2011-12 Discernment Program Intro

The Commission on Ministry in the Diocese of Rhode Island offers an in-depth discernment process for all who are seeking to explore their baptismal vocation, all who want to discern a call to either Lay Ministry or Ordained Ministry in the Episcopal Church.

It is a ten month program consisting of monthly meetings on topics such as the mystery of prayer, adventures in awareness, framing the question, and the faces of ministry. The program is designed to help participants discern what God is calling them to at this time in their life. With the support of participants' parishes and priests, they will be led through a structured program that will teach them the tools of discernment. This process is also a requirement for all who may be called to Ordained Ministry.

The Introductory Session of this year’s process will be held on Saturday, November 19, 2011 from 9:30 to 11:30 am at the Diocesan Annex next to the Diocesan office building, 275 North Main Street in Providence. Anyone who is interested in the Discernment Process is invited to attend this session, along with the people who will support the discerner spiritually during their journey; his/her spouse or partner and the Rector or Senior Warden. To ensure that we can offer the discernment program this year at least four persons must register at this session for the 2011-2012 program. All interested are asked to respond to: The Rev. Alcide Barnaby, Jr. by Friday, November 4, 2011

Outline of Discernment Process in the Diocese of RI

• Introductory Session Saturday, November 19, 2011:
• One Saturday a month December 2011 – June 2012
• The process builds using many spiritual and self-reflective tools for discernment. Participants will be asked to read some books, including Listening Hearts, by Susanne Farnham and Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer along with reprints of articles and materials that will be distributed at various sessions.
• Participants will prepare a spiritual autobiography and put together a Discernment Team. (A Discernment Team is in no way an evaluation measure; it is meant to provide a deep safe place and people with whom a discerner can explore concerns that may come up in the process of Discernment.)
• Summer 2012 – Discernment continues
• Participants are asked to spend the months of July and August exploring. They may want to visit churches other and different from their own and reflect on the experience. They may want to meet with a priest, deacon and/or lay minister and have conversation about vocation and call, as well as the practical aspects of the various callings and ministries.
• At the end of the summer each discerner is asked to write a reflection paper on this experience.
• September 2012
• A closing dinner is a way for the participants in the Discernment Process to reflect on the Process with their spouses / partners, rectors and the members of the Commission on Ministry.