Loading...Good Morning. Before I begin the reflection, I want to thank Mary, and my classmates for allowing me the opportunity to share our thoughts about Education for Ministry or EfM. They are a very special group of people, and I’ll say a few more words about our EfM family later on.
But first, I’d like to begin this reflection with a reference to the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer.
On page 855, the first two Q’s and A’s under the category of MINISTRY refer to the Laity:
The first question asks: Who are the ministers of the Church? And the answer is: The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.
Yes, notice that Lay persons are listed first, before the ordained clergy.
And in the second question it asks: What is the ministry of the laity? And the answer is: The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.
“Quite a responsibility for all us lay persons.
To help us fulfill our responsibilities as ministers of the Church, in 1975, the School of Theology of The University of the South developed a four-year program in group theological reflection and study.
Today, I want to speak with you about EfM and our lived experiences as members of the St. James' EfM community these last four years.
For 30+ Thursdays a year, for four years, we met thanks to Zoom and began each session with a gathering question, which covered a wide range of topics. Kinda’ like icebrakers. We then started and ended each meeting with a prayer. Each one of us took turns bringing and saying prayers each week.
As a group, we would end the evening session by writing a collect. We went to three breakout rooms: One group was assigned “Dear God”; another group had “we ask or we pray that “, and the last group had “so that…”, It was fascinating how we summarized our readings for the week by creating this group collect..
Today’s Collect is a perfect prayer for this reflection:
“Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
…hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,…
This is what EfM is all about — taking our ministry seriously and to quote our Reading and Resource Guide, “ “Throughout the EfM year, participants have mined Christian scripture, history, theology, and ethics for wisdom while considering what it means to be an adult Christian in today’s world”
Even with that description, understanding the content and purpose of EfM requires further explanation.
EfM is neither a religious studies or theology course like one that might be taught in a university nor is it preparation for becoming an ordained minister. At its heart, EfM is a program in practical theology, designed to help us deepen our relationships with God and to discover or develop the ministries to which we are called.
EfM focuses on five core practices: living in community, prayer and worship, theological reflection, Christian tradition, and ministry discernment.
Theological Reflection, or TR, is simply examining life through a theological lens using a specific EfM method that brings four sources of wisdom into conversation. It takes awhile to get the hang of it, but TRs often reveal new perspectives or confirm our beliefs in ways we didn’t really expect.
Each year requires a lot of reading, but it’s not onerous, and many of us read what we could and discussed what we had digested. There are no dunce caps for those who couldn’t complete a weekly assignment. That’s NOT what EfM is all about.
From the beginning, we were challenged to leave our egos at the front door and learn to listen to one another.
EfM teaches us that all ministry begins in relationships and Listening is key to building those relationships.
As we listened to each other’s life stories, points of view and interpretations, our relationships developed, as did our empathy and our ability to minister to one another.
It has been a wonderful journey living in our EfM community.
Oh, yes. We were given the freedom to stand on our soapboxes, to agree and disagree. And yes, there were some very spirited discussions to say the least.
We have shared our spiritual paths as they were shaped, molded and changed over a lifetime, but especially in the last four years. And over the past four years, there has been reshaping and re-molding of our spiritual paths thanks to EfM and our TR’s.
We’ve been reawakened to the notion that our life journeys are ever changing and reshaping our spirituality.
Our discussions have led us to self-examination with thought provoking questions about listening for and responding to God’s call to ministry, such as: What gifts do I have? What gifts can I share? How can I further my ministry or develop a new ministry?
Many of us have answered the questions even before this last year of EfM. Many of us will go on to recognize our gifts and enhance our ministries or find new ministries.
We have learned to accept our differing personal beliefs and dwell on our common ground. What a delightful challenge. What a growing experience.
I believe that EfM helped us get there and has made us better equipped to spread the word of Jesus, to walk in his ways and to take our place in the life, worship and governance of St James'.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is working overtime as he or she guides us in our studies and development of our collective spiritual journeys.
Thank you Mary, Teresa, Kippy, Lucy, Dan, Judy and Anne. It has been a wonderful four years as we learned about our ministry but most importantly, a lot about each other and ourselves. I also want to compliment Anne who has been a wonderful addition to our weekly discussions as she was in her second year providing us renewed insights and perspectives on what we had already studied in year two. There were definitely new “Ah Hahs” as Anne spoke.
Let me conclude this Reflection with a collect that our group created one evening. Keep in mind that three separate groups met to write their assignment of “Dear God”, or We ask”, or “so That”. Pieced together when we re-grouped is a lovely collect:
Dear God, You who dwell within us to lead us to the right relationship
We ask for Your guidance as we seek to apply Your love in our daily encounters
So that our relationship with You leads us to be shining examples of Your love in the world.
Amen
We hope that you consider Education for Ministry as the next step on your spiritual journey — it is well worth the time.
