Discover Advent in Everyday Moments: LOVE

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Let us pray.

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Dear Jesus, may the light of your

love always shine in our hearts.

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As Christmas draws closer, we

marvel at your great love for us.

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Let your love transform every aspect of

our lives and touch everyone we encounter.

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Our hearts are open to you, Jesus.

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Amen.

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Jon: ,today we have a very special

guest, the Right Reverend Robert W.

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Ihloff, who is a bishop in the Episcopal

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Church.

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Bob served 28 years as a parish

priest in three dioceses, followed

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by 28 years as a Bishop of Maryland.

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He was formerly a member of the House

of Bishops Theology Committee, President

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of Province 3, a trustee of the Virginia

Theological Seminary, and of the

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national Board of Episcopal Schools.

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He's currently offering

spiritual direction.

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.

, Bob: I think what we are going to see more and more of is people who take the

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gospel seriously as the gospel of love.

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are going to hopefully jettison

some of the ways in which

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Christians have been offensive.

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And not the least of that is

the ability to welcome people

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of different points of view.

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We will have people who, for

whatever reason, justifiably

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or not, drive us crazy.

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But they are part of the household

of God, and they need some respect,

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and they need to be listened to.

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. The church I believe in for the

future is a church in which the litmus

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test will not be what you believe

or how you present the faith in a.

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written and or verbal sense,

but how you live the faith.

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How do you, in your daily life, witness

to a God who is loving and who has

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called all of us to be brothers and

sisters and into one family that finds

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that love undercuts the other things

that divide us, so that it's possible

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for people who are vastly different to

have a love and respect for each other,

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despite their difference I think it's

not God's will that we should be uniform.

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It is God's will that we learn to

love one another despite differences

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Jon: We have a special guest

with us today, Father Jeff Hual,

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who's the rector of All Hallows

Church in Davidsonville, Maryland.

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Lauren: So, Jeff, Jon and I were really

inspired at the election convention

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when you spoke about this ministry.

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So now we want you to share how you got

involved and what you were doing now,

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Jeff: you know, that's not a

short answer as far as how I got

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involved in this because it was

something that just happened.

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you know, in our line of work,

we tend to say that the Holy

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Spirit caused this to happen.

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And that's the best answer that I

could possibly give because, you know,

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if we claim love as God's principle

attribute, this is a ministry that

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grew out of love and friendship.

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It started nine years ago with a friend

of mine I went to Turkey on a seminary

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immersion tour that was sponsored by a

small religious association in Istanbul.

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And I became friends with the director of

this little association, a guy named Hakan

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Gulerce and this association was Because

of the theologian that they follow.

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A 20th century scholar named Said

Nursi, they were seeking to foster

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relationships with Christian communities.

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This was something that

Nursi felt was very important

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this was around the time that the

news of just how bad the Syrian

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refugee crisis was starting to finally

bubble up onto the Western news.

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And so I contacted Hakan and I said,

we gotta make this something that

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highlights the Syrian refugee crisis.

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So we decided the best thing that we

could do would be to make a video as a

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faithful Muslim and a faithful Christian,

encouraging Muslims and Christians

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worldwide to find ways to cooperate

to try and alleviate the suffering.

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And we always viewed that as being

an ongoing project that, I plan on

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traveling back there in the summer

and we would do more work together.

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So I said, How can we get involved?

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How can we help?

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He said, Abi, that means brother Abi.

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We need wheelchairs.

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Apparently a lot of people had

either lost wheelchairs in getting

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out of Syria, or they now needed

wheelchairs because of the bombings.

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And so All Hallows, I held a fun drive

and we raised enough money to buy.

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I think a dozen wheelchairs.

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And we sent that over and Hakan bought

wheelchairs for people who needed them.

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And then I said, okay,

what do you need now?

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He said, well, we need

educational materials.

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So I started a fund drive to

raise educational materials.

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What Hakan and his wife Rukia and

some other core volunteers have built.

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It is a fabulous, multifaceted,

long-term aid program that has all of the

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hallmarks of how a near Eastern society

would seek to approach the problem.

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It is all built.

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Relationally.

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It is all built on becoming friends,

finding out what people need.

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This, this is not, you know car drives up.

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How many people in your family

pop your trunk and we put the

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food pantry food in your trunk.

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This is, how can we help you?

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What do you need?

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How can we best approach that?

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How can we solve, help you solve

the problems that you need solved?

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And I was absolutely amazed.

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At what we've been able to do.

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Jon: today we've got a special guest, Dr.

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Dorothy Adamson Holley is joining us.

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Dr.

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Holley.

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Dr. Dot: Hey.

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Jon: Hey.

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Good to see you.

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Also known as Drum Dr.

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Dot, which is very cool.

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She's a Developmental Psychologist

and Licensed Clinical Social Worker

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who integrates psychology and

spirituality in clinical practice.

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She's the founder and psychotherapist

of the Breathe Holistic Counseling

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and specializes in working with

clients who have not responded

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well to traditional treatment.

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Dr.

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Holley is the creator of Drumetry,

an art form that integrates

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African drumming and poetry.

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She's an author, recording artist,

songwriter, vocalist, percussionist.

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dancer, harmonicist and

healer through music.

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Dr.

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Holley is a proud member of the

Baltimore based Band, Roses n Rust.

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Welcome Dr.

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Dot.

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Lauren: Is there anything else

that you would like to share?

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A bit of wisdom about?

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Hmm.

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Dr. Dot: That's way, general, anything?

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Okay.

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I'll give you my tagline

for everything I do.

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Love plus forgiveness equals freedom.

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That's my tagline.

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Love and forgiveness are the two

most powerful forces in the universe.

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If you can love and if you

can forgive, that's freedom.

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So I mean, I go through,

man, we, I'm human.

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We go through so much crap in life,

and I know we go through anger and

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blah, blah, blah, but I always settle

into a place of love and forgiveness.

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I did an interview during the pandemic

and someone asked me something about, I

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don't remember, but I kept saying I was

so mad at God because when George Floyd

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was murdered, By that officer I, I saw

the, I saw the video and I saw that and

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it was traumatic, no doubt about it.

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And I was allowed, maybe I won't

even say a day to rest in that.

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And then my mind kept going to, Compassion

for the guy who had his knee in his neck.

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Like what?

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I'm like, God, okay, you gonna

gimme more than a day to be

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pissed off about this bull?

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You know what I mean?

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But it couldn't, I could

not, it was horrible.

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So I'm thinking about his childhood.

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I'm thinking about if he's locked

up, like what is he thinking?

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Like that he actually

killed another human being.

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Like I'm thinking about his

family and like, what would

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motivate a person to do that?

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And so that compassion came to

the fore and I'm like, God, okay.

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Like, It ain't even, even a

day, let me like be pissed for.

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But it everything, because

love is all that exists.

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Everything else is just fear and

that is, I, it's not that I'm saying

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it's intellectually I live this.

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I know it in my soul.

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So no matter what I go through,

no matter what you, it's always

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you have to fall always back into

that place of love and forgiveness.

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Because I'm deeply and richly loving.

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I'm Lord knows I'm forgiven.

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Lord knows I'm forgiven.

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You know what I mean?

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So that's the only words of

wisdom that I will leave.

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I have so much, but that is the most

profound for me in my own life and love.

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Plus forgiveness equals freedom.

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That's my hashtag, my

tagline, blah, blah, blah.

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That's it.

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Jon: And that's the words

we all need to hear.