2021 Annual Conference
Healing Ritual: Quaker Perspectives
Dawn Ottoni-Wilhem, PhD, Plenary Speaker
A VIRTUAL Quakers in Pastoral Care and Counseling Retreat
Saturday, April 17, 2021 by Zoom
9:00 AM-1:30 PM PDT/12:00 PM-4:30 PM EDT
Quakers have a history of rejecting elaborate religious ceremonies out of a belief in spiritual equality and concern for religious persecution. Further, many converted Friends come to Quakerism to heal from traditions where ritual is utilized to force beliefs or experiences, enlivened by spontaneity and renewal.
This Quaker responsiveness to Spirit leads us to ask: what might ritual offer us for this moment? The pandemic of Covid-19 has brought massive disruption and a time to re-examine habits of individual and social life. In this historical moment of shifting norms, we see how ritualized daily life is.
What is ritual today for Friends? We will reflect how it is embedded in human life, encourages healing, and calls forth personal and social transformation. How might we employ ritual to heal from the traumas of our era? How can we use ritual in our own spiritual lives, and how can we share ritual in our spiritual caregiving?
Plenary Speaker
Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm is Alvin F. Brightbill Professor of Preaching and Worship at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana. Dawn’s teaching and research combines her skills and knowledge of liturgical and ritual studies with theopoetics, spirituality, and peace and justice studies, including feminist hermeneutics and homiletics. Recent writing projects include Preaching Prophetic Care: Building Bridges to Justice, co-edited with Phillis-Isabella Sheppard and Ron Allen (Pickwick Pub., 2019). In 2020, she completed a certification in Spiritual Direction from Oasis Ministries and co-teaches Earlham School of Religion’s Spiritual Direction course. Dawn is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, is a musician, and served three years as a hospital chaplain early in her ministry.
Schedule
Times Listed in Pacific Daylight Time
Friday, April 16
5:00 pm... -Social time, gathering (1 hour)
Saturday, April
17
8:30 am… -Optional
opening worship (30 min)
9:00 am… -Welcome and
Plenary 1: “Ritual and Reflection”
(45-minute presentation with
15-minute Q&A)
10:00 am… -Small group
break out session (45 min)
10:45 am… -Meal
Break
11:45 am… -Plenary 2:
“Ritual Care and Faith”
12:45 pm… -Small group
break out session (30 min)
1:15 pm… -Closing--large group
Plenary 1: Ritual and Reflection
Rituals have been developed by religious communities and individuals for centuries to mark moments of significant life transition,such as birth, coming of age, marriage, and death. Rituals also may encourage (or thwart) movement through other significant life-moments. In cases such as crisis, trauma, and unexpected change, rituals may emerge on their own or be organized to help channel the new modes of thinking, feeling, and acting that are being called forth. In this first session, we ask: What are the theological, historical, storied, spiritual, and communal resources that inform our ritual practices today?
Plenary 2: Ritual and Faith
As embodied expressions of faith, rituals call forth memories and facilitate moments of liminal encounter—an “inbetween” experience ripe for change. During the current pandemic and beyond, how may we adapt or create new rituals that meet the needs of those connected to our services of care? Time will be open to share specific instances, struggles, ideas, and questions about how ritual is taking shape in your life and work.
Registration costs:
--$50 for professionals (therapists, chaplains, social workers, etc.)
--$25 for non professsionals, Meeting clerks, attenders (e.g. Ministry and Counsel)
--$10 for students
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