In Fall 2025, formation leaders for the Diocese of Texas (Canon Dr. Josh R. Ritter, Formation) and the Diocese of West Texas (Suzanna Green, Director of Christian Formation) formed a partnership. They collaboratively planned and implemented a week of formation for a handful of churches in their collective dioceses around a small group discipleship model called “The Soul of Aging,” which was intended as a way to build capacity with formation leaders around skillful facilitation, discernment, and deliberation.
(EDOT)-. Green and Ritter decided to offer this collaborative training for two reasons. First, there is a significant formation gap in the Episcopal Church for aging and senior adults. They too often get lumped into “adult formation” under the assumption that all adults are the same (and in the same stage of faith or season of life) or that senior adults have somehow “graduated” formation and don’t need any additional formation that is specific to them. Second, Ritter and Green chose this model because they see it as a nice blending of a circle process model and a discernment model that uses principles of both deliberation and nonviolent communication. The model helps to push against the strong assumption in the Church that education is the same as formation.
“What we hope to achieve,” say Green and Ritter, “is a mindset among formation leaders that Christian discipleship must be experienced and practiced. It cannot simply be a series of learning ‘about’ discipleship. Practice is an essential ingredient of discipleship because churches are communities of practice. We are Christian practitioners.”
The two trainers for the Soul of Aging gathering were Episcopalians Caryl Casbon (facilitator, educator, and author) and Georgia Noble, Ed.D, MFT (therapist and spiritual director), two Center for Courage and Renewal practitioners. They are also the ones who created Soul of Aging, which is based on Parker J. Palmer’s model of Circles of Trust from his book A Hidden Wholeness. By building on Palmer’s work, Casbon and Noble offered a small-group model of discipleship and formation for aging and senior adults on various topics related to aging.
The formational work offered to participants also included six pre-sessions on zoom exploring and practicing Palmer’s Circles of Trust Model, which was led by a third trainer, Mona West, Ph.D., from the Diocese of Texas. These six pre-sessions allowed participants the opportunity to meet one another, to get to know each other, and to practice the model they would be learning to facilitate during the in-person gathering, which provided everyonewith additional time to develop relationships as well as an advance familiarity with the material.
This collaboration between the two dioceses created time and space for not only learning a new model of discipleship but also the discipleship practices of fellowship, fun, interconnection, and deep relational building. At the in-person gathering, held in May 2026 at Camp Allen in Navasota, TX, stories and laughter were shared over daily meals and during evening social time throughout the week of training. Participants worshipped together each day with various prayer opportunities including Compline, and they enjoyed getting to know folks from outside their diocese in a relaxed environment.
Follow-up sessions are scheduled online to help folks continue to plan and implement these groups with most participants planning to start a group in Fall 2026. So, there is this flow that is different from other one-time retreats, workshops, gatherings, or trainings. There is a sense that a community of practice is forming that isn’t just about a one-time training but about a longer work of formation; that everyone is supporting one another in their ministry work and discipling together. Both the Diocese of Texas and the Diocese of West Texas are hopeful that these groups will be a way for churches to engage with their aging and senior adults and to go deeper into some of the topics that don’t usually get talked about in coffee hour on Sunday mornings.
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