VCCC Program Day: Spiritual and Religious: Holding Together Authenticity, Connection, and Tradition
Friday, October 1, 2010
10 AM – 3 PM
$35, includes lunch
Facilitator: The Rt. Rev. G. Porter Taylor
How often have you been talking to a person and when the question of church comes up, they say, “I am very spiritual just not religious”? That is an answer for more and more people in contemporary society. What drives that hunger for spirituality as well as that anxiety about religion?
Father Ron Rolheiser spoke in the diocese last spring, and he said that the Holy Spirit gives us two gifts. First she gives us the give of fire: that holy longing which burns in our souls and moves closer to source of everything. It’s this desire that transforms ordinary women and men into saints. They catch a vision and that vision compels them to be agents of God’s transformation. The question is what we do with that fire. He speaks of the need for glue to give some cohesion to the energy the Holy Spirit brings, lest we burn up or burn out. This fire and glue are “spiritual” and “religious.” They are the necessary to have a whole life.
This day will explore these two dimensions: how they can be cultivated, the tensions between them, as well as how they are complementary. If we only are spiritual, then we become privatized or simply have isolated and individual experiences. If we only are religious, then we become rule bound and hollow. A holy life is a whole life. We will explore this in terms of our personal and corporate journey.
The day will involve presentation and discussion. Participants are asked to bring journals.
For more information or to register, contact Tom Eshelman: vccc@highsouth.com
