Growing into God

May 18, 2024 | All, Biblical Knowledge & Wisdom, Local Events, New

Author: Thomas Chavez, preface and editing by Julie Gorham

Growing into God – Practicing the Science of Spirituality

Do you truly experience and feel unity with God and others in your life? Or, do you feel disconnected and your heart knows there must be more? Christ the Healer offers ongoing education on the topic of Christian mysticism, also known as Christian contemplation. Growing into God means understanding how to become one with God. Mystics and teachers from the earliest history in Christian wisdom led the way. Now, we see the Life of Christ is the a transformative model for how we get there.

Gain or refresh new understandings and integrative practices to engage the transforming Christ path with a romp through Gabrielle’s brilliant synthesis of science, spirituality, and the best of the Bible. with practical insights on how to achieve unity through the Christ path model. It’s a contemporary road map to unification for all people and all times.

Early history – Roadmap to a spiritual life – Purgation, Purification & Unity

The 3rd century theologian/mystic, Origen of Alexandria, draws from three books of Jewish wisdom literature – Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs which provide a metaphorical “map” of the spiritual life. Like Proverbs, with its emphasis on right living and moral conduct, Origen saw the first stage of the mystical life as involving purgation or purification of all that impedes our search for God. The second stage, corresponding to Ecclesiastes, marks the illumination that comes as we learn to access the wisdom of the Holy Spirit within. Finally, the joyful eroticism of the Song of Songs represents the union with God that is the promise of the contemplative life.*

While these primary principles identify the key components to attaining oneness with God, they do.

The Christ path Model lays the foundation for how we can achieve an open our heart, and exchange the experiences of ‘hell on earth’ for a new condition of ‘heaven on earth within our hearts’. We are here for the kin-dom of heaven. This is not a physical place, but a condition of the heart where the virtues of love abound, for all.

A conversation with Thomas:

Julie – Thomas, can tell me more about purgation and the sequential of the events based on the “initiations” of the Christ path?

Thomas – The original idea was purgation (purging, cleaning out, sitting empty) was that once you are clean enough, there’s a moment of enlightenment. This process of purgation leads to the 1st initiation of the Christ path. We ask the question “Is this all there is?” and “What’s wrong with my life?” Once our hearts can open, we suddenly notice we can love everybody. That’s the birth of Christ in the heart.

That experience goes on for a while, and we live with it and like it, then we come to the place we traditionally call the dark night of the senses. We are in this together – “I love my neighbors, I love my family, I love the world I live in, then I go into depression, and I come out of that”. That’s the 2nd initiation.

We purge that through, and we have another illuminated moment which we call the transcendence, and it is in the life of Jesus – that moment when he was on the mountain with his executive team, and he lights up so bright they fall on their faces.

People who are not Jesus, in this 3rd initiation, the world experiences them and they experience the world as “lucky” “wonderful teachers”, because they shine, and our culture, if we get there, our culture tends to expect us to stay there.

And then that goes on until we come to the 4th initiation, which tracks the crucifixion of Jesus. In the crucifixion, we lose this connection to light and to God, and to everything, and we are in this place that resonates with the voice on the “My God My God, why has thou forsaken me. I’m reaching through my soul to God, and my soul has blown away and disappeared, and I don’t recognize my connection to higher.

After we plum the depths of that, we come to the place where there’s no separation between being and being, I am God, I am an expression of God, I’m not in the presence of God, I’m not looking at God, but God is looking out through my eyes, I am ascending.

We’d love to hear from you!

Climate Café June 22 Update

Jun 5, 2022 | Climate Justice, Local Events

Climate Café Update
June 3rd, 2022
Megan Hanson and Bonnie Fackre

“What would the world be like if we truly “loved all of Creation as ourselves”? Chef Lakita Butler asks us to ponder. How does living sustainably look, feel, smell and more to the point, what does it taste like? How can we transform a society entrenched in destructive practices into a regenerative Christ-like paradigm.

Climate Café recognizes that humanity faces extinction, possibly within our existing lifetime. We are watching glaciers melt, wildfires rage, plant and animal species disappear and the landscape itself face irreversible changes. Climate change does not belong to any one demographic or people. It is all of us, here and now. Thomas Chavez continues to remind us, “Climate Café is an absolute vital expression of our most basic need as human beings.” Climate Café is something we can do ourselves, without depending on a politician. Climate Café believes that we are part of the solution.

The emphasis of Climate Café is that all the food served will be plant-based (vegan), sustainable and local. Climate Cafe is not just about the food. It’s about the way the food is made and served, and the way we show up. It’s about the relationships – with the farmers, our community and congregation. And it’s about inclusivity; it’s about all people, especially younger generations.

The Linkage Committee, formed by members from Christ the Healer and Hillsdale UCC has been meeting monthly. The group is making progress towards meeting health department requirements in order to open. Climate Café is working with Hillsdale to find two consecutive days of the week to be open for lunch, serving a low-carbon footprint, locally sourced, and gift-economy based meal.

Climate Café is optimistic about opening by the end of August, pending all health department codes are met. Christ the Healer is donating a unit for hot and cold food holding. Climate Café will use church tables for community/family style dining.

Climate Café is hoping a Hillsdale community garden plot will come available soon. Several famers are on board already for contributing free produce to Climate Café, including Acres of Abundant Grace in Canby and Grace Gardens in Oregon City.

You too can get involved. Come meet and greet your neighbors. Help set-up and clean-up. Let’s learn from each other what a climate change lifestyle could look like and feel like! As Rabbi Gabriel Cousens explains, “We are creating peace by being peace.” Let’s choose an extra-ordinary eco-centric way of being.

How we approach racial equality

Mar 5, 2021 | All, Equity & Justice

Recently, another church reached out to us to ask us how we (and other spiritual communities) are addressing racial equality and our success in addressing this priority issue. Here’s the response from our Pastor, Gabrielle Chavez

This is a very important subject for Christ The Healer UCC. If CTH UCC has any success with incorporating racial equity into our structure and program, it is the result of structuring and programming our entire theory and practice of church around Jesus‘s prayer “that they all may be one“ and engaging in activities that constantly bring us up against limited ideas about what that means relationally, politically, and ecclesiastically. Christ The Healer‘s vision is the wholeness of the body and mind of Christ. Our understanding of our spiritual and earthly mission is “Waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up together for the kin-dom of heaven on earth”. Every Christ The Healer member creates and publicly shares a membership covenant with a personal spiritual growth focus toward that end annually. This gives us a foundation for interpersonal relationships that are honest and supportive of growing up into Christ, “in whom there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free.” CtH gatherings reinforce teachings and practices that support our collective vision and mission, “listening in a state of grace“ and body electronics being two examples. In addition, in recognition of the need to repair our culture and church’s past sins, it has been a priority for me as pastoral leader from the beginning to seek proactively to empower the gifts and leadership of people of color who join us, which has resulted in significant diversity in our small congregation. I find that structuring church life and program to constantly grow our understanding and practice of personal and planetary wholeness creates church members and leaders with a consciousness and worldview that walks the talk of racial equity as a natural outgrowth of our way of ‘being the church’.