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Jul 22, 2013

St. John's, Austin, Begins Series of 'Conversations'

St. John's, AustinIn 2012, St. John’s, Austin, launched the ARK initiative, which is aimed at personal and corporate spiritual development through Action, Renewal, and Knowledge. As part of that effort, on May 16, St. John’s joined with the diocese in celebration of community, but instead of doing the “Sharing Faith” format, they invited Jacob Cortes, Lead Organizer for Austin Interfaith, to lead them through the process which Austin Interfaith recommends for initiating change at any level of organization.

 

After sharing a pot luck supper attended by about 30 parishioners, St. John's participated in a “Conversation” such as would be utilized in a listening campaign. The consensus of those present at the initial meeting was that they would like to nurture a culture of listening and compassion in what is often a busy, pulled-apart world, and learn about and meet the needs of our community.

 

That evening, St. John's signed up 10 people who expressed an interest in serving on the task group to carry this forward. Morgan Corpus volunteered to coordinate the listening campaign. Morgan is one of our younger members who has been at St. John’s all her life.

 

The Conversations will be held for all the ministries of St. John’s, as well as meetings for those who are not active members of a ministry. Thanks in part to the support of Fr. Al Rodriguez and the Vestry, as well as the inherent caring culture of St. John’s, the communinty has seen much success in achieving the goal of involving all the members of the congregation in these Conversations.

 

With the theme of invitation, breaking bread, and sharing stories, St. John's has hosted three Conversations to this point, and they hope to finish the process by the end of September. They will then determine which issues and needs are most critical for the St. John’s community and put together a series of workshops and/or seminars to address these issues.