In Your Holy Spirit
The Tampa Deanery Meeting
Thursday January 8th at 9:30 a.m.
St. Catherine of Alexandria Episcopal Church in Temple Terrace
A conversation with the Rev'd Susan Latimer, OA, on the spiritual maps from the In Your Holy Spirit books. This will be 45 minutes offering you a way to look at your spiritual life as a parish and as an individual.
Mother Susan is the rector of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. She finds great joy in helping parish communities in their work of spiritual formation and congregational development. He other loves are her family - husband John and sons Franklin and Hugh and her work of equine experiential learning through Eponaquest. Susan is a member of the Order of the Ascension.
RESOURCES
Resources for your use in preparing for the January 8 conversation and in your parish.
The In Your Holy Spirit spiritual map
Weekly Practice: Holy Eucharist
The Holy Eucharist celebrated several times each week as to allow people with a variety of schedules to find one that might serve as their weekly spiritual practice.
Daily Practice: The Daily Prayers of the Church
There are two things to do here. The first is to equip and support parishioners in saying the Daily Prayer of the Church on their own in the course of daily life. The second is to offer the Daily Office in some routine form on most days of the week.
Reflection
There are two primary acts for the parish to take. One is to offer members assistance in identifying and maintaining ways of being reflective. The second is for the parish itself to engage in reflective processes, ways of listening to and learning from its own life as a community. The beginning place for this is to create an environment with significant space for stillness and silence.
Parish Community
The parish needs to provide opportunities for social life among parishioners and create an environment in which they may find and live what Augustine called a “real life,” a life in which they might be genuine, be open and honest about themselves, and still be in deep relationship with others and God. This is a community where our differences can be expressed and will be accepted; in which we can fight with those we love without fearing the loss of the relationship.
Serve
The parish can hold in front of its members the moral vision of Christian Faith. The primary place, the most effective place, of service for the Christian is in his or her daily life. We serve within our friendships, families, work, and civic life. The parish can help members identify how they serve, how they may better serve, and the gifts each brings to that task. The parish can also have at least one service ministry that is done as a parish. This is a call to a wise and generous love.
The Process of Change
The parish can provide a foundations program that equips people to take responsibility for their own spiritual life and moral action in daily life. It can also model an approach to change or experimentation and learning from experience. It can teach methods that allow people to face change.
Anglican Spiritual Practices Course
This course is best offered on a schedule that picks up people within 4 months of becoming somewhat regular in attendance. Here is Michelle Heyne's education design - "Teaching Spiritual Practice: Experiential Approach to Christian Formation and Parish Development." For use with In Your Holy Spirit: Traditional Spiritual Practices in Today's Christian Life
This has been used in many parishes during the pre-Advent/Advent period and/or during Lent. It's most effective when offered each year as a way of assisting in the incorporation of newer members.
Related materials
Assessing your Spiritual Practices - An assessment form for individuals
Parish Assessment of Spiritual Practices - An assessment of the parish
Shape of the Parish Model A two page summary of the model offered in Fill All Things: The Spiritual Dynamics of the Parish Church, Robert Gallagher -- This is a pastoral theology model. It assumes that people are in many different places in regard to spiritual life--some more disciplined, others more lax; some with an "owned" faith, others more tentative and possibly immature. All are loved by God, all are part of the Body of Christ. People need to be accepted where they are in the spiritual journey. We also assume that a parish is healthier when there is a critical mass of people who are more proficient in the practices of faith.That group grounds the parish in a more mature faith and creates a climate conducive to growth in faith. People need to be invited to grow and move forward in the spiritual life.
Power from the center pervades the whole And an insert used as background
Renewal-Apostolate Cycle - The Renewal ‐ Apostolate Cycle is a way of describing a central dynamic of Christian life. The Cycle focuses our attention on the Christian’s movement between being renewed in baptismal identity and purpose and living as instruments of God’s love and grace in daily life--in our families, with friends, in the workplace, and in our civic life. The cycle is between a conscious and intentional attention to God, prayer life, our relationships, Christian formation and a subconscious reliance upon God as members of the Body of Christ, in the workplace, family, friendship, civic life and congregational life. The primary task of the parish church is the glorification of God and the sanctification of the people. It is to provide the climate, prayer life and other resources that renew baptized members in their faith and practice so they may be instruments of the Divine Compassion in daily life.
Books
In Your Holy Spirit: Traditional Spiritual Practices in Today's Christian Life -Michelle Heyne, Ascension Press, 2011. In the chapter on the Holy Eucharist there are sections on: does going to church really matter?, deciding to join the community, competence in participation, use of the body, stillness & silence, engaging with and listening to the word.
In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practices, Robert A. Gallagher 2011, Ascension Press. In the chapter on the Holy Eucharist there are sections on: Elements of doing it well, building competency - increasing Christian proficiency, what we invite people to do (be present, participate and engage).
The Nearness of God: Parish Ministry as Spiritual Practice, Julia Gatta, Morehouse, 2010
Welcome to Anglican Spiritual Traditions, Vicki Black, Morehouse, 2010
Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church, Robert A Gallagher, Ascension Press, 2008