Old Ebenezer Chapel
The findings and prospective findings of the Vera Rueben telescope are astonishing. The sea of stars and galaxies is large beyond our understanding. We seek words which can help us know what we yearn to do that we may live in peace and astonishment with our neighbours. We seek wisdom.
In our wider cultural history, as far back as Plato and Aristotle, the cosmic values of Truth, Goodness and Mercy have been values for seekers after Wisdom. These three values have been called, ‘The Three Transcendents.’ In recent years, a fourth virtue has been added to this list, the virtue of Unity.
There are and have been many Spiritual Leaders who help us in our search.
The Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader for many Buddhists and non-Buddhists. He is notably not a member of a religion because Buddhism is classified as a philosophy rather than a religion. With his many public appearances, the Dalai Lama has won our hearts with his gentle ways and open-hearted laugh. When he speaks, we listen. He has often said that his religion is kindness. He also says that his religion is compassion. Joy is one of his most noticeable characteristics. Joy and balance seem to follow and surround him. He says that compassion is an active position which flows from kindness.
Compassion is defined in Merriam -Webster as :
sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.
The name which describes what most of the World religions and spiritual movements give this consciousness is ‘The Golden Rule. ‘
A few years ago, I witnessed the way ‘The Golden Rule’ was being studied by a group of Middle-schoolers near Toronto airport in the basement of a small heritage building, Ebenezer United Church, near Toronto airport. The students came from the houses of the neighbourhood. Many were homes of large multi-generational families. It was a community with many Sikh families and other families from backgrounds rich in diversity.
This was the church in which I was pastor during the early 90’s, in the three years before we moved from Toronto to Denver. On the day I am speaking of now, my husband and I had decided to drive by the church since it was near where we were staying. We heard laughter inside so we tried the church door and went in.
When I was the pastor, the church was not a heritage building. The simple structure sat just off the highway at the juncture of Gore Road and Ebenezer Road. The surroundings were farmland, farmhouses and dairy cattle.
On the day of our visit, inside the church the advent candles and Inclusive language books I had given them when I was the pastor were there on a shelf. The pews, pulpit, communion table and piano were still in their traditional places. I noticed a bulletin board that showed that this was still a functioning part of The United Church of Canada.
As my husband made himself comfortable in one of the pews, I made my way downstairs to where the kids’ voices led me. The students were seated in a circle around an attractive young woman, their teacher. Beside her on a white board was a square green blue and gold poster with the title, ‘The Golden Rule.’ On it was a list of 19 Religious symbols with the names of the religions, selected from a list of names of hundreds more. Each religion or spiritual group showed a name, a symbol and a definition of ‘The Golden Rule” from that group’s perspective.
The teacher asked me why I was visiting them there that day. I explained that my husband and I were in the region for the weekend attending the wedding of my sister’s son and his bride. The students noticed that my hands were painted with henna flowers. A girl asked about that and I explained that two nights before all the women of the young couple’s family had been dancing together in the home of a family. We mostly didn’t speak each other’s language, but dancing and smiling are good communication tools. There were murmurs of interest and lots of smiles.
The teacher asked me to tell something about what the church had been like when I was there. I told them that there had been no basement, no toilet and no modern heating. One of the farmers from the congregation rose early Sunday mornings to come to the church in cold weather to start up the old stove and perhaps shovel the parking lot. I told them that the congregation were mostly dairy farmers and the descendants of dairy farmers. They laughed when I told them that the elderly farmer who had lived across the road from the church used to drive his tractor backwards to church on Sunday mornings.
I told them about the ways the congregation had been loving and fun loving with each other and with me. We had lots of parties with wonderful goodies. The women of the congregation had fed their families and seasonal workers during harvest season. I told them that the minister in the church before I was there had been in the final stages of life when the congregation hired me. His cancer had progressed. He asked the congregation to ask me to come to visit him in hospital so he could give me his blessing in person. I went and then came back and told the congregation about it. It had been a great way for me to begin to get to know them all. The congregation also paid me to visit the local nursing home on their behalf.
I talked for about another 10 minutes. They were surprised to hear that a woman in her eighties came early every week to help me put on my white robe and to pray with me before the service.
I thought to myself, no wonder this space seemed to be a place of goodness suitable for students like them to study what might help them learn to become more loving and wise.
Then I thanked them, and they and their teacher thanked me. I climbed the stairs and my husband and I went on to catch our airplane home to Vancouver.
I love to remember the energy for understanding the richness of diversity that group seemed to have. This week I found this dear old church on the internet. It has been redone to be very solid. On the website you can see a sketch of the old church and photos of what is new. www.oldebenezerchapel.com
We, in this time, seem to be encouraging ourselves and others to create positive experiences where we can meet other people and share compassionate loving relationship.
A few weeks ago, a link came into my email from my son, who has been, among other things, a teacher. The link connects to a lovely and exciting story about compassionate care for others who need encouragement and friendly relationship.
It is about a restaurant in Tokyo called, ‘The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.’ The link shows delightful film clips of people with friendly smiles meeting each other in a restaurant. The notice on the front of the restaurant says that all the food served to the diners will be delicious even though it may not be exactly what the diners had ordered. This is because all the wait staff are in reasonably manageable stages of dementia. Mistakes will be made and graciousness will prevail. What is being given by the organizers, the wait staff and the diners is an opportunity for people to meet and be friendly and compassionate with each other. It is meant to build relationships.
I hope you open the link and enjoy the film footage. I hope you learn new ideas for meeting others in the spirit of compassionate love.
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