RELATA: CONVERSATION, CONNECTION, COMMUNITY

RELATA is a word that means “the totality of all things.” It is also a way of seeing: a way of rediscovering the sacred threads that tie us together. RELATA is a uniquely Epiphany innovation, designed to heal, connect, and reimagine community.

RELATA is designed to inspire open dialogue within a meaningful flow. These are the themes we will consider over the course of 8 weeks:

1. BEGINNING 
   We reflect on our unchosen origins to understand how they shaped our identity.

   Intention:
   To reflect on where we come from and how our stories began. We name the conditions of our birth, family, geography, culture, not to judge them, but to understand their shaping power. Our origin stories may feel accidental, providential, joyful, or painful. Whatever they are, they deserve to be named with honesty and compassion. In doing so, we begin to see that behind every story is a person seeking connection, and that all stories carry dignity, with none being greater or less than another.

2. BELONGING
   We explore inclusion, exclusion, and how the legacy of our origin story sets a trajectory for belonging.

   Intention:
   To explore what it means to belong, both the comfort of inclusion and the pain of exclusion. Many of the groups we belong to or identities we wear were chosen for us, not by us. This session invites us to hold our belonging with openness, to acknowledge its power, and to examine it without pride or shame. By doing so, we create space for empathy toward others whose belonging stories look different but are no less human.
   
   

3. PURSUITS
   We examine what we’ve chosen to pursue, what it gave us, and the paradox of unfulfilled expectations.

   Intention:
   To name the things we’ve pursued: our goals, accomplishments, and the hopes, dreams and ambitions we’ve given ourselves to. These pursuits may be personal or professional, quiet or celebrated, fulfilled or unfinished. We reflect on what we hoped our efforts would give us, and what they actually did. The paradox is that these achievements can satisfy and yet still leave us longing. In sharing these stories, we affirm that our worth is not in what we’ve done, but in who we are becoming.
   
   

4. LOVE
   We reflect on love’s many forms, its joys, complexities, and power to wound or transform us.

   Intention:
   To reflect on the relationships that have formed us through love in its many expressions; familial, romantic, friendly, self-directed, and even toward strangers. Love holds incredible power: to heal, to awaken, to transform, but it also brings vulnerability and pain. We acknowledge the complexity of loving and being loved, and how these experiences shape our view of the world. This session invites us to hold both the joy and the grief of love with reverence.
   
   

5. MEANING
   We consider the belief structures that guide us and how they’ve changed over time.

   Intention:
   To examine the frameworks, religious, philosophical, political, cultural that help us make sense of life. These systems offer clarity and connection, guiding our values and choices. But they can also break down, disappoint, or divide. We reflect not only on what we believe, but on how those beliefs have changed us, and how they’ve changed over time. This session is not about defending ideas, but about recognizing that every search for meaning is part of the human longing for understanding.
   
   

6. PRACTICE
   We explore how repeated actions, intentional or not, reflect what we believe and shape who we become.

   Intention:
   To reflect on how our habits, whether intentional or inherited, shape our identity over time. Practice is not just about discipline, but about formation. What we do regularly influences what we believe, how we feel, and how we relate. This includes spiritual disciplines, physical routines, and emotional patterns. We consider which practices ground us and which ones may need to shift. This session invites us to see our lives as works in progress, formed by repetition, choice, and grace.
   
   

7. SOUL
   We honor mystery, beauty, and unexplainable moments that touch something eternal within us.

   Intention:
   To open space for the stories that don’t fit into simple categories, moments of mystery, beauty, or connection that remain vivid even without explanation. These may be spiritual experiences, encounters with nature, or events that stirred something deep and enduring. In this session, we listen for the voice of the soul, that place in us where presence and eternity touch. We honor the reality that not everything needs to be understood to be real.
   
   

8. COMMUNITY
   We celebrate agape love and the unconditional care that connects us beyond ourselves.

   Intention:
   To recognize the sacred power of community and the kind of love that transcends personal preference, agape. This love is not based on agreement or affinity, but on the shared experience of being human. It often emerges in times of vulnerability, struggle, or generosity. In this final session, we reflect on moments when we’ve received or offered this kind of love and how it forms the connective tissue of real community. Agape reveals that we are held, even in our incompleteness.
   

WHO IS RELATA FOR?

• Individuals who are concerned that the wider community is more disconnected than connected;
• Individuals who are ready to share their story, and excited to hear the stories of others;
• Individuals who wonder about how their particular story meets life’s mysteries;
• Individuals who love dinner conversations, are happy to meet new people, and to share and hear stories.

WHAT IS RELATA NOT?

• It’s not a time of teaching, nor is it a didactic exercise or academically oriented.

• It is not about doctrine, dogma, politics, philosophy or religion.  

• And you will not be required to wear a blazer or pearls.

WHY EPIPHANY?

For over 100 years, Epiphany Seattle has been a place for nurturing the human spirit. While our foundation is Christian, our focus is the human soul. This is why we say: “Wherever you are on your spiritual journey you have a place at Epiphany.” RELATA is for the spiritual, but not necessarily religious, designed to remind us that we are connected by our stories.