LIVING AN UNDIVIDED LIFE:
Introducing the Circle of Trust®
Facilitated by: Rev. Cat Greenstreet and Rev. Diane Berke
Available by: Watch Online Recordings (learn more about videoconference)
Price: General Public: $ 100.00 | One Spirit Graduates: $ 90.00
Elective Credit: 1
This retreat is based on the work of Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. The Courage & Renewal® approach, described in Palmer’s book "A Hidden Wholeness," focuses on cultivating our inner capacity to live a more authentic, meaningful, and engaged life.
This retreat is for anyone needing a place to do inner work on life's core questions in community. How are you faring both inwardly and outwardly? How do you embrace brokenness to move toward the reality of wholeness as challenges deepen in very 21st-century ways? How are you staying connected to self, family, friends, community, and the larger earth community as we live with the aftermath of a global pandemic, the relentless brutality of racism–head-on for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color–and other forms of hatred and othering; uncertainty in many shapes and sizes; and global climate derangement, causing suffering for many on our yet resilient planet? How do we resist turning away from the suffering, and with what frame of heart do we turn towards it? How do we find the courage to live with awe, joy, and delight at this transformational time?
We can’t do this work alone. We invite you to join us online for four sessions that introduce a Circle of Trust® as together we create a sacred, confidential space in which to do our own inner work in solitude and community. In all four sessions, we will have the opportunity to listen generously to our inner teacher (soul, spirit, still small voice, inner voice, identity, and integrity) and to one another in small groups and the whole group, speaking from the heart. Since a Circle of Trust is enriched by metaphors, we will reflect on “third things”: poetry, prose, images, video, and song. The quality of the space is shaped by the practices that everything we do is invitational and confidential. We willingly surrender the need to fix, change, advise, save, or correct. Instead, listening deeply and learning to ask open, honest questions open new doors in our relationships with self and others as we each find our way to live an undivided life.
Themes for each week:
Week 1: The Touchstones: Practices for Creating a Circle of Trust
Week 2: The Art of Asking Open, Honest Questions
Week 3: Holding Paradox to Live an Undivided Life
Week 4: Living Life on the Möbius Strip
FACULTY:
Cat Greenstreet, M.Ed.
Cat Greenstreet, M.Ed. has been a Courage & Renewal® Facilitator since 2006. She was an educator for 30 years and devoted the last 20 of those to Waldorf® education as an elementary and middle school teacher, a high school English and drama teacher, a teacher educator, and a school leader. In the 1970s and ‘80s, she taught English and writing in colleges throughout the New York metropolitan area and worked in business as a technical writer. In 2013 she helped found Hidden Water, an organization that offers a restorative justice approach for all who are impacted by childhood sexual abuse. She is the author of Mania Mysteries: A Grief Journey and currently offers Circle of Trust® retreats and one-on-one clearness conversations, based on Clearness Committees. She has offered Circle of Trust® retreats and workshops at One Spirit since 2013. A thread through all of her work has been creating spaces in which people of all ages can be in touch with their core selves, heal, and align who they are with what they do in the world. Cat also loves to walk in the forest, garden, play the electric bass, do qigong, and dance.
Rev. Diane Berke
Rev. Diane Berke is the Founder and Spiritual Director of One Spirit Learning Alliance. Ordained as an interfaith minister in 1988, she is a respected pioneer in the field of interfaith/interspiritual education; this past June (2020) she stepped down after 18 years as Director of the One Spirit Seminary Training. Diane has worked closely with Andrew Harvey in his Institute for Sacred Activism, is a founding member of the Contemplative Alliance of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, and is a co-founder of Transformation 365, an online platform to introduce people to a broad range of contemplative practices. She is also a certified facilitator of the Circle of Trust® work of the Center for Courage and Renewal. Diane maintains a private practice in spiritual counseling/companionship and supervision of spiritual counseling students and practitioners. In addition, she is a licensed mental health counselor in New York State. A student and teacher of A Course in Miracles for over 30 years, Diane has led retreats and workshops on spiritual development throughout the United States and internationally. She is the author of several books and educational manuals, including Love Always Answers, The Gentle Smile, Developing and Deepening Your Spiritual Practice, and Forgiveness as a Path of Awakening. Diane is known for the clarity and wisdom of her teaching, the sincerity and depth of her compassion, and her ability to create exceptionally safe and nourishing learning and companioning spaces in which people can heal and blossom. She continues to actively serve One Spirit as a "spiritual grandmother" and guide.