We are in that time of year when school, church, and family can start to feel overwhelming. Holiday season is underway! I was in a store the day before Halloween. One aisle displayed Halloween costumes and paraphernalia. Right across the same aisle Christmas decor filled the shelves.
Gah. This is not merely a consumer problem. This season is structured by autumn rites. Christian and Jewish holy days. The shortening of daylight as the earth tilts toward winter in the North. An approaching end of school semesters. And the close of another calendar and financial year for many organizations. Due dates. Grading. Travel. Meals.
Concerts. Gifts. Parties. All of this activity is laced with expectations. Personal, family, and communal dreams, disappointments, and dread.
What do you hold onto in the long holiday season that is upon us?
What grounds you? Keeps you
steady?
This week we continue our series of conversations with Dr. Charisse Gillett, president of Lexington Theological Seminary. She published a memoir this summer. The book honors both her own young life and also speaks to the lives of young people who aspire to grow into their full potential. She wrote it with her children and grandchild in mind. That Little Girl: Memories, Challenges, and Reflections on Black Girl Dreams will inspire many people, and already has, beyond her family.
And fortunately for us, Dr. Gillett has a good word of encouragement for us all in response to the season and to our questions about how to hold onto hope. She also shares about her experience of breaking barriers as the first woman and African American president of Lexington Theological Seminary. She says she needed both to follow her sense of joy and to set and reach for
aspirations. Talk about holding onto hope!
Read more about how we hold out hope in the midst of holiday season and a broken and suffering world. And spend a few minutes soaking up Dr. Gillett's encouragement about how
we hold hope by staying connected to our WHY.
As you are opening this email, I'm beginning week four of my time at the Collegeville Institute. This photo was taken while I was working in the Saint John's Library last week. The emblem on my computer is a stained glass and wrought iron piece of art commemorating the founding of the Collegeville Institute.
My primary work here is to focus my time and energy on the new State of Clergy Report. This coming week I will be leading a seminar for all the residents. I'll share more about that next Monday!
If you are working within your call to ministry now, what are your most pressing questions about the practice of ministry? What keeps you up at night? What was a recent aha moment in ministry?
I've already been having so many interesting conversations on Threads and Facebook about what questions people want answered in the revised and expanded report. What do you hope will be included?
All of you reading this are welcome to tell me about:
