Healing in the Community

I just got home from the March Inter-Religious Council. Our share topic tonight was healing. I took my BCP and a vial of oil and did the prayer used regularly on Sundays for healing. The woman who received laying on of hands and anointing was Jewish. Her Jewish name is Leah Miriam. Her daughter has a serious burn on her hand and we also prayed for our former Administrative Assistant who is recovering yet from a broken hip in November. It was a real joy to share this practice with the group.

I learned that at First Lutheran they have a healing service once a quarter. Also learned that Muslims pray either with the hand on the person's forehead or holding the hand over the affected body part. Rabbi Aaron shared some healing music he uses at Temple Judah. It was a joy to hear Imam Taha, who grew up in Jerusalem, translate some of the Hebrew used in that music. At the Zen Center the person needing prayer writes their name on a special paper kept on the altar and they are prayed for at each meditation. The Baha'is shared a prayer written by one of their prophets which covers healing of body, mind and spirit. The Franciscan Sisters have prayed perpetually for over 100 years and their list of requests of healing covers two pages. As each team of pray-ers goes in to pray, they start with that list of prayer requests.

Sharing Around the Table

Last night was a meeting of the Inter-Religious Council, and we did something we've never done before. As we went around the table introducing ourselves, we also shared something about our community. The Orthodox group is doing a joint service to celebrate the Three Patriarchs; the Baha'is are planning for an upcoming four-day celebration of joy between the end of one year and the beginning of a new year; their new year will begin with a fast. We Christians are looking forward to what I consider a liturgical mardi gras on the festive Last Sunday of the Epiphany prior to our more somber observance of Lent. One Jewish woman shared the story of the new names she took when she became a Jew and how those names were chosen. I think I shall call her by her Jewish names now, as Leah Miriam, daughter of the Commandment, is a lovely name.

I know it caused some stress for some of the Board members to speak about something so personal as faith practice, but it really set the tone for a good meeting. February's meeting we will all share something of our healing tradition. I've asked permission to take a vial of oil so I can ask for a volunteer to receive laying on of hands while I pray from the BCP and then anoint them with oil. I think there's one Lutheran in particular I'm going to ask if no one volunteers, as this man is courageous about his faith -- and, after all, we Episcopalians do have altar and pulpit fellowship with the ELCA Lutherans. I figure that fellowship goes for healing, too.

Happy Epiphany!

I've had a special place in my heart for Epiphany for a lot of years. At one point, as an organist in a Missouri-Synod Lutheran Church, I played two services on Sundays, four Advent midweek services and a choir concert all prior to two services on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas morning. So I had little time for keeping Christmas. Instead, I kept Epiphany. I sent cards with wise men on them; I made Epiphany candy; one year I even took the youth group Epiphany caroling. (The people in the nursing homes seemed to enjoy the company during the bleak days of January!)

Epiphany was the proclamation of the Good News to Gentiles, of which I am one. And so I celebrate Gentile Christmas with glee. May your Epiphany season be filled with joy and wonder!

What Piphi Has Taught Me

It's been three months now since I've moved into a different apartment, and it's finally starting to feel like home. One of the biggest reasons is Epiphany Jeanne Louise, or Piphi for short. She has helped make this a home.

I spend a lot of time on the computer, what with maintaining websites and all. And so I've tried to limit myself to an hour for each website, so that I don't get lost in time and forget about the other important things God has planned for my day.

Piphi, however, has taught me that the 60-minute limit is less important than interacting with one of God's blest creatures. She will lay down next to the computer and patiently wait for me to pet her. Sometimes she falls asleep waiting. But I find I reduce the stress of computer work by stroking her soft fur and listening to her purr contentedly. So if I go over my 60 minutes, it's okay. And it's okay because of Piphi.

Another thing she's taught me is how important it is to stop and admire God's creation. I am blessed in that Piphi is marked beautifully, and she has the most lovely blue eyes, seal point siamese that she is. So it's become increasingly easy to take a few moments from web work to admire her beauty and to remark how lovely her demeanor is.

Finally, Piphi has taught me that losing large amounts of work is usually something from which I can recover -- either recover the work with an alt + backspace, or recreate the work in a better fashion that it originally appeared. You see, Piphi has a way of laying down on the keys. So often I'll begin to type and find she's pressed the All Caps key. I would much rather have her here with me when I'm working than have her asleep in the other room. (I wanted to use an exclamation point there, but she's laying on the key and I don't want to disturb her for a silly piece of punctuation.)

So thank you, Susan Hansen, for letting me know about Piphi. And thank you, God, for creating Piphi and making her available to me at a time when I needed her.

An Ecumenical Conversation

Last week the blower fan on my little Kia went out. It's quite the challenge to drive around town in the midst of summer without any moving air, much less without air conditioning. Needless to say, until the part comes in to fix it, I'm doing my errands in the morning before the heat sets in.

Last Tuesday the car was at the dealership all day while they determined exactly what the problem was. I had the most fascinating conversation with the van driver who took me from home back to the dealership to pick up my car.

I like to talk to the van drivers. It makes the time pass, and it gives me an opportunity to meet someone new. I learn a lot this way.

As we talked, the conversation turned to religion. The driver asked me, "What is the true Word of God?" In my heart, I had a sense for what he was going for, but I responded that in John's gospel, Jesus is called the Word, and so that would be my first answer. And then I said that in a very literal way, you could say the Bible was the Word of God. That pleased my companion to no end. I thought it would.

At this point I mentioned that I was a very happy Episcopalian and asked which denomination he belonged to. I never did get a straight answer, leaving me wonder whether he is free-lancing in his faith, yet hoping that he belongs to a community of faith.

He did ask me at one point which was the true translation of the Bible, and I had to be honest about my feelings that since all our English translations were done by humans, we had to look to the original Hebrew and Greek for ultimate truth. That seemed to have thrown him for a loop, so I changed direction and started talking about our Bible studies at Christ Church, knowing he would approve of group studies.

When he asked me what I did to keep busy, I mentioned our prayer shawl ministry. This was something totally foreign to my new friend. But in the time we had left on our ride together, I was able to explain it and share some of the stories of people who had taken their prayer shawls into surgery, for instance. He welcomed the new idea, strange though it was to him.

So together we learned from each other. Which is what ecumenical conversation is all about, is it not?

Why Am I So Impatient?

I got home about an hour ago from working the special election. So many good things happened between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. I learned to help voters with the electronic voting machine, and about a third of the voters in our precinct chose that option over a paper ballot. We had a 14% voter turnout, which was slightly higher than the average turnout, so we were moderately busy throughout the day. I was able to interact with voters to ensure they had a good voting experience, which was an absolute delight.

So why was I so impatient with my colleagues when they couldn't figure out the alphabet to find a voter's name in the register? And why was I so impatient with the way requiring voters to fill out the roster prior to getting a ballot slowed the process so dramatically, especially when we had no poll watchers and the need for a roster was, in my opinion, pointless. And why was I so impatient with voters with attitude who made the day go so slowly? I found myself so turned off by a surly and sarcastic attitude toward the opportunity to vote that the best I could do was my job and then ignore them and let them go on their way.

I guess I take politics pretty seriously and the right and responsibility to vote is something to be cherished rather than dealt with in a negative way. Like other bad attitude people, I have little patience for voters who walk in with a sarcastic manner and expect me to play along with their games. Voting is no game. It is something precious.

Maybe someday I'll find the secret to dealing with negative and sarcastic attitudes so they don't get me down as well. What are your thoughts? Comment and use dianemjohnsmith@aol.com as the user name and b061354 as the password.

Ayla and I

I spent about 30 hours this weekend with Ayla, three-year-old German Shepherd who makes her home with my oldest niece Jenn and her family -- husband Josh; Raelynn, 5; Halie, 4; and Hunter, 4. (Yes three kids within 13 months old -- as a stay-at-home Mom Jenn has her hands full!)

Ayla takes thyroid medication twice a day, swallowing her pill hidden in half a hotdog. So when I ask, "Want your pill?" she knows the hotdog is coming and is right on board!

And so cooperative. She can be asleep anywhere in the house and when I call out her name she comes immediately. I tried to put her outside every three hours or so and she patiently waited for me to lead her out by the collar and attach her chain. Then she did what she needed to do --which was usually to go out into the shady grass and lie down, waiting for me to call her name once again to take her inside.

I learned a lot from Ayla this weekend. I saw a perfect example of the grace she exhibited in following my lead and I wondered why I couldn't be that way more often with the leading of the Holy Spirit! If I am listening to the Spirit's prodding, which isn't that often, I am not so quick to follow along. I'm also prone to creating prodding of my own which I don't then check out prayerfully before taking action.

I need more time with Ayla to study this, but I think there is much I can learn from her about living a Christian life.