Invitation from Derek Moyer, Missioner for Lifelong Formation for the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon

At the same time, discernment is for the whole church, or it ought to be, and it is a powerful and transformative practice. All of us, individually and in community, are called to continually discern who God is calling us to be, in this moment and in this context. Our world is aching for discernment; our church is aching for discernment. Moral and political crises and our own embodied experience of the disintegration of social networks and community where we live, call us out of ourselves and invite us to discern together what a faithful response from God’s people looks like. Discernment, most fundamentally, is us leaning in close to one another and asking over and over again: Where is God calling the Episcopal Church in Western Oregon right now? What spirit-filled action does our baptismal covenant propel us towards? Discernment is a practice for all of us, all of the time.

In January our new diocesan discernment communities will begin, with a retreat in Eugene January 20-21. This summer and fall a small team of designers and leaders are building our new discernment community practices, and in September we will open the application process for these communities. Our diocesan discernment communities will meet for six months, including two retreats (Jan. 20-21, and April 28-29) with Bishop Akiyama and the Commission on Ministry. The communities will be facilitated by facilitators that we will train.

These discernment communities will include those who are discerning a call to orders, but it will not be designed primarily for that form of discernment. (There will be additional discernment meetings for those discerning a call to orders.) Rather, these discernment communities will holistically ask the question, “Where is God calling us?”, and we will situate our individual discernment within that larger, collective question. Discernment is importantly a collective, relational practice.

Because we are still in the ‘design’ phase, we are still working out some of the rhythms and practices that will shape our discernment communities. We are looking forward to communicating more details of the communities in September when the application process opens. For now, I invite you to consider joining us in January, to discern together who God is calling us to be and how God is calling us to get there.