Dear WesleyNexus Colleagues:
This is a particularly important time for those of us in the WesleyNexus constituency, as we plan on our seventh annual Evolution Week-end in Maryland, scheduled for February 9, 2020. The event will originate once again from the Baltimore-Washington Conference United Methodist Mission Center in Fulton, Maryland, and, funds permitting, we will live-stream the event across the country and the world. We urge all who are leaders in local congregations to schedule a discussion group that afternoon and access the event through a wi-fi connection, utilizing the occasion to surface issues of faith in a world of 21st century science. Those of you who have been with us for some years now – we encourage you to remember us in your year-end philanthropy, and we will acknowledge all gifts at the end of the year with a letter appropriate for inclusion in your annual tax filing. A flyer headlining the event is found on our website suitable for downloading and posting on your church bulletin board and including in your January church newsletter., Please be certain to stay connected in the weeks ahead as we post further updates and information as it becomes available.
In the coming year, we will continue our mission to bring you the best resources at the intersection of science and Christian faith. We will need your financial support to continue this important work. WesleyNexus is a 501(c)(3) charitable, educational organization, and we will acknowledge all gifts from individuals for tax reporting purposes. Thanks in advance for your support.
Our address is:
WesleyNexus, Inc.
24500 Fossen Road
Damascus, MD 20872
Blessings to all and merry Christmas,
Rick, Jennifer, Maynard, and the rest of the WesleyNexus team.
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Evolution Weekend in Maryland 2020 – Livestreaming February 9
Flyer is available here: https://wesnex.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/FlyerEvolutionWeekend2020.pdf
WesleyNexus plans to sponsor a Seventh Annual Evolution Weekend program in Maryland, and if funds permit, we will live stream the event once again for churches and colleagues across the country. Our program in 2020 most likely will take place at 4:00 pm Eastern time so that mid-west and western churches can participate. The theme for this event will be PATRIARCHY: In Science, in Education and in the Church. A distinguished panel is on hand for presentations, followed by Q & A:
In Science: Dr Amy Swain (Warffeli) will keynote. Amy’s scientific background is in structural biology, which is a cross-cutting field that enables scientists to visualize molecules. After doing research at the National Cancer Institute and then Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., Amy entered science program administration where she has supported the advancement of structural biology technologies for researchers. At the National Institutes of Health from 1999-2016, Amy supported biomedical research and, since 2016, has been supporting biological and environmental research at the Department of Energy. Amy is a member and active lay person at Grace United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
In Education: Dr Caryn Musil will keynote: An Associate Director for the American Association of Colleges and Universities, Dr. Musil was raised Episcopalian, but she says, “It was the First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia that brought my husband and me back to the church after a long hiatus. Part of the attraction in 1976 was that FUMCOG had already shifted the language of the Lord’s prayer to “Our Mother/Father,” had a gender inclusive “homemade” hymnbook, and married gay couples. I was teaching women’s studies at the time at La Salle University so being part of a feminist worship was critical for me.” After moving to DC, Caryn and her husband have been active at Westmoreland Congregational UCC.
In the Church: Dr. Carla Works will keynote: Recently raised to full professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, Dr. Works is professor of New Testament. Her research interests include Pauline studies, the New Testament’s use of Israel’s scriptures, biblical ethics, and theological interpretation. She holds a Master’s degree from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Princeton. A published author, mother, minister’s wife, and native Arkansan, she incorporates into her teaching anything from Dr. Seuss’s stories to the Arkansas Razorback “hog call” to help illustrate a point. She is passionate about teaching, student learning and deeply committed to the church.
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OMEGA Conference 2019 – Love at the Heart of the Cosmos: Living in relational Wholeness
Over a 48-hour period, December 6-8, 2019, more than 100 people gathered at the Chestnut Hill College conference center west of Philadelphia for the second annual conference sponsored by the Omega Center at Villanova University. Many others joined the sessions via an on-line registration. The event was a great success and the Omega Center received many touching testimonials. Omega Center Director Ilia Delio opened the Conference on Friday evening and introduce the keynote speaker, Dr. Matthew Fox, who gave a comprehensive summary of his lifelong testimony as to the power of reflection and inner commitment to peace and justice. Concluding his remarks, he showed a series of slides created by several of his students depicting the “stations of the cross” and these are available on the website for all to see: https://omegacenter.info/matthew-fox/
On Saturday morning, we heard from physicist Kathleen Duffy, a former president of the Teilhard Association, who spoke on Teilhard’s legacy. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) has gained a central place in progressive 20th century theology, and continues to be influential today. Dr. Duffy’s remarks were organized into three parts: 91) Evolution, in which she outlined how Teilhard spoke of a “creative union” – a broad process at each stage of evolution, where something new emerges, each with more capacity and novelty than what has come before, (2) Complexity, characterized by the “strange attractor” holding components together at the edge of chaos (illustrated by a flock of starlings which forms a swarm for defense when a falcon predator appears, each individual cooperating and accepting a goal of species survival greater than itself, and (3) Incarnation, a dynamic phenomenon that integrates spirit and matter, manifest within the human as an active spirituality. This conviction led Teilhard to his notion of the Cosmic Christ, a divine presence seen in all of creation and the hope of the future. Following Dr Duffy, Dr.:Cynthia Bourgeault gave a plenary lecture on Centering Prayer, and the afternoon was spent in a variety of small group discussions.
On Saturday evening, we all heard Dr. John Haught, professor emeritus at Georgetown University, lead our thinking on the broad questions of a faithful theology in the 21st century, framed by the epic emerging story of the unfolding universe. This was a familiar theme for those of us in the WesleyNexus community, since we were treated to a similar comprehensive view when Dr. Haught led an all-day workshop for us last year. Dr. Haught uses the image of 30 volumes to show the temporal scale of the universe – each page representing a million years. 450 pages in each volume. There is no life in the first 22 volumes, only 4.6 billion years for earth. At the end of volume 29 is the Cambrian explosion, when multi-cellular life takes off, and intelligence appears only in the middle of page 450 in Volume 30. Page 386 is when the dinosaurs die – it is only then that Darwinian evolution speeds up in the last 64 pages. The message of Christ to us is that the whole of creation is redeemed… Naturalism and the new atheists can only see an improbable universe, but what we see is that the potential for intelligence was implanted at the beginning – Incarnation. This is the only way the universe as a coherent story carries any meaning. Meaning is embedded in the narrative projected backwards and forwards. Why did it take so long? Teilhard says it is too early for us to see an answer clearly – don’t we have to wait to see? His point: NOW may be the dawn of meaning, the inside story…. Intelligibility emerges only as things come together, complexity, not reductionism, which breaks things down to their simplest parts. This is what Teilhard means – Activation of Energy – we participate when we are grasped by the Not=Yet. God is Omega. Love fulfills God’s promise of redemption for all creation. The world is unfinished, but we have the promise that God makes all things new (Revelation).
The Conference concluded on Sunday with a final culminating lecture by Sister Ilia Delio, where she continues to challenge everyone present, as well as theologians elsewhere, to envision how unfinished humanity’s converging journey toward Omega progresses in continuous complexity and consciousness since Teilhard’s day. In all of her work, reflected in her books and teaching, Dr. Delio challenges us all to open new windows to the divine mystery, our evolving personhood, our deepening consciousness, and to express in our own lives the energies of love needed to move humanity and the universe itself toward its fulfillment. Conferees were provided an experience of Teilhard’s Mass on the World, and the event concluded with a panel of the Conference leaders. The Omega Center plans on presenting four webinars in the coming months and another conference each December, so we encourage everyone on the WesleyNexus network to go to the website and register for these events as they are announced. https://omegacenter.info/