The fact that a sizable chunk of the American population continues to believe that President Obama is a Muslim is appalling to me. What saddens me more is that sixty million of my fellow-citizens believe everything they hear or read. We claim that we are the greatest nation on earth. How can a nation be the greatest when twenty percent of its citizenry is ignorant?
Now the facts: In his book, The Audacity of Hope, (pp:207-8), Obama says this about his personal faith: "I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world. In the day-to-day work of the men and women I met in church each day, in their ability to "make a way of no way" and maintain hope and dignity in the direst of circumstances, I could see the Word made manifest...Faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this world... It was because of these new found understandings- that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice or otherwise retreat from the world I knew and loved - that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. The questions I had didn't magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth."
During an interview with pastor Rick Warren before the election, Obama said this: "I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior; He redeemed me; he gives me the strength to go on." The President actually demonstrates qualities of a mature faith, a faith that was consciously chosen rather than something that was automatically inherited from family of origin or religion.
I heard Bill Bennett, an otherwise intelligent man say on CNN yesterday: "...but his father was a Muslim." First of all, his father was not a practicing Muslim. Secondly, he was more of a sperm donor than a father, who had limited if not zero influence on his son. It is true that, for a few years as a child, Obama lived in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population. He had no choice but to go there with his mother and step-father who in fact was a Muslim. True religion is not something that you catch like a flu, but an experience that is hatched at the depths of your soul through deep study, reflection and prayer. I think Obama made a conscious choice to be a follower of Christ through such a process. I heard Rush Limbaugh say that the President knows Muslim prayers. Having been born and raised in India, I know some Hindu prayers, but that doesn't make me a Hindu.
As the late New York Senator, Patrick Moynihan said; "Everybody is entitled to his or her opinion, but every body is not entitled to their own facts." In this era of uncensored or unverified data and information, and round the clock multi-channel oral diarrhea by shamelessly partisan pundits, it is extremely hard to sift fact from fiction, and separate reason from emotion. I feel that we need to look beyond what we see, listen beyond what we hear, read between the lines and feel beyond raw emotions.
I am biased because I like President Obama. I was first inspired by him during the Democratic National Convention in 2004 when he said this: "There are no red states, there are no blue states, but there is the United States of America; there is no Black America, there is no White America, there is no Latino America, there is no Asian America, but there is the United States of America." That was a clarion call for peace and national unity, a dream President Obama still has. But the only word he has heard from the opposition party in the last 18 months is 'NO" and the torrent of unfiltered vitriol from his critics are just poisonously uncharitable.
I had the privilege of meeting President Obama and taking a picture with him this week in Miami thanks to the kindness of Senator Bob Graham. While shaking his hands I said: "Mr. President, I pray for you everyday." And he said: "Thank you, I need it." I call upon the whole nation to pray for our president. He is our leader; his task is huge; his responsibilities are burdensome. Heartless criticism based on half truths and lies and unadulterated hate based on negative emotions, are unbecoming of a people who consider themselves civilized and evolved.
_________________________________________________
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
I Met the President!!
Thursday August 19
"There are no red states; there are no blue states; there is only the United States of America; there is no Black America, there is no White America, there is no Latino America, there is no Asian America, there is only the United States of America." Those inspiring words of Barack Obama during the 2004 Democratic National Convention sent chills through my spine, because it was a courageous call to national unity and peace. Later, I read his book, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE which I highly recommend to all those who love and hate Barack Obama. In it, he lays out a spiritual vision calling for national unity world peace.
Ever since, I had hoped that some day, I would get to meet Obama in person and shake his hand. But when he became President, that hope diminished, because it is almost impossible for a commoner like me to meet the President. However, I was fortunate to meet President Obama and shake his hand, yesterday during a fund raising event at the Fountan Bleu Hotel in Miami. While shaking his hands, I told him: "Mr. President, I pray for you everyday." And he said:"Thank you, I need it." Then I patted his shoulders and he moved on. If you are curious about how I got to meet the leader of the free world in person, read on:
During the past four months, I was interim minister of Miami Lakes Congregational Church. Former Senator Bob Graham is a charter member of that church. During my tenure there, I got to know the Grahams. Mrs. Adele Graham has read my entire book of 52 sermons, GOD IS PLURAL, and she is a fan. Last Sunday, after church, Mrs. Graham suggested that her husband should take me and Pastor Jeff to see the President. When he asked me if I was interested, the answer was obvious. He took my social security number and promised to call me the next day.
Senator Graham called me on Tuesday and told me that I was cleared by the White House (thank God..I don't have a record!!!)to see the president. I was told to meet the Senator in his office in Miami Lakes at 2.30 PM. The Senator's Aide, Chip, drove the Grahams, Jeff and me to the airport. The plan was to welcome the president at the tarmac as he came down Air Force One. I was excited about seeing that plane up close. We were waiting in a holding room to be driven to the tarmac along with the Grahams, Senate Candidate Kendric Meek and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz.
Then word came from the Secret Service that Jeff and I could not go to the tarmac. Even though the Senator told that we had clearance from the White House, the Secret Service overruled that. There is no way, the pastors are going to the tarmac!! I was looking forward to ride with the Senator in the motorcade, one ride without stopping at red lights...but that was not to be.
So Jeff and I were driven to Fountain Bleu Hotel where we were promised front row seats next to the Grahams to meet the President.
When we arrived at the hotel we were whisked through the VIP entrance, our names were checked on the list, our hands were stamped, and we went through security check. And we stood at the front of the rope lines with nothing separating us from the podium. All the movers and shakers of the Florida Democratic Party were with us in that enclosed area. Few of them made speeches but I was only interested in seeing and hearing the President.
The President arrived on state at 5.30 and spoke for about 30 minutes. I was fifteen feet away from the President and could see and hear him well.He is charismatic and energetic in person as I had expected. At the end of the speech he came down the rope line to shake hands. While shaking his hands, I told him; "Mr. President, I pray for you everyday." And he said: "Thank you, I need it." It was an electric moment.
As he was moving away, Mrs. Graham who was standing right behind me said: "Mr. President, can I take your picture with my pastors?" The President came back, kissed Mrs. Graham on the cheek and posed. The photo on my Facebook page was taken by Adele Graham. It is the only picture that the President posed for at this event. I was happy.
After the event, we drove to the MSNBC studios on Bayside because the Senator had to appear on COUNTDOWN with Keith Olberman and talk about the troops leaving Iraq. Senator Graham had voted against the Iraq war and they wanted to get his opinion on this historic day. Later, we were driven back to the Senator's Office and I got home around 10 PM. It was a great day.
I am so grateful to Senator Graham for his kindness to make this day possible. Sen. and Mrs. Graham are very kind and down to earth people, always willing to help and I will always value and cherish their kindness and friendship.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 4:49 AM 0 comments
"There are no red states; there are no blue states; there is only the United States of America; there is no Black America, there is no White America, there is no Latino America, there is no Asian America, there is only the United States of America." Those inspiring words of Barack Obama during the 2004 Democratic National Convention sent chills through my spine, because it was a courageous call to national unity and peace. Later, I read his book, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE which I highly recommend to all those who love and hate Barack Obama. In it, he lays out a spiritual vision calling for national unity world peace.
Ever since, I had hoped that some day, I would get to meet Obama in person and shake his hand. But when he became President, that hope diminished, because it is almost impossible for a commoner like me to meet the President. However, I was fortunate to meet President Obama and shake his hand, yesterday during a fund raising event at the Fountan Bleu Hotel in Miami. While shaking his hands, I told him: "Mr. President, I pray for you everyday." And he said:"Thank you, I need it." Then I patted his shoulders and he moved on. If you are curious about how I got to meet the leader of the free world in person, read on:
During the past four months, I was interim minister of Miami Lakes Congregational Church. Former Senator Bob Graham is a charter member of that church. During my tenure there, I got to know the Grahams. Mrs. Adele Graham has read my entire book of 52 sermons, GOD IS PLURAL, and she is a fan. Last Sunday, after church, Mrs. Graham suggested that her husband should take me and Pastor Jeff to see the President. When he asked me if I was interested, the answer was obvious. He took my social security number and promised to call me the next day.
Senator Graham called me on Tuesday and told me that I was cleared by the White House (thank God..I don't have a record!!!)to see the president. I was told to meet the Senator in his office in Miami Lakes at 2.30 PM. The Senator's Aide, Chip, drove the Grahams, Jeff and me to the airport. The plan was to welcome the president at the tarmac as he came down Air Force One. I was excited about seeing that plane up close. We were waiting in a holding room to be driven to the tarmac along with the Grahams, Senate Candidate Kendric Meek and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz.
Then word came from the Secret Service that Jeff and I could not go to the tarmac. Even though the Senator told that we had clearance from the White House, the Secret Service overruled that. There is no way, the pastors are going to the tarmac!! I was looking forward to ride with the Senator in the motorcade, one ride without stopping at red lights...but that was not to be.
So Jeff and I were driven to Fountain Bleu Hotel where we were promised front row seats next to the Grahams to meet the President.
When we arrived at the hotel we were whisked through the VIP entrance, our names were checked on the list, our hands were stamped, and we went through security check. And we stood at the front of the rope lines with nothing separating us from the podium. All the movers and shakers of the Florida Democratic Party were with us in that enclosed area. Few of them made speeches but I was only interested in seeing and hearing the President.
The President arrived on state at 5.30 and spoke for about 30 minutes. I was fifteen feet away from the President and could see and hear him well.He is charismatic and energetic in person as I had expected. At the end of the speech he came down the rope line to shake hands. While shaking his hands, I told him; "Mr. President, I pray for you everyday." And he said: "Thank you, I need it." It was an electric moment.
As he was moving away, Mrs. Graham who was standing right behind me said: "Mr. President, can I take your picture with my pastors?" The President came back, kissed Mrs. Graham on the cheek and posed. The photo on my Facebook page was taken by Adele Graham. It is the only picture that the President posed for at this event. I was happy.
After the event, we drove to the MSNBC studios on Bayside because the Senator had to appear on COUNTDOWN with Keith Olberman and talk about the troops leaving Iraq. Senator Graham had voted against the Iraq war and they wanted to get his opinion on this historic day. Later, we were driven back to the Senator's Office and I got home around 10 PM. It was a great day.
I am so grateful to Senator Graham for his kindness to make this day possible. Sen. and Mrs. Graham are very kind and down to earth people, always willing to help and I will always value and cherish their kindness and friendship.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 4:49 AM 0 comments
Thursday, August 12, 2010
True Christianity
Way to go brother Rowe!
Anne Rice Quits Christianity
Michael Rowe (For the Huffington Post)
Ironically, author Anne Rice may have been more of a Christian yesterday than she ever was, when she announced, on Facebook, that she was quitting Christianity and renouncing any claim to the title "Christian."
"For those who care,"
she wrote, "and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."
Earlier this week on her public Facebook page, Rice had expressed her horror and revulsion at two different news stories that shared similar themes.
The first was the co-opting of the "Christian" imprimatur by the GOP-linked "Christian punk rock" band You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, supported by Michele Bachmann, who believe that gays should be executed, and who deride America for not being "moral enough" to make homosexuality a capital crime like it is in Iran. The second story was an exposé of a seven-year old boy who had been indoctrinated into Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church, whose sole great commission is virulent hatred.
For a woman who has written extensively about her journey from childhood Catholicism to atheism and back again, her very public announcement came as a surprise to both her Christian and secular fans. At the same time, the raw honesty she exhibited by doing it in the way she did seemed, somehow, entirely Anne Rice.
Rice's own personal trials have been Jobean in scope: the loss of her young daughter, Michelle, to leukemia in 1972; the death of her beloved Dutton editor, William Whitehead; the AIDS-related death of her best friend, gay writer John Preston. And, in 2002, came the cruelest blow of all, the cancer death of her husband of 41 years, poet Stan Rice. Any of us would be forgiven for collapsing -- mentally, emotionally, or spiritually -- in the face of any of these individual tragedies. Rice took them all on her shoulders and bore them courageously over the course of one of the most public and prolific literary careers of the modern age.
In 1998, Rice returned to her faith after years of describing herself as an atheist, and opened her heart to God. If some fans of her vampire, witchcraft, and erotic fiction rolled their eyes at her announcement that she would consecrate her writing talents to the glory of God in future, others did not, and there was still a grudging admiration for her questing determination, as well as an intuitive sense that Rice was on a journey and they could either remain with her or step aside. In 2008, she laid out that journey in a searing, beautifully written memoir, Called Out Of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.
Rice's decision to leave Christianity carries weight not only as a believer, but a mother.
Her son, bestselling author Christopher Rice, is an outspoken and articulate gay rights activist and crusader.
What must it have been like for Anne Rice to watch and listen as her community of believers spent tens of millions of dollars in California making sure that her son remained a second-class citizen, denouncing LGBT Americans in the vilest, cruelest, ugliest terms, bookended with hearty "Amens?" How could she have listened to the hours and hours of gratuitous cruelty and hatred from the various churches and the politicians they've purchased for forty pieces of silver in adjusted dollars and not wondered who these so-called Christians were, and how it was -- given their bigotry and rage -- that she shared a title with them?
At the same time, how many Christian mothers have turned their backs on their LGBT children and cast them out like tragic mistakes, or, worse, embraced them with a toxic, bloody, pitying, non-affirming love that made it clear to their children that they believed they were damned?
"Love" is a quantifiable commodity, much as "faith" is. Neither, if they're true to their nature, can tolerate darkness. Both will eventually surge, gasping, towards the light.
Still, it is possible to murder faith.
You murder faith same way you murder love: one bruise at a time, with small, daily cuts, with grinding contempt, with neglect. You murder faith by exposing it to bullets inscribed with Bible verses that kill Afghan and Iraqi children. You murder it by separating an elderly lesbian couple in a hospital because their union is considered "unnatural." You murder it by linking it to greed, to the "God wants you to be rich" movement which marinates in loathing for the poor and needy, in defiance of Christ's commission to care for them, then call it "good for America." You murder it by exposing it to any number of atrocities wrapped up in an inviolate nationalism that claims divine authority as its basis, with no room for dissent, and no mercy for dissenters. You murder it with self-righteous, violent militarism, with intolerance, with lack of compassion, with lack of humility and, most importantly, with lack of humanity.
It dies a little bit more every time a gay or lesbian teenager commits suicide because they've been taught to hate themselves because God "loves" them but hates what they are.
While Rice says her faith in God remains intact, her repudiation of Christianity is a threefold clarion call, one that should not be written off as a publicity stunt by a bestselling author, or condescendingly dismissed by the Evangelical establishment.
One one hand, her announcement is a profoundly courageous personal declaration of spiritual intent. On another hand, it's a wakeup call to believers who sit by while unimaginable evils occur in the name of Jesus and say nothing other besides defensively whining that "all Christians aren't like that," or that the person reacting in grief and outrage is simply "persecuting Christians" because he's a "nonbeliever" (whether he's a nonbeliever or not.)
On yet another hand, it's a rallying cry for any of us who have held onto our faith by bloody tendons, only to feel the agony when it finally snaps and breaks on the rack that contemporary, virulently politicized Christianity has become.
Like Rice, our belief in the purity of Christ's teachings has chained us to a body of believers who no longer represent anything of what we believe, and indeed represent the very opposite of what Christ's teachings are. There seems precious little Christ in Christianity as it's understood in America today.
Long accustomed to making excuses, to ourselves and to others, for the actions of our nominal co-religionists, we come to realize that there is no possibility of identifying ourselves as Christians any longer, not because of what we've become, but because of what Christianity itself has become. When the word "Christian" has been so thoroughly co-opted that it means something entirely different than what we believed it meant, from how we had always self-identified, it becomes a moral, ethical, and yes, spiritual, choice whether to continue to cling to "Christian" as a title, or leave it.
At the risk of speaking for her -- and without knowing someone else's heart, one shouldn't -- it seems reasonable to say that, in leaving Christianity and rejecting its contemporary manifestation as codified ignorance, bigotry, and intolerance, Rice has paradoxically moved herself closer to the essence of Christ's teachings than perhaps at any other time in her life.
As she has said, she rejects Christianity in Christ's name, and will follow Christ instead. In the words of John 13:35, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The title "Christian," in short, is meaningless in and of itself, especially without love.
Whatever backlash Anne Rice might eventually receive from her Christian readers, or from the Evangelical establishment itself, the undeniable fact is that the decision of this sensitive, passionate, and devout woman to leave Christianity is one that Christ himself would likely understand, even applaud, even as He would likely weep at the holocaust of hatred, bigotry, and collateral carnage that has devolved from the grimy, shopworn religion to which His glorious name has been affixed.
Anne Rice Quits Christianity
Michael Rowe (For the Huffington Post)
Ironically, author Anne Rice may have been more of a Christian yesterday than she ever was, when she announced, on Facebook, that she was quitting Christianity and renouncing any claim to the title "Christian."
"For those who care,"
she wrote, "and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."
Earlier this week on her public Facebook page, Rice had expressed her horror and revulsion at two different news stories that shared similar themes.
The first was the co-opting of the "Christian" imprimatur by the GOP-linked "Christian punk rock" band You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, supported by Michele Bachmann, who believe that gays should be executed, and who deride America for not being "moral enough" to make homosexuality a capital crime like it is in Iran. The second story was an exposé of a seven-year old boy who had been indoctrinated into Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church, whose sole great commission is virulent hatred.
For a woman who has written extensively about her journey from childhood Catholicism to atheism and back again, her very public announcement came as a surprise to both her Christian and secular fans. At the same time, the raw honesty she exhibited by doing it in the way she did seemed, somehow, entirely Anne Rice.
Rice's own personal trials have been Jobean in scope: the loss of her young daughter, Michelle, to leukemia in 1972; the death of her beloved Dutton editor, William Whitehead; the AIDS-related death of her best friend, gay writer John Preston. And, in 2002, came the cruelest blow of all, the cancer death of her husband of 41 years, poet Stan Rice. Any of us would be forgiven for collapsing -- mentally, emotionally, or spiritually -- in the face of any of these individual tragedies. Rice took them all on her shoulders and bore them courageously over the course of one of the most public and prolific literary careers of the modern age.
In 1998, Rice returned to her faith after years of describing herself as an atheist, and opened her heart to God. If some fans of her vampire, witchcraft, and erotic fiction rolled their eyes at her announcement that she would consecrate her writing talents to the glory of God in future, others did not, and there was still a grudging admiration for her questing determination, as well as an intuitive sense that Rice was on a journey and they could either remain with her or step aside. In 2008, she laid out that journey in a searing, beautifully written memoir, Called Out Of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.
Rice's decision to leave Christianity carries weight not only as a believer, but a mother.
Her son, bestselling author Christopher Rice, is an outspoken and articulate gay rights activist and crusader.
What must it have been like for Anne Rice to watch and listen as her community of believers spent tens of millions of dollars in California making sure that her son remained a second-class citizen, denouncing LGBT Americans in the vilest, cruelest, ugliest terms, bookended with hearty "Amens?" How could she have listened to the hours and hours of gratuitous cruelty and hatred from the various churches and the politicians they've purchased for forty pieces of silver in adjusted dollars and not wondered who these so-called Christians were, and how it was -- given their bigotry and rage -- that she shared a title with them?
At the same time, how many Christian mothers have turned their backs on their LGBT children and cast them out like tragic mistakes, or, worse, embraced them with a toxic, bloody, pitying, non-affirming love that made it clear to their children that they believed they were damned?
"Love" is a quantifiable commodity, much as "faith" is. Neither, if they're true to their nature, can tolerate darkness. Both will eventually surge, gasping, towards the light.
Still, it is possible to murder faith.
You murder faith same way you murder love: one bruise at a time, with small, daily cuts, with grinding contempt, with neglect. You murder faith by exposing it to bullets inscribed with Bible verses that kill Afghan and Iraqi children. You murder it by separating an elderly lesbian couple in a hospital because their union is considered "unnatural." You murder it by linking it to greed, to the "God wants you to be rich" movement which marinates in loathing for the poor and needy, in defiance of Christ's commission to care for them, then call it "good for America." You murder it by exposing it to any number of atrocities wrapped up in an inviolate nationalism that claims divine authority as its basis, with no room for dissent, and no mercy for dissenters. You murder it with self-righteous, violent militarism, with intolerance, with lack of compassion, with lack of humility and, most importantly, with lack of humanity.
It dies a little bit more every time a gay or lesbian teenager commits suicide because they've been taught to hate themselves because God "loves" them but hates what they are.
While Rice says her faith in God remains intact, her repudiation of Christianity is a threefold clarion call, one that should not be written off as a publicity stunt by a bestselling author, or condescendingly dismissed by the Evangelical establishment.
One one hand, her announcement is a profoundly courageous personal declaration of spiritual intent. On another hand, it's a wakeup call to believers who sit by while unimaginable evils occur in the name of Jesus and say nothing other besides defensively whining that "all Christians aren't like that," or that the person reacting in grief and outrage is simply "persecuting Christians" because he's a "nonbeliever" (whether he's a nonbeliever or not.)
On yet another hand, it's a rallying cry for any of us who have held onto our faith by bloody tendons, only to feel the agony when it finally snaps and breaks on the rack that contemporary, virulently politicized Christianity has become.
Like Rice, our belief in the purity of Christ's teachings has chained us to a body of believers who no longer represent anything of what we believe, and indeed represent the very opposite of what Christ's teachings are. There seems precious little Christ in Christianity as it's understood in America today.
Long accustomed to making excuses, to ourselves and to others, for the actions of our nominal co-religionists, we come to realize that there is no possibility of identifying ourselves as Christians any longer, not because of what we've become, but because of what Christianity itself has become. When the word "Christian" has been so thoroughly co-opted that it means something entirely different than what we believed it meant, from how we had always self-identified, it becomes a moral, ethical, and yes, spiritual, choice whether to continue to cling to "Christian" as a title, or leave it.
At the risk of speaking for her -- and without knowing someone else's heart, one shouldn't -- it seems reasonable to say that, in leaving Christianity and rejecting its contemporary manifestation as codified ignorance, bigotry, and intolerance, Rice has paradoxically moved herself closer to the essence of Christ's teachings than perhaps at any other time in her life.
As she has said, she rejects Christianity in Christ's name, and will follow Christ instead. In the words of John 13:35, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The title "Christian," in short, is meaningless in and of itself, especially without love.
Whatever backlash Anne Rice might eventually receive from her Christian readers, or from the Evangelical establishment itself, the undeniable fact is that the decision of this sensitive, passionate, and devout woman to leave Christianity is one that Christ himself would likely understand, even applaud, even as He would likely weep at the holocaust of hatred, bigotry, and collateral carnage that has devolved from the grimy, shopworn religion to which His glorious name has been affixed.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Heaven On Earth
This is my farewell message to Miami Lakes Congregational Church where I was interim pastor for 4 months
Time flies when you are having fun. I experienced the truth of that saying in the last four months as Interim Minister at Miami Lakes Congregational Church.
When Pastor Jeffrey asked me to consider being the interim minister during his
sabbatical, I was excited because I always had a positive feeling about MLCC and the wonderful people there. However, holding on to my full time job as a hospice chaplain and working at the church for four long months, seemed difficult at the start. But as I got to know the congregation and the wonderful crew that I closely worked with, the weeks and months just flew past. Now here I am, just two weeks away from saying good bye, and anticipatory grief is already setting in.
My heart is filled with gratitude. I thank Pastor Jeffrey Frantz, who has been a good friend from the first time I met him about five years ago. He is like a brother to me, and I hope that I have lived up to the trust he placed in me by entrusting his church to me. Thank you Jeffrey and welcome back!
I had a wonderful 'pastoral crew"- Nancy, Maggie, Mariliz, Ruby, Ed, and the
charmingly efficient Administrative Assistant, Berta Fowler, who helped me so much to make my job smooth and easy. This column is too short to name all the others who have been so loving and welcoming of me. I just want to say: I LOVE YOU ALL.
As far as I am concerned, MLCC is a slice of of heaven on earth. Contrary to popular notion of heaven as a location some where up in the sky, with pearly gates, golden streets and singing angels, I believe that heaven is a dimension of our being where peace is felt, joy is experienced and love is shared. It is interesting that the Catholic Church which used to teach that heaven was a 'place', in its New Revised Catechism, states that "heaven is a state or dimension, not necessarily a place."
As Neale Donald Walsch would say, "Heaven is not a place to go to, but realizing
that you are already there." The key word is, REALIZING. We may be treading on holy
ground without realizing it; we may be beholding saints without being aware of it; we may be in heaven without knowing it.
Heaven is a dimension within you that is calm and peaceful, serene and joyful, a
dimension that permeates your entire being, something that you experience where ever you are, and take it with you where ever you go. You will not wait for it; you will not look for it, but you will FEEL it. That is why Jesus said: "The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you."
So, don't ask: "How do I go to heaven?" which implies traveling somewhere;
don't ask:"Are you in heaven?" which assumes that you have to 'enter' into a
space or location that is outside of you. The right question is: "Is heaven in
you?" If you are interested in learning more about discovering and experiencing the
heaven within you which is your birthright, I encourage you to read my book: 'God is
Plural.'
Every time I walked into Miami Lakes Congregational Church, I felt heaven because I
encountered a community that is permeated with Spirit and emanating God's love. As Bishop N.T. Wright would say, " heaven is not the longed for destination of dying people, but the realm of God that intersects our universe in such a way as to transform the way we live." So, every time our lives intersects with God, there is heaven. Truth is, there is no moment when our lives don't intersect with God. What is important is to become aware of it and be awakened.
I believe that the grounds of Miami Lakes Congregational Church and the hearts of its members are God's intersections!
Again, I THANK YOU ALL for honoring me with your presence, nourishing me with your love and encouraging me with your kind words. I am saying good bye for now, leaving with a grateful heart filled with sweet memories. It is not a final good bye as I will be back any time Pastor Jeffrey wants me back. In the meantime, if I can be of any service to you, feel free to reach me via email, Facebook or my website: www.paulveliyathil.com
NAMASTE!
Time flies when you are having fun. I experienced the truth of that saying in the last four months as Interim Minister at Miami Lakes Congregational Church.
When Pastor Jeffrey asked me to consider being the interim minister during his
sabbatical, I was excited because I always had a positive feeling about MLCC and the wonderful people there. However, holding on to my full time job as a hospice chaplain and working at the church for four long months, seemed difficult at the start. But as I got to know the congregation and the wonderful crew that I closely worked with, the weeks and months just flew past. Now here I am, just two weeks away from saying good bye, and anticipatory grief is already setting in.
My heart is filled with gratitude. I thank Pastor Jeffrey Frantz, who has been a good friend from the first time I met him about five years ago. He is like a brother to me, and I hope that I have lived up to the trust he placed in me by entrusting his church to me. Thank you Jeffrey and welcome back!
I had a wonderful 'pastoral crew"- Nancy, Maggie, Mariliz, Ruby, Ed, and the
charmingly efficient Administrative Assistant, Berta Fowler, who helped me so much to make my job smooth and easy. This column is too short to name all the others who have been so loving and welcoming of me. I just want to say: I LOVE YOU ALL.
As far as I am concerned, MLCC is a slice of of heaven on earth. Contrary to popular notion of heaven as a location some where up in the sky, with pearly gates, golden streets and singing angels, I believe that heaven is a dimension of our being where peace is felt, joy is experienced and love is shared. It is interesting that the Catholic Church which used to teach that heaven was a 'place', in its New Revised Catechism, states that "heaven is a state or dimension, not necessarily a place."
As Neale Donald Walsch would say, "Heaven is not a place to go to, but realizing
that you are already there." The key word is, REALIZING. We may be treading on holy
ground without realizing it; we may be beholding saints without being aware of it; we may be in heaven without knowing it.
Heaven is a dimension within you that is calm and peaceful, serene and joyful, a
dimension that permeates your entire being, something that you experience where ever you are, and take it with you where ever you go. You will not wait for it; you will not look for it, but you will FEEL it. That is why Jesus said: "The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you."
So, don't ask: "How do I go to heaven?" which implies traveling somewhere;
don't ask:"Are you in heaven?" which assumes that you have to 'enter' into a
space or location that is outside of you. The right question is: "Is heaven in
you?" If you are interested in learning more about discovering and experiencing the
heaven within you which is your birthright, I encourage you to read my book: 'God is
Plural.'
Every time I walked into Miami Lakes Congregational Church, I felt heaven because I
encountered a community that is permeated with Spirit and emanating God's love. As Bishop N.T. Wright would say, " heaven is not the longed for destination of dying people, but the realm of God that intersects our universe in such a way as to transform the way we live." So, every time our lives intersects with God, there is heaven. Truth is, there is no moment when our lives don't intersect with God. What is important is to become aware of it and be awakened.
I believe that the grounds of Miami Lakes Congregational Church and the hearts of its members are God's intersections!
Again, I THANK YOU ALL for honoring me with your presence, nourishing me with your love and encouraging me with your kind words. I am saying good bye for now, leaving with a grateful heart filled with sweet memories. It is not a final good bye as I will be back any time Pastor Jeffrey wants me back. In the meantime, if I can be of any service to you, feel free to reach me via email, Facebook or my website: www.paulveliyathil.com
NAMASTE!
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