"It was so nice to be present to so many speaking the same language of Spirit: gratitude, renewal, and love."
Friday Workshops
Friday, April 12, 2013
Workshops: 75 minutes
When you participate in Cultivating Compassion on the River, you tend the vital need for compassion in our world and daily living. The workshops feature international presenters who engage SDI’s global learning community. You'll meet inspiring people and grow compassion. Everyone is welcome. To learn more about a presenter, click on his or her name.
Conference participants choose two and one alternative (total of three). Each workshop is offered twice. The percent (%) figures following workshop descriptions indicate the relative percentage of presentation, discussion, and experiential activity.
F1. Swimming in a River of Grief: A Metaphor for Loss and Grief in Spiritual Direction (Rev. Care Crawford, MDiv, ThM)
A consistent thread that surfaces in the ministry and service of spiritual direction is the theme of loss and grief. Since the day we are born to the day we die we experience loss. This workshop will lay a basic foundation on the themes of grief and loss, delineate differences between loss and grief, and help spiritual companions recognize the ways loss and grief effect people’s spiritual journeys.
65% Presentation, 15% Discussion, 20% Experiential
F2. Tending the Holy in the Now of Diminishment (Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND)
The chief objective of this workshop will be to explore the possibility of gifts being offered in the process of diminishment, our own and others, and to examine spiritual practices that might assist us in harvesting these gifts as they are given us in the now.
35% Presentation, 32% Discussion, 33% Experiential
F3. Meeting Kwan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Rev. Dr. Laura Marie Grimes)
Join a sacred circle and experience a wealth of interfaith resources about a classic archetype of compassion, “She Who Hears the Cries of the World.” Participants will learn about and contemplatively engage Kwan Yin’s myths and legends, art and music, and importance in Buddhism and women’s spirituality. This will equip individuals to draw on her as an ally for personal journeys as well as spiritual companioning of diverse individuals and groups.
33% Presentation, 33% Discussion, 33% Experiential
F4. Compassion and Confrontation in Spiritual Companioning: Insights from Henri Nouwen (Wil Hernandez, PhD)
WORKSHOP FULL
Henri Nouwen exemplified a way of companioning others that integrates compassionate caring with loving confrontation. This workshop will help us learn how to be a true “care-fronter” who can hold both compassion and confrontation in creative tension even as we come alongside others on their journey.
50% Presentation, 35% Discussion, 15% Experiential
F5. Tending to the Growing Edges: Cultivating the Garden of the Soul (Susan H. MacKenzie, PhD)
This workshop uses the garden as a metaphor for the spiritual director-spiritual directee relationship. It includes an overview of garden types and a question linking the garden with spiritual direction; an examination of the seasons of the garden as stages in spiritual formation; and spiritual practices that nurture the gardens and seasons we encounter as spiritual companions. Utilizing ecology, literature, individual reflection, and small group interaction, participants gain insight into a new framework for spiritual companionship.
65% Presentation, 35% Discussion, 0% Experiential
F6. Spiritual Direction in the Age of the Brain (Colleen McGeady-Ambrose)
WORKSHOP FULL
Neurobiology is explaining what theologians, prophets, and clergy have long known about the power of presence, the importance of faith, and the healing experience of compassion. In this workshop we will gain a basic understanding of the functioning of the brain and the implications for the service of spiritual companionship. Participants will leave with new information about how to cultivate compassion for themselves and for those they companion.
60% Presentation, 20% Discussion, 20% Experiential
F7. Spiritual Direction in the Context of HIV/AIDS (Susan Rakoczy, IHM, PhD)
HIV/AIDS is both a world-wide pandemic and a context in spiritual direction. The workshop will use David Aubsburger’s triad of “sympathy, empathy, and interpathy” to discuss some of the dynamics of the spiritual direction experience since all persons are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. These will include the challenges for the spiritual director, co-discernment, the experience of disclosure, seeking and finding God, images of God, and suffering and stigma.
55% Presentation, 45% Discussion, 0% Experiential
F8. The Church's Last Hope: Spiritual Direction in Faith Communities (Benjamin Lindwall)
For many, spiritual direction is the antidote to fundamentalist belief systems and religious demoralization. This workshop will explore the strategies, best practices, and risks involved in church-based spiritual direction in a presentation packed with stories, vibrant discussion, and helpful tools to move your ministry forward. Those interested in or actively working among those with an Evangelical background are especially welcome.
65% Presentation, 20% Discussion, 15% Experiential
F9. Reading Scripture with a Compassionate Heart (Rabbi Jacob J. Staub)
Participants will be invited to read selected biblical texts contemplatively after cultivating a compassionate heart. We will begin by opening our hearts with guided meditation and chant and will then read the texts with open hearts, letting go of interpretations we have learned. In the silence, we will observe and witness what emerges in our hearts. We will conclude by reflecting on how this compassionate practice might affect our work as spiritual directors.
40% Presentation, 30% Discussion, 30% Experiential
F10. The Art of Compassion (Diane Stephens, MA)
Seeing may well be the entryway to empathy. Recent research suggests seeing is more than believing—it can help our brains recognize and respond to the experience of another if we are paying attention. Come, learn, and practice an original method of seeing-and-praying with photography and works of art representing a variety of media, cultures, and global concerns—that we might truly see and cultivate compassion.
20% Presentation, 40% Discussion, 40% Experiential
F11. Bringing Spiritual Direction and Contemplative Practices to the First Half of Life (Rhesa Higgins and Rev. Julene Tegerstrand)
WORKSHOP FULL
Historically, spiritual direction has been concerned with the second half of life, but the river of interest is now moving among those in the first half of life as well. You are invited to experientially explore practices, tools, and symbols designed to equip spiritual directors to cultivate compassion with those under the age of forty. This interactive workshop models learning preferences of younger seekers to prepare spiritual directors for the unique challenges presented by these groups.
20% Presentation, 40% Discussion, 40% Experiential
F12. Spiritual Practices: Paths to Compassion (Rev. Jane E. Vennard)
WORKSHOP FULL
Spiritual practices keep us awake and fully alive. They allow us to see the world through God’s eyes and God’s compassionate heart. This workshop will explore a number of spiritual practices common to most world religions: care of the body, rest, silence, solitude, letting go, hospitality, and service. We will take time for practice, reflection, and sharing.
33% Presentation, 33% Discussion, 33% Experiential
F13. A Spirituality of Welcome: Embodying Compassion in Our Troubled World (Marilyn Lacey, RSM)
Compassion sounds wonderful, but can we really live it? How do we move from peaceful meditation space into the tense crush of daily life without moving off-center? Using Sufi poetry, scripture, humor, and stories from Lacey’s own interactions with refugees, this workshop traces spiritual growth from wakefulness, to worship, to welcome. Come, be surprised by the joy that awaits those who risk welcoming neighbors near and far!
75% Presentation, 25% Discussion, 0% Experiential
