What is The Academy for Spiritual Formation?
a-cad-e-my: n. [L academia fr. Gk Akademeia] A center for specialized learning and experience.
The Academy for Spiritual Formation is a covenant learning environment which combines academic learning and experience in spiritual disciplines. Participants meet in residence for 5 days each calendar quarter.
The Academy for Spiritual Formation recognizes that the Holy Spirit is the enabling power in all Christian spiritual formation. It is designed to provide a setting where a spiritually disciplined community of lay and clergy can open their lives to receive God’s love and grace so that they increasingly may become spiritual leaven within the Body of Christ.
A typical schedule for each residence period includes two prayer services each day (Morning Prayer and Night Prayer); Eucharistic Celebrations (combined with Evening Prayer); Silence; Covenant Group Meetings; morning and afternoon curriculum sessions; and spiritual reading. Participants typically participate in between residence periods in such activities as journaling; physical fitness; reading of assigned texts; and a project for ministry in spiritual formation.
What is the Purpose of the Academy?
The purpose of The Academy is . . .
• To provide a setting in which lay and clergy persons can enhance their sense of call to follow Christ and serve the church and the world.
• To provide for participants an in-depth and comprehensive experience in spiritual formation.
• To educate participants in the history and development of the Christian spiritual life.
• To encourage participants to live out their call through the recovery of the disciplines of daily prayer and the ongoing participation in personal and group spiritual guidance.
Who Should Participate?
The Academy for Spiritual Formation is open to lay and clergy persons who want to be a part of a community of seekers who learn the spiritual traditions of the church, are open to God’s spirit in new ways, and who wish to be further formed for Christian living and ministry.
The Academy is ecumenical and inclusive. It is open to all persons who are seeking God and wish to grow in Christian community with others. Members of ethnic minorities and persons with handicapping conditions are encouraged to apply.