2021 Renaissance Presenters
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Renaissance 2021 Attendees:
Plenary Speaker Schedule
Wednesday, April 21: Lucy Abbott Tucker, Roshi Joan Halifax
Thursday, April 22: Sister Joan Chittister, Gillian Gonda
Friday, April 23: Father Richard Rohr, Dr. Barbara Holmes
Saturday, April 24: Mirabai Starr, Adam Bucko
Sister Joan Chittister
Keynote Speaker
Joan Chittister has been a passionate voice for women’s rights for over 50 years. Called “one of the most well-known and trusted contemporary spiritual authors” by Publishers Weekly, this rabble-rousing force of nature for social justice and fervent proponent of personal faith and spiritual fulfillment draws on the wisdom of prophets–both ancient and modern–to help us confront the societal forces that oppress and silence the sacred voices among us.
Roshi Joan Halifax
Keynote Speaker and Institute Leader
Roshi Joan is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Dr. Barbara A. Holmes
Keynote Speaker and Institute Leader
A renowned spiritual teacher, activist, and scholar, Dr. Holmes describes her life as a commitment to the struggle for justice, the healing of the human spirit, and the art of relevant and radical creativity. Her scholarship has focused on African American spirituality, mysticism, cosmology and culture. Her recent book is Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church.
Mirabai Starr
Institute Leader and Speaker
Mirabai taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, her latest book is Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics.
Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining)
Conference Ritual Leader and Spiritual Companion
Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, earth and global healing.
Adam Bucko
Speaker and Workshop Leader
Fr. Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the US and co-authored two books: Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living. Committed to an integration of contemplation and just practice, he co-founded an award winning non-profit, the Reciprocity Foundation, where he spent 15 years working with homeless youth living on the streets of New York City, providing spiritual care, developing programs to end youth homelessness and articulating a vision for spiritual mentoring in a post-religious world. He currently serves as a director of The Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, NY and is a member of The Community of the Incarnation, a “new monastic” community dedicated to democratizing the gifts of monastic spirituality and teaching contemplative spirituality in the context of hearing and responding to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.
Fr. Richard Rohr
Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also serves as Academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Fr. Richard’s teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy–practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.
Lucy Abbott Tucker
Speaker and Workshop Leader
Lucy Abbott Tucker has worked in adult formation and the preparation of people for the ministry of spiritual direction for thirty-six years. Lucy has been active in the work of Spiritual Directors International, serving on the first Coordinating Council, chairing the committee that prepared the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct, and working on the committee that prepared the Portrait of a Spiritual Director and the Principles for Training Programs.
Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares
Conference MC
Rev. Seifu is the Executive Director of SDI and an ordained Zen Buddhist priest, as well as a practicing spiritual director/companion and motivational speaker. He is a veteran of numerous interfaith and interspiritual efforts over the years, including Seeds of Compassion in Seattle in 2008, where he was one of the chairs, and as founder and executive director of the Compassionate Action Network. He has a Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard University.
Rev. Seifu is an accomplished speaker and university lecturer and is a key contributor for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. In a previous life, he was also an executive at Microsoft, where he successfully grew international groups and divisions and provided leadership to multi-cultural teams around the world.
Plenary Speaker Schedule
Wednesday, April 21: Lucy Abbott Tucker, Roshi Joan Halifax
Thursday, April 22: Sister Joan Chittister, Gillian Gonda
Friday, April 23: Father Richard Rohr, Dr. Barbara Holmes
Saturday, April 24: Mirabai Starr, Adam Bucko