[Dialogue] Living the Questions

[Janice & Abe Ulangca]

From Janice:

Summer 2004:  An ecumenical group of 20, with a core of peace and justice activists, had 6 sessions using Marcus Borg's book "The Heart of Christianity."  There was enthusiasm for such refreshing substance in the summer.  (Spending time in the summer digging deeper!  How strange is that! :)  Only veterans of summer programs could guess.)  So this year people said, "We don't want to waste this summer - and there's this interesting-sounding series 'Living the Questions' ".  For an ecumenical group, summer makes scheduling easier, because our individual congregations have church meetings on different nights of the week through the school year.

Summer 2005:  There were about 8 congregations represented, including 3 UM clergy and 1 Catholic priest, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, plus a Japanese Buddhist looking into Christianity and a thoughtful young man who's not sure about belonging to a church.  About 30 folks came for most of the 14 sessions, and said they hated to miss the sessions when they were on vacation out of town.  We started June 8 and finished September 7.  

The DVD presentations are outstanding, with good process suggestions and discussion questions.  They say it's not for everyone, for those for whom a literal interpretation of the Bible and "getting back to the real (conservative) gospel message" is important.  But for those with questions, and those deeply concerned with peace and justice, it's life-giving. 

I do agree that this is NOT for everyone.  It could cause trouble if key leaders in a congregation are upset by scholarship from people like Spong, Borg, and the Jesus Seminar.  I think I mentioned to Priscilla Wilson that it would be better to have 5 real seekers in a group rather than a big group with people angry at the material for "ruining their faith."

This series was spearheaded by a couple of Methodist pastors who were frustrated by the literal & fundamentalist bent of lots of Bible study materials - and who knew there were approaches that would inspire thoughtful folks who couldn't swallow the more conservative "this is it - accept it or else" dogmatic attitudes.  They enlisted "Jesus seminar" scholars and other seminary folks and came up with an all-star cast (my opinion). 


From our experience:

--  We did not have a meal, but a very simple tea ceremony to start each session.  It was used as a centering exercise.  A Japanese-style small cup (from the dollar store) was given to each person, then in silence a teapot passed, so that each person gave to (poured for) someone and each person received.  The eucharistic resonance was noted several times.  

--  We had 4 facilitators who took turns with the sessions.  I lobbied for one change in the suggested process -- not to do the suggested "weather report" on the state of their lives from each person at the beginning of each session.  I'm glad we didn't do that.  On the other hand, I had my doubts about the value of the suggested Group Observer role - and it turned out to be valuable, at least for our fairly large group.  People signed up to take a turn, and I believe it increased awareness of participation dynamics in the group.

--  We met from 6:30 to 9 p.m.  The time seemed to fly by - the sessions were pretty rich with things to discuss.   The participants' varied backgrounds made the experience richer.  

-- The facilitation guidelines emphasize "Don't try to answer folks' big questions.  Give these questions time.  Silence is not bad."  This is very TRUE.  It was sometimes hard for some in the group to resist jumping in with "the" answer - and facilitators sometimes needed to suggest that additional perspectives might come with time.  It was also important to keep reminding ourselves that this is about a journey for each of us, and we will not all think alike.

--  Tim Wegner made a very good  point about stopping the DVD frequently for discussion (there are plenty of possible breakpoints marked off by the Living the Questions logo).  With a much shorter time-frame, spending more than one session per topic should be considered.

--  The web site www.LivingtheQuestions.com   is helpful.

This is great stuff.  Have a fine time.
Janice 

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Janice Ulangca
3413 Stratford Drive
Vestal, NY  13850
607-797-4595
aulangca at stny.rr.com
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