Grace Ann- I continue to be impressed not only by your research, but by your willingness to examine belief at the level of soul rather than dogma. This is a deep dive and I love how granular and alive it feels. Your honesty is so rare as many people accept or reject faith in broad strokes, but few are willing to wrestle with it carefully, historically, personally, and with such courage. The search itself seems to be guided by the soul's hunger for truth. And, what came through most strongly to me was your desire to separate the living heart of faith from the layers of doctrine, power, and habit that can accumulate around it. I especially appreciate your focus on the enduring teachings of Christ: mercy, love, forgiveness, humility, care for the poor, and peacemaking, rather than getting lost in arguments over creed and machinery. Your essay felt like the work of someone honoring grace at the deepest level and I wanted to thank you for that. This is such a lovely piece to start my day with.
This is the kind of reading I hoped the piece would find,
You are right that the teachings are what pulled me back every time I drifted toward just being angry at the history and the corruption of men. Mercy, forgiveness, care for the poor, peacemaking. Those instructions do not get easier the longer I sit with them. They just get more demanding. I think that is part of why I keep showing up in the back of the sanctuary, even when the creed in the liturgy feels like a fourth-century political document to me. The old hymns still carry the real thing.
The soul's hunger for truth. Yes. That is exactly it.
Grace Ann- I am opening a very narrowly focused mentoring program and wanted you to know in case there was anyone that you knew that could be helped in this passage.
Grace Ann- I continue to be impressed not only by your research, but by your willingness to examine belief at the level of soul rather than dogma. This is a deep dive and I love how granular and alive it feels. Your honesty is so rare as many people accept or reject faith in broad strokes, but few are willing to wrestle with it carefully, historically, personally, and with such courage. The search itself seems to be guided by the soul's hunger for truth. And, what came through most strongly to me was your desire to separate the living heart of faith from the layers of doctrine, power, and habit that can accumulate around it. I especially appreciate your focus on the enduring teachings of Christ: mercy, love, forgiveness, humility, care for the poor, and peacemaking, rather than getting lost in arguments over creed and machinery. Your essay felt like the work of someone honoring grace at the deepest level and I wanted to thank you for that. This is such a lovely piece to start my day with.
Sheila, thank you.
This is the kind of reading I hoped the piece would find,
You are right that the teachings are what pulled me back every time I drifted toward just being angry at the history and the corruption of men. Mercy, forgiveness, care for the poor, peacemaking. Those instructions do not get easier the longer I sit with them. They just get more demanding. I think that is part of why I keep showing up in the back of the sanctuary, even when the creed in the liturgy feels like a fourth-century political document to me. The old hymns still carry the real thing.
The soul's hunger for truth. Yes. That is exactly it.
Thank you
--Grace Ann
https://sheilagracenewsom.carrd.co/
Grace Ann- I am opening a very narrowly focused mentoring program and wanted you to know in case there was anyone that you knew that could be helped in this passage.