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201 Her Story/Hair Story Marjory Zoet Bankson A woman’s first power struggle is often with her mother over how to wear her hair. To address the inner work of separating your biological mother from “the Great Mother,” come with your story and a hairbrush. Many women have learned to separate our earthly father from an image of God as Heavenly Father. Not so with our mothers. Using Jungian concepts and biblical story, learn how to release love that may have been tied up in knots. Marjory Zoet Bankson is author of The Call to the Soul, editor of Faith@Work magazine, a seasoned relational teacher, and a member of Seekers, a Church of the Saviour community. 202 Risking Peace Noa Baum Peace can be a risk. It calls us to make compromises, go beyond our comfort zones, and venture into the unknown. Come explore paths to dialogue and build bridges of understanding using a storytelling model. You will learn to listen deeply, beyond opinions and frozen perspectives, simply by shifting the focus from debate to personal story. Experience how sharing the story of the “other” can help us break through rhetoric to the possibility of compassion and change A native of Jerusalem, Noa Baum feels storytelling is the beating heart connecting all aspects of her work as a performer, educator and facilitator of workshops for communication, healing and change. 203 How Can “All Be Well”? Roberta Bondi With Julian of Norwich’s help, we will explore together what we long for when we hope for “all to be well.” Using storytelling and reflection we will consider how we might better foster healing love in ourselves and for the world as we rehearse the old ways and practice new ways of telling our stories in the context of the promises of our religions. Meditation and journaling will assist us in deepening this process of discovery. A beloved presenter and author, Roberta Bondi is known for her sense of humor and her expertise in ancient Christian teachers and practices of prayer. 204 Learning to Love Ourselves Helene Brenner We often hear that we’re supposed to love ourselves, but rarely are we told how. True self-love is an active and courageous process of compassionately embracing ourselves in a way that opens the door to the largest and deepest source of our being. Through lecture, discussion, experiential “innercizes” and guided visualization, we will tap into a felt experience of self-love that is life-giving and life-changing. Helene Brenner, Ph.D., a nationally known expert in the psychology of women, is author of I Know I’m in There Somewhere: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner Voice and Living a Life of Authenticity. 205 Naikan: The Art of Self-Reflection Robin Carnes and Linda Anderson Krech How might we deepen love in our most precious relationships? The Japanese practice Naikan, “inside looking,” is a simple exercise of three questions that skillfully directs our inner attention to what helps us love in very real, practical ways. Come try practicing Naikan on your relationships. The results can be transformative: fostering gratitude, humility and grace. Robin Deen Carnes, M.B.A., is a certified yoga and yoga nidra teacher, and co-founder of Pathways to Happiness. Linda Anderson Krech, M.S.W., has been active in the field of Japanese psychology for 18 years and is on staff at the ToDo Institute. 206 Deep Wisdom/Deep Play Sally Craig and Ginny Going Can deep, wise love happen with the shift of the wind, or a gesture of the hand, or a change in the weight of a moment? Come explore the fertile ground of play, body wisdom and ritual through primal forms of movement, stillness and music. We will seek the wisdom we hold in our individual bodies and the group body, using InterPlay forms and practices that celebrate life and bring us into the present moment. Sally Craig is co-author of Sacred Circles: A Guide to Creating Your Own Women’s Spirituality Group, and a spiritual director and political organizer. The Rev. Ginny Going is an Episcopal deacon, InterPlay leader and organizational consultant. 207 Devotional Chant Karnamrita Devi Dasi The Divine answers us when we let go and pray out of our deepest place of love. Come experience this in the sacred joys of Hindu call-and-response chant. These soulful, devotional recitations will give voice to your inner light and offer it to our world. Karnamrita Devi Dasi is a classically trained performer of Vaishnav Hindu chant. Her album DASI: Prayers by Women is a critically acclaimed offering of devotional prayers by the female saints of India. 208 Enduring Lives: Love in Action Carol Lee Flinders Jewish mystic Etty Hillesum was called “the thinking heart of the barracks.” Researcher Jane Goodall proved that empathy is a valid mode of knowing. Buddhist nun Tenzin Palmo says compassion arises out of penetrating insight. How can we find our own way to the still places within where heart and intellect converge? We will focus on transformative life stories (including our own) through lecture, small group work and meditation. Carol Lee Flinders, Ph.D., co-author of the classic Laurel’s Kitchen cookbooks, has written extensively about women’s spirituality. 209 Leadership as Natural Relationship Carol Gallagher Native peoples understand leadership not as an isolated personality trait but a natural expression of connectedness to other humans and non-humans across time. A light-filled calling of love, it answers the question “who am I responsible to?” Music and chant will open the way for us to recollect how natural leadership has impacted us. We’ll share this knowledge and express it in arts-based exercises and prayer. Take-away tools will help us remember our relatedness to support our leadership. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Carol Joy Gallagher is Assistant Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. She honors her Cherokee roots in her ministry and recently completed her doctorate on indigenous peoples’ leadership models. 210 Voice the Vehicle, Love the Destination Michele George Our own stories are the lights that illumine our beloved world. For love to blaze, we must go deeper into our journey than ever before. Let us dare to share, sisters, as we sing, laugh, listen, play, write, call out and breathe our prayer in silence, embodying our voices to be the messengers of love to a famished land. Create a unique message to take home and spread the news: love is the heart of deep wisdom! Michele George is a creator of music and theater who uses her voice intuitively. She believes in the power of sound and story to make whole a wounded world. 211 Reconciling Forgiveness Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela Drawing from the lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), we will examine forgiveness as a process that aids psychological healing in the aftermath of trauma. Using lecture, conversation and role-play, we’ll explore how forgiveness might ensure that yesterday’s victims do not become tomorrow’s perpetrators. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is a clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of Cape Town, and author of A Human Being Died That Night, a record of her TRC exchanges with the top enforcer of apartheid in South Africa. |
212 The Song of Songs: Exploring the Landscape of Love Shefa Gold “Had the Torah not been given,” said Rabbi Akiva, “we could live our lives by the Song of Songs.” What would it mean to do this place this erotic, sensual, explicit and most beautiful poem at the center of our tradition? Together, we will enter into the landscape of this sacred song through the practices of chant, meditation, and the contemplation of our path as lovers. Rabbi Shefa Gold is a leader in ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and director of C-DEEP, the Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice. 213 Essence and Purpose: A Loving and Radical Acceptance Helen LaKelly Hunt Discover the alliance between spiritual conviction and social action, the psychospiritual evolution of a woman’s life. Using the examples of two women, Sojourner Truth and Dorothy Day, we will be invited to reflect upon our essence and how it manifests itself in the world through our calling. Through storytelling, quiet reflection, journaling and small group discussion, we will be called to connect with ourselves at our essence to forge a bond with our own life’s mission. Helen LaKelly Hunt is co-founder of the Institute for Imago Relationship Therapy and founder of the Sister Fund, a foundation supporting the fullness of life for women and girls. 214 Dance into the Body-Soul Neva Ingalls Yoga is an ancient, devotional dance. The yogis of the ages wished to heal the world and we too know this longing today. Come dive deep into your body-soul through yoga and dance. We’ll expand our awareness of love and feel our connectedness to all living beings. From that mending we can venture out in joy and creative wisdom to touch the hearts of all. A teacher of yoga, dance and the healing arts for 25 years, Neva Ingalls conducts trainings in Yoga Alliance affiliated schools, leads retreats and teaches workshops at Hot Yoga and other studios across the U.S. 215 Light of the Pure Heart Nancy Zarifah Kadian Keeping the heart pure allows us to hope despite the tests and trials of life on earth, and to integrate our spiritual experience into everyday living. Together we will focus on purifying the heart and awakening its light so that forgiveness, compassion and love may flow. We will draw on Sufi practices of purification, breathing and meditation, along with movement, music and chanting in order to become clear receptacles for inner guidance and inspiration. A psychotherapist focused on the integration of spirituality and psychology, Nancy Zarifah Kadian, L.C.S.W., has been a student and teacher in the Sufi Order International for more than 30 years. 216 Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow Elizabeth Lesser How strange that the nature of life is change, and yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear are the times that break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be. In this workshop we will use meditation, discussion, and guided visualization to release the fears of change, loss, and death that keep us from loving and living fully. Elizabeth Lesser is co-founder of Omega Institute, the renowned conference and retreat center in Rhinebeck, New York. She is the author of The Seeker’s Guide and Broken Open. 217 Cosmology, Deep-time and the Fourfold Wisdom Miriam Therese MacGillis Honor the fourfold wisdom as taught by Thomas Berry’s The Great Work: the wisdom of indigenous peoples, the wisdom of women, the wisdom of the classical traditions and the wisdom of science. Learn a new origin story that releases a more universal love for the entire Earth community. Explore “deep-time” and love as understood from contemporary scientific perspectives on the inherent unity and activity within a single, evolving universe. Practicing ritual and movement together, we will come to carry these understandings more consciously. Sister Miriam MacGillis, O.P. is co-founder of Genesis Farm, a 140-acre learning center for Earth studies and working farm in rural New Jersey. 218 Humility’s Wisdom: Loving Allah Anisa Mehdi In Islam, humility is a passage to love. Using lists, loud voices and laughter we’ll tackle prevailing stereotypes about violence and misogyny in Islam. Unpacking media and pop culture’s influence, we will consider new understandings about love’s place in this tradition. With this new awareness we’ll get down on our knees and feel the power of humility, its great wellspring of love. While experiencing “salat,” or ritual prayer, you will get a hint of the depth of love and gratitude that comes with humility’s wisdom. Emmy award-winning journalist Anisa Mehdi is a religion reporter and interfaith advocate who produced and directed “Inside Mecca” for National Geographic Television. 219 Fierce Compassion Sharon Salzberg Although frequently denigrated as simplistic and weak, the quality of kindness has an inherent power to transform our worldview from one of fear and isolation to one of clarity, courage and compassion. Come explore the powerful, sometimes fierce side of kindness, known in Buddhist teachings as wrathful compassion. Through talks, guided meditations and question-and-answer sessions, we will enter the terrain of right intention, right speech and right action in the everyday challenge of bringing together compassion, honesty, strength and balance. Sharon Salzberg is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. She has led meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. 220 Coyaba Wisdom: Traditional West African Dance Sylvia Soumah “Coyaba” means heaven in the Arawak language and this traditional West African dance class combines humor, laughter, and energetic movement that will feed your body, mind and soul. Come be inspired to move according to your spirit. We’ll experiment with dances that express love, and reverence to the cultures and traditions of the African Diaspora. Exult in this unique energy and be filled with the spirit, color, and texture of these practices. Sylvia Soumah is the founder and director of Coyaba Dance Theater now in its tenth year, and directs the African dance program at D.C.’s Dance Place. 221 Dreams, Justice, Love Ann Belford Ulanov Dreaming is democratic, cutting across culture, race, age, creed and gender. It is a principle language of our human unconscious. In this workshop we will enter the experience of dreaming and see how it compensates our conscious attitudes, how it connects inner and outer justice, and how it expresses the place of love in reality. Ann Belford Ulanov, M. Div., Ph.D., L.H.D. is professor of psychiatry and religion at Union Theological Seminary, a Jungian analyst and author of numerous titles including Finding Space: Winnicott, God and Psychic Reality and Picturing God: The Wisdom of the Psyche. 222 Transformative Love for Spirited Action Angel Kyodo Williams The power of love as an enabler of deep, lasting social change is undervalued for one simple reason: we are not certain how to love in an authentic and balanced way. Love is often misinterpreted as pity and overprotection that creates separation. As a catalyst for transforming society, it is best understood as the healing energy that allows us to see clearly and respond wisely. Our only hope for real change, we’ll discuss and experiment with elements that can contribute to creating this culture of transformative love. The Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams has devoted herself to a vision of spirited action: applying wisdom teachings to broad-based social change and creating transformative cultures of love.
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