Listening Circles

A listening circle is a structured, intentional practice designed to foster deep communication, mutual understanding, and community connection. Rooted in ancient indigenous traditions from around the world, participants sit in a literal circle—symbolizing equality and the absence of a hierarchy—to share their perspectives on a specific theme or experience. Unlike standard conversations, debates, or brainstorming sessions, the primary goal of a listening circle isn't to reply, cross-examine, or solve a problem. Instead, it is a dedicated space to witness and comprehend each person's unique story without judgment.

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Below are some frequently asked questions about Listening Circles to help with your discernment. And please check out the video to the left of Mary Hess and Bill McDonough going deeper into why a Listening Circle could support the contemplative discipleship practices in your congregations this year!

What happens in a listening circle?

Participants can expect, first of all, to listen to others in the group and, second, to share their own truth as they experience it. To maintain this supportive environment, listening circles rely on a few foundational agreements. In our partnership we use a physical talking piece. It is passed around the circle; only the person holding the talking piece may speak, while everyone else practices active, presence-driven listening. Participants are typically guided to speak from personal experience (using "I" statements), keep their sharing concise, and maintain strict confidentiality regarding what is shared. This predictable structure allows people to lower their guards, listen openly, and speak with genuine vulnerability.

Listening circles intentionally slow down the pace of communication, shifting the group dynamic from reactive debate to human connection.

How might a listening circle be useful to my congregation?

In our partnership the primary aim of circle practice is for members of a congregation to come together to hear one another at a deeper level than they perhaps have heard each other before. This deepened understanding can help a congregation discern new directions ahead and/or engage together around challenges arising in congregational life.

In our experience, a trained “circle keeper,” who is usually someone from outside the congregation, can help congregants hear one another across the differences that make a difference in day-to-day, week-to-week congregational life. The partnership will pay for one of our trained circle keepers to come to your congregation—at no cost to the congregation! You and your circle keeper can design a listening process that matches the needs of your community.

What are some examples of good times to engage a circle keeper?

Maybe there are two or more groups within your congregation you want to gather so they hear and understand each other better—for example, Spanish-speakers and English-speakers, or groups divided by political or social beliefs, or the “younger” and the “older” generations. Our circle keepers can help you develop a process of one or several such circles in your congregation. And the grant can help you arrange and pay for interpreters to help congregants understand one another across different languages.

Or maybe you want to discern further how your congregation feels called out into the world, how and when and where you want to follow Jesus out of the church and into the world here and now. To take a very real current example, maybe your congregation wants to engage around how to respond to the challenges around immigration and supporting immigrants and refugees that we have experienced recently.

If your congregation wants to discern discipleship pathways, a circle (or series of circles) could be very useful. To be clear, neither grant leaders nor any of our circle keepers have any particular desired outcome from your congregation’s discernment in circles. We have no specific discipleship agenda for your congregation! But if it can be helpful to you, were are committed to supporting congregations in listening ever more deeply to one another—and then in supporting wherever this takes you!

Why not ask the partnership to pay for a circle keeper’s time to be with you? You can use “mini-grant” funds that your congregation will receive from the grant for hospitality. Most of all, you can discern with each other who and how you want to follow Jesus as a congregation.

I hear you that we can do this in our own congregation. Could we also choose to do this with another congregation?

Yes! A great gift of our partnership is the denominational and socio-cultural diversity of our partnering congregations. Circle practice may be a useful way for your congregation and one or more other grant congregations to come together to hear one another. Perhaps you are considering further shared discipleship together with another congregation or deeper ecumenical connection with them or shared action for justice in the world.

You could also gather three or more congregations for a circle—perhaps around a shared interest in serving the world. Several or many congregations may want to come together for shared listening. We are glad to help you design a process that works for your group.

We will probably also offer occasional circles in which members of ALL grant partnering congregations can come together. Such “open to all” circles were a wonderful part of our discernment process around the future of the grant in spring 2025.

Finally, if enough congregations are interested, we can offer a process for training circle keepers at St. Kate’s.

We are interested! What are the next steps?

First, bring your interest to your pastor or another congregational leader to gauge interest in your congregation as a whole. Then, if your congregation wants to explore next steps, please begin by reaching out through our contact us page. We would love to explore this with your congregation!

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