So here goes a mention of the Pagan/Christian Dialogue: Fiona Horne (from Mad, Mad House - a Sci-Fi channel reality series), Christian Day from Festival of the Dead, John Paul Jackson, and myself (Pastor Phil from The Gathering) held a dialogue about the Christian and Pagan worldviews, both what we might have as agreements, and what we certainly have as differences.
The church was a packed house on a Saturday Night October 28th. We passed out flyers, and at 8pm the people came flooding in. The interns from Streams, our friends from the Bridge Church, Pagans from the community, and visitors who were familiar with Fiona all came in.
The discussion centered around each person defining their spirituality, and describing some practices which were important to them. There was also reference to Spirituality and the media with the recognition that a media presence often causes people to perceive on individual as shallow.
I found Fiona gracious and intelligent. She has a deep sense of spirituality wiithin her Witchy practices, and although they are far different than my own, they are marked by peace, and graciousness. Only if some Christians I know were are gracious as she is. I found this to be true both in preparation for the dialogue, and during. Fiona shared her experience with a remarkable incident when "the Christian God" spoke to her during the filming of Mad, Mad House.
Christian Day is highly entertaining, and creatively funny. He had people laughing throughout the meeting. He and I have a friendship which goes back almost 12 years now, and it was good to hold this dialogue with him.
John Paul Jackson really did well in a setting which was new for him. Too many preachers would come off as judgmental, and condemning. John Paul never does, and he was as gentle as ever.People attending laughed (Dennis laughed so hard he nearly busted some stitches from a surgery he recently had), cried, and people wanted to stay around and talk after.
It was a remarkable event, and we hope to do more of the same in the future.
8 comments:
i found it interesting that others (not just wiccans) have as many misconceptions about christianity as christians do about wiccans. others seem to lump christians together into their idea of who christians are and hold onto steryotypes such as christians are dumb or uninformed and christianity is dull.
Alas, for me, my response is to "fight" point-by-point, debate-wise, and no one ever seems to have embraced Jesus by having someone decontruct their worldview (what they hold sacred). Why is it the gracious path that is the path that is so hard for me to follow? Jesus never asked for us to defend him and those christians i find most influencial in my life have the characteristics I'm trying to develop - knowing and being like Jesus.
Phil,
It would be interesting to know what the similarities and differences are, as you see them.
Mikebro,
I know what you mean about the gracious path being hard to follow. I've had a few challenges with that myself lately, but often with thiose who are my fellow brethren in Christ.
Hey Steve,
I was the questioner mostly on this discussion, and let the others dialogue. Acceptance, love, spiritual discipline as a means of fulfillment, and a needed sensitivity to the unseen realm were things discussed by the others. I see far more similarity than that - including issues of community, stewardship over the earth, the hunt for the prints of deity in nature and others. Perhasp it is in the desires of the human heart that the similarities are greatest, and in the direction of fulfillment that they are less common.
Well I gotta run, but that's the positive side. Maybe I'll remember to come back to the negative side later.
Phil, glad to see you made it back home from Off the Map. I hope the hurricane remnants did not damage your home or family!
I wish I had been able to stay in Salem long enough to see the Brimstone Chronicles, and this discussion event. It sounds marvelous. Thanks for your reflections.
John
Hey John,
Not back yet, headed home today. Looking forward to being there. Travel has been the greatest part of my life in the last four months, and that is unique for me.
I will be posting more on these events in the next few days. It was good having you out in Salem.
Sounds like it was WAY cool. :)
BB
Mike
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