From: The Rev. adwoa Wilson, Vicar for Discipleship and Formation and Director of the Communities for Spiritual Vitality and The Rev. Darcey Mercier, Communities Program Manager
To: Lay Colleagues
Thank you for your faithful service, your concern for your fellow parishioners, and for all that you do with your church. Whether as a vestry member, preacher, eucharistic minister, worship team member, pastoral care minister, mission leader, ardent pray-er, or…, you are a gift to all of us!
Yet, in the midst of your service, do you also sometimes:
- Long for a clearer connection between your spiritual life and your church ‘work’?
- Pray for more guidance and support for your parish leadership?
- Wonder what God’s next invitation is for you? For your community?
- Sense that the Body is stronger when its members are knit together closely (Ephesians 4:15-15), and wish that you could connect with peers who experience the same struggles you do?
- Identify with Elijah, whom God knew needed more sustenance or the journey would be too hard for him (1 Kings 19), and wish for more pastoral care and renewal for yourself?
- Feel discouraged or fearful about the decline of your parish or ‘the Church’ as a whole?
If you answered “yes” to many of these questions, I and the bishops of Vermont and Massachusetts are excited to introduce you to the Communities for Spiritual Vitality, scheduled to begin early this fall, with an in-person retreat from August 29 to August 31.
The Communities are an initiative of gratitude, hope, and joy offered as a source of renewal for lay leaders of parishes with parttime or shared clergy support. Over the course of a year, Communities participants will gather through twice-monthly zoom meetings and three in-person retreats. They will develop relationships of support, fellowship, and trust with peers; have regular group spiritual direction and companionship by a clergy facilitator in small groups; explore various spiritual practices to deepen and renew your spiritual life; take time apart for yourself and God, rediscovering the love that drew you into the service you give.
Supported by generous grant funding from the Lilly Endowment and others, this initiative is a gift of intensive support for you, lay leaders who carry so much and hunger for a deeper relationship with God and one another. Two Zoom information sessions are scheduled for Thursday, June 20 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, June 29 at 9:30 a.m.
To learn more about this opportunity and get the link for these info sessions, please contact by June 16th:
- The Rev. adwoa Wilson, Program Director (awilson@diovermont.org)
