Concluding Year One

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

1 Corinthians 12:12,27

On the last weekend of May 2025, lay people from parishes in Vermont and Eastern Massachusetts gathered for a retreat at Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in New Hampshire – surrounded by the haunting call of loons, various groves of trees, and a bizarre pileated woodpecker on the ground striking at a stump outside the window as we took our lunch. It was a time of laughter and intimacy, jigsaw puzzles, games, log fires, sharing circles, spiritual practice, prayer, and discernment among people from different parishes who did not know each other at all just ten months ago. This was the third and final retreat of the first year of the emerging initiative called The Communities for Spiritual Vitality. Witnessing the care for one another that emerged over this past year and the hopefulness that people expressed where once they had been overwrought with concern for their parish survival, I couldn’t help but think of Pentecost. The Spirit is doing a new thing. Can you perceive it?

One of the most beautiful ways that St. Paul describes the community of disciples is as a Body. In his letters, he constantly reminded small local churches of how important it is to rely on the Spirit, to live in love, and to recognize that they need one another, both in the local community and as the larger collection of churches across the region. He knew that the small communities could not survive without the vitality that comes from loving mutual encounter, steadfast spiritual practice (discipleship), and trust in the Spirit of Christ that now filled the community (hope).

Paul seemed to believe that his small communities needed this insight both because they were vulnerable and because they were special, even essential, to the work of the Spirit in the Church. As he recognized an unnamed personal struggle that he faced, “God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).”

For Paul, there was a deep-seated conviction that if they could only give themselves over to the amazing power of God in fellowship and shared practice, “the little guy” was exactly where God would show up afresh to renew the world.

I believe that, too. It is the premise behind the Communities for Spiritual Vitality.

If Paul is correct, that our moments of weakness or uncertainty (as individuals and communities) may be where God’s Spirit is preparing to act in powerful new ways, then this is a very exciting time for the Church. It has the potential to be a Pentecost time. As the prophet Isaiah says, “See, I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43:18-19).”

When we think of Pentecost we think of the fiery flames of Spirit in Acts, speaking in many languages. We imagine the excitement of people from far and wide witnessing in wonder, ready to join a triumphant movement of power. But consider, instead, the quiet Pentecost recorded in the Gospel of John (20:19-23). For John, ‘pentecost’ was actually Easter night. The eleven apostles (just eleven!) are still locked away by themselves in fear and uncertainty. It was too early to trust that Jesus really did arise. All they felt was their defeat. But, Jesus broke into that locked room, breathed the Spirit on them, spoke Peace, and gave them authority.

That humble (new) beginning was the real start of the new thing that was so electric on Pentecost day. It started in weakness and doubt; it ran like brushfire toward the faith we hold today, because the apostles learned to trust that the Spirit of God had not forsaken Christ or them. The movement would continue, made perfect in weakness.

Parish ministry is hard work. But it is especially vulnerable when the parish feels small, weak, and fearfully about the future. This is true for lay people as much as for clergy. Can you relate? Can you understand why the disciples might want to hide in the locked room once the glory they once knew had died? Can you imagine why Paul was at such great pains to say, “Wait! Don’t do it. Open up to one another and to God; rest, and practice, and hope. The Spirit is here in you. Can you perceive it?”

Lay people living and serving in small contexts need and deserve ways to “come away by themselves and rest a while (cf. Mark 6:31)” so that they can perceive that God is working in them. They need time together in fellowship, prayer, play, and renewal in order to be spiritually vital enough to endure the fragile rooms in which God’s Spirit often first appears. 

And Paul seems to suggest that – so refreshed, connected, and strengthened in the life of the Spirit – ordinary disciples can go back to their local context, full of new life to share. They can become powerful witnesses to the larger church of the truth of the Gospel. Just as important, they can return encouraged and buoyed in their relationship with God in Christ.

This recent retreat of the Communities was the last of three in-person retreats. Each allowed time to “come away,” rest, pray, and discuss spirituality. They also provided time for people from similar contexts to discover they were not alone and to learn from each other. Monthly zoom gatherings helped to maintain those connections. Through curated resources, clergy support, and mutual insight, participants learned and practiced new spiritual disciplines – Imaginative Prayer, praying with images, the daily examen, and more.

Spiritual direction helped each individual listen for how God was speaking through all these things into the contours of her own life. I hope that those who participated were refreshed by the year’s offerings. I know they were nourished by seeing the beauty in one another. I believe that God’s power is alive in each one as they have taken time for disciplined and supported discipleship.

This initiative is possible because of the amazing abundance and whimsy of the Spirit of the Living God! A grant generously awarded by the Lilly Endowment… the trust, support, and space to dream, offered by the bishops of two (!!!) dioceses… The particular gifts of a director – and just as many weaknesses – that longs to support lay people through our rich tradition of practices toward a grounded, free, and hope-filled life – in all circumstances… The open curiosity of the first cohort of participants and facilitators. All of this grace, offered for two more cohorts over the next four years.

Might you be called to join us? The Communities are beginning to seek participants for the second cohort. There will be three info sessions on Zoom: July 21, 6:00-7:30pm; September 6, 9:30-11:00am; and October 15, 5:30-7:00pm. This is the zoom link for all info sessions: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85617714846. These sessions will be an opportunity to share spiritual practice and ask questions. More will follow. The cohorts are open to anyone in a parish without full-time clergy. My prayer and my trust is that together we will create a new culture of connection, mutual support, and spiritual depth in our Body of churches. One cohort of disciples at a time. In the words of Paul in a passage that became very dear to us in the second half of the year together, as you consider joining this movement, you may be enabled to see how “God, who makes everything work together, will work you into God’s most excellent harmonies (Phil 4:9b, The Message).”

Shalom in the Spirit of Christ,
Rev. adwoa Wilson
Director, Communities for Spiritual Vitality
awilson@diovermont.org

Image by Elizabeth Wang, radiantlight.org.uk