The wonderful Pagan singer, Celia,
came to Sonoma County yesterday. 
While readers of this blog know I admire her work, we had never
met.  However she had emailed me she
would be singing at a meeting of Catholics concerned with social justice
issue.  Perhaps I might want to
come?

I did.  I was not disappointed by Celia’s singing.  She has a wonderful voice that does not
receive anything close to justice when I listen to the song “Symbol” on my
computer.  And she is a warm and genuine human
being as well.

But other than this enthusiastic
plug, my post is not about Celia. 
It is about the lay Catholics associated with the Spiritual Enrichment Center whom I met, some of whom later treated the two of us
to lunch. (I was a last minute add-on, but that did not bother them a bit.)

The morning meeting was broken up
into presentations on poverty and what Christians could do about it by people
who had long walked their talk at a very personal level.  Some made their living this way until
they retired, and then continued to do so at a reduced intensity.  I was impressed.  Celia sang during breaks between
sessions. 

As the morning progressed I was
struck with the difference between what this Catholic group and what most Pagan
groups would have done in holding a series of sessions on the issue of justice.

We would probably have focused on
environmental justice towards humans and our other-than-human neighbors and, as
befits a minority religion, likely have emphasized issues of interfaith and
religious justice.  The Catholics
emphasized the poor. 

They were no more
anti-environmental than I was anti-the poor, and spoke kindly of the Wiccans
they had encountered in various contexts. One woman said she would likely be a
Pagan were she not first a Catholic. 
At no time did I hear a word of criticism or concern about the character
of our beliefs.  What “theological”
discussion that emerged did so as a by-product of our conversations.  Particularly enjoyable was a
celebration by us all of the advantages ritual brought to sacred work.  We were simply a group of people with
different religions talking about mutual concerns, from justice for children
living in poverty to where the best mushroom pizza could be found in Santa
Rosa.

The entire morning through early
afternoon was delightful and I learned more about the situation facing the poor
than I had ever imagined I would.

The sessions and following lunch left me with two
thoughts I want to share.  The
first is important given the extreme nastiness we often encounter from some
other Christians, a nastiness I think we cannot afford to ignore.  I think there is a world of difference
between people, largely centered in the laity, who want to serve the Sacred and the world
through a religious context that appeals to them, whatever it might be, and
those who are deeply concerned with the details of doctrine and organization,
and are stimulated by personal ambition. The second group gets the headlines
but the first does most of the work that counts.  The second is parasitic on the first, probably in all groups
where enough people exist to have organizations and money to attract the
ambitious.

My second thought was that it
takes a diversity of spiritual traditions to ever hope to honor all of the
sacred insofar as it touches on human experience.  We are all limited beings with limited time and limited resources,
and we can probably of best service to our Gods and our ideals by focusing our
energies.  But the world calling
out for that focus is far bigger with more deserving causes than ten lifetimes
could serve.  A spiritual division
of labor might best address this problem.

Years ago I organized an
interfaith tree planting in Berkeley, and people of many faiths came and
planted trees.  Now lay Catholics
had organized a conference about the poor and social justice, and a couple of
Pagans showed up, learned, and probably both of us left enriched spiritually
and with a greater concern for our society’s most abused members.

If our society has a good future
ahead of us regarding interfaith relations, I had a nourishing taste of it
yesterday.