In January we launched The Radix Project: Small Groups/Deep Roots. More than 150 people in 18 small groups met weekly for six weeks to share their stories, reflect on scripture, and pray for one another with intention. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, so we are going to do it again! The next opportunity to participate will be in the season of Easter, with groups meeting online.

“Radix 2” will occur in the Easter Season, from late April through early June. It will begin with a plenary meeting, over Zoom, led by Dean Steve Thomason. The Dean will give a general introduction to the various narratives of the resurrected Christ which will be discussed in the small group meetings.  This presentation is open to anyone, whether or not they are participating in the small groups. Following this presentation, the groups will meet individually for the first time in Zoom break-out sessions.

We have tweaked a few things based on your feedback, but the design and format for small group meetings will be similar to the winter session. The planning team—Kelly, Steve, Nancy, Jennifer and Cristi—have chosen resurrection stories for scriptural reflection, some familiar (because we hear them on Easter Sundays); and some that may be less familiar to you. We hope that studying these multi-layered stories will inspire and encourage us to move, as the disciples did, from fear and confusion to joyful connection with God and one another in the midst of troubled times. But we also expect that they will challenge us as we find ourselves reflected within them!

You may recall we chose the name “Radix” for this small group ministry because it means “root,” and we are reclaiming our Christian roots by this practice. Jesus lived and taught in small groups, as did the early Church. To be “radical” doesn’t mean to be rebellious—rather it describes the freedom to stretch into the borderlands precisely because one is rooted in the deep soil of a defining narrative, which, for us, is the brilliant and liberating gospel of Christ. Through this defining narrative we are known and nourished in the church community, and connected through past, present and future to all who are so rooted. Radix groups reveal this connection in tangible and life-giving ways.

Contact The Rev. Canon Jennifer King Daughtery, jdaughtery@saintmarks.org, with questions. Visit the Radix Project Page to learn more and to sign up!