On Spirituality

What does spirituality mean to you?

What is that elusive thing we refer to as 'spirituality'?
That was the subject of a phone conversation I had with a friend today. Arrington was once a community organizer, now an Episcopal priest. Before she was ordained she spent about a year interviewing 150 young adults and asking them, 'what do you long for?' and 'what is spirituality to you?'
Their answers were intriguing, wide-ranging but had many commonalities. I wonder if you can guess what matters to young people? *

She took her learnings from these interviews and formed a leadership team of young adults. They were from different socio-economic groups, ethnicities, and educational backgrounds. She asked them to commit a another year to being together in weekly groups - let's call it the kind of 'new monasticism' I wrote about a few days ago. I am so intrigued by her model - both what worked and what did not - that I intend to bring both she and one of her colleagues here to work with a group of young adults here on the Peninsula.

* They said they want their lives to have a meaning that their work and other rountines were missing. They said they want to make a difference in the world - and they believe they can. They said they wish they were part of an intentional community (her words for what they expressed), a group of people who they could learn from, feel committed to and who would be committed to them. In the years that followed, as the groups developed, they said that these groups and the work they did in the community, were the very best parts of their week.