David Hoover attended our Lay Gathering Chicago in the Spring of 2023 and offers this excellent reflection on his experience: A priest friend invited me. I had never heard of the Gathering of Leaders. She said this was something that I would love and was eligible for since lay people...
A Vessel to be Filled Haley Bankey told me, at my first Gathering in San Antonio last fall, that we provide a vessel to be filled. The Leaders pour into that vessel all of their experience, their expertise, the amazing ideas, and the radical hope that so infiltrates who we...
As The Gathering of Leaders Enews lands in your inbox each one of us is squaring up to celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent. I wonder then, where this finds you. Are you in a place of hopeful anticipation, head full of glorious images of bears and cows grazing peacefully?...
Good News Proclaimed Gathering of Leaders’ Participants are currently engaging in conversation around our annual theme of “The Missionary Church After Christendom,” and as I read through the e-news below I see the Good News that these conversations are proclaiming. Last month at the Oregon Gathering we were challenged by...
“One night on a mission trip to North Carolina our junior and senior high youth group had a fun evening out on a river walk in the town where we stayed. The kids shopped and the adults were waiting by a local ice cream store. Suddenly, one of the youth,...
Burning Man is not just a party in the desert. For thousands of participants, it is a pilgrimage site. Logistically though, Burning Man is a temporary city of 70,000 people. Like any city, it has roads, public safety infrastructure, and medical centers. It also has cafes, tea shops, bars, concert...
Making Her Breathe Even though I trained in a local iteration of the Iona Collaborative, I am the first person on a priest track to be ordained in my diocese via this formation method. This means that I don’t regularly run into either multi-vocational clergy, or locally trained individuals. As...
Just for a moment, imagine a lighted, furnished dining room: I see into the room and you see into the room yet when asked “What do you see?” our responses most often differ. One of us most likely will describe the room, perhaps remarking on the size and shape...
An email came to my inbox that I thought for sure was spam. It was advertising a free weekend in Texas and right before I moved it into the junk file I saw my Bishop’s name- she had nominated me. Well Okay! I looked at it again and then I...
God’s Plan is a hip-hop song that was written and performed by the Canadian rapper, Drake. Now if you don’t know who Drake is, you can ask your teenage children or teenage grandchildren, or even ask your 20-40 something children or grandchildren, I’m certain 99 percent of them can tell...