by Peter Leighton, photos by David Sand
“When a person is ordained, he or she receives a blessing from Spirit, which gives both support and a direction from them in their ministry. The MSIA ministry is administered by spiritual authority in order to further God’s work in the world. Through this authority, ministers ordained in MSIA are connected to a powerful flow of energy to be used in service for the highest good of all concerned.” - John-Roger, (From: Fulfilling Your Spiritual Promise, p. 701) Conference this year was all about Heartfelt Service – the focal point for those of us who are ministers in MSIA. Our intention is heartfelt service. Those of us who have been ordained in MSIA serve for the highest good of all concerned. To begin, "Our Song of Love" was sung by Madhuri Marelli. The present and new ministerial board members were introduced to the ministerial body. After that, the awards for Minister of the Year were presented to Christopher Haupt (from Australia) and L.A.’s own Liz Bixby, Academic Dean of Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy. Volunteers are the “service angels” that keep things going in MSIA. The Volunteers of the Year were then announced. The first, Santos Gomez, from Caracas, Venezuela, was not present and his award was accepted (on his birthday) by Gabriella Grigorescu. Recipient Kate Kirby was also not present and her award was accepted by Sylvia Giussani, also from Argentina. Neal Cohen, who was present, accepted his own award. Business over, John Morton was introduced. He spoke of the inner movement which motivates our ministries. He reminded us that our first ministry is to our selves. This allows Spirit to come in and work with us to a greater extent. “There are two spiritual lives. There is yours inwardly and what you do, and then there is yours out there in the world and what you do. Inwardly, there is what you do traveling in the Sound Current and the Light, following the Lord; those are all one. Service comes from what Jesus said: ‘When you’ve done it to the least one of these, you’ve done it unto me.’ That puts service out in the world as number one.” - John-Roger, (From: Fulfilling Your Spiritual Promise, p.1224). John shared with us about his early years in the Movement and his willingness to put his body on the line to serve J-R. He talked about the spiritual aspect of serving. John told us that the ministry begins inside, where the Spirit is. Then service is a movement into the world that comes from God – from within – and we are all connected to it. “Perhaps we can skip the journey of looking for our essence outside ourselves, accept that it is inside, and simply sit down, go inside, and experience enlightenment.” - John Morton, (From: The Blessings Already Are, p.169) It was a beautiful ministers meeting! Read more articles from MSIA's Conference of the Heartfelt Service, 2009
|
|
Traveler
Q&A |
On
the Road |
|
More
Current Features:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
