The ARK, October 2011, Volume 22, Edition 10

26 Pages·2011·1.26 MB·English

by  Mary Jane Glauber

International Standard Serial Number: ISSN 1943-6467 (print)
K
ISSN 2160-682X (online)
http://www.interchurchfamilies.org/
aaifARKJan2011Volume22Edition1.pdf
R
OCTOBER 2011
A
VOLUME 22
EDITION 10
THE ARK

e
h
Interchurch Families: Christian Unity
T
Made Visible in our Households
© Copyright 2011 AAIF 
all rights reserved
The ARK, a Publication of the American Association of Interchurch Families
Continuing the theme ✤ Introspection
began at the last AAIF ✤ Being able to read the Bible with
Biennial Conference: others as we listen to how the Bible
verses impact their lived experience
“Christian Unity made
of that Light. How do we become
Visible in our Households”
more aware of our inter-
✤Seeking a common ground for connectedness?
ways to communicate across ✤Who am I? What can I know?
traditional barriers to open What can I hope for?
✤The language we use to describe
communication that leads to
the Divine in our daily lived
understanding.
experience.
✤Understanding who we are.
✤Finding God in our own stories.
✤What constitutes a better life when
✤Bible study formats to help to build
compared with a sense of belonging
bridges across existing, historical
to a place, a community and a
barriers.
family?
✤ IFIN - lived experience shared
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of
Make plans now to attend the next
the least of these who are members of my
AAIF Biennial Conference
family, you did it to me” - Matthew 25:40
to be held July 13 -15, 2012 in Collegeville, MN
2011 Please see www.aifusa.org for on-going updates
AAIF IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, REGISTERED IN THE STATE OF NEBRASKA
The ARK October 2011 page 1 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian Practice
Here is the link for the February 2011 edition of the ARK: http://www.interchurchfamilies.org/aaif/ARKFeb2011Volume22Edition2.pdf
Contact Sycamore leaf in
the duff, Kentucky
information for
in autumn
AAIF:
Are you interested in
meeting and talking to
other interchurch
families in your city
between AAIF Biennial
Conferences?
PLEASE SEE
WWW.AIFUSA.ORG
For membership
information mjg ©
Dave and Carol Natella
are serving as the Co- Our beginning point,
Chairs for AAIF
our common ground for discussion
~ for information about
how to form a City
Last month we spoke about Critical Thinking, explaining what it is, why we
chapter in your area or were focusing on it, what its frame work is, the elements of reasoning
how to find the AAIF involved, and the intellectual traits required to make it successful:
City Chapter closest to Humility, Courage, Empathy, Autonomy, Integrity, Perseverance,
Confidence in Reasoning and Fair-mindedness - These traits are all
you, please contact
compatible with Christianity and with our journey toward Christian
the Natellas.
Unity.
g
The Universal Intellectual Standards needed will be clarity, depth,
Dues are due
precision, logic, fairness, accuracy, relevance, breath and significance
Please See www.aifusa.org
within a Christian context for InterChurch Families, Christians, and
for membership information -
The fiscal year runs from humanity in general, as we seek a better future based on reasoned and
June 30 - July 1 considered solutions. In our case, Christ has asked us to act out of love for
creation and for humanity. This is our guiding principle. As Christians, we
are called: to examine our actions; to raise vital questions and problems,
formulating them clearly and precisely; to gather and assess relevant
information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively; to come to well-
reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria
and standards; to think open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought,
mjg ©
recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications,
and practical consequences; and to communicate effectively with others in
figuring out solutions to complex problems.
Of course, we all share the Bible in common, but we are not always sure if
we should interpret the Bible literally or figuratively. We each tend to think
our familiar way is the only way. By the way we read the Bible, sometimes
we are divided. We are united though in our desire to find truth and
Thistle in bloom in
meaning for our lives. I am requesting that we find ways to love each other,
autumn in Kentucky
to work together that allows for both ways so God’s will may prevail rather
than our very human ego and the desire to be right or more right in any
given situation, no matter how natural this may seem. Let God’s love
dominate and guide us. ~ M.J. Glauber
The ARK October 2011 page 2 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian Practice
Here is the link for the March 2011 edition of the ARK: http://www.interchurchfamilies.org/aaif/ARKMar2011Volume22Edition3.pdf
Finding Community
and Family in Post
WWII America
defined:
Hannah
Coulter
–
by Wendell
Berry; mjg ©
Book Review
Various kinds of leaves fall to the forest floor which provide nutrients for the soil so
By Robert C.
that new growth can occur. Ground cedar and a small tree are green.
Cheeks realized.” Commenting on
Hauerwas’s statement, There was a time, not many
Professor David Crawford of decades ago, that most of
Reprinted with permission from
the John Paul II Institute for the America’s population labored
the author, Robert C. Cheeks,
Studies on Marriage and family on family farms. Then, the
of this book review, which first
said, “It is not that families primary objective of the
appeared in the California
would cease to exist, but they American farmer was to be
Literary Review on April 22,
would be transformed into the debt free, to be independent. I
2007
image of the exchange was made aware of this
relations that underlie liberal “independence” many years
societies (1).” ago when my mother-in-law,
WHO WE
Jessie Hobbs, the daughter of
Consequently, there are two a West Virginia farmer, once
ARE
aspects of the triumph of the commented about her
“bourgeois family” that have childhood, “We didn’t know
had a profound effect on there was a depression.”
The rise of techno-capitalism society: first, is the capricious
has signaled the triumph of the yearning for the so-called There is a price for this
“bourgeois family” and the “better life,” which has resulted independence but there are
demise of the “traditional” in a highly trained cadre of also rewards that transcend
family. consumers, and, second, is an wealth or profit and have more
increasing lack of significance to do with the satisfaction of
Christian theologian, Stanley attached to the concepts of leaving the place better than
Hauerwas, said that economist “place,” and family. These two you found it. To reiterate, the
Adam Smith was well aware factors have played an idea of “place” is an important
that the “weakening of familial important role in a society that factor in the conceptualization
ties would increase the has become acclimated to a of civilization. Techo-capitalism
necessity of sympathy between rather pernicious spiritual has removed “place” from the
strangers and result in condition that theologian, David sum of parts that make up
cooperative forms of behavior Schindler, refers to as “modern” man and it has had a
that had not previously been “homelessness.” deleterious effect on society,
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Introspection as a Christian Practice
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weakening both the community to bright lights and ain’t going she would expect some
and the family. to work in the sun ever again if bureaucracy, and its monthly
they can help it (2).” stipend, to fulfill her
Kentucky essayist, poet, and responsibilities to her children!
novelist Wendell Berry has B u t t h e P o r t W i l l i a m Life and living was never just a
given his readers a glimpse of membership lives on in the old simple notion of economic
people who lived the “old ones. Surely, they are fewer determinism. Her life revolved
ways.” In six novels and and fewer in number, but they around God, family, community
twenty-three short stories Berry remember, and they are great and place, nourished by truth,
has created the Port William storytellers. And, it is the goodness, and justice.
membership, a group of doyenne of the Port William
neighbors who live along the membership, Hannah Coulter, The uncontrived goodness of
ridges and “bottoms” south of who has told her her story. the membership is best
“the river” in and around Port described in how they cared for
William, Kentucky, a town that Hannah Coulter is a brilliant the elderly. They were not
never was yet always existed and inspiring novel that is filled abandoned in their dotage.
in our hearts. with the truth of an inherent They were not sent off to a
wisdom imprinted on the soul. “home.” They were treated with
It was Burley Coulter, a leading Berry has captured the intrinsic respect and given dignity.
participant in the Port William nature of man and it is defined
membership, who told of the by God, family, community, and When the Feltner’s became too
time when it all went “place.” And, it is the “place,” old to do their work the
“wayward,” when the idea of the land, which acts to nurture membership helped them on
“place” came under attack, and keep the whole of it. their farm. The hay and
“And now look at how many tobacco was always cut, the
are gone…the mold they were One element of this novel is fences mended, the stock
made in done throwed away, Berry’s rejection of the spurious watered and fed. Hannah and
and the young ones dead in notion that there exits an Mary Penn and any of a half
the wars or killed in damned “equality of the sexes.” Hannah dozen ladies would help Mrs.
automobiles, or gone off to Coulter would no more Feltner in cooking and cleaning
college and made too smart renounce her interdependence and canning and in whatever
ever to come back, or gone off on her husband, Nathan, than chore needed doing. In the end
the Feltner’s died in their
home, surrounded by their
children and their friends.
Then, of course, the
community participated in a
real and ritualized grief,
engaging in the act of
remembrance, for the Feltner’s
were truly loved.
But, Hannah tells her story
from an awareness of self and
a n u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f
community. She always knew
whom she was, never
mjg ©
complaining about a lack of
advantages, never engaging in
A buzzard flying over Green River Lake in early autumn in self-pity. She saw the
Kentucky; rain clouds forming
The ARK October 2011 page 4 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian Practice
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farming with his family who
were part of the membership
and that put him in close
proximity to Hannah and her in-
laws at the Feltner place.
Hannah tells us that, “It was a
strange courtship we had. My
love for Virgil had begun in a
kind of innocence, leading only
in time to knowledge. But what
was coming into being between
Nathan and me was not a
youthful romance. It was a
knowing love. Both of us had
suffered the war. He had fought
in it, and I had waited it out in
fear and sorrow at home. We
both were losers by it, he of a
mjg © brother, I of a husband. Now
we were coming together out of
fear and loss and grief, and we
knew it.”
Tulip Poplar Leaf in the duff at Green River Lake in autumn in Kentucky
But, Hannah is an honest
membership, her family, Every account was paid in full
woman, “My life with Nathan
herself, as gifts. Her excellent by the understanding that when
turned out to be a long life, and
mind, her good health, the love we were needed we would go,
actual marriage with trouble in
that surrounded her were gifts and when we had need the
it. I am not complaining.
and she accepted, and other, or enough of them,
Troubles came, as they were
nourished, and cherished those would come.”
bound to do, as the promise we
gifts. There was never any
made had warned us they
need to blindly consume. Her Hannah could have made
would. I can remember the
joy and happiness were at the different choices. She could
troubles and speak of them,
core of her being. And, this have been bitter when her first
but not to complain. I am
attitude, this way of life, was husband, Virgil-Mat and
beginning again to speak of my
part of the membership. Margaret’s son-didn’t come
gratitude.”
home from the war. But Virgil
But then, it is Hannah who can had left her with a daughter,
As David Schindler has written,
best tell us of her community, Margaret-named after her
“Man is at home, therefore,
“This membership had an grandmother- and Hannah
when he is rightly related to
economic purpose and it had continued living on the Feltner
God, to others, and to the
and economic result, but the farm just north of Port William.
world in and through the family.
purpose and the result were a Perhaps, Hannah’s choices
It is within these relations and
lot more than economic…the had much to do with little
in their right ordering that he
work was freely given in Margaret, perhaps they were
finds his basic place of
exchange for work freely given. the result of her moral acuity
residence, or truly comes to
There was no bookkeeping, no but surely they pleased the
rest (3).” The Port William
accounting, no settling up. Almighty.
membership, even in their most
W h a t y o u o w e d w a s
trying hour, always knew a
considered paid when you had When Nathan Coulter came
done what was needed doing. back from the war he took to
The ARK October 2011 page 5 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian Practice
Here is the link for the June ARK: http://www.interchurchfamilies.org/aaif/ARKJune2011Volume22Edition6.pdf
spiritual peace, they always Wendell Berry is America’s “homelessness” that we have
knew “home.” finest novelist. His Hannah encountered as a society since
Coulter is classic literature. moving away from our agrarian
Hannah tells us of salvation Notes: roots. This is a spiritual loss.
1. Doug Bandow and David
and forgiveness. She may Robert C. Cheeks’ research
speak freely of these things for Schindler, eds., Wealth, indicates,” Professor David
she is older now, the last of her Crawford of the John Paul II
Poverty, and Human Destiny,
generation. She walks with a Institute for the Studies on
cane and still treks through the (Intercollegiate Studies Marriage and family said, “It is
woods remembering, always Institute, Wilmington, DE., not that families would cease to
remembering, “Like a lot of old exist, but they would be
2003); essay: David
people I have known, I am now transformed into the image of
living in two places: the place Crawford, The “Bourgeois the exchange relations that
as it was and the place as it is. underlie liberal societies (1).”
Family” and the Meaning of
As it was it is almost always
Freedom and Community.
present to me, with the dead
Robert C. Cheeks concludes
moving about in it as they Pg. 177.
that, “Consequently, there are
were: Virgil, Old Jack two aspects of the triumph of
Beechum, Mat and Margaret 2. Wendell Berry, That Distant the “bourgeois family” that
Feltner, Joe and Nettie Banion, have had a profound effect on
Land, The Collected Stories,
Burley and Jarrat Coulter, Art society: first, is the
and Mart Rowanberry, Elton (Shoemaker and Hoard, capricious yearning for the
so-called “better life,” which
and Mary Penn, Bess and Washington, D.C., 2004) The
has resulted in a highly
Wheeler Catlett, Nathan. By
Wild Birds, pg. 355. trained cadre of consumers,
the ones who have moved
and, second, is an increasing
away, as many have done, as
lack of significance attached
3. Bandow and Schindler,
my children have done, the to the concepts of “place,”
dead may be easily forgotten. Wealth, essay: David and family.”
But to those who remain, the
Schindler, “Homelessness’
place is always forever a Wendell Berry’s Hannah
reminder. And so, the absent and Market Liberalism: Coulter calls into question,
“What constitutes a better
come into presence.” Toward an Economic Culture
life when compared with a
of Gift and Gratitude. Pg. sense of belonging to a
Hannah’s life has reached the place, a community and a
353.
time of ghosts. Her loved ones, family?” Hannah Coulter
now gone, come to her as they notes that debt is a part of that
new “better life” that she had
always do. It is a time of great
not foreseen coming.
peace for this kind, generous, Hannah Coulter by Wendell
and loving lady and Hannah Berry; Robert C. Cheeks’
I was struck by Robert C.
understands just how much
review - You will recognize Cheeks comment, “ There was
Port William and its environs this book title that I reviewed a time, not many decades ago,
meant to her long and blessed last month. I wanted you to that most of America’s
life, “There is no “better place” population labored on family
have another perspective on
than this, not in this world. And farms. Then, the primary
this book of our shared
it is by the place we’ve got, and objective of the American
American experience. Robert farmer was to be debt free, to
our love for it and our keeping
C. Cheeks has given be independent. I was made
of it, that this world is joined to
permission for his article to aware of this “independence”
Heaven.”
many years ago when my
be reprinted here in the
mother-in-law, Jessie Hobbs,
ARK. He refers to a kind of the daughter of a West Virginia
The ARK October 2011 page 6 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian PracticeHere is the link for the July ARK: Introspection as a Christian Practice
http://www.interchurchfamilies.org/aaif/ARKJuly2011Volume22Edition7.pdf
farmer, once commented about
her childhood, “We didn’t It is the ordinariness of their
k n o w t h e r e w a s a daily lives, lived to the fullest
depression.” ‘ where they are able to find that
of God in their lives.
I have also heard this from
others who went through the I want to thank Robert C.
depression who had a garden Cheeks for his review and for
planted and who were able to sharing his insight of Hannah
make do. If they could stay on Coulter by Wendell Berry with
their land, they were fine. Ark readers.
How different the thinking is The book is extremely well
now. We are so removed from written, and the subject matter
God’s creation that we don’t strikes a chord that is very true.
understand it nor are we able I highly recommend this book.
to read the simple signs in This is one of those great
nature around us anymore. The books that shouldn’t be Hannah Coulter
word, “sustainable” has re- missed. by Wendell Berry
entered recently into our ~ M.J. Glauber
hoemaker and Hoard, 190 pp.
vocabulary as a new concept,
but this is really a re-
CLR Rating:
introduction of an old concept.
Hannah Coulter by Wendell
mjg ©
Berry sheds light on “the
membership” - It is this
“membership” in a community
and human family that I would
like to draw to your attention to
be considered.
Hannah Coulter understands
the blessings that real work
bring to her. Her husband
Nathan believes that is what
brings them to a place as close
to Heaven on earth on their
farm land that anyone can
possibly ever attain. His life
experiences have given him
this insight, Hannah comes to
realize. After his death she
does research into what
happened in Okinawa, a war
experience that her husband
could never speak about. He
had identified completely with
the simply farming community
that had been annihilated on
Okinawa and who had nothing
to do with the conflict; they
simply got caught in the
crossfire. We are all related
one to the other. We all belong
Asters in bloom in early autumn in Kentucky
one to the other.
The ARK October 2011 page 7 Volume 22 Edition 10
1 Corinthians 15: 51-58:
Introspection as a Christian Practice
"We will be changed by the victory
of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Inspired by the life and teachings of Christ, we will be changed. Change often isn’t easy, but it may
become necessary for our survival. God has given us the chance for making our own decisions; we can
learn from our previous experiences and from reading written historical texts. A study of the past
shouldn’t make us bound to old practices that served to divide us from that of God in the world that we
find all around us. We are able to make choices that pull us back to the path that Christ set out for us.
We have some control over what happens, but not over everything. What we can control, we should,
but keeping in mind the guidelines we have been given that will serve to make us one body of Christian
Believers.
This is a time for
introspection and self-
Cypress Tree in October
examination. Take
note of your feelings
mjg ©
and your own
thoughts. Are they
helping you along the
path toward Christian
Unity? You can adjust
what becomes your
focus by the way that
you think and feel
about the world you
encounter on a daily
basis. How do you
encounter that of God
in your lived
experience?
Think about the ways
that you can prepare
yourself for change
and to help to prepare
others for change.
Change should be a natural and integral part of our lived experience as Christians. Are we working
collectively to move all of along this path? Or, are we thinking that our way is the only way? Other paths
may work better for some people than a path we may choose for ourselves, but it is equally valid for
finding that of God in their lived experience, which would naturally be different than our lived
experience.
See that your needs are met in any change that is undertaken. Meeting your needs should preclude
that others needs aren’t being met equally well. We are all in this together. In building the foundations
for the future, what kind of legacy do we want to leave for future generations to be able to thrive and to
prosper?
~ M.J. Glauber
The ARK October 2011 page 8 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian Practice
The Language we other than I knew that what they would see just
was Jesus with his before falling asleep at night.
use to describe
heart exposed in the
the sacred portrait of him hanging I was very young when my
over the sofa where my mother took me to my first
powwow of the Ogallala Sioux.
neighbors sat in normal
I was barely able to write. I
Two quotes from two cultures: conversation being apparently
wanted to send a note to tell
are they trying to say the same oblivious to the fact that Jesus
my older brother
thing? Is our language was behind them in that
about this very “so
as much a part of Like state. I had no
moving
our cultural that they may
the grasses showing words even to experience.
experience
explain this to My mother all be one”
and tender faces to each
my own and I bought
John 17: 21
historical
other,
family. I also a postcard of
heritage as
thus should we do, noticed that man doing a
what
“Fancy Dance;” in his amazing
determines for this was the wish of the in their
costume. I simply wrote, “I saw
the color of bedrooms
Grandfathers of the World. Indians.” I misspelled the
our eyes? they had
message though. It actually
placed
read, “I saw India.” (Columbus
If we have gone Black Elk gruesome crosses had trouble with this too in one
through a particularly with Jesus being way or another.) I remember
spiritual moment, have you crucified so that this would be how much effort it took just to
ever found it difficult to find the get that down on the postcard
exact words to
adequately describe
how that experience
felt to you as you
experienced it or
why this experience mjg ©
was so significant to
you?
As a very young
child, I was
privileged to be able
to enter the homes
of our neighbors. In
their homes they
displayed religious
art. They were
accustomed to
seeing Jesus with a
bleeding heart, but I
wasn’t. I may have
been four years old
at the time; I had no
point of reference Grasses in October on the edge of a farm field in a light breeze
The ARK October 2011 page 9 Volume 22 Edition 10
Introspection as a Christian Practice
so that I could tell my oldest gone up the river of no return sent all those years ago in one
brother who and what I had and come back. This too had of the drawers back at our
seen. Perhaps my mother sent been a very good sign in her house. It had been one of
her own detailed explanation in
opinion. I don’t know why these those precious moments we
her own postcard at the same
are good signs; I was happy had shared, but which had kept
time since she would have
that they had both found good on growing in my life in so
seen how difficult writing that
signs that they wanted to share many ways.
message was for me, but she
with me. I waited for more of
would have also seen how
much I wanted my brother to the story, but nothing more And as I look back on my
know how happy I had been came. childhood, I see that God was
about going to this powwow. very much present in so many
I like the quote attributed to ways. How we go about
I felt that I had been very Black Elk that we should turn expressing the divine may be
privileged to have been able to
tender faces toward each other part of our cultural heritage and
observe the dancing at the
like grasses since this was a we should share that heritage
powwow. I realize that the men
wish from the Grandfathers. I with visitors.
beating on the drum create a
believe that the Grandfathers
sound like a heartbeat. It is a
would be highly respected or “Becoming one” as suggested
heartbeat for a community, a
gathered community. The knowledgeable ancestors. This in John 17:21 allows for
singing takes on the quality of is wisdom speaking. We turn to diversity and welcomes our
chanting. For years as an adult the Bible in an effort to find diversity. Being one also
I listened to the Folkways wisdom. In fact, Black Elk’s means respecting diversity
recordings of American quote reminds me of John within our shared humanity. We
Indians’ traditional music from
17:21 “so that they may all be can learn from each other.
the 1930’s in my car on my way
one” What one culture may find
to work; I believed that they
easy to express another may
must have been praying. The
When I was a child, I was struggle to express or prefer
music had a quality of prayer
welcomed at a powwow. The not to articulate in the same
about it although I could not
understand the words. powwow left a mark on me that way.
has stayed there forever. I saw
beauty because I was God didn’t make flowers all the
When I have gone to special welcomed or because I was a same, nor trees all the same,
exhibits and had a chance to child and open to seeing nor fruit, nor vegetables, but
talk to the visiting tribal beauty. I will never know. they all belong equally. We, as
representative, they have been humans, all belong to the
very careful to give me a Matthew 18:5 "And whoever Creator equally. ~ M.J. Glauber
nugget of something to cogitate welcomes a little child like this
over that they considered to be in my name welcomes me.”
important. A Cree woman told I keep coming back to this
me that two white buffalo chapter in Matthew 18:5 and I mjg ©
calves had been born the remember how I was
previous year and that this was welcomed by total strangers,
a very good sign. Another the Ogallala Sioux, when I was
woman from one of the a very young child.
northwest tribes told me that After my mother died, I found
someone from her tribe had that misspelled postcard I had
The ARK October 2011 page 10 Volume 22 Edition 10