The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples

AMERICAN DREAMS

( Will still be performing in Bay Area parks through Sept 8 )

The Mime Troupe is bringing our current critically-acclaimed original play to the widest possible audience - the whole world!

ON VIMEO FOR A LIMITED TIME, FOR AUDIENCES ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD TODAY through Sept 8, 2024 (11:59pm PDT)

Visit sfmt.org/vimeo to watch FREE until Sept 8!

To access for FREE use promo code: powertothepeople

Though FREE we encourage you to make a suggested donation of $20 by using the donation link on the Vimeo page.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2024/08/10/g-s1-16380/photos-family-of-michael-brown-jr-marches-on-ferguson-10-years-later/

Photos: Family of Michael Brown Jr. marches on Ferguson 10 years later Michael Brown Sr. said, “I’m not gonna never let the world forget about my son,” he told St. Louis Public Radio on Friday. “We wanted to show what he did in his life before the hashtag.”

August 11, 2024
”Commitment To Life”- Message from Dr. Benton
https://youtu.be/Mq0bObq88W8

The meaning of commitment as a discipline of the body is not far to seek.
The theme is ancient, as old as self-consciousness in the life of the human being.
It is part of the wisdom of the body, one of the abiding characteristics of life,
so biologists tell us, in all its manifestations.

The opening words are from Dr. Howard Thurman in his book, Disciplines of the Spirit. He devotes an entire chapter to commitment…seeking lessons from biology…from the body. He also said, …mind and spirit cannot be separated from the body in any absolute sense. This is a truth that has been elusive in our society. We have become so separated from our bodies and from the earth, that we have abdicated our responsibility for caring for them. We even doubt our ability to connect to the wisdom of the body that allows us to even make a commitment to life. The good news is that this has been changing. We are beginning to integrate this wisdom into our societal structures. I have experienced this in my own practice in psycho-therapy. This past week, I have noticed that I have rarely spoken with a person without either noticing what is happening in my own body or suggesting that they notice what might be happening in their own body. (This is what led to the choice of music with which I started.) I no longer can ignore the power inherent in our body to heal…to make sense out of life and ultimately to provide the basis for a commitment to life. Thurman was building on the scientific truths, but also the spiritual truths of fellow seekers and mystics throughout history. He says that the theme is ancient…as old as self-consciousness in the life of the human being. From the time that we evolved into self-conscious beings, commitment was part of the wisdom of our body and indeed of our soul. Thurman continues:


Commitment means that it is possible for a person to yield the nerve center of their consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to them than whether they live or die.

I love how Thurman uses the phrase the nerve center of their consent! This highlights the connection of our body and our mind…our body and our soul. He is again bringing in the truth gleaned from science…from our ability to investigate life processes in order to understand life. It is the truth that we not only go about the business of survival, but that we are also companioned by an inner guide…a witness to our existence, that is more concerned with an ideal…their commitment, even more perhaps than whether they live or die. This has been beautifully illustrated in so many spiritual traditions…traditions such as the Upanishads, ancient Hindu texts…

Two identical birds that are eternal companions perch in the very same tree. One eats many fruits of various tastes. The other only witnesses without eating. (3.3.1. Mundaka Upanishad)

https://youtu.be/xtOD_5tJb3A

These identical birds perched in the tree of life are eternal companions. They allow each other to co-exist in relative harmony, for without the rootedness of eating and surviving, there would not be life. Yet, without the witness, the one who is unchanged by the vicissitudes of life, we would not be able to experience the unity that is creation.

Thurman writes about the one who is determined to live…to eat of the many varied fruits of life’s tree like this:

At the core of life is a hard purposefulness, a determination to live. There is something dogged and irresistible about the methodical way life pounces upon whatever may be capable of sustaining it, and will not release it until its own sustenance is guaranteed or fulfilled.

This is a powerful drive…one that Thurman goes on to say can be activated when all the conditions are met, he says, the energy of life is made available. Often, we do not trust in this process…this process of making a commitment, but it is essential to life. Yet in order to experience ourselves as whole, we need to go beyond this. We need the steadying force of the witness. This is the one who is able to take the time to sit quietly…like this meditation/prayer from Tagore. Let’s actually take the time to sit with this eternal companion. Instead of turning away to our striving, our work, it is important to take the time to just be. A time to experience the Spirit of Life.

Time to Sit Quietly
I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by Your side.
The works that I have in hand I will finish afterward.
Away from the sight of Your face, my heart knows no rest or respite,
and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.
Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs;
and the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowing grove.
Now is the time to sit quietly, face to face with You,
and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.

https://youtu.be/LikvoIiN_bU

This moment of acknowledging the summer, the bees, the spirit of life is something that we need every day…it needs to be our constant…eternal companion. It is part of our essential nature… our essence. This is not something that we can put off to a later time. The time is now to connect, not only with our bodies and spirits, but with our shared inheritance, our shared present and our mutual future. Kabir says this so eloquently…

O friend! hope for the divine whilst you live, know whilst you live,
understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living,
what hope of deliverance in death?

It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with the all-pervading spirit because it has passed from the body:

If the Spirit is found now, It is found then,
If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death.
If you have union now, you shall have it hereafter.
Bathe in the truth, know the true Guru, have faith in the true Name!

Kabîr says: 'It is the Spirit of the quest which helps;
I am the slave of this Spirit of the quest.

He is the slave of this Spirit of the quest! He has surrendered to this Spirit…he has come to the realization that a commitment to this quest is a daily striving…a daily commitment to life. With the support and guidance of the inner Guru…the true Guru a person is able to make this commitment to life…bringing to bear upon a single purpose all the powers of their being, their whole life will be, in the words of Howard Thurman, energized and vitalized.

I’d like to leave you with another meditation on the commitment of our inner guide to the part of us that has to continue walking this life. It may provide energy and vitality for the days ahead. We will not walk alone…we have the support of our inner witness…the bird that does not have to survive, because it is eternal.

https://youtu.be/EbH3HJvh2N0

Nina Simone _ Ain't Got No...I've Got Life و نحن نحب الحياة ... إذا ما إستطعنا إليها سبيلاhttp://www.facebook.com/nouhibou.alhayeta

AUGUST 9, 2024 Team Genocide Walks Out on Nagasaki Commemorations!
"In an astonishing disregard to the survivors of the 1945 US nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, several Western countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Italy and the UK have just dropped a bombshell: announcing their ambassadors are shunning this week’s commemorations in solidarity with Israel."

Team Genocide Walks Out on Nagasaki Commemorations In an astonishing “F**k you” to the survivors of the 1945 US nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, several Western countries including the US, Australia, Canada,

Vatican official calls for Church leadership in shaping ‘Ethical AI’Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect for the Holy See’s Dicastery for Communication, has called for the Church to take a leading role in shaping the ethical framework for artificial intelligence (AI), as he spoke at the Philippines' 7th National Catholic Social Communications Convention.

Vatican official calls for Church leadership in shaping ‘Ethical AI’ Herald Malaysia - daily news source with Malaysian and Global coverage of the Catholic Churches. Catholic News,World Christian News, Malaysia Church News

Only Revolutionary Love Can Save US Now!

The City of Saba
By Rumi

https://youtu.be/Y5xNStofPQ0

In the city of Saba there is a glut of wealth.
Everyone has more than enough.
Even the bathstokers wear gold belts.

Huge grape clusters hang down on every street
and brush the faces of the citizens.
No one has to do anything.

You can balance an empty basket on your head,
and it will fill by itself
with overripe fruit dropping into it.

Stray dogs stray in lanes
full of thrown-out scraps with barely a notice.

The lean desert wolf gets indigestion
from the rich food. Everyone is
satiated with all the extra.

There are no robbers. There is no energy
for crime, or for gratitude.
And no one wonders about the unseen world.

The people of Saba feel bored
with just the mention of prophecy.

They have no desire of any kind. Maybe some
idle curiosity about miracles, but that's it.

This over-richness is a subtle disease.
Those who have it are blind to what's wrong,
and deaf to anyone who points it out.

The city of Saba cannot be understood
from within itself, but there is a cure,
as individual medicine, not a social remedy.

Sit quietly and listen for a voice
that will say, Be more silent.

As that happens, your soul starts to revive.
Give up talking, and your positions of power.
Give up the excessive money.

Turn toward the teachers and the prophets
who do not live in Saba. They will help you
grow sweet again, and fragrant and wild and fresh,
and thankful for any small event.

Please join the National Council of Elders on August 6, 2024, at 3:00 PM Pacific for its extraordinary King and Breaking The Silence event via Zoom. The title of the event is “Only Revolutionary Love Can Save Us Now,” and it expands on Michelle Alexander’s concept of Revolutionary Love.
Here is a link to the website in order to register: https://kingandbreakingsilence.org/

https://youtu.be/Y26FNVsCJ50

“Greensboro: Closer to the Truth,” by Adam Zucker features Nelson and Joyce Johnson and their role in the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission ever held in the United States (2004-2006) which dealt with the Greensboro Massacre of 1979.

Greensboro: Closer to the Truth Greensboro: Closer to the Truth, by Adam Zucker, uses the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission ever held in the United States—which tackled the Greensbo...

An old poem from a Palestinian writer, poet and revolutionary, Ghassan Kanafani. He was assassinated by Israel in Beirut Lebanon, in 1982 at the age of 36.

Students can’t be silenced! In Bangladesh the government stepped down and took flight!

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees country as protesters storm palace Authorities have imposed a nationwide curfew and cut the internet for several hours, as the country braces for a fresh round of demonstrations.

Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy cities; to kill and maim whole populations, children among them. In a nuclear attack, children are more likely than adults to die or suffer severe injuries, given their greater vulnerability to the weapons' effects. https://www.icanw.org/children

The Impact of Nuclear Weapons on Children Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy cities; to kill and maim whole populations, children among them. In a nuclear attack, children are more likely than adults to die or suffer severe injuries, given their greater vulnerability to the effects of nuclear weapons: heat, blast and radiation.

Please join the National Council of Elders on August 6, 2024, for its extraordinary King and Breaking The Silence event via Zoom. The title of the event is “Only Revolutionary Love Can Save Us Now,” and it expands on Michelle Alexander’s concept of Revolutionary Love.

Media - King and Breaking the Silence Media We invite you to download, use and share any of the media on this page We invite you to copy the invitation language below and share it with your […]

Saving love! A conversation with Artificial Intelligence!
Is love worth saving?

Saving love! A conversation with Artificial Intelligence! - GoAmour Sometime ago I was working on the idea of GoAmour.com, I subscribed for a month to the latest version of ChatGPT 4.o. Being in tech for 25 plus years I had a specific desire to discuss the concept of love with AI. If AI and tech is a reflection of humanity it can be either a positive or a negative r...

Message from Rev Doctor Blake, Aug 4th, 2024

Deep River (Arranged by Coleridge-Taylor) – Sheku Kanneh-Mason

https://youtu.be/v_KMY_D9W4M

I have shared with some of you that I have never been fishing. When I was a child, my father went fishing some but not much. He was drafted into the army during World War II and became a corporal by the end of his two-year term of service. He was designated a sharpshooter. That ability he used in hunting supplemented the family’s food supply. My mother, who was a culinary genius, would make delectable whatever game he brought home. I had trouble viewing the pre-cooked animal. The face, particularly the eyes, troubled me. They were indicting me as though I had taken their life.

Over the years friends have suggested that I take up fishing as a hobby. I have always rejected that idea because of my lack of patience. I could not see myself sitting on a riverbank for hours and not coming home with dinner. This is the primary reason fishing had been suggested as an activity that would bring calm to my life. I also had problems with the hurtful and deadly deception of luring the fish to what they perceived as dinner only to find themselves with a hook in their mouths and dinner for the fisherperson.

This squeamishness also prevented me from dissecting a frog in my biology class although a pre-med student.

When I became vegan for medical reasons, I asked what I could not eat and was answered anything with a face or that came from something with a face. Ah! That was a gift.

I now find myself in love with a beautifully moving film where fishing is centered, Mending the Line. Here’s one description of the film: A Marine wounded in Afghanistan is sent to a V.A. facility in Montana where he meets a Vietnam Vet who teaches him how to fly fish as a way of dealing with his emotional and physical trauma. That is its surface meaning. It is a deep dive into human personality and its need for a place and experiences of unconditional love where the oneness of life is a fact.

Dr. Howard Thurman says that we are surrounded by the love of God.

I am surrounded by the love of God.

The earth beneath my feet is the great womb out of which the life upon my body depends comes in utter abundance. There is at work in the soil a mystery by which the death of one seed is transformed a thousandfold in the newness of life. The magic of wind, sun and rain creates a climate that nourishes every living thing. It is law, and more than law; it is order, and more than order - there is a brooding tenderness out of which it all comes. In the contemplation of the earth, I know that I am surrounded by the love of God."

Not everyone has the deep mystical rapport with life that Thurman has. Sometimes our days are collections of disappointments, challenges, emptiness, and fatigue. We often feel that we are in combat with life and losing. Often, we feel abandoned when the world around us is not the world needed, when the nation and neighbors refuse to be the nation and neighbors that must come into being. We tire of constantly reacting to the machinations of repressions but have not the energy nor luxury to create something different. Yes, continuous trauma can leave us more cranky than creative.

Someday We'll All Be Free
Song by Donny Hathaway

Lyrics

Hang on to the world as it spins around
Just don't let the spin get you down
Things are moving fast
Hold on tight and you will last
Keep your self-respect, your manly pride
Get yourself in gear
Keep your stride
Never mind your fears
Brighter days will soon be here
Take it from me, someday we'll all be free, yeah
Keep on walking tall
Hold your head up high
Lay your dreams right up to the sky
Sing your greatest song
And you'll keep going, going on
Take it from me, someday we'll all be free
Hey, just wait and see, someday we'll all be free, yeah
Take it from me, someday we'll all be free
It won't be long, take it from me, someday we'll all be free
Take it from me, take it from me, take it from me

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donny Hathaway / Eddy Howard
Someday We'll All Be Free lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

https://youtu.be/cv1B0ejhFVE

Someday We’ll All Be Free – Donny Hathaway
A quote from Mending the Line, “So you stand in the river, facing upstream with the water rushing down upon you, as if it could somehow fill the hollow emptiness. And somehow, it always does.”

Colter has returned from Afghanistan where he was the only survivor of a campaign in Afghanistan. It was a mission that those under his command rejected. Their tour of duty was over they said and asked why the Marines could not use the newly arrived platoon for this particular campaign. Colter reminds them that they are Marines and Marines respond when called upon. The Marines are ambushed. All are killed except Colter. Although he wants to physically heal as soon as possible so that he can re-enlist and return to combat, the therapy model based on AA does not work. He walks out violently disrupting the ambiance created to assist with the healing. Somewhere near the beginning of the film the statement is made that sometimes survival is your punishment. The idea is a potent one and reminded me so much of the experience of an older brother, Neal, during the Vietnam War. His platoon was also ambushed leaving him as the only survivor. The question of why was a deep one. Why was he alive while others perished? This is called survivor’s guilt which gnaws away at the mind and soul. Fly fishing as a way to heal is suggested to Colter. There is a Vietnam Veteran, Ike Fletcher, who experienced similar trauma due to similar experiences in Vietnam and finally settled on fly fishing as the place of healing and total acceptance and resilience.

Mending The Line - Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDX6SUuRMuA

Lucy, a librarian, who becomes a friend of Colter, reflects on life, the life of trout, and their teachings for humans.

So, it was one morning I stood there, without even casting, and with no trout rising. And as the water rushed past me, I knew it was washing my burdens behind me, swirling them downstream like the autumn leaves. There’s a great deal about living, the trout can teach us...They teach us how to keep swimming, even in a steady current.

Trout know that if they stop swimming, they cease to be trout and begin to become debris, floating without purpose, wherever the current may take them. Trout know that if they keep swimming, facing into the current, perhaps in the eddy of a rock, all that they need to truly live will eventually come to them. I learn a great deal from trout. Flyfishing connects you to the trout’s world…and in doing so, your own.

How pertinent is this insight for us today? We too must keep swimming, being resilient, hoping endlessly, and trusting the rivers of life. If we cease striving, we lose our own lives. We are no longer children of tomorrow, children of light, and children of the new nation. No. We become directionless, drifting afloat, with no place to call home and no horizon ahead beckons to us. We must keep swimming, or we turn to trash not even garbage that can fertilize conditions that may lead to new life. Trash is good for nothing but the landfill.

Langston Hughes wrote I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Trout know that if they keep swimming, facing the current, perhaps in the eddy of a rock, all that they need to truly live will eventually come to them. My father used to say that what we need will be supplied. Dr. Thurman says that there is strength sufficient for our needs whatever those needs may be.

Colter goes fishing with Ike. Colter is joyful upon catching his first fish. Ike instructs Colter to wet his hands. Colter is instructed to let the fish go and is puzzled. Isn’t that the purpose of fishing? Ike responds in the most beautiful way: . . . “I decided a long time ago I was done killing.” Can’t you see how healing for Ike has taken place? Suppose we as individuals and a nation could say: We are done with killing in its various forms: war, deprivation, poverty, disdain for those differently abled, gender abuse, racism, sexism, class exploitation, and personal prejudice.

Ike says:

Standing in the river, you become part of nature.

Most of us see ourselves as the powerful bear, the sleek trout, or the majestic elk. But in reality, we are the mayfly, being carried along on the current. The smallest piece, but a piece nonetheless of this grandness that surrounds you. Yes, that means you face danger from above and below. But it also means, for the brief time we’re here, we can choose to fly. To live. . .. Fishing doesn't solve your problems; it only brings them to the surface. But I think you know that now and can handle everything you’ve gone through....

The quotations from the film Mending the Line are excerpts from the book Casting Forward by Steve Ramirez.

Dr. Thurman concludes his meditation Surrounded by the Love of God with these words.

The edge of hope that constantly invades the seasoned grounds of despair, the faith that keeps watch at the doors through which pass all the labors of my life and heart for what is right and true, the impulse to forgive and to seek forgiveness even when the injury is sharp and clear—these and countless other things make me know that by day and by night my life is surrounded by the love of God.

I am surrounded by the love of God.

Mending The Line | Trailer A Marine wounded in Afghanistan is sent to a V.A. facility in Montana where he meets a Vietnam Vet who teaches him how to fly fish as a way of dealing with h...

At these difficult times in history this poem by Rumi is timely.
“The man who laughs during a drought!”
A Poem By Rumi!
https://goamour.com/the-man-who-laughs-during-a-drought/
Video of our “Humanity’s Last Hurrah or the Start of the Love” event:

https://www.youtube.com/live/OIq3q6EAPhU

Are you tired of the Olympics? They play the same games for the 2500 plus years with different athletes! Kind of like politics. Same games of war and inhumanity has been played with different global politicians and generals!
If you are tired of games here is the event link from last nights: “Humanity’s last Hurrah or the Start of Love”

Humanity's last hurrah or the start of Love!

Last week, Tel Aviv’s district court has extended Israel’s ban on Al Jazeera Media Network for another 45 days, according to Al Jazeera. The ban initially came in early May when Israel’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera in the country, immediately ordering the closure of its offices and a ban on the company’s broadcasts.

God of truth, we come before you recognizing that there are those who actively oppose the truth, preferring darkness over light. Lord, we lament how wickedness thrives when the truth is suppressed, and righteousness is overshadowed by deceit. We thank you by using the journalists in Gaza who are voices to the voiceless, making them agents of truth.

Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer

A New Politics of Freedom. Alternative ways of imaging freedom! Good video to watch!

A New Politics of Freedom: Aziz Rana with Jefferson Cowie Freedom has a dual legacy. On the one hand, it evokes struggles associated with the left, from abolition and anticolonialism to women's and q***r liberation....