Join the grassroots movement tilling the soil for spiritual planting
Resources & Research
“We spent 2024 visiting Deaneries across our Diocese to ask about current faith formation needs. Universally, people said they want to be more relaxed when talking about their faith…People asked for something to help them connect positively about spiritual things with people in the wider community without a Church background,” says Fiona Hammond from FormEDFaith, as she introduces exciting new resources ahead of the Hope25 season
It’s the 2000s and in a State High School — enter the volunteer Religious Education (RE) teacher. Tough gig. Tough because the RE teachers were all Christian. They didn’t know what our students didn’t know. Tough because when asked, “Are you a spiritual person?”, 99 percent ticked the “No” box.
Common verbal responses were “No way!” and “What?” Informed responses included “Why would I believe in an old man in the sky making bad stuff happen to good people?” and “What, Jesus and God and stuff, nah…what about the dinosaurs? They disprove God, don’t they?” (That’s a direct quote from a Year 9er)
The river between many of these kids and any faith adventure was very wide, and the job of building bridges often sobering and huge.
Turns out we needed to get off the bank into the water and build steppingstones across that river. Any bridge building would have to wait.
So, the volunteer RE teacher, Jonathan Sargeant, and the team built a two-year (eight-term) project for senior students. Each term had a theme with questions that encouraged students to dig deep and share their stories. This class was named “Spirituality”, not “Religion”. Dialogue was encouraged and monologues excised. Together, a language of the spirit emerged that we could all use to explore faith.
Cut to 2024, and to the intrepid Diocesan FormEdFaith team — Jonathan and myself. Our new conversation project, innerVIVID, has its roots in that tough teaching gig.
We spent 2024 visiting Deaneries across our Diocese to ask about current faith formation needs. Universally, people said they want to be more relaxed when talking about their faith. People said that the vocab of spiritual things is a bit rusty, and many are shy about discussing their own personal faith experiences.
People asked for something to help them connect positively about spiritual things with people in the wider community without a Church background.
This sounded familiar!
This time, the stepping stones are the innerVIVID project. It currently has two parts — the innerVIVID online video series and the ASKaround conversation-starter decks.
The premise behind the development of these two key resources is simple.
We reckon that most humans recognise there is more to the world than meets the eye, yet the language of spirituality has fallen out of common use. The central idea of innerVIVID is this — create space and allow time for conversations about shared human ideas, and people are more likely to lean into the idea that spirituality just might be real. Some would call this “pre-evangelism”, tilling the soil for future seed planting.
The innerVIVID online videos feature local faces and plenty of encouraging content for use in parishes and schools. The speakers are inspirational, and model ways into the big themes of humanity: beginnings, endings, the future, purpose, how to live, and spirituality.
The ASKaround cards are another resource in the innerVIVID stable. They allow you to continue the conversation in homes, parishes, church services, schools and cafes. The 80 uniquely crafted questions, which Synod members trialled last year, are designed so that everyone can contribute.
There are no assumptions, judgements or prerequisites. If you are yet to know about God, each question is an open invitation to share your story. If you love Jesus and are growing into Christian faith, then each question allows scope for you to open up about your faith story, too.
“The ASKaround cards are another resource in the innerVIVID stable. They allow you to continue the conversation in homes, parishes, church services, schools and cafes. The 80 uniquely crafted questions, which Synod members trialled last year, are designed so that everyone can contribute,” Fiona Hammond
The Anglican Church of Australia’s Hope25 initiative is a great place to start using these resources.
Imagine hosting a “Not so trivial night” at the hall, where you can put the kettles on, and host tables of listening spaces. Choose one of the themes, and play the innerVIVID video for inspiration, making the ASKaround cards available for discussion. Make it cozy with lighting and some background Bossa Nova. I recommend the Café Bossa Nova playlist on Spotify!
Maybe host a “We’ll listen Wednesday” or a “Thoughts R Us Thursday” at your local café. Book the same table at the same time each week so people are ready to ask and listen. Your guests can choose their own question from the deck, a question they are happy to answer. It’d be interesting to see who returns for more connection week after week.
Host relaxed after-Church tea sessions — choose the theme for the week and select those 10 questions from the deck. Ask people to watch the related innerVIVID videos at home beforehand. This layers the experience and gets everyone practising the art of storytelling, with role models on the videos to give some inspiration.
This is a grassroots movement, a movement to create and play with the language of spiritual experience, with the hope that sharing faith stories becomes natural, second nature.
Fiona Hammond at St Francis College preparing ASKaround cards for distribution to each parish: Archbishop Jeremy Greaves gifts an ASKaround deck to each parish in the Diocese for Hope25 and beyond
Parishes are already using these cards and video resources. For example, The Rev’d Rosemary Gardiner from The Parish of Woolloongabba used the following questions during a Sunday service:
“Celtic tradition talks of ‘thin places’ — where the veil between the everyday world and the ‘eternal’ is fragile. Have you ever experienced this? If not, what do you imagine that experience to be like?” (Question 63 of 80)
“If you could add one daily practice to connect with something lifegiving, what would that be and why?” (Question 71 of 80)
The innerVIVID project provides two versatile tools for solo questioning, groups, families and parishes wanting to reconnect with the language of spiritual things. See the websites for more ideas and information. Contact Fiona Hammond on fhammond@anglicanchurchsq.org.au if you’d like to chat through ideas. Find out more about innerVIVID, and ASKaround
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