Presbyterian Mission Agency

A letter from Carolyn Weber in Ethiopia

Advent 2013

Grace and peace to you in the mighty name of our Savior Jesus Christ!

Standing in the Gore Chapel: IBS Acting DASSC Director who lived at the Gore Children’s Home; Evangelist Desalegn Gudeta, Carolyn’s former student; Pastor of the Gore Mekane Yesus Church; Carolyn; Mission Coworker Marilyn Hansen.

During Advent and throughout the year, the Benedictus voiced by John the Baptist’s father Zechariah in Luke 1:76-79 reminds us to both BE PREPARED to meet the Lord at any moment and also PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD, to open the way for Jesus to be known throughout the world. Twice weekly we read this at the Mekane Yesus Seminary English chapel service.

Recently my Spiritual Formation class viewed a video about this very topic and then discussed the presence of the Holy Spirit in Ethiopia’s Protestant church today.  Let me tell you the story of how this came to be.  In 2010 for our first Thanksgiving in Ethiopia, a mission delegation from Shenandoah Presbytery in Virginia brought a frozen turkey in their baggage for us to savor together at mission co-workers Rich and Marilyn Hansen’s home. While we dined Interim Executive Presbyter Randy Webb told us about the historic Gore revival of 1970.  Since hearing that story, a desire of my heart has been to visit Gore in southwest Ethiopia.  Then one year ago while sharing my Ethiopian mission with several Shenandoah Presbytery churches during Interpretation Assignment in the U.S., Dr. Bill Burslem gave me a video of Rev. Mershaa telling about that revival.

A letter from Carolyn Weber in Ethiopia

The 2011/2012 Spiritual Formation class. Worku Jebessa is the man in the back row with a blue shirt and white jacket.

August 2013

Dear Friends,

In January 2010, while preparing for my mission as a seminary instructor in Ethiopia, I had a chance conversation with Rev. Dr. Michael Parker, who was then serving as the mission specialist for worldwide evangelism and theological education, at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Ky.  Mike emphasized the importance of engaging the seminary students in conversations about the traditional spiritual practices of their ethnic groups.  We spoke about the Western scientific worldview that mostly rejects miracles and the personal presence of good and evil in the world.  Since then my second-semester spiritual formation students have written papers about the spiritual warfare in the traditional culture of their ethnic group and described how the power of Christ has overcome those forces. The students have given me permission to copy and/or publish their papers.  These will be shared occasionally throughout the year.

The Company of New Pastors 

Pastoral formation begins while still in seminary. Life-long habits developed and nurtured during seminary and through the first years of pastoral ministry can nurture good and faithful ministry across a lifetime. Company of New Pastors works to develop and maintain spiritual vitality, theological depth, personal integrity and social wisdom in new pastors. In community with ministerial colleagues under the guidance of wise mentors, these qualities can grow and flourish.

Through daily prayer, daily scripture reading and regular theological reflection, Company of New Pastors helps establish and nurture habits of theological reflection and spiritual …

Discover our tradition

Explore the Scriptures and Sacraments, confessions and catechisms, Reformed theology, Presbyterian worship, and spiritual formation. 

Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms are the way in which “the church declares to its members and to the world who and what it is, what it believes, and what it resolves to do” (Book of Order, F-2.01); this page provides links to other catechetical materials as well.

Invitation to Christ: Font and Table is a movement for sacramental renewal in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This 2006 study paper challenges congregations to engage the sacraments in fresh ways through theological reflection …

Hungryhearts

Thomas Merton: Contemplation in Action
by Terrence A. Taylor

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a member of a Roman Catholic monastic community that embraced silence, yet he spoke volumes about the most important spiritual issues of our day. He was an enormously complex man who sought silence, solitude and contemplation while at the same time living an active life that led him to friendships with hundreds of people scattered throughout the world.  Although his movement and communication was quite restricted for the 27 years that he was a member of the Cistercian order, he played a key role in shaping historical events by speaking out on important moral issues of his day. His leadership established him as a model for how people of faith from all walks of life can immerse themselves in a spirituality that will naturally give rise to concerns for their fellow human beings and for all of God's creation.

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A Glossary of Terms

Contemplation
Discernment
Piety
Spirituality
Spiritual Formation
Spiritual Guidance and Spiritual Direction

A History of Spiritual Formation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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Contemplation

The contemplative life is to "retain with all one's mind the love of God and neighbor but to rest from exterior motion and cleave only to the desire of the Maker"

—Gregory the Great (quoted in Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer. NY:
Image, 1971: 51)

Contemplative prayer is "the development of one's relationship with Christ to the point of communing beyond words, thoughts, feelings, and the multiplication of particular acts…" …

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What is Spiritual Formation?

According to the Office of Spiritual Formation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), "Spiritual formation is the activity of the Holy Spirit which molds our lives into the likeness of Jesus Christ. This likeness is one of deep intimacy with God and genuine compassion for …