Freeland, Whidbey Island, Washington

Living into the 8th Day — Conversations of December 2, 2006

Claiming Our 7^th Day Sabbatical Experience

Everyone expressed what they had learned.

Main themes of congregation members:

• Love to learn, excellent educational opportunities
• Importance of greater depth of Christianity, Anglican, and Episcopal tradition
• Ministries of congregation did well with lay volunteers: "people stepped up to the plate"
• Differences among us became a gift, not an impediment
• We had good leadership
• We found we could talk bout difficult matters with respect, listening, and safety
• We had a sense of rebirth, resurrection, new life
• People got to know each other better
• There was a shift from socio-political focus to spirituality, depth
• We became energized and empowered — proud of being empowered

Main themes of Fr. Nigel:

• Peace must be at the heart of our community
• Importance of the common experience of being a pilgrim in community
• Community is created by doing ordinary things together — the ordinary is sacred
• Need to do the primary work — what it means to be a Christian
• Sense of energy for recovering and retaining who we want to become
• "I missed you all"

In small groups, we talked about what we learned as a covenant for the future:
Covenant = an agreed-upon way to be together that holds promise.

We Covenant Together To:

1. be a supportive environment in which people are comfortable expressing ideas, satisfying curiosity, and asking questions;
2. pursue educational reflections on our identity as Christians, Anglicans, and Episcopalians in interactive educational experiences;
3. assume responsibility for all dimensions of parish life — to be in mutual ministry, to foster empowerment of all members;
4. develop ways to acknowledge, accept, value, and compromise our differences — to act out our Baptismal covenant; and
5. foster spirituality in our life together as a main focus — to learn to listen with our hearts

All of the above components must be grounded in love.

Some Theological Reflections on Eschatology

• A new day is forever upon us.
• We are at a time of Exodus deliverance…on the threshold of a new day.
• Connected to 8th day, day of baptism, day of resurrection — a new identity.
• A day of a new sense of time — a kairos moment when eternity breaks in upon chronos time.
• We are a new Adam (humankind) at a new Creation.
• We are called to live a "new mind", live in the "comingness" of Advent.
• The Eucharist is our feast of the 8th day, the heavenly banquet — radically egalitarian.
• The challenge is to create a community of expectation and hope where the past affects us, but does not define us.

Question for small groups:

How do we bring a sense of a new day throughout the congregation?

We need to use suggested norms for conversation in all our meetings.

We need to have a day-long retreat for the vestry to discuss implications of the New Day.

We need to incorporate a sense of New Day in our worship and spirituality.

We need to bring life to our Long-Range Plan and Land and Buildings planning.

We need planning for consistent forum conversations and education on our New Day.

We need to act out this message — to "walk the walk" of our future.