This morning I explored earthy spirituality with Laidley Uniting at their church camp. We looked at an approach to faith that is characterised by affirmation of the body, acknowledgment of fragility and vulnerability, and healthy life-affirming relationships. We looked at being intensely spiritual and thoroughly practical.
Our resource for the morning was “Practicing Our Faith“, a resource edited by Dorothy Bass and published by Jossey Bass in 1997/1998. The twelve practices in the book are honouring the body, hospitality, household economics, saying yes and saying no, keeping Sabbath, testimony, discernment, shaping communities, forgiveness, healing, dying well, and singing our lives. This morning we focused mostly on honouring the body. Stephanie Paulsell helps us explore the vulnerability of living in fragile bodies and suggests three disciplines of faith linked with everyday life: washing, adornment and touch.
People were excited to explore a life-affirming spirituality that didn’t require more programming. If anything, we were looking at lightening up.
The content and questions is online at www.practicingourfaith.com
I’m reading a couple of JB books in that line at the moment.
its certainly good stuff, the practicing faith book is in my list of books to purchase…