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Fall Term: Grounding for the Journey
September 28-December 15, 2007
Termlong Course Descriptions
Spirit Taking Form: Clay and Stone as Spiritual Grounding
We will participate in the act of creation as we experience the inherent qualities of earth's raw materials and engage in the work and play of shaping them into works of art. We will learn traditional methods of forming soft clay into vessels or sculptural forms, making molds and casts, and carving resistant materials such as plaster and stone. Each material, each process, and each finished piece will offer us spiritual lessons and insights for reflection and sharing.
Grounded in the Spirit - Acting in the World: A Seminar in Spirit-centered Activism
Niyonu Spann and invited guest lecturers
This is a seminar course designed to promote a deeper engagement with the inward and outward journey of Spirit-led activism. The course will offer first-hand stories, reflections, research and teachings of activists who have felt and answered the call to bring our relationships in balance. The focus is on the practices that prepare us inwardly to respond outwardly. We will be challenged in our understanding of and ability to articulate prophetic witness, peace building, and intentionally creating just and sustainable ways of being in the world. We also want to examine the common traps or patterns that block one’s ability to answer the call effectively.
Part 1 – Tuesday Evening Lecture Series
Part 2 – Reflection and Discussion
The second part of this course is focused on guided reflection stimulated by each speaker’s sharing. The required Monday afternoon Reflection/Discussion sessions will be conducted in a modified worship sharing format followed by an open discussion.
Part 3 – Final Project
At the end of the term, each student will produce a final project that should assist in the integration of the learning. The final project will take the form of a paper, art project, or performance piece on the theme: Findings at the intersection of Spirit and Action.
Quakerism: Living into Our Radical Faith
This course focuses on important elements of Quaker faith and practice. Looking at both the prophetic beginnings and the varied current manifestations of the Religious Society of Friends, we will examine the creative tensions between inner experience and outer expression, as well as individual and corporate faithfulness. Class exercises and reflections will help us explore Quakerism experientially, encouraging us to live more fully into our own faith, whatever it is.
Whole Body, Whole Mind, Holy Spirit
Experience is the basis of a Quaker understanding of Truth. What does it mean for Truth to be known experimentally? The practice of discernment - listening for leadings, hearing the still small voice, and following the inner guide - is central to the practice of Friends. In this course we will look at the role of the body in knowing the Divine. We will examine how Friends through history have considered the body and at our personal history with our own bodies. Recognizing the body as container for the still small voice, we will explore how our Quaker faith might be transformed through an embodied practice.
The class will include a mixture of experiential exercises, small group sharing, class discussion, journaling, and worship or worship sharing. We will explore our relationship to our own bodies through the creation of personal body timelines. We will look at how our bodies directly inform our knowing through art process and guided journaling exercises. We will explore a variety of embodied spiritual practices, including Self-Breema, sacred chant, sacred circle dance, Meeting for Healing, and others. Each student will be encouraged to keep a journal of body awarenesses and to meet weekly with a partner in a body-centered co-listening session.
The class will culminate with students sharing their own personal visions for an embodied faith and practice.
Fall 2007 Short Courses
October 8-12, 2007
Sustaining the Soul that Serves
A short course with Marian R. David and Anthony T. Browder
This course offers both emerging and seasoned service leaders the opportunity to experience transformational and spiritual practices that will uphold their inner spirit and support them in their work for social justice and peace. These soul-sustaining practices enable leaders to be architects of a just world where everyone has full knowledge of their potential as powerful spiritual beings. By discovering (and re-discovering) these practices, leaders become more conscious servant-leaders, more empathic with those they serve and with whom they serve, remain connected to the heart-center of their work, and therefore are better able to manage stress and avoid burnout.
October 22-26, 2007
Faith to Follow: Responding to Call
A short course with Viv Hawkins
Are you blessed with a leading? Discerning the meaning of a persistent nudge? Or frightened by a call? In this “worship-shop” we will explore faithfulness, understand and share our call or leading, step into a six-stage cycle of call, discover what helps and hinders our faithfulness at various stages, claim our gifts, and have fun. In a Spirit-led, participant-centered context, we will encourage and empower each other to respond faithfully to our divine calls and live into our most sacred selves.
November 5-9, 2007
Compassionate Communication
A short course with Jason Kelley and Jane Connor
Every day we experience conflict that brings pain and disconnects us from each other, including those closest to us. How can we stay open in the face of anger, mistrust, and pain and learn to live our daily lives nonviolently? Compassionate, nonviolent communication, based on the work of clinical psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D., is both a consciousness and a tool that supports open-hearted connections between people and strategies that meet everyone’s needs. We will consider:
- How do I transform my habits of judgment into compassion?
- How do I live my values, especially with “difficult” people?
- How do I transform “victim” thinking by taking responsibility for my own needs and choices?
- How do I learn to see the beauty behind every action and in every person?
- How can I connect with the divine energy in myself and others?
