The overall conference theme is: The Heart of Pilgrimage: Living by the Spirit. This year’s daily themes come from the Eucharistic prayer: “By Your Holy Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes again. Amen.” The theme for today was Make us One with Christ. The schedule for each day begins with Morning Prayer at 7am. The FUMSDRL Board provides leadership for this contemplative service of Morning Prayer. There are about 100 people (of the over 400 at the Conference) who attend the Morning Prayer service at 7am. This morning Brenda Buckwell Lifland and Scottie Brafford, a spiritual director and the Director of The Center for Spiritual Formation in Memphis, Tennessee led the service.

There is a morning plenary session which is a lecture style presentation on the theme for the day. The teacher for the plenary sessions this year is Marjorie Thompson, Presbyterian minister and author of the best-selling book Soulfeast. Marjorie noted that “One with Christ” is a mystical expression of oneness, “One with each other” is a moral expression and “One in ministry to all the World” is a missional expression. She focused on John 15: 1-11 where Jesus invites – actually commands us – to “abide in Him.” Quoting from Julian of Norwich and Bernard of Clairvaux, she explained atonement as the “primordial inter-penetration of the Divine and human that preserves the difference of identity.”

 
Steve Bryant and Marjorie Thompson 

After a break are the morning workshops. As I said before, this is the third year that FUMSDRL has been invited to offer leadership and spiritual direction at Soulfeast. Each year we have led a three day morning workshop that introduces spiritual direction to participants. There are five members of FUMSDRL’s Board of Directors present this year and several other members of FUMSDRL and SDI in attendance. 

Sacred Center in the workshop space

 
This year the workshop is being led by Reverend Dr. Brenda Buckwell Lifland and Cherri Johnson. Brenda is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of FUMSDRL and Cherri is new member on the Board who brings a wealth of experience as a spiritual director and a supervisor of directors. The workshop is entitled, “Formation from the Inside to the Outside.” Participants came from all over the country and many different walks of life. Today the session focused on individual spiritual direction and how the skills of spiritual direction assist believers in companioning folks on their journeys through life. Attention was given to the difference between spiritual direction and other helping ministries such as therapy, counseling and chaplaincy. Brenda also shared a little of her experience of teaching a dying congregation the principles of spiritual direction and formation and how that revitalized the congregation. Brenda and Cherri demonstrated a formal spiritual direction session which the participants found extremely helpful. Brenda sent the participants with two questions to contemplate:

How has God been present in our discussion?

What signs of joy and hope did you experience in our discussion?

and an assignment to remember the person sitting on either side of them and say prayers of blessing for them.

Brenda and Cherri demonstrate Spiritual Direction

After lunch there is free time when several “Sabbath Options” are available to participants. One of the options that FUMSDRL offers is Spiritual Direction. This afternoon Brenda led a Group Spiritual Direction Session which resulted in several people requesting individual sessions. All of us on the Board are available to meet with individuals when requested.

At 4pm there are one hour workshops offered on a variety of topics – everything from “Approaching the Heart of God: Walking the Labyrinth” to “Spirituality and Photography” to “Hula Hooping.” Linda Douty, author of How Can I Let Go if I Don’t Know I’m Holding On: Setting Our Souls Free and How Can I See the Light When It’s So Dark: Journey To a Thankful Heart, and a member of FUMSDRL from Memphis offered a workshop on “Prayers for Busy People.”

After supper there is a worship experience with lots of singing and original liturgy. Tonight we remembered and celebrated our Baptism.