inspiral blog

Sally from Green Collect hung out with us this week as we explored one way we could engage with the local community through the Brunswick Op Shop near us in Victoria St. They’re renovating it and revamping it into an environmental/ethical themed shop (called ‘eekos’) with a focus on the local community.

Later we all rode down there (quite the bike convoy) and checked out the space. Looks like some great connections for us as a mob as we explore the way we can ‘involve’ ourselves more deeply in the people and places around us.

Involve

a. Who is my neighbour? (Luke 10:29)
i. Who are our neighbours? How can we ensure we are being good neighbours? What local relationships do you invest yourself in?
ii. Where do we spend our time?
iii. “Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community? Let your life speak.” (Quaker Queries and Advices 6.27))
iv. Are we hospitable, providing welcome and nourishment for the stranger and the outcast? Do we visit and care for the sick and imprisoned? (Matthew 25:35)

b. “…for laborers deserves their food.” (Matthew 10:10)
i. “The brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading…When they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks. Yet, all things are to be done with moderation on account of the fainthearted.” (RSB Chapter 48) The Rule of St Benedict is structured around the rhythms of work and prayer. What manual labor do you undertake as a spiritual discipline?
ii. “Good human work honors God’s work…To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonor God, nature, the thing that is made, and whomever it is made for. This is blasphemy: to make shoddy work of the work of God. And such blasphemy is not possible so long as the entire Creation is understood as holy, and so long as the works of God are understood as embodying and so revealing God’s spirit.” Is your love for God and the world revealed in the work you do?
iii. “Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of labor saving if that implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.” (WB 5) How do we honour ourselves, others and the earth through good work?
Do we keep each other accountable for the organisations we work for and the implications of the work we do?

c. “Act justly…”
i. Letting go, or doing and having “one less thing” is a central part of many spiritual traditions. How can we further simplify our lives?
ii. What practical steps are we taking to deepen our journey into a nonviolent life? Remember, nonviolence is not merely passivity but the active pursuit of a just world. Are we moving from passive opinions to action?
iii. “Do you faithfully maintain our witness against all war, and all preparation for it, as inconsistent with the teaching and spirit of Christ? Do you live in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars? Stand firm in our testimony, even when others commit or prepare to commit acts of violence, yet always remember that they too are children of God.” (Quaker Query 21 and 6.31) Do you love your enemies and do good to those who make life hard for you? (Matthew 5:44)
iv. “Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes. If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply. Ask your meeting for the prayerful support which will give you strength as a right way becomes clear.” (Quaker Queries and Advices 6.35) Civil disobedience has a long and distinguished history in social change. What laws are worth breaking? How can we ensure that those who choose this path are supported, from the point of discernment through to the bearing of costs?
v. How will we name, engage, and transform the reality of evil in our world and ourselves? (Seeds QA: Go Engage) Do we bring good news for the poor, liberation for the captive, healing and restoration for the blind and freedom for the oppressed both locally and further afield?
vi. Are the poor “always with us”? (Matthew 26:11)
vii. What steps are we taking towards reconciliation with indigenous Australians?
viii. Are we generous with our time, money and other resources?