Sacred, Safe, Seen: A learning community learning from mystics
What is your religious education story?
When, where, and who has influenced your beliefs about the world?
A mentor/role model, house of worship, spiritual beings, books, school, media, your parent(s)?
At what stage of life did you solidify your beliefs as being your own?
At this moment in my life I sense that I have been in what I will see as an important marker within my religious education journey. I am thankful for this time and I am thankful for the spaces I currently occupy.
One of these spaces is a group of people from the city I live, Phoenix, AZ, mixed with a group of staff members I work alongside at Neighborhood Ministries. Our time together is on Zoom every Tuesday morning 9am to 10:30am during the fall and spring semesters.
It has been an important marker not only because of what I have learned, but because of my overall experience being in space. Being able to be comfortable and accepted as I learn has been a key factor that makes this space so significant for me.
Tuesday mornings sitting behind a computer screen with the people on this call has been a sacred and safe time for me when I feel seen. Our time together is led by Kit Danley the President & Founder of Neighborhood Ministries. She has gathered many seekers, such as myself, to learn from people who have truly united their beliefs with their lives. An act that is rare when it seems like so often people sacrifice their beliefs for power and status. We learn from both women and men called mystics. This learning community has and continues to play an important role in the development of my religious education.
Safe and Sacred Space called Porch Life
Growing up in Cedar Rapids, IA my brother, his friends, and I had a religious tradition we would practice together. At the end of a night during the weekend we would all sit in the car together. We would sit in the car and check in with one another. Everyone would give an update on their life and how they are doing emotionally and mentally. We called this time porch life. It was reminiscent of a practice of my people.
There exist an African American practice when people would sit outside their porch and talk about life with one another. This gave the racist epithet porch monkeys to black people. There was something redemptive about the time spent with my black friends sitting in the car sharing our problems along with our victories with one another. That space became safe and sacred for me. It became safe because it was a space where I could be vulnerable with whatever I was feeling or thinking, and it became sacred because there was a type of healing that felt otherworldly that would often happen in that space.
Although the people I share space with on the Tuesday morning Zoom calls are not black there is something safe and sacred about that space as well. I am sure there are others on that call who deem the time together as their weekly religious gathering. There is an openness from people in the group who share about the hard issues they are wrestling with in their own lives. There are people who will often share unashamedly and others often respond not with a solution, but will give time for those hurting to be heard.
As it is a safe space of authenticity our discussions are often what makes the space sacred. We take our cues from the Mystics we learn about and how their lives are an attractive light to our own. There are powerful reflections that we have together that have motivated me in the work I do of pursuing justice through developing youth who are in distress. The sacredness and safeness of this time of learning from mystics with other mystics has brought back a similar experience in my life that I had during porch life with my friends.
From unseen to seen
The time on Tuesdays has also made me feel seen. I have occupied majority white evangelical church spaces that see no value in my culture. They see me with colorblind eyes and assimilate me to their white way of doing church. In this space I recall making numerous black church jokes and being misunderstood and ignored. When I had made a serious suggestion of doing a choir for a special event reminiscent of a black church choir my idea was laughed away and not taken seriously. In this space there was no room for me. My blackness or my religious experience. I was an unseen minority.
An interesting aspect of many mystics we learn from is that they stood in solidarity with those who were deemed as lesser in society. They stood with the poor, the hungry, mistreated minorities, mistreated women, people of color living in a racist society. Instead of blindly following the status quo they listened to a holy spirit that led them to be reformers and activists during their time.
For this reason, others in the study together not only take time to hear from those our society pushes to the side, but maintain an eager posture to learn from those who are different. The majority of people on the call are white, so my wife and I being, often, the only black people on the call means that in this space we are heard and seen. It is beautiful to be seen. It is empowering. It is even more remarkable to learn from mystics who have lived lives of justice and peace for the betterment of communities.
Everyone deserves to find a learning community that is one of safety, sacredness, and one where they feel seen. I find this deeply important as well when it comes to one’s religious education. Religion encompasses a person’s whole life. What a person believes influences his’ or her movement through life. I am grateful for my time on Tuesdays and how it influences my own movement through life.
There is much love in me towards the other committed people who occupy this space and help make it what it is. Before I am even able to learn and develop I feel it necessary to feel safe and seen. This space has met that criteria, and because of that this religious education space has been one of healing and rich insight as I continue on my religious journey.
Stay tuned for more writings from me on lessons learned from the mystics that we discuss.
