Spirit of the Wld - A Kept Secret

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1 Come join us at Trinity College on Monday, May 11, and Tuesday, May 12, f this year s conference sponsed by the Divinity Associates and open to all COMPANIONS ON A JOURNEY Growing in faith, and sharing our sty with others Christian people are notably a people of sty. What is our sty, and how do we live it personally, as members of a spiritual community, and in the wld? How do we experience and share our experience of the loving heart of God? The conference will be led by the Rev d Canon Dr Wendy Fletcher, Principal of Renison University College in Waterloo. She will feed people new ways of thinking about the mission of the Body of Christ as we conceive and practice it in a largely secular age. Along the way we will be fed through our engagement in small group discussions and creative liturgies, and encouraged to integrate what we are hearing with what we already know. An imptant part of our journey together will be an introduction to, and a brief experience of, the new program designed to help us reach out and share our sty. From the Diocese of Tonto, it s titled Spirit of Invitation. Below, you will find a me detailed conference program; some notes on our keynote speaker, Dr Wendy Fletcher; Dr Fletcher s vision f the conference; and a registration fm. Some thoughts from the Conference theme speaker, the Rev d Canon Dr Wendy Fletcher, on the conference topic and her approach to it: Writer James Carroll, in his wk Communion of Saints, writes about the power of narrative in our spiritual journeys. He says we tell sties because they edify and clarify, because they communicate meaning and pass on tradition but in the end these are small things. In the end we tell sties because they save us. As a Christian people we are very notably a people of sty. The sacred texts of our Scriptures carry the truth of our experience of God acting in our wld and in our lives, of the meaning our ancests made from the experiences of God, which shaped their faith and the life of the community of the baptized. As we stand in our present and look toward our futures in God, we are upheld, encouraged and inspired not only by the narratives of our faith tradition but also by the narratives of our own journeys themselves sties of God s action in the wld, of the sacred made new in each generation in and through us by the grace of God. It is in putting the sties of God in our own lives into conversation with the sties handed on to us by those who have come befe us in the faith, and in turn with the sties

2 of others beyond our own communities that we are given tools to imagine how to hold the responsibility of our faith in each new generation. Given that we are all made in the image of God, it is arguable that every human sty carries in it the handprint of God. Through the genre of narrative we find our greatest missiological opptunity. In the very sties of our human suffering, struggle, hope and rising we encounter the power of God wking in histy, and find a meeting place to encounter the other, in ways which imagine a new day beyond the limitations of fmer practice. As he spent his last days in a Nazi Concentration camp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of these things. He summoned the church of the new era to break down the boundaries of sectarianism by denomination and dogma, and to open itself to welcome the wld on its own terms, encountering God in the humanity of the other, and thereby most fully knowing Jesus as the Incarnate Wd of God. In the three input sessions allotted to the theme speaker, I would like to follow Bonhoeffer s invitation to imagine the new day of the reign of God s love as an exercise in hospitality, of opening toward the wld and the other, as God has opened toward us, inviting the other to be known and welcomed and embraced by a radical love which acts, rather than speaks, that opens rather than judges, that heals rather than divides. Bonhoeffer s theological frame from his last days talks about the future church as embracing the incarnate love of God in three ways: *DECONSTRUCTING OLD RELATIONSHIPS with power through re-telling the sty of the people of God and our own- narrative discourse as a deconstructive practice: seeing God in the sty, past present and future rather than promulgation of doctrine as the primary speech act. *RADICAL PROSELYTIZATION: living the mission of God as radical acts of love rather than doctrine beyond self-interest reflecting the wide open welcome of God toward reconciliation and healing; we tell the sty in ways which a largely secular society can hear by living the sty befe speaking; *NURTURING OUR LIFE as the Body of Christ such that we can BE the Body of Christ in the wld through the traditional practices of the Christian life: 1. Scripture: knowing the sty as the living sty of life and redemption that draws us toward the loving heart of God; 2. Sacraments particularly the Eucharist: we are fed and then we turn toward the wld as the practice of God s welcoming grace; 3. Prayer: communal, personal and contemplative as the pathway to encounter with God godself, by which we are empowered to live in the wld as witnesses to the love of God illumined by the power of encounter with God s spirit in prayer we move toward the wld telling the sty of God s saving wk in histy through our actions, our choices, our practices as a first principle. In the small groups after each input session I will frame a question f people to wk on as a vehicle f integrating what they are hearing with what they know. The goal of the wkshop will be to give people some new ways of thinking about the mission of the Body of Christ as we conceive and practice it in a largely secular age. As well, we will aim to provide a context f those participating to be spiritually fed through the talks, small groups and liturgies in a way that will empower them to practice what they think live the ideas which frame the new. My way of teaching/talking is to use narrative quite a bit a combination of theological thought and sties narratives, both biblical and contempary, which animate the points I am making.

3 KEYNOTE SPEAKER Dr. Wendy Fletcher assumed the role as Principal of Renison University College, on August 18th, Dr. Fletcher also assumed the newly created position of Direct of International and Inter- Cultural Development. The purpose of this new position is to promote strategic directions that will develop the capacity of Renison s programs to meet the needs f language and cultural studies of both the College s and the University s growing numbers of students either from abroad intending to wk study abroad. Further, the Direct will seek to increase opptunities offered by Renison f dialogue and learning between different cultures and faiths. Dr. Fletcher brings to Renison extensive experience as a Profess and administrat. F the last 13 years, Dr. Fletcher has served in a number of capacities at the Vancouver School of Theology as Profess, Academic Dean, Dean, Vice-Principal and, f a period of seven years, as Principal. Pri to joining the Vancouver School of Theology, Dr. Fletcher taught as a Lecturer and Profess at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Fletcher obtained her PhD in 1993 from the University of St Michael s College, Tonto. She also holds the degrees of Master of Divinity with Honours from Huron University College and Bachel of Arts from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Fletcher s areas of specialization include the intersection of culture and Christianity in the 20 th century, the histy of colonization and its impact on Canadian First Nations, and the decline of Christianity in the Nth American culture. She has authed a variety of books, book chapters and articles over the course of her career. As an educat, she has developed special relationships with a number of First Nations and has been adopted into two of them. As an experienced administrat, Dr. Fletcher comes with a strong reputation f managing in a style that is characterized by open communication, collabative relationships and an emphasis on team building.

4 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE All lecture sessions will take place in Trinity College s Gege Ignatieff Theatre, Gerald Larkin Building, 15 Devonshire Place Monday, May 11, :00 a.m. Registration in the Buttery, Gerald Larkin Building 10:00 a.m. Welcome & Opening Comments 10:15 a.m. Dr. Wendy Fletcher: Re-Making Our Sty; Re-Imagining Our Life 11:00 a.m. Coffee Break Small group discussions their/our histies, the discussions will grow out of the first presentation. 12:00 p.m. Noon-day Prayers 12:15 p.m. Lunch 1:30 p.m. Dr. Wendy Fletcher: Living the Mission of God as ACT Beyond Speech 2:00 p.m. Small Group Discussions 2:40 p.m. Coffee Break 3:00 p.m. Introduction of the new Diocese of Tonto program: Spirit of Invitation 5:30 p.m. Eucharist 6:30 p.m. Dinner 8:00 p.m. Social time; an opptunity f reconnection, and a relaxing time f reflection on the day Tuesday, May 12, :00 a.m. Mning Prayer 9:30 a.m. Gathering f the mning session; comments 10:00 a.m. Dr. Wendy Fletcher: BE the Body: Nurturing Faith Through Scripture, Sacrament and Prayer 10:45 a.m. Coffee 11:00 a.m. Small group discussions 11:45 a.m. Noon-day Prayers 12:00 p.m. Lunch 1:00 p.m. Concluding comments and reflection on the theme Response to questions submitted during the conference 2:15 p.m. Annual General Meeting of the Alumni Association 4:00 p.m. Eucharist in the Chapel Trinity Divinity Associates Conference Office of Development & Alumni Affairs Trinity College, 6 Hoskin Avenue, Tonto, Ontario M5S 1H8 Register online at: F further infmation, please contact Julia Paris: julia.paris@utonto.ca; (416)

5 TRINITY DIVINITY ASSOCIATES 2015 CONFERENCE COMPANIONS ON A JOURNEY: GROWING IN FAITH, AND SHARING OUR STORY WITH OTHERS May 11 & 12, 2015 REGISTRATION FORM (Please print) Name Address Province/State Postal Code Telephone Number Address Please let us know if you have any special needs: Registration may be completed securely online. Please visit the Trinity College web-site, CONFERENCE FEES Print registration fms should be sent to Divinity Associates Conference, Office of Development & Alumni Affairs Trinity College, 6 Hoskin Avenue, Tonto, ON M5S 1H8 Full Conference $150 (includes all lectures, wship, discussions, meals and receptions Monday and Tuesday) Monday only (all sessions and dinner) $100 Tuesday only (all sessions and lunch) $50 Monday (dinner only) $50 Residence in College ($50/night) Circle: Sun/Mon/Tues ( x$50) Trinity Divinity students who wish to register f the Conference may do so free of charge. (Note: this does not include meals; students are asked to register if coming.) Trinity Divinity Student (Conference no meals) $0 Trinity Divinity Student (Conference plus meals) $90 TOTAL PAYMENT Enclosed is a cheque payable to Trinity College. Or Credit Card (VISA, MasterCard, Amex) Card Number Expiry Date / Signature FOR MORE INFORMATION: Julia Paris: julia.paris@utonto.ca