EDMOND — Who wants to party with a Christian? Nobody.

Christians have a reputation for being stuffy and square. Some Christian denominations say that it is a sin to dance because it leads to sex. Others say it is a sin to drink. Calvinists are sometimes called the frozen chosen. Last week my wife Mary was preaching and looked right at me and said, “White men can’t dance.”

Where did we get the idea that God wants us to be serious all the time? The critics of Jesus accused him of being a party animal. They said, “Look, instead of fasting, he eats and drinks with his disciples. He is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

Jesus shows that God wants us to enjoy life. His first miracle in the gospel of John was turning water into wine. Jesus drank wine with his disciples at the Last Supper. All Christians drank wine at communion until about 125 years ago when Protestants began substituting grape juice for wine as part of the Temperance Movement.

Joy is one of the dominant themes in the Bible. The Passover Feast was a time of great joy as the people remember God’s act of deliverance. The Psalms are full of rejoicing at God’s mighty acts of deliverance.

The Sabbath was intended as a time to take a break from work and enjoy life. Jews were encouraged to make love with their spouses on the Sabbath. The Old Testament is full of references to wine; it was seen as a blessing from God. Isaiah talks of the great feast for all peoples on God’s holy mountain when there will be rich food and well-aged wines.

Jews still know how to enjoy life today. My wife and I attended a Shabbat service at a synagogue in Oklahoma City this summer. At the end of the service, they have a table with white wine, red wine, fish and pastries. They eat and drink and have fellowship after the service.

Christians early on lost touch with their Jewish roots and got very Greek. Ancient Greeks frowned on showing emotions. Temperance and moderation were the great virtues.

The philosophy of Plato and neo-Platonism taught that the soul was divine and the body was corrupt. They tried to control their bodily desires and purify their souls by focusing on intellectual pursuits. The most spiritual people were believed to be the ascetic monks who fled to the desert and denied themselves bodily pleasures. They were over-developing the left side of their brains and stifling the right side.

The doctrine of original sin comes right out of Greek philosophy. It was developed in the fourth century by Saint Augustine. Jesus didn’t know anything about it. The Garden of Eden is re-interpreted as the fall of man. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the apple. Ever since, everyone has been born in original sin and deserves to die. Jesus liberates them from death by dying on the cross for their sins.

This would not have made any sense to Jews. Elie Wiesel, the Jewish author who has written many books about his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz, says, “The concept of original sin is alien to Jewish tradition.” Jews see life as original blessing, not original sin. God created the world and saw that it was good. The Hebrew suggests that God took delight in creation. God created man and woman and saw that they were very good. God was exceedingly delighted with man and woman.

One of the joys for me this year has been discovering the theologian Matthew Fox. He encourages us to enjoy life. We should look at life as “original blessing,” not “original sin.”

Original sin theology turns us inward; we care about our own souls instead of about our bodies or about nature. Looking at life as original blessing turns us outward. It opens us up to the goodness all around us, in nature and in other people. We should feel good about ourselves — we know that God loves and has created a world of bounty for us to enjoy. If we savored more, we would buy less. We would be less compulsive, less unsatisfied. We would work less and play more.

One of my favorite times of the day is early in the morning. I get up at least an hour before everyone else in the house. The house is quiet. I can do two of my favorite things: drink coffee and read.

My wife suggested a few months ago that we stop buying coffee in a can from grocery store — it doesn’t have much taste. It’s like drinking hot colored water. Instead we buy fair-trade coffee. We buy the beans direct from the coffee growers in Central America and Africa. They sell the coffee beans at a coffee shop in downtown Oklahoma City. I buy a new bag of coffee beans each week from a different country.

This week we are drinking coffee from Guatemala. The beans have a slight taste of white peach, vanilla and honey. I start every day by savoring hot, flavorful coffee and by reading theology and social science, books that build my spirituality and expand my awareness of the world around us.

The kingdom of God is a party. Every day can be a party if we appreciate the simple things that give us pleasure. Your life is full of original blessing. Enjoy it.

DON HEATH is pastor of Edmond Trinity Christian Church. He may be reached at

donheathjr@sbcglobal.net.

Go easy on the caffeine if you’re heading to the Broadway revival of “Godspell” that opened on Monday night at the Circle in the Square. The cast of this relentlessly perky production of the 1971 musical, which transformed parables from the Gospels into a series of singable teaching moments, virtually never stops bopping, bouncing, bounding, even trampolining across the stage and up the aisles of the theater. It’s like being trapped in a summer camp rec room with a bunch of kids who have been a little too reckless with the Red Bull.

Conceived and originally directed by John-Michael Tebelak and featuring a tuneful score by Stephen Schwartz, “Godspell” was a monster hit when it opened Off Broadway 40 years ago, running more than 2,000 performances and later being turned into a cloying movie with a young Victor Garber as Jesus, sporting a nimbus of frizzy hair and clown makeup that I expect he sorely regrets.

Its afterlife in the wide universe of amateur, church and high school productions may be as formidable as that of any other musical of the era, thanks to its breezy, singalong pop score and its innocuous subject matter. (Nobody has a problem with onstage violence when it’s a matter of a certain Crucifixion.) The friend I took hadn’t heard the score in 20 years, having performed it in high school, but he remembered every word.

The new production, directed by Daniel Goldstein, asserts from its first moments that this is not your alma mater’s “Godspell.” On the contrary, it insists, with an eagerness that soon begins to grate, that the story of Jesus and his apostles is so timely you’d better start tweeting about it right this minute. (“OMG Jesus so hot!!!”)

The original book has been stuffed fruitcake-full of gags about contemporary figures and current trends. An abbreviated list would include Heidi Klum and Donald Trump, Steve Jobs and Lindsay Lohan, and even the inventor of the Shake Weight, whoever he or she may be. There are jokes about Facebook, naturally, and Occupy Wall Street, inevitably. (“Wicked” too: I guess even that megahit musical, also featuring a score by Mr. Schwartz and playing right next door, could benefit from some product placement.) How the marital foibles of Kim Kardashian managed to escape the frenzy of name-checking I cannot conceive.

The reference to the still-roiling roast-the-rich movement, at least, makes a certain amount of sense, since “Godspell” celebrates the idea that the spiritual life is of paramount importance, and among the many parables enacted peppily before us are several reminding that an obsession with material achievement will land you on the wrong side of the fence at the day of judgment.

But while some of the in-jokes are funny, and the audience seemed to enjoy them, most of the references felt like forced attempts to connect with a contemporary audience whose memory banks are like their ever-changing Facebook walls. You eventually start to wonder: If the story of Jesus and his apostles cannot be treated as timeless, what on earth can?

Mr. Schwartz’s score has also been modernized for the new production. The orchestrations by Michael Holland are more hard-charging and funkified than the originals, usually to the detriment of the songs’ gentle appeal. The original score encompassed a wide variety of musical styles — mostly folk but with some pop, rock and even vaudevillian razzmatazz thrown in. This version includes a new rap number that, like a lot of the contemporary jokes, somehow strikes a corny note. (The small orchestra, under the musical direction of Charlie Alterman, is seated among the audience.)

The exuberant cast, seemingly assembled to evoke the multi-sized, multicultural blend of big-voiced, bighearted kids on “Glee,” definitely keeps the show’s energy level from flagging for long (even when you sorely wish it would). They are dressed, by Miranda Hoffman, in whimsically ill-assorted attire that suggests dutiful foraging in amateur theatricals costume trunks as well as the sales racks at Urban Outfitters.

As Jesus, Hunter Parrish, who stars in the Showtime series “Weeds” and appeared in “Spring Awakening” on Broadway, has the mile-wide smile and twinkly blue eyes of a boy-band singer. Leading his disciples through a series of mixer games with tidy moral lessons embedded inside, he is so consistently airborne he begins to seem like a skate rat who’s left his skateboard at home. Mr. Parrish has a fine voice and sings his ballads — “Save the People” and “Beautiful City” — with a quiet ardency that appeals. He’s less persuasive in the aggressive “Alas for You,” although a murky sound mix might have been as much the problem as a lack of belting chops.

Throughout the evening the most appealing moments are the quieter ones. As the adulteress saved from stoning, Uzo Aduba performs “By My Side” (written by Peggy Gordon and Jay Hamburger) with a cool ferocity that brings out the deep need in her fervor for Jesus. Julia Mattison (the understudy for Morgan James) brings a sly seductiveness to her solo, the vampy, burlesque-flavored “Turn Back, O Man.” The show’s hit tune, “Day by Day,” is led effectively by Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, but its sweet simplicity is soon overshadowed by the busy musical staging of the choreographer, Christopher Gattelli, who seems determined to allude to every dance craze of the past 50 years during the course of the evening. (Blink and you’ll miss the Swim.)

Go easy on the caffeine if you’re heading to the Broadway revival of “Godspell” that opened on Monday night at the Circle in the Square. The cast of this relentlessly perky production of the 1971 musical, which transformed parables from the Gospels into a series of singable teaching moments, virtually never stops bopping, bouncing, bounding, even trampolining across the stage and up the aisles of the theater. It’s like being trapped in a summer camp rec room with a bunch of kids who have been a little too reckless with the Red Bull.

Conceived and originally directed by John-Michael Tebelak and featuring a tuneful score by Stephen Schwartz, “Godspell” was a monster hit when it opened Off Broadway 40 years ago, running more than 2,000 performances and later being turned into a cloying movie with a young Victor Garber as Jesus, sporting a nimbus of frizzy hair and clown makeup that I expect he sorely regrets.

Its afterlife in the wide universe of amateur, church and high school productions may be as formidable as that of any other musical of the era, thanks to its breezy, singalong pop score and its innocuous subject matter. (Nobody has a problem with onstage violence when it’s a matter of a certain Crucifixion.) The friend I took hadn’t heard the score in 20 years, having performed it in high school, but he remembered every word.

The new production, directed by Daniel Goldstein, asserts from its first moments that this is not your alma mater’s “Godspell.” On the contrary, it insists, with an eagerness that soon begins to grate, that the story of Jesus and his apostles is so timely you’d better start tweeting about it right this minute. (“OMG Jesus so hot!!!”)

The original book has been stuffed fruitcake-full of gags about contemporary figures and current trends. An abbreviated list would include Heidi Klum and Donald Trump, Steve Jobs and Lindsay Lohan, and even the inventor of the Shake Weight, whoever he or she may be. There are jokes about Facebook, naturally, and Occupy Wall Street, inevitably. (“Wicked” too: I guess even that megahit musical, also featuring a score by Mr. Schwartz and playing right next door, could benefit from some product placement.) How the marital foibles of Kim Kardashian managed to escape the frenzy of name-checking I cannot conceive.

The reference to the still-roiling roast-the-rich movement, at least, makes a certain amount of sense, since “Godspell” celebrates the idea that the spiritual life is of paramount importance, and among the many parables enacted peppily before us are several reminding that an obsession with material achievement will land you on the wrong side of the fence at the day of judgment.

But while some of the in-jokes are funny, and the audience seemed to enjoy them, most of the references felt like forced attempts to connect with a contemporary audience whose memory banks are like their ever-changing Facebook walls. You eventually start to wonder: If the story of Jesus and his apostles cannot be treated as timeless, what on earth can?

Mr. Schwartz’s score has also been modernized for the new production. The orchestrations by Michael Holland are more hard-charging and funkified than the originals, usually to the detriment of the songs’ gentle appeal. The original score encompassed a wide variety of musical styles — mostly folk but with some pop, rock and even vaudevillian razzmatazz thrown in. This version includes a new rap number that, like a lot of the contemporary jokes, somehow strikes a corny note. (The small orchestra, under the musical direction of Charlie Alterman, is seated among the audience.)

The exuberant cast, seemingly assembled to evoke the multi-sized, multicultural blend of big-voiced, bighearted kids on “Glee,” definitely keeps the show’s energy level from flagging for long (even when you sorely wish it would). They are dressed, by Miranda Hoffman, in whimsically ill-assorted attire that suggests dutiful foraging in amateur theatricals costume trunks as well as the sales racks at Urban Outfitters.

As Jesus, Hunter Parrish, who stars in the Showtime series “Weeds” and appeared in “Spring Awakening” on Broadway, has the mile-wide smile and twinkly blue eyes of a boy-band singer. Leading his disciples through a series of mixer games with tidy moral lessons embedded inside, he is so consistently airborne he begins to seem like a skate rat who’s left his skateboard at home. Mr. Parrish has a fine voice and sings his ballads — “Save the People” and “Beautiful City” — with a quiet ardency that appeals. He’s less persuasive in the aggressive “Alas for You,” although a murky sound mix might have been as much the problem as a lack of belting chops.

Throughout the evening the most appealing moments are the quieter ones. As the adulteress saved from stoning, Uzo Aduba performs “By My Side” (written by Peggy Gordon and Jay Hamburger) with a cool ferocity that brings out the deep need in her fervor for Jesus. Julia Mattison (the understudy for Morgan James) brings a sly seductiveness to her solo, the vampy, burlesque-flavored “Turn Back, O Man.” The show’s hit tune, “Day by Day,” is led effectively by Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, but its sweet simplicity is soon overshadowed by the busy musical staging of the choreographer, Christopher Gattelli, who seems determined to allude to every dance craze of the past 50 years during the course of the evening. (Blink and you’ll miss the Swim.)

Go easy on the caffeine if you’re heading to the Broadway revival of “Godspell” that opened on Monday night at the Circle in the Square. The cast of this relentlessly perky production of the 1971 musical, which transformed parables from the Gospels into a series of singable teaching moments, virtually never stops bopping, bouncing, bounding, even trampolining across the stage and up the aisles of the theater. It’s like being trapped in a summer camp rec room with a bunch of kids who have been a little too reckless with the Red Bull.

Conceived and originally directed by John-Michael Tebelak and featuring a tuneful score by Stephen Schwartz, “Godspell” was a monster hit when it opened Off Broadway 40 years ago, running more than 2,000 performances and later being turned into a cloying movie with a young Victor Garber as Jesus, sporting a nimbus of frizzy hair and clown makeup that I expect he sorely regrets.

Its afterlife in the wide universe of amateur, church and high school productions may be as formidable as that of any other musical of the era, thanks to its breezy, singalong pop score and its innocuous subject matter. (Nobody has a problem with onstage violence when it’s a matter of a certain Crucifixion.) The friend I took hadn’t heard the score in 20 years, having performed it in high school, but he remembered every word.

The new production, directed by Daniel Goldstein, asserts from its first moments that this is not your alma mater’s “Godspell.” On the contrary, it insists, with an eagerness that soon begins to grate, that the story of Jesus and his apostles is so timely you’d better start tweeting about it right this minute. (“OMG Jesus so hot!!!”)

The original book has been stuffed fruitcake-full of gags about contemporary figures and current trends. An abbreviated list would include Heidi Klum and Donald Trump, Steve Jobs and Lindsay Lohan, and even the inventor of the Shake Weight, whoever he or she may be. There are jokes about Facebook, naturally, and Occupy Wall Street, inevitably. (“Wicked” too: I guess even that megahit musical, also featuring a score by Mr. Schwartz and playing right next door, could benefit from some product placement.) How the marital foibles of Kim Kardashian managed to escape the frenzy of name-checking I cannot conceive.

The reference to the still-roiling roast-the-rich movement, at least, makes a certain amount of sense, since “Godspell” celebrates the idea that the spiritual life is of paramount importance, and among the many parables enacted peppily before us are several reminding that an obsession with material achievement will land you on the wrong side of the fence at the day of judgment.

But while some of the in-jokes are funny, and the audience seemed to enjoy them, most of the references felt like forced attempts to connect with a contemporary audience whose memory banks are like their ever-changing Facebook walls. You eventually start to wonder: If the story of Jesus and his apostles cannot be treated as timeless, what on earth can?

Mr. Schwartz’s score has also been modernized for the new production. The orchestrations by Michael Holland are more hard-charging and funkified than the originals, usually to the detriment of the songs’ gentle appeal. The original score encompassed a wide variety of musical styles — mostly folk but with some pop, rock and even vaudevillian razzmatazz thrown in. This version includes a new rap number that, like a lot of the contemporary jokes, somehow strikes a corny note. (The small orchestra, under the musical direction of Charlie Alterman, is seated among the audience.)

The exuberant cast, seemingly assembled to evoke the multi-sized, multicultural blend of big-voiced, bighearted kids on “Glee,” definitely keeps the show’s energy level from flagging for long (even when you sorely wish it would). They are dressed, by Miranda Hoffman, in whimsically ill-assorted attire that suggests dutiful foraging in amateur theatricals costume trunks as well as the sales racks at Urban Outfitters.

As Jesus, Hunter Parrish, who stars in the Showtime series “Weeds” and appeared in “Spring Awakening” on Broadway, has the mile-wide smile and twinkly blue eyes of a boy-band singer. Leading his disciples through a series of mixer games with tidy moral lessons embedded inside, he is so consistently airborne he begins to seem like a skate rat who’s left his skateboard at home. Mr. Parrish has a fine voice and sings his ballads — “Save the People” and “Beautiful City” — with a quiet ardency that appeals. He’s less persuasive in the aggressive “Alas for You,” although a murky sound mix might have been as much the problem as a lack of belting chops.

Throughout the evening the most appealing moments are the quieter ones. As the adulteress saved from stoning, Uzo Aduba performs “By My Side” (written by Peggy Gordon and Jay Hamburger) with a cool ferocity that brings out the deep need in her fervor for Jesus. Julia Mattison (the understudy for Morgan James) brings a sly seductiveness to her solo, the vampy, burlesque-flavored “Turn Back, O Man.” The show’s hit tune, “Day by Day,” is led effectively by Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, but its sweet simplicity is soon overshadowed by the busy musical staging of the choreographer, Christopher Gattelli, who seems determined to allude to every dance craze of the past 50 years during the course of the evening. (Blink and you’ll miss the Swim.)

November 6, 2011:  

It is now becoming the norm to have a lecture on de-stressing or coping with personal challenges at various industry conclaves. So, the IBA and IOB that are organising the bankers’ conference decided to have a lecture on ‘Spirituality and Management’ by Prof Kitu Reddy, Shree Auro Ashram, Pondicherry at the start of day 2. Prof Reddy urged bankers to first manage themselves before seeking to manage others.

Here are his mantras for them:

Fix an aim in life

Become aware

Learn to shift levels of consciousness

Integration of being

Right Attitude

Practise meditation

Gen Next just won’t budge!

It is not that easy to capture opportunities in India’s Generation Next. While addressing one of the breakout sessions on the subject, Mr Ashwani Kumar, Executive Director, Corporation Bank talked about his experience in trying to get his two children (working with MNCs) to shift their bank accounts to his bank. Neither loyalty, nor authority, nor dependence nor any other ‘card’, could make them shift. He admitted a bit ruefully that it was difficult to ‘acquire Gen-Next customers’. Public sector banks know what they are up against.

Challenges of serving Gen-Next

There have always been Gen Next in every decade. There was a Gen Next in 1980s, 1990s, 2000s… and so on. So what makes this Gen Next different? As Mr R. Ramachandran, CMD of Andhra Bank, put it, this Gen Next was like Indian cricket captain, M.S. Dhoni — ‘game changer’. There are over 500 million young customers who will be in the market wanting banking services — and wanting to be served through alternate channels — and accessing services without having the patience of the earlier generation. Instant service is the name of the game. Citing an example, another speaker pointed out how it would take 10 minutes for computers to log on a few years ago. This has now changed to instant log-on (at least with Apple machines). This also meant that banks must take their services to Gen Next rather than expect Gen Next to come to the bank, he said.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Nano in San Francisco on Sept. 5, 2007. Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs debuted on Oct. 24. / The Associated Press

Written by

Religion News Service

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Published: 11/5/2011 – Updated: 1 day ago

BY DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

Cynthia Lukas and Kell Kearns will be at First Unitarian Church on Friday for a screening of ‘Globalized Soul: Stories from the Tipping Point to a New World’. Enlarge

As filmmakers Cynthia Lukas and Kell Kearns traveled around the world filming Globalized Soul, their journeys left them brimming with optimism over stories they encountered of religion and spirituality having a positive impact on society.

Such stories usually don’t make the evening news, the duo said.

“The traditional media tends to talk about the conflicts of religions and spiritual paths, and they do exist mightily in some places, but we found it to be a very inspiring story, the fact that there are thousands of people coming together to discuss climate change, women’s power, sustainability, and interfaith harmony,” Ms. Lukas said in an interview this week from Santa Fe. “And the thousands of people are from all religious paths and philosophies — some of whom don’t even call themselves religious.”

Ms. Lukas and Mr. Kearns will be in Toledo on Friday for a screening of Globalized Soul: Stories from the Tipping Point to a New World, starting at 6:30 p.m., followed by a discussion of the film at First Unitarian Church, 3205 Glendale Ave. The event, sponsored by the church’s social justice committee and the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio Compassionate Community Project, is free and open to all. Donations will be accepted.

The duo have made independent films about religion since 1983, including Rumi Returning, a biography of the Persian poet that has been shown on more than 330 PBS stations. Their one-hour documentary began as an outgrowth of Ms. Lukas’ and Mr. Kearns’ work at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne in December, 2009. They were invited to be documentarians of the Parliament, filming such notable religious leaders as the Dalai Lama, Sister Joan Chittister, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Zen Buddhist Roshi Joan Halifax.

“When we interviewed scores of people in the Parliament, the film began expanding on us,” Ms. Lukas said.

“We knew that it would be more than a look at Rumi’s planet; it would be a look at the ‘globalized soul,’ if you will, that we believe is emerging at this moment of time when we need it the most.”

The essence of Globalized Soul is love and compassion, the filmmakers said.

They witnessed that world-changing combination in Palitana, India, where they were invited by Asha Mehta and her husband, Mahendra, who are members of the Jain religion. That ancient Indian religion of nonviolence was a major influence on Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, in his approach to peace.

Mr. Kearns and Ms. Lukas filmed the Mehtas leading a two-week “Mega-Mobility Camp” in which 29,000 artificial limbs, wheelchairs, and hearing aids were given to India’s poorest people, all free. The Dalai Lama visited the Mehtas’ camp to bless the work and to hold interfaith dialogue with the Jains.

“It was one of those serendipitous moments where the film was expanding on us and we realized that we had a different story to tell,” Ms. Lukas said.

They also traveled to Jerusalem, where Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi leader and founder of Jerusalem Peacemakers, turned his home along the Via Dolorosa into a center where Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others pray together, hold discussions, and share meals.

“Sheikh Bukhari told us that peace in the Middle East will not occur through negotiations and governments deciding, it is going to happen from the grass roots going up. When people make the decision and decide to live it, then the government will follow,” Ms. Lukas said.

A highlight of the film features hundreds of leaders of the three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Islam, and Christianity — coming together in Nazareth and sharing an Iftar dinner, a traditional Muslim meal that ends a fast.

“We think that even watching the Abrahamic reunion is inspiring to people in the audience,” Ms. Lukas said. “They see that this kind of interfaith harmony is possible even in a place that many would consider it least likely to exist.”

41.61142 -83.61874 Duo visit Toledo; screening of ‘Globalized Soul’ set for Friday.

Indigenous spirituality is enhancing the Christian tradition in many Philippine churches, as they retrace the local context of their faith – writes Maurice Melanes.

“There are several initiatives to bring indigenous spirituality into our churches, such as incorporating the chanting of indigenous peoples into our liturgy,” the Rev Ferdinand Anno, coordinator of the graduate programme of the Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in the Philippines, told ENInews recently.

He cited the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, which has been promoting indigenisation of worship. Supporting the initiative are seminaries like UTS, the Baguio City-based Ecumenical Theological Seminary, and the Central Philippine-based Silliman Divinity School.

He said through research and workshops, liturgy and arts students have tapped indigenous materials such as gongs, traditional drums and bamboos, instead of organ or piano, to enhance worship in some local churches.

“At our seminary, indigenous theology and spirituality is one perspective through which we are trying to review our historic doctrinal affirmations and traditional theological themes,” said Anno.

He said indigenous theologies are part of a course in contemporary theologies and is being offered as an elective in the Master of Divinity and Bachelor of Theology programmes. Those interested could also pursue graduate studies in indigenous theologies.

Since it became autonomous from the US-based Episcopal Church in 1990, the Episcopal Church of the Philippines was also given “an opportunity to integrate our indigenous faith expressions in our liturgy and music,” the Rev David Tabo-oy, Episcopal Church of the Philippines evangelism and Christian education coordinator, told ENInews.

He cited locally composed hymns, a Book of Common Prayer, and a liturgical guide, which integrate indigenous practices into church services.

In two separate forums earlier this month, Anno and Tabo-oy both stressed that divinity or spirituality is not the monopoly of Christianity, or any established religion, but is present in every culture. Hosted by Ecumenical Theological Seminary, the forums were part of a series of churches and civic groups’ activities in celebration of October 2011 as ‘Indigenous Peoples Month’.

“In solidarity with our indigenous peoples, let us draw our divinity or spirituality from the rich wells of our native wisdom,” Anno said.

Noting the indigenous peoples’ close affinity with the land and nature, Tabo-oy also said, “Their spirituality and values are incorporated with their way of life and are actually more spiritual than many Christians.”

Indigenous peoples, roughly 17 million or 16 per cent of the Philippines’ population of 100 million, are those who have maintained their traditional way of life, including their way of worship, as they have been less colonised by Spain and later by the United States.

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

* Also on Ekklesia: Indigenous theologians meet to ‘affirm spiritualities of life’ – http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/13984

[Ekk/3]