Dear Friends,
Warm and sincere thanks to all who participated in the Diocese of Long Island's 2nd annual Faith Formation Convocation. As I said Saturday in beginning the day, in the church when you have done something more than once it becomes a tradition. And so it is!
James DeWolf Perry, executive director of the Tracing Center, provided us a profoundly engaging and thought-provoking address and discussion on the issues of race, racism, division among us, that we have carried - and do carry - as a people for our entire national history. The voices of participants of various races from around the world confirmed that we humans divide ourselves from one another all too easily. I think everyone agreed that this conversation should continue among us here in the diocese.
I hope as well that we have begun to realize that our formation in faith is more than the learning we do as children, more than our necessary engagement with the church's teachings on Scripture, the nature of God, the person of Christ, or our understanding of the church. Faith formation actively and earnestly invites us to allow our identity as disciples of Christ to interact powerfully with every aspect of what it means to live a human life. Among these, as we discovered or redicovered on Saturday, are questions of race. To rule out anything from engagement with our faith is to weaken both our faith and our experience of living life.
We were graced as well with marvelous workshop presenters from near and far. Purposefully we began to pay more attention to questions of spirituality - both its expression and its strengthening. We are enormously grateful to our presenters, to our exhibitors, to our volunteers, to the great staff of Mercer School, and to the members of our Faith Formation Team.
Be sure to check out our online calendar often through the Mercer School website (www.mercerschool.org) to see what trouble we'll be making next.
Wishing you all the blessings of this Easter season,
John McGinty+
Canon for Formation
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