Writing for the Pastoral Life: Strange Gift, Long Journey, Bright Star with Maren C. Tirabassi

We write… and write, and write… right? Writing is a constant part of congregational ministry and this week-long intensive writing experience will sharpen skills and expand imagination in the familiar forms—sermon preparation, liturgy for page or projection, agendas, online communication from blog to tweet—and investigate creative writing for ministry—from flash fiction to slam poetry.

Participants will bring a piece of finished work, respond to many short on-site exercises focused on the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany seasons, and develop a longer project during the week.

Morning sessions will present one theme in three aspects: clergyperson as writer for the congregational context; as facilitator of the writing of others; as independent writer. Afternoons will begin with renewal and writing time, followed by a workshop of mutual reflection on participants’ writing and discussion of the personal aspects of writing—anything from identifying a positive time and place to write, to choosing the right friend/editor to critique fledgling work.

Evenings will offer free time, more writing time, opportunities to meet with workshop facilitator Maren Tirabassi about writing projects and publication possibilities, and a half-hour play-shop with a specific focus, such as “humor in worship.” Our last evening will include a coffee house.

Maren C. Tirabassi is the author of eighteen books, most published by Pilgrim Press, including the recent From the Psalms to the Cloud – Connecting to the Digital Age (with Maria Mankin), and her personal favorite Caring for Ourselves while Caring for Our Elders (with Maria Tirabassi Mankin and psychotherapist Leanne McCall Tigert). Holiday fiction and new this year, is The Shakespeare Reader and Other Christmas Tales. She maintains the global worship blog Gifts in Open Hands at: http://giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com.

Maren has been a pastor for 34 years (intentionally bi-vocational with the writing ministry for the last 20) and currently serves at Union United Church of Christ in Madbury, New Hampshire. Maren leads workshops on creative worship and liturgical writing, memoir, poetry, eldercare, and youth ministry in a range of settings from recovery groups to senior centers, correctional facilities to ESL classes. She lives with Don Tirabassi and Willie the beagle in Portsmouth and loves hiking, swimming, reading, quilting, and writing science fiction and fantasy for fun.

Application Process:

There will be a $400 registration fee for this workshop.The application deadline for this workshop has passed.

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