This four-day intensive workshop is designed to build leadership capacity among the participants as they navigate the disintegration and disequilibrium of the structures that have supported religious life over the past two centuries. It is designed for anyone who leads during these chaotic times, formally or informally. The workshop draws on the ancient wisdom of contemplation and contemplative practices, the contemporary understanding of evolutionary consciousness and the research of integral theory of spiral dynamics. The participants will learn skillful means and tools to engage in real situations within their institutes, parishes, families, and communities that are characterized by tension among the different stages of consciousness and seemingly opposing value systems.

The purpose of the workshop is to collectively explore how to integrate and apply contemplation, evolutionary consciousness and integral theory so that each of us might be a prophetic and witnessing presence to a Cosmic Christ consciousness and We-Mysticism that is emerging around us.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

11:00 A.M. TO 5:00 P.M EASTERN TIME/10:00 A.M. TO 4:00 P.M. CENTRAL TIME (including a one-hour break)

Register here

Our Facilitators:

Nancy Sylvester, IHM

Nancy Sylvester, IHM founded the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (ICCD) in 2002 in response to her experiences working for justice and right relationships in church and in society. She serves as President of the Institute and as Executive Director designing, planning, and implementing, the Institute’s various programs. Nancy brings to this project her commitment to dialogue and collaborative work style. Nancy is committed to the transforming power of communal contemplation in one’s life and the life of the community. She believes it invites the shifts in consciousness so necessary to embrace our evolutionary journey and engage the critical issues facing us in ways that foster dialogue, relationships, compassion, and justice.

Her previous commitments included several national leadership roles including serving as President of Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), and on staff of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby.

Nancy is an author and known speaker. She has lectured widely on a number of topics including contemplation, the transformation of consciousness, living in a time of chaos, societal shifts in the world and church; leadership for transformation; the new universe story; and Catholic social justice teaching.

Dr. Vernice Solimar

Dr. Vernice Solimar joined with the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (ICCD) in 2018 to assist in designing and implementing Enter the Chaos-Engage the Differences to Make a Difference and with which she presently works.

Vernice was founder and chair of the Integral Psychology M.A. program, and former chair of Consciousness and Transformative Studies at John F. Kennedy University. With Dr. Monica Sharma, former Director of Leadership and Capacity Development for Developing Countries the United Nations, Vernice founded and directed the Leadership for Personal and Social Transformation certificate at JFKU.

She has taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. Vernice is a Founding Member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute in Colorado, and was co-faculty of several Integral Field courses in El Salvador, Ecuador and Peru, where she visited Liberation Theology and Indigenous communities and environmental groups. These courses provided opportunities for all of us to learn from and work with local communities, and explore together principles-in-action that foster greater economic, social and environmental well-being.

Debbie Asberry, MA

Deborah Asberry is a senior consultant of CommunityWorks, Inc. CommunityWorks, Inc. is a consulting firm dedicated and experienced in providing design, consultation and facilitation to organizations desiring tools and processes that support healthy, authentic and productive systems. Her work includes leadership development, organizational culture and process consultation. Her primary emphasis is in working with complex systems as they seek to find innovative ways to navigate emergence, uncertainty and unpredictability. Her client base includes faith-based institutions, nonprofit agencies, healthcare systems, universities and social justice agencies.

Debbie’s approach to supporting organizations is to partner with them to further develop their capacity to realize the mission and vision of their system. She brings the use of organizational development theory and practice, as well as best practices in the related fields of systems theory, emergence and chaos theory, organizational psychology, business management and leadership development.

She is certified as an executive coach practitioner with The Leadership Circle, which includes administering and interpreting cultural surveys and 360 leadership assessments.