Wing Commander:
Great to hear from you!
There was a thread here recently (within the last week, actually..) asking our beliefs based on the site www.belief.net & its accompanying questionnaire. If you have not visited there before, you may find it helpful (or at least interesting). The survey asks approximately 20 questions regarding one's belief in God, the existence of an afterlife, whether confession of sins is required, etc., etc., & then ranks many different religions or belief systems (everything from the major Christian denominations to New Age, Secular Humanism, Theravada Buddhism, etc., etc.) according to their alignment with the results. I must say that the site was a tremendous help to me when I was newly fading & desperate for some sort of spiritual definition & direction in my life. Among other things, it is encouraging to note that 'you-know-what' comes in dead last for me EVERY TIME, without exception
Quite a few people (myself included) came up with Unitarian Universalism at or near the top of our respective lists. Though I still have no desire to affiliate myself completely with any one church or belief system, I have attended a nearby Unitarian church a half-dozen or so times & benefited a great deal from those visits. Some outstanding talks on the Bible have been delivered there. It is equally refreshing to go away knowing that I can also take inspiration from a Native American prayer or readings from Judaism or the Tao Te Ching. A nice touch (at this church, anyway) is that each person in attendance is invited to come forward at the end of the service with a lit candle or incense to leave in honor of one who has died (in this case, my father..)
This quest has also taken me at times to places as diverse as a handful of Catholic churches (especially our historic Mission of San Xavier, where I enjoy meeting & talking with Native people..) or local synagogues ( my father was Jewish before his brainwashing began..). I have learned or benefited in some way from almost every one of these experiences.
My best wishes for your own spiritual trek. Take care & keep those posts coming!!
Peace
DesertRat
