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Contemplative Activism Retreat with Cole Arthur Riley
June 11, 2021 @ 6:00 pm - June 12, 2021 @ 6:00 pm
$50
The Spiritual Life Committee is excited to bring in Cole Arthur Riley to lead a retreat on Contemplative Activism. Join us we learn how to adopt spiritual practices that suspend between the contemplative and pursuit of justice. In our activism, spiritual contemplation can feel more like a precursor to the work of justice, instead of a core part of it. Together, we will explore the gift of a contemplative spirituality that is marked by liberating habits of storytelling, emotion, and embodiment.
Retreat Details
The cost is $50 (scholarships are available). Please register by Friday, June 4. Like our previous online retreats, we will gather via Zoom at scheduled times. Cole will speak and guide us in prayer, a reflection, and an embodied activity during each of these sessions, as well as give suggestions and prompts for our own solitude and contemplation in between each session. Our themes will be as follows:
- Friday, 6 pm | The Liberation of the Self
Exploring how insight into our interior lives can be an active justice practice, as we talk about selfhood, story, and memory. - Saturday, 9 am | Liberating Emotion
Examining how emotional truth-telling informs contemplation and activism—specifically emotions such as lament and anger. - Saturday, 1 pm | Contemplation & The Body
Discussing how contemplative habits can and should guide us into deeper connections with our bodies, including the cost of justice-work on our bodies, and contemplation as a healing force.
Saturday, 5 pm | Closing Prayer Service
Gathering in the graces and sharing our intentions.
About Cole Arthur Riley
Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, and speaker who is seeking a deeply contemplative life marked by embodiment and emotion. She is the founder and writer of Black Liturgies—a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer. She also serves as the content and spiritual formation manager for Chesterton House, a Christian studies center at Cornell University.
