Last Thursday evening, my re-imagining group met with our wonderful facilitator, Susan Weeks, again and we had a lively conversation about where we were, and where we were going. I think we are getting close to finding a place to make our first cairn. We agreed our next step was to share a weekly lenten prayer practice, and that we would look for a public place to gather beginning on Ash Wednesday.
Here are some notes from our conversation.
We opened the conversation with reminders of feedback guidelines and Ephesians 4:12, 15-16, “To Equip Saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ…speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of…Christ” and with a quote from Joseph Campbell: “ If you can see the path before you step by step, you know it’s not YOUR path.”
After sharing what worked and what we wanted to change from our first stage of being together, some defining characteristics emerged.
- we are creating a truly shared ministry between lay people and clergy, all voices are invited and honored as move forward
- we have shared, and enjoyed creative, inclusive worship with expanded language, we want even more participation and mutuality
- we feel free to share our doubts and desires with one another without feeling judged for having them
- we are exploring radical Christianity and finding ways to go below the surface of things with one another.
Our hope is that this becomes something more than “one more meeting or group” that we all belong to. We want this to reflect what we know to be an inclusive and inviting Christianity that will be relevant to others who are still not sure about this Christianity business.
Caravans and Cairns 