"Let it be with me according to your word." Luke 1:38
The Annunciation, Mary's awesome moment of assent to God, has stirred the hearts of numerous artists and composers throughout history. This life-altering encounter lifts our thoughts as we ponder a bit of 'heaven' breaking into the midst of our own earthly lives. In touching us, it brings compassion and hope. It awakens our imagination and we are transported. It reaches across religious, societal and cultural traditions to the core of a universal yearning for something more to life. In considering Mary's "Yes," we too are moved to embody in our own lives the grace and truth it reveals.
Living Water Anchorage is called to inspire the engagement of life with hope, compassion and imagination as we open up to the living water that animates and transfigures the very fabric of life, making all things new. Although held in the love of Christ, all are welcome to this anchor of hope in times of joy and suffering. Gently standing as a sign and symbol of the grace and truth that is with us always and ever, Living Water Anchorage stirs our imagination and fosters a living faith in that which is seen and unseen. This mission is a refuge for people who are opening up to the reality of their own lives and the grace and truth revealed in them. With humor, acceptance and understanding, its genuineness supports people to be real and to live out their true gifts and callings for the life of the world.
Living Water Anchorage encourages engaging life with hope, compassion and imagination revealing the grace and truth that is in, through, under and beyond all things. Together with companions along the way, people are invited to face both the light and dark times of their lives receptive to the grace and truth opened up through them. This genuine and compassionate look at what is real is furthered with honest reflection and sharing made possible with humor, acceptance and love. Through a contemplative and creative approach and informal and intimate relationships, people are enabled to engage life newly.
While held in the love of Christ, Living Water Anchorage welcomes people within and across faith traditions or who have no religious practice, spiritual belief or affiliation. It is attractive to people who when in transition or standing at the edges of society and culture yearn for a deeper connection to life that is more fruitful and meaningful. It calls out to the part of all of us that exists outside the mainstream reality having been touched by brokenness and/or glimpsed the "More." It beckons those aspects of our lives that have been disrupted, upended or otherwise altered by the impacts of trauma or other life-changing situations. It offers individuals, groups and communities a haven of time, space and companionship along the way to engaging life anew through these experiences.
Living Water Anchorage's inspires a more compassionate, hopeful and imaginative engagement of life that is open to the Spirit. This is fertile ground for new perspectives, vision and ways of being both individually and in community that bring new life now in the grace and truth of what is to come.
For more information on Living Water Anchorage, contact the Mission Developer by email at spirit@advent-lutheran.org or by telephone at 408-779-3551. Check Advent's Comprehensive Calendar of Events for upcoming opportunities to engage in this mission.