We have been touched by notes from a number of people in response to the news of Elizabeth O'Connor's death. The impact of her life, her writings, her wisdom goes on and on. I quote a portion of a letter from one who left traditional ministry to create a retreat center:
We would never be here were it not for Elizabeth and Gordon and Mary [Cosby] and Wellspring. Thank you for your faithfulness. Call is so central and yet so lonely, so full of meaning. Neither of us had any idea how marginal these last 14 years would make us. We have teammates -- real blessed ones. And yet for so many we are "outside the gate."Many of the notes refer to what people have learned about God's call on their lives from Elizabeth. We have found that the process of understanding call and discovering our own particular call is central to the Christian journey. We are usually so muddled from our culture and our own personal wounds of living that we have a difficult struggle discerning just what it is God would have us do in the world.
Call has many facets and it is easy to be confused. Each area of our life can be lived in response to God's drawing us toward wholeness, towards the very heart of God as an expression of our deepest truest self. When one is committed to living life out of call, what might seem to be competing calls in one's life must be woven to create a unique tapestry drawing together the strands of uniqueness of each person as God has created us. Those threads include the past choices we have made and our growing understanding of our relationship with God, with ourself and with others.
From Cry Pain, Cry Hope by Elizabeth O'Connor
If imagination were to be exercised and visions were to become more common, we would hear much talk about call. As it is now, even in the church, it is not normal for people to speak about it. As a rule the church recognizes one call -- the call to the professional ministry. Whereas, if the church were true to herself, she would help all her people to discern and be faithful to call. In such an effort, however, institutions probably recognize a threat to their own structures... If church people begin listening to call, those we count on most will likely be off on some wild adventures of their own. Some of the tasks that we have depended on persons to do may not get done... Call more often than not is bound up with economic risks, and often does not seem very prudent to those looking on.In our last Newsletter, mention was made that Susan Morley and Don Russell will be leaving Wellspring and their ministry and employment here -- on "a wild adventure" of their own. It seems to me they are living out Elizabeth's words in a very graphic way. They are responding to a call from God to begin a new expression of the body of Christ in Northern Michigan. When Don first came over 20 years ago, he thought he would be here for a short while before going back to Michigan to share what he learned. When Susan came 5 years ago, leaving her pastorate in Canada to marry Don, she had no idea of ever leaving. But "imagination has been exercised and visions have been given" and Susan has been working with this new call for some time now. Don is making a commitment to enter into the call as well. We are all listening carefully in these transition months for how God would be with us -- the two who leave and the four who stay.
As we first began to work with God's call to Susan and Don, it certainly did not appear to be prudent -- for them or for those staying here! Fears about how the rest of us are impacted were very real. It would have been easy to slip into the mindset of the church that Elizabeth describes with fears that the work that Don and Susan have done in Wellspring won't get done. Those of us left will have to fill in all the gaps and work much too hard. Our structures as a mission group did indeed seem threatened! The sense of grief and loss over losing beloved ones overshadowed us as well.
We were called to prayer, to listening, to being open to new winds of the Spirit. There is no doubt that Janet, Carol, Gloria and I continue to be called to the mission of Wellspring. Over these months we've received confirmation of that call from our own hearts and from many who have communicated with us concerning the ways God has used their Wellspring experience as an important aspect of their journey. We are praying for others who might be called to join us in this mission. But even if no one hears that call, we are going to carry on.
For 1999, while we are in the transition time, we have cut back on the number of events we will offer. We have hired Janet Hudson to join Wellspring staff beginning with just a few hours per week. She will then have more time to carry out mission work. It may be that as we wait and pray a new shape for doing our mission will emerge.
These words from the Introduction to Cry Pain Cry Hope, seem appropriate for us now.
When we honor call in our lives, we honor it in the lives of others and of our institutions, for institutions -- like people -- journey by stages. They, too, must die to the old in order to be born to the new. The failure of an Institution to follow its commitment to creativity causes it to wither and die -- to become full of dead men's bones. A structure intended for the healing of the common life changes into a vehicle of oppression. Perhaps, when vocation becomes a more conscious consideration in our individual lives, it will become a more conscious consideration in our corporate life as the people of God called to freedom and creativity.-Myra Flood