Some who know me may know of my passion/intrest… of Temple. Those who hear me speak about Temple, will find that I refer to Community of Christ having a single Temple made up of various parts. This understanding of Temple started at least by the summer of 2002 when I served for the first time at the Kirtland portion of the Temple, though it was during my writing my Community of Christ Theology paper on Temple in Community of Christ that this understanding became more clear to me. Since my first experiences with Kirtland the ministry of Temple has often crossed my mind. It is one of the things that makes Community of Christ unique in the world, and it is an essential part of who we are. There is much for us as a faith community to learn from this aspect of who we are. I was excited when President-Prophet Steve Veazey indicated we need to grow in our understanding of this area in 2005. I am also excited about the team that ahs been formed to look into the ministry of Temple. In fact, my excitement allowed me to get past my self doubts/consciousness and send on both my paper from 2002 and Reflecting the Past with Today: A Spiritual Formation Historical Experience: Kirtland Temple , which was the result of my 2004 summer as the Roy A. Cheville Spiritual Formation Fellow at Kirtland. I don’t know if either of these documents will aid them on their path of growing and deepening our understanding of Temple ministry, but if I had not sent them, any use they may have would have been loss.
Also on Friday I spent a bit of time at Salem Community of Christ working on one of my projects that I have started. I think that something will come of these various “works” that I have started, even if it is just deepening my personal understanding and helping me grow. It is always possible that someday I will feel they are close enough to final form to share with others, only time will tell.
Today I went to church early for a Priesthood meeting. TCC has just started to hold priesthood meetings. At present we are holding them once a month, and this is the third one we had. For this one and the next three we will be focusing on home visiting, as we hope to increase the amount of visiting. As we explore what the needs are, what we can realistically accomplish, and how to go about it, I think we will grow as a group. (Well, the we might be just them as I do not know how long I will be here. If opportunity arises and I am asked to go somewhere to serve I will go where I am asked to go, if not in Aug I will be heading back to school either in Seattle or OH, at least I hope I will.)
From reading what I have about the reorganization of world ministries staff, I have some hope. While I am sadden that we must cut positions, at least it sounds that we are using this as an opportunity to restructure the world ministries staff to better serve our mission and the ministry we hope to provide in the future. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to serve in my field in the way I wish to, though with less opportunities the possibilities go down, but I still have great hope as I continue to embrace my personal call.
Peace,
— Lyle II