Summer Reading

The Book of Negroes, Canada Reads 2009 selection, is not a light read.  Nor is it escapist summer fiction. Rather, Lawrence Hill invites us into the life of Aminanta, an 11 year old African girl taken captive by “homelanders” and sold to slave traders in America.  At 100 pages in, I love Aminanta’s spirit, her fight to stay strong by remembering the wise words of her parents, both were murdered in the capture.  Some poignant phrases:

…our captors were also marked by what they lacked: light in their eyes. Never have I met a person doing terrible things who would meet my own eyes peacefully. To gaze into another person’s face is to do two things: to recognize their humanity, and to assert your own.

This excerpt brings to mind the powerful effect of shame. When a person feels shame, they drop their eyes.  In November, a young Congolese pastor at a Hope & Healing seminar told us of his experience with rage and shame. Although a good community member, he said held great anger and resentment toward many people, especially his mother. Over time he developed a plan. He would join the army and be trained in the use of guns. Once trained, he would kill someone and steal their gun.  His plan was to defect from the army, take the stolen gun and kill everyone who had ever hurt him. He planned to start with his mother.  One night he had a dream that changed his life. In the dream he received a third gun, an unfamiliar weapon that he didn’t know how to operate. He realized that this gun was not to be used to destroy people but to help them. He left the army, returned to the church and became a pastor. As he shared this story he was clear eyed and bright faced.  He carried none of the shame that had consumed him.  His greatest joy is working with other ex-soldiers and helping them re-integrate into the community.  Having found his own humanity, he could now extend it to others.

Looking forward to reading the rest of Aminata’s story.

 

Fundraising on my mind…

I just came across Steve Bell’s blog. Steve Bell is one of my favorite musical artists.  I first encountered Steve when he was just starting his musical career in Winnipeg, Manitoba and I was just starting to date.  My date and I ended up at a Steve Bell concert and I was hooked. The relationship is long over but Steve Bell’s music has seen much more success. For those of you unfamiliar with his music, he has a folksy lyrical style that invites the listener to encounter God on life’s journey.  Steve also travels and works in Africa and his blog is a wonderful window into his experiences.

Steve has this to say about charity:

I guess I am beginning to understand that charity is not simply giving from “my” excess to another’s pitiful need. At the supper table, I don’t think myself generous when my children load their plates with food. We don’t do that kind of math at all. We eat, we laugh, we tell stories as we subtly, mutually (unconsciously) negotiate our life together. True charity is about coming to the table, with all God’s children and celebrating responsibly and joyfully the gift of creation that is God’s good gift to all. It’s a very different way of thinking about possessions and entitlement and all the assumptions that make the capitalist world go ‘round.

Love it!

Just realized that blog post is from 2007 and Steve has a new blog. Check it out here.

 

Fundraising letters

I just read a fundraising letter written by Dave Phillips, the Campaign Chair for the Crieff Hills Community capital campaign.  It made me want to give and that caught my attention.  Crieff Hills Community is a retreat centre situated in the rolling hills close to Guelph, Ontario.  With multiple buildings they accomodate groups of any size, including individual retreatants. I have many postive memories of time spent there in groups and alone.

However, Crieff Hills has not been on my radar as a charity I would consider giving to.  This letter changed that. As such it is a powerful example of effective letter writing. What about it made me read it instead of toss it? I decided to disect this letter to find out.  Here’s what I came up with:

1. It starts with new letterhead.  New graphics on the letterhead remind me of the landscape at Crieff and trigger emotional memories of all the great times I’ve had at Crieff.
2. Three phrases are highlighted:  “Building a place apart”, “Come for a day…or stay”, and “a place apart…to come together”. Each of these phrases appeal to my love for solitude, nature, peace.
3. The project identfies a need in my life, creating time and space for solitude.  Crieff is addressing this need by expanding their capacity to host personal retreats.  The current hermitage is in high demand and often not available.
4. Of course the letter had all the basics, addressed to me personally, good mix of fact and vision, error free.
5. The “ask” is clear and uncomplicated.

This letter appealed to me because it meets a need I strongly identify with.  I’m wondering how I can write letters for Healing Streams that helps the reader feel the same way about a project in another country.  In the west, as in developing countries, we can be overwhelmed by all the needs before us. Sometimes less choice is easier. If we can latch onto one or two organizations that are meeting needs in areas we care about we can begin to make a difference. If you have examples of fundraising letters that do a good job of engaging the reader I’d love to hear about them.

 

Debunking Myths

Think you have a good grasp of the key issues separating the “developed” and the “developing” world?  From the TED’s website “You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called ‘developing world.”  Another couple of great talks from TED.

I wish I’d had Rosling as a Stat’s prof!

 

Third Space

Third space displaces the histories that constitute it… [and] gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representations (Bhabha, 1990).

Healing Streams has a photo exhibit entitle Third Space which represents a convergence of Congolese lived experience, the photographers point of view, and the viewer’s perception of the two.  A third space, a new reality emerges as Congolese participants, the photographer, and the viewer interact.

The third space concept was developed to provide an alternative approach to cross-cultural dialogue.  Two other approaches, the colonial mindset and the confessional attitude have both left a legacy of alienation, shame, and harm.

Colonial attitudes, view Congolese as “lesser” and “other” leading to oppression and alienation. Confessional approaches, where the westerner is apologetic about difference – lead to shame as the westerner fumbles around issues of difference in an attempt not to offiend. In contrast,third space diaglogue, takes place between equal contributers and allows a new reality, a new story to emerege (Bonnet, 1999, Woodrow & Schwartz, 2002).

The question I bring to this third space is in response to a statement by Alice Miller (2002),

For the human spirit is virtually indestructible, and its ability to rise from the ashes remains as long as the body draws breath.

Does Miller’s statement reflect reality? The photo exhibit is an initial attempt at a third space creative conversation. I invite you to join in the dialogue.  The photo exhibit showing at the Centre for International Governance Innovation until June 3rd. It will be available for touring after June 15, 2009.

About the exhibit sponsor and creators:

Healing Streams responds to high needs and postwar environments by providing holistic, culturally-appropriate leadership and counsellor training in partnership with local organizations.

Hope & Healing:  Congo

A post-trauma caregiver’s train-the-trainer seminar developed by Dawn Penner, Healing Streams Executive Director in response to a request from Congolese community development organization,  Collective of Community Sensitization for Integrated Development (CSCODI).  The workshop utilizes the existing skills of the Congolese caregivers,  their expertise in their own culture, and provides opportunity to further develop their understanding and skills in post-trauma work.  Over 300 participants have been trained in the Hope & Healing Seminar.  Healing Streams operates internationally and has a long-term commitment to relationship and dialogue with the communities of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dawn Penner

Dawn Penner is a doctoral candidate in Counselling Psychology at the University of Toronto/OISE.  Her research topic is Recovery from Cumulative War-trauma: The Congolese Refugee Experience.  She is experimenting with arts-informed approaches to research.  Dawn is the founder and executive director of Healing Streams, a non-profit charitable organization.  She lives and works in Kitchener, Ontario with her husband Ross.

Michael Ben

Michael Ben is a chartered accountant in Waterloo, ON.  Michael is a social entrepreneur who looks for opportunities to leverage his income and skills for social good. He and Brenda, also a Chartered Accountant, provide logistical support to the Hope & Healing: Congo team.

Karl Griffith-Fulton

Karl Griffith-Fulton is a professional photographer currently living in Kitchener Ontario.  Karl graciously agreed to curate this exhibition for a group of amateur photographers.  His published work includes In Canada – A Photo Journey Among Muslims, On The Edge, an Crann, an Carraig, and  an Uisce.

Third Space Photo Exhibit
Sponsored by CIGI, Healing Streams
Produced by Karl Griffith-Fulton & Dawn Penner
Hope & Healing: Congo team members,
Dawn Penner, Ross Penner, Brenda Ben, Michael Ben

 

Active Spirituality

I’ve learned to listen to the movements of the Spirit through the spiritual exercises of Ignatian Spirituality.  I treasure the gentle whisper that is God, much like the soft brush of my lips on a newborn’s downy soft head. As I grow, navigating the treacherous waters of life has become normal instead of feeling like some great betrayal. God’s deep compassion is offered so freely and abundantly. I miss it when I’m looking down, listening to the persistant jabber of the accuser.  I feel blessed when I am still and know the truth. God meets me in the dark places and brings light – sometimes a flicker, sometimes astonishing sunlight. And when I am faithful, I reflect that light in the relationships I enter with my fellow wounded around the world. That too is church (see previous post).  That is where I meet and worship and serve my God.

Parker Palmer calls this Active Spirituality, the place where the active life and contemplation meet.  Palmer reaches right into the struggle between work and being, and allows a third space to emerge.  The active life, according to Palmer embraces work, creativity and caring.  An imbalance between activity and contemplation can lead to burnout and projecting our own dark shadows on those we purport to care about.  What about contemplation? Parker writes,

I understand contemplation to be any way that we can unveil the illusions that masquarade as reality and reveal the reality behind the masks. One of the great threats to full aliveness is the sleight of hand practiced by our egos and our culture to keep us from seeing things as they are. Contemplation happens any time that we catch the magician deceiving us and we get a glimpse of the truth behind the trick. Whether it is a happy truth or a hard one, that truth will always quicken our lives.

What a delightful, refreshing view of contemplative spirituality.  Equally though provoking are his views on action.  Parker addresses instrumental action – the type of action where success is paramount.  He writes,

Instrumental action is governed by the logic of success and failure; it discourages us from risk-taking because it values success over learning, and it abhors failure whether we learn from it or not.

In contrast,

An expressive act is one that I take not to achieve a goal outside myself but to express a conviction, a leading, a truth that is within me. An expressive act is one taken because if I did not take it I would be denying my own insight, gift nature. By taking an expressive act, an act not obsessed with outcomes, I come closer to making the contribution that is mine to make in the scheme of things.

To learn more, read Palmer’s book called The Active Life or one of his other books.

 

Hip 2b Holy

Watched part of a documentary tonight on the new face of Canadian evangelicalism. It was an interesting relatively unbiased account of a new generation of church. I suppose each generation has to reinvent, find new ways of expressing their experience of life and faith. I felt a little sad watching. Maybe because at 48 I’m tired of new platforms even when I applaud them. They just look like they’ll take so much energy. I love how God’s creativity is reflected in a diversity of worship styles. Just like I don’t have to climb every mountain to appreciate the beauty of a range, I don’t have to participate in every style to celebrate the rich landscape.  There’s room for all of us!

 

Labels

I’m uncomfortable with labels.  Over the years I’ve tried on several: Christian, fundamentalist, feminist, post-feminist, rural, evangelical, humanist.  Labels are uncomfortable because they limit us. Like a too tight jacket, we don’t have room to flex and grow.  A label I’ve been uncomfortable with for a while is “evangelicalism”.  This is probably because of the negative image I’ve associated with right-wing fundamentalism of any persuasion.  I simply don’t believe that I gain freedom of religion by killing people (literally or figuratively) who disagree with me.  At the same time, let me say that I completely agree that Jesus shows us the way to life.  Perhaps what I embrace most passionately is the essence of Christian evangelicalism which is the good news of living at peace with God.  My entire life’s purpose is to live such a way that others are attracted by the aroma of Christ in me.

I recently responded to my friend Mark’s blog entry on evangelicalism, kind of a “coming out” for post-evangelicals (another label).  Speaking counter-culturally is a problem when you are a public figure (Jesus was murdered for it). You always have to calculate how your word will be perceived, because as we all know, perception by others does not always (or even usually) reflect the speakers intent. A major issue with “coming out” as non-evangelical is the automatic assumption that the speaker is “liberal” or “a heretic” or even, (oh horrors), New Age. This kind of witch hunt mentality represents exactly the kind of evangelicalism that I refuse to identify with – an evangelicalism that rejects difference instead of engaging in conversation and dialogue.

In the end, I am much more comfortable calling myself a Christ-follower.  To my way of thinking, being a Christ-follower includes many of the features of evangelicalism without the baggage of a movement that is entrenched in materialistic modern Western culture.  I continue to believe that one of the things Jesus taught was that in following him, we would find eternal life.  However, I don’t think the only way to practice followership is by creating a subculture with its own rules and entry criteria.  In that sense, the colleagues of Jesus present a much more organic, story based, grass-roots movement.  He took rules and turned them on their head (You have heard it said…but I say to you).  He spoke paradoxically about having the faith of a child and in the next breath told stories those closest to him were confused by.  Quite simply, he is an out-of-the-box Saviour.  His truth is so profound it hurts.  It is so compelling, that I am full of awe, or in biblical language, fear.  I FEAR GOD too much to put him in a box of my making.

Caveat: Even as I write this I acknowledge the limitations of my argument. For we have been created as a people of order, with limitations. We automatically categorize people and ideas to try to understand them. So I too create God in the image of who I think he should be. However, my prayer, the cry of my heart, is that God in his mercy would continually break out of my boxes and reveal himself to me anew.

One new label I’m playing with is Christian humanism.  I found a reference to it on the Image website in an editorial by Gregory Wolfe.  If you’re interested in learning more here’s a link to some articles he has posted on his website on the topic.

For those of you who are interested Wikipedia defines evangelicalism as:

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s.^[1] Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion (or being “born again“); some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for Biblical authority; and an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus.^[2] David Bebbington has termed these four distinctive aspects conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism, saying, “Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism.”^[3]

Note that the term “Evangelical” does not equal Fundamentalist Christianity, although the latter is sometimes regarded simply as the most theologically conservative subset of the former. The major differences largely hinge upon views of how to regard and approach scripture (”Theology of Scripture”), as well as construing its broader worldview implications. While most conservative Evangelicals believe the label has broadened too much beyond its more limiting traditional distinctives, this trend is nonetheless strong enough to create significant ambiguity in the term.^[4] As a result, the dichotomy between “evangelical” vs. “mainline” denominations is increasingly complex (particularly with such innovations as the “Emergent Church” movement).

 

Inspiration

I don’t need to be famous, just profound.  What is this urge to write?  Do all 40-something women have a clicking talk needing to come out…running out of time?  What kind of writer do I aspire to?  Somewhere between Anne Lamott and Kathleen Norris with a little Madeline L’Engle thrown in. Well okay, L’Engle is a fantasical but let’s just say she has my utmost admiration. Then there is Henri Nouwen who always moves me, Brother Roger of Taize (recently discovered) and David Bergen, best writer from southern Manitoba. Undoutedly there are others, but these are the ones who weep with weep with me in the 4 a.m. mist, over nothing and everything…a clicking talk needing to birth.

 

Writing about Africa

The essentialist view of culture and writing claims that a white, western, educated female has no business writing about Africa. “There goes another white person who thinks they know more than we do about ourselves,” commented one of my friends. Apologetic for the shameful legacy of colonization, it is easy to feel immobilized and ashamed. In this age of global community however, shame distances us and prevents recognizing the humanity in each of us. South Africa’s famous concept of ubuntu is instructive. Ubuntu teaches that people are people through others. Or in the words of Chris Abani,the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me. If this is true, then as I write about the impact in my life of my encounters with Africa, my humanity (or inhumanity) will be reflected back to me. I hope it will reveal a non-essentialist, diverse, and teachable humanity but at times it may also reflect an arrogant, racist, “other” point of view – and I trust I will learn and become a better human as I see myself more clearly. And so I write not to understand Africa, but to understand myself.  I cannot transcend who I am, but perhaps I can be a part of the movement toward celebrating complexity instead of simplistic categories that divide people, toward embracing diversity as evidenced in every living being. This then is called the “Third Space”.

Third space displaces the histories that constitute it… [and] gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representations.

~ Bhabha, 1990

And so I humbly bring my western, white, educated, female perspective to the table to learn, to contribute my portion to this “third space” and in the process, to be transformed by it.