Becoming a Church of Contemplatives in Action

An inspiring movement is afoot in the United Church of Christ.

In 2021, I partnered with clergy colleagues to do something that I never imagined I’d do: write and pass a denominational resolution. I’ve never been one for denominational church business. I understand that it’s necessary but usually, I just find it really boring and often detached from the thankless yet beautiful work of local church ministry. But in 2017 and 2019, I served as one of many delegates from Massachusetts to what’s called in my denomination (United Church of Christ or “UCC”) “General Synod.” That’s an old-school word that means something like “official church gathering. Skeptical, but still earnest and open-hearted, I traveled to Baltimore and Milwaukee, respectively, to gather with thousands of UCC’ers to worship and deliberate national church business. My colleagues kindly engaged with my questions about what good church business and denominational resolutions do, and I blogged about it.

For those tracking this monthly newsletter, for March I’m taking off from writing about the book of Revelation to bring you a denominational story of which I’m excited to play a part. This newsletter in current form is an amble through the most (arguably, there are others that compete) disturbing biblical book of the Bible, Revelation. Even after a year and half, I’ve only made it to chapter 8—and I’m having a blast. I love the Bible’s unabashed weirdness, enjoy struggling with the parts that offend me, reading widely, and discovering inspiration where I least expect it. I hope you are finding it meaningful, too. I have an essay in mind about Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and Revelation 8:1, and I just couldn’t pull it off this month to write it. So, I’m hoping to bring that to you in April, and in the meantime, would like to share a project I’ve been involved with for several years. This is fresh on my mind because two colleagues and I recently led the UCC’s “Thursdays for the Soul” presentation.

My experience at the UCC’s General Synod brought me deeper into church denominational life, but from the side. You probably won’t find me sitting on a UCC board of directors, but through partnering with like-spirited contemplative seekers, I’ve found a way to contribute that has been truly enlivening for me, and I hope, beneficial for the larger church.

In good, UCC, congregational form, the “Becoming a Church of Contemplatives in Action” resolution developed through grassroots effort. During my first General Synod, I found myself stirred by my denomination’s activism, the worship services, the passionate preaching, the community building and networking—but by day three I was overwhelmed, tired, and needed space to breathe, pray, and attend to my inner life. I retreated to my hotel room a lot to sit in silence or, admittedly, just watch TV. Or I sat down, cross-legged, in quasi-quiet corners of random rooms to grab a few deep breaths before the next thing. I had agreed to blog a couple of times for the Massachusetts delegation and share about my experience. I wrote honestly about the tension of seeking a contemplative life and rhythm during General Synod.

Another clergy colleague from Massachusetts, Matt Carriker (founder of this wonderful church community) did the same. We discovered that our experiences were remarkably similar and began a conversation about the need for contemplation amidst our denomination’s robust activism. Thinking constructively, towards the end of Synod, we did a “Shout-Out” (which is when you go to the mic in front of the whole Synod and give a plug for your event, cause, or idea) about creating a space for contemplative prayer at the next Synod in 2019. We didn’t think much of it at the time, but several people gave us their contact cards and said they were interested in exploring the idea.

It worked. In 2019, the General Synod planning group provided us a conference room to create contemplative programming. Each day, we rotated leadership to offer some type of contemplative practice, whether a silent meditation sit, mindful breathing, or conscious movement. A small and grateful group gathered each time; we made some new friends, collected names and emails, and said we’d keep in touch.

The eventual resolution simply emerged from that experience. Each person we talked to at the Synod prayer space shared our conviction that our church needs the spiritual depth, formation, and grounding of contemplative practices and the wider contemplation traditions. Matt and I continued our conversation and decided to write a Synod resolution that would lift up the importance of contemplation for our denomination, serving as a pastoral reminder that if our activism for justice is not saturated in the life of prayer, it will not last. To quote the too-often used but still true line from Ghandi: We must also be the change we wish to see in the world.

After all, as we wrote, contemplation is embodied in Jesus’ ministry: “Jesus’ public witness of creating inclusive community, exemplifying self-giving love and service, forming disciples, engaging in peacemaking and nonviolent resistance to the powers that be all were made possible because of his prayerful “union with the Father.”” Throughout the Gospels, Jesus can be found stealing away from the crowds for times to pray and nurture his Divine-Father-Connection. His public movement is launched first by a forty-day solo vision quest of testing in the desert, and so on (p.s., if you want to learn more about my take on the Bible’s resources for contemplation check out my chapter in this book).

Here are some practical specifics about how the resolution took shape: Matt drafted the initial resolution and we edited it back and forth. We sought feedback from a clergy group that gathered to support the process. We recruited local congregations in our networks to sponsor it. Each congregation we talked to shared interest and support. Thirteen local churches joined us sponsoring the resolution, from Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Vermont. After Matt and another representative, Denson Staples, introduced the resolution at the General Synod in 2021, it passed with a 93% vote in favor.

I worked on this resolution because I hoped it could spark a conversation in the wider church. Because in truth, my first experience at that 2017 Synod simply reflected my broader experience in the denomination: inspiring for social justice witness, sorely lacking in inner transformation.

I’ve had conversation after conversation with clergy colleagues who have gone elsewhere, outside of our denominational tradition, resources, and circles, to deepen their spiritual lives. Whether through the Center for Action and Contemplation (my workplace), or Wisdom Schools with Cynthia Bourgeault, or Matthew Fox’s many books, or retreats at monasteries, or spiritual direction, many of my clergy friends have looked elsewhere to find the inner resources they need just to survive in ministry. What’s more is that the laity are doing the same: people in the pews are practicing Centering Prayer, chanting Psalms, doing yoga and mindful dance, going on silent retreats and pilgrimages, learning about embodied healing as a response to trauma, and, for the sturdy of heart, discovering the great stream of Christian mystical writers. The doorway to Christianity’s greatest treasures, the mystical stream of the tradition, is opened and now, as I wrote here, contemplation is for everybody! Everybody who desires to meet God more deeply, that is.

The paradox is that on Sundays, with some exceptions, worship services in the UCC look much the same as they always have. There is a great spiritual thirst out there that so many of us share—and the regular hymns, preaching, and prayers of our liturgies just don’t meet the need—and, more and more, they aren’t enough to sustain us. A larger reservoir of depth, tradition, experience, and wisdom is needed and is there for us in the wider streams of the church as a resource and possibility for renewal.

I believe the UCC ignores this trend at the risk of its own spiritual health. Put another way, I’m convinced our future theological, cultural, and spiritual health as a denomination depends upon contemplation. The activist part of ourselves needs the contemplative part for sustenance, soul-resilience, and depth. And the contemplative part needs the activist part for mission, movements and public witness. We work together as one body. The UCC’s Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries, Rev. Traci Blackmon, preaching at the 2019 General Synod (around 1 hour and 47 mins in), put it this way: “The reason we’re having so much trouble with the work out there is because we haven’t done the work in here. . . .Jesus is not just asking us to be courageous. . . Jesus is asking us to be transformed. . . from the inside out.”

The same grassroots energy and spirit before and around the resolution has continued in the ensuing year. A working group has formed to network and plan further for how this resolution can be implemented in local church settings (if you’re a UCC clergy or laity, respond to this email and I can connect you). My prayer is that a movement from the Holy Spirit might be afoot to transform our individual and collective lives in the UCC. Could it be so? Of course it could! May it be so.

Photo credit: Maik Fischer on Unsplash