Seminary Dean, Dr. Michael King, opens the EMS fall semester with his convocation address, “Spellbound: Present at the Big Bang.”

King writes:

In many ways, it seems to me, church is unraveling, whether at broad cultural or denominational levels or in the decline of our personal loyalties to faith communities or structures. Yet amazing weavings and reweavings unfold even within whatever is unraveling.

For example, any of us open to it are participating in the miracle of becoming ourselves as persons made in the image of God. This vision came to me as powerfully as it ever has through observing the process in my own granddaughter. She has been holding me spellbound as she teaches me that even the faintest gusts of love or laughter, of dismissal or devaluation, have amazing power to form or deform.

As I watch the formation of my granddaughter, I marvel at the miracle of weaving which unfolds as we’re formed by each other, God, and our growth in self-understanding. In light of that, I want to ask how, in both simple yet primal ways, theological/formational training and our lives in community with each other contribute to our being formed as the selves God
invites us to be.