Intergenerational

The Circle Hbg is a community for all ages. In most spaces in our lives, we surround ourselves with people of similar age and station in life. The Circle Hbg seeks to encourage people of all ages to find community together and to build meaningful supportive relationships. Here children and adults of all ages are celebrated for the unique gifts and wisdom they offer. Children build friendships with children their age and find adults and grandparent like figures to provide support. Adults are given the opportunity to learn from the curiosity of children and the wisdom of older adults. And older adults find a place where their experiences are honored and meaningful connections with younger generations are forged.

Queer-Centered

The Circle Hbg was formed by queer leaders and is lead by a queer pastor. It was formed to address the specific needs of the queer community that has so often been ostracized and wounded by the church and spiritual communities. The Circle Hbg is not, however, for queer individuals alone but for all who seek to create and live into a space that welcomes and makes room for the full expression of gender and identity of the LGBTQIA+ community. Allies are welcome and wanted!

“Queer is the way I tilt my head and look at the world.”

- Cassidy Hall from her book Queering Contemplation

Tends to the Spirit

The Circle Hbg seeks to address the needs of the full person, including the needs of our spirits. Many of us desire a connection to what is other, the thing connecting us to ourselves, one another, and the universe. We call this “other” by many names (God, spirit, divine, universe, and others) but the recognition that there is more to our lives and this life we share than what we see. We acknowledge a spiritual connection that gives meaning and shapes our understanding of ourselves and the world.

“I love you neither with my heart

nor with my mind.

My heart might stop

my mind might forget.

I love you with

my soul because

my soul never stopes

or forgets.”

-Rumi

Leads with Curiosity

Curiosity is at the heart of The Circle Hbg. We listen to one another with curiosity. We approach our own wonderings and thoughts with curiosity. We encounter the world with awe and wonder. We embrace an expansive view of the spiritual path and hold space for each individuals’ expression of it. Questions, exploration, and doubt are essential to curiosity.

“The thing you seek is seeking you.” - Hafiz

Seeks Wholeness Together

We are created as communal beings and our wholeness is intertwined with another’s wholeness. We know this to be true in the interconnected web of life that is our planet. What damages a part of the whole, damages the whole. What heals, brings greater wholeness and healing to all. We seek healing and wholeness for ourselves and others, our communities, our nation, and the planet. We cannot find wholeness without tending to the needs of the earth and all that share this planet home with us.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and tend to it, and be careful caretakers of the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Genesis 1:28

The Circle Hbg is supported by 1001 New Worshipping Communities of the Presbyterian Church USA and the Presbytery of Carlisle.