By Jeanette Pinkston*
March 3, 2009 | NASHVILLE, Tenn . (UMNS)

In a time of economic uncertainty, it may seem surprising or even foolish to offer a conference on the frontiers of Christian spirituality.

Yet perhaps the need for “A River Deep and Wide: Christian Spiritual Practices for the 21st Century” is greater than ever, according to the Rev. Jerry Haas, director of the Academy for Spiritual Formation and Emerging Ministries at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Participants attending the April 20-25 event at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville will be encouraged to open themselves up to see, hear and be in dialogue with others, while experiencing the spiritual wealth available in today's world of diversity, he said.

The event is co-sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, Scarritt-Bennett Center, “Weavings Journal” and the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Three of the primary presenters for “A River Deep and Wide,” weighing in by e-mail and telephone, believe the event will lift up some of the most important Christian spiritual practices that can help people get through times of crisis.

The Rev. M. Thomas Thangaraj, a faculty member at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurai, India, suggested “the massive and formidable character of our present economic challenges requires a spirituality that frees us from undue attachment to and craving for material goods and instills in us an authentic and active compassion for those who suffer in times of economic crisis.”

When crisis erupts, spiritual leaders can help restore peace and calm, but Christian leaders need to deepen their own faith as they reach out to others, he said.

Helpful legacies

The Rev. Barbara Holmes, dean at Memphis (Tenn.) Theological Seminary, stated that one of the important Christian practices that can help in times of economic crisis is an intentional turning toward historical legacies of the church, which can inform lives.

“Spiritual practices cannot be something bizarre or odd,” she said. “Spiritual practices should not be special behaviors for special occasions. Most of us do not have the time or the calling for the monastic life.”

Holmes, author of “Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church,” sees the gathering as a way of inviting the church to leave the shore and the safe, shallow waters and to once again plunge into the depth called for by Scripture.

A sense of community — that you are not alone — is a key spiritual practice that Native American author Ray Buckley plans to share with participants at the conference. One of the important spiritual practices is that in every situation of life you are not alone, said Buckley, a member of the denomination’s Alaska Missionary Conference and interim director of the Center for Native American Spirituality and Christian Studies in British Columbia.

“The community is involved with you. Even in problem solving, you come together and you end up with consensus. There is also among our traditional people a very strong sense of prayer, and that is true of our Christian traditions as well. In our traditions, everything you did was an act of prayer,” he said.

Called as neighbors

The conference will also address the diverse interfaith and multicultural context in which the church finds itself. “The United Methodist Church has a document in the Book of Resolutions entitled, ‘Called to be Neighbors and Witnesses.’ That’s what we’re called to be today, and this conference is designed to help us live out that call,” Haas said.

“A River Deep and Wide” will include contemplative spiritual practices from Native, Africana, Hispanic and Euro-American perspectives.

“In times of stress, the tendency is to go inward and defend what we know,” Haas said. “Yet there is another pull inside us. God may be inviting us to build relationships across barriers that separated us in the past.

“Christians know that Jesus called the forgotten and the needy into community precisely in a time of crisis. Beyond that, we are also called to be neighbors to those whose beliefs are different than (ours), to listen to our common longings,” he noted.

Conference participants will meet, listen, pray and discover resources that will assist them in drawing power and nourishment from the deep and wide river. “You do not have to be tied down to failed postures and worn-out practices,” Thangaraj said. “A new and vibrant spirituality is waiting for you.”

Buckley, who wrote “Dancing with Words: Storytelling as Legacy, Culture, and Faith,” believes that there is a genuine hunger to know what God is doing in the lives of other people. “Some of our greatest theology has come out of times of desperation and despair. We are all related — everybody around the world,” he added.

The conference is open to all. Registration is $225 or $175 for students. For more information, call (877) 899-2781; Ext. 7233. Visit http://www.upperroom.org/river/registration.html to register online.

*Pinkston is director of media relations for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resource

United Methodist Board of Discipleship

United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns

Scarritt-Bennett Center

Weavings Journal