Six CCS students are entering their final year of the Diaconal Ministries program (aka the Integration Year). Following the national DUCC gathering in Kelowna, they retreated to the Naramata Centre for their fall learning circle, September 19-24, with CCS Program Staff facilitator Marcie Gibson and chaplain Liz Bowyer.

The fall Integration circle is about …well, integration! Students revisited many of the big questions that they first began their theological education with: Who is God? (as Creator, as Christ, as Spirit, and more), Who are we? (theologies of humanity, right relations, creation, ecclesiology, and polity), and What are we called to do? (missiology, organizational change, ministry tasks and pastoral relationships, and building an intentional community of learners for the year ahead). By coming back to these topics again after their years of study and practice, students were able to integrate their learning and understanding with their ministry identity and the context of their future work.

“I feel confident and ready heading into IY,” says Kim Inglis. “This has been a beautiful place to get to know my fellow students in.”

Every Integration Year cohort is a newly formed learning community. Although many of this year’s IY students have overlapped with each other in previous learning circles, some have taken a circuitous path, balancing their studies with employment, caregiving or parenting, travel, or concentrating on other aspects of their formation. “The group worked well together,” says CCS Program Staff Marcie Gibson. “There was a depth of conversation and this space lends itself to community building.”

Being in the beautiful setting of the Naramata Centre, allowed space to go walking at break times, sit in the stunning chapel, or take a rest in between the lively and fulsome learning sessions. Jamie Miller described the circle as one of the chillest she’s been to. “It was so relaxing and demanding at the same time.” Ally Phillips adds that it was great to live and work and eat together all week. Meghan Gilholm agrees: “It has been a good kickoff to the Integration Year, getting to know each other, laughing together and living in community.”

Over the summer, students discerned and crafted individual learning plans for the year ahead. During this fall circle, they shared their plans with each other, to benefit from peer feedback and to invite collaboration and accountability over the coming months.

“Naramata has been a beautiful and centring place for us to explore where we have come from in our CCS journey and where we are going the next year,” says Allison Abuloc, who attended the learning circle with her baby (and her mom for extra childcare).

Members of DUCC appreciated the presence of the CCS students at their national gathering prior to the circle. The IY group was blessed to be accompanied by Diaconal Minister and Naramata-local Liz Bowyer. Liz described the week as “mutual hospitality.”

Sarah Williams compares the learning circle at Naramata to “an off-world Star Trek vacation, where we are in this beautiful setting and everyone is happy. The circle was informative and I feel more connected to the Diakonia of the United Church.” She gathered her IY musings into this poem:

Heart flowers
fairy mushrooms
and
baby gurgles
flicker across the patterns of my heart

While foamy waves and sandy shores
trace  pathways within my 
cerebral cortex.

A moonlit sky, lush valley floor
and rumpled clothes
scatter this emerging landscape

And I consider
How did we land here?
Integrating identity and sacred tradition.

Becoming more than we are,
Together in community.