COT – Taking Heart Once More

June 30, 2012 - July 6, 2012
BangorPA
USA

Circle of Trust – Taking Heart Once More:
Jean Richardson

30.06.12

…if we are willing to embrace the challenge of becoming whole…we cannot embrace that challenge all alone, at least, not for long; we need trustworthy relationships to sustain us, tenacious communities of support, if we are to sustain the journey toward an undivided life.

— Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness

As our bodies need nourishment, so do our souls. Gathering in a Circles of Trust is like gathering around table for good, honest heart talk with ourselves and others. A Circle of Trust offers food for the soul in a safe and trust worthy environment. Using a retreat –based, small group model of formation, participants are invited to discover again the deep connection between role and soul in their lives. Given the gift of time and space participants hear their own inner wisdom, learn to create a community of mutual respect and to reconnect professional identity and personal integrity.

When we reconnect who we are with what we do, we approach our lives and our work with renewed passion, commitment, and integrity. Within A Circle of Trust® retreat we are invited to explore our own most profound questions at the heart of our many roles. In this retreat Jean, who has worked with Parker J. Palmer and is prepared by the Center for Courage & Renewal®, will help create a quiet, focused, and disciplined space—a circle of trust—in which the noise within us and around us can subside and we can begin to hear our own inner voice.

• An opportunity to explore questions of meaning and purpose, of calling, of the relationship of inner life and outer work

• Time to explore the intersection of “soul” and “role”.

• Opportunities to discern and claim birthright gifts and to consider how those gifts can best be used in leadership activities.

• A chance to consider what it mean to be authentic – in life and in leadership roles.

• An opportunity to reflect on how to engage in leadership roles out of a deep sense of identity and integrity.

• A context for deep connection with others that honors differences. In each Circle, all activities are in the context of invitation: individuals are safe in knowing their choices regarding disclosure and participation will be honored and held in strict confidentiality

Jean Richardson, D. Min.

Since 2005 Jean has served as the director of Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania U.S. A. Kirkridge Retreat Center was born out of the Iona Movement in 1942 and presently is the home for The New World Foundation of the Iona Community. Prior to coming to Kirkridge, Jean spent 10 years on the staff of Ghost Ranch, a national center of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., as the program director and director of development. A trained facilitator of the Center for Courage and Renewal® and ordained Presbyterian minister, she has worked the last 14 years in retreat ministry. Prior to moving in to retreat work, Jean served as an urban pastor and as a consultant and adjunct faculty member with San Francisco Theological Seminary in California.

For more information please visit the website.