In August our body was rocked and many of us have been reeling as we attempt to deal with the impact of that news. We recognize that there is a wide range of reaction to this, and we know that for many of us there is a need to continue to process all that has happened. We have had a few times of gathering together to lament, to worship, to talk and to pray. We know that many have continued to process in house groups, in triads, with close friends, with counsellors and in a variety of other ways. Here is another way of continuing the healing dialogue for those who feel they need it.
As a part of an ongoing process of recovery and healing we’re hosting a talking circle, looking at the August news through creative process. Anyone who identifies as creative or has been since August (1st time creatives are welcome) is invited to gather with us. It’s good to be together and to know what state we’re in. (1Cor 12:26)
“The talking circle platform provides a safe space for everyone to share and for every person’s voice to be heard.”
A Word on the Process:
The talking circle platform provides a safe space for everyone to share and for every person’s voice to be heard. The format will be quite simple. We will open in prayer. We will each be given an opportunity to share our creative processing or our inability to process the August news. (Sharing is not required.) During this time there will be no questions asked or feedback given to the person sharing – the rest of us will be listening. The person sharing is welcome to share as much or as little as they like. After everyone who wants to has shared once, we’ll go around the circle once more and reflect on how we’ve been impacted by what we’ve heard. The focus will centre on personal reaction, feelings evoked, your new perspective, etc., to what we’ve heard; not critique, disagreement or engagement with the details of what others have shared.
A Word on the Vision:
Why would we do this? Deep listening is important. Safe spaces need to be made for people to be real with each other. With the recent news many of us have been isolated in and because of our feelings. Just as a community is made of individuals, so too individuals make the community. Each person connected to our community and who is impacted by this news needs space to process and heal as an individual who is a part of a complex web of relational ties. This is one way to seek healing: by being open about how we’ve been doing and to be moved by the pain (and potentially hope) of others. Paul suggests that “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” He also suggests that “if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” We’re in this together. Let’s listen and honour each other.
-Jeff Leighton
The Talking Circle will take place on Tuesday, December 4th at 7pm at Winnipeg Centre Vineyard.
I wanted to share this with you. It is one of my favorite meditations if you will. It is a passage
from a J.I. Packer book, “Knowing God”. I am attaching it and I have taken some small liberties
paraphrasing it for the sake of brevity. It blew me away and can still cause me to tear up. It would be my creed.
“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know
God, but the larger fact which underlies it – the fact that He knows me. I am graven
on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him
depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because He first
knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me;
and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention is distracted from
me, and no moment, therefore when His care falters.
…There is unspeakable comfort—in knowing that God is constantly taking
knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous
relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior
knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about
me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His
determination to bless me. There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought
that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and am I
glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which
in all conscience is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship
and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His
friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to
realize this purpose.”