May 7-9 online. Sponsored by Rahmana Dziubany to honor the 100th anniversary of the Universal Worship service. Donations in support of the Haus Ananda Brandenberg service project. Details of teachers presenting, schedule and registration here.
Our periodic online group gathers for two weeks….details here:
Eight-week retreat with Neil beginning 11 April in English and Spanish. Focusing on the Gospels of John and Thomas, and the “I Am” sayings. Registration now open–online link below:
An online panel sponsored by the SFH Foundation with Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, Prof. Sadiyya Shaikh, Dr. Adnan Aladnani and myself. Streamed earlier today:
Dear Friends of Abwoon,
Happy to be sharing retreat space again with good friend and colleague Br. Joe Kilikevice in Illinois, USA on 27 February, from 10 am – 1 pm Chicago time, so 4pm – 7pm here in the UK. This is sponsored for Lent by St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn, IL, with which Br. Joe has a relationship. For details, see here
Stay safe…all the best, Neil
In English with German translation
Saturday 16.01.2021 and Saturday 23.01.2021
Desert Flowers, our oldest online group, which meets three times a year for two weeks each time, will be opening in the next few days.
If you are interested in joining, please see the description and details below. The group is run through a closed listserv. There is no charge.
All the best,
Neil Douglas-Klotz
Dear Friends of Abwoon,
I am privileged to offer this special day with my friend Brother Joe, with whom I co-led many of the early Aramaic Jesus retreats in the 1980s. Together we shared teaching, sharing, Dances of Universal Peace and art-as-meditation in many forms. This online retreat day will include chant, body prayer, sharing, contemplation and bread-baking as our art-as-meditation—a reminder that daily life is our own unique art and gift of the cosmos.
Love and blessings to you all,
Neil
Create Through Us the Bread of Life
An Interfaith Advent Day of Retreat, Saturday, December 12, 2020
on Zoom, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, USA Central Standard Time
The title of this retreat is a translation of the familiar words, “Give us this day our daily bread.” sourced from the ancient texts of the Bible written in the Aramaic language Jesus spoke. This translation makes clear the mandate to be the spiritual nourishment for one another that goes beyond simply feeding the hungry. The remainder of the Aramaic text implies a radical trust that more will be provided when we are generous. “We ask only for what is needed to feed the next mouth.” Daily bread becomes the Bread of Life that welcomes all as we reach out in loving kindness to those who seek spiritual sustenance from us.
This Advent day of retreat offers an opportunity to claim a day of peace during a time of pre-holiday stress. We reclaim the ritual of baking a loaf of bread and relearn the simple pleasure of being host and guest of one another. This becomes the ancient ritual of tasting, savoring and enjoying the nourishment of bread and friendship while observing the safety measures the covid pandemic requires. We remember that we are hosts and beloved guests who feast on the gifts of the earth and the spiritual nourishment that comes through us to each other.
Using Zoom, Neil will offer teachings and spiritual practices on the Aramaic words of Jesus from his home in Scotland. Br. Joseph will guide the process of baking delicious honey whole wheat bread as a spiritual practice from his kitchen at Shem Center in Illinois.
Small group zoom meetings, breaks and an hour for lunch offline will be part of the day. Participants are asked to make a commitment to the entire retreat day from 10:00am to 4:00pm. It will only be available live, not on recording later. Registration details follow below. The bread recipe is a simple one anyone can use with guidance.
A lists of ingredients and utensils will be sent with a confirmation of registration.
Sorry, we cannot accept registrations after December 7, 2020.
REGISTRATION send via e-mail Emory Mead, registrar emory.mead@yahoo.com
Name: _____________________________________
your e-mail address: _____________________________________
donation amount: __________________________
Your donation in any amount will be received with gratitude and used to help further our interfaith/inter-spiritual missions.
After registering, go to the PayPal home page, and select “Send Money, Pay on Line,” then “Send a Request” at the top of the page. Using the Shem Center e-mail address–shemcenter1993@gmail.com —enter the amount of your donation. It will go directly into the Shem Center PayPal account.
If you prefer, you may send a check to:
Shem Center for Interfaith Spirituality
708 N. Harvey Ave.
Oak Park, IL 60302 USA
This Sunday September 13 is the last day to sign up for the online retreat in the Aramaic Prayer, which begins on Sunday 20 September, 5 pm UK time. We need a week in between for the organizers to send the details to everyone and make sure they have them. All sessions will be recorded and posted a day later to a secure web page.
I want to emphasize that the retreat is by dana, freewill donations only, absolutely no compulsion. The registrars only need your name and email address. I am not keeping track of who donates what or who donates anything. The web page will have al link to make a donation if one wishes to do so.
Registration for English speakers to:
Sylvia Murillo: fibati58@hotmail.com
For Spanish speakers to:
Esperanza Gonzalez: yafatta@hotmail.com
Stay Safe!
Yours in peace,
Neil
Aramaic Prayer retreat via Zoom
8 Sessions on Sundays:
September 20-November 8
With translation into Spanish
Dear Friends,
At the request of friends in Colombia, I will be offering an 8-week retreat on the Aramaic Prayer (the “Lord’s Prayer”) in English with Spanish translation, beginning Sunday, 20 September. Each session will last 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours. They will be recorded, in case you cannot make the live session. The live session will begin at 11:00 in Colombia (GMT -5), same as in the Central Time Zone of the USA, and 17:00 in the UK.
Although this was originally envisioned only for Spanish speakers, it is now also being opened to English speakers. I will be speaking English followed by the Spanish translation. In each session, we will take up one line of the prayer. Sessions will include:
In the short video below, recorded in March, I talked about the Prayer in “virus times.” Our earth’s crisis has only become more urgent since then. A focus on the selfless meditation of the Aramaic Prayer can provide healing personally and allow us to send protection and blessing to our surrounding communities:
Because of translation, more time will be spent in chanting and meditation than in looking at word meanings. Both Prayers of the Cosmos and The Hidden Gospel are available in English and Spanish, so these are resources to begin with, which will help deepen the experience of the retreat series.
The retreat will be by donation. Because of the translation work involved, and in order to support those local communities, the organizers have suggested a minimum donation of $80, but no one will be excluded for lack of funds. Registration is required, and people are requested to sign up only if they intend to stay for the full 8-week journey.
Registration and Information:
For English speakers: Sylvia Murillo, fibati58@hotmail.com
WhatsApp: +57 315 340 2013
For Spanish speakers: Esperanza Gonzalez, yafatta@hotmail.com
WhatsApp: +57 311 254 8942
Once you have registered, you may make a donation via PayPal through the following link. You do not need a PayPal account.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DT6FGH3BHU7V8&source=url
Rather than use a separate listserv, I will post audio and video recordings at a web page only available to those who have registered. Questions after each session will be sent to the organizers, with my priority for answering given to those who are Spanish-speaking. I will endeavor to do my best to answer everyone, but this series is, as mentioned, primarily about devotion, prayer, healing and sending blessing rather than linguistics.
This will likely be the only Aramaic Jesus online retreat I will do this autumn.
I hope that you will be able to join us!
Love and blessings,
Neil