Community of Calling

A Community of Calling

We understand that each one of us is created by God, with unique gifts, passions, and experiences, and that everyone has a vocation or calling.

We also understand that each congregation has a vocation, which is shaped and impacted by many factors, including location, demographics, and the particular gifts of the gathered community.

How can saint benedict’s table develop as a community in which our various callings, vocations, and lives of discipleship can be explored, deepened, and supported?

Thanks to our participation in the Collegeville Institute’s Communities of Calling initiative, this question will be very much in view over the next few years. We are one of fourteen congregations from across North America to be supported and supplied with resources (including grant money totaling $30,000 US), and challenged to cultivate a culture of calling and vocation within our specific context over the course of five years.

What we are doing in 2021/22

We’re now entering year three of our involvement in the Communities of Calling Initiative of the Collegeville Institute, and we wanted to share our plans for the coming year. Some of what we are proposing will continue to build on what we have been doing over these past eighteen months of life with COVID-19, and some will extend our core commitments into new terrain. We are looking forward to four new initiatives:

  1. Training and formation of our Sunday Liturgy Leaders and our Evening Prayer hosts. This is an ongoing project of working with the five people who lead Evening Prayer and the seven who are in the rotation to offer support at our Sunday evening gatherings. We also hope to expand both of those circles as COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift.  

  2. What does it mean to be a worshipping community in an urban setting? A four-session ideaExchange evening series that asks “what is it about the chemistry of urban spaces that makes our expression of faith thrive?” Each session will be offered live in both in-person and online formats, with recordings posted on the website.  

  3. A Community Retreat afternoon with a very special guest artist We can now confirm that our guest presenter for our midwinter Arts and Faith retreat afternoon will be Makoto Fujimura. If you don’t know that name, you will soon! Book studies of Mako’s most recent book Art + Faith will be facilitated in advance of this mid-winter retreat session. This retreat afternoon will offered live in both in-person and online formats, with recordings posted on the website.

  4. A Forum on the Church and Media, with a focus on questions around the calling the church has in shaping the digital commons. This will be a major conference-style event set for the early autumn of 2022, running from Friday evening through Saturday evening. Key features include keynote speakers, break-out groups, time for conversation and exploration, and a wind-up Saturday evening concert. This forum will be presented for both in-person and online participation.

Our core team of Danielle Morton, Bramwell Ryan, Jamie Howison, and Sarah Hodges-Kolisnyk is busily working away on the outlines of the year’s activities, but we certainly welcome others to join in on the action. If you’re excited by these ideas, want to learn a little more, or have some planning skills to lend, please do contact us.

Makoto Fujimura: photo courtesy of Windrider Productions

Timeline:

September 2021 - The Collegeville Institute approves our year three application

October 2021 - Our lead team of Bramwell Ryan, Danielle Morton, Jamie Howison, and Sarah Hodges-Kolisnyk sets out a working plan for the coming year. Details for the Winter event with Mako Fujimura are worked out, and resource people for our major forum on Faith and Media are contacted.

More to come!