Some thoughts on Anglican Franciscanism - part five b - Cathy Ross's input on Hospitality
Cathy's second session was entitled "Creating Space: Hospitality and Community".
Cathy began by saying the most important word in theology is "with". And "with" leads us to hospitality. Cathy went on to explore what that might mean using "Making Room, Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition", by Christine D. Pohl.
The first theme is Hospitality as Welcome of Guest and Stranger. From the beginning of the biblical story Israel experienced God in hospitality in welcoming the guest and stranger (Abram and Sarai and the three strangers) and this continued on into the New Testament story with those following the Way of Jesus - (the road to Emmaus, and Peter and Cornelius). That Way has been carried on by people like Dorothy Day who said, "There He was, homeless. Would a church take Him in today – feed Him, clothe Him, offer Him a bed? I hope I ask myself that question on the last day of my life.I once prayed and prayed to God that He never, ever let me forget to ask that question."
She went on to remind us of ubuntu - I am because we are. "It speaks to the very essence of being human. When you want to give high praise to someone we say, “Yu, u nobuntu”; he or she has ubuntu. This means that they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means that my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs." Desmond Tutu. In this time of division and exclusion, of belittling and vilifying it is good to remember and to remind ourselves of the previous days input around lament as resistance and hope.
Cathy continued with her second theme of Hospitality as Seeing the Other, quoting Christine Pohl. "Hospitality resists boundaries that endanger persons by denying their humanness. It saves others from the invisibility that comes from social abandonment. Sometimes, by the very act of welcome, a vision for a whole society is offered, a small evidence that transformed relations are possible." Ot the more sobering quote from Fergal Keane, "What kind of man would kill a baby? What kind
of man?” He concluded after having experienced the hatred, the evil and the lack of
recognition of the other’s right to exist, “What kind of man can kill a child? A man not born to hate but who has learned hatred. A man like you or me."
Thirdly she explored Hospitality as Nourishment. Here she quoted Robin Wall Kimmerer's fabulous book "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Called the work of "a mesmerizing storyteller with deep compassion and
memorable prose" (Publishers Weekly) and the book that, "anyone
interested in natural history, botany, protecting nature, or Native
American culture will love," by Library Journal, Braiding Sweetgrass is poised to be a classic of nature writing. Womensbookshop says "As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks questions of nature with the
tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she
embraces indigenous teachings that consider plants and animals to be our
oldest teachers. Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together
to take "us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is
scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise"
(Elizabeth Gilbert). In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses
of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the
younger brothers of creation." I cannot recommend it enough. It is one of the great gifts on this time.
Cathy quoted from this book as a way of taking us back to Doughnut Economics the day before, "Gratitude doesn’t send you out shopping to find
satisfaction, it comes as a gift rather than a commodity, subverting the foundation of the whole economy. That’s good medicine for land and people alike."
The next theme was Hospitality from or at the Edges. Quoting Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder she said, "A guest is always a blessing, for a guest brings new ways of seeing and understanding the world… Guests also need to be sensitive to the fact that learning to accept hospitality gratefully and graciously is perhaps the best way to be of service to their hosts.
Finally she explored Hospitality as Creating Space, Using Henri Nouwen she said "Hospitality… means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place."
There was a lot here. But I am grateful for all she offered, and this chance to refresh my memory of what she offered. If all I took from her time was Braising Sweetgrass I would be grateful. But there is so much more that needs reflecting on. And this is me doing some of that work. Next I will look at what Jeff Golliher offered
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