Rock of Ages, Rock of Faith
Before service: Video: For the beauty of the earthRock of Ages, Rock of Faith
Service leader: Penney Kome – Guest speaker: Carolyn Pogue
Welcome: Board member -- Brandis Purcell
Greet your neighbour
Chalice lighting and opening words from Annie Besant:
O Hidden Life vibrant in every atom;
O Hidden Light! Shining in every creature;
O Hidden Love! Embracing all in Oneness;
May each who feels himself as one with Thee,
Know he is also one with every other.
Introduction: Penney Kome
Good morning and thanks for coming to hear about the importance of rocks in our lives, especially the oldest rock in the world. I want to take a moment to highlight why this topic is important to us as Unitarians.
First of all, our seventh principle (adopted in 1993) is to affirm and promote the interdependent web of all existence – all existence, in addition to all life. Recent extreme weather events have shown the wisdom of this approach. Even if we speak of the planet as Earth and not Gaia, clearly the natural forces wreaking havoc this winter have been anything but inert.
With this congregation in particular, we’ve been fortunate to have so many geologists as valuable members, thus proving once again that UU s are well grounded in science as well as in faith. We UU s also like to learn from other beliefs, and rocks figure prominently in many faiths, as our guest speaker will show us.
Just as humans feel kinship with animals and plants, so do we also relate to the minerals that share our world, Long before pet rocks became a fad, people around the world carried rocks as companions, in the form of touchstones and worry beads. We humans warm to rocks, even knowing that they are lifeless. We learn about our world from rocks, and we incorporate them into our belief systems.
Today I have the great pleasure of introducing a distinguished author and peace activist, Carolyn Pogue. Carolyn’s many books include two historical fiction books, a peace colouring book, and the book we’re celebrating today, Rock of Ages. As an activist, she founded the Calgary chapter of Women in Black, and that led to annual Peace Camps for children which have been held in this church, at least once. You may be familiar with Carolyn's campaign against child poverty, with The United Church Women's Child Wellbeing Initiative. [Oh, and her spouse is famous too. We are also honoured to have the Very Reverend Bill Phipps with us again today.]
I could go on and on, but the real treat today is to hear Carolyn speak for herself. And we’ll start by inviting her to tell us a Story for All, and inviting the young and young at heart up to the front. Please do come up, children. Carolyn would love to meet you.
Carolyn Pogue: Everybody Needs A Rock, by Byrd Baylor
Author Byrd Baylor offers ten tips for choosing your very own rock.
Penney Kome: Now it’s time to light the children’s chalice and head downstairs to your classrooms.
Sing children out: Go now in peace, go now in peace, may the spirit of love surround you, everywhere, everywhere, you may go.
PK: Now please join us in a new song. Carolyn has brought a hymn with her, Called by Earth and Sky, by Pat Mayberry. Please stand in body or in spirit and sing with us. This hymn is not in our hymnbook. Look up at the screen for words and music.
Offering: After the basket has passed, you may light a silent candle or this week you may drop a polished rock into a bowl of water, to symbolize your joy or concern.
Caring Committee report
I am here on behalf of the caring team -- that is all of us -- as we care for each other in this congregation.
We take this time in the service to tend the sacred ties that bind our lives to one another. These are the relationships that are the foundation of this beloved community that we get to create together. We recognize ourselves as part of an interdependent web of existence, affirming that what touches the life of one of us, affects us all. In these moments, we seek to widen the caring ministry by sharing the joys, sorrows, concerns and milestones in our own lives and in the life of the congregation.
[SWEET team member reads joys and concerns from green cards and talks about greeting cards to sign.]
We light this candle of concern for all those spoken concerns as well as those in our hearts.
There are joys and milestones in our midst as well. We light this candle for for those.
One of our greatest joys is to welcome newcomers to our midst. If you are here for the first time, and if you are comfortable doing so, please stand or wave and be recognized.
We light this candle of joy for all that has been spoken, for the guests among us, and for all the unspoken joys held in the silence of our hearts.
Welcome and please join us for coffee and take a blue cup. The blue cup serves as an invitation to conversation. Please also take a moment and stop by our Welcome Table located in the Barker Room and sign our Guest Book.
Finally, we light our candle of global concern.
Homily: “Faith like a rock,” Carolyn Pogue talks about rocks as metaphor.
Penney
has mentioned some of the work I’ve been involved with over the years. I
realized, soon after I began thinking about writing Rock of Ages, that this book really brings together a lot of this work. It is about how I feel about this precious planet.
The
Acasta River gneiss — or the rock from the Denadziidee River— is the
most ancient on Earth. Currently, the rock is located southeast of
Sahtu/Great Bear Lake, but it hasn’t always been located there. After
it arose from the primal waters more than four billion years ago, it
continued to move. Because of techtonic plate activity, scientists say
that this rock has slipped beneath mountains and emerged into the air
again. It has travelled to the equator and to the other side of the
planet. It is the Rock More Travelled you could say.
Two
years ago I sat at my computer and stared at this rock. I knew that it
had a story inside and I wondered if I could find it. In fact, I found
many stories. This morning I share some from a chapter in Rock of Ages in which I looked at some of our spiritual connections to rocks.
Humans
around the world have long understood "rock" as a metaphor for the
sacred. Stories, scriptures and hymns abound with this imagery. As well,
followers of a variety of spiritual traditions venerate particular
rocks and stones.
England
The British Isles are rich with rock and stone stories, rituals and holy places. Stonehenge in
England is by far the most well known of the megalithic sites. It can
be seen for about three kilometres all around. There are about 80 major
stones, some brought great distances from the area now called Wales.
Although it is a very busy tourist and pilgrimage site, modern Druids
are still able to practice ceremonies during Solstice. It was apparently
constructed so that humans could align themselves with the great powers
of the universe. Stonehenge is about 5,000 years old.
Saudi Arabia
Tradition says that the Black Stone fell
from the sky. It is said to have been venerated in pre-Islamic times,
and according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and
Eve, the beginning. It is the eastern cornerstone in the Grand Mosque in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, set there by the Prophet Muhammad in 605 CE. A
piece of it is framed and set into the side of the mosque and this is
where millions of pilgrims annually come to pray, and to kiss, touch or
point to it in a show of reverence. Pilgrims walk around it in prayer
seven times. If devout Muslims can possibly do it, they are required to
make at least one pilgrimage during their lifetimes. Many millions do
just that because there is but one Black Stone.
Tibet
For Buddhists, though, there are many Mani
stones. These are stone plates, rocks or pebbles inscribed with Om mani
padme hum, “hail to the jewel in the lotus,” which is a prayer for
compassion. Mani stones are placed along roadsides or rivers and
sometimes walls as a prayer offering, and as a reminder that Earth is
sacred. People walk clockwise around them or pass on the left. This is
the way the Earth revolves.
Ireland
Few
visitors to Ireland wouldn’t know about the Blarney Stone. This stone,
in Blarney Castle near Cork, has many legends attached to it. One says
that the Blarney was once part of the Stone of Scone in Scotland.
Another says that the builder of the castle appealed to a goddess for
help in settling a lawsuit. She told him that if he kissed a stone enroute
to court he would receive an eloquent tongue. He did, and the judge
ruled in his favour. In gratitude, he incorporated the stone into the
castle. Today, the Blarney Stone is said to impart the gift of the
blarney to the one who will lean over backward to kiss it. The
literature proclaims that if you kiss the Blarney Stone, “you’ll never
be at a loss for words again.”
Manitou Stone in Alberta
A
few years ago I was told by a Cree friend about a holy stone in this
province. It is The Manitou Stone. Learning about it made me cringe. The
story is wrapped inside the larger painful story of European Christians
believing that they needed to “save” people, and the cruel
establishment by the Canadian government, of Indian Residential Schools
and racist policies and laws.
In
the early days, the story tells us, the Great Spirit, Manitou, sent an
iron stone to Earth. Some call it a meteorite; others call it Old Man
Buffalo, perhaps because of its power to protect the buffalo, the life
blood of the people of the Prairies.
The
Blackfoot and Cree, believed that the Manitou Stone protected them
against war, disease and famine. The Elders taught this. People left
offerings near the stone and made prayers and songs in its honour.
When
Christian missionaries arrived in the area, they saw how the people
regularly travelled to the stone and revered it. The newcomers believed
that the Manitou Stone was a stumbling block to the conversion of people
to Christianity. In the 1860s, Reverend George McDougall, a Methodist,
spirited the Stone away and left the hill and the people, bereft.
The
prophecy of the holy ones came true. Very soon, there was indeed war
between the Blackfoot and the Cree. Within a few years, the buffalo
population was decimated.
And,
finally, a small pox epidemic decimated the people, killing George
McDougall’s three daughters, too. War, disease and famine had arrived
with a vengeance.
The
Manitou Stone had been sent to Toronto, Ontario where it was lodged at
Victoria University for more than 100 years. Eventually, a new
generation of church people felt shame for the theft and returned the
stone to the west. But the councils of Elders and chiefs could not
decide who should take responsibility for its care or where it should be
placed. And so, the Manitou Stone today is on display at the Royal
Alberta Museum in Edmonton.
Just
before the Solstice in December 2012, a Ceremony of Forgiveness was
held at McDougall United Church in Edmonton. Initiated by Anna Faulds,
the ritual involved representatives of Blackfoot, Cree and Dene nations,
the Royal Alberta Museum and the local and national United Church. The
intent of the ceremony was to remove the negative energy surrounding the
Manitou Stone. Such is the power of sacred rocks to this day.
Cosmologist
Brian Swimme says that science has finally recognized what First
Peoples have always said, “We are one.” Swimme says, “We are the
universe in human form — related, in terms of energy and of matter — and
part of an amazing story.”
I
believe that this rock is important today because it is a physical
connection to that amazing story. We can touch the beginning of
time.This is why, for example, universities and museums around the world
want a piece for display and study — and the Smithsonian Institute went
north to get a piece for a cornerstone for a new museum.
Geologist
Janet King located this rock in 1989. In all of Earth’s history, it
took until now for the world to catch a glimpse of it. It made me wonder
if this grandfather rock had kept his story quiet until now for a
reason.
Part
of the outcrop is embedded deep in the Earth, part of it stands bold
against the wild sky and part of it swoops down into the river. It
connects, therefore, Earth, air, water. It remains to be seen what we
will make of it.
[end]
Now, please join us in singing Hymn #308, in our gray hymnal -- The Blessings of the Earth and Sky
Centering -- Poetry excerpt plus lithophone (musical rocks) video
Anne Marie Sewell has made her poem "if you must touch river rock" available in Carolyn's book, among other places. We excerpt it here so we also have time to share an exciting brand new video that my colleague Greg Locke just made available for the first time on Thursday night., in which musicians call forth the voices of rocks.
This video from a 2012 Sound Symposium shows how to wrap bungee cords around flat rocks to build sounding chambers, which echo when someone strikes the top rock. Musical rocks are called lithophones. In this video, they sound like rainsticks.
We will read the poem excerpt and then play the video, and we invite you to relax into contemplating what we have to learn from rocks. Please put your feet flat on the floor and your hands in your lap, and think about taking a few deep breaths. You might want to close your eyes for a minute once the musicians get going.
"if you must touch river rock", excerpt, by Edmonton Poet Laureate Anne Marie Sewell
...let some stones be porous
some rough, some smooth
so your fingers are soothed
and learn to touch like water
and if one is grey
call it writer's stone
all colours or none
heavy or light
the fog that conceals
or clouds the birthplace of rain
the mind of the poet,
story of it hidden
let this one remind you
the beating of a heart
much older than our own
enfolds us our blood
part of that dancing over stones
that give the river its song
Video by award-winning photographer Greg Locke, from the 2012 Sound Symposium held in Doctor's Cove, Newfoundland https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151948818822681&set=vb.592097680&type=2&theater
Responsive Reading: #550 Please join us in a responsive reading. Carolyn will lead this side with words in regular font. Penney will lead this side with words in italics.
We Belong to the Earth, attributed to Chief Noah Sealth
This we know. The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughter of the earth.
We did not weave the web of life. We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
Closing words:
Let us bless and keep one another.
Let kindness rule in our hearts
and compassion in our lives,
until we meet again. Amen.
by John C Morgan
Please join hands or assume the Namaste position for our final Hymn, #123, Spirit of Life. The words are on the wall.
Hymn#123: Spirit of Life -- Words are on the walls
