experience Christ for ourselves but can also have the same experience Christ claimed to have with the mysterious being he called Abba.
Although I already feel I am being pulled down to unfamiliar depths, I also feel a kind of sapiential awakening and recognization. And I am becoming so much more grateful to have a plank such as the ---- list to hold onto as I plunge again and again into the deep ocean's of change and shifting polarities; especially now, as we are (or at least I am) entering what I already feel to be deep waters- a place where deep calls unto deep.
-Aidan+
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Collision of Opposite's
I've been reading "The Naked Now-Learning to See as The Mystics See" by Fr Richard Rohr.
One place I connected with was Rohr's comments on "collision of opposites" and being "a values conservative and a process liberal;" and a correspondent's comment of having "more in common with my buddhist friends than childhood friends who have converted into the christian traditions."
I grew up as a fourth generation pentecostal and evangelical/fundamentalist. I really tried to fit into the more ecstatic/shamanistic approach to God in this way but never really made the connection, though I did have at times more subtle religious experiences within that context. Even as a child I was drawn to the spirituality exemplified in David Carradine's portrayal of Qui Chang Kang, the Shaolin Buddhist Monk in the TV classic Kung Fu. I started reading Brue Lee's Tao of Jeet Kun Do and Lao Tzo's tao Te Ching, etc., and began intuitively integrating those teaching into my Christian framework and spirituality. Later I was drawn to the catholic/liturgical/sacramental view of transcendence, mystery, and transformation, especially in Eastern Orthodox writings, saints, and mysticism, such as praying the Jesus Prayer both as a perpetual mantra and contemplatively according to the breath or heart beat.
I'd already immersed myself in the writings of Eastern Orthodoxy and western mystics like St. John of the Cross to Thomas Merton. Yet, even though deeply drawn to ancient Christian mystical tradition, these experiences seemed so far removed from my own experience, reserved only for Saints who had already been divinized. Even the "how to" manuals of the philokalia seemd just too difficult and lofty to be within my reach.
That began to change about ten years ago when I stumbled onto the writings of Father's Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating and John Main. These men presented me with a gift, a simple paradigm for understanding and experiencing for myself, little by little, what all those sages, saints and mystics had been writing about. I started to get it. A light went on and I began to awaken to the reality that I could begin, even now, to enter into those experiences of the saints, that they weren't so far removed after all.
Together with this new understanding, my own practise of Centering Prayer, and the teaching of such other mystics like Dom Bede Griffiths and Brother Wayne Teasdale (and now I think Richard Rohr) my world view of Christ (the Cosmic Christ), the world and spirituality, etc., has been expanding, pushing the old boundary markers further and further out. Levels of intellectual and experiential awarness and states and stages of consciousness growing in expanding concentric circles of growth and understanding.
Its been rather frightening at times. There's been subtle and not so subtle shifts of consciousness, awareness, and spiritual polarity. I've found myself having more in common with practioners of Buddha or Yoga (not in regard to theology but in regard to technique, method, psychology of dealing with the inner life, and at the level of the journey of experience) than most of my Christian friends who don't seem as interested in the contemplative expression of Christ and the Gospel, etc.
Although I hold to traditional Christian beliefs and values, I find that my reasons for it now have more to do with a holistic approach to life and integration and transformation as found in the Teachings of Jesus; and although I might hold to certain values along with "conservatives" my reasons, awareness and attitudes are no longer the same, or at least they are changing. I am growing more uncomfortable with the underlying attitudes of certain conservative stances of criticism, judgementalism, hatred, separation and exclusivity and finding that even if I am in opposition to certain more liberal views, I am closer to being on the same footing spiritually, at the level of the heart with some who would identify as liberals! (Again, this is not in regard to doctrines but on the level of a genuine Christian inclusivity as taught by Jesus. This doesn't mean an abandoning of traditional values but a change of heart in how those values and beliefs are experienced and expressed in our relationships with people). Terrifying stuff! A Collision of Opposites!
I'm not certain of what it all means. I know there are boundaries that I'm not willing to cross or go beyond. But the more I study the Church Fathers, Saints and Mystics; together with my own spiritual practise of prayer and meditation, the more I realize the boundaries of what Christ accomplished has much greater horizons than I ever realized. I am experiencing a change of heart and awareness through my practise, a letting go of things and expansion of heart and consciousness. I may still struggle with certain areas of my life, my vices, but there is at the same time all of these changes. Its scary (to let go of things or simpy awaken to the realization that my heart has changed without any conscious decision), yet is also exciting.
Well, I suppose I could ramble on and on. (My sons swear I could preach spontaneously for over an hour about anything, even something as random as a potatoe chip! lol.) But I'll sign off with these few thoughts.
Blessings,
Fr Aidan+
One place I connected with was Rohr's comments on "collision of opposites" and being "a values conservative and a process liberal;" and a correspondent's comment of having "more in common with my buddhist friends than childhood friends who have converted into the christian traditions."
I grew up as a fourth generation pentecostal and evangelical/fundamentalist. I really tried to fit into the more ecstatic/shamanistic approach to God in this way but never really made the connection, though I did have at times more subtle religious experiences within that context. Even as a child I was drawn to the spirituality exemplified in David Carradine's portrayal of Qui Chang Kang, the Shaolin Buddhist Monk in the TV classic Kung Fu. I started reading Brue Lee's Tao of Jeet Kun Do and Lao Tzo's tao Te Ching, etc., and began intuitively integrating those teaching into my Christian framework and spirituality. Later I was drawn to the catholic/liturgical/sacramental view of transcendence, mystery, and transformation, especially in Eastern Orthodox writings, saints, and mysticism, such as praying the Jesus Prayer both as a perpetual mantra and contemplatively according to the breath or heart beat.
I'd already immersed myself in the writings of Eastern Orthodoxy and western mystics like St. John of the Cross to Thomas Merton. Yet, even though deeply drawn to ancient Christian mystical tradition, these experiences seemed so far removed from my own experience, reserved only for Saints who had already been divinized. Even the "how to" manuals of the philokalia seemd just too difficult and lofty to be within my reach.
That began to change about ten years ago when I stumbled onto the writings of Father's Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating and John Main. These men presented me with a gift, a simple paradigm for understanding and experiencing for myself, little by little, what all those sages, saints and mystics had been writing about. I started to get it. A light went on and I began to awaken to the reality that I could begin, even now, to enter into those experiences of the saints, that they weren't so far removed after all.
Together with this new understanding, my own practise of Centering Prayer, and the teaching of such other mystics like Dom Bede Griffiths and Brother Wayne Teasdale (and now I think Richard Rohr) my world view of Christ (the Cosmic Christ), the world and spirituality, etc., has been expanding, pushing the old boundary markers further and further out. Levels of intellectual and experiential awarness and states and stages of consciousness growing in expanding concentric circles of growth and understanding.
Its been rather frightening at times. There's been subtle and not so subtle shifts of consciousness, awareness, and spiritual polarity. I've found myself having more in common with practioners of Buddha or Yoga (not in regard to theology but in regard to technique, method, psychology of dealing with the inner life, and at the level of the journey of experience) than most of my Christian friends who don't seem as interested in the contemplative expression of Christ and the Gospel, etc.
Although I hold to traditional Christian beliefs and values, I find that my reasons for it now have more to do with a holistic approach to life and integration and transformation as found in the Teachings of Jesus; and although I might hold to certain values along with "conservatives" my reasons, awareness and attitudes are no longer the same, or at least they are changing. I am growing more uncomfortable with the underlying attitudes of certain conservative stances of criticism, judgementalism, hatred, separation and exclusivity and finding that even if I am in opposition to certain more liberal views, I am closer to being on the same footing spiritually, at the level of the heart with some who would identify as liberals! (Again, this is not in regard to doctrines but on the level of a genuine Christian inclusivity as taught by Jesus. This doesn't mean an abandoning of traditional values but a change of heart in how those values and beliefs are experienced and expressed in our relationships with people). Terrifying stuff! A Collision of Opposites!
I'm not certain of what it all means. I know there are boundaries that I'm not willing to cross or go beyond. But the more I study the Church Fathers, Saints and Mystics; together with my own spiritual practise of prayer and meditation, the more I realize the boundaries of what Christ accomplished has much greater horizons than I ever realized. I am experiencing a change of heart and awareness through my practise, a letting go of things and expansion of heart and consciousness. I may still struggle with certain areas of my life, my vices, but there is at the same time all of these changes. Its scary (to let go of things or simpy awaken to the realization that my heart has changed without any conscious decision), yet is also exciting.
Well, I suppose I could ramble on and on. (My sons swear I could preach spontaneously for over an hour about anything, even something as random as a potatoe chip! lol.) But I'll sign off with these few thoughts.
Blessings,
Fr Aidan+
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
