Creating Sacred Space Virtually
Last year, the Fetzer Institute hosted a series of virtual convenings to harvest what folks were learning about creating meaningful sacred space using online tools, resulting in a report called "Creating Sacred Space Virtually." While this effort was a direct response to the pandemic, many facilitators and retreat centers are finding that virtual programming might be here to stay, primarily for reasons of accessibility.
Conversation Circles for Chaplains of Color: Updates, Innovations, and New Groups
This January, The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab (CIL) launched Conversation Circles for Chaplains of Color as part of our work with the Fetzer Institute to support and build networks for spiritual care providers. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial reckoning, and the legacies of racial violence, we decided that our first circles would honor and support the work that chaplains of color do to provide spiritual care for individuals and challenge racial structures.
Enter Spring, Parker Palmer Muses on the Season
I will wax romantic about spring and its splendors in a moment, but first there is a hard truth to be told: before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in the early spring through fields that will suck your boots off, a world so wet and woeful it makes you yearn for the return of ice. But in that muddy mess, the conditions for rebirth are being created.
Resources for Grieving
Each person's grief is as unique as their fingerprint. But what everyone has in common is that no matter how they grieve, they share a need for their grief to be witnessed. —David Kessler
Death, loss, and grief are profound, inevitable experiences that will affect every one of us. They also hold the potential for deep spiritual awakening and learning. To honor the profound loss of life due to the pandemic we offer these resources on grieving from A Network for Grateful Living, Spirituality & Practice, On Being, and more.
Co-creating Our Story: A Hybrid Participatory Case Approach to Evaluating and Accelerating Organizational Change
At Fetzer, our "Community of Freedom" is at the heart of all that we do. For three hours each week, our full staff stops work and either together or individually cultivates their spiritual path—however they define it. We explore personal spiritual interests, share new ideas and work, build connections with teammates and partners, and learn about topics from emotional intelligence and mindfulness to spiritual parenting. We believe that providing the space to develop such a community will help us become a more effective organization by creating a culture of love and authenticity.
My Grandmother’s Gift: An Ethic of Transformational Love
My grandmother cried when I told her that I was going to be a political organizer. I remember her smile, the one I counted on for affirmation and love in a world that often felt challenging, quickly disappear. I couldn’t imagine what I had said wrong; I was doing the very thing I thought she wanted me to do: transform the world.
Moving Toward Love as a Cultural Operating System
We are on the move, even when we are sitting perfectly still.
There Is a Season: A Meditation on the Cycles of Our Inner Lives
An essay on nature's seasons, both as a physical reality and as a metaphor for our lives. Written by our friend Parker Palmer in celebration of the Fetzer Institute's retreat center, Seasons.
What Does Spirituality Mean to Us? A Study of Spirituality in the United States
This study sought to better understand spirituality in the United States today by asking people about how they understand and experience spirituality for themselves, and how their spirituality relates to the way they engage with others and their community. This effort included people inside and outside religious institutions, those who consider themselves spiritual, and those who do not. The study comprises interviews, focus group conversations, and a statistically relevant national survey.
Spiritual Practices to Support Democratic Values and Virtues
This chart is designed to show how spiritual practices uphold democratic values and cultivate democratic virtues. We invite you to use it—and add to it—as you go about practicing democracy at home, at work, online, and in other settings.