We use the word “formation” to name the fact that what we do when we engage our Christian faith isn’t simply an intellectual exercise, but a daily practice—one that takes place over a lifetime. We are formed into whom we are called to be as we study, pray, and live out our faith together.
In addition to Sunday worship services, we have an online daily Morning Prayer offering through Facebook Live. During the seasons of Advent and Lent, we hold contemplative Wednesday evening services in our Chapel. Our adult studies take the form of Sunday Forums, book groups, movie nights, and special offerings sponsored by various ministries.
Sunday Forums and Other Formation Opportunities
Advent 2025: Faith, Hope and Love are all in the Waiting
Advent is a season of waiting. We wait, and the waiting itself makes an empty place within for God to inhabit. This waiting is spurred on by a poignant honesty that God is not fully present in our lives and that we can’t think our way to God or force God’s arrival.
T.S. Eliot captured this Advent spirit in a passage from his great poem, “The Four Quartets.” He wrote:
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope.
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without love,
for love would be love of the wrong thing. There is yet faith,
but the faith and love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought.
So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness the dancing.
This coming Advent, St. Paul’s is offering three ways to engage in open, still, Advent waiting:
First, there is the Julian Quiet Day on December 6th from 10 to 4 p.m. at Good Shepherd Church, led by our interim associate rector, the Rev. Robert Fruehwirth. This day is almost fully subscribed; please write to Robert at robert@stpaulscary.org to see if places remain.
Second, Robert+ is also going to offer “Stillness Dancing,” a Sunday forum, Dec. 14 from 10:20 – 11 a.m. in the Chapel. In the midst of a busy holiday season, we will enjoy a period of contemplative silence, listening, and attention for God’s speaking in our lives, returning to the poetry of T.S. Eliot.
Finally, we are going to have Wednesday Eucharists this year at both noon and 7 p.m (the former in the church, the latter in the chapel). At each of the Eucharists, we will spend time praying together with the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, in structured listening for how God is speaking in us, and in each other, as we approach the Holy Incarnation of Jesus.
Please join us in this season of Advent.
Below you will find some of our other adult formation offerings, ranging from movie nights, book and Bible studies, as well as retreats. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the ministry contacts on this page. Learn more through our most recent adult formation news.
Other Adult Formation Offerings