by Rev. Amari Magdalena
Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, a grand powerful dream of dissolving differences. In our lifetime we’ve seen major strides towards the fulfillment of that prophecy. And, it is good. We do indeed stand next to one another more and more frequently—separate but equal. Yet we remain divided in the core area that might indeed see a greater realization of his dream.
I too have a dream and I share it with you. As an interfaith minister without an edifice, I choose on many occasions to visit different churches to share services—to exercise collective Spirit in action. In each faith practice I am struck by good intention, by love of a Higher Source (some choose to call God), and by a desire for community connection.
Invariably there is some point in the service, or something revealed in scratching beneath the surface of words of praise when I am struck by the need to claim “our church.” Of course, the proclamation is often followed by an invitation to become a card-carrying member. Further investigation reveals that such membership entitles attendees to certain privileges either eucharistically or through community benefits. And, I am saddened.
In a world in much need of unity through mind, heart and spirit the divisions of faith serve to undermine possibilities of the very global peace so many espouse. The concept of many faces of God while understandable in terms of culture, setting, community etc. becomes the very foundation of ongoing divisiveness that has, in the past, will in the future and is presently causing war and strife. Such division will continue to lead down the road of ‘holy jihads.’
Our only hope for survival as a planet is to begin to deconstruct all of the inner and outer temples of separation and rebuild in the image of one faith, one people, one world. We are called now, more than ever before, to work collectively to repair our unconscious acts of harm upon the planet and its peoples. Angelic messengers, profits and seers, visible and invisible, harken our attention towards unification and collective acceptance. We can no longer afford exclusive postures about any aspect of our being.
Possessive pronouns like “my and mine” need to be expurgated from our language and reverently held beliefs. It is not about “us and them” it is about our ability to surrender ownership towards a greater common good that is inclusive. There is a global cry for fosterage of interdependence philosophies. Just today I heard that a conservative estimate suggests that as many as 40,000 children under five years of age, each and every day, die of starvation. It does not take rocket science to extrapolate the annual toll of 14,600,000 of little people completely dependent on the wisdom of their global parents to care for them.
With a lifelong non-smoking sibling who has developed lung cancer in both lungs, I am personally made more and more aware of the global pollution that is causing immune system failures and disease. Flagrant violations of environmental policies abound in ‘industrialized and technologically developed nations’ without significant cries of opposition by lawmakers entrusted to carry out public will. Blind allegiances to policies of war that sanction ‘low uranium bombs’ whose vaporous remains, after intended destruction, are circulated on the global air streams violate the very human rights they decry are being breached. Defiant bacteria and viruses are escalating at a rate that out paces the lucrative pharmaceutical industries efforts to address them, for profit.
At an almost cellular level peoples across the Earth are being called upon to participate in restructuring concepts of wealth, ownership, racial and cultural identity. No amount of media dilution can keep us from learning about the truth thanks to the Internet global web of communication. We simply cannot close our eyes, ears, mouths and hide behind antiquated testaments that suggest we should ‘see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil.
An hour of truth is upon us and that hour of self-examination must fall into the laps of the providers of spiritual solace. Obviously, none of the other institutions, governments, educational channels, social avenues of change have been ultimately successful in arresting the death march towards natural Armageddon. Thus, we who consider ourselves to be spiritual beings must use the power of our beliefs to destroy the temples that divide and lay a new foundation for inclusive practices that are devoid of possessive pronouns of polarity.
Ecumenical needs to be redefined absenting the inclusion of the word Christianity. Its primary definition is after all ‘universal.’ Laypersons, as well as, clergy need to commit part of their private spiritual practice and public ministries to spiritual ‘town halls.’ It is as inimitable Joan Rivers memorialized, a time to ask one another in earnest, “can we talk?”
It is time for us to welcome the concept of the Church of All Life, a holy inner temple whose membership is Universal for moving past the boundaries of church, state, nation and secular allegiance it is imperative that we spiritual finders salute and proclaim a much greater belief that states, “one faith, one people, one world, unified and indivisible!”
Amari Magdalena is an ordained Universal Brotherhood Movement Interfaith Minister. Her ministry is devoted to peace through teachings offered by the Institute for Shamanic Synthesis, which she established in 1995. The Institute fosters understanding and practice of cross-cultural earth-based spiritual traditions to enhance inner peace and outer heart-centered actions.
