It is time to stop and take a deep breath, writes Lynne Taylor.

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle at the bottom of your lungs. As you inhale, your diaphragm tightens and moves downwards, meaning that there is more space in your chest cavity for more air.

When you exhale, your diaphragm relaxes and returns upwards, into the chest cavity.

Breathing deeply, engaging the diaphragm, is a life-skill that many of us lose. We get into the habit of short, shallow, chest-breathing and lose the ability to take deep belly breaths. This is unfortunate, when deep breaths have been demonstrated to have many benefits, including reducing stress. And it is ironic that it is during times of distress that we are most likely revert to shallow breathing.

Im usually pretty good at breathing.

However, over the past few months I have frequently needed to remind myself to breathe. As I scroll through the news: breathe. As I find myself worrying about things I cannot control: breathe. I try to remember to take a deliberate moment and pause. As I breathe in, I note the point when I move from chest to belly breathing. Then I exhale slowly. It helps.

Deep breaths are a core part of many meditation practices. For Christians, one such practice, known as Breath Prayer, dates back at least as far as the sixth century. Breath Prayer involves a repeated phrase that follows the rhythm of your breathing. The first part of the phrase is recalled as you breathe in, the second part as you exhale. Traditionally, Breath Prayer is linked with the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy"). However, it can be used with many words and phrases.

Such an exercise can help us acknowledge the stress and sorrow of everyday life, while also reorienting us towards goodness and hope. "Breathing in peace, breathing out fear," for example. Or "Inhale hope and courage, exhale worry and fear."

While some who adopt this practice use the same phrase repeatedly, others choose from among many phrases, depending on the circumstances. Either way, it can be helpful to have a default phrase that you can draw on in a moment of particular stress.

For Christians, Breath Prayers help remind us of our dependence upon God, who gives us the gift of life, and continues to sustain our lives, day by day. It has been this way from the beginning of human history.

The story of Adams creation (Genesis 2) includes God breathing "into his nostrils the breath of life." It was this breath, the breath of God, which caused Adam to become "a living being".

When Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, "he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22).

As we breathe deeply, therefore, we are invited to remember Gods creation, redemption and sustaining in our lives. We are invited to recognise that each breath we draw is a gift from God, and that Gods Spirit is near to us. Nearer even, than our own breath.

If you havent already done so, begin to pay attention to your breathing.

The simple act of mindfully breathing in and out can help us to navigate challenging times. You might like to take it a step further and add words, perhaps a prayer, to your breathing. Doing so can help us to place our own existence in the context of a bigger picture, and in the care of a loving God.

- Lynne Taylor is Jack Somerville Lecturer in Pastoral Theology at the University of Otago. She teaches in the areas of pastoral care and chaplaincy.

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Breathing rituals kind of spiritual oxygen - Otago Daily Times

Soundarya Sharma had left for Los Angeles to pursue an acting course in February. Little did she know then that she would be stuck there indefinitely owing to the lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. While it can be daunting for even the strongest of people to stay all alone, away from their loved ones, during such a crisis, the 'Ranchi Diaries' actress has been keeping herself busy. She has been trekking and hiking to stay physically fit. But, along with it, she is also ensuring food for the soul. The actress has been taking virtual spiritual classes from her mother to stay positive, and has turned to yoga as well.Soundarya told us, The virtual spiritual classes with my mom have been of great help. She has always been my source of information and learning. Staying away from family is definitely challenging, but I have to keep calm. I am taking one day at a time. The basic thing is to control the uncontrollable and channelise the energies. Be it yoga, gardening or spirituality, all of it is keeping me positive and level-headed. I am looking forward to returning to India soon. Until then, I am only focusing on the positives. Though I have always been spiritually inclined, the spiritual sessions with my mom have taught me about the importance of seeing the silver lining amidst the dark clouds. Let's all stay united and pursue some form of hobby. Well said, girl!

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Stuck in LA, Soundarya Sharma takes virtual spiritual classes from her mother to stay positive - Times of India

Touring an art exhibition can take years of planning, and its even harder during a pandemic. Just ask Lori Lai, touring co-ordinator for Weaving Cultural Identities, currently on display at Urban Shaman.

"Weve never done anything like this before," says Lai of the Canada-wide tour presented by the Vancouver Biennale. "Its a learning experience. Its been great."

"We were supposed to launch in March but then we had to push one venue all the way to 2021 and re-adjust some dates for the other ones," she says. "We had to switch around a couple venue times, but luckily weve been able to keep all of our pre-COVID plan venues. Were very lucky that the venues were able to move things around."

Lai hopes that if COVID-19 allows Weaving Cultural Identities will have a tour stop in every province, but in the meantime, the 10 hand-woven rugs that make up the exhibition are currently on display in Winnipeg.

The rugs are inspired by the style and form of Islamic prayer rugs, so it might be a surprise to see them housed at Urban Shaman, a contemporary Aboriginal art gallery. But the rugs are actually a cultural and artistic collaboration between Islamic and Indigenous Coast Salish artists.

"Its Indigenous histories connecting with new immigrant Islamic histories," Lai explains.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Weaving Culture Identities at Urban Shaman Gallery is an exhibition of rugs created in collaboration between Islamic and Indigenous artists.

Curated by Zarina Laalo, the exhibition features artists Angela George, Chief Janice George, Buddy Joseph, Dawn Livera, Adrienne Neufeld, Krista Point, Nadia Sajjid, Ruth Sheuing, Shamina Senaratne, Michelle Sirois Silver, Debra Sparrow, Robyn Sparrow, Mary Lou Trinkwon, Doaa Jamal, Damian John, Sholeh Mahlouji, Michelle Nahanee and Kit Walton.

The design of each of the 10 rugs was first created by a graphic designer before being woven by a weaver, with each coming from a different cultural background. Through the collaboration, the artists learned about the similarities and differences in the spirituality of each of their cultures, infusing their discoveries into each rug.

"Theres a spirituality that is prevalent in both of these cultures that are seemingly different but have a reverence that goes into something that is hand-woven," says Lai, who notes that these types of rugs are often given as gifts and symbolize respect.

The rugs use different kinds of textiles, including Canadian sheep wool, European threads and Indian cotton.

"The materiality of a lot of these works are so important because of the places where they come from. It speaks to the whole story of the show as well: where do we come from? How are we weaving these two histories together?"

The initial success of Weaving Cultural Identities has inspired an extension of the project called Threads Through Time, which is currently on display at the Contemporary Native Art Biennale at Montreal.

frances.koncan@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @franceskoncan

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Weaving together art, spirituality - Winnipeg Free Press

Jehovahs Witnesses across the world are dressing up to go to their living room.

During the weekends between July 11 and Aug. 30, millions of Witnesses including thousands in Utah are looking their best at home to worship God during the denominations first virtual global convention.

Typically, adherents would flood restaurants and hotels between May and September to attend regional conventions. But theyve all been canceled due to the coronavirus, including ones planned in Utah.

Ogdens Dee Events Center was scheduled to host a June 26-28 convention in Spanish and a July 3-5 gathering in English, drawing some 9,400 attendees, according to a news release. It would have marked the 40th year for the regional meetings in that northern Utah city.

St. Georges Dixie Convention Center was supposed to host five conventions, including two in Spanish. About 13,400 individuals were expected to attend, said Michael Overholt, a Salt Lake City media host for the events.

Witnesses usually build off of one anothers energy during these conventions, so congregants are sad that they cannot worship together, Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesman for the denomination, told The Salt Lake Tribune. But the faiths governing body opted to stream a worldwide virtual convention through six installments to honor the second greatest commandment: Love thy neighbor.

We realized that not only were we putting each other at risk, which, of course, is bad enough, but also our neighbors, the city, Hendriks said. And so the decision to cancel these conventions was really a decision that was rooted in love.

Each of the 688 regional gatherings in the United States usually included mass baptisms and prayer sessions in the language of those attending. After the denomination decided in April to forgo in-person conventions, volunteers transcribed messages centered around the theme always rejoice into more than 500 languages.

Even though the mass baptisms are out, Hendriks anticipates about 300,000 people will take that step during individual services.

Worshippers can view the global convention through the Jehovahs Witnesses website. Hendriks said many congregants pray and read the Bible before they stream the videos and then discuss the proceedings afterward.

Its not just about the information, but it also is about the fellowship, he said. " My brothers in South Africa, my brothers in Hong Kong, China, Russia are doing the same thing as I am and are getting the same information and joining the same fellowship. There is a level of solidarity and unity that make you feel good about the experience.

Hendriks also said the message to always rejoice is relevant to current events even though this years theme was picked five years before the pandemic.

When you think about joy, for many its fleeting, for many its unattainable, he said. But yet were saying, and our theme is saying [and] the Bible says, always rejoice because joy is really a condition or quality of the heart that can be achieved and sustained even against the backdrop of sadness.

Overholt said the conventions first weekend went well for his family and his congregation. Plus, having the event simultaneously allowed the messages to be shared more easily and readily.

If [your regional convention is] scheduled for one of the early ones, oftentimes theres a release of a new book or a Bible movie, and it gets released at your convention. Youre asked to kind of keep that quiet until the rest of the world gets to their convention, Overholt said. But what was nice is the whole world was tied together on the same day, so we could share that.

According to Hendriks, virtual attendance is through the roof and streaming has allowed more people to join. Meeting remotely also has helped some members grow their faith.

Spirituality isnt about a place. Spirituality isnt about a building, he said. Spirituality is about our personal relationship with our Creator, and our relationship with our brothers and sisters. And that doesnt die because you cant meet in a building.

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Utah Jehovah's Witnesses join fellow believers around the world in historic global convention - Salt Lake Tribune

Monuments to flawed heroes of the past are spiritually dangerous but removing them may lead to even greater spiritual blindness.

At a time of new expressions of deep anger over a centuries-long history of racial injustice, perhaps it is not surprising that calls for the removal of Confederate monuments calls that are based on a legitimate historical argument that those monuments are symbols of white supremacy have, in at least a few cases, morphed into a larger call to remove a much broader array of celebratory statues of white presidents and founders, including Thomas Jefferson andGeorge Washington. And, on the other side of the political spectrum, there is now a counterreaction to build new monuments to the heroes of the past. This month President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a new statuary park to honor an array of presidents and traditional American heroes, including Washington. How should Christians react to all of this?

Perhaps the right answer is to neither defend the sins of the founders nor topple their statues, but instead to use this moment to reconsider the message and purpose of memorials altogether. Perhaps we can arrive at a new understanding that is rooted in humility and an acknowledgement of societal and individual sin that will lead to repentance rather than either self-righteousness or hero worship.

Americans in general and evangelical Protestants in particular have been rightfully wary of monuments to an individual. For centuries, theological heirs of John Calvin eschewed images in their churches and refused to bestow the title saint on any individual Christian. And for more than one hundred years, no American coins featured an individual persons face a sharp break from the centuries-old European practice of adorning coins with the face of a monarch. It was not until 1909, after more than a century of making coins adorned with Lady Liberty or an American eagle, that the American mint finally produced its first coin with the image of a historical person by putting Abraham Lincolns face on the penny. It was also not until 1879 nearly one hundred years after the Constitution was signed and the first president inaugurated that Congress created the first federal holiday honoring a historical individual (in this case, George Washingtons birthday).

Today, of course, we are very familiar with the practice of creating holidays, monuments, commemorative stamps, and coins to honor noteworthy Americans of the past, but its worth noting that this practice inevitably takes us into the dangerous territory that bothered Calvin that is, the practice of shifting our gaze from the perfect sovereign God to a sinful human. Inevitably, in our investigation of the persons flaws, we will discover what Jesus said: No one is good except God alone.

Furthermore, as the moral concerns of the moment change, our understanding of the gravity of particular sins will also change. The prevailing sins of our own culture and time period especially the sins in which we ourselves participate will probably seem relatively mild. We will not see their gravity. We will not see the dishonor that they give to Gods name and the damage that they do to other people. But the further removed we are from those sins, the more we will see their full ugliness.

Yet as we rightly point out the horror of sins of previous generations (such as the kidnapping, enslavement, and sale of millions of Africans or the white rape of numerous black women both during and after slavery), there is a temptation for us to forget that sin is just as present in our hearts as it was in the hearts of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century slaveholders. The sins of the American nation are not confined to racial injustice (as heinous a sin as that is) which means that we have not really expunged evil from our nation when we get rid of all of the historical monuments to everyone tainted with that particular sin.

Instead, as sinful people, we are prone to adopt (and excuse) a new societal sin whenever it seems that we are on the verge of finally acknowledging and turning from one of the sins of our past. To look at only one example of this phenomenon, lets consider American society of the mid-twentieth century (an era when many liberals viewed themselves as enlightened champions of egalitarianism) and consider that cultures blindness to one particular sin that is a clear violation of a biblical command and that most people today, even if they are not Christians, would admit is wrong: adulterous violation of a persons marriage vows, especially between a man who exercises a position of power and a woman in his organization or circle of influence who occupies a position of significantly less power. This has always been a sin. Its a violation of one of the Ten Commandments, its a direct assault on gospel-centered principles of sexual behavior, and its an exploitation of others that contradicts the Golden Rule. Mid-twentieth-century American Christian men should have known not to engage in it. But at the time, this sin became so deeply engrained in a culture of male privilege that it became more of the norm than an exception among egalitarian minded, influential men who could see the need for justice on issues of racial oppression but turned a blind eye to their own sins when it came to their marriage vows and their sexual exploitation of women.

Only one of the US presidents who was in office during the thirty-six-year period between 1933 and 1969 was likely monogamous; all of the others appear to have cheated on their wives at some point. So pervasive was this culture that there is now credible historical evidence that every twentieth-century president whose image has ever been put on the face of a coin or bill had at least one extramarital affair or long-term paramour and, in several of these cases, numerous dalliances. The same was true of congressional politicians, journalists, business executives, movie stars, athletes, professors, and clergy.

We are only beginning to discover the full horrors of the mid-twentieth-century sexist attitudes and practices that encouraged powerful men to think of young women as sex objects who existed solely for their pleasure and to view their marriage vows as non-binding suggestions, at best. In the mid-twentieth century, male politicians and business leaders had sex with their secretaries, male professors had sex with their graduate students, and male clergy had sex with the women who came to their offices for counseling. In the South, numerous upstanding gentlemen (some of them church leaders) fathered children through coerced sex with their black maids who were trying to care for their own families while earning only $100 a year (which would be equivalent to an annual salary of less than $2,000 today). In the Catholic Church, at least 4,000 Catholic priests and bishops abused a collective total of more than 10,000 children between the 1950s and the end of the twentieth century. The extent of similar abuse in Protestant denominations is still being uncovered and will probably not be known for several years. And in all of this, male leaders amassed power for themselves, both by preserving very low glass ceilings in their organizations and, in far too many cases, making womens advancement in their organizations conditional on sexual favors.

Just as the sin of racism was so deeply engrained in the culture of eighteenth and nineteenth-century America that it is impossible to find more than a very small handful of white men of those centuries who were not in some way tainted by it, so the sins of sexism and adultery were so pervasive in mid-twentieth-century America that quite possibly the majority of the male politicians and civil rights leaders who are viewed as champions of racial equality were also participants in it. Were deeply affected by cultural sin. And, perhaps most disturbing, it is near-certain that we ourselves are tainted by our cultures sins; were just not yet fully aware of the horrors or extent of those sins.

So what does this mean for monuments? Is there anyone whom we can safely commemorate? If were looking for someone untainted by the sins of the culture, the answer is no. As sinners, we are prone to many ways of rebelling against God and hurting others, but we are especially vulnerable to the particular temptations of our culture, whatever those might be. And if we are in positions of power and influence, we are even more vulnerable to temptations to claim sinful prerogatives for ourselves, since we have the power to do so.

In the past, Americans were probably too eager to erect monuments of particular people too eager to ignore the warnings about idolizing a human being. But today, we may be in danger of being too eager to tear them down or at least, too eager to tear them down for the wrong reasons.

George Washington was certainly guilty of some of the common sins of an eighteenth-century Virginia planter; he kept people enslaved for decades and pursued runaways when some of his enslaved workers tried to escape his oppression. But he also demonstrated a remarkable willingness to sacrifice his own interests and renounce power that very few of us possess to the same degree. And, at the end of his life, he made arrangements for all of his hundreds of slaves to be freed upon the death of his wife.

Theres something that we, as fellow sinners, can learn from Washingtons example of humility, growth, and self-sacrifice. And theres something that we can also learn from reflecting on the fact that he, like the rest of us, was deeply affected by the sins of his own time. To pretend that our country is not deeply connected to Washington including both his sins and his virtues would be historically nave. And to pretend that we have been more successful than Washington in participating in our own generations sins would probably be an arrogant act of presumption. Once we recognize how pervasive cultural sin is, well be more understanding of both the virtues and vices of a sinner like Washington and more willing to humbly recognize what we can learn from his life.

The good news of scripture is that God uses terrible sinners including murderers, adulterers, chauvinists, racists, and plenty of other people like ourselves in a cosmic story of redemption. This doesnt mean that every sinner should be memorialized or that every monument to an unrepentant sinner should necessarily be preserved. But it does suggest that of all people, Christians should be both the first to acknowledge the evils of our ancestors and the first to realize that we ourselves are probably guilty of equal evils that God has forgiven through the cross. And perhaps that realization will be the first step toward exercising the grace and wisdom in dealing with the thorny questions that may surround each particular monument.

Personally, I would vote to keep the statue of George Washington. I would do so with the acknowledgement that in addition to celebrating Washingtons achievements, we need to confess the societal sins in which he was a participant and, as a nation, repent of the ongoing legacy of those sins.

And if were going to erect any new monuments as spiritually dangerous as that practice might be I would propose creating statues of two of Washingtons African American contemporaries who had a lot less political power than he did, but who showed remarkable faith and courage precisely because of their lack of power: Phillis Wheatley and Elizabeth Freeman.

Like all of us, they were products of their time, with imperfect spiritual vision. They were not equivalent to Jesus. But theres undoubtedly something that we can learn from them, too. Like Washington, they played a critical role in shaping our countrys history. To excise their stories from the history books (as occurred for far too long) would be to show just as much spiritual and historical blindness as toppling Washingtons statue.

Read more from the original source:

The Spiritual Danger of Monuments | Daniel Williams - Patheos

Mouni Roy has been in Abu Dhabi since three months. The Gold actress is having a good time at her childhood friends home in the UAE. While she has taken to self-isolation, Mouni is focusing upon practicing spirituality. Talking to Bombay Times, she said, I truly believe in the higher power. Can you imagine how tiny our earth is in the spectrum of the universe? I have felt really protected since the time I was a little girl, till now. So, I have always had the longing and the search for the unknown. Spirituality for me is, to go inwards and establish that connection. Theres so much negativity all around, probably this is the time. I got so much time at one stretch, almost 4 months now, where I thought why not actually go inwards and do stuff you really wanted to do, unabashedly. We are in such a phase where we cant even say that we dont have time and make excuses. Its been quite long that shes away from India, and that has made the Brahmastra actress homesick too. She says, I am enjoying my stay here, in the company of my friend, who I grew up with, and her family. However, I am missing my mother and brother, who are in Cooch Behar (West Bengal). I am dying to come back to India, but I havent finalised a return date yet.

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Naagin actress Mouni Roy has taken to spirituality in the lockdown; heres what she says - Times of India

Im a Muslim boy of Iran and the American South who is politically most at home in the Black church and spiritually most at home in Rumi.

Thats how Omid Safi describes himself. A professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, he specializes in Muslim mystics, or Sufis, like the well-known poet Rumi.

Safi grew up in Iran, but hes lived in the southern US for many years now, and he feels a deep affinity with leaders of the civil rights movement like Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, he sees certain parallels between their views and Sufi views on love and justice. He teaches courses on both sets of views.

I recently spoke with Safi for Future Perfects new limited-series podcast, The Way Through, which is all about mining the worlds rich philosophical and spiritual traditions for guidance that can help us through these challenging times.

Safi explained Sufisms tradition of radical love, which involves both love for the divine and for our fellow humans, and what it would look like to be guided by that tradition today. What would Rumi do in a pandemic?

We also discussed how we might be able to lean into our suffering or solitude these days how we can actually use it to our benefit, rather than trying in vain to escape it.

You can hear our entire conversation in the podcast here. A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.

Subscribe to Future Perfect: The Way Through on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Omid, I like to do thought experiments. Will you indulge me in one?

If Rumi were alive today in the US, living through the pandemic, what do you think he would be doing? Would he be engaging in petitionary prayer asking God to stop the coronavirus? Would he be out in the street delivering supplies to people? Would he be social distancing? Would he wear a mask?

Well, Im fairly certain that if he were to be in public, he would be wearing a mask. Its just cruel and selfish to not wear a mask when youre in public. Its not just for your own sake, its also for the sake of everybody else. So lets just get that one out of the way.

Look, we tend to have this dichotomy. Would he be praying, or would he be out on the street? Yes, both/and, all of the above! Where is it ever said that the life of the spirit and the life of bodies have to be divorced from one another? The God that is the subject of ones petitions is the sustainer of our bodies, hearts, and souls. And what sets the path of radical love apart from so many other traditions is the notion that if you claim to love God, you have to love Gods creation. You cannot claim to be indifferent to the suffering of humanity and, indeed, other sentient beings if you claim to be on this path.

I think thats what the message of Rumi and all these mystics would be today: to identify suffering, to stand with those who are hurting and vulnerable.

This is not a very popular thing to say: God does have a preferential treatment. But it is not for a religion. It is not for a nation. It is not for a race or ethnicity or gender. Its for the poor. God is on the side of the weak and vulnerable.

I think in the context of the current pandemic, what we see is that Covid-19 is disproportionately taking the lives of Black people, people who are low-income, and people who are experiencing homelessness. So it would seem like these are the people that an ethic of love would demand that we really do our utmost to protect.

Yet somehow among all the countries of the earth, we seem to be almost uniquely unable to rise to this challenge. Not because we lack the resources or the expertise. I wonder if we lack the care and the love.

That reminds me of a stark contrast I see between a strand that you find in Sufi thought and a very prominent strand in American thought. In Sufism, we see a real emphasis on selflessness. And I dont just mean being generous. I mean something much more radical: total ego annihilation, getting rid of your notion that you have a bounded self that is separate from others, separate from God. Theres this idea of al-fana, becoming completely absorbed in God.

To me, this seems like the polar opposite of American individualism. Were in a country that has a very strong libertarian streak, where were almost obsessed with individual liberties. And I wonder if you think this emphasis on our personal freedom is actually getting in the way of expressing solidarity with one another during a pandemic.

I do think that something about this rugged individualism is certainly both real and at times slightly exaggerated. I mean, after all, we are the very people whose founding document starts with we, the people. It doesnt start with I, the person. Theres that notion of the peoplehood, that we-ness, which is so fundamental.

I was very blessed in my life to have been loved and mentored by the close friend of Dr. Kings Vincent Harding. And he would always take me back to that document and remind me that what that document says is we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice. He would say, thank God it never said in order to form a perfect union. Because we were not perfect when we committed genocide against Indigenous people. We were not perfect during the years of transatlantic slavery and Jim Crow. We are not perfect now. But the goal is to become just a little bit more perfect today than we were yesterday.

And how do we do it? Establish justice. Of course, justice is never individual. Theres a reason we call it social justice. Its justice out in society.

I hear you talking about two notions: love and justice. Im curious how Sufi thinkers would say these two notions interrelate.

Well, youre very astute at picking that up, except theyre not two notions. Theyre one notion. I almost fell out of my chair the first time I heard Vincent Harding express this because here was this 80-year-old Black Christian elder of the civil rights movement and it was as if he was reading something out of a Sufi text. The Sufis say that love is not an emotion. It is the very being of God unleashed onto this realm. So its helpful to think of this love as an oceanic wave that pours through you, and when it pours out of your heart, out into the public square, we recognize it as justice.

Dr. King and Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members all said this in the civil rights era. All that we mean by justice is love when it comes into the public square.

This reminds me of a Rumi quote that I read in a Coleman Barks translation: What sort of person says that he or she wants to be polished and pure and then complains about being handled roughly. Love is a lawsuit where harsh evidence must be brought in. To settle the case, the judge must see evidence.

Theres an interesting relationship there between love and justice, right? Love for your fellow people isnt just saying to them, Whatever youre doing is great, universalism means total relativism, so if you want to be unkind or racist, thats totally fine. There is this element of judgment. There is this element of criticizing when you see something that you think is wrong or is going to harm other people. Being willing to criticize when you see that is part of justice. But thats not separate from love.

Thats right.

Lets talk about the massive suffering that a lot of people are experiencing during this pandemic. A lot of spiritual leaders are responding by trying to offer comfort that aims to ease the suffering. But theres also this rich tradition in a lot of spiritualities about suffering actually being ennobling if you harness it correctly.

I see a lot of this attitude in Sufism. Rumi in particular says, Brother, to be a lover, you must have pain. Where is your pain? Elsewhere, he just says, Seek pain, pain, pain! Hes always calling upon us to increase our pain or suffering in some sense. So how would you invite us to think about this in relation to the pandemic?

I think each of us has to be true to our own traditions. And Im a Muslim boy. Im not a Christian. So when I listen to Martin, whom I love, and I hear him talk about redemptive suffering the willingness to bear suffering and to pick up our own cross, and that if we can do so with dignity, then nothing shall be more redemptive and transformative I dont know about that! Because that tradition of redemptive suffering isnt mine.

As somebody who was pre-med in a previous life, I spent so many years volunteering in pediatric cancer wards. When I hear those kinds of Rumi quotes or hear Martin talking about redemptive suffering, I put myself in the situation of one of those young mothers at the hospital holding her 6-month-old infant and imagining what I would say to them. Would I go to them and say, I know youre enduring pain, I know your babys enduring pain, but I want you to know that this pain is redemptive? No, I wouldnt. And I dont think any kind human being would. When you witness pain, sometimes the way of bearing witness is to actually be silent.

Now, what do I do with those traditions of Rumi talking about pain? To begin with, I dont think we have to go looking for pain. Theres already pain in this world. Rumi begins his whole collection of poetry talking about the suffering that comes from all the different types of separations. For some people, especially nowadays, you might be separated from your loved ones. You might be separated from a place that feels like home. You might be separated from your own dreams you thought you were going to be somebody and life hasnt quite worked out that way. And theres pain in that.

But then Rumi goes on to say, Every heart breaks. But not every heart breaks open. And theres a difference between a heart that merely breaks and a heart that breaks open.

First of all, thank you for saying that when someone is in a cancer ward or suffering terribly due to a pandemic-induced death, we dont go up and say to them, Everything happens for a reason; this is terrific! I would feel terrible if someone said that to me.

What Im left wondering is, how do we work with pain and heartbreak so that we become the person who as a result breaks open and doesnt just break? How can we hold the suffering of the pandemic in a way that could actually be ennobling?

I think a lot of it comes down to the idolatry of the finite ego. So many of us think that we end at the edge of our fingertips. But you are a fluid being. Your soul is extending and already enmeshed with other people. That same finite ego has a tendency to think that it is the master of the universe, that you write your own destiny. And so much of the pain that we have is the realization that our ability is finite, that we were unable to prevent pain for ourselves or for people that we love.

If instead we didnt see ourself as one bounded self moving through and perhaps bumping up against other finite selves, but really saw one life, one soul, one yearning, one living, one love then the suffering that we witness in somebody else and our own suffering would resonate with one another. I think thats at least a key to a heart that breaks open.

My first gut reaction when you were saying this was, no, this sounds horrible! Because if I feel that Im actually this thing that merges with all other beings, then I share in everyone elses suffering, and that multiplies my suffering a million-fold.

But my second response was, maybe that would help me feel a sense of connection with all these other beings. A big part of what is so painful when were suffering these days is that we feel alone in it. Theres something maybe psychologically calming about feeling like we are united with everyone else, even if the mode that were united with them in is a mode of suffering.

Exactly. Rumi has this wonderful line: Youre clutching with both hands to this myth of you and I. Our whole brokenness is because of this.

We crave connection. That is an indication of the fact that we were never meant to be an island. Were meant to be in communion with other beings. Rumi says, You and I should live as if you and I never heard of a you and an I.

During the pandemic, though, a lot of us are in physical isolation. And I think a lot of us are so scared of being alone. There was a scientific study done a few years ago where they gave people the choice between being alone with their own thoughts for 15 minutes or getting electric shocks. And a lot of people chose the electric shocks!

But the Sufi tradition has a lot to say about the benefits of isolation, of khalwa. There is this idea that it can allow you to focus on meditation, on spiritual development. And this goes all the way back to the Quran and the Bible. You see Mohammed and Moses going for 40 days to the mountain to commune with God and then they get their big revelations. Is there some way in which we can use this pandemic to not run away from our isolation, but instead to lean into that solitude and somehow use it to our advantage?

When you think about Moses and Jesus and Mohammed and the Buddha and Rumi and Ibn Arabi, all of whom did this practice of khalwa, of going to a cave or to a mountaintop this wasnt a permanent calling. It wasnt that you would move to a cave. You would go inside to be alone with the One, and then you would come back and bring the fruits of that into society. I think thats what I would love to see us as a world community do.

My hope is that this unplanned period of retreat can give us an opportunity to examine our own life, to think about what it is weve been prioritizing, what has been feeding our hearts. You know, so many of us are attached to our phone devices. We start to get really panicky when the battery light on them comes on because it means we only have 20 percent left. And then we nervously start looking around: Wheres my cord? Wheres my charger? Wheres the outlet?

Well, what if your heart had a red battery light? Would we even know where to go to recharge? Thats going to look different for every person. It might look like reading Rumi poetry. Listening to a great podcast. Gardening. Going for a hike in the mountains. Prayer. Yoga. I dont particularly care what that practice is that rejuvenates your soul. But I think it is important to be asking ourselves: Do we know what it is? And do we know how to locate it? And do we know how to return to it again and again and again until it becomes a practice?

Yes, I think that in the Before Times, many of us were so busy with a lot of things that distract us from our internal world. And, like you said, I hope that this pandemic can give some of us I think it will be the privileged among us, really, who can afford it a moment to look inward and reevaluate. So there is that period of khalwa, of retreat. But I like that you pointed out that there is this really dialectical relationship in Sufi thought between khalwa and jalwa: retreating into yourself and going back out into society.

Ibn Arabi, my favorite Sufi, says, For him whom God has given understanding, retreat and society, khalwa and jalwa, are the same. In fact, it may be that society is more complete for a person and greater in benefit since through it at every instant one increases in knowledge of God.

You want to have this period of isolation where youre looking inward, but thats not the end goal in itself. Ultimately, you want to use the wisdom youve gained in isolation and then go back out to other people and be able to see the divine in them and interact with them in a better way.

Thats exactly right. I think this notion of a khalwa, a retreat, is terrifying to so many people. Because who knows what youre going to find if you start looking into those unexamined corners of your own soul? What if you dont like what you see?

But we all carry wounds. And just because youre not looking at it doesnt mean that its healing. So sometimes I think it can be very helpful to retreat.

And its not just wounds that you have in that unexamined portion of your soul. Theres also wonder and beauty and the presence of the One, whatever name you want to give to her or to him.

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What would the poet Rumi do in a pandemic? - Vox.com

VIJAY HASHIA

While the Covid-19 virus has created panic, chaos, depression and, in some cases, death, it has also revealed another aspect of human nature heroism and hope, courage and compassion, empathy and appreciation evident in numerous warriors from various government agencies and members of civil society, including medical staff and sanitation workers. Only a life lived in the service of others is worth living. There is no religion greater than human service.

Seva in Sanskrit is the act of selfless service. Seva is done without any expectation, return or reward, name or fame. It is nishkama seva. In Sikhism, selfless service is a paramount belief. In Shia Ismailism, service is described as doing volunteer work for others from the heart.

Ismailis donate their time and knowledge wherever it may be needed, as nazrana. The Bhagwad Gita says, That gift which is made to one who can make no return, with the feeling that it is ones duty to give, is held to be saatvik. The Gita encourages selfless service to grow spiritually; thus, it is closely linked to the concept of karma yoga.

Service before self is a great motto in the forces. Through mindful awareness of challenges, seva can be used as a powerful tool for people to learn more about themselves, their personalities and patterns of behaviour. One can elevate oneself to spiritual progress as work is our right but not the fruits thereof.

God who is present in me is also present in other human beings. Thus, doing seva is serving God, doing seva is worshipping God, and to work for ones salvation and ultimate eternal happiness.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Essence of Seva - Economic Times

Diligence, humility and caution are essential ingredients to those on the spiritual path. Ego, conceit and arrogance are its greatest dangers and must be avoided like the plague. Human beings are vulnerable to praise and adulation and quick to take offence are the mildest of criticism. When we are caught within the trap of our ego, we are bound to blunder.

Fools dwelling in darkness, wise in their own conceit, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round and round staggering to and fro, like blind men led by the blind, so declares the Katha Upanishad. Swami Vivekananda said, the world is full of these. Everyone wants to be a teacher, every beggar wants to make a gift of a million dollars! Just as these beggars are ridiculous, so are these teachers.

According to Sadguru Sri Sharavana Baba, the human sciences that include the natural and social sciences are comparable to rivers as they are limited and end in the ocean. But spiritual science is like an ocean-- it is deep, powerful and immense. It is without limitation. It encompasses both the search for knowledge and the search for truth. The search for knowledge is limited by memory and belongs to the past and is therefore limited by the past but he searches for truth is ever-present, every new and ever effulgent and therefore suffers no limitation. Knowledge is appropriated in the head but the truth is appropriated in the heart. Outer knowledge is validated by experimentation and proof but inner knowledge is validated by individual experience.

According to Babaji, there are six ingredients to construct a happy life. These include aarogyam (health), aishwaryam (wealth) and aikyum (unity), anbh (love) and arivu (intelligence). If these six attributes are aligned and consciously cultivated and balanced, it will result in ananandam (bliss).

Who is a good devotee? The good devotee is he or she who grows by refraining from judgements, avoids condemnation, does not use harsh words and sees the good in every individual and ignores the rest. Such an elevated soul will radiate divinity to those who come in touch with such a person.

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Humility needed on the spiritual path - Deccan Herald

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his names sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

How do you define rest in the Lord?

Do you live a balanced life emotionally, physically as well as spiritually?

Our physical bodies are uniquely created by God to inform you and me when rest is required. And when we choose not to listen, our bodies begin to shut down. When at the point of exhaustion not only will our attention span and comprehension become distorted, our natural defenses are weakened emotionally as well as physically. This is when you and I become incapable of functioning properly.

If God doesnt build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesnt guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap. Its useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Dont you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?"

Do not misunderstand there is nothing wrong with good honest work. What is important is maintaining a healthy balance of proper rest in order to work effectively within your divine purpose in life.

Itsthe same when you and I become spiritually unbalanced due to deprived rest then our defenses become weakened spiritually. Here is where the enemy goes on attack. Spiritual rest is commanded by God and intended to rejuvenate our spirit man. It is a time where we can commune with God more intimately and hear from him without limitation.

"Rest" in the Bible is referred to in various ways. Most notably it refers to the Sabbath being a physical rest from labor.

Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

Lets take it a step further. When you and I accept Christ as Lord and Savior, he has a place in us to dwell. His rest provides you and me freedom from life's challenges. And we get to enjoy all the splendor and glory that is Christ. His rest brings eternal salvation, peace, encouragement, strength, protection, wisdom and so much more. My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

As children of God, His rest brings provisions. What keeps many from enjoying this rest is unbelief in his finished work and lack of knowledge in his word. And also the inability to cease our own works.

God is the creator of all things, including you and me. He orders our steps. The lord needs not our assistance when leading us. Otherwise, we burn ourselves out on both ends of the candle. Where is the rest in that?

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

What is the next step? Recognizing who truly is in charge. You and I can stop agonizing over how to make things work in life. All that is required is for us to trust, believe and have the courage to move when he says go.

Through the Old Testament there is countless evidence of this rest.

The children of Israel received the city of Jericho.

How?

They entered Gods rest and obeyed his commands. There were no airstrikes, nuclear bombs or huge ground force invasions. They simply held to the promise and believed that the plans of God would secure their triumph (Joshua 6:1-27).

When you and I come to a point where we can lay down our own agendas, allowing God full control, then we can cease strategizing. There you find less stress and more enjoyment in the fulfillment of Gods plans over our lives.

I pray that you come to find Gods perfect will for your life. And more importantly find your own rest in the Lord.

You may ask how I may obtain this rest you speak of. It all begins with a relationship with the son of God; allow me to extend an invitation to experience his wonderful love and all that it brings with it. By your own free will, you accept Christ as lord and savior.

Please repeat this prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive my sins I committed against you. I believe Jesus died for my sins and has risen again. Please come into my life and heart and lead the way. I confess you as my lord and savior from this day forward. In Jesus name, amen.

Welcome into the family of Christ.

Until next week, be blessed and continue to bless others along the way. Shalom.

(Bible references: Psalm 23; Psalm 127:1-2; Exodus 23:12; Psalm 62:1-2; Revelation 14:13. To obtain the full benefits of each verse, please read the five verses before and after each verse.)

Contributing Writer Edith Nevis can be reached at 857-2200 or atedith.nevis@houmatoday.com.

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By His Grace: Rest in the Lord refreshes the soul - Leesville Daily Leader

AP

Oakland Raiders Bo Jackson, left, chats with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham following the Eagles 10-7 win in their game at Philadelphias Veterans Stadium, Oct. 23, 1989. Cunningham ran for 57 yards on nine attempts and scored a touchdown while Jackson ran for 79 yards on 20 attempts. (AP Photo/CharlesKrupa)

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Saturday, July 11, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Randall Cunningham has been praying for the Las Vegas Raiders since before the franchise arrived in town.

Over a year ago I started going to the practice facility and parking across the street and praying for their success, Cunningham said.

Cunninghams affiliation with the team has become a little more official since then, as the Las Vegas resident and UNLV legend is now serving as the Raiders team chaplain.

The previous chaplain, former Oakland Raider Napoleon Kaufman, was unable to follow the team from the Bay Area to Las Vegas. Kaufman suggested Cunningham for the role, and head coach Jon Gruden introduced Cunningham to the team on a Zoom call several weeks ago.

Cunningham passed for 8,290 yards and 61 touchdowns during his three years at UNLV (1982-84), then went on to a 16-year NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens. He passed for 29,979 yards and threw 2017 touchdowns in the NFL and was selected for four Pro Bowls.

Since his introduction to the Raiders, Cunningham has heard from a handful of players.

Its already started off great, Cunningham said. Its been nice developing those relationships through video. When coach Gruden introduced me he said some great things. We had been together my last year with the Eagles, and he said, I trust this guy.

Cunningham embraced faith during his playing days, and in 2000 he served as a player-chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys.

Despite his extensive playing experience at a cerebral position, Cunningham stressed that his current role is about shepherding players, not coaching them.

My role is not a coaching role, he said. My role is spiritual role. Im not going to get into Xs and Os; thats coach Gruden and his staffs job. My assignment is really to pray for them behind the scene and make sure Im available to their families.

Cunninghams church, Remnant Ministries, is open to players, and he wants them to feel comfortable at the house of worship.

Ive already spoken to the people in our church and said when the Raiders come, its not going to be an autograph session. These guys need to know that this is their home, and we need to act like theyre family, and love them and pray for them without being overbearing toward them. Just let them live their lives.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [emailprotected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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UNLV, NFL great Cunningham ready to heed the Raiders' spiritual needs - Las Vegas Sun

Was I deceived? or did a sable cloud

Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

I did not err, there does a sable cloud,

Turn out her silver lining on the night

And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

- John Milton, 1634

We can all recite the litany of woes and ills visited upon us in this remarkable year of 2020. We recite it so often now, usually in disbelief, as in, How can so much bad happen in such a short period of time?

COVID-19 and a global pandemic. Shut down and lock down. Economic collapse. The death of George Floyd and the ensuing days and nights of rage and anger and heartbreak. A November election shaping up to be ugly and divisive and tribal and unprecedented.

And the year is only 190 days old or so! 2020 is barely half over. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Heres a first-class ticket on the Titanic! Or as the perpetually downhearted and pessimistic donkey Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh might conclude, Were doomed.

Or maybe not.

Maybe we might be able to actually glean some silver linings from that which has been a train wreck of a year so far. Maybe we might actually find some good among all the bad, some hope among all the pessimism, and some courage among all the fear.

I want to do that. I need to do this: to find hope.

To see hopeful places and movements and ideas and people amidst all the wreckage. I have to do this, to be an explorer for the positive in the midst of all the negative. My faith compels me: my belief in the basic goodness of human beings and my belief in a God who is constantly pushing Creation towards redemption and renewal and rebirth. Im not denying whats broken. Not imagining it never happened. No. But always, to look for the light where it is tempting to only see the shadows.

I can do that. We can do that.

And so, I am grateful that the pandemic has reminded me of one great truth: how much we humans really need one another: for care and mutual support and love and laughter. Since mid-March when I first shut the front door and stayed in, Ive actually connected more deeply and more consistently with those I love.

There was the surprise 85th Zoom birthday party for my Mom last month. Thirty-five folks from across the country showed up to wish her the happiest of birthdays. Who could have imagined that party last January? Or my weekly Zoom connections: with my choir friends on Wednesday evenings every single week, as we laugh and joke and check in. How are you? Or my weekly Zoom meeting with grad school friends, friends Ive loved for more than 30 years. We never gathered so frequently pre-COVID.

COVID has actually connected me more to others, not less. I hear the same from other folks about socially distanced beer and wine gatherings in a neighborhood driveway. Precious time with children now that youth sports are on hold. We actually eat dinner together every night now, they tell me. In the church I serve we actually have seen an increase in folks coming to worship and classes and fellowship who knew the virtual might sometimes trump the face to face?

Silver lining: staying connected, one to another.

And I am hopeful, that the rising up of millions of my fellow citizens in anger and frustration at the sin of racism, filling the streets, pushing for real change, seizing this singular moment to imagine and hope; that maybe this time America will have the courage to face itself in honesty. To begin to redress that most original of civic sins: dismissing the other because they are different than you.

Who could have imagined Black Lives Matter signs appearing on suburban lawns and church yards, or folks of all ages and religions and classes and races, so many people, taking a stand, taking a knee? Statues representing an oppressive and violent history toppling over? Corporations committing to more diversity of voices and employees. Mississippi finally taking the Confederate flag off its state flag?

I know this movement is still in its infancy, that it will be mighty hard to actually move beyond symbolic acts and protests to actually achieve real and lasting societal change a just society but hope for this I must. We must. It will take long and hard work to begin to undo 400 years of injustice but what if we have finally begun this journey as a country?

Silver lining: waking up to the truth of who America is while also dreaming of who she might become someday, one great day.

Give me hope. Show me a silver lining in the midst of the storm clouds. Enough with the bad. Look for the good. Its out there. We just need to look for it with eyes of faith.

Onward.

The Rev. John F. Hudson is senior pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn (pilgrimsherborn.org). If you have a word or idea youd like defined in a future column or have comments, please send them to pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org or in care of The Press (Dover-Sherborn@wickedlocal.com).

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Spiritually Speaking: Silver linings from a dark cloud of a year - Wicked Local Norwood

MUZAFFARGARH - A self proclaimed spiritual healers torturous tactics caused the death of an adolescent after he forced the child to drink hot oil for what he claimed the expulsion of evil spirit from childs body at Mehmood Kot area of district Muzaffargarh, police said on Monday.

Sajjad Hussain (10), the son of a poor farmer Mukhtiar Hussain, was ill and his father took him to a fake Peer namely Ghaffar Shah for his spiritual treatment.

The alleged fake peer told Mukhtiar that his son was under the influence of some evil spirit and its expulsion was the only way to curing the disease. He then took the child to a room and started heating oil.

Then he caused burns on childs face by hot oil and then poured it into his mouth and the child fell unconscious.

Noticing the deteriorating condition of the child, the accused Peer handed him over to his parents asking them to take him home and claimed that he would be alright within an hour. He also threatened them that he would send evil spirits to their home if they told anyone about the incident.

The child, however, died on the way and his father Mukhtiar reported the incident to police.

Mehmood Kot police had registered FIR against the accused on charge of killing the child and started investigation. The accused spiritual healer had escaped leaving his business place (Aastana) locked and police had started conducting raids for his arrest.

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Spiritual healers torture results in childs death - The Nation

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer

DRY PRONG, La. (LBM) Chris Smeltzer assumed he was a follower of Jesus because of the many years he attended worship services with his family.

But, recently, Smeltzer realized growing up in a Christ-centered home would not get him into Heaven. He not only accepted the Lord after a conversation with Pastor Trey Lewis, but chose to celebrate his freedom in Jesus through baptism Independence Day weekend.

I truly believe that it is God and his Son Jesus Christ who have given me the strength and will to be a better version of myself, Smeltzer told the Baptist Message. He gave me courage to talk with Pastor Trey about becoming a member Prospect Baptist church and to stand up for everyone to see how Jesus has filled my heart.

I look back now and realize something had been missing in my life, like a void of sorts that has now been filled, he continued. Im proud to be a part of a new family at Prospect Baptist Church and Im so glad that I asked Jesus to come into my heart and life. Its the best decision Ive ever made.

Smeltzers baptism, July 5, was the first for New Prospect Baptist, which averages 90 in worship, since they resumed services June 7 after state COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings forced them to meet online for the last three months. Three more individuals have indicated a desire to be baptized as soon as possible.

Lewis said while COVID-19 has posed challenges in sharing Christs love with the community, the Holy Spirit has continued presenting opportunities to present the Gospel. He referenced a recent conversation with a homeowner named Belinda who needed help with placement of a trap on her damaged roof as a storm approached. Moments later, Lewis asked her about the spiritual condition of her life, and she subsequently professed her faith in the Lord.

She prayed the sinners prayer in her yard, Lewis said. People are still responding to the Gospel.

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Dry Prong is spiritually abundant - The Baptist Message

New Delhi: The covid-19 pandemic has given video streaming platforms a chance to expand their offerings beyond entertainment to genres like health, fitness and spirituality to cater to increased demand and new audience segments.

Last month, Disney+ Hotstar entered into a strategic alliance with fitness, yoga and nutrition content producer Brilliant Wellness to introduce content curated from its fitness experts, yoga and spiritual gurus, along with celebrity nutritionists spread across 100 programs. Start-ups Sarva and Cult.Fit, also brought their workout models on to the video streaming service.

VOOT, the VoD platform owned by Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd, has associated with Cult.fit and Isha Foundation, the non-profit spiritual organisation founded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev besides online higher education company upGrad. ZEE5 has collaborated with Dabur Honey to launch a chat show - Dabur Honey Hello Fitness besides a range of fitness programmes in partnership with its live events vertical ZEE LIVE.

The focus on these niche genres makes sense given that India has veered towards a more holistic way of content consumption that goes beyond general entertainment over these past three months of lockdown. According to data from media measurement and analytics company Comscore, average time spent by visitors on apps in the religion or spirituality category rose by 27% in April as compared to January.

A Disney spokesperson said health and fitness have become extremely important in our stressful lives, and never more so than today. The aim of their content, available in English, Hindi and Telugu, is to help people lead happier lives.

There was always a plan to add these newer sections but covid just accentuated and helped fastrack that process because there was so much opportunity to grow given that OTT (over-the-top video steaming) had emerged as the primary mode of consumption," Aparna Acharekar, programming head at ZEE5 said.

Fitness and spirituality are evergreen topics, Acharekar added, connected to physical, mental and emotional health but their need had never been felt as much before as now given that people have had no access to gyms, parks or other avenues to socialise, work out or seek motivation from.

Audience segmentation across genres such as reality shows, crime, drama, mythology and so on has become more pronounced during the lockdown, said Akash Banerji, business head at VOOT but the companys research showed that people were also searching for content beyond fiction.

As an OTT platform, we had to give enough content selection (in these genres to) for people to keep coming back to us and make sure that the content was of a certain significance and quality which is why the decisive entry into these additional genres," Banerji added.

Media industry experts say while these new genres cannot be compared in viewership to general mainstream entertainment and are still in early days of uptake, consumption of such content continues to see a steady rise with platforms compelled to invest in them even post the lockdown. In this era of highly individualised viewing, Acharekar said spiritual content is watched on connected devices which proves that the family is consuming it together.

Of course even within the genres, there are trends. Fitness videos, for instance, work best in the morning and evening while meditation works throughout the day," Banerji said adding that the company continues to seek audience feedback and plans to double down on whatever is catching on.

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Streaming platforms offer fitness, spiritual content - Livemint

An ultraconservative, coronavirus-denying priest who was defrocked after capturing a convent in central Russia has called on President Vladimir Putin to give up his powers or face a spiritual war.

Father Sergei was found guilty of breaking his monastic vows by an ecclesiastical court earlier in July.He seized the Sredneuralsk womens monastery near Yekaterinburg after religious authorities barred him from preaching in April for refusing to follow coronavirus health guidelines,callingthe restrictions a satanic plot.

I offer at an international level that you, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, transfer powers to me, Father Sergei said in his latest address.

Three days and Ill restore order in Russia, he said in a video published on his spokesmans YouTube channel Sunday.

Otherwise, Ill declare a full-scale spiritual war against you personally, as well as the apostate Patriarch Kirill Gundyayev and the Chabad Berel Lazar, who rules Russia, he said,referring to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was born Vladimir Gundyayev, and Russias chief rabbi Berel Lazar.

A former policeman, Father Sergei changed his secular name to Nikolai Romanov in honor of Russias last emperor and previously spent 13 years in prison for murder.

Before being defrocked he was a prominent but controversial figure in the Orthodox Church, serving as the confessor of sports stars and politicians including Russian lawmaker and former Crimean prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya.

A BBC Russia report published earlier this month described psychologically abusive treatment toward children living in the monastery.

Father Sergei is at least the second high-profile religious figure to seek Putins ouster. The first, Siberian shaman Alexander Gabyshev, has been detained during multiple attempts to trek to Moscow and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

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Defrocked Coronavirus-Denying Priest Tells Putin to Step Down - The Moscow Times

All Saints by-the-Sea will be treated to the wisdom and spiritual insights of the Rev. Martin Smith for the online services offered for the next three weeks.

Rev. Smith is well-known throughout the Episcopal Church as a writer, retreat leader, spiritual advisor and teacher. The virtual services may be accessed on the All Saints website, http://www.allsaintssouthport.org and will consist of organ music recorded at the chapel, prayers, hymns, and a sermon by Smith. The organist for the July 19 service is Mr. Jay Zoller, organist at South Parish Congregational Church in Augusta.

Born in England, Rev. Smith received his BA and MA at Oxford University and after ordination, served several parishes as well as the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the oldest religious order for men in the Anglican Communion. He transferred to the American branch of the Society in 1979. Smith retired from St. Columbas Church in Washington, D.C. in 2012. Since then, he is in demand as a teacher and workshop leader where his engaging style and vast knowledge have enriched countless spiritual seekers. He has also authored numerous books on contemporary spirituality.

This summer, Smith is posting a series of podcasts entitled Seeking the Gift of Hope. The podcasts can be accessed weekly at http://faithinmaine.org/

In this summer of uncertainty, Rev. Smiths thought-provoking insights on truly accessing Gods offer to be hope in us are both timely and inspirational.

In addition to the virtual service, All Saints chapel will be open for private prayer and meditation on Sundays from 10 a.m. until noon, Tuesdays from 1 to 3 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. until noon, Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. for the month of July. Golf cart transportation will be available for the Sunday hours. Social distancing, special sanitation and the wearing of masks will be in effect during these times. The chapel is located on Southport Island about two miles south on Route 238 on All Saints road to the left.

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Rev. Martin Smith to lead All Saints services July 19, 26 and Aug. 2 - Boothbay Register

When Meaghan Murphy, the chief content director of Woman's Day, asked actor and producer Candace Cameron Bure to be the magazine's new Chief Spiritual Officer, or CSO, Bure thought "those are the best initials ever." As a woman who has always been vocal about her Christian faith, Bure says she was flattered to be offered the role. "My Christian faith is so meaningful to me, and it's the foundation of who I am," she tells Woman's Day. "It always goes before me, and I've never been shy to talk about my faith. So to be known for that and to be respected for that is great."

Bure, who is known for her acting roles on Full House, Fuller House, and various Hallmark movies, has had an evolving relationship with her faith throughout her life. She says she wasn't raised in a Christian home, but began going to church when she was 12 years old.

"It wasn't until my early 20s when my faith became my own," she says. "I chose to dig into the Bible and know God in my early 20s, and since then everything in my personal life and in my career really revolves around the foundation of the Bible and my Christian faith, and trying to walk that walk and not just say it with words." In her career, Bure has focused on making family friendly shows and movies as well as sharing her faith during her time as a co-host on The View. "My faith is not something that stays at home. My faith goes with me everywhere I go."

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In her new role at Woman's Day, Bure hopes to encourage readers and helps them grow in their own faith. "I hope what they read sticks to their ribs," she says. "I hope they will walk away thinking about it and thinking how they could apply that nugget to their lives."

She plans to cover a different topic in each of her columns, and wants to focus on how people can incorporate their faith into their everyday lives. "I want to focus on is how to treat people in the world even when you disagree with them," she says. "We have to be kind; we have to respect that we all have different beliefs and choose love over all."

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Bure is especially excited to be a part of a magazine that has long valued cultivating and celebrating faith. "Woman's Day has always had a nod to scripture and encouragement in faith, and I love that Meaghan wanted to continue with that," she says. "And now I get to be that little corner of the magazine and every issue choose scripture and talk about how it applies to each of us and how it can encourage us to take a better step forward each day."

Her first column will appear in the July/August 2020 issue, which hits newsstands Monday, July 14.

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Candace Cameron Bure Is Ready to Share Her Faith As the New Chief Spiritual Officer of Woman's Day - WomansDay.com

(LWI) -Church of SwedenArchbishop AntjeJackelnisamongseveral dozenleaders of differentreligious traditionswhoofferpersonalinsightsfromtheCoronavirus pandemicas part of an online project pioneered by theElijah Interfaith Institute.Foundedinthe late 1990s,the institute brings togetherJewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Bahaileadersto build friendships and share the richspiritualresources of theirvariousfaith traditions.

As part of theinstitutes mission to engage with pressing contemporaryissues, the Coronaspection projectsets out to exploremanyof theunsettlingquestionsbrought sharply into focusby thedeadlypandemic and resulting lockdown of'normal life in countries across the world.Theologians, teachers, preachersand leaderstalk frankly about their feelings of fear,frustration, pain and grief, as well as the ways theyhave learnt to cope with the sudden, dramaticchangesinpersonal and community life.

The institutes found and director,Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein,is a longtime friend of many of the people featured in the project andconducts mostof the online interviews himself.Others,like Pope Francisor Orthodox Patriarch Daniel of Rumania, share hopesand thoughtson the crisis throughsermons orpre-recordedreflections.Alongside the fullYouTubeinterviews, the website also offers bite-sized gemsof wisdomfrom each speakerand a catalogue of texts and biographies.

In her conversation with Rabbi Alon, ArchbishopJackeln, who serves as the Lutheran World Federation vice-president for the Nordic region,reflects on the way the pandemic hassparkeddeepanxietyand uncertaintywithin Swedish society.While on the surface, it is a very secular country, she says, if you scratch the surface a little,there is a hunger and thirstforspiritual insights that can help people cope with theirfears for the futureat this time.

The answers that we can offer[]are grounded in our faith tradition, she continues, but should not necessarily be phrased in theologically exclusivelanguage.Comparing the fear of the disciples,isolated and aloneon Easter Saturday, with the anxieties of people quarantined by the Coronavirus,she says the main challenge for the church is to help people adapt and find courage torespond to the crisis in positive and creative ways.

The Lutheran leadertalks about the transformative power of prayer and the need to cultivate spiritual resilience,rather than projecting anxieties and fear ontoothers.Thepracticeof prayer, she says,is a powerful way to widen our horizons, gather new courage and get a change of perspective on issues.Spiritual wisdom, she insists, will always encourage us to look after the most vulnerable and acknowledge that thecrisiswe experience is different from that in countries where you dont even have soapor sanitizer.

Noting that the pandemic has raised important new theologicalreflections aroundthe nature of evil, personal and structural sinandthelimits of free will, ArchbishopJackelnexpresses hope that people will emerge from thecrisis with powerful new insightsanda new sense of proportion,particularly regarding the climatecrisis.The church shouldbea voice of hope and prayer, she concludes, a place to harbor anxiety and griefanda source of inspiration for good moral action,helping to transform anxietyinto loveof neighborand carefor creation.

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Lutheran leader shares spiritual insights on pandemic - The Lutheran World Federation

A new public art exhibition in London is remembering the work of Khadija Saye, an artist who died in thetragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Works by the artist have been installed in Notting Hill, near the site of the fire-gutted tower block where a 24-year-old Saye and 71 other victims lost their lives in the blaze.

Saye, whose work was featured in the 2017 Venice Biennales Diaspora Pavilion, often explored her own Gambian-British identity and the migration of traditional Gambian spiritual practices. Nine large-scale prints of her photographs are now being shown in the outdoor exhibition on the faade of 236 Westbourne Grove, through August 7.

The series was created from a personal need for spiritual grounding after experiencing trauma, Saye wrote of the works in a catalogue before she died. The search for what gives meaning to our lives and what we hold onto in times of despair and life changing challenges.

Khadija Saye, Andichurai(2017). Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye.

The show is the first of three site-specific exhibitions spearheaded by art collector Eiesha Bharti Pasricha and curated by Sigrid Kirk as part of a series titled Breath Is Invisible, which aims to present work that addresses issues of social inequality and injustice (through October 9).

Sayes work will be replaced with new commissions by artists Martyn Ware, Zachary Eastwood-Bloom, and Joy Gregory later this summer. Portfolio sets of Sayes silkscreen prints will be sold to raise money for the program as well as the artists estate.

See some more views of Sayes work below.

Khadija Saye, Tr(2017). Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye.

Khadija Saye, Kurus(2018). Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye.

Khadija Saye, installation view of in this space we breathe, part of the exhibition series Breath is Invisible, 2020. Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye, photo by Jeff Moore.

Khadija Saye, installation view of in this space we breathe, part of the exhibition series Breath is Invisible, 2020. Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye, photo by Jeff Moore.

Khadija Saye, installation view of in this space we breathe, part of the exhibition series Breath is Invisible, 2020. Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye, photo by Jeff Moore.

Khadija Saye, installation view of in this space we breathe, part of the exhibition series Breath is Invisible, 2020. Image courtesy of the estate of Khadija Saye, photo by Jeff Moore.

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A Public Art Project Near Londons Grenfell Tower Presents the Spiritual Work of Artist Khadija Saye, Who Died in the Tragic Fire - artnet News