Opening to the Spirit

Anniversary Column - Celebrating 3 Years

been writing ever since.

Actually, for years I mostly wrote plays for children in church or poems that helped me deal with emotional issues. Writing is therapy sometimes. I have bookshelves full of notebooks, and most of that writing will never see the light of day. It seldom occurred to me that my words might be shared with the public until a colleague three years ago suggested we write a weekly column. I never expected the appreciative reaction in the Townships community. I am grateful to you our readers for giving me the opportunity to write and share my thoughts."

2) Rev. W. Lynn Dillabough: "I count it among one of the greater blessings of my life to be part of this writing group. Lee Ann, Mead, and I just happened to be the people who responded to Carole’s invitation to explore what area clergy might do to contribute a religion column. What began as a random response to her invitation has become one of the backbones of my spiritual life. Sharing our thoughts together, first with each other and then with you, is both a privilege and an honour. The time we spend together is a delight.

I am most touched that they did not let me go when I moved to Brockville. Sometimes I travel to the townships to write together in person; most often they place a laptop in my spot at the table and Skype me in. In a great act of kindness and welcome, I am offered and poured a cup of tea, which sits on the table in front of me in the room where they are. Our rituals of lighting a candle together at the beginning and blowing it out at the end remind us of the sacredness of our task.

Sometimes the weeks are busy and sometimes we arrive frazzled, or not at all. However we arrive, we always leave refreshed. I am grateful to Carole for bringing us together, grateful to Mead and Lee Ann for opening their hearts, and grateful to each reader for inviting us into your home. May the blessings continue.

3) Rev. Lee Ann Hogle writes: "Apart from the wonderful camaraderie that develops when open-hearted people gather to write, here is why I contribute to Opening to the Spirit – One Word, Four Voices. To be given the opportunity to write about the spiritual underpinning that supports all of life is a privilege.

I do believe we are first and foremost spiritual beings, having an earthly experience. Each one of us is unique and will interpret these words we give ourselves, and indeed all of life, according to our innate characteristics, what we have learned thus far and how our past history has formed us. There is no one right way to look at life. That’s what I like about the Four Voices. It is really an invitation to all our readers to use their own voice and their own life experience to interpret what they are living. The more we share our interpretations and our life stories, the more we nurture understanding, compassion, and hopefully an appreciation for diversity. May God bless every one of you ~ however you experience ‘God’."

4) Rev. Carole Martignacco: "Gratitude sums it up - huge thanks all around! To the Record for supporting and giving us space. To our readership who follow the columns and comment whenever their paths cross ours. To the clergy team that has kept this column going, and the congregations that support their work in the world. It's a true labour of love, love of words and love of the spirit that animates us all. I marvel at the generosity with which, back in the idea stage, Lee Ann, Mead, and Lynn open-heartedly said "Yes!" None of us knew exactly where it would lead. Amazingly, they proceeded to integrate the discipline of yet another weekly deadline into their already busy lives and ministries - and have continued faithfully for the past three years. It's always a joy when we hear from you, our readers, and engage in conversation about your thoughts on "the word of the week." The most beautiful gift of this spirit-filled adventure has been the friendship we've formed among us, the mutural support for our ministries, and the sheer delight we find in each other's company whenever we come together to write."

A bit of history and moving forward: Three years ago, the vision for this shared religion column came out of a longing to promote interfaith understanding. We four agreed to form a clergy writing team in order to make religion more relevant, give voice to the spiritual we have in common, and promote spiritual themes among the local news of the day. The Record agreed to

host our adventure. Our first column appeared with the word Beginnings. For most of the 52 weeks in these three years, with only an occasional skip, we've featured hundreds of words from what we call our "alphabet of spiritual literacy" - words from A to Z, Awe to Zest, and every letter in between. We work from a list of over 300, and still many more words in store! For the Record, if you have a word you've not seen that you'd like featured, please consider telling any one of us personally. Or you might include it in a "Letter to the Editor." We commit to exploring it in our column in the coming months.

In addition to comments on the words themselves, one question most often asked is why we do not identify each writer's words. Early on we decided the identity of the writer mattered less than the movement of the spirit among us, a spirit that is grounded in the universal and transcends labels. Each of us writes from our real lives, grappling with the spiritual and how to make meaning of ordinary experience.

We meet every three weeks or so and take turns choosing a word. We set the timer and write for 12 minutes a word in a kind of "stream of consciousness" style. When the chime sounds, we stop and share our words and over tea and potluck treats reflect together on what we've written. Then we set the timer and begin again. We've held a few retreats to share this experience with our readers, and hope to offer more in the future. How abundant is the Spirit that moves so fluidly among us! Our regular writing sessions are a soul feast. Hopefully this energy overflows to you, our readers.

One word we've not yet written to is Sabbath. Our team agrees it seems fitting to celebrate this adventure of the spirit with a period of reflection and renewal. And so, we are taking the rest of August for a rest. We wish you all, dear readers, a blessed and safe end of summer. The next Open to the Spirit column will appear on September 1st.

Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Hatley, Waterville & North Hatley United Churches; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco pastors Uuestrie – the Unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.