The Week of Spiritual Emphasis 2022
Catching up with Kärt Lazić
We invite you to embark on a voyage of spiritual wonder and fellowship: The Week of Spiritual Emphasis is back, returning this Sabbath.
Always a transformative week in the calendar, WOSE will see students, staff and members within our wider communities gather, pausing their busy lives to take stock and consider their walk with God.
If you’re looking to develop your spirituality, collect tools to support your unique pathway and connect with like-minded individuals in faith, then this week is for you.
Ahead of the launch, our dedicated WOSE speaker Kärt Lazić shares her thoughts on the upcoming week.
What does the Week of Spiritual Emphasis personally mean to you?
For me, it has always been a special period of embarking on a journey as a community – a journey of shared questions, exciting discussions, and – hopefully – truly meaningful revelations.
As we’re in a new academic year, WOSE may be new to many individuals. If you could sum up the overall week in just three words, what would they be?
Buzz, challenge, discovery*
*All three Spirit-led and community-empowered
Can you share the inspiration behind the concept of your topic? Why is it important to you to convey these messages?
When I knew I was going to be able to shape the content of this semester’s WOSE, I also knew I wanted to talk about something that I myself am actually struggling with – not to teach from a position of distant authority but to take this walk to cover new and important ground for myself, too. So the week covers a number of pairs of “opposing forces” that are at play in our life philosophies and our practical realities both individually and collectively – as believers, as members of our church, as a “nation”, a society or humankind in general.
Come and help me figure out what to do with these concepts.
Is there a talk you’re especially looking forward to giving? If yes, which one and why?
I am genuinely super passionate about each of them… but the very first one – Past/Present – is relevant to my daily choices in very pronounced ways these days. The second topic I have found I wrestle with on a daily basis is Ideal/Real (we’ll take on that one on Friday) – how do we survive in a world where idealism is seen as naivete, and realism equated to cynicism?
Why do you believe dedicated weeks like WOSE are important to attend?
Honestly, I feel like it is about not missing out on an exceptionally great opportunity. We know how hard it is to cut out special time/space to truly explore God and expand our relationship with Them. So, here it is – a week carefully and intentionally curated for just that… experienced as a community of people desiring the same thing – it would be silly to let the chance pass by!
What is the one thing you would like our students to take away with them by the end of the week?
God has a unique plan for each of them/us through this week, too… so I am looking forward to seeing what lands where and with what impact in each student’s life. But I will be specifically praying for courage to emerge as the key takeaway – courage to ask complicated questions, courage to survive with integrity in spaces of uncertainty and confusion, courage to move and grow with the Spirit, and courage to hold their own no matter what winds may blow around them.
The WOSE breakdown