Went to hear Richard Rohr at lunchtime today. He was talking about male spirituality. It was held in a local venue which was once a presbyterian church and which was packed for the occasion, which was very good. The event was called “A prayer, a pie and a pint”, which was interesting as they ran out of pies and there was no prayer.
I had quite hoped that the event would involve going into the Botanic Gardens and, to the sound of beating drums, leaping over burning bushes of basil and rosemary wearing nothing but strategically painted woad. As it was, it was a sixty-something Franciscan standing at a lectern for an hour whilst the stony sculpted faces of church reformers gazed down from the top of every pillar in quiet bewilderment.
Never mind, maybe I’ll find what I was hoping for at General Synod.
A CMD proposal perhaps: ‘strategic woad painting in male spiritualtiy’
(and for the women, something involving chocolate, I think.)
What would the ‘IMD’ equivalent be? An introduction to woad painting and masculinity in the liturgy? Or ‘chocolate, woad, embodiment, and the female aspect of the Divine’?
Vicky, the equivalent TISEC experience in the days I was going through initial ministerial development would be sitting round a candle with a nun.
It is worth reflecting on the fact that a course which claimed (endlessly claimed) to be able incorporate past experience and recognise prior learning has ended up being referred to as Initial Ministerial Development. Oh the irony.
Also, if I were not on such a serious diet, I would want the chocolate and the woad.
You’ll have laid on the burning bushes, then?
Remove the sandals from your “feet”, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
The story of the burning bush in Exodus 3 is surely a story of male initiation isn’t it?
Umm, sitting round a candle with a nun. I suppose it’s better than sitting round a nun with a candle?
The irony of calling something ‘initial’ when most folks life experience will be ‘intermediate’ if not ‘advanced’ is not lost on me, either. Surely initial ministerial development occurs at around about the age of 7, when the dawning realisation of the Divine wallops you in the face and you have to start running from the ‘Call’ before it embarrasses you in front of all your pals. I think ‘ordinandigogy’ might be a better sobriquet myself. Though I fear no one would take it seriously 🙂
ps Dark chocolate is an excellent substitute comfort food and far less weight inducing than the milky stuff.