Journey Inward
Sept 9, 2023
The Inward Journey mission group gave me the task, and privilege! of sharing with you about the Inward Journey aspect of our church's life. I'm using a chapter from the book by Elizabeth O'Connor, called "Journey Inward/Journey Outward," as a structure for this talk, as well as my own experience in experimenting what's right for ME in practicing this inward journey.
Early CoS:
In early Church of the Saviour, (which we older people may call “C of S”) back in the 1940s and 50s, through some experimentation, they came up with pairing the Inward Journey (time with God) with the Outward Journey (service to the world). Many churches do either one or the other, but the creative tension is between the two, and Community is the glue. Community is also the anchor for the Inward Journey.
Early on in the church's life, starting in 1952, they looked for a Retreat Center, a corporate expression of going inward. Throughout the 50s this small church raised money, bought the land, and, through their own hard work and sacrifice, almost all by volunteers, helped prepare the ground and build Dayspring.
One of my favorite stories involves a piece of art in the Yoke Room of the Dayspring Lodge: It's the brown paper head of Jesus. Robert Nathan was a well-known artist from NY, who donated this piece to Dayspring in 1955. He said, "most pictures of Jesus are not Jewish. This is a Jew. I did not know what to do with it, so I am giving it to you, because this is where I met him." My experience with this picture is, that when you soften your eyes, and have diffused vision, the face starts to move, and has many faces within it. It is a powerful focus for me to go deeper into the silence and mystery of Dayspring.