"Honoring Diversity, Celebrating Unity, Transforming Community"

Welcome! 
Join us in our emerging
spiritual community!
Children welcome!

Upcoming Events
May 20, "Taking the Shawl: Returning Home--A Medicine Card Reading for Living Waters' community in response to the slaughter of the white buffalo calf & mom in Texas. Dr. Bro
May 13, "The Divine Feminine", Dr. Bro
May 6, "Find Your Place with God" in the Sanctuary, 10:30 a.m. Dr. Bro preaching.
April 27 Faith and Film Night at the Sanctuary, 7 p.m.
April 22, "Life is a Love Song:  Edgar Cayce, The Work, and Us", preacher, Dr. Pamela Anne Bro.
April 15.  "'Receive the Holy Spirit!' And He Breathed on Them" (Post-resurrection appearances, faith and doubt)
April 8th, "Happy Easter!"  "He is risen. Alleluia!"
We have a joyful service planned for Easter, with special music and sermon! Come join us to celebrate new life: Jesus, yours, ours and the planet's! Happy re-birthday, Earth!

April 1st - Palm Sunday
Benefit Concert:  "Sweet Survivor, Keep Your Dream Alive!" 
(click above for flyer and info)

For Lee's Friends (local cancer support organization)
Starring Dr. Bro and local acoustic legend Lewis McGehee 
at Virginia Beach Christian Church, Great Neck and Rose Hall Drive, VB, 4-6 p.m. 
Suggested donation:  $20, Students $5. 
Give what you can, and come celebrate music and life!

Ongoing book study til May 17th "Naked Spirituality: Twelve simple words to get closer to God" by Brian McLaren, Thursday nights, 7-8:30 p.m. at Lynnhaven Colony Congregational church, 2217 W. Great Neck Rd., VB. Please join us!

"Seeds of Grace"                 March, 2012                               Dr. Pamela Anne Bro      
     I want to share with you an excerpt from my book WomanQuest: A Trail Guide to Life that has marked my spiritual journey for over 40 years.
    As a little girl, I always felt close to the creator God in nature, but I could never relate to the man, Jesus.  In retrospect, I realize that I had such a low image of myself, except for my great brains, that I doubted Jesus would ever bother with me.  I believed that if Jesus did exist—a big if—he would not waste his precious time on me.  He had bigger fish to fry.

     I was twenty-one years old, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  It was Palm Sunday.  Ever since I was a little kid, Palm Sunday had been a favorite holy day of mine.  No matter where we lived, from northern Wisconsin to Chicago to Syracuse, New York, I looked forward to Palm Sunday, when I could carry the palm branches around the church yard and sing the special hymns, especially these cherished lines:

All glory, laud and honor to thee, redeemer king,

to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

     On that particular Sunday, I was sitting alone on the floor of my apartment as the twilight deepened.  I had been listening to the music of Ravel’s Bolero, an orchestral piece that begins slowly with just a few instruments, and then adds instrument upon instrument until the music builds to a glorious climax.  The music began to catch me up in its cadence and pull me along with it.

     Suddenly, in my mind’s eye, I saw people in ragged procession, following a man seated on a donkey.  The crowd was leaping and waving branches, shouting joyful slogans.  Like a camera, my mind’s eye zoomed right through the throng onto the man’s face.  For a brief second, he turned and looked at me, locking his eyes right into mine. My heart leapt as I gasped, “Oh, my God, it’s Jesus!  He really does exist!”

     My next thought, such a human one, was, “And I only got to know him the final week of his life.”

     My heart plummeted.

     Just as quickly, I somehow knew in my very bones, that I had been involved in the work of the early Jesus movement.  Tears of joy streamed down my face as I realized.  Jesus had lived; he was real, and I had seen him.

     As the years passed, however, the vision of Jesus faded from my memory.

     Years later, I attended a conference at A.R.E. Headquarters in Virginia Beach.  I was numb because I had been engaged to a wonderful man who had recently broken off our engagement.  Adding insult to injury, he and my best girlfriend then hooked up.  I felt doubly betrayed, doubly abandoned.  I just couldn’t make sense out of my earthly journey.  If it were true that I had lived before, that I had loved and been married to different men at different times over centuries, how was I ever going to make the right choice of a mate this lifetime?

     My attention returned to the voice of the workshop leader who happened to be my mother.  She was ready to lead us in a reverie, a kind of dream experience while you’re awake.  She put on a carefully chosen piece of classical music and offered the following instructions:  “Close your eyes and picture a shoreline, the sea, the sky, and a teacher who has just talked with his disciples.  Then let your imagination roam free and see what happens.”

     I took some deep breaths and let the music wash over me.  Instantly, I found myself on the shore beside the Sea of Galilee.  There was Jesus, just ambling along, with his arms draped around the shoulders of two of his male disciples.  I was sitting down on a very large rock, kind of out of his way.  Catching a glimpse of me, he motioned to his buddies, “I’ll be right back.”

     I watched in disbelief as he came over to me and stretched out his hands to pull me up.  As the music took up a lovely ancient melody, we began to dance a beautiful Hebrew dance, our arms stretched above our heads, our palms gently touching.  Slowly, we circled round and round, while my heart beat quickly with joy and trepidation.  I didn’t dare look into his eyes.

     The music shifted again.  Suddenly, Jesus took my hand and up we flew to the mountaintop.  Below us in the valley, history stretched out in a wide panorama.  I watched, amazed, as I witnessed war after war, the rise and fall of empires, people mating, birthing children, dying.  It was pretty overwhelming, a sharp contrast to Dr. King’s gloriously reassuring vision on the mountaintop.

     “Jesus,” I moaned, “how am I ever going to make a good decision about whom I should marry?  How am I even going to make a relationship last longer than a year?  It’s so hard when I’m down there in the battle!”

     I waited, fervently wishing that he would provide me with the exact name of my intended partner and the date we would meet.  I needed concrete answers.  Foolproof ones.

     Instead, Jesus answered, “I know it’s hard, Pamela, but you’ll just have to learn to trust me.  Live your life day by day and you will be given what you need.  And…” he paused dramatically, “I’ll be with you, always.”

     He started to leave. I was frantic.  I wasn’t conscious of anyone in the room but him. 

     Tears rolling down my cheeks, I pleaded desperately, “Please don’t leave me.  When you’re here with me, I believe you, but not when you’re gone.”

     He whispered to me, “Lo, just call me and I’ll be there.  I am with you always.”  And he vanished.

     That was the most intimate and intense encounter with Jesus I’ve ever had.  Though it happened more than forty years ago, I remember it vividly.  Even today, in hard times, when I ask for Jesus to appear to me but I can’t seem to receive him, the memory of this mountaintop vision and his loving assurance to me keeps me going.  Yes, I still tramp through valleys of doubt or despair, or cross a rough river, or struggle up a steep mountain, but I’m not alone.  There is a purpose and a Presence.  I know his promise is sure.

     Dear readers, I pray you reach a mountaintop of your own one day.  Happy Easter!