"DAY OF CHAPTER PLANNING AND PRAYERFUL DISCERNMENT"
SATURDAY OCT 2, 2021
(via Zoom*)
10:00 – 12:00 - Chapter Planning
NOON – Lunch Break – on our own
(with suggested silence for reflection)
1:00 – 3:00 - Prayerful Discernment
If you have a committed Centering Prayer practice and would like to be active in service to our Chapter, please join us on October 2 as we refresh and renew the activities and service opportunities available in our Chapter.
Ruth Hofmann, a Chapter Support Team volunteer from Contemplative Outreach Ltd., will facilitate the listening and planning process. Guided by Fr. Thomas Keating’s wisdom and Vision for Contemplative Outreach, we will create a collaborative process in which all voices are welcomed and heard. Although people have different roles and contributions to make, each person is of equal value.
It is highly suggested you watch this Frederic LaLoux video (8 1/2 min) to learn more about the collaborative model Fr. Thomas Keating hoped for our chapters.
In addition, we invite you to view 6 documents that are intended to help us achieve our goals for this day.
The morning session will include:
• Introductions
• Centering Prayer
• Excerpt from the Vision of Contemplative Outreach
• Recent changes in the Contemplative Outreach organism
• Chapter Planning/Consensus
The afternoon session will include:
• Explanation of the Chapter Coordinating Team
• Explanation of the Prayerful Discernment Process
• Centering Prayer
• Prayerful Discernment
* * * * * * * * * *
The Vision of Contemplative Outreach, from the Guidelines for Contemplative Outreach Service with Commentary, Thomas Keating writes:
Guidelines #1: “Contemplative Outreach is an evolving community with an expanding vision and deepening practice of Centering Prayer, that serves the changing needs of Christian contemplatives.
Commentary: Contemplative Outreach, as a community, is a living organism that is interactive, interconnected, interdependent, and dynamic. It aspires to function without a hierarchical structure and is designed to share Centering Prayer and its contemplative vision as widely as possible