Church of the Holy Spirit

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Father Phil on the Move 

The airplane leaves for Kilimanjaro, Tanzania today, Wed July 18. After some acclimation, we begin the hike to summit on 7/28 at 19,2341 feet. Mt Kili is the tallest single mountain and volcano in the world. Many people travel to its peak and I hope to join them, though much may not be up to me. 
Follow Father Phil on his journey!  See his Shawls of Love Video >

Thoughts on Hiking on Kili. 3 of 5: Purgation.

8/4/2018

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​The term seems medieval and entirely negative with gastro-intestinal overtones even. But consider all the "stuff" that rattles around the brain, soul and psyche. How about all those patterns of thought and frames of thinking that seem so resistant to change? All those agreements you made with yourself? All those memorialized memories? Under the right conditions, the container breaks: the clinging haunts fall away, the long assumed surrender to what was just going to be the way it is ends and a newness is felt. Under the right conditions. One doesn't need a 24 hour flight, and hiking in extremis to encounter such a freedom. But these conditions just don't fall into your lap. Constant breathing patterns, hours upon hours of intensive effort, with no obvious relief anywhere, leaves you liable to a container break. Once open, you just don't want to go back, no, not about going back to the people you love whom you can't wait to embrace again, but the patterns of thinking, the acquiescence to a norm assumed, the regimen of expectations. You see things differently, again. E.B. White had it just right, as he reflected upon a brutal encounter during long night of gentleman farming, in an essay, Death of a Pig, he observed, "I discovered, though, that after having given a pig an enema, there is no turning back, no resuming one of life's more stereotyped roles."
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Church of the Holy Spirit - 3 Haytown Road - Lebanon, New Jersey  08833
908 236-6301  www.churchholyspirit.org

To become Christ as we serve others, proclaim God’s love, and grow in the Spirit.
ABOUT US
Who We Are
Our Rector
Our Deacon
Our Staff
Our Vestry
Our Photos
Our History
Legacy Giving
Building Use
​
WORSHIP
Visiting CHS​
Sunday Services
Sermons
​Weekdays and Holy Days Services
Music
Baptisms
Weddings
​Memorial Services
FORMATION
​Sunday School
Nursery
Adult Education
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
​"Windows of the Spirit"
SERVING OTHERS
Family
Youth
We Care
Pastoral Care
Country Arch
Culinary Angels
Food Pantry
Prison Ministry
Shawl Ministry
​Good Friday Day of Service