Can I Get A Witness?

Hello Tablers. I’m not sure what that phrase “Can I get a witness?” brings to your mind, but in mine it’s synonymous with music, particularly with the “call and response” aspect of African/American music and what is sometimes identified as “gospel” music. It’s a call to, among other things, shared identity. “Is there anybody out there that can identify with me, with this idea, with this perspective?  Because if there is, I could use some company.”  When we share our personal stories in the context of community, one of the things that is happening is that we’re offering our experience up and inviting an engagement, a response.

This Sunday, Jane Penner is going to share some of her personal journey of spiritual exploration. Here’s what she has to say about where she’ll be headed:

As a very young, very outwardly emotional 20-year-old who was newly “born again”, I stood in front of a different version of this community and shared my story. It was a step I took in welcoming a new spiritual family into my life, and I want to take some time to do this again in this iteration of our life together. In some ways, I’m a little embarrassed that it’s taken this long to do it again. So think of this as part two. 

 

In this phase of my life, I’m pretty fortunate to have a job that supports my own learning as much as my students’ learning. I’m on the tail end of a research leave right now, having spent six-months investigating “best practices for teaching first-year information literacy”. Over the course of this leave, I’ve discovered that some of the questions I have about my spiritual life can be answered using the skills that I teach students to use. However, for the rest of them, further investigation is required. 

Looking forward to sharing this with you!

Thanks,

Jane 

I hope you can be there on Sunday. We could all use a witness…

An Important Detail:  We now have dates for our summer gatherings. We will begin meeting on Wednesday evenings starting on May 25. Our last Sunday gathering before the summer will be on May 15th. There will be no gathering on May 22nd.  At the other end of the of the summer, we will resume Sunday morning gatherings on September 11th. There will be no Wednesday gathering on September 7th. For more details, or just to be reminded, check the web site. As far as location goes, assume it’s staying the same unless informed otherwise. We’ll keep you posted.

Peace,

Tim