Hearing the Call: A Path to Integration

There is a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

As I come to the end of what has been a completely joyful learning experience, I am feeling excited about what is on the horizon and somewhat sad as this phase comes to an end. My goal in writing this paper has been to integrate my studies at the Vancouver School of Theology within the tapestry of my life journey so far, a kind of spiritual autobiography that weaves a number of threads together as themes that have been present but often unrecognized at the time. I am grateful for this opportunity to reach back to pick up some of those loose strands and incorporate them into the larger fabric of who I am becoming and how I see the transformation that has taken place.

I have adapted the form of the lyric essay as a structure suited to the interwoven threads and interconnecting patterns of my story. This form feels not only authentic to me and my experience, but it also reflects the almost naïve position I now occupy as a theologian in understanding the fragments I have been shown and my effort to knit them into the beginnings of a whole cloth. It is not unlike the circularity of theological action-reflection in that it is an interplay of experience, cultural context and religious tradition to create meaning.

The paper continues — the full text is below.