Spirituality

Humans have always sought for what’s been called the ‘sacred’. In this exciting new era what ‘sacred’ means is being reconsidered. Search for the sacred has taken many forms – spirit worship, goddess religions then worship of one God in Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Now we’re moving to greater consciousness, globally and individually. The personal call which many hear is to individuation. This is a natural transformation, taking time and intention to achieve integration of the Self. In it the movement is from focusing on an external God to focusing on the divine within. As conscious and unconscious ‘I’ are integrated, we become more self-aware. We ‘come home’ to ourselves. We realise we have always been deeply loved.

As individuals transform, higher levels of consciousness develop globally too. Increased compassion, awareness, kindness and more realistic care for each other and the planet grow. In this way effort put into individual growth helps the community and the planet too.

The stories within Christianity have resourced traditional faith. They image spiritual beings as external to us, according to the understanding of ancient time. Treated as metaphor and parable, these stories still resource a conscious faith today. We also look within, through meditation and reflection. Practices differ, but the spiritual journey still calls.

 

At St Andrew’s we are working on imagining, writing and gathering spiritual resources; prayers, reflections, songs, or liturgy (words used in a gathering for worship). We also enjoy resources written by other progressive thinkers and other New Zealanders writing for this time and place.