Lessons from my Totem continue to come ...

It is said that the Vulture Totem allows one to sense or even see the energy auras surrounding people ... those blessed by the presence of the Vulture are able to know what's ticking within another person - they can "see" good and evil present and emanating from folks beyond just the tickle in your gut that gives you a reading of someone ...

Not to belittle this as something akin to comic book "spidey senses", I can look back on moments in time when I had a deep sense of foreboding break upon me only to have something happen that fulfilled that ominous feeling ... Over and over I have had this sense that something bad is about to happen, to be confronted with just such an occurrence. Looking back, I can't help but wonder if that is my Vulture Totem at work ...

On a more positive side, I've also found this sense connecting me to people searching for something ... Often I find myself in touch with several people experiencing, or needing, or even just expressing similar notions simultaneously. They say "these things come in threes", but in my experience three is too low a number.

For example - lately I have been encountering people asking "why can't we have a Unitarian Congregation in town?" over and over ... Many of them are disgruntled United Church people who want to be fed spiritually, but who are discontented with the politicking that is TOO evident in traditional United Church Congregations. All of them have a spiritual hunger that is not fed by current denominational gatherings in our community, and THEY want more ... they have been asking for many months ... but now with events unfolding around us, their voices have gained an urgency.

My loyalty to the United Church has lead me to ignore these voices for many months, but this past week spending time with a variety of Mennonite folks from around the province, my spirit began to stir in a new way ...

In the Mennonite Tradition there are sometimes "disagreements of the spirit" to use a term I heard from my uncle once - that leads a community to divide so that the good of all involved might be nurtured. This isn't to paint an unrealistic rosy picture of the process - there is pain and division and fighting, BUT, the underlying ethos is not one that says "UNITY at ALL costs" (something that seems to permeate this United Church of Ours), but instead the ethos is one of letting the Spirit guide people in the ebb and flow of faith ... Communities form and grow and others wither and die ... prolonging the inevitable, and closing our eyes to the obvious is never an option. The Spirit sings and we are called to join Her dance ...

Indeed in this process open, honest and NON-POLITICAL conversation based in FAITH is vital - and when people have the courage to sometimes agree to disagree, and communities then agree to schism and divide the Kingdom of God is promoted rather than sullied.

I realized in the last few hours through my prayer and meditation that THIS is perhaps the greatest challenge facing the United Church ... We are a Church in decline. We are aging rapidly, and we are not, despite our best efforts attracting the younger generations back - they have long memories and they KNOW why they have departed from our midst - and despite the Emerging Spirit/Wonder Cafe work, unless there is a transformation of the ethos that drove the younger folks OUT in the first place, NOTHING - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - will change.

I would dare to advocate a change in approach by this United Church of OURS ... we have to stop trying to maintain UNITY at all costs, and instead begin to listen to the voices OUTSIDE our walls ... those who are disenfranchised and alienated - those who have left - those who have been driven out - those who are no longer comfortable in the pews - and we need to constructively respond ...

It may mean letting Congregations divide.

It may mean telling the entrenched leadership that THEY are WRONG.

It may mean listening to voices that are uncomfortable and shrill.

It WILLmean re-visioning EVERYTHING we're about, and no longer simply adhering to the rules because "that's the way we do things."

I could go on ... but for now I will leave that with you ... For me I'm taking time to simply reflect on the fact that last night for some reason, I was lead to a time and a place where a non-United Church person, not knowing I was a Minister said - "this town really needs a Unitarian Church to feed the needs of people ..."

It stopped me in my tracks, so too speak ... and it made me wonder if the keen eye of the Vulture is looking out for the good of the WHOLE community around here ...

I won't say I know the answers ... but I think we need to have the courage to raise the question and let the Spirit guide us to the answers ...

Maybe it's time to start a New Reformed United Church of Canada who opens the doors to the Emerging Spirit generation on their terms ... it really wouldn't hurt to try ...

I'll await further guidance from my totem ...