Formation is the process of creating something that wasn’t there before. Formation is also the name of what happens in seminary and in the other processes of becoming a minister. As one of my mentors says “they call it ministerial formation for a reason”. As a potter, and sometimes sculptor, I think of formation as modifying the shape of something or adding material, or taking material away – all ways of forming. My media is porcelain. You might add water, or for us potters, you almost certainly add heat, oh and sometimes silica powder in liquid suspension that forms a glass coating over all. All of that is what I’m going through as part of my process of becoming a UU minister.
Guess I should add that I love it all and this is exactly where I want to be.
Alexa Fraser August, 2015