Spring Retreat
April 24, 25, 26, 2009
More Welcome Reception Pictures
Peg Phillips, Sherry Burnett and Judy Perkin | Kita and Kay Kay from St. Mary's |
| Kristin Munroe and Jackie Wright at
Reception |
Patio Planter and why are those rocking chairs empty?
|
Sue Carmichael and Sharon Chambers
Barbara, Faye, Pat, Judy and Sherry
| 
Sue
Carmichael opened the evening session with praise music following
dinner in the Varn Dining Hall. Mother Kammy began with an overview of
"What it means to Carry the Light." She indicated that we would look
at this theme using the 5 R's: 1. Receive 2. Reveal. 3. Reflect 4.
Rekindle 5. Rejoice.
First we must receive the light and God is our source of light as we are told in scripture beginning of course
in Genesis, Chapter 1. "Let there be Light.." Scripture gives us the
very clear answer that God is the source of the light we carry. God
created the light to mark our days; the greater light to mark days and
the lesser light to mark the night. Additionally, we have the sun and
the moon as well to light our days and nights and the moon is the
source of our lunar calendar. God is light, In Him there is no
darkness at all as it says in 1st John. However, we did not understand God as the light until Jesus came so that no one should stay in darkness.
|
| DOK President Metro Griffith with
Margaret Kidd
| The Reverend Kammy Young
|
| Mother Kammy allowed that
while men seem to sometimes shine like the sun and women more like the
moon; women have a special light to carry in the darkness and it is
always the light of God. None of us can kindle this light on our own,
it is all a gift from God, the source of all light. We can only 1.
RECEIVE or accept this gift of light. We need to listen to and be open
to God and to each other. (First two letters of the word "love."
Listen and Open.) It is easy to think that life is more about the
"doing" than the "being." This light comes to us through our baptism.
As Linda Baker was talking of those women who went before us and
carried the light, those who stand up with us at our baptisms also help
carry the light. Mother Kammy illustrated how not to open to
"receiving" the light with a filmclip from "The Yes Man," with Jim
Carey. She used a clip from an NBC film titled, "Jesus," to show the
incredible gift of light and freedom that he offers us all wherever he
finds us and no matter how fallen we think we might be. He gives us
the opportunity and the freedom to respond to the gift. The woman in
the filmclip thought she had freedom and seemed not to be able to
understand the freedom Jesus could offer if only she could "surrender
herself," and follow him, knowing as it says in James, ..that every
good gift comes from God and that He is the source of the light that we
have to carry. Mother Kammy told us about something she does each time
she performs a Babtism. After the baptism, she takes the baptism
candle and lights it from the Paschal candle and gives it to the person
baptised, saying "Receive the light of Christ."
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St Johns' Cathedral crowd hits the deck and the rocking chairs!
| 3. Revealing
the light comes from continuing in the apostles teaching and fellowship
and in the breaking of bread, by keeping our baptismal vows. We have
to open ourselves to those spiritual disciplines that have been around
for the ages adn listen to the word of God through scriptures. From a
clip from "The Seekers," dthe old ones are there for Will to help
reveal to him the light within him and to restore the power of the
light. Mark 10:15 reminds us that we are to be open just as a child.
Mother Kammy offered us to think about playing with a child as a means
of receiving the light of Christ more fully. We receive and reveal by
just showing up and being in community, by being part of the community
of Saints. When we come together in spiritual communities such as
Cursillo and prayer groups and study together, we enhance our
experience of God through our shared activities. Spiritual formation
exercises, centering prayer and contemplative prayer also help us to
receive the light more fully. We can also receive and reveal the light
through action, through radical hospitality. Clips from "Pay it
Forward," and the "Secret Life of Bees" were examples of radical
hospitality. |