Season of Creation Week Three

Today's theme for the Season of Creation at my church, The Episcopal Church of Sts. Andrew and Matthew, was The Human Family. The guest speaker was The Rev. Canon Mark Harris, one of my three Wise Men who helped me get to Sudan. His remarks began with....

I take refuge in God, and so should you!!!!!

Mark cautioned us, Episcopalians, to be careful about speaking for the Whole Human Family. Why?

There are roughly 7 Billion of us in the Human Family.

There are roughly 2 Billion "Christians."

There are roughly 70 Million Anglicans, and 3% of them are Episcopalians.

Do the math.

Mark had requested that an excerpt from the play Paradise Now, performed in the 1960's at The Living Theatre in NYC.

Founded in 1947 as an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater by Judith Malina, the German-born student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck, an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School, The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents - a unique body of work that has influenced theater the world over. Find more information about the Living Theatre at www.livingtheatre.org Here is a picture of their production of Frankenstein.

In Paradise Now, there are numerous actors on the stage one of which has the part of a pole, around which all the other actors revolve, similar to a solar system, each actor representing a part of the human family. Each actor does not memorize text but responds to questions or stimuli. At times members of the audience become entwined in the action.

So here is the question: What do you want? Simple, right?

Here are some of the responses:

To make the world glow with creation. To make life irresistible.
To feed all the people. To change the demonic forces into the celestial.
To remove the causes of violence. To do useful work.
To work for the love of it and not for the money. To live without the police.
To change myself. To get rid of the class system.
To re-invent love. To make each moment creative.
To be free of the force of the State. To be free to create.
To get rid of a life of material greed.
To free all the energy wasted in financial transactions.
To cut all the bureaucratic wasted time out of life.
To free humanity from armies.
To stop distorting the mind of the people.
To stop crippling the human body with frustration.
To learn how to breathe. To live longer than we do.
To supply what we need. To seek what we desire.
To stop wasting the planet. To stop dying of competition.
To break down the walls that alienate.
To get to know God in all of God's madness.
To make the destination clear.


At this point the pole asks... What is the destination?

The actors spell out ANARCHISM. The pole asks... What is anarchism?

The actors respond.. PARADISE, and then continue chanting Now, Now, Now...