Friends, it’s already been an intense year– severe storms of a pandemic and America’s racial reckoning have kicked up and are not done yet.  And here comes our election season, and this storm will be very intense for the next couple of months while the other two keep blowing.  Still, brothers and sisters, I am very excited and I am very energized by how Coracle will serve you and the church through November.  Yes, we are ready for this.  

Our vision for this fall is “Anchors in the Storm”.  If you want to hear what that sounds like, click here and crank up the volume.  As we confront this fall directly, we feel clear, confident, and committed to serving you well, all because of Jesus Christ and with God’s help.

As we have conscientiously engaged the pandemic and racial conversations over the past 5 months, we’re going to do two things this fall:  We’re going to engage the election head-on to help us think Christianly and live Christianly, AND we are going to dive deeper into God.  

We want to do these things with you and whoever else would be served by this vision.  Invite them.

Staying close to God matters the most in the coming season (as it always does, of course).  To help us do that, starting on Tuesday, Sept. 8 we will start offering a weekly “Space for God”, a half-hour every Tuesday morning set apart to encounter God and experience new spiritual practices that we can use whenever.  

Each week we’ll carve out this little space together, and offer different ways of being with God, often from a contemplative posture.  AND, very importantly, at least 10 of those minutes will be for an encounter with God however he wants to meet each of us.  Register for the first one here; I’ll be leading us in “Praying for Your New Season.”  Coracle is about Spiritual Formation, and that includes praying.

Starting September 17, we will launch our “Christian Discipleship and the 2020 Election” initiative.  Through this series of Soundings Seminars, written pieces, spaces for important conversations, a reading group on a great book, and prayer and worship, we want to think about about this election through the lens of the lordship of Christ and the Kingdom of God, and we want to help us stay tethered to Christlike character and behavior in the midst of what feels to be an unusually critical presidential election.  

Email us if your organization wants to partner on any of these offerings (see below).  We’re not going to tell anyone how to vote, but we will definitely be addressing things that will help us think about how to exercise this mighty privilege we have as American citizens who are first-and-foremost Christians.  Coracle is about Kingdom Action, and that includes civic responsibility.

This fall, we’re going to keep our eyes on the important moment of racial engagement that we’re in as a church and nation.  We’re going to continue deepening our Coracle Community and inviting others in.  We’re starting the Coracle Fellowship in Baltimore and keeping the one at Corhaven going.  Spiritual Direction will continue, and Corhaven has reopened for personal retreatants.  

You can see our full set of fall offerings below; we hope you’ll add a few things to your calendar!

Jesus said, “Be not afraid.” (Mt. 14.27)    We’re not.   We’re ready, precisely because of that same, awesome Jesus. 

On the (wild) journey,  Bill