A Community of Calling
We’re now entering year three of our involvement in the Communities of Calling Initiative of the Collegeville Institute, and we wanted to share our plans for the coming year. Some of what we are proposing will continue to build on what we have been doing over these past eighteen months of life with COVID-19, and some will extend our core commitments into new terrain. We are looking forward to four new initiatives:
Detail of the stained glass from the Abbey Church, Collegeville
Training and formation of our Sunday Liturgy Leaders and our Evening Prayer hosts. This is an ongoing project of working with the five people who lead Evening Prayer and the seven who are in the rotation to offer support at our Sunday evening gatherings. We also hope to expand both of those circles as COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift.
What does it mean to be a worshipping community in an urban setting? A four-session ideaExchange evening series that asks “what is it about the chemistry of urban spaces that makes our expression of faith thrive?” Each session will be offered live in both in-person and online formats, with recordings posted on the website.
A Community Retreat afternoon with a very special guest artist We can now confirm that our guest presenter for our midwinter Arts and Faith retreat afternoon will be Makoto Fujimura. If you don’t know that name, you will soon! Book studies of Mako’s most recent book Art + Faith will be facilitated in advance of this mid-winter retreat session. This retreat afternoon will offered live in both in-person and online formats, with recordings posted on the website.
A Forum on the Church and Media, with a focus on questions around the calling the church has in shaping the digital commons. This will be a major conference-style event set for the early autumn of 2022, running from Friday evening through Saturday evening. Key features include keynote speakers, break-out groups, time for conversation and exploration, and a wind-up Saturday evening concert. This forum will be presented for both in-person and online participation.
Our core team of Danielle Morton, Bramwell Ryan, Jamie Howison, and Sarah Hodges-Kolisnyk is busily working away on the outlines of the year’s activities, but we certainly welcome others to join in on the action. If you’re excited by these ideas, want to learn a little more, or have some planning skills to lend, please do contact us.
Makoto Fujimura: photo courtesy of Windrider Productions
