Mindful Generosity
Oneof the maxims of spirituality is that spiritual development and human development go hand in hand. The more aware we are of God's presence in our lives, the less susceptible we are to living a life of unexamined habits and routines, and the more committed we become to an intentional lifestyle fueled by the power we derive from our spiritual experience.
Due to the West's growing interest in Zen Buddhism, mindfulness is a popular spiritual term these days. According to Zen, mindful people experience their true selves, and they don't confuse their true selves with roles they play or identities others project on them. Rather than habitually conform to conventional behaviors or unconsciously respond to their own needy desires,mindful people are consciously aware of who they are, what they're doing, and why they're doing it. Being truly mindful requires a lifetime of discipline and practice, but even if we never achieve a Zen master's state of enlightenment,we can at least develop greater self-awareness. Being more aware is healthier,spiritually speaking, than being less aware.
As Christians, we need to remind ourselves that being mindful is not exclusive to Zen Buddhism. Christian variants of this consciousness exist within our own tradition. Centering prayer and contemplation, while not exactly analogous to Zen practice, are two Christian disciplines that increase both self-awareness and awareness of God's presence in our lives. Ignatius of Loyola developed the Daily Examen to help the Jesuits discern God's presence in their lives, and many Christians pray the Daily Examen today. More contemporary prayers,meditations, and guides, like the spiritual gifts assessment, can increase self-awareness and awareness of God's presence.
Spiritual and human development can follow many paths and produce many transformations in our lives. One transformation includes a heightened awareness of God's self-giving spirit, a greater sensitivity towards our being created in God's image, and a stronger desire to share with others the gifts God offers us.
Increasing our awareness of God's presence within and around us can heighten our awareness of God's continuous self-giving availability to us. We can become more attuned to how freely, generously, and continuously God pours God's self out to us. We can experience God as both the Giver and the Gift, and as we become more appreciative of the Gift, we come to desire a deeper union with the Giver.
As we pursue our desire for deeper union with God, we may discover that our desire for God is a reflection of God's desire for us. God continuously longs for us, seeks us out, and calls us into a more intimate, more mature relationship. As we draw closer to God, we can become increasingly aware that God has created us in God's image. God has created us to be reflections of God's own free self-giving presence. To us, with us, and through us, God desires to be available. In deep union with God, we desire to be available. We freely choose to be a giver and a gift. In deep union with God, we embody God's generosity.
Increasing our awareness of God's presence can also heighten our sensitivity to the power God makes available to us through God's self-giving spirit. We can personally experience God's loving, healing, liberating, reconciling, unifying,and renewing power. We can become increasingly sensitive to the transformations, --both subtle and profound -- that occur within our lives by the power of God's spirit. Appreciative, available, and generous, we offer our lives as vehicles for God's spirit. We invite God to give through us. We offer up our lives -- our bodies, time, talents, and resources -- to love, heal, liberate,reconcile, unify, and renew life.
This is God incarnate -- God's spiritual power and energy present and active within and through human flesh. It's the living gospel. It's Christian spirituality. It's mindful generosity.
Mindful generosity is a daily practice, a discipline, a Christ-centered spirituality, that involves a continuous circular pattern of receiving and giving, reflecting and acting. Through this pattern, we draw closer to God, ourselves, other people, and God's wider creation. We undergo spiritual and lifestyle transformations. Our priorities change. We use our time, employ our talents, and spend our money differently. More of who we are, and more of what we have, becomes available to love, heal, liberate, reconcile, unify, and renew God's creation. We intentionally counter and create alternatives to conventional attitudes and practices that contribute to self-centeredness,fear, oppression, conflict and death. We stand out as beacons of hope and promise to others seeking a better, more life-affirming way to live. We communicate the way of Jesus Christ, not as doctrine or dogma, but as a visible lifestyle that sets up in the world "a new sign which is radically dissimilar to the world's own manner, and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise" (Karl Barth).
Mindful generosity. Let us be mindfully generous.
NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
1 Tommie Pinkard
3 Stella Morrison
4 Nannette Strickland
5 Mary Blackstock
7 Ann Hubbs
8 Setsuko Kaneda
Maggie Taylor
9 Craig Barrett
Bree Hawes-Domingue
11 Tom VandeStadt
12 Michael Adams
Gabriel Pinkard
13 Sarah Miles
14 John Kirch
Martha Miles
15 Dale Montayne
16 Brain Prioleau
Norma Hawes
17 Dennis Murphy
18 Jennifer Bratton
Jacob Bardati
22 Mariah Newell
23 Kathleen Strong
Terri Ocean
DEACONS DISCRETIONARY FUND
The Board of Deacons seeks the cooperation and generous financial support of the congregation in this our fall appeal for the Deacons' Discretionary Fund. You may designate your gift restricted for the Deacons Discretionary Fund on the memo line of your check and deposit it in the offering plate or mail it directly to the church.
Your Board of Deacons established this fund last year in order to provide a structure and budgetary source for our responses to several family crises and emergency requests, which we receive periodically from members of our church and community. We are extremely grateful for the kind generosity of our congregation, which has enabled us to assist four families in special need during the past year.
Currently, the Deacons Discretionary Fund has a deficit fund balance in the church's general fund account. We seek to retire our deficit, respond to current emergency needs, and accumulate an adequate reserve so that we can respond to the emergency requests we anticipate receiving this fall and winter.We know that you, the individual members of our congregation, have and know your own limitations. We all have some limits on how much we can give. At the same time, we also know the open heart, willing mind, and generous spirit present among the members of our congregation. Your Board of Deacons uses the highest standards of compassion and reason to determine to which situations and requests we will respond.
The Gospel reading for the recent University-Area Churches special service of worship and commitment to the MICAH 6 collaboration challenges us still:
"I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Truly, I say to you, as youdid it to the least of these, you did it to me." (Matthew 25: 31-46)
We thank you for your continued support for our benevolence on behalf of our congregation.
Board of Deacons
(Cecile Ervin Adam; Paul Deisler; Pat Oakes; Jeri Winter; Joe McMillan, Chair;Tom VandeStadt, Pastor)
Womens Book Club
The following books were selected to be read by the book club in coming months:
Nov. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
Dec. Native Tongue - Carl Hiaasen
Jan. The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
Next Meeting will be at Suzanne Bradford's home on Nov. 11.
STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY,
THANKSGIVING SUNDAY
NOVEMBER 24, 2002
Stewardship/ThanksgivingSunday will be November 24. Our Stewardship theme this year, MindfulGenerosity, focuses on the spirituality of generous giving. Our premise is that generosity is a spiritual quality that develops as we deepen our relationship with God. Mindful generosity is mindful in the sense that it is self-aware and intentional rather than un-examined and habitual. Christian generosity has a particular focus in that Jesus Christ calls us to invest our time, talents, and resources into activities that seek to love, heal, liberate, reconcile, unify and renew God's creation.
As you prayerfully reflect on whether, what, and how much you will pledge tothe Congregational Church of Austin, please be mindful of Jesus Christ's call to follow him into a relationship with God that transforms both you and the world.
And please remember: we don't pledge because the church needs, we pledge because God loves.God loves you. With you, and through you, God seeks to love, heal and repair the world.
As for giving thanks to God, we'll celebrate with a hymn sing that will include many of our favorite Thanksgiving hymns. Those of you with a particular fondness for the Pilgrim Hymnal, you'll want to be at worship Steward/Thanksgiving morning!
CONGRATULATIONS ENID ROSS,
MAY GOD'S SPIRIT CONTINUE TO GUIDE YOU
We congratulate Rev. Enid Ross on her ordination as a United Church of Christ clergyperson. Ordination is a process requiring a lot of reflection and hard work, both within and beyond seminary. Enid successfully completed this work, and with God's grace and guidance, we know she'll continue to faithfully follow her call to ordained Christian ministry. Our prayers are with you, Enid. God bless!
PERSONALS
by Pat Oakes
Marilyn Gaddis and George Carruthers are back from another trip! They flew from Austin to Boston and spent 2 days in Chelsea visiting Marilyn's cousins. Their apartment is in the old Chelsea Naval Hospital (now remodeled) and they can watch the ships come in and out of the Boston area rivers. It rained so they spent an afternoon at Cambridge visiting the Harvard art galleries. They went on to Brewster, MA, to meet an Elder hostel group of 26 for a 6 day bike ride around central Cape Cod and Nantucket Island.The weather cooperated and the bike trails provided wonderful views of the small villages and the coast. They visited interesting museums on the cranberry industry, whaling, sea rescues, and light houses. Their tour leader had been on the Munich to Vienna bike ride with them 5 years ago. They had a good time reminiscing. Before returning home, they spent 3 days walking around historic Plymouth and the Plimoth Plantation. On Sunday, they attended services at the Church of the Pilgrimage (UCC).The leaves were just beginning to change coloras they left - 2 weeks behind schedule!
Barbara Burnham is preparing for the annual Austin Bead and Jewelry Bazaar Nov. 2-3. (She is a small-time bead merchant on Ebay in her off-hours and has sold beads at the Austin and San Antonio bead shows.) This year, in addition to selling loose beads, she is making some jewelry to sell, mostly of turquoise, lapis, coral,and silver. For bead enthusiasts or those who want to do some Christmas shopping, the Bazaar is a wonderful event with more than 50 exhibitors. It takes place at Murchison Jr. HS, off Far West Blvd. Admission is $4, but there is a discount if you bring canned food items for the Capital Area Food Bank.
Rizer Everett reports that on October 10th he and his daughter Dot drove to Cuero where they spent the night. The next day they drove around the city, visited the library,and the village of Lindenau. They then went to Hallettsville, the surrounding suburbs, and the library. Dot was able to exchange information about her maternal grandparents with the librarians that adds to her knowledge about the ancestors. Rizer is finding that he is becoming very interested in genealogy through Dot's efforts. The rolling terrain, trees, and meadows make the whole area just beautiful --- particularly with the grazing cattle and deer in the pastures. The cemetery at St. Mary's Church was absolutely gorgeous and well kept. He and Dot then went on to Houston where they visited with attendees of the Stanvac reunion. There were many friends there from the Everetts' days in Indonesia--both folks who had worked there and their (now adult) children. They enjoyed a visit to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts with an exhibit of paintings from artists from El Greco to Picasso. After visiting with more old friends(one who is 99!) in Houston, they had a safe trip home and Dot is now back in Albuquerque.
Marguerite and Ben White attended the Texas Pediatric Society in Ft. Worth in late September,coming back through Stephenville, where they visited the Tarleton campus,Marguerite's first trip back to the campus since her graduation in 1942.Tarleton is now a state university with 7000 students. There were about 1000 enrolled when Marguerite completed Tarleton's junior college.
Paul and Ellen Deisler have returned from a brief trip to Santa Fe, NM, to visit their younger daughter, Julie, stopping on the way in Odessa, TX, to visit Paul's one remaining aunt and her husband and, on the way back, to visit Paul's college roommate and his family in Lubbock. Santa Fe now has a new and very fine museum of Hispanic culture in New Mexico and too many good restaurants. All visits were highly successful and pleasant. Surprisingly, Paul and Ellen found Santa Fe to be the most beautiful of the three cities visited. Also, Paul says his aunt is not elderly, being not quite 7 years his senior.
Michael Adams is delighted to report that he and Jamie are almost finished with the kitchen cabinets which is the last part of the rebuilding project which was required because of the house fire which took place last Nov. 2. It has been a long,hard year, but the end is in sight!
Lisa Kirch is living in the 16th century in Germany, more or less, and found herself, while she was researching, weeping in the archive over the death of a woman who was born in 1502 and would be dead now anyway. She feels incredibly blessed, very happy to be doing what she is doing and to be where she is, but she is looking forward to coming home and to putting her arms around her family--real and church--again. Look for Lisa in church in late October.
Karl and Andrea Putz got back from their two-week "vacation" in Chicago where they attended a wedding for some high school friends of theirs and visited with family. While they were there, Andrea also spoke at an environmental engineering conference and managed to get the flu! They stayed a few nights at a nice hotel downtown and Karl got some fantastic pictures of the navy pier and the river at night. They also spent a night in a converted corn silo in Peoria,IL, visiting Andrea's brother and sister at Illinois State University and touring a wildlife park there. Now they are busy getting back into the swing of things back in Austin.
John Goff recently returned from a three week sea journey to the New Jersey shelf to drill for sediments. The study is intended is investigate sea level history by sampling sediment filling buried river channels carved into the shelf duringthe last ice age.
Bill and Betty Phillips have been in Panama for the past year where Betty is a professor of voice at the University of Panama (how they got there is a great story!) The Fondacion Bel Canto has been started by a wealthy Panamanian opera lover and Betty is training nine Panamanian opera singers there. She also participated in a recent concert with the nine singers. Bill and Betty are living in the parsonage of the historic Balboa Union Church (another great story). Bill reports that their daughters are both in Austin, Stephanie teaching viola at the Austin Waldorf School and at her own studio, and Katie directing public works in Sunset Valley.
Pat Oakes had a wonderful 8 day visit in North Carolina with her folks, Bob and Lois Winter.Her dad is recuperating from spinal surgery and is making a strong recovery. In fact, her dad started driving again during Pat's visit. She also saw her sister Sandra and two old friends from Miami and Plymouth Church who have retired to North Carolina, her mentor of 40 years ago and the director of Christian education at her old church and a high school friend whom she hadn't seen in 40 years.
Former member Savana Sharpe is now married, to Tom Bogardus, and the wedding took place at her new Congregational church in Washington, CT. They are expecting a baby in early December. They live in Bridgewater, CT, and she is working as regional vice president for Greystar Real Estate Advisors on 5th Ave in New York. Tom is in commercial real estate in Connecticut. Their address is: 8 Keeler Rd.,Bridgewater, CT 06752 (860 355-0224). Her email is ssharpe@greystar.com She says that she misses everyone at church but is very happy at her new congregation. Taking the job in NY was a very good decision .
Fun and Fellowship
Members are invited to share in the Thanksgiving Day Dinner (November 28) at the church. Please call Michael Adams for more information.
Our Christmas Gift to Austin
Please take note that we will have our next quarterly clean-up of Mount Bonnell on Saturday morning,December 7th from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Bring your work clothes and tools.We will finally be able to plant some Austin Native plants appropriate for the flower beds at the summit. Also, if you have some favorite plants you wish to nominate for us to purchase, please advise Mark McCoy. He is the Co-chair ofthe Building and Grounds committee who will be coordinating this facet of the clean-up. We will again have another of our gourmet lunches furnished for our dedicated and willing workers.
Texas Impact Canned Food Drive
SundayNov 10 from 9 AM to 2 PM in the University Baptist Church parking lot at 22nd and San Antonio. Texas Impact invites you to view a real fuel efficient vehicle and make the connection between fuel efficiency and helping needy families.Bring canned food or cash donations to benefit the Micah 6 Project, and help fill the trunk of our hybrid car. We also encourage you to take a look under the hood to see how the hybrid engine works to conserve gas. A light brunch as well as activities for children will be provided.
Opportunities are available to help with the Sunday Service in November!
Please Sign Up on The List in the Fellowship Room.
