[Oe List ...] Reflections on Christmas, the Order, ICA, the Movement and OE

[Isobel & Jim Bishop]

Hello Herman,
Thank you for your clear thinking. I connect very strongly with so much of 
your writing.
My first encounter with the Order and Movement was in 1967, when JWM and the 
Hilliards and Joe Slicker came to a Church conference in Sydney. I met Joe 
and the group a # of times during that time. Jim was a participant, along 
with Jonathan and Janeen Barker, and others. Our family was 3 small 
children, and I would  say it was a hard time for me, being a Parish 
Minister's wife, and then taking on a new role as a PLC/ RS1 teacher, in the 
following years,, before we came to live in Chicago in 1972.
I truly appreciate my time in the villages as a member of the ICA; when I 
was a part of various teams in the Human Development Training Schools, in 
such spots as Maliwada, Jeju Do, Cano Negro, Sudtonggan.  Consults and Local 
Community Convocations, and Town Meetings in your country and in Canada; all 
were wonderfully enriching - especially when local people were passionate 
about making a difference, themselves. I do believe in The Turn to the 
World. That part of my life has made me, me, now.

I do understand Karen saying that the method in an ICA workshop makes sure 
that every person's wisdom is honoured-  what I know in my own life is, that 
that same method of inclusiveness, honouring and respecting the wisdom of 
every person----- I first grappled with, at my original RS1- taught by Fred 
and Sarah Buss and Don Clark, here in Sydney. I heard the Word then  as " 
You are Loved."
Jim and I returned to fulltime Parish work in the Uniting Church in 
Australia in 1982, and I became ordained as a Minister in '84. We wish the 
passions and dreams of the Australian ICA well. We do not attend  Australian 
ICA events as such, and this is very well respected by our dear colleagues.

To respond to your closing three paragraphs, for me, you have stated the 
indicative. Jim and I have joined a Church where we feel a contribution can 
be made in "giving voice to the awareness of the spirit, and how this spirit 
has become known in us as we have grown older and deepened our experience".
Yes, the rich tradition is already there, inside us, in our hearts.
Perhaps this year coming, some among us will keep asking the questions; and 
we will use our marvellous experiences as a family, to document the 
uniqueness of our life as people of the spirit, as first expressed in our 
relationship with the Order and the Spirit Movement.
The Other World has come up between us lately, and that certainly speaks to 
me, as perhaps some sort of starting point.

I believe that there is a role to be played in documentation and discussion 
for those who encountered the ICA as their first point of entry to the 
Movement of the Spirit--  and just as challenging.
I hope to look at the Ecozoic Reader very soon.
I can remember most of the words of Journey on, but someone else may be up 
to speed on that!
cheers to you all,
Isobel Bishop

from: "Herman Greene" <hfgreene at mindspring.com>
To: "'Order Ecumenical Community'" <OE at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2005 5:11 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Reflections on Christmas, the Order, ICA,the Movement 
and OE


>
> Dear All,
>
> I haven't been a very active participant in the OE List dialogue, but I 
> have
> been on the list from its beginning and have benefited immensely from 
> being
> back in touch with so many of you. I haven't dared to write my own
> reflections on the order exerience because I know so many of you stayed on
> with the Order and ICA long after I left in 1975. And, except for the 
> events
> in 2000 in Denver and Vail,I haven't been in touch with very many of you
> personally.
>
> Like many who were in the Order I have my own hurts and anger that still
> carry on. I hate to say this because it seems so irrelevant after 30 years
> to carry this and who afterall am I to stand in judgment of anyone or any
> group? I think my own feelings about this are private and it is unlikely
> that anyone would gain from me sharing them.
>
> In any event, these feelings are not what brought me to write. Rather it 
> is
> feelings that I haven't allowed myself to express, which is my debt to so
> many of you and to Joe Matthews (and the many other giants who have sadly
> pased away) and to what the Order meant to me. One thing that is evident 
> to
> me is that you are my family. I was 21 when I joined the Order and 29 when 
> I
> left. I would like to name each of you who meant so much to me and 
> provided
> such an example to me, but I would leave some out I meant to include. I
> really mean all of you, including those not on the OE list. We were about
> something truly extraodinary, something heroic and filled with compassion. 
> I
> weep for the sacrifices some of you bore and am deeply impressed how many 
> of
> your persevered triumphantly through hardships outside the United States I
> never had to bear.
>
> To me it is the Order and the movement that mean so much. The Order 
> because
> of that deep spirituality that pervaded all. I think of the song "Journey
> on" not even being able to remember the words, but knowing that it 
> expressed
> so much of what we lived out of. We were on a journey, a spirit journey
> beyond our reckoning or understandng.
>
> This was often expressed in the letters and number "RS-I," as if that said
> and explained everything worth knowing. In a way it did, yet it only holds 
> a
> part of what to me is spiritual now. It is, however, an important part. 
> RS-I
> was a way of knowing the meaning of religious language existentially,
> sometimes we said phenomenologically. As far as a contribution to my
> religious life this may have been the most significant of all, because I
> have always been able to participate in religious communities with a 
> vibrant
> awareness of what was being communicated far beyond, or even in spite of,
> the literal meaning of the words themselves. Second, I don't think I could
> have understood the paradox of the Cross and the Resurrection without my
> experiences in the Order. All life is broken . . . and yet we live. In 
> death
> there is life. In our dying we are born anew.
>
> The movement next is important to me, because I am still an embodiment of
> the movement as so many others are. The movement is a little like the
> "League" of Hesse, but not exactly. Not exactly, because the movement is
> rooted definitely in the life of the Ecumenical Institute, the Order. So
> many people's lives were changed by their contact with the Order and the
> teaching of the Ecumenical Institute. I read with amazement what many of 
> you
> have done, and I am so encouraged when I hear the voices of members of
> younger generation wwho were part of all this. What truly amazing
> accomplishments, what contributions, and even today what deep insights are
> born by this movement.
>
> I am estranged from the ICA, yet appreciative. Most of what holds me back
> from the ICA is that I never thought "the method was the key." For me, it
> was the message. Yet, I will say, I was so impressed when I met people 
> from
> around the world at the Millennium Connection in Denver who had been a 
> part
> of ICA, but not the Order or ICA. It was clear that these were empowered
> people. Even to this day, I cannot think of another organization that
> matches what the ICA does in doing community development in so many places
> around the world. ICA is not the Order and it is not the Ecumenical
> Institute. ICA only in part carries forward the legacy of the Order and 
> the
> Ecumenical Institute. The rest is in us.
>
> As to Jim Wiegel's question, what is the meaning of the last 20 years, 
> which
> I took to be a question about the relation of the "spirit movement" and 
> ICA,
> I would say all that was a part of our experience has been carried on in
> various ways and marvelously. There is no way to link ICA to what was
> earlier one movement, now we each carry on that movement in part.
>
> I do think there is a critical aspect of what we are about that is carried
> on by the Order, by us, and not self consciously or practically through 
> ICA.
> I do also think that we, before we die, have an obligation to pass this on
> in a way that is accessible to others. It is not carried on by the EI/ICA
> archives, or by reprinting Joe Matthews words. It is the spirit that we
> became aware of and is carried in us. We must give it our own voice and 
> not
> in the simple repetition of slogans like "All life is good." Rather it is
> giving voice to how this spirit has become known to us as we have grown
> older and deepened our experience. Much of this is already going on. It is
> not memories of what it was like (though it is that in part), rather it is
> more how it comes to us now.
>
> We have a rich tradition, it is written in our hearts.
>
> Now, may I close by pointing you to one of my labors of love, the most
> recent Ecozoic Reader (Vol. 4, No. 3) available at www.ecozoicstudies.org,
> on "If we are moving into an ecological age . . . where are we going?"
>
> Love to all,
>
> Herman
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