One of the most profound workshops was offered by Bruce Sanguin, an ordained minister of the Canadian Memorial United church who writes and speaks about evolutionary Christianity.
When I was growing up in Conquest Saskatchewan, our family attended the United Church of Canada. I believed then that there was no longer vitality in that religion. In fact, although I loved my parents, friends and family who attended, I believed that few of them believed, actually believed, in "heaven" or even an afterlife.
Consequently, when I started to awaken spiritually, I rejected the church of my childhood. Life has many twists and turns, doesn't it?
Rev. Bruce Sanguin blew me away. He is a Christian mystic, whose poetry affects me as deeply as does the Sufi mystic, Rumi. How could this man be part of the church I had rejected out of hand when I was in my thirties?
As I said to him after his workshop, if I had known that the United Church produced such extraordinary mystical thinkers, I may never have left it. Then I thought about my path, which led me away from Canada to the United States and the ministry I love and I realized that I would not change a thing. I can appreciate a poet and evolutionary thinker while still loving the principles of Science of Mind.
There is always a choice and we are on the right path now.
I am including Bruce's beautiful poem, "What Choice is There?"
When your words
are an assault
that drive me from our blessed unity
to take cover behind ego's bomb shelter,
my brave soul steps out
into no man's land,
waving a white flag.
What choice is there,
but to follow my courageous soul,
into enemy camp,
and there
sit with you in the living room
of your suffering,
and share a cup of hot tea?
I have only one question:
How has my love failed you?
Okay, two:
How is it that my ecstasy
has caused you
so much pain."
We find wisdom in unexpected places. Bruce Sanguin has written several books that you can buy on Amazon.com.
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