Author: Bishop Tim

This Sunday we remember Saint Gregory Palamas, that great Eastern contemplative and defender of experiential theology.

Certain saints after the Coming of Christ in the flesh see this light like an endless sea flowing miraculously from a single sun, which is the adored Body of Christ.

The Holy Name contains within itself that divine energy which penetrates and changes a man’s heart when it is diffused throughout his body.

Saint Greg defended the contemplatives of the Eastern church from Roman charges of heresy. He advocated the view that the experience of Divine Light the monks experienced in meditation (a style of meditation called “hesychasm” or “quietness”) was identical to the uncreated Light of God, the light which illuminated Jesus on Mount Tabor in the event known as the Transfiguration.

Though Palamas agreed that we cannot know God in His essence, His inmost being (and who can we know that way, after all?), we can know God in His energies – such as the Light experienced in Hesychasm.

His emphasis on direct experience, diligent spiritual practice and his constant return to the theme of Light as the wellspring of our original nature makes him a Saint beloved of Johannites everywhere.

We celebrate an Eastern Rite Eucharist in his honour this Sunday at the usual place and time.

Readings for the week

The congregation at St Uriel’s meets every Sunday at 6pm at:
The Unitarian Centre
15 Francis St
Darlinghurst, NSW
Map

Rector: Father Tim Mansfield
email blog

Apostolic Johannite Church

Just a quick note this week that the parish meets on Sunday for a Sophianic Eucharist.

We’re reviving Sophia Café this Sunday, using the time after the service to delve into some of the texts from the Nag Hammadi library that might be less familiar.

This week we’ll begin looking at Three Forms of the First Thought. I’ll bring along copies of a nice translation. We’ll take turns and read it slowly and perhaps dip into some of the passages via Lectio Divina.

It’s a beautiful, bewildering text, and it should be fun – so come along and join in.

Readings for the week

The congregation at St Uriel’s meets every Sunday at 6pm at:
The Unitarian Centre
15 Francis St
Darlinghurst, NSW
Map

Rector: Father Tim Mansfield
email blog

Apostolic Johannite Church

Friends,

I’ve just returned from a leadership retreat in contemplative prayer in New Zealand and I’m interested in acting while what I’ve learnt is fresh.

I’ve been practicing a Christian meditative practice called Centering Prayer for a while and it seems to me that it’s effects have been, as advertised, transformative, healing and fairly profound. As a
consequence of my own experience and encouraged by what I’ve recently learned, I really want to to share the basics of the practice with anyone who’s interested.

The usual way to do this is via a one-day intensive and I am, in these matters, a traditionalist. The day consists of a certain amount of teaching of the background and method of the prayer and a couple of opportunities to practice the prayer and ask questions.

If you’re interested in exploring Centering Prayer, this day is an ideal opportunity to learn the basics and try the practice. The cost of attending will be $30 to cover venue hire and a basic lunch.

Please consider joining me and sharing this delightful, simple, profound practice.

With love,
Father Tim Mansfield

Centering Prayer One-Day Intensive
Date: Sunday 29 Nov 2009
Venue: Buddhist Library, 90 – 92 Church St, Camperdown
Bookings essential – RSVP here

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Tonight is Halloween, or to expand the name a little, All Hallows E’en (or Eve).

Tomorrow is the first of the days of the dead, All Hallows or All Saints, in which we remember the forebears of the tradition – all the members of the Communion of Saints. Those enlightened spiritual presences who continue in the eternal realm to provide guidance and assistance to those on the path.

On Monday, All Souls Day, we remember the spirits of our own ancestors and give thanks for them and to them for the choices they made that have enabled our own lives.

Tomorrow at St Uriel’s we’ll say a prayer to commemorate both All Saints and All Souls. If you can’t make it along, please consider remembering those dear to you – both spiritual guides whose books or teaching you’ve appreciated over your life and ancestors whose choices have had a big influence on your life. Bring them to mind, thank them for their help and offer a prayer for their continuing rest.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,and may light eternal shine upon them.

Readings for All Saints
Readings for All Souls

The congregation at St Uriel’s meets every Sunday at 6pm at:
The Unitarian Centre
15 Francis St
Darlinghurst, NSW
Map

Rector: Father Tim Mansfield
email blog

Apostolic Johannite Church

The theme for this week’s readings is “Serenity”, a word forever slightly tainted for every Australian by the 1990s movie, “The Castle”. Whenever I read the word, Michael Caton’s character Darryl appears unbidden in my mind, looking out over his backyard next to Melbourne airport, murmuring “The serenity!”.

It’s a commonplace to fret about our busy lives, the chatter of Facebook and Twitter, the unbalance of work and life, busy business folk faxing from the beach, texting from the marriage bed. Take time away – advise the vacation ads, Find inner peace – spruiks the local meditation school, Develop a calm mind.

We’re a little obsessed with serenity, to be honest. Entire industries seem to trade in it and offer to sell back to us what  modernity seems to have bought: peace, quiet, silence.

I had the great good fortune to attend a Centering Prayer retreat with Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault last week and she told a story of running a retreat above a school. She was leading a meditation session as school let out, fifty or so kids and parents talking, laughing and shouting just below the room where the retreatants were trying to surrender their thoughts and rest in the presence of the Divine Beloved. At some point, kids starting singing “Happy Birthday” to someone and the whole class took up the tune. The retreat room, possibly sensing this as the last straw started to collectively chuckle, it built up a little energy and, just as suddenly, died away as the participants surrendered even their laughter.

Darryl was on to something, I suspect, able to stare at a 747 taking off from the main runway at Tullamarine and still pronounce with no trace of irony, “the serenity”! Later in our retreat, Rev Bourgeault noted that she had seen Father Thomas Keating, one of the founders of the practice, take his meditation in a crowded airport several times.

This week’s readings appeal to an inner understanding of serenity. Rather than finding it in the outer places of solace: holidays, the couch, some fantasy locale embedded in peace and quiet; we look for a more real, more intimate and more authentic sense of serenity: within our hearts.

May the peace of God which passeth all understanding be with you this week and draw you into the arms of the Beloved and the serenity which is never truly departed.

Father Tim.

Readings for the week

The congregation at St Uriel’s meets every Sunday at 6pm at:
The Unitarian Centre
15 Francis St
Darlinghurst, NSW
Map

Rector: Father Tim Mansfield
email blog

Apostolic Johannite Church