Anthony DeMello writes: do you see how you are in a prison created by the beliefs and traditions of your society and culture and by the ideas, prejudices, attachments and fears of your past experiences?
I am realizing today once again how much we are a product of our context and experiences. We take our world view and want to generalize it and impose it upon the rest of the world. I ponder how do we live out John Wesley”s call for unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials and in all things charity. So what are the essentials of the faith in which we need unity. And are we from our particular context making something essential that are really are not?
We are debating today the covenant of clergy and should there be a mandatory penalty for breaking the covenant. But the penalty is being legislated for one particular action of breaking covenant. I find that covenant is by broken by clergy all the time. We are imperfect people living by grace. I have broken it many times myself when I have spoken ill of another clergy, when I did not respond to another’s needs, when I did not offer my best towards the work of the mission of making disciples. So is there a mandatory penalty for that as well?
What does it mean to be generous towards one another? How can we have thoughtful, careful conversations about what is essential and what is non-essential, and how can we name our own prisons of thinking and become more aware of how that shapes my actions./em>
This Life 
Comments on: "What Limits Our Thinking" (2)
Cindy, your comments are becoming a kind of spiritual examination of conscience for the General Conference, concurrent with the deliberations there. Thank you for bringing soul-work into play as a layer of discernment and discovery beyond the immediate surface of the legislation. Blessings in Christ, Clay
Thank you for bringing to light what’s happening there in Tampa. I truly appreciate your thoughtful commentaries, although they frighten me a bit. So much to do. So little time.
Marcia