Our Mission
“MAY THE LORD CAUSE YOU TO INCREASE AND ABOUND IN LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER AND FOR ALL PEOPLE”
– 1 Thessalonians 3:12
The Agape Circle Initiative exists to provide resources and opportunities for Orthodox Christians to experience Christ-centered fellowship and growth in love for God and for all other people, following our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why Agape Circle?
“BY THIS ALL WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES, IF YOU HAVE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER”
– Jesus Christ the Lord (John 13:35)
We humans are social beings. We need fellowship and meaningful connection with one another and with God. For this reason, God calls us to unite ourselves to Christ and one another in His Church.
The Greek word for Church, “ecclesia” (ek-klesia), means “called out.” We are called forth for communion with one another in God. “God is love (agape)” (1 John 4:8, 16) and “love is of God” (1 John 4:7)
When asked which is the great commandment in the law of God, the Lord Jesus Christ said: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:36-40).
By His blood, Jesus Christ has redeemed us, cleansed the world and granted to us the forgiveness of sins and the riches of divine grace.
Through Christ, writes the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, “[God] has reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of [Christ’s] cross, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death” (Colossians 1:20-22).
And to the Church in Ephesus he writes:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing…that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will…by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us” (Ephesians 1:3-8).
Christ has fought and won for us the battle against the devil, sin and death. He took the burden and pain upon Himself. He paid the ultimate price for us, to redeem us from the consequences of our sin and wrong-doing and the fallen human condition which we all find ourselves in. Now He calls us to repentance, to turn from evil, to return to God and humbly enter into Jesus’ eternal fellowship with the Father and with one another in Him. He wishes to give us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us and make of us — who are many, diverse and divided — one Body, the Body of Christ.
Agape Circle helps us remember Christ’s love for us and His profound call to us. He has work that remains to be done in this world, in our age as in every age, for the salvation and healing of the world, the world which He created and gave Himself for, and for every person in it. Jesus asks us to join Him in His holy, soul-saving, world-healing work, the divine work of agape.
Agape Circle is a small group practice to deepen our communion (koinonia) and friendship (philia) in Christ and to strengthen our engagement in His active charity (agape) for one another and for every human being, especially for those in need, to whom He calls us.
In Agape Circle, we engage in “DiaLogos,” a form of dialogue by which we practice the skills of deep listening . . . to God, to ourselves and to one another.
DiaLogos means “through the Logos (Word).” Logos here refers to the words of Scripture, our own personal words, and the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, Who said that “where two or three are gathered in my Name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20).
The aim of DiaLogos is to connect with one another through Christ and to connect with Christ through one another.
Agape Circle enables us to share interpersonally the holy communion with God that we receive spiritually and sacramentally in the Divine Liturgy. Meeting in Agape Circle helps prepare us to extend Christ’s love into the world in practical, tangible ways, ways that He calls us. Agape Circle meetings are thus part of what some have termed “the liturgy after the Liturgy.”
Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT HUMAN NEED DOES AGAPE CIRCLE HELP ADDRESS AND HOW DOES IT FIT INTO THE LIFE & MISSION OF CHRIST'S CHURCH TODAY?
Agape Circle aims to foster Christ-centered interpersonal fellowship among Orthodox Christians for growth in faith, hope and agape love. Agape Circle helps address the basic human need for close relationships, meaningful conversations and deep connection with God and with other human beings. Many people today feel alone and disconnected, even in the Church. In every congregation, in every Orthodox parish, there is almost certainly at least one person who desires more Christ-centered fellowship. Agape Circle is for them.
Christ said that “where two or three are gathered in my Name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20). The goal of our meetings is to connect with one another through Christ and to connect with Christ through one another. This fortifies us for the work of active love to which the Lord calls us in our daily lives.
AC meetings can be led by a Priest or by a layperson with the Priest’s blessing. By participating in one or more online Zoom Agape Circle series, a motivated person can learn how to facilitate an in-person Agape Circle series in his or her local area. This is done with the Priest’s blessing.
AC meetings can take place at the parish, in a home or even outdoors such as at a park, beach, or some quiet and appropriate location. Meeting locations and times are decided by the facilitator in collaboration with the members of each Agape Circle and the blessing of the Priest. The meetings should be scheduled so as to not conflict with parish worship services. An ideal time and location may be on Saturday evenings before Great Vespers, in a comfortable parish room.
Agape Circle has a clear structure, content and focus. Meetings consist of Prayer, Scripture Readings, Questions for Reflection, DiaLogos (a special kind of group dialogue), and Pearls (Take-aways). Between meetings, we pray for one another in our daily prayers.
After the opening prayer, passages from Scripture are read. We listen closely to the readings and then we listen to ourselves, to our inner response to the reading. We ask ourselves: How do this message relate to me today? How can I relate to it? What strikes me as I hear it, here and now?
Then, in DiaLogos, we listen closely to one another and explore points of connection with each other. As the discussion ensues we create together a shared web of inner exploration and mutual understanding. We are free to return to the text to draw further insights as the process unfolds. Through Prayer, listening to Scripture, listening to ourselves, and DiaLogos, we draw closer, by God’s grace, to Him, to one another and to our own deeper selves.
Agape Circles supplement Bible Studies. Whereas Bible Studies involve close textual analysis, knowledge of the texts’ historical context and reference to scholarly and patristic commentary, Agape Circle concentrates more on personal response. Whereas Bible studies focus on the meaning of the text, Agape Circle focuses on the texts’ meaning in our present life. We could say that Bible studies help us understand the Scripture and Agape Circle helps us understand ourselves in relation to Scripture.
If a parish has an existing Bible Study group that is led by the priest, Agape Circle could be used as a time-limited fill-in for few weeks. There are at least two benefits to incorporating Agape Circle into ongoing Bible Studies.
First, priests often find themselves pressed for time due to the many demands and duties of parish life, especially in the larger parishes. It is often a challenge for the average Orthodox priest to find sufficient time to not only lead worship (for a full liturgical cycle of Vespers, Matins, Divine Liturgy as well as Paraklises, Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals, etc.), but also to prepare sermons, hear confessions, visit the sick and shut-ins, pastor the youth, teach catechumens, have time with their wives and children, pray and rest. By temporarily incorporating an Agape Circle course (which can be facilitated by a lay person) into an ongoing Bible Study group, a Priest could gain a few hours time to put toward those other priestly duties while the continuity of the group is maintained.
Secondly, wisely delegating the facilitation of Agape Circle provides an opportunity for lay people to use and develop the gifts God has given them for service to the Lord and His Church. This is important because, as the saying goes, “many hands make work light.” For the Church to thrive, the many gifts and talents that the Lord has distributed among His people need to be put to active use for the edification (“building up”) of Christ’s Church in the world and for service in His Name. Facilitating Agape Circles is a contribution that certain lay people can make today toward building up the Body of Christ for the life of the world.
WHAT IS TALKED ABOUT AT AC MEETINGS? WHAT IS THE BALANCE BETWEEN FREE FLOW AND STRUCTURE?
We pray, read a passage of Scripture from the lectionary, listen closely to the message, listen also to what is sparked within us, and connect with one another from there according to a structured format. What follows after that — in terms of content –is not totally predictable. It depends on what comes up for people. That’s where the free flow comes in. The Spirit moves. What often comes up is awareness of God’s love in our lives and of His call to us.
By starting with prayer and then meditating (melete, is the patristic word for this) on the words of Scripture, we orient ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the “Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Connecting first with God prepares us for proper relationship to one another. Through prayer and reflecting on Scripture we create a space for interpersonal communion (“common union”) with one another and with the Lord Jesus who is present with us in the Holy Spirit.
What follows next we call DiaLogos (dia = through, logos = word).
Logos (“word”) here has four meanings . Logos refers to the Word and Wisdom of God, the eternal Son of the Father, who became incarnate, Jesus Christ.
Logos also refers to the Gospel, the preaching or “kerygma” of the “Good News” of God’s redemptive, saving, healing love in Jesus Christ.
Logos also refers to the Biblical text, the words of Holy Scripture that are read in the meeting.
Logos refers also to the words we speak and hear as we talk with one another.
We call our conversation “DiaLogos” to indicate a particular structured form of dialogue.
Along with structure and order, as we have said, there is also flexibility and openness to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. We aim for a balance between freedom and order, akin to the balance of those two that is present in Orthodox worship and ecclesial life generally. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). And to the same flock he wrote: “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40).
Like the balance between freedom and order, there is a balance in Agape Circle between multiplicity and unity in Christ. Communion in Christ is harmonious. It’s not a homogeneous sameness but a differentiated oneness. We experience “the One in the many and the many in the One.” We experience that we are part of the “whole” snf that whole is “greater than the sum of the parts.”
At first, the meeting structure — like any method — needs to be learned. The “rules of DiaLogos” may seem unnatural. This is true of any discipline at the beginning. Think of choral singing or chant, for example, or iconography, wood-working, bread-baking, wine-making, or indeed any craft, game, sport or method. There is an order to it, a recipe to learn, some instructions to follow and, usually, a “learning curve.” The rules of the game, once learned, soon become second nature, and the benefits are revealed. The order and structure we follow in Agape Circle meetings do enable greater depth of expression and connection than would happen without them.
Both structure and flexibility are necessary as we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, who, like the wind, “blows were it wishes” (John 3:8). When the Holy Spirit is present, the wind “enters our sails” and transformation happens.
HOW DOES AGAPE CIRCLE RELATE TO THE GOSPEL?
“The Gospel (eu-angelion, good announcement) is God’s message of love for us all manifested in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ unto eternal life to which we are called. The Father (“Source”) speaks his Word (“Logos”) by his Breath (“Spirit”). His message is that God’s love is stronger than death.
Jesus Christ is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). He is “the Word, Wisdom and Power of God” (1 Cor 1) through whom the Father, by the Holy Spirit, spoke all things into being. In Jesus of Nazareth, the “Anointed One” (in Hebrew, Mashiach, Messiah, in Greek, O Christos). God has become one of us and one with us. He has entered His creation and joined Himself to the human race. In Jesus, God has entered the human condition. He has united His divinity with our humanity. It happened in time, two millenia ago, in a place, Palestine.
In becoming human, the Author of the Book of Life wrote Himself in to His own story. He is the hero of the story, but His heroism is enacted in the most unexpected way. He empties Himself. God Himself, in the Divine Person of Jesus Christ, took on the plight of His creations’ suffering, entering into that suffering all the way to death on the Cross and a battle in the depths of Hell. Death and hell could not hold Him down. He defeated them from the inside. “And On the third day, He rose from the dead.” Christ is risen and now nothing can separate us from God’s agape love, “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38).
God’s love for human beings and Man’s love for God come fully together in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the “link” between God and Man, the “bridge” between heaven and earth.
In Jesus Christ, we humans are able to be received into the eternal life of the Holy Trinity, to live eternally with Christ in His Kingdom which is “not of this world” (John 18:36). The Holy Trinity, one in essence and inseparable, is the eternal “circle of divine agape” which contains and transcends all space and time. The Son of God Who is “begotten of the Father from before all time, Light from Light, true God from true God” calls us each to turn our hearts to Him in metanoia (repentance, noetic transformation).
In the mystery of God’s redemptive love and through the transformational mysteries of Christ’s Church, we can be united to God through the divine-human Jesus Christ, and receive His Holy Spirit. United with Christ we are adopted into Christ’s Sonship with the Father. In the circle of agape, the Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus Christ. Christ unites us with His Father and fills us with His Holy Spirit “Who proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit enlightens us, guides us, dwells within us and “Christifies” us. This is our Christian calling.
God calls us to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and wed ourselves to Christ freely. Often, sadly, w fail. When we sin (“miss the mark,” err), we get spiritually weaker. When we turn to Him in repentance — and Holy Confession both facilitates and seals this — God in His mercy and forgiveness restores us to life. This is how we give ourselves to Christ Who gave Himself for us on the Cross, once and for all. He still gives Himself to us, crucified and resurrected, in the Holy Eucharist and in every sacred mystery of His Church. It takes only a moment to open our hearts to Him and receive His saving agape love.
The Lord Jesus summons us to turn to God, that is the first priority. Secondly, He calls us to a mission in the world. He has work that needs doing, and He calls us to partner with Him in His sacred work. This, too, is part of the Gospel. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
We have been created “according to the image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26-31). Each of us is unique and has something unique to offer the world to the glory of God. God wants us to work with Him as He works with us and in us to bring our gifts to fruition, gifts that gave us.
The work to which the Lord calls us cannot be done apart from Him. When, in the holy Mysteries of Baptisms and Chrismation, we were born “again,” “anew,” “from above” — the biblical Greek word anagenesis means all three –– we were gifted with spiritual gifts in addition to our natural God-given gifts that every human being is bequethed. Repentance and spiritual purification energizes the charismata that we received mystically in the anointing of Holy Chrismation, the “seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.”
God invites us to partner with Him in the work of agape, the work of transforming this fallen world into the communion in love that is Christ’s Kingdom for which we pray “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We all have the capacity to give and receive love. The Holy Spirit enables us to collaborate with God in the divine work of agape in the world, for the world’s reunion with it’s Source, one piece and moment at a time.
Agape Circle reminds us of the centrality of God’s love in Christ’s gospel, in the mission of His Church, and in the meaning of our lives here and now. By strengthening our bond with the Lord Jesus Christ, with Holy Scripture and with one another for the purpose of fulfilling the divine call to active love and service especially to those who are in most need, Agape Circle helps us fulfill the divine purpose for which we were created.
HOW IS THE AGAPE CIRCLE INITIATIVE SUPPORTED?
The Agape Circle Initiative is supported by prayer and by voluntary participation. Your prayers and participation are very much welcome and appreciated.
Agape Circle is an effort to connect us more deeply to Christ and to one another, to edify the Church and to support one another as fellow Orthodox Christians in our spiritual life in doing Christ’s work of active love in the world.
There is no fee to participate.
Like any project or ministry, for Agape Circle to happen an investment of time and labor is needed on the part of dedicated people. Most of all, beyond our own efforts and practical support, we need God’s grace.
Please keep this ministry in your prayers. Please pray that, through it, our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit — one God — will be glorified and His people strengthened to share His love in the world.
The circle of God’s agape embraces and sustains all creation. Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to join with Him in sharing this love. God knows people in our world today need His love. They need also to experience Christ-centered fellowship such as that which Agape Circle fosters.
At this time we are not requesting any monetary support for our work. If we need it in the future, we’ll let you know. How you can support Agape Circle right now is by your prayer, by participating in our meetings and by spreading the word. Please join us.
“Whoever does not love does not know God; because God is love. And the love of God was made manifest among us especially in this, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him…. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in them” (1 Jn. 4.8–9, 16)
Contact Us
(315) 941-1116
agapecircles@gmail.com
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