Letting Go

Sat, November 8, 2008

How do you do a spiritual journey?
How do you get ready for a pilgrimage?

These two questions challenged me months and weeks before boarding the plane on November 4th. Are they too trivial to share and are readers interested in what I wresteled with during trip preparation? Knowing that ministers and people who know me through my work in the church influenced my early decision to avoid these concerns as an open conversation, but as of now I have decided to share this experience as authentically as I can.

We’ve been traveling for five days so far, two days of air travel and our third night in Cape Town, South Africa. Adjusting to the time zones passes between us now as a humorous refrain, “Does anybody really know what time it is?” We’ve done well getting on the local schedule. It helped that we left a few days early because that made space in the schedule to transition before the pace picks up. Adding to the complication, it is Spring here in the southern hemisphere. Fortunately, the weather is similar to the November east coast Indian summer days we left behind. (For the sake of accountability, is Indian summer one of those terms that needs scrutiny or abandon? Let me know so that I can edit my vocabulary.)

In these three days we have experienced and learned so much that I need to get grounded again. Perhaps one of the first important lessons about how to do a spiritual journey is to be open so that there is room for new understanding. Bill, Maria, Eric and I have been in this conversation.

The need to make room for the new may seem obvious, but it isn’t easy. I started meditating months ago, cut my hair real short, tied up, rescheduled or transferred as many work items as possible, all in an effort to “LET GO.” I tried to pack light, because I dislike paying for overweight luggage and wanted to be able to handle my bags. Of course a few items didn’t make the final cut that I wish were here now, but I can do without.

One of the last things to go was my election-obsession. Traveling on Election Day made it inevitable. When we boarded the plane from Boston to London, I was thrilled that every seat had its own TV screen, “Yeah! Where is CNN?” Well, British Airlines carries BBC News and the few minutes of U.S. politics were a day or two old. So, I finally settled down and let go of needing to hear the state by state tabulation results. Eric and Maria shared earlier that polite applause rose up when the pilot announced that Barack Obama had won.

I thought I had beat the high cost cell phone roaming fees ($1.49 per minute) with text-messaging, but once we took off from Heathrow Airport in London the T-mobile and Sprint signals were gone. I let go of my electronic gadgets too.

And last, there is a flat screen TV in my room. After checking, I found a U.S. news station that was replaying Obama’s Grant Park acceptance speech. By evening the announcer was digitally-frozen in front of a microphone with the Washington Monument in the background. If she moved, of course she'd update us on the election, but I resigned and let go of TV too.

It sounds a little funny and a bit exhausting. Letting go is not easy, especially when we are not aware of how tightly we hold on to so many things. It is comfortable to be attached to things, ideas and people who occupy our space and attention. Detaching from the familiar is a necessary challenge in order to be present and make new connections.

This pilgrimage is a story told by four travelers and shaped by the people we encounter as we cross the African continent. The four of us will also be reshaped as we live for the next few weeks in a new land. Already people, information, deep conversations and fresh contexts are stirring up our emotions.

Sharing this story for me is an act of letting go: it is an act of faith. It is hard. It means risking being known and unknowing. It means trusting connections old and new. It means arriving here in six different African countries, each time as a stranger and returning home both stranger and more familiar than how people knew me at my departure.
I guess this is about transformation.

Recent Events

It's Saturday night (November 09) and the last three days in Cape Town have been very full for President Sinkford and his companions on this pilgrimage. In the previous blogpost you'll find information about President Sinkford meeting Archbishop Tutu. On Friday we also visited the "Slave Lodge" musuem in Cape Town which serves as a witness to slavery in South Africa from the 17th - 19th centuries. We'll be posting more about that experience shortly. Later in the day we attended a lecture entitled "Democracy, Freedom and Faith" by the current Archbishop of Cape Town (a successor to Archbishop Tutu), the Most Reverend Thabo Makgoba.

Rev. Makgoba framed his lecture with what he described as a well-known but controversial piece of scripture (Romans 13:1): "Every person must be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except by God's permission. The existing authorities have been established by God." He asked that people apply the lens from Liberation Theology to this verse in order to provide it with context. The particular lens he offered was "critical solidarity" between church and state. And, he suggested that in South Africa this has often meant "too much solidarity and too little criticism".

He remained confident that solidarity was called for and necessary between the church and the South African Constitution which he believes can be "God's servant for Good." But, that it is essential to criticize policies and decisions which are in conflict with the Constitutional Vision.

In a very interesting way, the Archbishop described how religious understandings of "Covenant" can be usefully applied to "Critical Solidarity", and particularly how a "covenantal" view differs from a "contractual" view in regard to civil society. Quoting the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, he described how moving from Contract to Covenant means moving from:

• Interest to Identity
• Transactions to Relationship
• Benefits to Transformation
• Competition to Cooperation

He pressed the point that Constitutional Democracy should be more like a covenant than a contract, and that when it does so it can serve as a vehicle of Redemption. He boldly suggested that world leaders move in this direction, especially in the context of international economics - and that he had mentioned these ideas in a recent congratulatory letter to President-elect Obama.



Needless to say, we were all deeply touched by the Archbishop's ideas. And, we spoke with each other and Reverend Gordon Oliver (the former minister of the Unitarian Church of Cape Town and the former Mayor of Cape Town during the struggle to end apartheid) long into the night. The path of our pilgrimage is being deeply shaped by each of Friday's events.

Meeting and Worshipping with Archbishop Desmond Tutu

President Sinkford was warmly received by Archbishop Desmond Tutu at St. George’s Cathedral for morning worship on Friday, November 07, 2008. With a small congregation of worshipers that consisted mostly of visitors to South Africa, the retired Archbishop of Cape Town brought a very human touch and deep spirit to the formal liturgy. For example, during the unison reading of Psalm 122 he asked that the congregation pause briefly after each sentence. But, when the congregation did not pause long enough he laughingly chided that, “We won’t get to heaven if we read it like that!”

The gospel text was the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16) and the prayer lifted up leaders and countries experiencing bloodshed and conflict. We prayed for the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, for the people of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and that the leaders of Zimbabwe would find a path toward peace. Conflicts in the Holy Land and between India and Pakistan were raised in prayer, as was the important work of all religious and human rights leaders.

In an impromptu moment during the service Tutu thanked the American people for showing wisdom in their election of Barack Obama as our next President, describing how the world rejoices at the new opportunities that his election provides.

Following the service President Sinkford presented the Archbishop with a inscribed copy of the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, as a token of our collective esteem and appreciation for the Archbishop’s long years of leadership and as a gift that would help the Archbishop know more about our faith.

Reflecting on the service and meeting Archbishop Tutu, President Sinkford highlighted the essential role of religion to inspire “human agency” in order for the “beloved community” to come about, “Scripture describes how ‘those who have eyes to see and ears to hear’ will not fail to recognize the challenges before our world, and the responsibility we have to repair what has been broken.”

Arriving

After the long flight from London, we arrived at the Cape Town, South Africa, airport at 6:30 this morning (Thursday). What a pleasant place to begin this pilgrimage! There is almost a small town feel: no crowds, just a wave to get through customs, and friendly faces everywhere.

First impressions are always subject to revision, but Cape Town has the look and feel of a multi-cultural city that is both confident and relaxed in that identity. I heard many languages from many cultures as we walked to lunch and saw every shade from white to the darkest brown.

But I was drawn to the faces, silently asking whether I would see myself among these people. Asking whether the heritage that I embody would be welcome. Will this be a homecoming, or will I be a stranger in a strange land. I think I will be asking those questions in all the places we will visit. But the easy "good morning's" I exchanged with those I passed could have taken place at a Sinkford family reunion as easily as in Cape Town.

This afternoon we had a long lunch with Rev. Roux Malan of the Cape Town Unitarian Church. The congregation was called together by Rev. David Faure, a Dutch Reformed minister who rejected the strong Calvinism (predestination and human sinfulness) of that tradition. He was promptly excommunicated and formed what is now the Cape Town Unitarian Church in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, the Dutch Reformed Church was a primary supporter of apartheid. In recent years, that church has issued a public apology for that support.

Tomorrow we attend a mass led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the St. George Cathedral. He has invited us to have coffee with him after the service.

The trip is off to a good start.

The journey has begun

The pilgrims are now in London as we await the continuation of our fight to Cape Town, South Africa. We're filled with anticipation and great hope for the opportunities before us. Over dinner, before departure, we talked about how much we have to learn from leaders in various social justice causes: from Truth and Reconciliation leaders, from HIV-AIDS activists, from LGBT leaders and many others. We reflected on the gratitude we feel for the chance to develop closer relationships with our Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist colleagues here. And, we began to explore the complex thoughts and feelings that are present for each of us at the prospect of visiting Goree Island. Our hearts are full, and our excitement is great

The flight out of Boston was somewhat delayed, which meant we had the good fortune to hear some very early election results before we boarded the plane. The outcome was still far from certain, however, until the pilot announced that Barack Obama had been elected our next President just before we touched down in London. The passengers offered a round of applause at the news.

After arrival, I saw the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki , on television offering his poignant congratulations saying, "We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots. Your victory is not only an inspiration to millions of people all over the world, but it has special resonance with us here in Kenya." I'm sure that the results of the US election will add a special quality to our visits during this journey, especially those in Kenya.

So, its on to Cape Town shortly. We'll post more to the blog after we've arrived. Please continue to hold us in your warm thoughts and prayers.