Hi Friend,

Perhaps this phrase, "interwoven ministries", might be able to express something that I've been experiencing and noticing amongst clients and students for many years now.

If I share with you a tentative definition (afterall, I'm the one making it up), might you see yourself in it?

First some background - especially around this term "minister" and "ministries".

In the Quaker tradition that I grew up in, we use the terms "minister" and "elder" very differently than in many other Christian communities.

The core theology (which I still hold as 'as true as I know') is that 'there is that of God in every person'.

Therefore: every person can be a minister. At any moment. One does not have to go to Seminary. Or be in a designated professional position. God speaks to all of us, and all of us can be nudged by God to speak during Worship.

As they say, "Quakers saw that everyone was a minister... and in so doing they got rid of the laity".

Any person thus might be called upon to offer "vocal ministry" on a Sunday morning during meeting for Worship. They might also have a kind of a "'ministry" in their vocation. This may or may not be paid. Whatever job/profession they may find for themselves, the hope is that they will do little/no harm in that profession and that they will "answer to that of God in everyone", regardless of where they may find themselves.

I love this basic theology of ministry - that ministry is something both within and outside of formal sacred spaces; that one's work can be but does not have to be a form of ministry; and the recognition, though not always, in effect, what people lean into, that ministry can happen anywhere, at any time.

It also means that discernment is one of the most critical aspects: is that nudge you feel inside of you the Holy Spirit? Or is it something else?

At its best, this theology opens wide the gates of the Church and lets the pre-existing movements of the Spirit find itself expressed in immense diversity.

As some of you know, I've struggled myself with my own call to ministry. My call eventually led me to Seminary (somewhat to my own confusion) and to launching this ecotheology initiative, Sequoia Samanvaya. I've taken quite a different path of ministry than many of my fellow Quakers... but that's a topic for another time.

What I want to lean into, here, is how often I encounter people who are, effectively, acting as "ministers" in the work that they are doing in the world.

(I'm not trying to impose a Christian term onto people who might not be Christian - but it is the term I know best.)

Many of you have felt and continue to feel, in various ways, a Call. A holy nudge.

Maybe it feels like it is coming from Earth, Herself.

Maybe it's a voice hovering just behind your ear.

Maybe it's a deep somatic knowing.

Many of you felt a pull to some version of Seminary/formal religious study. Some of you did that. Some of you did not. Many of you have found many spiritual teachers, and many pathways, to help you attune your listening - to your own path, as well as to the work you are (ad)ministering in the world.

To all of you I want to say: I see you.

I know it's not easy.

Often in "the world" (including in explicitly religious worlds!) discerning the movement of the spirit is not easy.

And your clients/bosses/colleagues/collaborators might not always be sure how to navigate the gray spaces between the mystical real-ness of reality and the professional 'this is how things are done': between kairos and chronos; strategy and being led by spirit; anticipation and trouble-shooting; between ecstasy and the messy everyday sacred muck of the world.

I've wondered about different terms to call this.

"Spiritual activists" don't work for a lot of people (though it's perfect for some). "Everyday Mystics" is super cool, and it's closer, but it's not quite what I'm trying to get at. There's "spiritual entrepreneurs" - a phrase I like, though I think I massively disagree with much of how it's being used - a weird kind of prosperity gospel (basically - bad theology) out there.

Many years ago, when I was in the midst of Seminary and deep into my eco-theology quest, attending the Paris Climate COP, a Quaker elder shared with me, after some silent worship, that the message she had gotten for me was that I am "interwoven."

I've cradled that word for many years. Like the best potions, it has come to have many meanings for myself and for the work I do. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, a dear friend also created a company, initially in the sustainable fashion space, that used that word as well!)

Interwoven: yes.

Amongst the many meanings of that word, it kinda-fits what I see in some of you: that you recognize your own part-icipation.

You see - deep in yourself as well as in life around you - the inherent interconnection of all of life and of all beings.

part of your role is to bring the deeper questions (ethical, nuanced, spiritual, multi-dimensional) to the people, teams, institutions, neighborhoods, children.... with whom you engage.

Perhaps: you too might resonate with being interwoven.

Does that resonate for you at all?

Blessings on your comings and your goings, your pattern-making... and your untanglings.

- Sara Jolena

ps - Appreciation for the appreciations coming in after both the ReMembering Informational webinar that we did and the Mother Law course (which you can still join ).