Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)

An evening of eating, discussing, laughing, discerning, praying, etc.
with the GCF community

Thursday, February 17, 2011
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)

6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.
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Dear friends,
This week we will continue the conversation about singleness that we started last week. We’ll reflect together on what we heard from that discussion, and perhaps review some of the important themes that were highlighted by the four remarkably open and insightful reflections that opened the evening. Then we’ve invited Shannon Blake to share some of her thoughts, not only about her own experience of singleness, but also about some larger themes around the topic and some observations about how we might engage it in hopeful ways within the GCF community. We’ve specifically asked Shannon to consider how being part of the Sanctuary community ( http://sanctuarytoronto.ca/) has shaped her thinking about the ways we accept and support each other and ourselves.

We’ll also consider some biblical texts that can help inform our perspectives. In all of this, including our engagement with scripture, we want to wrestle with the task of finding balance amidst some of the tensions we named several times last week

between affirming and embracing who we are now
and longing for the person we would like
(or that we believe God has called us)
to become
between celebrating
grieving
and hoping
between our understanding of God and God’s work in the world
and what we see in our own and others’ lives
between the “desires of our hearts”
what we pray for and long for
and what actually happens

Please join us Thursday for dinner and the next part of this important discussion. And if you know of anyone else who needs to be part of this, please bring them along.

Shalom,
Geoff