WORKING GROUP NEWS

Prayerful Voice Working Group – Why Bother?
Submitted by Susan Troy

Parish Voice National has held several regional conference calls with VOTF affiliate leadership in the past several months which focused on the role of Prayerful Voice in the life of VOTF. It was a wonderful opportunity for dialogue and discussion. The following was written to address many of the issues and questions raised during the series of conference calls. Let us continue to talk and to grow.

VOTF as an organization began in a church basement. Almost immediately VOTF began developing and organizing around the concept of “working groups.” These working groups reflected the varied interests of VOTF members, and the need to focus on several goals simultaneously. One of the first working groups formed was Prayerful Voice. Prayerful Voice grew out of the understanding of many that the work of VOTF must be grounded in prayer, that VOTF was a grass roots movement of the Holy Spirit. The first fruit of Prayerful Voice was the VOTF Opening Prayer. Composed very early in our existence to be used one night to open the VOTF gathering, it quickly became the prayer of VOTF. (Link to prayer) The prayer proclaimed our mission, our desires, and our identity as the Body of Christ. It is particularly compelling to hear these words prayed all over the country, all over the world. Prayer linking us as it should, and especially, prayer continuing to ground us in our Spirit filled origins.

The development of a Prayerful Voice working group should be a priority for every affiliate. Affiliates come into being in response to many calls, in response to the voices of survivors calling for justice, in response to a deep love of church calling for reform, in response to a faith challenged but calling out in hope. However, it is the VOTF mission statement that is central to who we are and what we wish to be…. “a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit.” This is our first calling. We realize that unless we are deeply grounded in prayer and in our faith, we will not succeed. Prayer must always be at the center. The first years of our existence have reinforced this truth for us. VOTF President, Jim Post, put it most profoundly when he spoke to hundreds of VOTF members gathered for a Mass of Rededication and Reconciliation marking the one year anniversary of our existence. After the moving liturgy Jim said what was in all our hearts….”VOTF is at its very best when it is at prayer together.”

The existence of a Prayerful Voice working group helps to ground each affiliate in the true strength of our movement. A Prayerful Voice working group becomes a sign and symbol of each affiliate’s commitment to be a “prayerful voice attentive to the Spirit.” We are a faith of sign and symbol, it is important to carry forth that tradition in our local affiliates. This is the foundation of any affiliate. As within any grass roots movement, beginnings are small. Most working groups start as one or two people who take the responsibility of overseeing attention to a specific part of the VOTF mission. We always know that our work is in partnership with the Spirit and therefore we will be fruitful, although the timetable may vary widely.

There are many ways in which the Prayerful Voice working group enhances the work and nature of a VOTF affiliate. Prayerful Voice helps us all to refocus on prayer in the midst of the many constraints on time and energy within our work. Prayerful Voice helps to remind us of our grounding in faith, our role as brothers and sisters in Christ, disciples and pilgrims on the path. Perhaps this is done through opening and closing prayer, perhaps through a comment during discussion, or the development of a liturgy or prayer service that helps us all focus on the truth of our movement. On the VOTF website there is a link to Prayerful Voice where any member can find many prayerful resources developed by VOTF for use by affiliates; a healing liturgy, a retreat for renewal of VOTF discipleship and leadership, a template for a day of fasting and prayer. These are all meant to be food for our journey. There are many more wonderful examples of attention of prayer within our movement, and it is a goal of national Prayerful Voice in its website (go to the Prayerful Voice directory at www.votf.org) to be a means of sharing these faith filled stories. This is our true strength.

The history of our church and the history of our faith is a history of individual faith embodied in faith-filled community, a “lay spirituality.” We are used to hearing ourselves identified as “the laity,” as an entity apart from the church. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our very faith is a “lay” movement. Jesus of Nazareth was not a priest of the temple, but a faith-filled lay person, as were all his followers, disciples, apostles. Many of the great movements in the history of our church and faith were “lay” movements. Both the ascetic and monastic movements were lay movements. They were movements of reform of the growing institutional church and accompanying faith, which seemed to have developed far from its roots in the gospels, in the life and proclamations of Jesus Christ. Important lay movements were also accompanied by important spiritualities; for example Benedict and his Rule, Ignatius and his Spiritual Exercises. This is why there was a lasting and profound impact, because these were movements first and foremost of faith and prayer. As a lay movement of the Spirit, VOTF needs to begin to articulate the emerging lay spirituality we are embodying and witnessing. We need to name our experience so that our faith and spirituality can further invigorate and sustain us as individuals and as an organization. This is one of the goals of Prayerful Voice, to begin to articulate what we understand as our spirituality in the face of the tremendous changes in our lives of faith as we confront the terrible realities of our time in the history of our church.

It is the hope that all Prayerful Voice working groups can be in communication through whatever means are available or evolve…the website, e-mail, regional conferences, and shared stories. The first priority, however, is the formation of a Prayerful Voice working group in every affiliate, to be sign and symbol of our commitment to our mission statement, and to invigorate us on the way!

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