This Lent, our Adult Education class, The Way: Going Deeper, builds on our church-wide exploration of the film The Way and explores the question: how does this journey become our own?
The following reflection comes from Diana Hoke, a congregant and a leader of Adult Education at First Church. She shares updates from the class and a glimpse of what’s still to come.
We began by hearing from Kristy, who told us about her experience in walking the trail in terms of what it was like to have nothing but thinking, spiritual and otherwise, to take up time while walking. She talked about it being a challenge and shared the difficulty in getting started. It was easy to compare her description to our journey in faith. It’s not a straight, predictable path but, rather, so much more we don’t even expect. All in all, it was a great opening to the lesson.
Everyone received a white clam shell like the ones you also had today. We discussed the shell history and meaning first. I had powerpoint slides of how people have decorated them to represent something on which they would like to focus in their relationship with God (a conflict, question, grief, frustration, a problem, thankfulness, inspiration, fears, etc}. During our “journey” through the next several weeks, the shell will be with them during class as their center for meditation, prayer, journal writing, etc. It will be akin to the stone that the characters in The Way carry with them. I brought in colored Sharpies for decorating the shells, which we did in the first part of class.
As the class finished their shells, I invited them to have time with themselves, trying not to simply sit and talk with each other (not the point right now), because I hoped in the coming weeks their meditation during their personal journey with God, symbolized with their shells, would produce meaningful growth for them in some way.
The last section of the class I showed a Youtube video of a sort of virtual hike for viewers. It was taken by someone recently hiking the Camino and is set to nice background music. I plan to show about six minutes of it each week, which will end at the cathedral in Santiago on Easter Sunday.
During this time, the class also responded to journal prompts, were encouraged to pray, or simply watch and listen.
Over the next few weeks, I also hope to include film clips of Bishop Karen Oliveto with her thoughts after each day of her walk on the Camino. They are quite good!
I feel really positive and happy with what we are doing and with the class’s responses. This church-wide theme has been a good choice for our church thus far (Ash Wednesday’s plan was a good start!). It is providing us much, much needed relief from the weight of the worldly events that have clouded our lives and our faith. Our church study in the weeks leading up to and including Easter will be a way to help us gather courage, resilience, and hope for what lies ahead.
Blessings,
Diana Hoke
Interested in joining Adult Education at First Church? Learn more and find ways to get involved here.
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