The LCWR Woodstock 2013 has begun at Yasgur’s Farm … er… the Caribe Royale Resort near Disney World in Orlando.
Today they had a talk from their featured speaker, Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF.
Excerpts from the National Catholic Register coverage:
LCWR Keynote Speaker Advocates ‘Cosmological Rethink’ of Religion
Sister Ilia Delio discusses an ‘evolutionary’ approach with the women religious gathered in Orlando for the group’s 2013 annual assembly.
ORLANDO — Sister of St. Francis Ilia Delio, melding science and theology, took her fellow women religious on a journey through the cosmos yesterday in her two-part keynote speech, “Religious Life on the Edge of the Universe,” [I guess being on the edge of the bus seat isn't enough.] at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) here. In the second part, following lunch, Sister Ilia emphasized love and authenticity.
“If we are to rethink in terms of religion, we have to think in terms of cosmology,” Sister Ilia said. [and... obedience?]
“We have to understand the order of the whole,” adding, “There is no cosmos without God, and no God without cosmos.” [Ummm... hey... Sister? I hate to break this to you, but... not really.]
Sister Ilia, director of Catholic studies and visiting professor at Georgetown University in Washington, has a doctorate in pharmacology [!] as well as historical theology. [How about pharmacological theology?]
The 825 attendees of the LCWR 2013 assembly — titled “Leadership Evolving: Graced, Grounded & Free” — listened as Sister Ilia discussed the evolving philosophical, theological and scientific theories that she said are shaping man’s [ooops] outlook of God and nature.
Dionysius [I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and guess that she doesn't mean the god of wine.] proposed everything has its place in the spiritual order, Sister Ilia said. What brought about disorder? Laughter ensued when Sister Ilia stated, “It was sin that led to disorder, and it was attributed to a woman who shows up in Genesis and was never heard from again.” [Why not pick on Adam?]
A mixture of Scripture, philosophy from Plato and other Greek thinkers helped develop our theory of Jesus Christ — unchanging, static — a mechanical God.
Sir Isaac Newton contributed a world of law and order where everything is autonomous and related. Sister Ilia remarked that Newton’s God is the “Florida God. He charges it up, sets it in motion and then retires — probably to Orlando.”
The audience again laughed. [Meanwhile, on this blog...]
Sister Ilia’s description of her belief as a young postulant about keeping order brought nods of affirmation. “As a postulant I thought — ‘If I pray and obey, I can keep my part.’” [But that's so... non-cosmic.]
God is more than mechanical, and the universe is far from static. “We have an incredible, dynamic, expanding universe. Simply from the point of science, this is awesome,” Sister Ilia said, adding, “Literally, we are stardust.” [Groovy.][CUE MUSIC!
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, "Where are you going?"
And this he told me...
.
I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm,
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band.
I'm gonna camp out on the land.
I'm gonna get my soul free.
.
We are stardust.
We are golden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
.
Then can I walk beside you?
I have come here to lose the smog,
And I feel to be a cog in something turning.
.
Well maybe it is just the time of year,
Or maybe it's the time of man.
I don't know who I am,
But you know life is for learning.
.
We are stardust.
We are golden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And Everywhere there was song and celebration.
.
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky,
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
.
We are stardust.
Billion year old carbon.
We are golden..
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.]
Teilhardian Ideas
Sister Ilia is a devotee of Jesuit scholar Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his theories on evolution and love, reminding the audience the Church is not opposed to evolution.
[...]
‘Giving Birth to God’
Ending her presentation, Sister Ilia reminded the attendees, “God is within and up ahead — not above. God is the power of the future. To rest on God is to rest on the future.”
“Nothing is more awesome than to give birth to God,” she said. [Ehem... I think only one person knows about that.][...]
Groovy.
I look forward to the complete transcript of her 2.5 hour presentation.
Oddly, the Fishwrap’s coverage didn’t mention the connection with Teilhard.
I’m still hurt that the nuns rejected me.
