I was there from May 8th to May 18th and would have been happy staying even longer. We were a group of sixteen in total, ten of us were participants and the rest were a part of the leadership team. Two of us participants were from British Columbia, one from Ontario, and the rest were from the East Coast - PEI, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. They were each awesome in their own way, bringing their own questions and knowledge to the group.
Our time together was broken up into three different sections, we spent our first four days doing a lot of "academic" work, sessions and getting to know each other, three days on pilgrimage, then three days summing it up and reflecting. I will break up my comments and reflections on the experience in those groups.
So, our first few days together were filled with getting to know where we were and who we would be spending our time with. I got to Huron University late on Friday evening, a day before the rest of the participants (this is what happens when you come from British Columbia's not so large towns)! I stayed in the Cronyn House, an older house with the creakiest floors I had ever experienced in my life. Almost every single step one took resulted in a loud creak! My first evening there (I was in the house alone for a few hours) a large thunder and lightning storm came though. As a child I was terrified of large storms, but not having been part of a thunder and lightning storm for almost a year I loved it. I sat at the top of the stairs and looked out the window, it was a great way to start Ask and Imagine.
Our first task as a group was to look at "What is Community?" We shared experiences and stories and went into small groups to look at the different parts of community:
Safety, Commitment, Intimacy and Vulnerability, Inclusion, Shared Wisdom, A Spirit, Fight with Grace, and Contemplation Self-evaluation. We would, as a group, engage in community and commit to being a part of our community in everything that we did.Our second day together, Sunday May 10th, we had a short Introduction to Theology and then the Theology of Song. It made for a busy morning with lots of laughter. My group explored expressions of theology according to the words of the song, "Lord, the Light of Your Love Is Shining" - mainly because one of the people in our group really disliked the song. Each group chose a song and answered the questions:
- Who is God in relation to us?
- Who are we (or, what are we to do?) in relationship to God?
- Who are we (or what are we to do?) in relationship to the world around us?
- Where is the consolation/good news?
- Where is the desolation/conflict?
It was an interesting task, and lots of fun.
Sunday afternoon we did a Learning Styles Challenge. Our first task was to complete the challenge in groups, we couldn't talk, had to work as a team, and get through a grid taking one step at a time and remembering what squares we could step on and which ones we couldn't step on. It was definitely a challenge, but we had a lot of fun completing it - a few moments of frustrations, but many more moments of joy and learning. We then summed it up with doing the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, a short test that in the end led to us knowing what our learning style was. The quote on the cover said, "We all learn in different ways. We all have preferences for how we tackle new experiences. Understanding the learning cycle, and how you go through it, can help explain how you deal with problems, people and new situations. And understanding the differences between yourself and others can give insights into your personal and professional relationships." My outcome from the test was that I am a "muser" or "diverging". Supposedly meaning that I view concrete situations from different points of view, am imaginative, understand people, recognize problems, brainstorm, and am open-minded. It was a very interesting task.
Sunday evening our discussion topic was "Vocation: Let Your Life Speak". After a short introduction and hearing one of the mentor's life story, discernment, and path of vocation, we then broke up into our small groups and shared our story. "All life can be a pilgrimage - a sacred journey within ourselves, all the time." My small group walked around the campus of the University of Western Ontario while we chatted. We learned a lot about one another, provided some feedback and recognized some similarities between our stories.
Monday and Tuesday both began with 9AM Biblical Studies with the New Testament Professor from Huron. We spent both mornings looking at the Gospel of Mark, we had all read Mark straight through prior to getting to Ask and Imagine so discussion began out of that. We also talked about the different approaches to reading the Bible, where the Bible came from, important characters in Mark, the ending of Mark and discipleship in the Gospel of Mark.
We learned about the Four G's of Teaching (Grab my attention, Give me something new, Get something out of me, and Go make a difference). And heard from Elizabeth May (Green Party) and David Salisbury about their life and vocation. Monday night we had Church History in the chapel, it was interesting but a lot in a very short period of time. Tuesday evening we had a Pilgrimage Liturgy in preparation for our pilgrimage that would start the next morning. The first few days were definitely full; but the learning, conversations and lessons were amazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment