From the Rector

My dear family in Christ,
 
By now, you’ve probably heard me plug our new Monday night offering, Living Christianity:  a How To, at least a couple of times.  But I’d like to use my newsletter column today to share with you what we’ve been doing so far in the first mini-course of this ongoing series.  For the past four sessions, we’ve been practicing a process of Theological Reflection that I first experienced back in the 2010s in the Education for Ministry program ~ EfM, for short.
 
EfM is a program administered by The School of Theology of the University of the South, Sewanee ~ my seminary alma mater ~ primarily for lay folks who seek a deeper knowledge of an engagement with their Christian faith, from an Episcopal perspective.  And Theological Reflection is a cornerstone of the EfM program.  Essentially, TR is a formal, structured process of asking “Where is God in this?” ~ whatever “this” might happen to be.  It is based on a few presumptions:  first and most important, that God is always trying to speak to us, at all times and in all places; second, that discernment, while always personal, often works best in the context of compassionate and loving Christian community; and third, that the connections between our individual experiences, our shared faith tradition, and the larger culture(s) in which we live are dynamic and interactive ~ that the different aspects of our lives exist in constant conversation with each other.  The structure of TR helps us both to tease apart and also to find the links between the various facets and categories of our lives and experiences.
 
Whew!  That’s a mouthful, isn’t it?  Well, for what it’s worth, it’s the kind of thing that makes much more sense after you do it a few times than it does just reading a description of it.  So, what exactly have we been doing these past few Mondays?  Well, we’ve been exploring what EfM calls the “microscope method” of Theological Reflection.  The process begins with a focal point ~ in this case, someone in the group volunteers to share the story of a personal experience they’ve had in the past.  (That’s a rule, actually:  present situations that are unresolved and/or ongoing are not allowed for TRs; TR is not therapy, and it’s not designed for folks to work out their problems in the present.  So the incident offered for reflection has to be in the past, something that’s over and done with.)
 
The volunteer briefly tells the story of that single experience.  The rest of the group may then ask questions for clarification of details ~ just the “journalism questions,” at this point:  who, what, when, where, and how.  We deliberately hold off from letting ourselves ask what it all meant or trying to interpret the incident in a larger way.  After any needed clarifying, we then as a group look more closely at the incident to identify the moment of “highest energy,” the point in the story that is the most intense, compelling, or interesting.  That, of course, is subjective, but it’s usually not too hard to come to a consensus.  Once we do, that single, individual moment out of the original story becomes the focal point for our TR ~ that’s the bit that we put “under the microscope,” so to speak.
 
Having identified that one moment to focus on, we go back to the original volunteer and ask, “In that specific moment, what were your thoughts and your feelings?”  And we list them, separately, on the chalkboard.  It’s sometimes tricky to separate thoughts from feelings, but it’s important, because from the lists of thoughts and feelings, we then turn to the other members of the group and ask:  “Can you think of a specific time in your life when you had those specific thoughts and those particular feelings?”  With that question, we move beyond the limits of one person’s individual experience and start to make more universal connections.
 
Once we’ve had a few minutes to share our own experiences of the thoughts and feelings at hand, we then work together to create an image or metaphor ~ completely independent of anyone’s individual experiences ~ that captures and expresses the thoughts and feelings that we’ve all just connected with.  At this point, the hapless facilitator is tasked with, um, attempted to draw said image or metaphor on the chalkboard … whether or not he has any artistic ability whatsoever.  Er.  (A bit of laughter often ensues.)
 
For the rest of the TR, we explore the world of the metaphor we’ve come up with.  In particular, we examine it in term of Creation (life & existence), Sin (destruction & disharmony); Judgment (epiphany & realization); Repentance (change); and Reconciliation (restoration, healing, new life, &c.).  It’s in this step that we learn and practice the art of seeing our worlds and us, ourselves, in and through the archetypes of the Christian paradigm.  And while this step often results in keen and even surprising insights, I think its real value is in training ourselves, through practice and repetition, to understand and know that all stories are part and parcel of THE story, the story of God’s self-sacrificial love for us made incarnate in Jesus Christ and revealed through the Holy Spirit.
 
But we don’t stop even there!  The last portion of the TR calls us to examine the story of the metaphor through four distinct lenses:  the tradition, the larger culture, our individual experiences & actions, and our abstract positions or beliefs.  We ask, “What does the 2,000 year old Christian faith tradition say about the world of this metaphor?”  The answers could be lines of Scripture, verses from hymns, bits of liturgy, even particular doctrines.  We ask the same question of the larger culture/society in which we live ~ what does it tell us about the world of the metaphor?  It’s really interesting to see the ways in which the tradition and the culture agree … or contradict each other.  We go back and reconnect with our individual personal experiences, both the original focal point and other incidents that have come to mind throughout the process.  And lastly, we consider whether, through this reflection, any of us has identified a position, belief, or conviction related to the world of the metaphor.
 
It’s important to know that, especially with that last step, the purpose is not to generate some sort of broad consensus that we all share.  Often, one person’s “I believe that…” statement with be diametrically opposed to that of another group member.  And that is OKAY!  Again, the purpose is not to agree; the purpose is to discover!
 
As you can see, it’s a somewhat involved process, but done faithfully (and with a good sense of humor), it bears much fruit.  It has been thus far an absolute delight getting to share this practice with our Monday night group.  We have a lot of fun along the way, even as we’re doing some serious and faithful reflecting.  If you have not yet had a chance to come check it out, fear not ~ we’ll be sticking with Theological Reflection for a few more weeks, at least.  We’ll do so partly because we’re having such a great time with it, but also because it’s a practice that offers a stellar foundation for Christian living in general.  In addition, I think that after each mini-course we do for this program, coming back to TR afterwards will be a great way to stitch together all of the various things I’m planning for us to explore.  Say we do a mini-series on Anglican prayer beads; after practicing that for several weeks, we might do a TR on our experiences of using the prayer beads.
 
Pursued faithfully, Theological Reflection becomes a way of living our Christian faith, even in the seemingly mundane day-to-day details of our ordinary lives.  We eventually begin to perceive that, in fact, there’s no such thing as ordinary, that each of us individually and all of us together are extraordinary, miraculous, exquisite creations of an amazing and loving God.
 
So come check it out if you get the chance ~ Mondays at 6:30.  Hope to see y’all soon!
 
Peace & blessings,
Fr. C

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