November ’23 Enews – The Gales of November

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in November of 1975, amid a stormy gale, and all souls on board were lost.

Here in the mid-west we refer to these as the Gales of November, a heavy wind that whips up the Great Lakes. But I’ve been working to reimagine what else fresh winds could mean in this season in between the high feast of All Saints’ and the holy waiting of Advent.

The winds have taken dead limbs off trees, paring the tree down to only what is essential. The winds have blown out the summer cobwebs. They are bracing and cold, we take notice. In the church we’ve experienced some of these winds in recent months, and I wonder if the Spirit doesn’t move in just this way sometimes; a wind  we can’t ignore, one that stirs up, strips away, refreshes.

Last month we rolled out our new Open Inquiry process and we’ve been blown away by the number of folks reaching out to us for more info, filling yet another info session to overflowing. This is wind too, wind that brings change, something fresh and new.

We’re wrapping up most of our virtual opportunities for 2023, knowing that leaders of all orders are already turning their minds and hearts toward the holidays and the busy liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas. But our networks and our platforms are still lively, still here, still growing, questing, learning, and supporting.

We’re looking forward to 2024, our Gatherings, our growing resource library, our expanding networks, but most of all to growing with and supporting the hope-filled leaders who make up our network. We’re experiencing the movement of the Spirit, sometimes in actual wind, sometimes in conversation and vision casting with the team, but mostly with you and the amazing things happening across the church that so many in our network are spearheading. You are dreaming into being a reality where souls are saved.

So let the winds blow, come, Holy Spirit.

Alicia Hager
Community & Communications Curator

 

Read on: https://mailchi.mp/fbeb9dbde2c5/november-enews-12786131?e=2cc82ea8c