Introducing our new LEADERSHIP COMMONS
Weather: A Novel
Author Event with Jenny Offill
Thursday, May 13, 2021
4:00-5:15pm (Eastern) • Author reading, facilitated conversation and Q&A
5:30-6:00pm (Eastern) • Pop-up book discussion groups (optional)
Free Online Event • Open to the Public
Dawnland—Online Film Screening and Live Q&A
Thursday May 20, 2021
6:30pm-8:30pm (Eastern)
In partnership with Upstander Project we are hosting a public online screening of the Emmy® award-winning film Dawnland, followed by a Q&A with film participant Esther Anne of Wabanaki REACH and film senior advisor Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy) of the Abbe Museum.
We hope that this screening and conversation will help to raise awareness and inspire action among congregations, other community groups, and all people of good will. We hope you will join us in heeding this story.
Reimagining The Future
A Climate Reality Presentation and En-ROADS Interactive Solutions Simulation led by Bill Middlecamp
Monday, May 24, 2021
7:00 - 8:30pm (Eastern) • via Zoom
This event will include a Climate Reality Presentation showing the environmental-destruction impacts we are experiencing today, how we got to this point, and what the future may hold. Following that, participants will use En-ROADS to imagine together what our future could be. En-ROADS is a “choose your ending” simulation that uses some of the best available science to compute and present the results of choices in energy, food production, land-use and consumer behavior that society can make today.
New Futures for the Post-Pandemic Church
A Continued Conversation with Kenda Creasy Dean and Paul Nixon
Thursday, May 27, 2021
4:00-5:15 pm (Eastern) • via Zoom
Last June, in the midst of a terrifying pandemic and countrywide protests against police violence, we invited Paul Nixon and Kenda Creasy Dean to share their insights about what the future held for post-pandemic faith communities, as we all looked forward to the day when everything could “return to normal.”
A year later, with a new normal still out of our reach, we’re inviting them back to check in on the predictions they made a year ago, to share what this last year has taught them, and to hear their dreams and challenges for faith communities in the wake of COVID-19.
Come to join a frank and hopeful discussion about the path forward for the post-pandemic church.
Brave ART Retreat
With contemplative painter Bronwen Mayer Henry
Thursday, June 3, 2021
10:00am-4:00pm (Eastern)
Register by May 25 to receive a creativity packet
$25 for full-day retreat / Open to the Public
This retreat — along with stories, meditations, and practices — will draw on the beauty and intrigue of the natural word as our source of inspiration and subject matter. We will acknowledge heartache while reaching towards freedom, curiosity, and compassion. We will focus on strengthening the creative process and on returning to joy.
If you are feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, if you are looking for practices to help counter burnout, if you are in need of community, self-compassion, and inspiration to guide you through challenging times — please join us! All are welcome. No artistic experience required. Come as you are.
Would you believe me if I told you we were the forerunners a great spiritual renewal? What if I said this renewal would change our global culture at the end of this century? That it will see the emergence of a new mysticism in contrast to technology and a strong social conscience of sustainability and justice. We are at the very beginning of this movement. We will not all live to see its first moments of birth, but we will have the joy of knowing that we were the shoulders on which others stood to make it a reality. History will show that what we did today to lift up an open-minded spirituality, welcoming to all people, made a difference. Our choice to stand together, to advocate for justice, and to heal this planet will be recognized as the breakthrough. Because we did not give up, they excelled. Would you believe me if I told you that?
