Are you seeking a deepening spiritual connection at UUCUC? Join a Deep Listening Small Group!

Adult Faith Development is offering an expanded small group experience this year. Deep Listening Small Groups will utilize the Soul Matters curriculum to support spiritual deepening among people in our congregation. The curriculum aligns with our monthly worship themes and include readings, videos, songs, and spiritual practices that participants can chose from in order to engage deeply with the theme and engage in conversation across the congregation. During group meetings participants share their experiences, listen deeply, and discern how others’ experiences resonate with their own.

We are enthusiastic about this curriculum because of the opportunity it offers to personalize the material to the interests of each participant, while sharing spiritual experience in a small group. A participant can go as deeply into a practice as they wish based on the how they use each month’s information.

Groups which will meet for one two-hour session each month between October and June.

Why Join a Small Group?

Small groups are most fundamentally a means of offering sacred space to each other through the practice of deep listening. The process we use to run these Deep Listening groups differs from other types of small groups in that it helps participants experience the themes, not just talk about them.

Small groups weave the threads of spiritual connection through deep listening in three ways.

• First, by listening to each other, a gift not often offered in our culture. Most of the time we are talked at instead of listened to, so that we can lose the ability to hear our own voice.
• Second, by listening to our lives, which is not easy to do. Directly or indirectly, we are taught to see life as a challenge not a companion. The goal is to conquer it, not listen to it. Through spiritual practices and questions focused on our daily living, we engage the world not as an obstacle course to get through, but as a host of holy moments and voices calling us to greater loving and living.
• And finally, by listening to our deepest self. Introspection is often understood as solitary work, but this process views it as largely a gift given to us by others. Ironically, we often hear that “still, small voice inside” best when the voices of friends speak and offer their presence in a disciplined way.

Together these three sacred practices of listening—to each other, the world and our deepest self—add up to a more intentional and authentic life, a journey back to connection.

How are the small groups formed, and how do I sign up?

Apply online  or complete a printed application forms that can be downloaded or found on the Information Table in Fellowship Hall or on the door to Kelly's office. 

Applications are due by 5 p.m. Sunday, September 14. Groups of no more than 8-10 participants will be formed based on availability of participants and facilitators, with an eye to balancing warm companionship and diversity of perspective.

Groups meet in-person at the church or in a member's home. Arrangements for Zoom participation may be possible in the event of illness or travel. Some cohort groups based on similar identities may be available if there is sufficient interest. 

Be sure to mark your application to indicate all groups and times/dates you are open to, so that we can maximize options for your participation.

Confirmation and group assignments will be communicated by Friday September 19. Groups begin in early October.