Category: Earth

St. Hildegard’s will offer our annual Lent Silent Retreat March 8-10, 2019 at John Knox Ranch. This silent retreat is for anyone wanting a place to come with the intention of deep listening. It is a time for “being” rather than “doing.”

In supportive companionship you are encouraged to “be where you’re at,” and listen to the place that is calling out in your heart. Wisdom from Native American vision quests will be offered to deepen our understanding of Lent and its invitation to seek God in vulnerability.

When: The retreat beings Friday, March 8, with community supper at 6 pm and concludes Sunday, March 10 after lunch and clean-up.

Where: John Knox Ranch near Fischer, Texas

Cost: sliding scale: $110-140 + helping with one meal for the group.

Contact Judith for more information and to register: jliro@swbell.net

To Honor the Earth

January 10 — March 28, 2019, 10 classes
Thursdays/afternoon and evening classes
Afternoon 4 pm — 6 pm  CST
Evening 7 pm — 9pm CST

With Melanie Harris’s book, Ecowomanism: African American Women and Earth-Honoring Faiths, as inspiration and guide, we’ll dig into our own stories—How did you and I grow up in relationship with Earth?  How were our ancestors rooted in honoring earth?  What resources are to be found in faith traditions honoring earth?  Melanie Harris shares her own story as well as a womanist process that challenges the white, usually male, vision and priorities of the environmental movement. Honoring Earth fully needs the voices of all, especially those silenced because of gender, race, and class.  To Honor the Earth is an opportunity to reflect and share with others as we listen to our deep longing to honor Earth and respond to the extreme challenges facing humanity.  The book will provide model and process to wake us up, inviting us into the deeper work of engaging our own stories so we can act with heart and soul. Leader: The Rev. Judith Liro, St. Hildegard’s Community.

You can participate on-line by Zoom or in person at Trinity Church, 4001 Speedway, Austin.  Participants in Austin will share a simple meal. Contact Judith with questions or to register:  jliro@swbell.net,, 512-925-9156  Cost is a sliding scale $40-$100.  Inquire about a Zoom class at another time if you cannot make it on Thursdays. 

Dr. Melanie Harris, author of Ecowomanism, will speak in Austin, Texas April 5-6, 2019 during the “Calling in the Key of She” event sponsored by Equity for Women in the Church www.equityforwomeninthechurch.org. 

HILDEGARD’S KIN-DOM JOURNEY:
a Way of Life Embodying the Circle of Love

You are invited to a time of future-visioning in the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen. We will be sharing our practices of embodying the circle of love in our daily lives and in
community.

WHEN: 4 p.m. Thursday, February 14 through 2 p.m. Sunday, February 17, 2019

WHERE: Cedarbrake Retreat Center in Belton, Texas (60 miles north of Austin)
Come explore being part of St. Hildegard’s as we grow into a dispersed
Community. We also welcome you if you are seeking spiritual resources personally
or for your own community.

COST: Cost is based on a sliding scale of $200-400, which includes single room
accommodation, meals, and materials. Scholarship and work-trade options are available.

REGISTRATION: For more information and to register contact Registrar Sr.
Virginia Marie laluna.rincon@gmail.com by January 29, 2019. Receipt of a non-
refundable $75 deposit will hold your place. You will then be sent preparatory readings
and asked to write and send us a spiritual autobiography. Register early for ample
preparation time.

Hildegard’s Kin-dom Journey explores the essentials of our life together
inspired by Hildegard of Bingen and the ways Spirit-Sophia moves among
us today bringing greening vitality and justice. For us the word Kin-dom
describes a community of life based on friendship and partnership among all
beings and Earth. The word Journey suggests an evolving process of co-
creation.

You are invited to explore spiritual longings and experience fresh
possibilities in community. Participants will prepare for the retreat by
writing a spiritual autobiography and reading material about St. Hildegard’s
Community. The event will begin with a Silent Retreat and then we’ll offer
presentations and small group work. We will finish on Sunday with a festive
Participatory Eucharist and planning for next steps.

The Global Climate Action Summit Multi-Faith Service hosted by The Episcopal Diocese of California, GreenFaith and Interfaith Power & Light took place at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco Calif. on Wednesday, September 12,

 

Reflection from Sister Virginia Marie Rincon on the Global Climate Summit in San Francisco.

I remember as we waited to enter Grace Cathedral how my heart was beating so fast and at the same time feeling an overwhelming sense of peace that we, the indigenous people, were no longer invisible, at least for that glorious moment.  I had been asked by Bishop Marc Andrus of the Diocese of Northern California and who is also the Bishop Visitor for our community, St. Hildegard,  to open the Global Climate worship event with the sacred ceremony of the Four Directions.  I along with three other participants were at the front of a long procession that maybe took 20 minutes altogether to enter the beautiful and majestic Grace Cathedral. Our goal was to  position ourselves in front of it’s beautiful altar. As i started the procession, I held my breath for a moment and slowly breathed into the drum the energy of love and unity and then I lifted the mallet and gave it my all to open the ceremony with the first beat of the drum. I could feel the sound of the drum bouncing off the beautiful historical murals of the ancestors along the cathedral walls and as i looked up I could see the stained glass windows sharing their radiant light onto the pews of people. I paced the drum beat to every 5 seconds and with every step forward I envisioned us all, feeling the vibration of peace and tranquility.  I found myself thanking God and Mother Earth for this special call to the sharing of my drumming in such an auspicious event.  Once reaching the altar, hundreds of people followed the instructions to face the called direction.  With every direction, east, west, north and south you could feel the energy shifting to a place of the cosmic knowing.  There was a coming together in motion.  A St. Hildegard quote expresses it better:  ”Holy Wisdom, Soaring Power, encompass us with wings unfurled, and carry us, encircling all, above, below, and through the world.“ I ended the directions with the Heart direction; Spirit of the heart we give thanks for each other and especially this community.  May we remember to rise up as one for the good of all in need.  And may our hearts remain open to the moments in our lives where we learn from our struggles, where we learn from each other and where we learn from the Creator of all good things. “Ometeotl”  This experience was truly transformative and life giving.

The following day sister Margo and i attended a couple of workshops one of which was called “Confronting Christian Complicity with Climate Genocide.” The workshop began with the presenters asking the following questions:  What is the role of our Christian history in this current planetary crisis? and What responsibility and obligations drive us as faithful persons to transform this legacy of oppression, violence and genocide? Their process of answering the questions included a chronological time line that included oppressive wars, slave trade information, and treaties that contributed to our current crisis.  The discussion on the Manifest Destiny Treaty, in particular really affirmed and served as a reality check for me as a woman of color of Mexican and Native descent.  The treaty included a belief in the inherent superiority of white European-Americans, as well as the conviction that whites were destined by God to conquer the territories of North America, from sea to shining sea.  Hence, creating an invisibility of Native American ceremonies and traditions in the care of mother earth. The workshop didn’t last long enough and we left with the desire for more conversations on this particular workshop.  The other workshop covered a discussion on our commitments to work together on the issue of climate change. We broke into groups and we each filled out a card with a commitment to save the planet.  My commitment included gaining more knowledge on recycling and gardening.   We were also given 10 ways to change the world: Living Simply, Being unlimited, Opening the Heart, Respecting Life, Being positive, Walking the Talk, Empowering Yourself, Eating Well, Following Your Dream, and Feeding the Soul

It was an honor to represent our community at this incredible gathering of faithful people desiring to learn, and grow on the issue of Global Climate Change and it’s impact on Mother Earth.

   Sister Margo’s Report onThe Global Climate Summit

Sister Rev. Virginia Marie Rincon and Sister Margo Stolfo were at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco to participate in the Global Climate Summit, a gathering of leaders of and within five world faith organizations: Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim.  The event was organized and hosted by the Episcopal Church of North America through the Diocese of Northern California.  The Bishop of Northern California, Marc Andrus, who has attended UN Climate Summits, stood at Standing Rock to support the preservation of Native Sacred Land from construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and who is a member of We Are Still In, a growing organization of citizens, mayors, governors, business owners and leaders of faith organizations commited to upholding the commitments of the Paris Climate Accord, along with the staff of DioCal led the Global Climate Summit to gather Faith organizations at a summit alongside California Governor Gerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit September 12-14. Sister Virginia Marie was asked to open the procession with the sacred ceremony of  the four directions for the global climate worship service at Grace Cathedral.  Along with her there were representatives of the Inca in South America and the Ohlone of San Francisco.  

Sister Margo:  It was a wonderful experience to be with VM as a support and companion on this trip to make commitments.  Memories of the day are full of joy in feeling VM’s presence as she navigated all the tasks and interactions before the procession.  In the moment that she struck her drum and took her place leading us through the vaulting, color filled space, I felt the sensation of being part of bringing beneficial change to the imbalance brought by our human impact on the Earth communities.  As we walked forward the feeling grew larger.  Behind us came other indigenous groups from different parts of the world.  I especially remember the Kogi representatives from the rainforests of South America.  Virginia Marie had wished we had a Caricol, a nautilus shell, and members of this delegation had one.  It was a joy to hear its ancient call as we left the celebration three hours later!  The elder of the Kogi kneeled as he reached the altar, which brought home to my mind and heart the humble side of humanity, our acknowledgement of gratitude to all that Mother Earth is in our lives and the role that faith brings to hold our consciousness to the mystery and beauty that needs our protection. The first class we attended Thursday morning at the Cathedral was called Living the Change.  It was about a methodology for having meaningful conversation with others in an effort to vision realistic personal commitments to lessen our own negative effect on the climate and environment. One woman introducing the topic spoke of her relationship to the world from her Buddhist perspective.  She spoke of the Buddhist concept of interbeing, which includes the understanding that the harm we do to the environment, we do to ourselves.  Being aware, knowing the tremendous risk our actions have brought to life on the planet is key to our time. Through maintaining this awareness, we develop a quivering heart, which stays in contact with compassion for our fragile, endangered biosphere.  This leads us to the razor edge where we find vulnerable stability, the maintaining of our humanity. Could this be the very challenge that we need for our human evolution?  We broke into small groups after the introduction, and spoke of what we felt we could reasonably commit to as far as changing our actions to do less harm to the climate and environment.  One person I remember in this small group is on the task force for the care of the environment with the World Council of Churches.  One ofthe issues that members of the group struggles with is how to travel to conferences while taking into account the amount of pollution that jet travel contributes to the air as opposed to the emissions from a shorter distance traveled by car or the lack of emissions resulting from meeting via internet.  My own commitment is to build a home using natural materials that are sustainably acquired and are as local as possible as well as installing solar power, grey water recycling and on site composting.Their website: livingthechange.net

The next class, Confronting Complicity was given by an order of Catholic nuns in San Francisco, the Society of the Sacred Heart.  They researched the origin of the indigenous genocide in the Americas and found that a Papal Bull written in 1493 was a huge contributer to the empowerment of the explorers, colonizers and frontiersmen who entered these lands which belonged to indigenous civilizations.  It declared among other things that Explorers could place a flag on land they discovered.  This flag representing a Christian nation insured that from that moment on the land was for Christians.  Any non- Christian could no longer own land and was denied any rights.  From this point their research continued and they found many instances in which the wording and priviledge that was insured by the Papal Bull was maintained throughout the history of the USA in laws and actions. It is this order’s mission to bring these unspoken laws and concealed motives to light and start a movement for healing the pain and damage that the people who came to this New Land inflicted on the Natives who had lived in and protected these natural systems for thousands of years.  This was a powerful presentation, and the women are my heroes.  I am very grateful for their work.

Rscj.org    Society of the Sacred Heart Committee on Slavery, Accountability and Reconciliation is working to heal the injustice of their own society’s past participation in the owning of slaves.

I was able to attend another class on Friday afternoon, The Christian Imperative to Protect the Forests.  In this class, I learned that the National Forestry Service is a for profit institution, selling off the timber and not practicing regenerative actions to restore forests destroyed by fire.  Some of the facts were presented by Chad Hanson Phd, who is a director of the Sierra Club.  He discovered the practices of the National Forest Service while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.  When he and his two companions reached the Sierra Nevadas they realized that they were often diverted off of trails by signs posted by the National Forest Service.  The sign would offer a detour and state that the trail had been destroyed by a landslide. It was very puzzling, because the trails also went by water sources and camping spots.  The detours were not planned for campers and offered no services. One day they saw in the distance two hikers writing on yet another sign announcing a detour.  As soon as the hikers saw Chad and his companions watching them, they ran off.  Chad and company pursued the graffiti hikers and when they caught up with them found out that they were National Forest Service employees.  They had written on the detour sign,  “This is a scam.  There is no landslide.  The forest service doesn’t want hikers to see that they are allowing clear cutting here.” A discussion revealed that these employees did not agree with the forest service practices, but were trying to effect change from within.  This is still the case today.  Most employees want to serve the forests for the greater good of everyone, not just the forest industry.  However, the U.S. logs more than any country in the world.  If we ended logging in the National Forests alone, we would cut out emissions equal to the emissions of a billion cars.  Logging nationally and globally is the second largest source of CO2 emissions.  There are so many things that the National Forest Service could do to mitigate the harm caused by the pollution and destruction of our natural systems, yet the priorities the top officers have are increasing the destruction of our environment at a catastrophic rate! Another man who spoke in this class, Fred Krueger works for an interfaith program which supports communities in Central America and provides them with a way of reforesting their homeland.  The reforestation is necessary because of the destruction of rain forests to provide pasture for cattle purchased by fast food chains in the U.S.The pasture grass only grows for two seasons before being overwhelmed by invasive species and abandoned by cattle ranchers. Contributing to this organization keeps this restorative work going which increases the number of trees growing and sequestering Carbon Dioxide. If interested in joining these tree stewards:  See the Sierra Club website and find out which National Forest legislation you can support by wrtiting your Senator or Congressperson.

Mail the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation P. O. Box 7348 Santa Rosa, CA 95407 to request forms for donating to tree planting in Central America.

Bishop Marc’s wife Sheila has developed an online tool for committing to action to clean up our environment and slow climate change.  40% of the emissions are created by us, individuals, just being unaware of the impact on the environment brought about by our daily activities.   diocal.org Advocacy for Climate Solutions  

The awareness of faith groups is that the commitment to take action to slow down and reverse climate change is common among people of all faiths.  It was heartening for me to be part of this gathering and be lifted by the realization that when governments fail to act to remedy climate change others take up the cause.  Faith groups, state governors, mayors of cities, leaders of corporations and educational institutions gathered in the same time and place to take up the work that our federal government is no longer supporting.  There is hope.     

 

 

I was a holder of this parachute all through the march yesterday in San Francisco.  I was singing  “Mother I Feel You Under My Feet.”  After I finished the song, a butterfly landed on this boy who was in front of us on the march. It was so wonderful to have a song to sing.  It is a little anti climactic to march and not make a song heard from your heart.  Thank you St. Hildegard’s for giving me the song that sings what my heart knows.

 

General Convention 2018 Austin   

Some of us Hildegardians attended the General Convention of the Episcopal Church this July in Austin. With a gathering of 10,000 Episcopalians, there were a lot of interesting events to choose from. I played it simple, and went to events planned by groups we at St. Hildegard’s are connected with. 

Of the four events I attended, I want to bring news from the Diocese of California night, which was something that brought me a new understanding of Episcopal involvement in projects to reduce the hardships impacting populations of people that are being brought on by the effects of climate change in their homelands, as well as practical, hands on projects to remedy environmental damage. 

Many things were happening in the large reception room at St. David’s that night, Monday, July 9. Personally, I am most grateful for a conversation I had with the Chaplain from the University Chapel at UC Berkeley, Tom Poyner. From him I learned of an obscure Christian sect in China that was discovered by Martin Palmer, who I later learned is also the Secretary General of ARC, a worldwide interfaith movement to protect and preserve the environment. 

The evening began at 6:30, but since I had arrived early, there were only a few people in the large, elegant hall full of tables. Already there was a rumor among the handful that Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, was going to speak. I knew that the evening was going to consist in part of presentations given by faith leaders that had received grants from the Advisory Council on the Stewardship of Creation of the Episcopal Church. 

Our Bishop Visitor for St. Hildegard’s, Marc Andrus, a co-chair of the Advisory Council and the Bishop of California, invited us, the Professed, to speak about our environmental justice work and asked Rev. Virginia Marie Rincon to lead the Four Directions at the beginning. Because of a long list of presenters, we were aware that each speaker, including us, had two and a half to three minutes to speak. It was strange to think that this cavernous hall would fill up very soon. 

Judith had decided to speak about how we, to sustain our efforts to work for the Earth in this critical and frightening time have recognized the benefit of refreshing our rootedness in spirit. We planned to sing a part of the Eucharistic Prayer, We Sing in Deep Joy. 

Standing by a table holding a sheaf of copies of We Sing in Deep Joy, I started up a conversation with a tall young man, Tom Poyner, about the music I had in my hand. This is the conversation that I am so grateful for, in which I felt a whole world of unknown Christianity appear out of the ancient past. He told me that he had composed some music based on Chinese modes to be sung at a speaking event for an author that came to UC Berkeley to talk about his book on the Jesus Sutras. He shared a little more information: 

The sutras were written by Syrian Christians who were bringing the Christian Faith to the people of China in the 7th century AD. Following a tradition of the Church of the East to incorporate elements of local religion into the teachings they brought to different empires, the writers blended Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian elements into their Sutras during the height of the Tang Dynasty. Also there was cross pollination. Before the arrival of the Syrian Christians there had been no paintings or statues of Quan Yin. In the years following their arrival, artistic renderings of Quan Yin began to be created. It is possible that the artists of the Tang Dynasty were inspired by the Christian artistic representations of Mary the Mother of Jesus. 

I was able to meet three other people before the presentations began: a woman Priest in Nashville who has an organic farm, a young African American Priest, Rev. Melanie Mullen, from Richmond, Virginia, who is now in New York City helping Michael Curry with three new areas of action ministry, the Department of Reconciliation, Justice and Creation Care, and Jerry Cappel, Associate Priest at St. James Episcopal Church near Louisville, Kentucky. He is the coauthor with Stephanie Johnson of A Life of Grace for the Whole World, which is a study course on the House of Bishop’s Pastoral Teaching On the Environment. 

Suddenly the hall was indeed full, and Michael Curry was 

 

threading through a path to the stage and speaker’s podium in the end opposite the wide entranceway. Bishop Marc Andrus introduced his friend and we heard how they have found many shared concerns and joys during the years through gravitating to each other in various church meetings before becoming family and visiting each other in their homes during vacations. The love between them was sweet and the humor they shared was infectious. 

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry then spoke about the love we have for our planet Earth and the work that the church is taking up to bring healing in the midst of our environmental degradation. We sang together He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands. 

Next Virginia Marie came forward and gave a grounded Four Directions Invocation that shook the house! She involved everyone by teaching us the word Ometeotl, which means: The Divine in you is the Divine in me. Then she demonstrated how we could turn to the different directions and hold our arms in respectful opening to call on the Spirit of each direction to listen and assist us. There were actually six or seven directions, giving us a chance to enter deeply in an orientation of respect and integration with Spirit, body and Earth. At the end Virginia Marie’s gritto and drum strikes electrified the audience. I heard some attempting grittos of their own. What a joy it was for all!! 

Several presentations followed reporting on activities to help communities impacted by climate change and to work on the ground to clean up sites and restore ecosystems as well as to raise Earth healing awareness through liturgies. Judith introduced our contribution of singing the excerpt of We Sing in Deep Joy by describing parts of our journey in discovering that creating liturgies which address our anguish and hope in song helps to keep us rooted in Spirit in these times of environmental alarm and action. We brought some copies of the whole Eucharistic Prayer, as well as stacks of three distinct cards which announced Mary Truly Ermey’s book, the Spring SLS class, Ecowomanism, and our work of Creating Inclusive Liturgy to Love the Earth. 

Sister Helena Marie, in addition to playing the piano for our song, 

spoke in her own two and a half minutes about how people have a chance to love the Earth at the biodynamic farm she and the Community of the Holy Spirit created called Bluestone Farm in Brewster, New York. After we sang and the formal program was over, Helena Marie played the grand piano and filled the room with a wonderful ambiance of spirit and hope. 

Since returning to Portland I have obtained a copy of Martin Palmer’s book, The Jesus Sutras, and I am fascinated by what I am finding in these writings that were created in China from the early 7th to the early 11th century ad . 

Here is a six minute interview with Martin Palmer explaining what ARC does. He also speaks of Quan Yin in provocative ways. 

https://youtu.be/DnjDjBIyGoQ 

Sheila Andrus, Bishop Marc’s wife has developed an online tool to help you green your life and cut down on your carbon footprint with other members and congregations in the Episcopal Church. 

Http://diocal.org/climate 

To find out a bit about Jerry Cappel’s work in developing Episcopal Church Environmental projects, I went to www.provinceiv.org/content/environmental_ministries_1.asp 

 

 

 

Mary Ermey’s party was so delightful and full of loving energy.  Her life is one that continues to enlighten us; especially all of her composed music.    It was a delight to be with her and family to celebrate her upcoming book release of all her songs.

Friday, July 6 at 9 am-10:15 CDT

Traditional and New: Religious Communities in TEC

The Religious Life lives at the heart of the Church in the Episcopal Church (USA). Join us for a conversation about Religious Life in current times–its traditional, new and yet-to-be expressions. Sr Faith Margaret, CHS and President of CAROA (Conference of Religious Orders in the Americas) will moderate the panel featuring members of both traditional and new religious communities as well as your questions.   Location:  St. David’s Episcopal Church Austin, Texas,  301 E. 8th St., Austin, Texas

Sunday, July 8,  St. Hildegard Community Worship 

You are invited to our weekly worship.  Silent meditation at 3:00 pm., Eucharist at 3:30 pm. Location: Interfaith Chapel at Trinity United Methodist Church, 4001 Speedway, Austin, TX