Spiritual Formation Ideas Bubble up at "You are Leaven" Conference

At a one-day conference designed to equip Purposeful Discipleship and Vital Congregations, both primary principles of A Way Through the Wilderness (the Diocesan Workplan launched in May), participants from the Edmonton diocese’s family explored ways to ferment cultures of spiritual formation (a lifelong process of growing in faith, understanding and attentiveness to God), in each other and our parishes.

Hosted by St. Paul’s Anglican Church on June 7, the "You Are Leaven" conference helped participants discover new spiritual formation practices and new ways of seeing old practices. Participants gathered for Morning Prayer and to sing together, before spiritually fermenting in six workshops organized into two streams. They could choose to experience Gospel-Based Discipleship, Indigenous spirituality, Centering Prayer and more. The day ended with a round dance. 

The Rev. Iain Luke, former interim priest at St. Paul’s, says the conference had a “you had to be there” quality to it, as the focus was on experiencing a range of different approaches to spiritual formation in community. 

“While you can read about these practices, it's not the same as doing them - and in the doing, people could imagine what it would be like for their parish to take up the practice,” he says. 

Local organizers, the Ven. Jonathan Crane and the Rev. Andreas Sigrist attended the national "You Are Leaven" conference in the Ottawa diocese. They wanted to replicate that format in Edmonton by inviting workshop leaders to introduce spiritual practices/experiences, lead participants through these experiences and reflect together on ways people and parishes can integrate them into their spiritual life. 

Just as bakers and brewers can tell when a leavening agent is working, Christians can recognize when spiritual formation is effective in their lives. When planning the local fermentation day, the Discipleship Committee and Bishop Stephen London considered finding a definition of spiritual formation to share and hold in common as a diocese.

“I heard people talking about how they could use Gospel-Based Discipleship for vestry meetings, or how easy it would be to start a new small group ministry as a Spiritual Sharing Circle,” says Luke. “Different approaches will work better in different circumstances, and that was one of the benefits of experiencing them as a parish group.”

For St. Paul’s, hosting the conference and offering hospitality in collaboration with other leaders and communities within the diocese was a “great opportunity to welcome people, many of whom mentioned they had never been in our building before,” says Luke. He thinks future collaborative initiatives “will open up possibilities to get to know each other by working together.”

“This was a good first experience, and I anticipate the conference will grow from here as people share what they got out of it,” he says.

Plans are underway for a second spiritual formation conference to be held in the Edmonton diocese in 2026. The Discipleship committee hopes that a different parish or parishes will step forward to host the conference in the coming years.

May the Spirit of God lead us, the followers of Jesus, to give glory to His Father in Heaven. Submitted by Discipleship Committee, Diocese of Edmonton