The seminar was entitled Spirituality in the Local Church and was led by Robert Warren and Alison White from the Archbishop's "Springboard" mission team based in England.
I thought it would be good to share with you some of what came out of the seminar and especially to unpack a bit how they used the word "Spirituality".
Robert and Alison divided their opening remarks under two headings:
1) Base line and 2) Personal experience
And used the Beatitudes (Matt 5: 1-10) as an underlying theme during the whole seminar.
The base line is that spirituality belongs to all human beings, though historically this has been hard to appreciate.
This is partly due to the difficulty people have had (and still have) in finding an appropriate descriptive language to express spirituality, and partly because people have believed that spirituality is a `private' part of life.
The good news, however, is that descriptive language and speaking more openly about spirituality are becoming more common and accepted.
Spirituality is a shared human experience not just a Christian one which creates a bond of connectedness with all people.
In this way we are all in the same boat.
But as Christians we are not in the same boat (spiritually) with all people.
Our personal experience though as Christians has drawn us to know that the Christian spirituality has a capital S.
Our Spirituality comes out of a relationship with the Living God.
Through our Spirituality, as we live as God's people, we will display the characteristics of God.
Our God who makes himself known as humble and dignified, through Jesus who is made real among us, specifically in relationships.
Through our Spirituality, an open channel of God's grace, we can know who we are uniquely as Children of God and as Christian communities.
We can live on the riches we are given.
Our personal Spiritual life only makes sense and is only productive when it is lived in the community, since we are baptised into Christ and are collectively His body here on earth doing His will and serving Him.
"Blessed are..."
"We live in a world of the Internet and the terrorist, of the atom and abortion, of keyhole surgery and ecstasy tablets. It is a world full of wonder, threat, change and opportunity. We are faced daily with a huge variety of choices, overload of information and conflict of lifestyles. No wonder many today find it difficult to live well.
"Robert Warren addresses this dilemma by returning to the roots of Christian character, choices and moral values found in the Beatitudes, Jesus' famous `Blessed are...' statements. He clears away the misapprehensions that makes these sayings confusing to the modern mind; and shows how they represent the call of Christ to live in a distinctive way and contribute to a modern culture searching for meaning, worth, value and purpose".
There was much explored during a very packed and valuable day, too much to record it all here in this article now. One way and another you will be hearing more about it not just from me but from others from our congregation who also enjoyed the day. I found it very encouraging that so many came to the seminar and who are thirsting to explore and develop their Spiritual experience and understanding, both personally and corporately.
I am also excited and encouraged by what I believe to be the activity of The Holy Spirit among us here at St Ursula's, and by the willingness and enthusiasm of many of our members to listen to and respond to His prompting.
The Lord's prayer is Jesus' response to the disciples when they asked Him how they should pray.
In it He asks us to pray that God's will be done.
In our personal prayer we must ask God how He can best use us.
But beware, because although we may not like the answer, we are called to go, do, be who he has called us.
Or to put it another way, to fulfil our part in His plan.
It is the same for our corporate life as His body, serving Him in our communities and His world;
"Thy will be done".
We were encouraged to understand Spirituality as
"Being caught up in an adventure"
We, as the Body of Christ, St Ursula's, are continuing our pilgrimage in a new phase of our Christian life together.
I wonder in what ways that adventure will affect, direct and equip us as we seek together to pray and live "Thy will be done".
Don't wait and see.
Pray and see!!
Yours in Christ
Linda