In Loving Fellowship

A Periodic E-newsletter to all our friends from A.R.E. Outreach Services

May 2004

In Love Again

As most of you know, the Study Group/Spiritual Growth Team Leader, Stuart Dean, was out of the office for several months on sick leave. (He’s all better now!) During that time I was privileged to help out with inquiries from the 800-phone line and the internet. I really enjoyed relating with the many people asking to connect with a local group, as well as the wonderful network of Region and Area volunteers that take the calls and messages for follow-up.

It is heartwarming to experience the continued interest in the Search For God material. I’ve been in a group continuously since 1984. My first group was in Park Ridge, Illinois and when I moved, I joined Chicago #3. That was an incredible time of growth for me. The A.R.E. and the Cayce readings were new to me, so I was in for a learning curve!

In addition to “wading” through the material, learning how to meditate, applying the material and reporting each week, I gained a whole new extended family. Many of the Chicago #3 group members were active volunteers for the Chicago Council and HQ Field Programs. I got my feet wet as a volunteer by helping with registration, selling books and being a gopher! Go for this, go for that, you know what I mean!

Chicago #3 also took the Group Ideal very seriously. They worked on setting ideals for all phases of the group experience. It was quite a process and helped the group stay focused on the purpose for being together each week. (A copy of the Group Ideal is available if you are interested.)

Several of the group members were interested in healing and offered healing at the end of meditation for those interested. That was another learning experience for me.

Group work is not without its challenges. In comes a new person that “pushes your buttons,” giving us the opportunity to look at self, to learn cooperation, and to rely more and more on Spirit for guidance. As Helen Ruth Schroeder often says, “And therein lies the work!”

As many times as I’ve been through the “red book,” I find new insights into the material, and new ways to apply the concepts in my life. The past couple of years, our group here at Headquarters has been reading the original readings in volume 7 of the Library Series, The Study Group Readings. Then we read the corresponding Search for God lesson. We find the understanding deepened by going back to the source in Volume 7. These readings are timeless!

With love,

Toni Romano

New Group Handbook a Reality!

I’m really pleased to let you know that the long-needed new version of a handbook for A.R.E. study groups is now complete. The last edition came out prior to the formation of the Regions, so you can imagine how many changes were required for the new version to fit today’s way of functioning, both here and in the field.

We’ve already submitted a draft to all the Region Coordinators for their input, for which we’re most grateful, and we’ve already incorporated their very helpful suggestions. We expect to have the handbook printed and ready for distribution by mid-May.

We would like to make the handbook available on a freewill contribution basis, with perhaps a “suggested amount” of $10 to cover the costs of printing, binders, and mailing.

It comes in a loose-leaf binder, to facilitate any additions or changes that may come about. One of the difficulties with previous editions of the handbook has been that alterations of any kind required a complete reprinting. We expect this version, in its new format, to serve as a longer-lasting document. We on the Outreach Team are excited that it’s finished and almost ready to mail. To order a copy for your group, e-mail me at jim.dixon@edgarcayce.org, drop me a note, or give me a call. The toll-free number is 1-877-428-2734.

Jim Dixon

A page from the new handbook, on service and study groups, follows:

An excerpt from the new Handbook

When members pray to be used as “channels of blessings” on behalf of the Creative Forces, all-knowing Spirit brings to the group’s attention opportunities to contribute to the needs or the welfare of others.

Service projects, often overlooked in group members’ pursuit of expanded consciousness, are a vital way for experiencing the principles of giving and receiving. Such projects can take many forms: group visits to residents of nursing homes or assisted-living facilities; volunteering to assist, as a group, in humanitarian projects such as Habitats for Humanity; contributing to a special fund for a needy family or group undergoing hardships; participating in projects to benefit hospitalized children, etc. It is important to avoid permitting “doing good” to become the group’s main focus. However, when entered into fully, service projects become an important way for the group members to relate to each other and to further understand how the Creative Forces are actively involved in all the affairs of life.

In our serving, God is experienced as a “flow” – between the Source and those who have temporarily lost sight of their connection with the Source. To be most effective, the intermediary – whether an individual or a group – must be open to receive from Spirit and, at the same time, be willing to “pour out” the received energy and inspiration for someone else, whether in prayer, in healing, or in a more “active” form of service. In this, we follow the example of Jesus, who acted as a channel of blessings between the Father’s all-embracing Love and His children.

An affirmative or prayerful state of mind, during the flow experience, could be stated as follows: Let all wounds be healed, all needs be met, and all tears be wiped away from this, Thy child, who yearns for Thy Love. This is God’s promise to all and, in essence, is the ultimate reason for study groups!

Again, in line with “As you give, so do you receive,” or with “Like attracts like,” members find their lives blessed in unexpected ways as they give of their time, their energies, and occasionally their resources, on behalf of others. The readings emphasize that as we do for others, our own needs will be more easily be met. They also tell us that we “enter into heaven” on the arm of someone we have helped!

It was one of Harmon Bro’s strongest feelings that study groups involve themselves in some form of service, because being a true channel of blessings requires being “open at both ends” – receiving wisdom and grace at one end, and giving out to our fellow souls at the other.

If your group is already serving in some way, or if you decide as a group to undertake a helpful activity, we would love to read about your experiences, and will likely ask to print them in an upcoming edition of this e-newsletter, as an inspiration to other groups. As Hugh Lynn Cayce would always say, Let’s all be about our Father’s Business!

For, as presented, what one believes alone is not sufficient; but what one does about that one believes either makes for advancement or growth, or retardment. For, in acting in the material plane may one do in all good conscience that one may develop in the line of thought set in motion by activities.

262-55
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A recent note from

Carl Bohannon

of the Houston Center:

     Ali is an immigrant from Iran. He fled the persecution of the Islamic government. As part of the educated class (he is an electric power systems engineer), he and his wife and his whole family were targeted.

     He joined our Center study group looking for answers. He took a different book from our library each week, learned to meditate, set ideals, worked with his dreams. He began to see the bigger picture and how spirituality must be a part of all we do, and that it is all compatible with his Islamic religion, and he began to change.

     He has also remained in communication with his family back in Iran sharing with them the principles he has been discovering in the A Search For God text. He says they are listening and learning.

     No matter how difficult it gets or how fatigued I might be, one young person reconnecting with the Light makes it all worthwhile.

_________________________

Monthly Meditation

May 2004

Virtue and Understanding

Let virtue and understanding be in me, for my defense is in Thee, O Lord, my Redeemer, for Thou hearest the prayer of the upright in heart. 262-17

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June 2004

Fellowship

How excellent is Thy name in the earth, O Lord! Would I have fellowship with Thee, I must show brotherly love to my fellow man. Though I come in humbleness and have aught against my brother, my prayer, my meditation, does not rise to Thee. Help Thou my efforts in my approach to Thee. 262-21

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