Hope Child

So this is what the aftermath of war feels like?

On a sacred day that is Remembrance Day people ignored my call for peace.

They formed their own coalitions and rehashed the truth to fit their own version of things.

And I sit here among the ashes crying.

So all those who say that war is a good thing and that they are justified in their cause, I say this,war is not a good thing. There is never a justifiable reason to hound and vilify a fellow human being.

You are not right just as other people are not wrong.

Tolerance is the only way forward.

This is a terrible day in the history of Hope Child.

Three years ago the director of a local faith-based homeless shelter and drug rehab center called my church's associational office with a desperate plea for financial help. The following Sunday his plea was relayed to the members of our church, as well as the other churches in our association. While I can not speak for what the other churches did to help, my church did nothing.

Appalled by this blatant apathy I began to search for a way someone like me could help meet the needs of the shelter. One day while conducting online research I stumbled across the term Social Enterprise, a concept that marries the world of business with social responsibility. As a Christian I was raised to believe that one of the responsibilities of the Church was to meet the needs of the destitute. Now I was reading about businesses that in some cases were doing the work of the Church!

Intrigued by the subject, I have spent the last three years studying Social Enterprise, and have made some interesting discoveries.

First, when it comes to Social Enterprise, the U.K. leads the way. I can not tell you how many times I came across a web site that provided some of the most fascinating information only to discover that the company I was reading about was located in London.

Second, the United States has Social Enterprise, but is about twenty years behind the times. Our tax laws here still only recognize for-profit, non-profit and not-for-profit corporate structures. In the absence of laws formally recognizing Social Enterprise as a corporate structure, a huge gap has formed between those who chase the American dream and those Americans who in believe in social responsibility.

I'm telling you all this because I want to share with you some news of a personal nature. Despite the gap here in America I have for the past several months been working on starting my own social enterprise, a restaurant that will be known as LivingStones?.

LivingStones? will exist to fulfill four primary purposes: 1) To provide monetary resources for local non-profit organizations; 2) A place of employment for persons once considered unemployable; 3) A means to raise awareness about social concerns; and 4) A means to raise awareness about the need for social enterprise.

LivingStones? will donate not less than 70% of its profits to nonprofit organizations and reinvest not more than 30% back into the business. We will exist to help people get back on their feet, men and women whose lives once took a turn for the worse, but now want to turn things back around. In a nutshell, LivingStones? will serve as a means to help people get a second chance at life.

Now, I must confess something to you. When I was in Bible college we were told more than once that the U.K had become one of the most unchurched countries in the world and for the most part no longer believed in God. But as I researched Social Enterprise it quickly became apparent that people in the U.K. were doing more to help their fellow man than most of the churches in the United States. From this observation I posited half a dozen theories to explain this apparent contradiction.

First, if the U.K. had turned its back on God and the Church, is it possible the British people have simply traded faith in God for a social conscience? Perhaps.

Second, and more likely, could it be that the British people still believe in God (or a god) and are simply living their lives according to their personal convictions? It certainly wouldn't be the first time the British took such a lead.

My third conclusion brought me close to home as I began to consider the possibility that the Church here in the United States was becoming (or perhaps has become) so self-righteous that they no longer concern themselves with helping their fellow man? Perhaps it is more important to pursue the American Dream than it is to live sacrificially.

What do you think? Has the Church in England been replaced with Social Enterprise? Has the Holy Spirit been replaced with a Social Conscience? Or could it be that Brits simply care more, and love more that the average churchgoer in the United States?

Or am I just wrong to assume the United States is at all a godly nation. Maybe I need to point my fellow church members in the direction of my friends across the pond and say, 'Look at them. They are doing your job better than you.?'

What do you think?

i belive all religious and non religious people should watch nonstampcollector on the net

Look at this video on free will

nonstampcollector writes,"We are always reminded by Christians that God gave us free will. Indeed, the wrongful exercise of free will back in the Garden of Eden was what stuffed up all of creation.
But is it free will if it so closely resembles blackmail?
Is it free will when someone has a gun pointed in your face?"

So what do you think about free will?

Has nonstampcollector got a point?

enjoy and peace to all! with all my heart xXx

Do you have a favourite public building? Is it a town hall or little church? A hotel or intimate restaurant? Is there a place that you have experienced dread when you've walked in there?(don't say the Unemployment Office!)A place where you've felt immediately at home?

Why is this? Is there something in Feng Shui that explains it?
Ley lines? Residual energy? Or could it be something more mundane that explains the connections that we make?

One building that I love going into is The Tate Gallery in London.

One building and its grounds that fills me with dread is The Exploratorium in San Francisco (which has been used in some films). I feel spooked just thinking and writing about that building.

Looking forward to reading your replies

Yes, I know, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Ezekiel, Daniel, Malachi, Luke, Paul, John, etc...

My question is who decided to compile and edit this book that changed peoples life forever.

Who had this brilliant idea?

Because I can tell you, this was a brilliant idea, I mean, how many copies of the bible have been sold so far?

There are no specific statistics but the estimate is more than 6 billion.

How can a book be so powerful that people swear to it?

Why is that people don't even question what's written?

Is it the word of God of just a piece of literature?

Okay, I know, sorry guys, too many questions is just that I am very sceptical and I don't believe everything I read.

Don't get me wrong, I am probably one of the few people who actually has read the Bible...just thought it was a good question for this group.

Ok there has been a bit of a 'glitch' on this post....

But I am trying to resurrect it in best it's original form.

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Hi all.....

The way this World is going I despair......

Not often I pass on mail such as I am forwarding...and especially as I am not a Christian as hold Pagan belief.

I feel it is disgusting the way Prayer is being omitted from life.....I know we live in a multi cultural World but GOD to whichever faith, by whatever name is still the Higher (outside ourselves) Being.

The LORD'S PRAYRER.... Our father who is in Heaven.......surely this can be adapted to cover ALL FAITH....like the words are true just change the name?

I had a mail through from a friend in America and she informed me that......

Did you know that the ACLU has filed a suit to have all military cross-shaped headstones removed and another suit to end prayer from the military completely? They're making great progress. The Navy Chaplains can no longer mention Jesus' name in prayer thanks to the wretched ACLU and our new administration.

I was told that this is a hoax but it raises important points about religious freedom and observance and other people's rights to avoid it.

So what do you think?

P xxx

Are we primarily sexual beings? If all other things were equal would we spend most of our time pursuing sexual encounters and experimenting with different partners of either sex?

As some of you know, I'm going to be one of the speakers at Witchfest International in Croydon on NOvember 7th this year. I've been asked to do a talk, a workshop, a book signing and.... the opening blessing ceremony.

Now I've done an opening blessing ceremony before, (and a closing one too, come to think of it!) and I'm a great believer that the world would probably be a better place for more blessings. However, I'm aware that not everyone thinks this way. Some people believe that only the clergy can or should bless and that ordinary folk somehow lack the power.

Nor do I believe that blessings are necessarily a religious thing. I think at its simplest, a blessing is simply a way of wishing good things upon another person, place, object or situation. Such wishes can be conveyed from one person to another without any sort of divine intervention whatsoever. In my book, there is nothing to prevent a die-hard atheist from giving a blessing should he/she choose to do so.

But what do members here think? Do you think anyone can give a blessing? Or that anyone should? Have you ever given a blessing? And if not, would you ever consider doing so?

PS : Here's an example of one of my blessings from my blog at the Winter Solstice 2007:

May the moon turn her face to you
And teach you the secrets of her night;
May the sun’s warm embrace with you
Teach you all the secrets of his light.

Starlight, moonbright, Summer’s disc and Winter’s night
Keep you fast and hold you tight.

It seems to me that us humans each contain a great emptiness, a yearning, a dissatisfaction. In some ways this is a good thing. It is what has driven our species on to use our ingenuity to improve our lot on this planet and even reach out into space. Dolphins have bigger brains but seem to be satisfied with their ocean lives.

Nevertheless, there seems no way to assuage the emptiness. We try everything, more, bigger, better possessions, a new partner, a different career, or the darker side of the craving with substance abuse or destructive kinds of sex.

When I was 10, in 1963, my dad had been promoted and I got everthing I wanted for Christmas. By the end of boxing day I realised that I was no more satisfied than I had been before. Nevertheless, I went through my adolescence sort of believing that, with just a few changes to my situation, the non specific yearning would go away. This was combined with an uneasy suspicion that, whatever I did, the dissatisfaction would still be there.

The sixties were an amazing time to grow up. It seemed like a new beginning, with all the hypocritical garbage of the past being thrown out. Alas, it didn't quite work like that, but it was a good try. To me, religion was a mediaeval remnant, part of the oppressive power structure. It blessed war and put chains on loving. I was impressed by figures like Jesus and had an idea that somewhere, hidden behind the encrustacions of millenia there may be a kernel of truth, but "all in all it was all just bricks in the wall".

I developed into being vaguely pagan. I had a belief in a great spiritual power of some sort, which I felt closer to in the outdoors rather than in religious buildings. I tended to keep this secret. I even developed rituals of my own, but felt a bit daft doing them.

About 4 years ago a combination of circumstances brought me in touch with Subud. This organisation enables people to experience the Latihan, which is Indonesian for exercise. Subud does not advertise, but expects that people will find it when they are ready to do the Latihan.

If I had investigated Subud in the normal way, engaging it with my intellect, I would almost certainly have rejected it. In fact, I was introduced by friends who told me of meeting incredibly wonderful spiritual people there and that it seemed to be something special. This is what I've found to be the case, and after 3 years of regular Latihaning, my emptiness has diminished greatly.

So, what is this Latihan? What is Subud. Well! For a start it's not a religion. People of all faiths and none gather together for the Latihan. It was founded by an Indonesian muslim after he had profound and life changing spiritual experience. This he learned to pass on to others and it has spread World wide. I am dodging round the business of describing a Latihan, because I can't describe it. I could describe what happened in my last Latihan, but the next one will be different, and it is different for each person there. For me it is 30 minutes of unfettered contact with The Great Spirit. My Muslim friends would call it Allah, my Christian friends Almighty God, and yet in Latihan I hear Christians calling out to Allah and Muslims repeating the name of Jesus. My partner, who, since she started Latihaning, has been confirmed in the Church of England, often shouts Adonai and has taken the name Emuna, which is hebrew for Faith.

I suppose the nearest thing to a Latihan that most people know of is Quaker worship, though the Latihan is much more animated. You just stand there and wait for something to happen. Usually it does, and it's very real. Of course, I accept that this could be all psychological suggestion. I might just be kidding myself. I probably won't know for certain until I die, and then I'll only know if it really is real.

Subud is the organisation that facilitates the Latihan. Like all organisations it has a certain amount of baggage. There are things that I don't like about it, but also plenty that I do like. If I had initially approached Subud through its literature, and particularly the many talks given by its founder, Mohammed Subuh Sumowodidjojo , I would almost certainly have been put off. His beliefs were a combination of Islam and traditional Indonesian belief, neither of which appeal to me. However, it is not necessary to accept any of this to benefit from the Latihan. There is no Nicean creed! I am still a Pagan, but you can remove the prefix "vaguely"

So what have you tried along your journey?

I've had discussions with many people around me and the main theme that keeps cropping up is that of perception based on preconception leading to concept ... sounds complex doesnt it?

In all reality it probably is but how many of us actually look beyond the ideas of another to see where they fit for ourselves?

How many of us question what it is that feels right and that which doesn't seem to fit?

How many of us will live through life with the preconceptions someone else has then giving us?

Thus becoming our preception that we then live by and so becoming a concept and a basis for things in which we see or think through.
Does that give you some food for thought or is it already washing over your head in some confusion?

I see as I write this that there will be some blank faces but also I see that it might trigger something in some of you and it might be what is needed just to help you clear some issue of self being

We all know what preconception is right.. you know ideas and thoughts that we may form about something before we actually experience the matter at hand from what we may be told it will be like.

Preconception is one of the bases of perception, perception is that of how we see things in our life and believe them to be true.
In saying that perception can affect that of our recognition and interpretation.

If you were told the sky was red without ever seeing the sky would you believe it to be red? Then one day you when you happened to see the sky for it to be blue.. would you recognise that to be as it is or something different from what knew the sky to be like ?

I think really what lead me to this somewhat obsure annotation was a discussion based on setting ourselves lessons and challenges before we take to walking our journey on earth. This being a pre-life perception that some have while others don't have.

How do we know that we do infact set our on lessons to learn before we are born? Is it so ? Or is it based on what others have said?

Do we choose our life as we want to experience it and if so when we choose a hard lesson to learn will we be stuck with only hard lessons?

Everyone has they're own ideas on this matter, their own perceptions as you will. Mine being that we do set ourself with many lessons before we make our earth walk and all of them will vary in level and all will have a reason behind them. When we then overcome one of those lessons we then move on to the next on and so forth it continues.

Some have then gone on to say they regret the lessons in which they have set but how can they really know which they set themselves when they are still making that journey through life?

I always look to the prospect that I don't regret things I've done each mistake in life has and will continue to serve a purpose unknowingly so at the time but it will become clearer down the road.

If we do indeed set our tasks and goals before we take our journey then each one is set with a purpose and intent, therefore there is a reason behind each and everyone one of them for the theory is that everything happens for a reason .. yes that's another perception in life but its one that rings true to me, you may see it different that's what makes us special as individuals.

In life we will always make mistakes it's how we learn lessons and hopefully we won't have to make them again. We will fail in areas where we hope to succeed not always just in some occasions this again another lesson. We will suffer setbacks and downfalls;it's life, we all have those issues, some more than others I agree but did you ever think why?

Did you come to the conclusion that life is cruel and that you're not meant to be happy or did you come to the conclusion that you suffer as you do through life so that you can then aid another who may walk a similar path to that of which you had gone through?

Thus helping them not to suffer the same way in which you did the pain in which we go through in life I see now as being a good thing so to that person who helped me to see that way I owe you big time. But one thing we must remember and take into account is that how a person looks at the experience they have gone through affects how much pain they will feel so therefeor not everyone will feel it to the same level. Not all situations will be the same.

I can hear the question now.If they don't suffer the same way we are then are they not learning their own lesson?

A good question to ask. Everyone will see it in their own way but my answer is my belief being they do learn their own lesson but they will learn it with compassion and comfort, with the support and help from those of you who have been in "those shoes" who in return will have had some help along the way in which to keep them going.

Their lessons may not be the same as yours but they still go through the same pain and the same struggles as you will. Life isn't about being easy or hard. Life is just that Life. It's an experience not to be missed or cast aside and given up so easily.It's filled with trials and tests with love and adoration; concepts filled with every emotion and every word under the sun and stars.

No matter if it's good or bad you will still gain a new outlook at the end of the tunnel because that is how it is perceived to be right .. I say yes but some will disagree and that is good to allow your thoughts to come through and break the moulds.

What you see as being easy will be hard to someone else and what you see as being hard will in return be easy to someone else.
It's all different and the reason it is so is because where is the fun in everyone going through the same challenges thinking the same things living the same lives seeing things the exact same?
It really does pay to be an individual.

Some will now be saying but I would never ask for any lessons to be taught the way in which they have .. How would you really know how you asked for them, we may not set them to work out a set way just for the lesson behind it that we ask for. We may not ask for things that have happened but they did happen for reasons that may be unknown to us its one of many complex things within that web of life and living.

I will leave you on that note with the hopes that some of you may be left thinking some things over and seeing with a new light your choice. What I have written here for you is only my thoughts and yes perceptions on what I feel to be right for my thinking. Your ideas and concepts will surely differ from mine and that is the fun side of life and hopefully you may share some of them with us all.