Being With at Christ Church

By Zeina Daoud, Christ Church Parishioner

“What if our real human problem is isolation?” wonders Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, creator of the Being With program. If we think the problem is isolation, what we need is all around us: it’s all about relationships. And how we connect with God is through our connection with others. 

A group of about 10 of us joined the Christ Church inaugural session of Being With this past fall and met once a week for 10 weeks to share our own stories, thoughts, and feelings, in response to structured “Wondering” prompts and chosen Readings from a variety of texts. We grew closer in our knowledge of each other, and ultimately our knowledge of ourselves and of our relationship with God. Our group was co-led by Rev. Claire and Alice Kochunov, minister for Adult Formation, who both trained to lead Being With programs. The rest of us were welcome as we are, with no need for prior knowledge, no homework assignments, just a simple willingness to be present with and listen to others' stories and reflections, and if so moved, to share what we know, think, or feel. The program structure calls for listening to each other intently with no response during the “Wondering” and Reading reflections time. Then we ended the session with open time for responses, exchange, support. It resulted in a very inclusive and safe group, with no judgement, all opinions/reactions, agreements/disagreements being welcome, and a strong sense of acceptance.

We appreciated the opportunity to get to know each other in new and meaningful ways, and to think more deeply about our own experiences through questions we may not have wondered about before (“Tell of a time when you were truly free”).

Future sessions of Being With are planned at Christ Church, so if you are interested, please contact Rev. Claire at claire@ccla.us.