Call & Respond: Your Vocation Tool Kit

It’s been an exciting month at the Collegeville Institute! We were delighted to receive so many strong applications for the Communities of Calling Initiative from congregations across North America.
 
After much discernment and deliberation, we’ve chosen our 14 partner congregations who will join us for the next 5 years of exploring vocation.


 
You can learn more about the churches here. We hope you’ll stay tuned as they start to share about their projects on vocation and what their communities learn about calling in their contexts.
 
As we start our work together, here’s a snapshot of our cohort:

• Our 14 congregations will travel to Collegeville from 10 states and Canada: Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin, and Manitoba, Canada.
• They represent a variety of Christian traditions: congregational, non-denominational, Anglican Church of Canada, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Free Methodist, Roman Catholic, and United Church of Christ.
• Our largest congregation is made up of 10,081 members, while the smallest has 88 members.
• Team members range in age from 26 years old to 70 years old. Each team includes a staff member, lay leader, and pastor.
• Our congregations serve urban, suburban, and rural communities.
• Our oldest congregation was founded in 1847, while the youngest was founded in 2003.

But our initiative is not only for these 14 congregations. We want to help serve you—your church, your community, your work on vocation.
 
We are working on developing free resources to support your own efforts around calling. Over the next few months, you’ll see new additions to our website, newsletter, and social media. Stay tuned!
 
For now, we’re planning our opening retreats for the Communities of Calling Initiative, to be held at the beautiful Saint John’s Abbey Guesthouse this fall.
 
We’ll be grounding our time together in prayer and reflection on Scripture, including the Benedictine practice of lectio divina. If you’ve never heard of lectio, check out this guide to dive into Scripture in a fresh way.
 
As summer slips into fall in Minnesota, we’re noticing signs of turning: leaves changing color, daylight shortening, temperatures dropping.
 
As you notice changes around you, take a moment to ask where God might be at work in your own transitions. What is beginning? What is ending? How are you invited to respond in faith?
 
Gratefully –
Laura Kelly Fanucci, Project Director
Jessie Bazan, Program Associate

p.s. In our next newsletter, we’ll share ideas for Advent & Christmas—how to weave vocation into seasons of preparation & celebration. Prayers, hymns, and more!