As we look into the gathering mists of autumn, spiritual learning will be our theme. Did you realize that even Jesus learned from experience? You can read more about this at  relationalrealities.com.

 

With this coming Sunday we launch into a new program year. You will all have received the Homecoming brochure in the mail. My first year at St Martin's has been a year of learning, most of it pleasurable, some disorienting, and at times some learning has been painful. I can see that the last year has focused for me around re-energizing the parish system involving a little reorganizing in places, and a great deal of encouragement for all of us to find those points of connection that excite our interests, or even our passions. The crucial questions for me remain: what do we expect, what do we care about?  2015-16's priority will focus on our spiritual learning, both individually and by extension, as a community.

 

How do we accomplish spiritual learning? I am not talking here about reading books. I find I need a catalyst to spur me to learn. I learn when my relationship with God and with others presents me with new challenges, jolting me out of the familiar comfort zone. RenewalWorks is such a catalyst and please refer back to my comments for September 3rd on the program. On Saturday 12th the link to our online survey goes live and everyone will be able to complete it at home, or be assisted to do so after Church for the following three Sundays.

 

To complete the survey, simply click on https://www.research.net/r/RenewalWorks2023 and follow the instructions. All questions are multiple choice selection, and it's a matter of clicking your preference from a range of options. No composition of answers is required. The survey highlights the tension between our hopeful expectations for our spiritual growth and what we are prepared to settle for. It's in this tension that our learning will take place. Our level of engagement deepens through participation, for Church' is a participatory, not a prepackaged self-service organization. A our level of engagement through participation deepens, our spiritual hopes and expectations begin to reshape our sense of what is important for us, i.e. our priorities.

 

As a community we face a series of seeming obstacles blocking our growth: numbers, finances, levels of engagement. My task last year was to highlight some of these, but now it's time for me to stop banging-on about them. These, I believe will resolve themselves as our spiritual learning leads us to a more satisfying transformation of our priorities. RenewalWorks is simply the catalyst to get us moving.  It is also an information gathering process that will provide us with the insights we need to chart new directions of travel - it's both engine and compass.

 

I look forward to welcoming us all back, this coming Sunday.  See you in church!

Mark+