Hello to all our readers on this fine Saturday morning. Happy Memorial Day weekend to all our US readers too! We’ve been forgetting to announce that for about two weeks now, A Queer Calling has had its own Facebook page. We’re excited to communicate with you there as well as on Twitter and in the blog comments. And as always, we’re working on getting back to all the emails we’ve received within the past couple of weeks.

Now it’s time for today’s Saturday Symposium question:

How this works: It’s very simple. We ask a multi-part question related to a topic we’ve blogged about during the past week or are considering blogging about in the near future, and you, our readers, share your responses in the comments section. Feel free to be open, reflective, and vulnerable…and to challenge us. But as always, be mindful of the comment policy that ends each of our posts. Usually, we respond fairly quickly to each comment, but in order to give you time to think, come back, add more later if you want, and discuss with other readers, we will wait until after Monday to respond to comments on Saturday Symposium questions.

This week’s Saturday Symposium question: This week’s question comes from one of our followers on Facebook. Amanda, who reads the blog regularly, would like to discuss celibacy vs. singleness this week. We did one post in the past on the question, “Is celibacy the same as singleness?” and in writing this week’s “How to Live a Life of Celibacy While Missing the Point of Vocation,” we remarked that the authors of the piece we were critiquing were conflating celibacy with temporary singleness. You can share your thoughts on those topics and/or think about the following additional celibacy vs. singleness questions: what are some differences between the concepts of celibacy and singleness? Similarities? Why do you think people often conflate the two? Is a person who is living celibacy temporarily cultivating a celibate vocation, even though he/she knows that vocation will not last forever? Other celibacy vs. singleness issues you find interesting?

We look forward to reading your responses. If you’re concerned about having your comment publicly associated with your name, please consider using the Contact Us page to submit your comment. We can post it under a pseudonym (i.e. John says, “your comment”) or summarize your comment in our own words (i.e. One person observed…). Participating in this kind of public dialogue can be risky, and we want to do what we can to protect you even if that means we preserve your anonymity. Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Sarah and Lindsey

Comment Policy: Please remember that we, and all others commenting on this blog, are people. Practice kindness. Practice generosity. Practice asking questions. Practice showing love. Practice being human. If your comment is rude, it will be deleted. If you are constantly negative, argumentative, or bullish, you will not be able to comment anymore. We are the sole moderators of the combox.