Forgiveness as a Spiritual Practice

Five 2-hour sessions: Monday 2/3 – Friday 2/7 (3-5pm Eastern / 12-2pm Pacific) Expectations and objectives 1.  to introduce participants to a way of looking at forgiveness that can     increase spiritual and emotional healing.2.  to develop a list of tools and techniques for engaging in forgiveness     work3.  to practice/experience as many tools and techniques as…

Workshop Description

Five 2-hour sessions: Monday 2/3 – Friday 2/7 (3-5pm Eastern / 12-2pm Pacific)

Expectations and objectives

1.  to introduce participants to a way of looking at forgiveness that can
     increase spiritual and emotional healing.
2.  to develop a list of tools and techniques for engaging in forgiveness
     work
3.  to practice/experience as many tools and techniques as possible.
4.  to create a safe “community” for all, in which group members can
     move as fast or as slowly as they choose in practicing forgiveness.

Specific areas or topics

Sample of topics to be covered:  definition of forgiveness and an analogy for working with it; what it takes to successfully forgive; things I give myself permission to not forgive; family teachings about forgiveness; self-forgiveness; impact on one’s health of not forgiving; boundary setting; role of apology; next steps in the forgiveness practice/work.

Rough description of format

Each session will begin with a reading and about 20 minutes of worship, be interspersed with small periods of worship as needed, and end with worship.  Some lecture/presentation, especially during the first session, small group or pair work, individual meditation and/or writing time, guided meditation, and shared discussion will be the mode.  There will be time each session for questions/reflections about the work.

No advanced reading required.  Bring writing material/paper.

Leader Experience

I have been attending the Gathering since 1999. I have been leading workshops on the topic to forgiveness as a spiritual practice since 2004. This is such a deep topic, that often people take the workshop a second or third time.

In the fall of 2002, I began a series of short Quaker dialogues on the topic of forgiveness. In February 2004, I expanded this to an 8-hour workshop in Attica Prison with 15 inmates. I have now given the workshop 5 times in Attica. I have led over 90 workshops at the FGC Gathering, the Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology, Pendle Hill, Woolman Center, Ben Lomond Center, Powell House Retreat Center, and numerous Monthly Meetings around the country, including my home Meeting, Rochester, NY. I have also led the Great Plains Yearly Meeting fall retreat, been a plenary speaker at Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Aug. 2014), and led the Lake Erie Yearly Meeting Spiritual Formation retreat (Sept. 2017). Other workshops were at Austin Friends Meeting (Jan. 2015), Pima (Tuscon) Friends Meeting (Feb. 2015), Charlotte, NC Meeting (Oct. 2019), Patapsco Friends Meeting zoom (Nov. 2020), QVIC by zoom (Jan. 2022), SEYM by zoom (May 2023), and FGC Gathering 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 by zoom, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

This ministry is a passion of mine, and I am always grateful for the opportunity to walk the path of forgiveness with others.