An ideal introduction to the curriculum and work of the Sophia Center. At each Summer Institute distinguished spiritual teachers gather to explore the reclaiming of our spirituality.
A Gathering to Celebrate Thomas Berry’s work
(Click here to download PDF Registration Form)
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Jim Conlon, PhD, is the director of Holy Names University Sophia Center. His books include From the Stars to the Streets, At the Edge of Our Longing, The Sacred Impulse, Ponderings from the Precipice, Lyrics for Re-Creation, Geo-Justice, Earth Story Sacred Story, and the forth-coming Membranes of Mystery. Jim holds degrees in Chemistry, Theology, Culture and Spirituality, and Social Science.
Stephen Dunn, C.P., PhD, a Passionist priest, was the founder and first director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology & Ecology. In the late 1970s, he explored an emerging interest in the relationship between theology and its response to the ecological crisis. He is active with the Passionist Centre for Ecology and Spirituality.
John Grim, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Religion and the Environment at Yale University. He is the editor of the volume Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Inter-being of Cosmology and Community. For over ten years he has been the president of the American Teilhard Association. He is also the author of The Shaman and co-editor with Mary Evelyn Tucker of Worldviews and Ecology.
Diarmuid O’Murchu, MSC, PhD, is a counselor and social psychologist, whose entire working life has been in social ministry. As a workshop leader and group facilitator he has worked in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, The Philippines, Thailand, India, Peru and in several African countries. His best known books include: Quantum Theology, Reclaiming Spirituality, Evolutionary Faith, Catching Up with Jesus, and Ancestral Grace.
Brian Swimme, PhD, is a cosmologist, and the author of Hidden Heart of the Cosmos, Universe Story (with Thomas Berry), The Universe is a Green Dragon and the video series The Canticle of the Cosmos and Earth’s Imagination and new video series Powers of the Universe. He is a professor on the graduate faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Mary Evelyn Tucker, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Religion and the Environment at Yale University, holding joint appointments as a Research Scholar in the Divinity School, the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and the Department of Religious Studies. She is the author of many books on religion and ecology, and has recently published Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase.
INTERACTIVE DIALOGUES
Bernadette Bostwick, SGM, is the co-founder along with Gail Worcelo, of Green Mountain Monastery in Vermont, an Ecozoic monastery inspired by the thought and encouragement of Thomas Berry. She is an artist who is interested in bringing the ancient Christian art form of Iconography into a new cosmological expression. Her piece, Mary of the Cosmos, has received widespread attention.
Drew Dellinger, poet, teacher, activist, and long-time student of Thomas Berry, has inspired minds at conferences, colleges, poetry venues, protests and places of worship across the U.S. and the U.K. Dellinger’s poetry has been widely published and his book, Love Letter to the Milky Way, has enchanted readers on four continents.
Mary Southard CSJ, a Sister of St. Joseph. Her paintings and sculptures explore and give expression to the human soul as we experience the beauty and longing, the passion and mystery of our intimate and “radically amazing” Universe, our sacred and beautiful Earth. Art commissions and program work have taken her to many places in the US, Canada and Europe.
John Surette SJ, is a member of the New England Province of Jesuits. He has spent many years in the Caribbean Islands as an adult educator and community organizer. He, along with Mary Southard, CSJ, are co-founders of Spiritearth: a center of reflection, contemplation, and justice-making for the Ecozoic Era. A primary focus of his life in recent years has been listening to God’s Universe and assisting others to listen as well.
Gail Worcelo, SGM, MA, is a Passionist Nun originally from St. Gabriel’s Monastery in Clarks Summit, PA. She is currently co-founding, along with Bernadette Bostwick, a new monastic community—Green Mountain Monastery—with the guidance and support of Thomas Berry. The mission of this new community is the health and protection of Earth.
Music by Diane Forrest
A graduate of Sophia, Diane is a six and twelve string guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer of “The Dream of the Earth” in honor of Thomas Berry.
