“Big Love in Times of Instability” With Tasnim Fernandez and Neil Douglas-Klotz

Following up on our retreat in March, we are going further with our theme (prior attendance not required). By freewill donation. See details and sign-up here.

Dear Friends,

With the recent report by the UN climate panel, it becomes more urgent than ever to change our consciousness of nature and our activity within it. Arguably, the source of all of our current challenges lies in our inability to do this.

We need to think and feel from *within* nature rather than *about* it, from the outside. As difficult, or even impossible, it may seem to do this, it is possible and we have a human lineage of those who travelling ahead of us who have done so. I collected some pioneers of this different way of being conscious in my most recent book Wild Wisdom. A link to the book on this site appears below.

https://abwoon.org/wild-wisdom/

If you have the book and like it, please consider posting a review on Amazon or your other online source. If you don’t have it, well….enough said!

Neil

with Neil Douglas-Klotz and Br. Joseph Kilikevice

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