Spong Lecture-Can You Believe It?

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"Biblical Scholar & Author Bishop John Shelby Spong To Speak at First Church" was the title of the post I saw on a local news website. I've heard of Bishop Spong. Anyone who has taken a college bible course in recent times as well as anyone who has done bible study has likely heard of his books and liberal (unorthodox) Christian perspectives. The FREE program was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.).

I was intrigued about attending since I am reading/studying the Gospel of John and Spong's most recent book is about the Fourth Gospel. First Church is also within walking distance of where I live and I've never been inside (although have gone past many many times). Also, in the interest of exploring new places and possibly meeting people who have similar interests.

Sign in front of Church.

First Church-location of the lecture.

Naturally, as I entered the church I was greeted enthusiastically by a greeter (ala pretty typical nowadays)-similar to what you'd encounter when going to a automobile dealer to buy a car. I sat towards the front in a position where I hoped I could see and hear. I noticed that most of the attendees appeared older than me (i.e., nursing home crowd) with only a smattering of young adults and no teenagers. I guess that should be expected given the title of the lecture (see above).

At the front of the church was a music combo playing jazzy versions of standard Christian hymns. After a short introduction by a female host/moderator, Bishop Spong was introduced. The format was:

1 - 2 pm: Lecture
2 - 2:30 pm: Q&A
2:30-3 pm: Intermission/Break
3-3:45 pm: Lecture
3:45-4:15 pm: Q&A
4:15 pm: Book signing.

Bishop Spong at First Church (Courtesy of First Church FB)

I wish I had taken notes or recorded the lecture and questions so that I could have studied it more thoroughly. However, I was more curious and less serious. So my thoughts below are more random and jumbled impressions rather than a cohesive summary or analysis.

Apparently the 84-year old Bishop is extremely hard of hearing. He had a lot of difficulty understanding the questions during Q&A. Despite a universalist  portrayal, he insisted that a woman ask the first question and then alternate male and female questioners. That was to demonstrate his support of feminism. Thank God he didn't throw a racial quota in because almost all attendees were white.

Question & Answer at First Church (Courtesy of First Church FB)

At the start of Intermission, I turned around and was surprised and delighted to see someone I know. It was a female colleague from a professional society that I belong to. Roberta was accompanied by her RC friend Mary Sue (with a bad knee). We retired downstairs to a large room where cookies and apple cider were provided (and the musical combo was providing hymnal sounds that made it difficult to chat - why must there be a musical soundtrack for everything?).

Here are some of the points I remember from Bishop's Spong's presentation:

• The world has changed and what worked in the past religiously no longer works (thanks in large part to evolution).
• Life begins when a fertilized cell splits into two cells. He related that as something scientists use as the basis for determining if life exists on other planets. This supervised me  because it would be a strong argument against abortion (and abortion is a feminist right).
• Our behavior is largely driven by our desire for survival (surprise!) which apparently is not a good thing per Spong's religion because it is self-oriented.
• Self-consciousness is something akin to sinfulness and being human. We really become human when we become self-aware.
• He is fond of his wife and is blessed by their marriage.
• Love is all you need. Love wins, etc.
• He doesn't like fundamentalists. No fundamentals anymore (except as he defines).
• He doesn't believe in creeds although he has no reservation saying them every Sunday during church services.
• Sin doesn't make sense. The Fall (Adam & Eve) is an obsolete, inaccurate myth.
• Apparently there is no Hell or Devil (although he worked hard to avoid answering a pretty specific question. Deafness comes in handy sometimes).
• He likes RC Pope Francis and the direction the Pope is taking the RC Church. However, he is still perturbed about the RC church not having women priests and being against birth control, abortion, etc.

And what was Spong's answer to the question posed by the title of the lecture (see above)? I think the answer is "sort of." He apparently doesn't see the afterlife as any sort of continuation of human life, certainly not a risen body and spirit. It seems like he perceives the afterlife as not really life but rather being absorbed into God. I probably agree with the general sense of this position. However, I think the gist of the question was really to question the value of religion in modern society.

Surprisingly, he still considers himself a Christian. I was fortunate to ask the final question. So I asked (I forget the exact words) if Christianity was still a viable concept. I was thinking along the lines of how so much prejudice against Christians exists today. Bishop Spong firmly claimed Christianity and called for people to redefine Christianity (from those pesky fundamentalists and traditionalists).

After the program was finished, I stayed and bought a soft bound copy of his recent book on the Gospel of John (see picture below) and got him to autograph it. The only other time I stood in line to get an autographed book was for The Cat Who Went to Paris. I plan to write a separate post about Spong's book when I am done reading it.

Spong's recent book (2013)

So did I accomplish my goals for this lecture? Well, I did get to see a bit of the inside of First Church; I did get an autographed copy of the Fourth Gospel book I wanted to read; I did meet people. On the other hand, First Church is too radical for me (too left) and I don't think I would be comfortable there. My beliefs don't align with what is proclaimed by First Church. So I don't see myself returning on a regular basis. However, if a program is interesting, I would return for the program. Spong's lecture was sponsored by a library they have. This might be worth exploring more. I looked through their upcoming calendar and didn't see anything worthwhile to me. Like most modern churches, there  is no sign of Bible study but plenty of "progressive" oriented activities.

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Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelby_Spong
http://www.whfirstchurch.org
https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/735-john-shelby-spong-anglican-nightmare
http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062011305/the-fourth-gospel-tales-of-a-jewish-mystic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Who_Went_to_Paris

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Written: Tuesday 8 December 2015.

Day Light (at Cedar Hill)

Last night I attended the final tour of the season at Cedar Hill Cemetery: Hallowed History Lantern Tour. It was cold!

This afternoon, I returned to the cemetery in the day light. I wanted to walk and see parts of the cemetery that I hadn't encountered during the regular tours.

I parked my car near the flag pole, the usual starting point for tours. I proceeded to walk clockwise along the perimeter roads (see map below).

Map of Cedar Hill Cemetery

View from car at start. Looking west.
Flagpole is to the left (out of picture).

Unusual monument with red tree in background.

Fatima scene.

Divine figure.

One of the more unusual monuments was one that looked a pile of wood logs (see picture below). The medallion on the front reads: "Erected by the Woodmen of the World." The small caption is a Latin phrase, " Dum Tacet Clamat" which reportedly means "Though silent, he speaks." The Woodmen of the World are apparently still in existence, essentially as an insurance company. They were originally a fraternal organization (men only). One of the perks was a tombstone such as the one shown below (there are other shapes you can find on the Internet).

Pile of wood logs grave monument.

Closeup of medallion on the above log pile monument.
"Erected By The Woodmen of  the World"

Another marker had an interesting carving of St. Michael (the Archangel) slaying the dragon (i.e., the devil/satan/evil one, etc.).

St. Michael the Archangel killing the dragon (Satan).

Beautiful blue sky with bright orange leaves (ideal Fall day).

It turned out to be a great walk. The cemetery is much larger than I knew. There is plenty of room for more graves. A truly beautiful place. So many fascinating markers, historic people, and serene grounds. The eastern part slopes upward so that one can see miles in either direction. One could spend eternity exploring this place and its various citizens.

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Links:

http://www.cedarhillcemetery.org
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2015/10/lantern-tour-at-cedar-hill.html
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okmurray/wow.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoodmenLife
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Written Saturday 28 November 2015

Lantern Tour (at Cedar Hill)

On Friday night, October 30th, I found myself walking around a dark, cold cemetery. Happy (early) Halloween? Sort of.

It was another tour of Cedar Hill Cemetery. This tour is called the "Hallowed History Lantern Tour." It is the only night that Cedar Hill Cemetery is open to the public (after dark). The tour involved 10 stops at selected graves where character actors shared their true (yet dark tales).

Like other Cedar Hill tours, I did not take notes (Hey, it was dark!). I brought my camera but I thought that flash photography might be disruptive so my pictures were limited to the available light and turned out pretty dark (surprise).

Earlier Cedar Hill tours were free for me thanks to my "Let's Go Arts" (support) card. Otherwise tours cost $5. However, this Lantern tour cost $15 per person (for everyone). Also had to make a reservation. I think they had groups leaving every 15 minutes between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. My reservation was for 9 p.m. The tour was sold out.

As usual, the tour began at the Flag pole.

I arrived at ~8:35 p.m. The night was cold and dark yet the sky was clear. I was shocked at the large number of cars; I had to drive down a dark drive pretty far to find a spot (along the road). Then to hike back to the usual Flag pole starting place (this is essentially the entrance to the cemetery proper). There were a couple portable lights (powered by portable generators) that lit the area (sort of ala Close Encounters)

After checking in at a tent/booth I had to wait a few minutes for others to arrive (no one I knew). There was probably about 20 in the group (mostly adults oldies like me along with a few college-age couples and a couple teenagers with their parents).

Our group had two women guides, one at the front and one at the rear (to prevent stragglers from getting lost). The route through the cemetery was marked with green glow sticks along both sides of the path/road. It reminded me of an airport runway at night.

Speaking of planes, towards the beginning of the tour, we heard a single engine airplane flying low overhead. There is a small airport nearby. Several people commented that the engine noise sounded like something was not right. It sounded like a riding lawnmower with a bad spark plug. I assume it made it back okay since there was nothing in the news about a plane crash.

This is from Cedar Hill's FB page. Since it was published before the tour
I assume it is from last year (2014) or earlier.

While our guides had large flashlights and many of us had flashlights too, it was still pretty dark. When we arrived at each stop, the guide turned off her flashlight and turned on the portable light and the character actor (in period costume) stepped out from behind the tombstone/marker they were hiding behind. The actor gave a short talk about the particular deceased. The story usually had a twist or dark side.

This is one of my pictures. Note the green glow stick at the foot of the woman
another glow stick is at the left, at her waist level.

One of the stops involved a woman who lost her son in a crewing/rowing accident. At the end of a race, the boats collided and the rowers fell into the river. Her son drowned. She attributed it due to his exhaustion at the end of the race as the reason he was not able to stay afloat.

This gentleman's story involved one of the first major train crashes in Connecticut. "He" was a doctor returning from a medical convention in New York when the train ran into the river because a draw bridge was in the UP position. He was not killed (he was in the first car that did not go into the river) but spent hours treating the injured and attending to the dead.

Even the tour only lasted an hour, I was happy and eager for it to end because I was very cold (there were no bonfires for warmth).

The last station was memorable because it involved a woman who died as a result of a fire works accident. One of the rockets went awry and shot into the crowd instead of going up in the air. Her leg was injured when the rocket exploded near her foot. She was taken to the hospital and it was thought she would survive but for unknown reasons she died a few days later.

Most of the stories involved people who lived (and died) during the 1800s (19th Century).  One of the stories was about artist William Gedney Bunce. Bunce  died on November 5, 1916 when he was hit by a car while crossing the street after getting off a trolley. He was one of the first traffic fatalities in Hartford.

As a safety & insurance professional, my thoughts centered on potential liability for slips, trips, & falls due to walking around on uneven surfaces in the dark. There was also the potential for someone to get lost in the dark while looking for their car after the tour. Now, these kinds of accidents rarely happen but they are possible. Use the buddy system.

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Links:

http://www.cedarhillcemetery.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick
http://cedarhillfoundation.org/notable-residents/william-gedney-bunce
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Written Saturday 28 November 2015