Thinking about Circles, Churches and the People I Care About (Review of the
September/ October 2004 edition of Horizons Magazine)
by
Viola Larson
In the latest issue of _Horizons_, ‘Thinking Outside the Circle,” Charlotte
Johnstone in her funny story ‘Dispatch from forbearance Presbyterian Church:
Recess For Peace,” pictures the reactions of church members to a new part
of the service called ‘Passing the Peace.” My church, like many other
mainline churches, has the same kind of event in their services. While we
don’t actually pass the peace, we do stand and greet those around us. I
laughed at this story because I saw many of the same real characters in my
church as those Johnstone pictures in her story. And that includes a person
who refuses to participate and sits with her eyes closed while others smile,
laugh and talk around her. I thought about these people in my church, in
particular the women, as I read this recent edition of _Horizons_. How will
this material affect them in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?
Will they be drawn closer to Christ or move farther away? In order to answer
these questions I have also moved outside of a circle, that is the circle of
this particular _Horizons_ magazine. I have drawn on the material they are
linking with and drawing from.
One of the articles, ‘Thinking inside the Circle,” by Steve Shussett refers
to Dorotheos of Gaza, a sixth century abbot. Shussett writes about
Dorotheos’ concept of a circle as a means of picturing how when we draw
nearer to God we are drawing nearer to others. The actual quote is:
Imagine a circle with its centre and radii or rays going out from this
centre. The further these radii are from the centre the more widely are
they dispersed and separated from one another; and conversely, the
closer they come to the centre, the closer they are to one another.
Suppose now that this circle is the world, the very centre of the
circle, God, and the lines (radii) going from the centre to the
circumference or from the circumference to the centre are the paths of
men’s lives. Then here we see the same. Insofar as the saints move
inwards within the circle towards its centre, wishing to come near to
God, then, in the degree of their penetration, they come closer both to
God and to one another; moreover, inasmuch as they come nearer to God,
they come nearer to one another, and inasmuch as they come nearer to one
another, they come nearer to God. It is the same with drawing away. When
they draw away from God and turn toward external things, it is clear
that in the degree that they recede from the central point and draw away
from God, they withdraw from one another, and as they withdraw from one
another, so they draw away from God. 1
Dorotheos is therefore, writing about the saints, those who belong to Jesus
Christ. Additionally, it must be added that if those writing about religious
actions, even actions of care and concern focus on a different deity or a
false spirituality, they will turn those in the circle away from the center,
toward external things, drawing them away from the Biblical God and in the
end away from each other. The articles about care, ‘Encircling CareSupport
For Caregivers,” by Pat Gleich and the one on ‘Creating an Inclusive
Community,” by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, about the needs of the disabled, are
good and helpful articles, but they are mixed in with other articles, links
and hints that lead women away from Jesus Christ, the center.
The most offensive article is, ‘A Circle in Trouble,” by Jean Shinoda
Bolen. The article only gives faint hints of what is really underneath.
Bolen writes, ‘When the energy in a circle feels off’, anyone can ask for
silence for each woman to check-in with herself.” or, ‘Sometimes a women
does not belong in this circle because she cannot hold onto her center or
connect to the center of the circle, or keep confidences, or see others or
herself clearly, and she needs to leave for the good of the circle,” or ‘Am
I projecting my shadow onto someone?” Does any of this sound Christian? If
not, there is a reason. Bolen is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and a
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California Medical
Center. She is also the author of such books as, _Crossing to Avalon;
Goddesses in Everywoman, and, Crones Don’t Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for
Juicy Women_. She is also the author of _The Millionth Circle: How to Change
Ourselves and the WorldThe Essential Guide to Women’s Circles_, the book
featured in Horizons as a recommended resource. It is also the book the
article was taken from. In writing the book Crossing to Avalon, Bolen was
writing of her own spiritual journey. She writes:
To cross to Avalon is to remember the archetypal Mother, the Goddess, in her
several forms and many names, to discover the feminine mysteries and the
sacred in embodied experiences. Avalon exists where divinity dwells in
nature and quickens it in the pilgrim. Where there is feminine divinity,
there is access to Avalon. But once patriarchal relgion [sec] and male gods
prevailed, Avalon, the Grail, and Goddess all disappeared into the mists of
time.2
In writing her remarks about her book, _The Millionth Circle: How to Change
Ourselves and the WorldThe Essential Guide to Women’s Circles_, and the idea
of women forming circles to change the world toward peace, on her Cyber
Circles web site, Bolen writes:
This is an invitation to form circles of wisewomen, women’s spirituality
circles, crone circlescircles with a spiritual centerthrough this web
site. Imagine yourself in a circle of women, meeting together around a
fire in the center of a round hearth. The fire in the center of the
circle is a symbol of divinity, of spirit or soul, of goddess or god;
it’s the archetype of the Self in the center of your psyche, as it can
be in the center of a circle, and as such, is a source of emotional
warmth, spiritual and psychological illumination, wisdom and
compassion.3
Additionally, _Horizons_ invitation to women to connect with a circle by
joining ‘Peace X Peace” leads toward the same encounter with a false
spirituality. While some of the leading members of this group are Moslem
women in this and other countries who are genuinely attempting to bring
democracy and betterment to oppressed women and peace between warring
factions, many other leaders, particularly in this country, are members of
the goddess, new age, and human potential movements, including, Jean Shinoda
Bolen, (see above) and Barbara Marx Hubbard. And they are using their
religious worldviews to guide the movement. In one paper guiding this
movement Hubbard writes of the ‘deep democracy” needed to change the world.
She believes this is connected to an evolving human consciousness and writes
of its beginning.
The time has come for deep democracy to take more visible form
throughout the world. The good news is, it is arising subtly and
invisibly, based on several emerging evolutionary potentials in the
personal, relational, and social arenas.
First, is our personal yearning and potential for self-evolution. Deep
democracy takes form among us as we learn to become ‘higher
self-governing” that is, when the individual begins to be self-governed
from within by that aspect of self that is the higher, the inner, the
spiritual, the ‘essential self” that is one with deeper Reality or God,
however we call it.4
Another rather troubling article in _Horizons_ is, ‘Girls Becoming Women:
Rites, Responsibilities and Reality,” by Robin Miller Curras. Some of the
ideas in this article are good; that is, mothers and daughters communicating
and connecting. Mothers should find a way to insure that daughters feel free
to discuss any aspect of their lives, including sexuality, with their
mothers. And mothers should be responsible for giving their daughters sound
and loving knowledge about sexuality. Also listening to experts who are
knowledgeable about such matters can be helpful. But, there was much missing
from this article that should have been part of the ‘how to” as well as the
‘ritual” aspects of the information. The only mention of God is in relation
to the gift of sexuality and in the closing prayer at the end of a newly
created ritual commemorating the movement of young women, from girlhood to
woman. Although there are many questions raised in the article, there is
little mention of biblical helps, or even of moral teaching as a means of
answering the questions. The ritual for mothers and daughters seems to be
void of any Christian terminology until the prayer. This lack of a Christian
world-view about sexuality in an article that refers to older women as
crones, a term used by Wicca, and pagan women spirituality groups, is not
helpful.
Christians need to be aware that they are now living in a world where
ritual, particularly newly created ritual, is a dominant focus in new pagan
religions and women’s spirituality groups. Since the Christian church is
also a place where ritual is important two different things can happen.
Either the beautiful rituals of Christianity focused on the wonders of Jesus
Christ can draw the pagan into the safe fold of Jesus Christ, or the
candles, circles and other forms of ritual can become so void of the gospel
that they are open to being filled with the darkness of paganism. Rituals
full of the beauty of Christ can bless girls growing into women, as can
mothers, who lead them to Christ and nurture them with the scriptures.
There is a beautiful picture of God’s care for his people, his lambs, and
those about to give birth, in Isaiah. ‘Like a shepherd He will tend His
flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He
will gently lead the nursing ewes.” (Isaiah 40:11) This focus of God’s love
for his people is also the picture of Jesus carrying the lost lamb back
home. God loves the world but is bound in covenant to his sheep by the
cross. God’s love for his sheep includes anger at those who would mislead or
cause offense to his little ones (Matt. 18: 6). He calls the offensive ones
thieves, because they steal, kill and destroy the sheep (John 10: 10). He
calls the offensive ones wolves because they snatch and scatter the sheep
(John 10: 12). This seemingly harmless issue of _Horizons_ is linked to
false spirituality and is noxious to the sheep that belong to Jesus Christ.
___________________
1 E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer (translators), _Early Fathers from the
Philokalia_ (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1954), pp. 164165. Found at
Touchstones archives, ‘I Have Called You Friends An After-Dinner
Conversation on Christian Friendship by Addison H. Hart [1]
2 Found at http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com/bk_avalon_ex.html [2]
3 Found at http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com/cybercircles.html
4 Barbara Marx Hubbard, ‘Deep Democracy,” at
http://www.peacexpeace.org/peacepapers/marxhubbard.html.
[1] http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/author.php?id=33