The Garden and the Kingdom (Eden, hell, God, heaven)

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

Mysticism and religion are two sides of the same coin.

I'm not sure I follow you here, Luna. How are they two sides of the same coin?

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

I'm not sure I follow you here, Luna. How are they two sides of the same coin?

They are both aspects of the way to God. Some may not call it God, and some may have their own highly individualized religion, but I see them both as having the same objective or outcome. Mysticism (what you experience) is in religion, and religion (what you do) is in mysticism.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

We are one with Christ all the time, but the Eucharist is the outward sign of that inward and ongoing reality.

What do you mean you are "one with Christ"?

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

But yes, there certainly is such a thing as heresy in the Episcopal Church as in any other.

And that includes a proclivity for many of its established member churches and leaders to exclude and speak scornfully of homosexuals, who, in many Episcopalian churches cannot "be one with Christ" through the sacrament without hiding who they are.

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

What do you mean you are "one with Christ"?

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

To me this says we are one with Christ and one with each other. We are bound to each other as if we are of one flesh. That's also seen in the idea of Body of Christ. Do we actually live it out? No, we fall short. But it is the ideal.

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

And that includes a proclivity for many of its established member churches and leaders to exclude and speak scornfully of homosexuals, who, in many Episcopalian churches cannot "be one with Christ" through the sacrament without hiding who they are.

As I said, we don't get it all right.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

To me this says we are one with Christ and one with each other. We are bound to each other as if we are of one flesh.

What does the highlighted part mean to you? It's poetic, but what does it represent?

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

What does the highlighted part mean to you? It's poetic, but what does it represent?

That if I hurt you I've hurt myself and everyone else. If I separate from you it is a wound to myself. If I put my desires over your needs, we are both (all) broken and alienated by that. We exhange parts of ourselves with everyone we know...even if we only know them online. That's why words exchanged (even online) can cause us pain...we are connected and thus we can hurt each other...or not.

Physically we are connected too, quite materially though shared matter, energy, space. Where do babies come from? At what point do they stop being of our fl