This topic seemed especially appropriate for us following our decision to "call" Rev. Paul Beckel to be our new settled minister.
Chalice Circle Topic
for June, 2014
How
We’re Called
Adapted from: Rev.
Jan Carlsson-Bull for Circle Ministry at First Parish UU Cohasset, MA
Note: See the Chalice Circle
Gathering, Welcoming
(2 minutes)
Chalice lighting &
Opening words (1 minute)
We gather again,
heeding a call to be
where we are,
who we are,
how we are—
nothing more, nothing less.
We gather again,
listening, watching,
speaking, reflecting:
Where are we?
Who am I? Who are
you?
How am I? How are
you?
We gather again,
responding.
Check-in/Sharing (3-4
minutes@ - 30-40 minutes)
Service ventures (10
minutes)
If you haven’t already done so, move toward your group’s
focus for a service venture benefitting this congregation and a service venture
benefitting our larger community.
Topical Discussion
(60 minutes)
First response—no cross talk
Cross-conversation—if time allows
Topic: How We’re
Called
Consider the notion of call, pure
and simple. By the very reality that
each of us is here in this world, we are called. By the amazing grace that each of us has been
born, we are called into this world. We
come with a polyglot of genetically wrought features, quirks, and inclinations
and a not completely blank slate that rapidly fills. Some of us learn quickly what pleases our
parents and what doesn’t, how we rise or fall in a culture friendly or hostile
to who we are and what we look like, and what we must do to “succeed” in the
circumstances of our living. Choice is
relative. Yet we are each entrusted at
some point to the grace of a larger world, and we each must discern that still
small voice that speaks our name from our inner depths and bids us to do and be
who we have always been.
Dr. Rosemary Chinnici is also
Sister Chinnici, a member of the Sisters of Loretto, a Roman Catholic Religious
order. She is also a trauma specialist
and a professor of pastoral care. Rosemary
addressed the notion of call in her ordination
sermon for one of her former students at Starr King School of Theology: “Every call lies at the intersection of the
past we have inherited and the future we are creating.”
Call is at the heart of who we have
been and prophetic of who we are becoming.
Vocare is Latin for the verb,
“to call.” From it derives the term
vocation. Vocation, writes Quaker
author and teacher Parker Palmer, is a melding of self and service, a fusion of
inner depths with outer needs. At its
deepest level, vocation is an epiphany that goes something like: “’This is
something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and
don’t fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling.’” Some of us know this well, to be drawn onto
a path because of reasons that don’t make complete sense, yet knowing that
there is at last no other way if we are to honor who we are, if we are to
become who we are. “Before I can tell my
life what I want to do with it," explains Palmer, “I must listen to my
life telling me who I am.”
Share the following
questions and let people respond to the one that speaks to them or both… Let
people know how much time they will have (have a timekeeper keep track).
1. What
was your first inkling of who you were called to be? What was the source of this earliest sense of
call, of who you might be in this world?
2. Share
an experience of how your understanding of why you are in this life has changed
since this earliest inkling. Perhaps
you have had many such experiences.
What is an experience that particularly stands out for you?
What concluding thoughts would you like to share?
Feedback (10 minutes)
Thank the group. Ask what they liked in this session
and what changes they would hope for.
Closing (1 minute)
Go blessed with the knowledge that
you are you,
that you may be living a call you
could never have predicted,
that you may be living a call long
understood.
Go knowing that we are grateful and
glad that you are who you are.
