In August 2017, seven people from around the Episcopal Diocese of Newark agreed to be videorecorded as they Dwelled on Luke 10:1-12. Watch and learn about this simple, ancient practice of listening deeply to God and one another.
It was at a meeting of St. Agnes’ in Little Falls’ Listening Excursion team that Deacon Deborah Drake suddenly got the idea for an experiment.
“I just came up with the slogan We Dwell, We Dwell – kind of hip hop, you know – and everybody liked it.” So Drake designed and ordered T-shirts from VistaPrint.com.
Ginger McArthur was part of the team that got St. Peter’s, Livingston started in the Going Local process in March 2015, but by that summer she had encountered a challenge that dampened her initial enthusiasm. “We were ‘dwelling’ on the same passage of Luke every time, and I didn’t get the point,” she said, referring to “Dwelling in the Word,” a practice in which a group focuses on the same passage of scripture for a period of time, to allow it to unfold itself to them.
I spent well over two decades, from the time I was confirmed until the day I took the job with the diocese, avoiding Bible study like the plague. Adult forum after Sunday service? “Oh, gee, I have to run – the [insert dependent pet or child] has [insert activity or ailment].” Or I'd just slide past the coffee hour table and slip out through the kitchen. I could not fathom sharing my (at best) Bible trivia knowledge and hoping it passed for real scriptural authority. Then I was introduced to one of the exercises that is at the root of the Going Local process, Dwelling in the Word.
