OpenSpirit

Appearances of the Sacred: OpenSpirit Easter Season

OpenSpirit Easter | Posted by revandrea

Apr 17 2009

The Sacred, Appearing in Creation: Sunday, April 19, 2009;7 – 8 pm

Sunday, April 19th, in recognition of Earth Day, we celebrate the sacred as it appears in Creation, springing forth all around us. We rejoice in creativity – God’s, and our own. People of The Rising … how does our resurrection faith shape our interaction with God’s Creation, and our calling to honor and sustain Creation? OpenSpirit is an evening creative worship gathering in the Christian tradition. Together, we search for the presence of God. Come, be with us!

Appearances of the Sacred: OpenSpirit Easter Season

Appearances of the sacred. Holiness breaking through into everyday life. God shows up. All religious traditions seek to describe these experiences. In these days after Easter, Christians tell stories of how Jesus appears. And these stories tell very different tales. The Risen One, his life renewed, transforms the lives of his disciples, stirring something in and among them that will leap and flame, come Pentecost.

In these days between Easter and Pentecost, we focus on how the sacred appears. This word is deliberately ambivalent! Does it refer to what breaks through the veil of obscurity into recognition? Or does it suggest something that is not what it seems to be? This double entendre shapes Gospel stories about Jesus’ appearances to his followers, strange accounts shaped at times by fear and confusion, at times by faith and joy.

In this season of new life, what does it mean to speak of the holy, breaking through the veil into recognition, or keeping distance from us? Let us discern together what it means to be attentive to appearances of the sacred – in story and song, praise and prayer, creativity and the arts, shaped as always by the flow of jazz music.

Performing Arts Center of MetroWest: www.pacmetrowest.org

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“The Occasion”

Creative Offerings | Posted by revandrea

Apr 09 2009

“The Occasion”

What if beauty is a substance
in this world of accident and remorse,
finite and particular and dispersed
like the sound of larks singing

carelessly into the morning silences
regardless of audience or absence or
any other need? And what if our
sole purpose is to seek what falls

into the crevices of disregard,
gratefully reaching into the stream
with dry hands and parched lips?

And what if time is only the occasion
for gathering these shards of loveliness
into the heart’s hungry vestibule?

M. S. Burrows
31 March 2009

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The Rising: Love is Come Again. Open Spirit Easter Evening. Sunday, April 12, 2009; 7 – 8 pm

OpenSpirit Easter | Posted by revandrea

Apr 08 2009

Women at the Tomb (1440-41) Fresco Convento di San Marco, Florence

Sunday, April 12, 2009 7:00 – 8:00 pm
MetroWest Performing Arts Center

The women went at dawn with fragrant spices to anoint Jesus in his tomb. Instead of his beloved, broken body, they were the ones anointed with the message of his rising.

Jesus’ followers – women and men alike – were anointed to spread the good news of his rising; the triumph of love over the power of death.

OpenSpirit, Easter Evening. A different way to ponder the meaning of The Rising. As we light the lamps of evening, our hopes and fears reflect the mystery and awe of Easter dawn. We gather as disciples, our own lives transformed by the power of God’s new life springing up in unexpected and miraculous ways. Love is come again; let us lose ourselves in it.

So, come, people of the resurrection; let us gather. With poem and song and painting, let us ponder. The long day is over. It is accomplished – Lent, our sojourn in the desert. Maundy Thursday: poignant, bittersweet; Good Friday: piercing, thirsting. The wonder of Easter morning, our singing triumphal. But what of the evening? On Easter evening, with what light do we look back at the meaning of the dawn?

How are you transformed by resurrection? What is rising, in your life, in our world? How are you anointed, in your own unique and precious way, to be an apostle – here and now, to spread the Good News? Easter evening, we gather around the table, as we always do. And Christ’s body is beloved and broken and risen and shared all at the same time. And we are anointed with the sweet spice of new life.

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Snakes, Fear in the Desert. Sunday, March 29, 2009. 7-8 pm.

OpenSpirit Lent | Posted by revandrea

Mar 28 2009

OpenSpirit, a creative worship gathering in the Christian tradition.

Sunday, March 29, 2009; 7:00 – 8:00 pm; MetroWest Performing Arts Center, Framingham.

Snakes. Slithering, uncoiling, striking; fast as lightening. Our Lenten sojourn may just bring us eye to eye with this scaly creature of the desert. And what can paralyze us even faster than the serpent’s venom? Fear. Our own fear can poison us, stop us in our tracks, even prevent us from saving ourselves from danger.

fierce_snake1

Ancient scripture, contemporary events, the stories of our lives … let us reflect together on the role fear plays in our spiritual lives. Fear can block out beauty and possibility, make us less able to respond to potential harm. Can we name our fear, bring it into the light, re-claim our own power?

OpenSpirit Lent. In song and silence, word and community, we affirm together God’s presence in all things. In Jesus, we know God shares in our struggles and our rejoicing. We are not alone in this desert, and need not be afraid in any danger. We can be bread for each other.

OpenSpirit. All you need is a hunger for the presence of God, a thirst for authentic community. There is no right or wrong way to worship. If you want to sing, sing. If you want to dance, dance! God invites us to bring our whole selves to worship – all that we are, all we can become. We can bring our hearts, our minds, our spirits and our bodies, all of who we are, made in the image of God, unique, precious.

The MetroWest Performing Arts Center is accessible to all. Look for the red door, take the elevator to the third floor. Be not afraid, even of the snake in the desert.

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The World Under the Map: Sunday, March 22, 2009 7-8pm

OpenSpirit Lent | Posted by openspirit

Mar 18 2009

OpenSpirit, a creative worship gathering in the Christian tradition.

Sunday, March 22, 2009; 7:00 – 8:00 pm; MetroWest Performing Arts Center, Framingham.

Have you ever gotten lost in the desert? Desert wilderness can be profoundly disorienting. Relentless sand, everywhere you look. The desert can be bereft of roadsigns, directional markers. Over there – is that an oasis, or a mirage? Even so, our spiritual journey can bring us suffering, loneliness, and chaos – despite our best laid plans, and our fervent, heartfelt prayers. road-sign

In the desert, without a map. Friends, fellow pilgrims, what does it mean to sojourn in such places – and survive, perhaps even thrive? What strength can we find in companionship, with those we share bread with day by day? What animating energy can we find in communal worship, worship that enlivens and sustains our spirits in dry and barren seasons?

Is there, perhaps, a world of orientation that lies, as one poet puts it, “under the map”? How can we access this deeper layer, find a new way forward, let our spirit-sense discover the way? Let us seek together this new orientation. May God surprise us in ways we cannot anticipate. desert-sign

OpenSpirit. All you need to bring is a hunger for the presence of God, a thirst for authentic community. There is no right or wrong way to be in worship. If you want to sing, sing. If you want to dance, dance! God invites us to bring our whole selves to worship – all that we are, all we can become. We can bring our hearts, our minds, our spirits and our bodies, all of who we are, made in the image of God, unique, precious.

The MetroWest Performing Arts Center is accessible to all. Look for the red door, take the elevator to the third floor. Don’t be lost in the desert! Come, join us, and be found.

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Creating Space for Spirit, Finding Room for God: March 15, 2009 7-8 pm

OpenSpirit Lent | Posted by revandrea

Mar 11 2009

OpenSpirit, a creative worship gathering in the Christian tradition.

Sunday, March 15, 2009; 7:00 – 8:00 pm. MetroWest Performing Arts Center, Framingham.

Fellow pilgrims, let us move even deeper into the desert. These shifting sands can be so beautiful, but this wilderness can be dangerous. Sometimes we creatures have to adapt to survive a desert sojourn. Consider the cactus, its marvelous ability to draw and sustain life in the most dry and barren of conditions. Cactus

Come, March 15th, as we continue to experience the elements of the desert. We have sifted sand, touched hard rock, tasted living water that springs forth like a fountain. Now, we ponder cactus, and ask ourselves how we, too, can adapt, store up precious water, make room in ourselves and our lives for God, create space for Spirit.

There is much to discover, this week at OpenSpirit. A labyrinth offers a reflective, walking meditation. A prophet finds an angel in the desert, who ministers to him in his fatigue and despair. Willie and Erin make our hearts sing, our bodies dance. A poet and a contemplative share words of hope. And, always, Christ’s table of welcome is spread for us all.

Fellow pilgrims, let us sojourn together, friends both old and new. And as we walk these desert sands, let us discover God’s presence in our midst.

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“Of Dust and Breath”

Creative Offerings | Posted by openspirit

Mar 06 2009

Genesis 2:4b-7
In the day that God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up-for God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise form the earth, and water the whole face of the ground-then the Lord God formed a human from the dust of the ground, and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living being.

“Of Dust and Breath”

On TV it’s always raining at the cemetery.
The family huddles together,
faces obscured by umbrellas.
The preacher intones the dreaded words,
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
The camera zooms in to catch tears
streaming down a child’s face.

I don’t like to say those words.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

I’d rather leave out that part of the truth.
I’d rather proclaim eternal life,
pretend nothing has changed.

I’d like to find words to help us forget what we know too well-
someday we too will be lowered into the ground,
scattered on the earth.

“Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.”
These words are too stark,
too real.
___

I don’t like to say those words.
They are too real.

We are so small-
grains of sand in the desert.

Our power is so limited-
plans blown about by the wind,
souls grasping for the assurance that we matter.

Our lives are so short-
bodies aging just as we figure out how to live,
hearts broken by loss.
__

I don’t like to say those words.
Since I cannot escape them, I will say them.
I will claim them.

We are made of dust and return to dust–
we are part of the earth,
we nourish life.
We are dust,
dust made holy by the breath of God.

___

We are so small,
and we matter so much.
Every hair on our head is numbered.
Every prayer we utter is held with tenderness.

Our power is so limited,
and a single act ripples out to change the world.
We can choose compassion;
we can choose hope.

Our lives are so short,
and there is time enough for love.
Every moment is a gift.

We are small,
and so we need each other.

Our power is limited,
And so we must work together,

Our lives are short,
And so we must pass on our dreams.

And so we are blessed with community.
__

To be made of dust and the breath of God-
that is blessing.
To claim our holy earthliness-
that is grace.

-Rev Debbie Clark

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OpenSpirit Lent: A Desert Sojourn

OpenSpirit Lent | Posted by revandrea

Mar 04 2009

OpenSpirit, a new gathering for creative, arts-infused worship: we are passionate about following Jesus, about radical welcome, about expressing our spiritual yearnings in ways both ancient and new.

OpenSpirit Lent: A Desert Sojourn

Come, walk with us this Lent. Join us as we explore the desert places of our lives, those wilderness times of testing, of seeking and finding, when God surprises us, again and again.

Each Sunday this Lenten season we come face to face with the elements of the desert, face to face with the power of God. Sand, rock, and blooming cactus centered our initial gathering on March first. Manna, mysterious, fed us. Snow may have been falling around us, but we were warmed by God’s animating Spirit, by sweet sounds of piano and sax, by faces both new and familiar.

We invite you to gather again on Sunday March 8 at 7:00 PM at the Performing Arts Center. Encounter with us living water that bursts forth in ways that astound us, when we need it the most, where we expect it the least. In the desert, we thirst for God’s gifts. In the desert, water can flow like a fountain, even from the rock. In the desert, we need each other, and we need God.

Sunday March 8: "Water from the Rock"

Sojourn with us, Lenten people. And let us pause, at 7:00 pm every Sunday evening, to seek and celebrate God’s OpenSpirit, through creative worship, stirring music, and deepening community.

Enter the Red Door, take the elevator to the third floor, and come in to the Black Box Theater. Framingham’s Performing Arts Center, third floor of the Danforth Museum is our new home; a great setting for our worship ‘in the round.’

All are welcome, and financial offerings are voluntary. Contact Willie Sordillo 508/628-9294.

See below for additional information about OpenSpirit.

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What is OpenSpirit? Join us on March 1!

News | Posted by openspirit

Feb 09 2009

What: OpenSpirit

Where: Performing Arts Center

140 Pearl St

Framingham, MA 01702

When: Sunday, March 1, 2009 and every Sunday thereafter

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Cost: Free

Wheelchair Access: Yes

Contact: Willie Sordillo 508/628-9294

OpenSpirit is a new, arts-centered opportunity for spiritual growth and fellowship in the MetroWest area. Created by a collaborative of ministers and a jazz musician, we will gather every Sunday at 7:00 PM beginning Sunday, March 1 at the Performing Arts Center in Framingham. Each week we will offer a unique spiritual experience which is both creative and reflective, weaving spoken word expression with music, dance, and the visual arts in a participatory context. OpenSpirit is intended to serve people with a spiritual hungering who may not feel that traditional church meets their needs, and people who may attend church regularly but are drawn to creative spiritual expression. All are welcome and there is no charge.

The leadership collaborative includes the Rev. Dr. Deborah L. Clark, pastor of Edwards Church, UCC, in Framingham; the Rev. Victoria Guest, pastor of First Congregational Church, UCC, in Natick, the Rev. Andrea Castner Wyatt, Pastor and Chaplain to AseraCare Hospice of Boston, the Rev. Dr. Mark Burrows, professor of History of Christianity at Andover Newton Theological School, and Mr. Willie Sordillo, jazz saxophonist.

For more information, please contact Willie Sordillo at 508/628-9294 or wsax@rcn.com;

Tags: Press release
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