News From New Mexico

A monthly newsletter from the Center for Action and Contemplation

Join us for The Future of Christianity: A Virtual Summit

We live in a time of widespread uncertainty about the future of Christianity. If you have ever felt conflicted about the religion’s history of violence, prejudice, and domination — know that you are not alone.

Considering the unprecedented crises our world faces, we urgently need to find a new way of being in the world together that bridges difference and embodies the reality of all life as sacred and connected. 

In that spirit, the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) invites you to join us for a virtual discussion on the current state and future of the Christian religion, featuring CAC faculty members Brian McLaren, Barbara Holmes, James Finley, and Richard Rohr.

This work invites each of us to play a part — a whole body, a whole community, a whole movement grounded in shared vision, values, and experiential knowing of God’s presence. We are called to show up in the world together.

Help us reach the next generation of spiritual seekers. We believe that finances should not be a barrier to the transformative wisdom of this tradition. And for this reason, your registration fees will help us to share this content more broadly by livestreaming a portion of this event to YouTube for free.

An Inspiring New Season of  Love Period with Jacqui Lewis

On the third season of Love Period Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis gathers a cadre of writers, parents, and activists to identify the common threads of wisdom that can help us to survive and thrive in these traumatic times. And, as always, Rev. Jacqui is asking "What's fierce love got to do with it?"

This new season of Love Period features Christena Cleveland, Tracey Michae'l-Lewis Giggetts, Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft, Kerry Docherty, Mirabai Starr, Serene Jones, Kerri Kelly, Jamia Wilson, Paul Raushenbush, and more. 

Watch Rev. Jacqui in a new trailer for this season of Love Period.

Do you yearn for a new vision of Christianity — one with love and justice at the core of its practice? Rev. Jacqui animates a renewed faith for our times in her new podcast Love Period. Writer, scholar, activist, and leader of a radically accepting congregation in New York City, Rev. Jacqui brings her devotion, clarity, and energy to this conversational podcast.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast player or listen each week online at https://cac.org/podcast/love-period/.

Brian McLaren explores the question many are afraid to ask: Do I Stay Christian?

Do I Stay Christian? addresses in public the powerful question that surprising numbers of people ― including pastors, priests, and other religious leaders ― are asking in private. Picking up where Faith After Doubt leaves off, Do I Stay Christian? is not McLaren's attempt to persuade Christians to dig in their heels or run for the exit. Instead, he combines his own experience with that of thousands of people who have confided in him over the years to help readers make a responsible, honest, ethical decision about their religious identity.

There is a way to say both yes and no to the question of staying Christian, McLaren says, by shifting the focus from whether we stay Christian to how we stay human. If Do I Stay Christian? is the question you're asking ― or if it's a question that someone you love is asking ― this is the book you've been waiting for.

Everyone who purchases Do I Stay Christian? from our online bookstore will be invited to participate in an exclusive Community Read-Along on Facebook! There will be discussion questions, prompts, and shared practices as we move through the book each week.

The CAC is an educational nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen compassionate engagement in the world. When you purchase this or any other book from our online bookstore you help us to introduce seekers from around the world to the contemplative Christian path of transformation.

Register Now for The Divine Exchange with Cynthia Bourgeault

The Divine Exchange is a 14-week online course exploring the heart of God through the idea of Divine Exchange, Cynthia Bourgeault’s framework for the Christian Wisdom tradition. Students will learn how kenosis, or self-emptying, can lead to a participatory exchange between the finite and the infinite.

Building on the foundations established in the Introductory Wisdom School, Cynthia Bourgeault continues to unpack the metaphysics of her Wisdom understanding to demonstrate how students can take the work even further through practices like kenosis and three-centered awareness. This course will also look at parallels between Wisdom roadmaps from antiquity and Jesus’ Gospel teaching as well as the writings of Ilia Delio and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who provide a template for seeing Christian teachings from a quantum, cosmological perspective.

Learning Objectives:

• Cultivate a Wisdom rhythm in your daily life.
• Expand your awareness of the Divine Exchange.
• Deepen your contemplative practice.
• Connect and learn with others.

Learn more about The Divine Exchange
Time Commitment: 4 – 6 hours a week
Registration ends August 10, 2022 
Course runs Aug. 17 – Nov. 22, 2022 

Dive Deep into the True Self with Richard Rohr

Your True Self is that part of you that knows who you are and whose you are, although largely unconsciously. Your False Self is just who you think you are — but thinking doesn't make it so. 
–Richard Rohr  

Immortal Diamond is a 10-week online course exploring the True Self and the False Self, based on Richard Rohr’s book, Immortal Diamond. Students will learn to “die before we die” and discover how the promise of resurrection is true for each of us — right now.

As Richard Rohr writes, “Life is not a matter of creating a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had.” We need ego to help us function, succeed, and belong. But if we let it stay in charge, ego stands in the way of living freely and authentically, from our God-given identity and calling. We are called to “die before we die,” to discover that the promise of resurrection is true for each of us, now.

This course will deepen your understanding of the True Self, what it means to die before you die, resurrection, and the transformative journey. Rediscover your forgotten Self that can never be destroyed — only transformed to live in eternal Love.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover a vision of your True Self.
• Deepen your enjoyment of divine friendship.
• Develop contemplative practice.
• Connect and learn with others.

Learn more about The Immortal Diamond
Time Commitment: 4–6 hours a week
Registration ends August 10, 2022 
Course runs Aug. 17 – Oct. 25, 2022 

Mirabai Starr revisits the mystical work of St. John of the Cross

Even though this holy night darkens the spirit, it does so only to light up everything. —St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul

Rediscover the ecstatic work of St. John of the Cross in a new book from inter-spiritual teacher and mystical scholar Mirabai Starr. In Saint John of the Cross: Luminous Darkness, Mirabai invites a new generation of readers to experience the wisdom of the beloved fifteenth century Spanish mystic in this compendium of updated translations and commentary.

Order a copy from the CAC online bookstore.

The CAC is an educational nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen compassionate engagement in the world. When you purchase this or any other book from our online bookstore you help us to introduce seekers from around the world to the contemplative Christian path of transformation.