Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Emergent Village

Home
Progressive Christian
Metamorphosis: Healing and Transformation

Metamorphosis: Healing and Transformation

Last updated on: October 2, 2014 at 9:59 pm by Teresa B Pasquale Mateus

Metamorphosis: Healing and Transformation 2014-10-02T21:59:45-05:00 Teresa B Pasquale Mateus

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The path to transformation is full of suffering. When I speak about spiritual woundedness and church-hurt, which seems to be more and more lately, I use the metaphor of childbirth.

Childbirth is an excruciating process, and when naturally felt in the body a woman reaches the crescendo of pain, the point called the “transition,” where it feels like the body can’t handle one more moment, this is the very point the body transforms the pain into new life, into the birthing of a new being.

The Transition

It is the point at which we think we cannot bear any more that we are given the liberation of new life. This is the point we find ourselves in today, in Christianity that is Emerging out of the past and into the equally painful and uncomfortable present. The great gift of being in this space, at the point of transition, is that it brings us to the brink of new life. It takes us to the precipice of manifestation. We are in the hardest part as a body of faith. This is the space into which Emerging Voices gestates–this excruciating transition place on the edge of birth.

This is a seriously messy space–all full of blood and guts and exhaustion. But it is a necessary place. For new life to be born we must go through the pain. The past week or so the world of faith and blogging, of emerging, and emergence has been rocked by suffering personified and vocalized–and we have all suffered the exhaustion of the necessary pain. This began with a post penned by blogger, cartoonist and “naked pastor” David Hayward (whose art work titled “metamorphosis” serves as our metaphoric emblem, above).

A Post & A Past

Following the post was a flooding of pain, suffering, unaired wounds and unheard stories of pain experienced through the emergence of this post-evangelical, progressive form of Christianity known as Emergent Church and Emergent Village. Then all the voices came into the mix, post-evangelical, post-emergent, post-christian and beyond.

So many voices of hurting on all sides, from all perspectives. All grieving the loss of some kind of hope that had to die away for new hope to be born. There is no perfect faith. There is no perfect religion. There is no perfect people group. We will, all of us, get it wrong and messy and get stuck in the pain and guts that is our inner battle for grace at some time or another. We will all question our faith, question others, and forget what we remembered once upon a time, that we can’t expect perfection from any one person, system or community. In that forgetfulness we get so hurt.

Forgetfulness

In my forgetfulness of that I get myself hurt all the time. Sometimes, in retrospect, it feels foolish and other times it feels necessary when I do it–like the gateway, the transition to newer and deeper understanding. Some days I am so angry at my denomination I could scream. Sometimes I am so disappointed by what I read in progressive faithdom online that I could cry. It is going to happen. The boomerang of these sacred wounds, only so painful because they are equally so sacred in origin, can whip back around and snap us in two.

That being said, part of the process, for us individually and communally is the getting back up, the moving through the excruciating transition to new life–for us and whatever community we call our sacred home [or homes]. Through all the messiness, I think we are in an exciting and liberating time in faith [on most days], one where anything is possible. This particular lineage of possibility began with a few folks who decided to create something called Emergent–to define the place they were standing, between what was and what could be.

There is something so brave in that and I think we can honor that while also critiquing what came from it–another system of flawed humans trying to find their way–and struggling with the great chasm between faith and ego, possibilities and certitudes, humility and platitudes that all those who paved new ways had to contend with, some more successfully than others in this, in history, in our Biblically flawed predecessors of faith. We are all atoms in that matrix and lineage of change and grace, over time and in our own lifespan.

The Possibilities

In this place where we stand presently, at the transition point, it is possible to emerge from learned lessons to new faith understanding and carry our history with us on our back–our traditions, our lore, our hurts and our hopes. We can sit in the muck and guts and blood of the transition and know that we are on the edge of another new birth of life. I hope that Emerging Voices can embody that space, of transition, and new birth. It will be messy on some days and it will be full of grace on others–and many days will be a mix of both. Sometimes we will cry together or at each other and other times we will laugh so hard we cry.

I am honored and blessed to be on this journey with all of you. I am not someone who comes out of the emerging movement. I am a newcomer into whatever is currently manifesting, and this process of becoming. However, as a therapist I am very used to coming into spaces of pain, transition, and possible transformation, where I can’t possibly know all that came before. I work with people who don’t always tell me their full history, and often times they don’t need to. For the purposes of healing, learning the nature of pain is essential and how it can be healed to make new beginnings. That being said, after a decade of doing trauma work with people, therapeutically, I have realized that me knowing the story of the hurt has little to do with the work I do in collaboration with my clients towards something new. The story is not the primary conduit to the healing, often it is the thing in the way of the healing.

Our stories, whatever our own is in our hurts, wounds and suffering, does have its place and value, but it is not the place of healing. The place of healing is beyond the story alone, into the imagination and towards the future, into the possible. The healing place is where we are today, in this moment, and how we transform what was our deepest suffering into something new and bold and beautiful. The healing is in the metamorphosis.

Thank you, all you on this journey past and forward for being part of a dream of individual and collective metamorphosis [like David Hayward’s beautiful image above–perhaps my favorite in his sophia series]. Thank you for being part of this spiritual new life and new beginnings we are creating one post, one chapter, one voice at a time in this space of emerging voices. I have so much hope for the road ahead, not without pain but into it and through it. I have so much gratitude for the lessons learned which will make us better for having learned them and grown through the hurt and out the other side.

Gratitude & Beloved Community

I want to say a special thank you to Brian McLaren, of all the forefathers and foremothers of emergence he is the one I know of the best and someone, in getting to know him some as a person, recently, has such gracious authenticity about him. I appreciate all he gave into birthing this community we now write and speak out of–this emerging community of beloved neighbors in faith. I know that journey to new beginnings is no easy path, and I am grateful to what he gave, and along the way gave up, to make what we talk about today even a possibility.

There were many others, I know, but I wanted to offer a name of someone who was inspiration [along with, in great part, Richard Rohr] on my journey, and my husband’s, as we struggled to emerge [seperately and together] from our Catholic [mine] and Brethren [my husband’s] roots.

Part of the ritual of healing is also the honoring of our ancestors, ancient and new, and so I do this as thanks for the past that paved the way ,and thanks to be moving into the future in beloved community with all of you–whoever you are, whatever your hurts, whatever your hopes, and whatever your journey.

We all have a place in this discussion and this community. That is the beauty of truly beloved community. Thank you for listening to my small voice in a larger discussion. Thank you for being a part of this community of faith with us. Faith, spirituality and community is always on the precipice of emerging, that is what keeps it alive and growing. Thank you for sitting on the edge of what emerges next with me, with us [our authorship at Emerging Voices], and with the wider world of faith and faith voices.

Addendum: I can’t say I know where we are headed or what it is called, but I have always preferred the term “emerging” since I was introduced to the concept of “emergence.” I think it is fluid, it denotes change, and it is not a static place but rather a process. And transformation, metamorphosis and change is a process-one that we repeat over and over throughout our lives, lest we get stuck in place, and possibly even continuing post-death. Whose to say.

I don’t know if I could have ever been defined as “emergent” from the basics of not being post-evangelical–because I was never evangelical–but also because I was not really ever involved in the community or dialogue until this recent new iteration of what is emerging. In these “emerging voices” and conversations, which are at least half voices that would also not have ever been called “emergent” either we see the process in practice. That is exciting. That, in itself, is the process of change in action and in writing. It is a great experience to engage with and I am enjoying being in this “emerging” process with all of you.

progressive christianity

richard rohr

sacred wounds

Previous Post

October 1, 2014

Journeying Through the Dark Side of Emergent Christianity (Toward the Light!)

Next Post

October 5, 2014 Making Me a Channel of His Peace

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Addiction Advent Atheism Authority Bible Cartoons Christian Year Christmas church church planting Civil Rights Community Contemplative Spirituality Culture emerging church Empire Eschatology Evangelism Events Gender Healing Humanism Islam Justice Kingdom Lent Movement Building Multi-Faith Music mysticism New Wave Emergence origins Personal Poetry politics Prayer Preaching Privilege Racism Religious naturalism Resurrection salvation SKEPTIMERGENT Theology Trauma Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2017 November 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Paul tell Timothy to flee from in 2 Timothy?

Select your answer to see how you score.

False teaching The love of money Persecution Evil desires of youth