God’s Constant Initiative in Love
God is good! God is constantly coming to us in love and inviting us into loving communion with the Trinity and with all creation. Jesus is the expression of God in our experience, and our spiritual life is centered on intimacy with Jesus in all the affairs of our lives.
A Receptive Orientation
Our basic stance in life and toward God is one of receptivity rather than achievement. This is the heart of the contemplative way: receptivity to God who is always coming to us in love.
Personhood
We are one in God, although we express God uniquely through our created personality. Every person is made in the image of God and therefore carries the presence of God at the very heart of their existence. Our very identity is freely given to us by God. We are God’s dearly loved children. We do not have to achieve our identity. We simply receive it. Therefore every person has dignity and worth regardless of race, gender, gender identity, sexual identity or orientation, religious beliefs or any other distinction, and every person is to be treated as the bearer of God’s presence in our world.
Authenticity in Community
SoulStream places a strong emphasis on the call of God to be in community with others for the sake of remaining true to the way of Jesus and the task of working together for the healing of the world. This relationship is built on love, a growing process of being grounded in God, and a growing openness with regard to expressed emotions, thoughts, or concerns. Speaking the truth in love about God, faith, ourselves, and the wide diversity of human experiences is affirmed.
An Embodiment of Grace
Grace is the loving activity of God’s presence in our lives. We are fully embraced in grace and we are learning to live in such a way that we embody God’s loving presence at work in our world. By our lives and actions we bring life and hope and a sense of wonder and integration into all our relationships. We call people to notice the beauty of God’s work in their own lives and in the world at large.
Justice and Peace
As God’s people, we seek to embody and evoke the gift of God’s presence in all situations including right relationships (justice) and peace (shalom).
God being our helper, we will endeavour to:
- approach our divine call to care for the world positively and lightly, knowing that our response will be a natural outflow of our life in God.
- become more aware of our own complicity and our own inner landscape in terms of attraction and aversion around responding to the world’s beauty and brokenness.
- support one another in our community, as we continue to converse about our anguish and helplessness around what we see and allow God to move us into hope.
- join God in healing the world in ways that are true to our own gifts and limitations.
Hope
We trust that, despite all evidence to the contrary, God will accomplish God’s loving and redeeming purposes toward the fulfillment of all things in Christ.
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