Session Information
Just Listening
Listening is an act of Justice. JUST Listening fosters personal, organizational, and social change and transformation through the practice of conscious, intentional, compassionate, non-egoic and non-judgmental communication skills.
JUST Listening is premised upon the beliefs that:
• Being heard empowers the speaker.
• People hold the solutions to their own problems within.
• Skilled listening is creative, opening up new possibilities for all involved, and can be a powerful tool for personal and social change.
• Although rarely consulted or listened to, people on the social margins are the best source of information and ideas about the issues facing them.
• Skilled listening is possible only when one is actively cultivating self-awareness and regular habits of reflection.
Presented by Sharon Browning
The Work that Reconnects
What is Mine to Do?
If your heart is breaking in the face of the "Great Unraveling" of ecological,
economic, political and social systems, come join us for a brave and beautiful
journey as we dare to see we are not separate from the suffering of our world.
In the time of his own great unraveling, Francis of Assisi chose to turn toward
gratitude, singing a song of praise known as the Canticle of Creation. Joanna
Macy's Work That Reconnects (www.joannamacy.net) invites us also to choose gratitude and put our
attention instead on the "Great Turning;" the movement to a life sustaining society
that she calls "the essential adventure of our time." At the end of his life, Francis of
Assisi told his followers: “I have done that which was mine to do, may Christ teach
you yours.”
Using a Franciscan perspective and the Work That Reconnects, we invite you to
renew your connection to “that which is yours to do” and to discover how your unique
and authentic gifts are in service to the Earth in this time of planetary crisis.
We will use experiential practices, poetry, ritual, prayer, song, and silence to guide
our journey through the four stages of the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects. We
understand this Spiral to be archetypal and will explore it through the framework of
the Christian liturgical calendar.
Anne Symens-Bucher was first introduced to the work of Joanna Macy in 1984, and
has served as her executive assistant since 2006. She is deeply immersed in Macy's
work, and has been facilitating Work That Reconnects workshops for many years. In
addition to Joanna Macy, Anne has learned directly from Dorothy Day, Richard Rohr,
Marshall Rosenberg, and Bill Plotkin. Her teaching is woven from these mentors, from
many years immersed in a nonviolent campaign to end nuclear weapons testing in the
Nevada desert, and 25 years in the Franciscan Justice, Peace & Integrity Creation
Office of the St. Barbara Province. The place of her deepest practice has been in her 30
year marriage and parenting of five children. She is deeply grateful for her Catholic
Franciscan upbringing, which set her on the path of her soul work. Anne is a trained
spiritual director and enjoys supporting people to embrace what is theirs to do.
Terry Symens-Bucher has been trained in Council practice through the Center for
Council, in Nonviolent Communication with Marshall Rosenberg and BayNVC and has
studied extensively with Joanna Macy and Bill Plotkin. He has a Master of Divinity
Degree from the Franciscan School of Theology and a Juris Doctor from U.C. Hastings
College of Law. Terry’s soul work combines years of experience as a trainer and
facilitator with his own journey in vision quest, male rites of passage, and contemplative
practice.Terry helped co-found NorCalMALES and serves in a leadership role with
Illuman, organizations carrying on the work of Richard Rohr in men’s initiation and the
male spiritual journey.
Anne and Terry are Franciscans and the founders of Canticle Farm Community in
Oakland, California, where they are engaged in the practices they bring to this retreat,
as well as exploring racial healing through addressing systemic racism and white
privilege with the Work That Reconnects.
|
|
Online Registration
click here to register!
Mail-in Registration
click here for form!
Gathering 2016 Home
LVCW Home
|