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


Contemplation, Stories and Celebration giving up hopelessness and joylessness for Lent

Dear Friends.

"Nothing so focuses the mind as the prospect of being hanged." said Mark Twain. Today on Ash Wednesday we focus on death. "You are dust and to dust you will return." You may be like me and ask yourself today, if I was sure I was going to die soon, how would I live my life differently?

I am giving up hopelessness and joylessness for Lent, what about you? Our Lent program is called " Contemplation, Stories and Celebration!" Emergency preparedness is the theme of his year's EMO Earth Summit March 16th. I have added a unit to the emergency program curriculum, and it has become our Lenten program. Yes, we need to 2 Be 2 Weeks Ready with food, water, medicine, etc but we also need to be ready to take care of ourselves and one another body, mind and SPIRIT! We need to get our spiritual practices ready. Hard times are ahead. Let us be reminded that our earth crisis, including ecological catastrophe, war, genocide famine, fascism, injustice......is a call to wake up and unite for our survival as a human family. Every crisis is an invitation to grow up, transform and change.

We will be using Elizabeth Johnson's book of meditations for Lenten study, Come, Have Breakfast: Meditations on God and the Earth. A reading from this brilliant theologian everyday will help us stay God centered as we focus of our church's vision to love and care for our common home, the natural world.Three spiritual practices we will focus on this Lent as a church. Three categories to pack and prepare for in any possible emergency, Contemplation, Stories and Celebration.Contemplation: We need to regularly practice our silent prayer practices, and we need them IN and WITH the natural world. A labyrinth is a silent walking contemplation and is now a part of our outdoor Interfaith Secret Prayer Garden. We walk and silently commune with God called by many names, and the natural world. Being outside surrounded by trees, sky, earth, feeling the earth, smelling and hearing the breeze and the animals is a holy practice we encourage at Church for Our Common Home. As you walk in silence you may want to repeat silently as you breath in, God of Love have mercy on me. On the outbreath you may silently pray, May your desires come to birth. Amen. Church for Our Common Home also offers a weekly Centering Prayer group, another silent prayer practice both in person and on Zoom for your "emergency preparedness." If you don't have a silent mediation or prayer practice, now is the time to begin one, before an emergency crashes in.

Stories Sharing stories with one another is what we will do when we have no internet or TV. This lent we will "prepare" and share our favorite stories from the bible, our lives, the lives of religious teachers and admirable people from Mary Magdalene to Greta Thunberg, fairy tales, as well as dreams and visions. Story telling is an ancient spiritual practice whose time has come back. "Healers throughout the world recognize the importance of maintaining or retrieving the four universal healing salves: storytelling, singing, dancing, and silence. Shamanic societies believe that when we stop singing, stop dancing, are no longer enchanted by stories, or become uncomfortable with silence, we experience soul loss, which opens the door to discomfort and disease. The gifted Healer restores the soul through use of the healing salves. It has long been recognized that these healing salves reawaken and sustain the divine child within us and return to us the qualities of wonder, hope, and awe." Angeles Arrien, The Four-fold Way: walking, the paths of the warrior, teacher, healer and visionary.

Celebration Labyrinths historically were used in cathedrals for silent contemplation but also as dance floors for festivals. For the Earth Summit after we walk the Labyrinth in silent contemplation we will sing, dance and eat smores as another way of blessings the new Labyrinth. This is an urgently needed spiritual practice today. CELEBRATING! Our weekly worship service in the barn with the animals and Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Parties is our regular celebration practice. Joy! "Joy is the proof of God's existence." Meister Eckhart How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice.

We will celebrate both Easter AND Earth Day on Sunday, April 20th. As an untraditional church, we are dedicated to care for the Earth AND God centered as we nurture our religious imaginations about God. We will invite you to make a sacred promise to one another to God and to the Earth for Easter and Earth Day. We will ask you two questions at our first membership ceremony; what do you want to give to Church for Our Common Home? What support do you need from Church for Our Common Home? One way we will support you is in offering spiritual practices of "Contemplation, Stories and Celebration."

We thank the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon for inviting Church for Our Common Home to be a Faith Partner Community. It is an honor to partner with EMO for the Earth Summit and every day of the year. We thank you for your leadership and brilliant work in Oregon, not only in earth justice, but immigrant justice, legislative advocacy, etc We are thrilled to be a local host faith community for EMO and their Earth Summit for the third year.

THANK YOU, KATHY, for generously creating a labyrinth in our interfaith prayer garden. Thank you also to the financial generosity of Dr. Catherine Banbury, Ms. Janet Wiscombe and Mr. Ed Lai and many others who volunteered to make this project possible.

John, we feel your spirit here at your John Cobb Eco Farm. You continue to bless, guide, encourage and love us and give you thanks. As you modeled and taught us Dr. Cobb, "Where there is life there is HOPE." Daffodils are blooming, the grass is brilliant green and our purpose to care for our common home and teach and preach about the God of love. This God of our ultimate concerns is calling us into an open creative future. You are the God of mercy who loves us and is with us, now and always. You are with us in our suffering as well as in our hope and joy. We give you thanks. THERE IS HOPE FOR THE WHOLE CREATION and we give thanks. God is good, all the time. This is the Good News of the Gospel.To Be Two, aka 2 Be 2 Weeks Ready. is an excellent emergency preparedness program we are using every Sunday until the Earth Summit,

Oregon Department of Emergency Management : Be 2 Weeks Ready : Hazards and Preparedness : State of OregonDon't forget to bring yourSilent Contemplative PrayersMusic and Party Spirit and Stories as we prepare for emergencies, body, mind and spirit. Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, EMO. Visit website link of EMO here.

Good News Religious leaders law suit

Dear Friends,

Thank you to the faith communities who filed a lawsuit this week against the US government. You have given us HOPE! We stand with you in solidarity and will support you in any way we are able. Join us this Sunday in worship as we celebrate this lawsuit and its articulation of our Biblical vision of caring for and welcoming immigrants, strangers and "the least of these." The lawsuit begins with these inspired words,

"Plaintiffs in this challenge are 12 national denominational bodies and representatives, 4 regional denominational bodies, and 11 denominational and interdenominational associations, all rooted in the Jewish and Christian faiths. Plaintiffs and their members are Baptist, Brethren, Conservative Jewish, Episcopalian, Evangelical, Mennonite, Quaker, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Reconstructionist Jewish, Reform Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, United Methodist, Zion Methodist, and more. They bring this suit unified on a fundamental belief: Every human being, regardless of birthplace, is a child of God worthy of dignity, care, and love.1 Welcoming the stranger, or immigrant, is thus a central precept of their faith practices. 2. The Torah lays out this tenet 36 times, more than any other teaching: “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love them as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34). In the Gospels, Jesus Christ not only echoes this command, but self-identifies with the stranger: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). Plaintiffs’ religious scripture, teaching, and traditions offer clear, repeated, and irrefutable unanimity on their obligation to embrace, serve, and defend the refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in their midst without regard to documentation or legal status. https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2025/02/Mennonite-Church-USA-v.-U.S.-Department-of-Homeland-Security-Complaint.pd

MORE GOOD NEWS! In a recent headline in The Catholic Reporter, Feb.11, 2025, by Christopher White, “Pope decries 'major crisis' of Trump's mass deportation plans, rejects Vance's theology” “ Pope Francis has written a sweeping letter to the U.S. bishops decrying the "major crisis" triggered by President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans and explicitly rejecting Vice President JD Vance's attempts to use Catholic theology to justify the administration's immigration crackdown. 

"The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," reads the pope's Feb. 11 letter.  

Since taking office on Jan. 20, the Republican president has taken more than 20 executive actions aimed at overhauling the U.S. immigration system, including plans to ratchet up the deportations of undocumented migrants and halt the processing of asylum seekers. 

The pope's letter, published by the Vatican in both English and Spanish, offered his solidarity with U.S. bishops who are engaged in migration advocacy and draws a parallel between Jesus' own experience as a migrant and the current geopolitical situation. 

"Jesus Christ … did not live apart from the difficult experience of being expelled from his own land because of an imminent risk to his life, and from the experience of having to take refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own," writes Francis…………The pontiff also goes on to clearly reject efforts to characterize the migrants as criminals, a frequent rhetorical device used by Trump administration officials

John B. Cobb passes away the day after Christmas..........God rest his soul

Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. passed away the day after Christmas just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday. God rest your beautiful soul, John. We will miss you and will always love and pray for you and hold you in our hearts. Thank you for the gift of your life, teachings and gentle kindness. There are no words to express our gratitude for all you have given to us.

John attended our small house church that has become a "Manger" or "Barn Church" for we worship with the animals in the barn. John Cobb has supported me as a Christain minister and our untraditional church dedicated to care and love of our common home, Church for Our Common Home in countless ways since it began in 2015. We are deeply grateful and appreciated his loving presence for worship almost every Sunday at 4pm pst for many years on Zoom. Recently, he invited me to write the last chapter of his last book, Confessions, "Can Women Save Christian Discipleship?" Our work together inspired the creation of Earth Crisis Support Groups and Potluck Parties and are the Guidelines and Appendix of Confessions.

The audio version of John reading the book has just been made available. You are invited to listen to John's gentle loving voice share about the teachings of Jesus. Click on this red link to purchase on Amazon, Confessions (Audible Audio Edition): John B. Cobb Jr., Bonnie Tarwater, John B. Cobb Jr., Bonnie Tarwater, Process Century Press: Audible Books & Originals

Our New Years gift to you is this Dream Incubation (link below) of music and prayers. You are also invited to make a reservation to come stay at the newly opened Dream Incubation Guest House here at the John Cobb Eco Farm in 2025 to honor the wisdom of your dreams. We invite the old female whales, elephants and old wise women to join us in the dreamtime this year as we unite beyond the veil to love and care for all creatures here on our common home and habitat, Mother Earth. Dreams come not just for us, but for the healing and wisdom of all of us. Please enjoy and join the whales in singing as well as lullabies and prayers,

and click here on this red link, Dream Incubation 2025

Genocide or Peace on Earth

Dear Freinds,

Will we live a beautiful vision of Peace on Earth and create a Peaceable Kingdom for all creatures in 2025 or live a life of fear and be silent and complicit with Empire, geocide and war? If we take the teachings of Jesus seriously the Christmas story is a parable that offers a clear answer and teaching. God, called by many names, calls us to follow the way of Peace on Earth, to live a radical counter cultural life of justice and love, not a life of Empire, genocide and war. Christmas asks us; Will we live a life in solidarity with the vulnerable and meek, refugees who are fleeing genocide or the powerful and violent inflicting genocide?

Join Church for Our Common Home with our vision of Peace on Earth, a global "Peaceable Kingdom" where humans are living in harmony with one another and the natural world. I have created the image above of whales, elephants, trees, Mother Mary and her baby, an old woman in prayer as a Christmas gift and image to activate our religious imaginations as we create lives of prayer and action.

Come enter the Christmas story with us in worship and in our "manger ministry" with its radical vision - but be warned. It is a profoundly anti imperial story and ministry that challenges us to stand in solidarity with those experiencing genocide not those inflicting genocide. Please join us in prayer in the streets, here in our manger church and small farm and retreat center and in the imaginal realm of our interconnected hearts and spirits around the earth with our vision and prayers of Peace on Earth. We have never needed one another and a vision of a new WAY to live and work for Peace on Earth and good will toward all creatures more than this Christmas.

The inspired Lutheran minister of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, is Rev. Dr. Munter Issac. Above is the image of, Baby in the Ruble. This year, its new name is, Baby Still in the Ruble. Please join us in joining him in his new The Papers Project. Go to link, that provides us with tools to address the silence. The Papers Project | Providing tools for conscientious communication

Here is a photo of Pope Francis praying in solidarity this Christmas at the Vatican with all those people and "Babies Still in the Ruble" in Gaza. The baby Jesus's in his manger scene is lying on a Palestinian scarf called a Keffiyeh.

Is 2025 the year for old woman together with other old wise creatures to organize both in prayer and in action? The Dali Lama said,  "The world will be saved by the western woman." What did he mean? We have a spiritual crisis as a human family and it seems to be common sense that it will only be transformed with a spiritual vision of Peace on Earth that invites women as well as all creatures to the table.

On Sunday, 12/29 4 pm pst I will visit our beloved teacher and friend of Church for Our Common Home, Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. Together we will offer a Zoom worship with him from his home in California. Our scripture about Jesus' grandmother Anna (Luke 2:36-38) will begin a conversation to explore a program for old creatures and especially women, elephants, whales and Mother Trees. Like other large mammals, trees and creatures us old women, often live long lives. John Cobb, turns 100 years old in February 2025. We will begin to pray, talk imagine and plan with him. What is God calling us to be and become in the new year? Perhaps we will begin a Truth, Justice and Love Commission, of some sort to do the necessary truth telling and healing after colonialism, Empire and war? Who and how will we invite people and creatures to join us? It is both a new and an old story that we need. It is vision of Peace on Earth, goodwill toward all creatures. We need your prayers and presence, your intuitions and ideas. You are not alone. If you are reading this we are together this Christmas. I am sending you love and wish you a Merry Christmas. You are invited to God's table and feast with all creatures. Stay close. Call. Come. Join us.

Whatever is true think on these things...........

Dear Blessed Ones,

Last night my husband Walt and I went to a local Democratic gathering given to thank volunteers who worked on democratic campaigns. Oregon Senator Deb Patterson, who is also an ordained clergy, gave a short speech and quoted the Christian scriptures,"....... whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." What a proufound offering during this time.

When I woke up and heard the news that Trump has been elected as President, I felt despair. The United States has become a dictatorial corporate state. We are on a roller coaster of feelings. Then I remembered what Senator Patterson said last night. But wait, we must tell the truth about our despair, but also think on what is pure, like the love God has for every creature in the universe, the love we have for God and creation. Mothers and children of all species loving and caring for one another is pleasing and pure. I meet a woman last night who shared that her doctor advised her to care for her anxiety by watching videos of baby animals to sooth herself. I think of that doctor, and I smile. It is commendable that artists and musicians gift us with beauty and inspiration and peace workers and care givers around the world generously give abundantly of themselves to us. There is excellence in those who pray and justice workers and the many saints in history and those living today - both those known to us and those unknown - who dedicate their lives to serving God.

Please don't isolate. It is time to comfort and cook for one another, sing and dance together, share and talk together. Join us in person and or on Zoom for an Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Party and share your feelings and thoughts. Loving community is a gift we give and receive together. Come join us now and call and reach out.

Zoom link for Monday 4-6 pm pst ECSG and Potluck Party

In person Earth Crisis Support Group and Potluck Party after church every Sunday in Dallas Oregon, 5-7 pm. Call for more info, (858) 248-5123. New groups in person and now on Zoom forming.

Co-sponsored by Our Common Home Counseling Center www.ourcommonhomecounselingcenter.org and the Living Earth Movement, www.livingearthmovenet.eco.

"Don't think a small group of people cannot the world. It is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead.

Come Sing and Pray in the Flames

"Come Sing and Pray in the Flames!" War, genocide, fascism, hurricanes, fires... Daniel tells the story that is a story and metaphor we need for this unprecedented historic time. The corrupt King demanded the people worship the idol of gold/money and Empire. Three people refused and the King tried to kill them by throwing them into the fire. They sang sacred songs of prayers in the flames and they did not burn or die! Love is stronger than torture and death is our life guiding story of the heart. When we sing, we pray twice. Singing together is our resistance as we join in small groups and reach out together to our higher power aka God called by many names. ECSG's are small groups of three, seven or more. We share our deepest feelings and thoughts, share a meal and we SING and pray together. The vibrations of music connect us to one another and the Spirit called by many names during these painful and terrifying times.

Join us this Saturday 10/19/ 24

NEW TIME 12 noon

Interfaith Prayer and

Song Vigil for Peace

"Come Sing and Pray in the Flames!" Come support Peace on earth and join the FREE GAZA protest in Corvallis Oregon in front of the courthouse. When we sing, we pray twice! We have tried different times and this Saturday we will sing and pray at high noon. Call with questions.