GPS God Psychology and Science navigating Lenten Inner Journey of the Soul

Lenten GPS God, Psychology and Science Navigating the

Inner Journey of the Soul

Join us this Lent as we give up a single one-dimensional focus of religion and Christianity and journey with a new transdisciplinary map; God, Jungian Psychology and new Science, intertwined and interconnected with Christianity.

Dear Friends,

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is a kind of miraculous modern internet map many of us use to navigate our journey to a desired destination. Lent is a time for an inner journey of the soul, and our Inner GPS will be a combination of the teachings of Jesus Christ and Carl Jung. We will also consider two scientists Suzanne Simard. a forest ecologist and the biologist Rupert Sheldrake. The GPS made by the U. S. Department of Defense in the 1970's, "provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. Although the United States government created, controls, and maintains the GPS system, it is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver." (Wikipedia)

Come be part of our Lenten journey as we use a kind of Inner GPS for a six-week pilgrimage. Our destination is the holy union of the mystical bride of Christ with her Beloved Jesus in the resurrection of Easter. Our guides are two modern Jungians, mystics and Christians, John Welch and Angela Meer. Please read John Welch's, book, Spiritual Pilgrims Carl Jung and Teresa of Avila (one You tube below by John Welch) and listen to some of Dr. Angela Meer's brilliant podcasts, found on her website The Christian Jung, www.angelameer.com. Both are teachers of Jungian psychology. Both are teacher Christianity. The combination of both Jungian psychology and Christianity has created an Inner GPS that will illuminate our Lenten inner journey of the soul.

Angela Meer The Christian Jung

youtube John Welch on Teresa of Avila

During Lent we imagine that we journey with Jesus in the desert wilderness where we join him as he navigates inner demons of the false self (ego). This year we are also invited to journey with Saint Teresa of Avila in her inner soul journey into her "interior castle." She describes her soul journey as a God adventure through a kind of "fairy tale like" castle made of crystal with millions of rooms. The desert wilderness and the inner castle are both symbolic places not literal places. Jesus and Teresa both faced inner demons of the false self and ego on their inner journeys in these very different symbolic landscapes. Teresa's symbol of an inner castle harkens to the teachings of Jesus ""In God's house are many rooms............." (John 14:2)

We learn about mysticism from studying the lives of the mystics. We have much to learn from the mystic psychologist and Christian Carl Jung. Many modern scientists are also self-professed mystics today and we will also reflect on the work of Suzanne Simard and Rupert Sheldrake. For six weeks during worship Sundays 4 pm pst we invite you to join our inner GPS Receiver made with God, Psychology and Science to navigate our Lenten Spiritual Pilgrimage of the soul. Six mystics, Jesus, Teresa, Carl, John, Angela, Suzanne and Rupert are all the cocreators of this Inner GPS Receiver. Together we hope to reach our destitution of Easter.

Our Lenten program invites you to do the following: Attend weekly Sunday worship online or in person with an intention to journey into our unconscious and ask God the Divine Therapist to heal us. You are encouraged to do daily reading from John Welches book, listen to podcasts regularly, journal writing, dream honoring, art making, staying informed about world news, contemplation and prayer.

Please contact me if you would like to join us for the Ash Wednesday worship service next week, Wednesday February 18th at the ICE Detention Center in Portland.

A Lenten Prayer for Sunday 2/15 - We dedicate this week to children who are sexually abused and unprotected by pedophiles, past present and future.

Dear God, we pray for the vulnerable world's children and the teenage and young girls that that are not being protected by a global network of rich and powerful pedophiles. We give thanks for journalists like Carole Cadwalladr who reveal the complexity of the issues we must face. s we learn more about American men and the global network of powerful rich men in the story of the Jefferey Epstein investigation. We need healing. We want to remain awake. Our wounds inflicted by rich and powerful global networks of injustice have been triggered. Please help heal and guide us. Our vision is of planetary peace. May we as individuals and as a church community become protectors of the least of these as Jesus taught. Amen

Pleases follow the journalist Carol Cadwalladr who has been telling us this story for several decades and challenges us to face the complex issues for us as a human family. She reports. "Tech platforms derive a significant portion of their profits from sexual interest in children, with porn representing a large percentage of internet searches making the pedophiliac element within society, facilitated by Silicon Valley companies. Porn represents 25% of all internet searches, and "teen" is the most searched term on Pornhub, illustrating the scale of the issue." The Nerve: An independent news outlet co-founded by Carol Cadwalladr with former Guardian journalists.

We celebrate and give thanks for the 30th anniversary of the brilliant news reporting from the daily TV show. Democracy Now! Thank you to Amy Goodman and everyone who works vigilantly to bring us internationally focused daily news on TV.

Semon and communion on the Sidewalk at ICE in Portland

I was invited to this event by a fellow clergy sister when we met on the sidewalk in front of the ICE Concentration Center. We are a part of a "Clergy Presence" program in Portland. I feel solidarity and closeness to everyone I have met there and particularly to the Christian ministers for I don't have an opportunity to meet many Christian ministries who are activists. It is a privilege to stand together both as citizens and as people of faith as we long for a Moral 'Revival in our communities, country and planet. Together we stand against the illegal and immoral kidnappings and trafficking of people in our country by masked lawless thugs violently putting innocent people and children into concentration camps. The horror of 170 billion dollars allocated by the US government for immigration enforcement, 70 billion allocated for ICE makes me hang my head in shame as an America citizen. The same billionaire good old boys club that allocated these funds are often the same men implicated in the Epstein Files. The moral depravity is stunning. I am an old minister with grey hair. The young woman with bright dyed pink hair is the organizer of this event on Saturday. She shared that she appreciated standing with old white-haired ministers like me. I shared that I appreciate standing with young beautiful, creative, artists and courageous activist and Christian ministers like her. Together we stood in solidarity on the sidewalk at the ICE concentration camp in Portland and talked about Jesus and the sermon on the mount.

"Sermon on the Sidewalk!" she said. "Wow!" I said, "That is brilliant, Sermon on the Sidewalk!" I have not been able to stop thinking about this turn of phrase for it is time to pray with our feet. She has invited Operation Inflation, who are the people dressed up in colorful whimsical animal costumes that have been attending some protests of ICE in Portland, to co-sponsor the event.

“The role of the artists is to make the revolution irresistible.”

A true and articulate statement shared by Toni Cade Bambara the African American activist and artist. Well voila, join us Saturday night for an" irresistible revolutionary" event.

The photo below is me in front of the ICE Concentration Camp in Portland with an inflatable unicorn at our Christmas Eve worship on the sidewalk a few weeks ago. We brought a Jewish friend who had never been to a church before. She said what surprised her most was how peaceful the worship service was. It was beautiful and moving for the Christmas story of the Holy family - a family of refugees fleeing sociopathic leaders of Empire had never felt so relevant as it was in front of the ICE Concentration Camp this last Christmas.

So here is my, offering for Saturday, Sermon on the Sidewalk Prayer for you. Please commit to this proufound teaching of Jesus - love your enemy. Please meditate and pray on this before you come to, "Breaking Bread to Break ICE." You don't have to like your enemy or condone their behavior, but you must make a decision not to become like them. How? You make a decision and ask for God's help to love them as Jesus and Martin Luther King taught. This teaching changed my life many years ago. Now, I believe that without adopting this teaching we may not survive as a human species. It is possible for we did it here in the USA during the civil rights movement under similarly horrifying conditions. If we did it then, we can do it now. It began in churches and was largely led with Christian faith leaders. So please consider making a decision to love the ICE gestapo while praying for their conversion. Remember, ICE agents are sacred children of God also and as people of faith we are called to pray for them and all our persecutors.

I ordered a gas mask in case ICE tear gases us this weekend. My new mask just arrived in my pink mailbox, in front of my pink house and our Manger Church where we have worship in the barn with the Peaceable Kingdom of Animals. If you want more information, please contact me. As my husband Walt, a combat vet of the Vietnam war tells me, in the military there are eight support people for every person in combat. If you can't come on Saturday but you want to support me to be there with my clergy collar and my Sermon on the Sidewalk Prayer, then please volunteer at our church, or send a donation and please, please, please pray for us. There are at least eight jobs that need to be done here at Church for Our Common Home to keep this ministry going. We need your help. Please call me, (858) 248-5123. You can be part of this movement!

Please pray with me,

Dear God, called by many names,

 “Blessed are you who walk forth on the sidewalk you who are poor, for the reign of God is yours.

Blessed are you who walk forth on the sidewalk, you who are hungry for you’ll be filled.

Blessed are you who, walk forth on the sidewalk you who weep now, for you’ll laugh again,

Blessed are you who walk forth on the sidewalk when people hate you, when they scorn and insult you and spurn your name as evil because you are a disciple of Jesus.

On the day you who do so, rejoice and be glad: your reward will be great in heaven, for your ancestors treated the prophets the same way.

Blessed are you who walk forth on the sidewalk, you who hear me, I say: love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. Amen

NOTE: We have changed to Google Meeting for those joining us online for

worship, Sunday 4-5 pm pst

https://meet.google.com/eto-aioq-xov

Church for Our Common Home invites you to join us in action and contemplation. Please contact me with questions and/or come visit our retreat center, Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden, biodynamic farm and counseling center or share this email and invite a friend. We are an untraditional progressive church, and we worship with the animals in the barn, (weather permitting) and are teaching Christian mysticism. We are dedicated to care for Mother Earth, the Divine Feminine, Loving Community and the Arts. Please find the link on church website homepage.

As well we offer Earth Crisis Support Groups and Potluck Parties every Sunday after worship 5-7 pm in Dallas, Oregon. Please contact me with questions and prayer requests.

From my heart to yours in love,

Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Minister Church for Our Common Home 15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338 (858) 248-5123Zoom ID 3025719458 revtarwater@yahoo.com www.churchforourcommonhome.comwww.ourcommonhomecounseling center.org

Invitation to Oregon organizing for immigrants, Liam and the least of these

The photo above is of Liam Conejo Ramos, a vulnerable 5 year old child who is now in a Texas concentration camp. The Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik in Minneapolis told reporters last Wednesday that officers told him to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said. Conejo means rabbit in Spanish. May this image of Liam and his blue bunny hat standing in the freezing cold make its way into your heart of compassion. In the name of human decency and for the sake of all God's children may we join in peaceful organization to offer the way of peace, love of immigrants and care for all children and the least of these.

Dear Friends of Church for Our Common Home,  

              This past week, I joined almost 200 clergy from every corner of Oregon— Rabbis and Reverends, Buddhists and Muslims, Monks and Ministers— to respond to escalating ICE activity and violence in the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good a mother of three and Alex Jeffrey Pretti an intensive care nurse in Minneapolis, over 30 recent deaths in detention centers and the shooting of two of our neighbors in Portland. 

Convened by Together Lab, we learned more about the lay of the land in Oregon, strategies to meet this moment, and sent messages of love and care to our siblings in Minnesota. While each of our congregational contexts are different, it’s clear that we must come together— neighbor to neighbor— to faithfully take action. 

Alongside clergy colleagues across the state, we’re expanding the circle and inviting our congregations, key leaders, and friends to join us on Thursday, February 12th from 6-7:15pm on zoom for a multifaith statewide convening for faith communities. I hope you can come.

Please register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BxsqeHLBSKu5kxxjEpSBFw

Together, we will: 

• Understand the increased ICE activity in Oregon, including where and how they’re operating

• Know where to plug into faithful organizing strategies across the state, including neighborhood-based, legislative, and upcoming mass mobilizations

• Take meaningful action while on the call to flex our collective muscles.

The call is being supported by Together Lab, PIRC (who run the statewide hotline you call when you suspect or see ICE), and statewide coalitions Oregon for All and Protect Oregon. 

Please join Church for Our Common Home in prayer for those who were murdered in Minnesota and especially the children like 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father taken to an ICE concentration camp in Texas. We stand in solidarity with the courageous leaders like Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney who has been arrested as well as dozens of clergy outside the airport. Our hearts are with all those living in fear. 

Church for Our Common Home invites you to join us in action and contemplation. Please contact me with questions and/or come visit our retreat center, Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden, biodynamic farm and counseling center or share this email and invite a friend. We are an untraditional church and we worship with the animals in the barn, (weather permitting) and are teach Christian mysticism. We are dedicated to care for Mother Earth, the Divine Feminine, Loving Community and the Arts.

Christmas worship for the week of 12/21-12/28

"There is a light that can overcome the darkness. There is no darkness that can overcome the light.” 12/24/25, at 2 pm you are invited to join us at the ICE Detention Center in Portland for a Christmas Eve worship service. Refugees and immigrant families in our country and around the world are in danger desperately trying to escape the similar horrors that Jospeh and Mary faced - unspeakable cruel leaders, family separations, kidnappings, imprisonments, violence, death...... But God's tender merciful love was born in the darkest time.

History repeats itself, yes? Never have we needed to experience the Holy Light of the Christmas story as much as this year during the Global Dark Night of the Soul. Please contact Rev. Bonnie for more info if you want to join us in Portland on Christmas Eve Day.

The day after Christmas 12/26, at 2 pm, you are also invited to the consecration of our new Tree Prayer Altar in honor of John Cobb in the Resurrection Rose Garden and Eco Burial Garden. We will honor our beloved companion, teacher, mentor and Light Being - Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. Join us in person or online the day after Christmas on the one-year anniversary of his passing. Here is the link. Church Google Meeting Link

(or please find the link on church website homepage)

We have also created another new Tree Altar in our Walking Pilgrimage and Living Rosary dedicated to Teresa of Avila. Her Spirit and John Cobb's "guide our feet" as pray and walk the circumference of this our prayer portal and Sanctuary Church - Church for Our Comon Home. This is the God we most need in our atheistic culture who,"...gives light to those who live in darkness and the shadow of death and who guides our feet into the way of peace." (Gospel of Luke 1:79) Both are "angels" or "messengers" of the miracle of the Christmas story this year.

Join two Light Beings from the other side of the veil - John Cobb and Teresa of Avila - and the communion of saints this Christmas season. They gift us with the most precious gift of all during the Global Dark Night of the Soul - the reminder and assurance that God's tender merciful love is always with us. You are also invited to join two Christmas worship services, one the Sunday before and another the Sunday after Christmas day, 12/21 and 12/28 4 pm PST online or in person with an Earth Crisis Support Group and potluck dinner immediately following

Teresa's Tree Altar is number 2 and 15 and John Cobb's is number 11 on the map below. More info and photos will follow.

Prayer and reflection are the doorway into the "Interior Castle" of our souls. This is also the dwelling place of our relationship with our own soul intertwined with God. Prayer and reflection invite an intimate sharing with the God who loves us. God, our beloved companion according to Teresa of Avila is our good friend we can count on. Teresa is the "train conductor" of our Advent Underground Railroad as we become a Sanctuary Church.

Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things pass away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone is enough. Teresa of Avila

We have changed to Google Meeting for those joining us online for worship.

https://meet.google.com/eto-aioq-xov

or please find the link on church website homepage.

Earth Crisis Support Groups and Potluck Parties every Sunday after worship 5-7 pm Dallas, Oregon. Please contact us with questions and prayer requests.

From my heart to yours in love, Rev. Bonnie Tarwater Minister Church for Our Common Home 15435 Strong Road Dallas, Oregon 97338 (858) 248-5123

Zoom ID 3025719458 revtarwater@yahoo.com www.churchforourcommonhome.comwww.ourcommonhomecounseling center.org

Gusto for God All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Day of the Dead

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside everything that impedes us, all the ways we miss the mark that so easily entangle us. Let us run with perseverance the race laid out for us." Hebrews 12:1

Dear Friends,

We will invite the spirit of Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. to join us for our yearly, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Day of the Dead worship, Sunday, November 2nd 4 pm pst. Join us on Google Meeting Link or in person at the John Cobb Eco Farm. John passed to the other side less than a year ago and we welcome this opportunity to honor and remember him.

https://meet.google.com/eto-aioq-xov

I did not grow up in the church or with a God worldview. Providence blessed me with a close relationship with John Cobb a Christian theologian who supported and attended Church for Our Common Home regularly for many years. He supported me as an untraditional artist and minister every step of the way, as we founded the Church for Our Commo Home and later moved and expanded our ministry to Oregon. We are God centered and guided and invite you to come to this beautiful sanctuary to love and be loved by the natural world. Thank you, John Cobb, for showing us a way when there seems to be no way during this time of unparalleled existential crisis. John is now is part of the "Cloud of Witnesses" encouraging us to continue to run the race he ran so well.

Gusto for God was perhaps what brought me and John together. To say we were different is an understatement. I did not grow up in the church and John Cobb's parents were Christian missionaries. John was a gentle genius who was never threatened by people who were different than he was. He passionately critiqued American Empire and the cruel self-destructive suicidal path of the modern world. He offered us a beautiful counter cultural vision of Jesus, the Kingdon of God or what John called an ecological civlization.

Fundamentalism, or thinking your way is the only way, is prevalent on the right, left, the religious, and nonreligious, scientific, nonscientific, smart and not so smart etc. Perhaps moving eighteen times in my first eighteen years in five different countries developed my large appetite for diversity in people, foods, stories, religions, theologies, artwork, images. cultures etc. God loves us - all creatures and with gusto. That is my experince. Just look at the stars and galaxies or into the eyes of a goat, or the orange color of a nasturtium. We are here to love God and one another with gusto ............oh yes and the natural world which too often in the modern world has been left out of religion, well everything.

Please bring photos of loved ones both human and non-human animals who have passed and food they enjoyed. We will share memories and stories, foods and photos. John Cobb loved miso soup probably because he was born and grew up in Japan. We will enjoy miso soup, as well as avocado on toast in memory of my mother and for my Dad - a martini with a green olive. A basket of delicious apples from the John Cobb Eco Farm will be in memory of Rudolph Steiner the father of organic farming and brilliant spiritual teacher. John Cobb, Teresa of Avila, Rudolph Steiner, and also our beloved dog Buddy...............and who will you honor and invite to our feast? Eating foods and sharing stories about loved ones who have passed is a meaningful way to honor the dead and remind us they are still with us.

This year I will honor Saint Teresa of Avila, the 16th century, Spanish mystic, and "Doctor" of the Catholic Church. She has become my beloved soul sister and close friend. She invites us to go with her on an interior soul pilgrimage in her timeless book, The Interior Castle. Our first Sunday monthly Taize worship has been rescheduled for the second Sunday, November 16th in order to celebrate All Souls Day this weekend. What mystic from history do you want to honor this weekend?

"A group of women walked into the kitchen and found Saint Teresa veraciously devouring a toasted partridge. (a type of cooked chicken) " What are you doing?" they asked astonished and scandalized. "I'm eating a partridge." Teresa replied. "When I fast, I fast. And when I eat partridge, I eat partridge!" Then she resumed eating with gusto."Teresa Bielecki, from Teres of Avila, Ecstasy and Common Sense

With gusto we will share a banquet that of worship, including, scripture and prayer, music, dancing and food. Please help us invite the communion of saints and our loved ones. After all, we have a race to run together and you gotta eat, right? May we nourish ourselves body, mind and spirit, and let's do it with GUSTO!

We have changed to Google Meeting for those joining us online for worship.

https://meet.google.com/eto-aioq-xov

or please find the link on church website homepage.

Earth Crisis Support Groups and Potluck Parties every Sunday after worship 5-7 pm Dallas, Oregon. Please contact us with questions and prayer requests.

God's love for you during Global Dark Night of the Soul

“Now we have no symbolic life, and we are all badly in need of the symbolic life. Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul—the daily need of the soul, mind you! And because people have no such thing, they can never step out of this mill—this awful grinding, banal life in which they are: ‘nothing but….’ These things go pretty deep, and no wonder people get neurotic. Life is too rational; there is no symbolic existence in which I am fulfilling my role, my role as one of the actors in the divine drama of life.”
—Carl Jung

Dear Friends,

We are called now to both work in the world and to care for our inner prayer life. Saint Teresa of Avila gifts us with symbols we deeply need in this global dark night of the soul. She tells the story of her life through the symbol of a castle, revealing her soul’s journey with God in her breathtaking book, The Interior Castle.

As she shares her experiences and the image of the “interior castle,” she invites us into an imaginal journey with God—toward the center where the human and divine meet in ecstatic, holy union. God, our beloved friend, is always with us, always already present, whether we walk in the dark night of the soul or in the final dwelling place of brilliant light. No striving, climbing, or moralism is needed in this intimate pilgrimage with God. Teresa teaches us simply to open the door through prayer and reflection, for God’s love for us is vaster than we can possibly imagine.

Similarly, our church mantra reminds us:
“God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

The Journey Within

This inner pilgrimage is like entering a hologram or mandala—nothing like exploring a typical building. The journey to the center, where the light of God shines brightest, leads us inward through many layers of the soul. Like a flower enfolding its center, the soul contains countless rooms, bridges, gardens, and labyrinths—seven dwelling places in all.

Teresa begins her book:
“…I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or a very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms.”

Her reflections lead us into the depths of ourselves, beloved by God:
“…where my God-given life is attempting to grow.”

The outer edges of the castle are dark and filled with frightening creatures, but as the soul enters deeper, the atmosphere changes—darkness gives way to light. At the center is the mystical marriage, the holy union with the Holy One.

God is not “out there” somewhere but present within our own interior souls and also within our collective soul across the cosmos. These teachings are gifts for us in this time of global darkness.

Carl Jung, Teresa of Avila, and John Welch

Father John Welch wrote:
“Teresa is telling us the story of her life of prayer. The journey through the castle is the story of a growing union with God as the soul enters more deeply into prayer. Prayer is the door to the castle and prayer is the activity which allows one to be drawn to God at the center. Teresa’s relationship to God was alive within her, and it grew through times of peace, tension, fulfillment, emptiness, and transition.”

John Welch, author of Spiritual Pilgrims: Carl Jung and Teresa of Avila, passed away a few days ago. We give thanks for his life and for the ways he built bridges between Jung, Teresa, depth psychology, religion, and Christian mysticism. May he rest in eternal peace with God, joining the communion of saints with Teresa and John of the Cross.

Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross

Teresa of Avila, the 16th-century Carmelite nun, mystic, and Doctor of the Church, is celebrated on her feast day, October 15. This fall we will study and celebrate her life and teachings in worship, reading both The Interior Castle and John Welch’s Spiritual Pilgrims.

We will also reflect on her partner in reform, John of the Cross, who authored The Dark Night of the Soul. Together, their teachings help us understand our collective global dark night and call us to deepen our prayer and contemplative life.

Our Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden

Here at the John Cobb Eco Farm and Mary Magdalene Retreat Center, we have created a symbolic Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden with twelve altars on twelve trees. This garden invites pilgrims to pray and contemplate, circling around the farm and centering in our “manger church”—a symbol of home, God, and our common humanity.

Like Teresa’s castle, our manger church is a metaphor for dwelling with God in harmony with creation. Reading Teresa’s writings, poems, and prayers, we find her presence with us still—guiding, encouraging, and offering symbolic gifts of light in this time of global darkness.

Poem

“Soul, you are my room, you are my house, you are my dwelling.
If, through your distracted ways, I ever find your door tightly closed,
do not seek me outside yourself.
To find me, it will be enough simply to call me,
and I will come quickly. Seek me inside yourself.”

Prayer

“Let nothing disturb you, let nothing upset you.
Everything changes. God alone is unchanging.
With patience all things are possible;
whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone is enough.”
—Teresa of Avila

Sending love from my heart to yours,
Rev. Bonnie Tarwater

Opening and Blessing of the New Mary Magdalene Retreat Center

Please join our celebration of Mary Magdalene in Dallas Oregon, Sunday afternoon on July 20th. For those in person, we will begin our blessing with a guided tour of the newly named Mary Magdalene Retreat Center at 2 pm, including the Tiny House, the Dream Incubation Guest House, and the Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden and twelve altars on twelve trees over the five acres.

The new Labyrinth and Wailing Wall offer more sacred portals and places for prayer and contemplation. Please bring your prayers and blessings to this beautiful sanctuary. The Anointing Ritual at 4-5 pm is offered both in person and on Zoom. Dinner will immediately follow at 5 pm, for our weekly potluck party. We will be serving a salad bar with fresh vegetables from our garden and quiche made with our farm fresh eggs.

New interest, scholarship, writing and artwork about Mary Magdalene has revitalized the teachings of Jesus in recent years. The Beloved Companion the Complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene, translated by Jehaanne De Quillan was

published in 2010 and is considered to be a part of the "gnostic" tradition of newly discovered gospels. These "secret" teachings of Jesus are about self-transformation and highlight the inner heart knowing too often left out of the institutional church for the last 2,000 years. This breathtakingly beautiful newly published gospel features Mary Magdalene as teacher as well as the beloved companion and partner of Jesus. God is not seen exclusively male and is most often named Spirit. Jesus calls Mary Magdalene a tower of strength. She is presented as the most spiritually advanced of the disciples and the one Jesus appoints as his successor. ""When all have abandoned me, only she shall stand beside me like a tower, a tower built on a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden, from this day forth, she shall be known as Migdalah for she shall be as a tower to my flock and the time will soon come when her tower shall stand alone by mine."

Mary Magdalene, the Beloved Companion of Jesus gifts us with a revisionist history and a story of radical spiritual maturity. Jesus and Mary offer us a partnership model that we desperately need at this historic time.

Don't look outside yourself, Jesus says, "....rather The Kingdom of God is within you and it is outside you......when you know yourself you will be known." Jesus repeats many times that our spiritual practice is to tell the truth. "The Kingdom of God is within you, and outside you, as well as spread upon the earth but too many do not see it." We are encouraged to trust our direct experince of the divine, not to be dependent on a priest, teacher or intermediary, but the truth of our heart. Spirit is found in the natural world and, "the Kingdom is spread upon the earth and people do not see it." This is our practice at Church for Our Common Home.

Perhaps the most extraordinary gift of The Beloved Companion, is Jesus' invitation for us imagine our Inner Great Tree of Life, “There is a great tree within you that does not change , summer or winter......…..and he showed me a vision in which I saw a great tree that seemed to reach into the heavens; ……..the roots of this tree are in the earth which is your body………… And I felt my soul and all that I could see dissolve and vanish in a brilliant light, in a likeness unto the sun. And in the light, I beheld a woman of extraordinary beauty, clothed in garments of brilliant white. The figure extended its arms, and I felt my soul drawn into its embrace……” 

You are invited to draw, paint, color sculpt etc. your Inner Great Tree of Life and to share your artwork with us. Our reflections together with this new gospel and guided meditation about our inner tree are a fantastic way to revitalize our religious imaginations and deepen our spiritual practices to connect to Spirit, Mother Earth and the vast cosmos of galaxies. We hope to hang your tree icons and create a "Love Forest" of artwork. May we experince our oneness and sacred interconnected web of life underground, above ground and spread out upon the earth and in the cosmos reaching toward trillions of galaxies. Please take a photo and send, email, snail mail or hand deliver your tree artwork as a kind of blessing for the Mary Magdalene Retreat Center. We will treasure your artwork and share it with others.

Please find an audio meditation about the Inner Great Tree of Life that may aid or inspire you to make a tree artwork on our church website homepage.

Come love and be loved in the natural world at the Mary Magdalene Retreat Center. We offer self-guided or structured retreat stays, counseling services, dream honoring, nature experiences, an art studio in the barn, barn mural painting, gardening in the biodynamic vegetable and flower gardens, berry and apple picking, as well as care and interaction with the goats, chickens, cats, rabbits and ducks. Enjoy bonfires, sing-alongs and spectacular star gazing. You are welcome to join our weekly Dream Group, Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina group, and weekly Sunday worship often with the animals in the barn.

We invite your blessings and prayers for this sacred sanctuary and our common home, Mother Earth. Contact us to make a reservation and with prayer requests, revtarwater@yahoo.com (858) 248-5123.Camping available, WWoof host farm, World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farming

Invitation to Blessing of new Mary Magdalene Retreat Center

Mary Magdalene teaches, “There is a great tree within you…..and he showed me a vision in which I saw a great tree that seemed to reach into the heavens; ……..the roots of this tree are in the earth which is your body………… And I felt my soul and all that I could see dissolve and vanish in a brilliant light, in a likeness unto the sun. And in the light, I beheld a woman of extraordinary beauty, clothed in garments of brilliant white. The figure extended its arms, and I felt my soul drawn into its embrace……” The Beloved Companion the Gospel Mary Magdalene

Dear Friends,

Fear not. You are a part of the Earth and the cosmos and your soul is immortal. A new story and cosmology is experienced as we develop close and caring relationships with the natural world and in dreams, visions and creative artwork. 

Close your eyes and imagine you are a tree – you are The Great Tree of Life; you are a Tree of Wisdom.  Imagine and see - like a mental movie - your inner tree with roots down deep inside the dark earth, with a strong trunk and boughs reaching into joy and the brilliant light in the vast cosmos. You are firmly rooted in the earth and freely moving to the music of the universe. Please join us in our study of, The Beloved Companion the Gospel Mary Magdalene, edited and translated by Jehenne de Quinne. This gospel published in 2010 includes a guided tree meditation and visualization for inner healing and transformation with and for Mother Earth. You are invited to have a conversation with your inner tree, your soul as well as with real trees and their world wood wide web. The oldest and largest tree in the forest Suzanne Simard names the Mother Tree in Finding the Mother Tree; Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. She explains that the Mother Tree is not a female tree. What the Mother Tree does is like what a loving mother does. Her huge caring network of relationships communicates and provides caring and nourishment with other trees and other species in a huge, interconnected web in the forest, even while she is dying. May we be more like the Mother Trees.

Sit or lie down anywhere or perhaps on the earth with your back up against a tree and perhaps begin a conversation. They say trees are shy so we may want to begin a conversation with our back toward the tree. Listen. What do you feel and experince? Trees, like our own souls, bodies, minds and spirits are a part of the sacred whole. It is time to develop inner strength and become like a tree during these difficult historic times.

You are invited to draw, paint or color some kind of tree and share your artwork with us. We hope to hang your tree icons and create a forest of trees connecting us to the world wood wide web of trees and one another.  We will have an outdoor forest of tree images we hope to hang for our Mary Magdalene celebration.  Science has helped to understand the Cosmic Tees of Life and it has always been an ancient universal symbol of the living universe.  Our intention is to meditate and pray with and for the trees as we honor our interfaith, interconnected, and interspecies web of miraculous life.

“I talk to the trees………”  here at Church for Our Common Home is both a literal song lyric we sing and now we add, “I paint you the trees……..”   as another way to interact with the trees and the natural world. The trees are the lungs of the earth and are especially magnificent here in the Pacific Northwest forests. Everyone can draw and or color a tree and all ages are invited to make tree icon art. You are also welcome to come here in person to paint a tree. Feel free to use any medium or explore any creative ideas the meditation may inspire. Please take a photo and send, email etc. or hand deliver your tree artwork as a gift for the John Cobb Eco Farm and newly named Mary Magdalene Retreat Center. We honor the partnership model of love between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and all of us and the natural world and each of us and God called by many names.Please join us to celebrate Mary Magdalene Feast Day, Sunday July 20th.  We will offer a tour of the twelve tree altars in the Secret Interfaith Prayer Garden and Labyrinth at 2 pm as well as the retreat guest rooms, guest house and new Tiny House. Bring your “Inner Tree of Life Icon” to becoming of a forest of trees.

There will be a healing and anointing worship service 4-5 pm and a potluck dinner immediately following in the Resurrection Rose Garden. Please share this invitation with others who may be interested in studying this newly published Gospel of the Beloved Companion, making tree art and learning about our retreat center. We welcome you to come love and be loved by the natural world. Please RSVP and contact us with any questions and to make reservations for a retreat.

 Love and blessings,Dr. Walter Rutherford and Rev. Bonnie Tarwater