Staff Council hosted its fall forum on October 31, welcoming Carla Orlando, Celeste Cranston, and Kara Gray who led faith-deepening practices for individual and community growth.
Orlando, vocational discernment counselor in the Center for Career and Calling, shared about St. Ignatius’ spiritual journey, and how he engaged Scripture through his imagination and experienced the revelation of the Holy Spirit through this practice. She guided the group through “composition of place” – listening to story from Scripture and imagining one’s self in that place and time as a character or element of the story, inviting the Holy Spirit to bring transformation through the experience.
Cranston, director of the Center for Biblical and Theological Education, and Gray, professor of physics, shared about John Wesley’s understanding of the ongoing transformation experienced throughout the Christian life in the context of community. SPU’s SoulCare program for first-year students, which Cranston and Gray co-direct, is built on Wesley’s small group model and asks participants, “How goes it with your soul?” The group gathered for the forum engaged in an exercise built around that question, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide our reflection on recent experiences, their impact on us, and where we saw God in the midst of these things.
You will find the presenters’ handouts (PDFs) below, as well as a list of rhythms of spiritual formation opportunities taking place at SPU weekly and throughout the year.
Staff Council is grateful for the leadership and presence of these wonderful facilitators, and for the space they created for us to take a moment of rest and engage in spiritual reflection together.
Posted: Monday, November 4, 2019