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Friends Center of Ohio Yearly Meeting Centering Prayer Workshop Led by Chris Ravndal October 26 - 28, 2007 Cost: $120 |
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Many Friends find it useful to learn a particular way to center in Meeting for Worship - how to begin, how to deal with distractions, how to gain perspective on their experience of group worship or their own spiritual discipline. Centering Prayer, which is an updating of contemplative practice in the Christian tradition, is not only a technique that provides practical help in the use of silence but is based on a profound understanding of the human relationship to the Divine and what is involved in a long-term commitment to spiritual growth. In this workshop Friends can learn Centering Prayer as a way into contemplation that deepens individual and corporate worship. After being taught and having the opportunity to practice Centering Prayer, the group will learn how it can be used to deal with distractions in Meeting for Worship and how a method closely related to Centering Prayer can be used to experience the presence of God and to transform the frustrations of daily life into opportunities for spiritual growth. The emphasis of the workshop will be practical rather than theoretical. Participants will be taught and be given the opportunity to practice a specific approach to Centering Prayer and to living life contemplatively. Christ Ravndal recently retired after 15 tears of teaching at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center near Philadelphia. Chris taught courses there in prayer, the Gospel of John, and the letters of Paul. He has taken a prayer course at Pendle Hill and at Duquesne University. He has attended a ten-day Centering Prayer intensive and was certified as a teacher of Centering Prayer after an eight-day intensive with Thomas Keating. He has offered numerous prayer workshops in diverse locations fo various Friends organization and local Meetings across the country. |