Lotus and Lily Field Notes

I got a very nice email today from Don Erickson in Tampa:

Dear Joseph,
Doing some surfing, I found the Lotus and Lily group and was excited to see it. I am a chaplain at Tampa General Hospital and in the ordination process with the United Church of Christ. I am a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (2004). When asked, I often call myself a Buddhist-slanted Christian. I have a vision of building a church – with a brand new ecclesiology and liturgy – using the vehicle of the Jesus Sutras, ancient Chinese Christian texts dating back to the 7th century which are written through the lens of Taoism and Buddhism. The closest thing it seems to such a church is your group in Seattle. I am interested in the operation and structure of your group. I see that you discuss, meditate, and chant, but I wonder if there is any liturgy involved? How much interest is there? In other words, how many come to your meetings?
Anyway, I thank you for your time. I appreciate any feedback you can give me.
Metta,
Don Erickson

I shared with Don some thoughts about Lotus & Lily; since it’s a good update on where we’re at, I thought I’d share it here as well:

Hi Don,

This is very exciting! It’s wonderful to connect with you–I’m so glad you found us. Your idea is fascinating, and I hope you continue to share your work. Maybe you should start a blog–I’m finding that a great way to record the group’s process as well as my own. Plus we need to get more Buddhist-Christian bloggers out there!

Lotus and Lily definitely does have a structure, and it’s been very interesting to watch it evolve. Our sessions currently include both Buddhist and Christian (quasi-Gregorian) chanting, 20 minutes of silent meditation pretty much in the Buddhist style, and “prayers of the people”; following a short break we have a discussion about a text we’re reading and close with a Quaker-style silent circle and a gassho bow.
We are in fact just on the point of a group conversation about what we do and why, as we continue to get more intentional about our practice. Personally I’m very interested in liturgy (I sing Gregorian chant with a local group and we just released our second CD) but we have not incorporated much in the way of “high church” liturgical activities. We’ll see where our most recent conversations go–I think there may be further interest in that sort of thing.

We are pretty small right now, about seven regular members. We’ve lost a number of people recently who left the area for work-related reasons, but part of our plan is to more actively promote what we’re doing in the community. We’re confident that there’s a lot of interest–we just need to get more intentional about our outreach, and that’s what we’re preparing for now.

I’d be delighted to share more with you about what we’re up to, and would also love to hear more about your own plans.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to post your note and my response to my own blog at www.lotuslily.net, just to let people know what you’re up to. Would you mind my doing that?

Many blessings on your work–sounds totally cool!

Joseph

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