United into the Unknown
As my weekly ministry at CEC ends, I need to start with this: Thank you! Thank you for the love you shared with me over the past two years. Thank you for the courage to be vulnerable together in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and for allowing me to experience the mystery of faith embodied in the beautiful tapestry that is Christ Episcopal Church. We are one in the Spirit and will be united wherever our paths may lead us.
As we sweat through this summer into the fall, I look forward to continuing to support and enhance CEC’s monthly Center for Spiritual Nourishment! On that note, we are hosting our third session this coming Saturday, July 20th, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon throughout the campus, and you can find our schedule and details here. If you have not yet attended, I hope you will join us this Saturday morning!
About the Center for Spiritual Nourishment: The guiding mission statement of the Center is to provide opportunities for spiritual growth for our members and the larger community. We will seek to achieve this by offering an array of experiences that engage the mind, body, and spirit in a safe communal environment. Tending to our souls in community!
Our Plans: The final session of the four-week program is scheduled for August 17. For this first set of sessions we focused on the CEC community and refining the program. For September, we are planning a second, larger launch of the program where we hope to engage more members of the CEC community to participate and try to reach a much larger audience join us at the Center. When Father Manny described his vision of the program, he envisioned a Center open to nourish people from all walks of life, throughout the area. For it to thrive into the future, we need an array of parishioners and people from outside CEC who have gifts they are willing to share for the good of the community. For our September re-launch, we ask each of you to consider any gifts you are able to offer for the good of the CSN; whether that be leading a session, helping spread the word, being on the leadership team to help take the program into 2025, or any other gift (time, talent or treasure) you may be called to provide. Feedback on our first two sessions gives us confidence we have a built a great program with a solid foundation. Our community needs the CSN to thrive – so many are hurting and need a safe space to be present and tend to their souls!
A final thought related to the CSN and the future - as I prepare to transition into chaplaincy training during my third year (of four) of seminary, I am aware I am headed into a liminal space. When I think about what the CSN can become, I see a program in a liminal space. When I ponder the future of CEC where visioning sessions are commencing and how the church is seeking to chart a new course into its next 300-years, I think CEC is heading into a liminal space. I suspect many in our CEC community are experiencing a similar type of transition, into a liminal space in some aspect of life. If you are not familiar with the concept and have not joined a session on liminal spaces led by parishioner, Lee Gaby, at the CSN, I offer a great definition from VeryWell Mind here.
“Liminal space is the uncertain transition between where you've been and where you're going physically, emotionally, or metaphorically. To be in a liminal space means to be on the precipice of something new but not quite there yet. The word "liminal" comes from the Latin word “limen,” which means threshold.”
I was not very familiar with this concept until studying it in seminary and I am grateful we did. We read an insightful book - How to Lead When You Don't Know Where You're Going: Leading in a Liminal Season (Beaumont, 2019), where the nuances and human tendencies associated with marching into an unknown space are explored. The author describes how human nature often causes us, when confronted with the fears we can conjure up of the unknown, to retreat back to what was comfortable or known, rather than having the courage to boldly go into the unknown. In our goal-centered culture, we are accustomed to setting goals and developing plans to get there. Effective navigation of a liminal space requires movement into the space without clear goals in mind, knowing something better exists, not yet certain what that is or how to get there. The author suggests that just like people have souls, so do organizations. And just like we are called to get out of our heads and into our souls to feel how the Spirit is calling us, organizations can do the same. It is my hope for CEC that when we dream about the next tricentennial, we take the time to be still together and put words to the collective soul of CEC. God’s promise is to be with us, always! We just have to have faith. Faith is the antidote to fear, and I pray for an abundance of it for all of us as we journey into the liminal spaces of life.
As I head into my time of transition, know that you will see me at worship occasionally, I will remain with you in support of the CSN for as long as I am able (join us!), and that this beautiful CEC community is forever a part of my being – thank you!
Blessings,
Mike