Meditate • Regenerate • Celebrate
Bearing Witness to the Creativity of Life
A 24-Hour Live, Online Global Ritual
4-5 December 2021
An Inspiration
The biggest gift you can give is to be absolutely present, and when you’re worrying about whether you’re hopeful or hopeless or pessimistic or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you’re showing up, that you’re here and that you’re finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that. That’s what is going to unleash our intelligence and our ingenuity and our solidarity for the healing of our world.
– JOANNA MACY
You are warmly invited
You are invited to show up, to be present, and to participate in a 24-hour global, live, online ritual of meditation, regeneration, and celebration for the life we have been given. Your participation–your presence–for one hour, two, or ten or even 24 is a gift to all of us and to the global field of consciousness that we will bring alive during this full turn of the Earth.
You are welcome to join alone from your home, in a group, in your co-living space with friends, in your Zendo, yoga studio or spiritual home. Having company during the ritual can inspire you to go further and deeper.
During One World Bearing Witness, from December 4th to 5th, 2021, you will be led by spiritual leaders from Greenland to Brazil, from Gabon to South Africa, from Australia to Canada. Each of these guides will share with you a ritual, prayer, meditation or ceremony to honor the creative life force known by different names in different traditions.
You take part through meditation, prayer, song, contemplation, and bearing witness. Together, we will experience the jewel of Spirit in its many facets and create a field of depth, awe, and reverence at the creativity of the human spirit as an expression of the whole. Our aim is to create a conscious experience of a global consciousness, an awareness of the beauty and diversity-in-unity of the Life we share with all Creation.
We seek to create a much needed awareness of the wholeness of Earth and our shared humanity.
Our Hosts
Elizabeth Debold and Thomas Steininger have been leading global meditation and sacred activism events for the last seven years. Both are pioneers of We Space and have developed the practice of emergent dialogue. They lead an international practice community of people interested in the transformation of consciousness needed to meet the crises we are facing. They view their work as “a spiritual practice for an open society.”
Thomas Steininger is a philosopher and the publisher of evolve Magazine, a German-language quarterly. He founded emerge bewusstseinskultur e.V. in Germany for HigherWe and emergent dialogue work. He is also the voice (and spirit) of Radio evolve, a weekly webcast about the intersection of consciousness and culture.
Elizabeth Debold is a developmental psychologist by training, with a focus on gender. She is an author, editor with evolve Magazine, and a self-proclaimed “gender futurist.” Her passion is creating spaces for humans to experience the power and potential of emergence.
Our Spiritual Guides
In One World Bearing Witness, spiritual guides and leaders are invited to share and transmit the wisdom of their tradition through practice, prayer, and ritual. The guides are selected to provide a sense of the many ways Spirit (or God or the One) has spoken through the peoples of different lands and regions of Earth. Their offerings are sacred. Join them in celebrating the creativity of Life with respect, reverence, and open attention. We are deeply grateful for the gifts they offer us.
Wanbdi Wakita has spent a lifetime making prayers for people. Wanbdi Wakita was born in 1940, in the community of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. His name translates into English as Looking Eagle. As a boy, with the support of his mother’s love and his grandfather’s wisdom, he was encouraged to acknowledge how Creator was speaking to him through sacred phenomena. His connection to his family members, who would later become his ancestors, was integral to his journey in becoming a Wicasa Wakan or Holy Man.
As a residential school survivor, Wanbdi has walked many paths. For three decades he supported inmates in various Correctional Institutions. Presently he is the Grandfather in Residence for the University of Manitoba Access Program. In 2016 he received the Order of Manitoba for his life long work to champion a message of healing and unity between all nations. Wanbdi is a Sundance Chief participating in this sacred Ceremony for over five decades.
Ven. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda became the first fully ordained Theravada bhikkhuni in Thailand 2003 and has been engaged in giving education on ordination for women since 1984. She regularly organizes training for Buddhist women.
She is deeply committed as a change-agent to bring about responsibility for Buddhists to be socially involved for the betterment of their own practice and for the betterment of society.
She has been involved with Buddhism and Nature Conservation since 1985 working for WildLife Fund Thailand. Later she focuses her temple to be a learning center for ecological preservation. She intends to broaden her activity in building up eco-temple to make available information for other temples and schools.
As an educator, while working as a professor at Thammasat University for 27 years, she is well remembered by her students for a memorable style of teaching. She is concerned with the standard of Buddhist education of the country and has opened her temple as a ground for learning for everyone, Buddhists, non-Buddhists. Her temple has become an international center for foreigners who seek to have a better understanding of Buddhism, both at a philosophical level and practical level. Some of her books on Buddhism are bilingual. She is one among the very few learned scholars and even less as monastic who is capable to deliver the sermon and teaching to both Thai and international audience. Her role as educator is outstanding both in Thailand and abroad.
As social activist, she is keen to help her followers and students to become CHANGE agents to improve not only themselves but also society. During COVID lockdown in 2020 she led her community to offer food and financial support to the needy. It does not come as a surprise her interest for social well being as she committed herself to Bodhisattva’s path and took the precept in 2000 even before her ordination.
Steven Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu Patrick is a Warlpiri elder from Lajamanu in the Tanami Desert. He is an experienced educator and cross-media artist who has worked on numerous programs for the Northern Territory Department of Education, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, and most notably, the Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation’s acclaimed Mt Theo Program.
Wanta collaborates with Tracks Dance Company as Creative Director of the Milpirri Festival at Lajamanu, which has re-envisioned the teaching of Warlpiri law for today’s contemporary intercultural contexts. He joined the ANU School of Music in 2012 to work on his current ARC Discovery Indigenous project with Associate Professors Aaron Corn and Stephen Wild.
Kuniatsu Suzuki was born in Hamamatsu, Japan. Began his bass guitar at age 17 with a band. Making music, composing, home recording with 4-track cassette recorder at age 19. Playing fretless bass in some bands in London 1994 ~ 1996 Learned music therapy in the association Gifu prefecture 1998~1999 Kyoto music school 2000~2001
Became a Buddhist monk to improve music therapy in 2002 and worked in a big temple in Osaka until 2014 Independent from the temple and start temple-stay in a mountain Start mantra meditation as music therapy in 2015 Start on-line mantra meditation on airbnb in 2020 Start healing concert with the cellist Dorette Roos in 2021
Gabonese, Marie-Claire Eyang, is 58 years old. Raised to village life, she learned traditional dances. At the age of 12, she moved on to Libreville to study until high school. She will meet the sacred wood in 1980 and understand what she has always known in the bottom of her: “the world is much bigger than in books!”
Marie-Claire meets her husband, a Frenchman also initiated to the sacred wood, she is 22 years old. They decide with their two children to create a traditional village in 1998. This village is called “The City of the Source,” located near Libreville.
“Etincelle” is her initiate name, she is Nima (equivalent of shamans in Gabon), She recognizes herself as a guide with a desire to “turn on the flame into each of us.” She proposes to experience unity on a space inspired by the fauna and flora of the big Primary Forest of Gabon.
The teaching of “Etincelle” serves to establish a balance message between us, the invisible world of our ancestors and the nature around us. Receive an energy that will accentuate the days following the chances, the coincidences, develop the intuitions and so give back to your everyday life an organization closer to the cosmic order.
Marta de Assis, known as Mãe Marta, is a Babalorixá priestess in the Candomblé religion, one of the oldest traditions of humanity, imported by the slaves from Africa, and is still very active in Salvador de Bahia region. The word Candomblé means “ritual dancing or gather in honor of gods.”
On September 19, 1990, Mãe Marta founded the Ilê Axé Oyá Ogum Silé Omim Terreiro, located in the neighborhood of Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, well known for its culture, countryside style and strong traditions. She leads her Terreiro, dedicated to the cult of the Iansã Orixá, Goddess of winds and storms, a great responsibility passed on from her ancestors, continuing the tradition of the Ketu nation in Brazil.
Mãe Marta is also known for her acarajé stand in Largo do Santo Antônio and for actively participating in the neighborhood’s cultural activities, such as washing the steps of the Church of Saint Anthony and for being the godmother to one of the main neighborhood carnival blocks, Bloco De Hoje a Oito. A strong and captivating presence, she maintains her strong devotion to Saint Anthony, offering porridge in the morning in the square on the Saint’s day, and also serving several hot feijoada dishes to homeless people.
Rev. Deborah L. Johnson is the founder of Inner Light Ministries, an Omnifaith spiritual community in Santa Cruz, California, nearing its 25th anniversary, and The Motivational Institute, an organizational development consulting firm specializing in cultural diversity. A dynamic public speaker, organizer, strategist, facilitator, and spoken word artist, she is known for her ability to bring clarity to complex and emotionally charged issues. A co-litigant in two California landmark civil rights cases, her life-time social justice work has been featured in numerous multi-media venues and garnered numerous lifetime achievement awards. Author of The Sacred Yes and Your Deepest Intent, Rev. Deborah is a board member of Pachamama Alliance, a Leadership Council Member of the Association of Global New Thought, and a founding member of the Agape International Spiritual Center with Michael Bernard Beckwith. A former Real Estate Investment Manager, she holds a BA in Economics from USC, an MBA in Urban Land Economics and Real Estate Finance, from UCLA, a ministerial degree from the Holmes Institute, and an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Agape University of Leadership and Transpersonal Studies.
Her passion is building “The Beloved Community” and healing socio-political/cultural divides. Wherever she goes, her message is one of transformation, inclusion, empowerment, and possibility.
Dorette Roos is a professional cellist and multi-faceted performer based in Cape Town, South Africa. She completed her Bachelor of Music in cello performance at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the USA and obtained her Master of Music degree from the University of Stellenbosch and the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria.
As freelance cellist, Dorette engages in various styles of music – from classical music and opera, as a member of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, to lyrical, pop and experimental genres as session musician for different recording studios, film projects and remote recordings, to improvising on electronic and current pop music as solo electric performer.
Dorette’s music talent has taken her all over the world and as performer she has been involved in many prestigious orchestras, music festivals, film and music recordings, productions, bands, chamber music concerts and celebrity performance including Michael Buble, Andrea Bocchelli, Imogen Heap, Maher Zain, Joshua Bell, Civil Twilight, Jack Parow, Karen Zoid and Pretty Yende to name a few.
Dorette’s two newest collaboration features a feminine and edgy duo with DJ Anthea Scholtz and herself on electric cello called A N D. As well as pop duo with the wonderfully talented singer Lize Mynhardt.
David Steindl-Rast was born Franz Kuno Steindl-Rast on July 12, 1926, in Vienna, Austria, and spent his early years there and in a small village in the Alps. He spent all of his teen years under the Nazi occupation, was drafted into the army, but never went to the front lines. He eventually escaped and was hidden by his mother until the occupation ended.
After the war, Franz studied art, anthropology, and psychology, receiving an MA from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and a PhD from the University of Vienna. In 1952 he followed his family who had emigrated to the United States. In 1953 he joined a newly founded Benedictine community in Elmira, NY, Mount Saviour Monastery, where he became “Brother David.”
After twelve years of monastic training and studies in philosophy and theology, Brother David was sent by his abbot to participate in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, for which he received Vatican approval in 1967. His Zen teachers were Hakuun Yasutani Roshi, Soen Nakagawa Roshi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Eido Shimano Roshi. He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies in 1968 and received the 1975 Martin Buber Award for his achievements in building bridges between religious traditions.
Together with Thomas Merton, Brother David helped launch a renewal of religious life. From 1970 on, he became a leading figure in the House of Prayer movement, which affected some 200,000 members of religious orders in the United States and Canada. Since the 1970s Brother David has been a member of cultural historian William Irwin Thompson‘s Lindisfarne Association.
For decades, Brother David divided his time between periods of hermit’s life and extensive lecture tours on five continents. Brother David has brought spiritual depth into the lives of countless people whom he touches through his lectures, his workshops, and his writings. At present, Brother David serves a worldwide Network for Grateful Living, through Gratefulness.org, an interactive website with several thousand participants daily from more than 240 countries and territories.
Rabbi Yoel Glick is a teacher of Jewish mysticism, one of the pioneers of modern Jewish meditation, and a spiritual mentor who has been guiding seekers on the path for over thirty years. He is the Director of Daat Elyon, a Jerusalem-based center for meditation and spiritual training that also has a large online learning program. Rabbi Yoel teaches in synagogues, ashrams, monasteries, seminaries, and interfaith institutions to students from a multitude of backgrounds in locations across the globe.
Rabbi Yoel was born in Toronto, Canada. He received his BA from the University of Toronto and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University in New York, as well as from the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
In 1981, Rabbi Yoel moved to Israel with his wife Nomi where they founded Mercaz Hochmat HaLev (The Center for the Wisdom of the Heart), a center for the study of Jewish spirituality in the Old City of Jerusalem.
In 1988, Rabbi Yoel moved to southern France with his family where they focused their energies on living a contemplative life and exploring the wisdom of other religious traditions. As part of their life in France, Yoel and Nomi ran a meditation and retreat center for a dedicated circle of seekers from different faiths.
In 2006, Rabbi Yoel resumed wider public activity, teaching a combination of traditional Jewish sources and wisdom from other mystical paths. Since that time, he has continued to expand his work through yearly tours and online webinars via the Daat Elyon website and academy.
In January 2018, Rabbi Yoel and his wife Nomi returned to Israel and opened Daat Elyon Jerusalem as a center for Jewish meditation and spiritual training.
Rabbi Yoel is the author of Living the Life of Jewish Meditation: A Comprehensive Guide to Practice and Experience (Jewish Lights), Walking the Path of the Jewish Mystic: How to Expand Your Awareness and Transform Your Life (Jewish Lights) and Seeking the Divine Presence: The Three Pillars of a Jewish Spiritual Life (Trafford). For more info: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B086PB8HPX
Vuyi Qubeka is here to hold a mirror up to herself, her community and the human family, helping us see past our illusions to step into our innate power and truth.
She is a wayshower, an advocate for self-realization and re-alignment with natural laws. Devoted to love, authenticity, truth and freedom, she is a indigenous healer, a seer, a theta healing practitioner, artist and multidimensional storyteller.
Qubeka weaves together sound, ritual, movement, imagery, prose and energy medicine to conjure memory and inspire truth seekers from all walks of life. The intention is always for our expansion and to re-membering our fundamental nature.
Her work explores and extends the verity of womb wisdom – the Mother Mind – while confronting our familial and collective traumas for our shared restoration, redirection and liberation. Her work pays particular attention to the wounds of sexual trauma and our lost human fragments. The work is expanding to support new souls (babies and young children) coming into this world, to find grounding and understanding in this physical reality.
Qubeka offers one-on-one divinations, storytelling and speaking immersions, rites of passage ceremonies, workshops and collaborations for a deeper exploration of our consciousness and the invisible.
Angaangaq was born in Greenland in 1947. He is an elder, traditional healer, spiritual teacher and shaman from Greenland. He grew up in a remote village in Greenland, where his grandmother recognized his gift to continue the healing tradition of the family and trained him for becoming a shaman. His spiritual task, given by his mother, is “to melt the ice in heart of man.”
Already in 1975, as a young man, he received the task from the elders to be a “runner” for them and to bring the message about the melting of the Big Ice in Greenland to the world.
His work took him to more than 70 countries around the world. He is a keynote speaker at
international conferences on climate change, environmental issues and indigenous affairs and has represented the Arctic people at the UN General Assembly. He has met with personalities like Nelson Mandela, Michail Gorbatschow, Pope John Paul II., Pope Francis
and the Dalai Lama and has participated in several documentary films. He has passed on his knowledge to universities, schools, companies, retirement homes and prisons.
His teachings come from the Eskimo Kalaallit – a peaceful culture that is thousands of years
old and has not experienced war. These teachings have enabled people to survive in one of the harshest places on earth. They call us to bridge the distance between our minds and hearts through strength and gentleness, compassion and love, courage and determination, to make personal and global transformation and healing possible.
Angaangaq conducts circles, seminars and ceremonies.
“It is easy to melt the ice on the ground. The hardest thing is to melt the ice in the heart of
man. Only by melting the ice in the heart of man, man will have a chance to change and use
his knowledge wisely.”
More information: www.icewisdom.com
Contact: info@icewisdom.com
Sheikh Eşref Efendi was born in Mersin, Turkey, in 1964. Being a direct descendant of advisors to the Ottoman Sultans, he and his sisters and brother were raised by his parents in the tradition of Islamic beliefs. The family moved to Berlin in 1972. During his adolescence he frequently visited many libraries and mosques where he could study old works of religious literature. Later, he studied with Grandsheikh Nazim Al Rabbani, who gave him the duty to give seekers in Germany, Bosnia and Turkey spiritual advice and to guide them in the Naqshbandi tradition.
Today, he travels to many countries where he is invited to give conferences and speeches. Romania, Finland, Canada, Brazil, Iran and India have been important stops in recent years where he has spoken on the everyday practical interpretation of Islam and ways to global peace, inspiring audiences.
His Sufi Way To Peace initiative regularly organizes fundraising appeals for the needy and trips to poor regions to meet local people in charity and give hope.
Since 2015, Sheikh Eşref Efendi has been living in Eigeltingen-Reute on Lake Constance, where he practices Sufism in daily life with his community at the Sufi Center “Sufiland” and offers his advice and guidance to people regardless of their religious beliefs and cultural background.
Global Schedule: 24-Hours
Here you find the schedule of all offerings over the 24-hours. It is a work in progress–we are adding more spiritual guides and changing times to meet their needs.
The times shown should be the time in your location. See the bottom right corner to confirm. You can use this schedule for planning your participation in this global day dedicated to Spirit in its infinite creativity.
IMPORTANT:
There have been last minute schedule changes. Please double check the ceremonies you want to take part in.
In memory of a true spiritual warrior:
Terry Patten (1951-2021)
– Terry Patten
Roshi Bernie Glassman: The Three Tenets
Zen Buddhist teacher and social entrepreneur Bernie Glassman dedicated his life to serving the One. What is that One? It was nothing but himself, you and I and this great Earth. He inspired many, multitudes around the world, to suffuse spiritual practice with the generosity of action. His guiding principles, “Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action,” also known as the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers, are the ground of the Bearing Witness movement he birthed by leading Bearing Witness retreats in places of deep suffering, trauma, and genocide such as in Auschwitz, Rwanda, Bosnia and the Native American’s turtle island. One Humanity-Belonging to Earth takes inspiration from this Bearing Witness movement. This December, we have the opportunity to come together with thousands around the world in bearing witness to the joys and suffering of our one home, our one humanity, our one planet, our One Body.
More about the Presenters & Ceremonies
Introduction & Opening Ceremony
Elizabeth Debold and Thomas Steininger introduce this 24-hour ritual and the theme of bearing witness to the creativity of life. They offer guidance for meditation.
The Opening Ceremony is offered by Grandfather Wanbdi Wakita, Chief of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, in Manitoba, Canada, who will offer his prayers at dawn for the new day and for the start of this sacred ritual.
Ceremony 1: Etincelle
“Etincelle” is the initiate name of Marie-Claire Eyang, she is Nima (equivalent of shamans in Gabon). She recognizes herself as a guide with a desire to “turn on the flame into each of us.” She proposes to experience unity on a pace inspired by the fauna and flora of the big Primary Forest of Gabon. She speaks French and the ceremony will be translated.
The teaching of “Etincelle” serves to establish a balance message between us, the invisible world of our ancestors and the nature around us. She will lead a prayer ceremony where we will be connected with our geniuses and our ancestors through our songs and our musical instruments.
Ceremony 2: Rabbi Yoel Glick
The evening of December 4th is the beginning of the seventh day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah—the Festival of Light. It comes at the darkest time of the year when it feels like the darkness will go on forever and the light will never return again.
Hanukkah is also the time of the rededication of the temple. As the heavenly angels exult in the vision of the prophet Isaiah: “The whole world is filled with divine glory!” This world is our universal temple and our task is to reveal and nurture the divine glory that is in everyone and everything.
Join Rabbi Glick in rededicating ourselves to the work of sanctifying our beautiful divine temple. Let us strive together to bring the light of Spirit into our present global darkness with meditation, chanting, and ancient ritual from the mystical tradition of Judaism.
**Please bring a candle or a Hanukkah menorah to light. We will also pray together and sing.
Ceremony 3: Sheikh Eşref Efendi
Eşref Goekcimen, born in Turkey but moved to Berlin at a young age, became a student of Grandsheikh Nazim Al Rabbani, who gave him the duty to give seekers in Germany, Bosnia and Turkey spiritual advice and to guide them in the Naqshbandi tradition. His work, as Sheikh Eşref Efendi, founder of The Sufi Center Rabbaniyya (which means “servants of God,”) takes him all over the world. He offers The Sufi Way of Peace–work that led to his receiving the Nelson Mandela Peace Prize by the European Parliament.
Sheikh Eşref Efendi will be in Mexico during One World Bearing Witness, where he will offer us prayer session. With luck, this will be an interspiritual event and the indigenous people he is visiting there will also offer prayer. He calls these “interspiritual encounters.”
Ceremony 4: Mãe Marta
Marta de Assis, known as Mãe Marta, is a Babalorixá or priestess in the Candomblé religion, one of the oldest traditions of humanity, imported by the slaves from Africa, and is still very active in Salvador de Bahia region. The word Candomblé means “ritual dancing or gather in honor of gods.” She speaks Portuguese, with translation.
On September 19, 1990, Mãe Marta founded the Ilê Axé Oyá Ogum Silé Omim Terreiro, located in the neighborhood of Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, well known for its culture, countryside style and strong traditions. She leads her Terreiro, dedicated to the cult of the Iansã Orixá, Goddess of winds and storms, a great responsibility passed on from her ancestors, continuing the tradition of the Ketu nation in Brazil.
Mãe Marta is also known for her acarajé stand in Largo do Santo Antônio and for actively participating in the neighborhood’s cultural activities, such as washing the steps of the Church of Saint Anthony and for being the godmother to one of the main neighborhood carnival blocks, Bloco De Hoje a Oito. A strong and captivating presence, she maintains her strong devotion to Saint Anthony, offering porridge in the morning in the square on the Saint’s day, and also serving several hot feijoada dishes to homeless people.
**Mãe Marta asks us to bring a red and a white cloth, and a white candle, to her ceremonial offering.
Ceremony 5: Vuyi Qubeka
Qubeka weaves together sound, ritual, movement, imagery, prose and energy medicine to conjure memory and inspire truth seekers from all walks of life. The intention is always for our expansion and to re-membering our fundamental nature.
She will offer a meditation entitled: we, the waters
**Please bring a glass or jug of water. And singing bowls if you have one/some.
we, the waters
this is a meditation over our waters – the waters that run through this earth, and the waters of our bodies. the same waters that quenched the thirst of our ancestors… the ones that soothed our grandmothers’ feet.
it is a meditation that invites us to sit with ourselves. to grieve, if that’s what calls us. to reflect. to pray. and to sit, in our togetherness, within our silences. a sit inside of this moment infront of us as a collective human family. these significant changing of times. come, let’s sit with each other, with our stuff, our shame, our guilt, the fear – personal and collective. And through the vibration of our voices, and the support of sound, let us loosen, shift and release the density… what’s heavy, what hurts and begin to make room for our true selves again. that we can invite better futures into the micro and macro body. into our earth home and planet.
please bring a glass or jug of water. if you have singing bowls or any instruments, bring them also. through the waters, we’ll petition for our healing, our remembering, our atonement. please bring your willingness, your vulnerability, an open heart, curiosity and surrender.
The Central Ritual
TO BE CONFIRMED: Steven Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu Patrick is a Warlpiri elder from Lajamanu in the Tanami Desert. He is a brilliant traditional musician and will offer a powerful invocation through sound and vibration.
Wanta collaborates with Tracks Dance Company as Creative Director of the Milpirri Festival at Lajamanu, which has re-envisioned the teaching of Warlpiri law for today’s contemporary intercultural contexts. He joined the ANU School of Music in 2012 to work on an ARC Discovery Indigenous project with Associate Professors Aaron Corn and Stephen Wild.
Ceremony 6: Rev. Deborah L. Johnson
Rev. Deborah L. Johnson is the founder of Inner Light Ministries, an Omnifaith spiritual community in Santa Cruz, California, nearing its 25th anniversary, and The Motivational Institute, an organizational development consulting firm specializing in cultural diversity. Author of The Sacred Yes and Your Deepest Intent, Rev. Deborah is also a board member of Pachamama Alliance, a Leadership Council Member of the Association of Global New Thought, and a founding member of the Agape International Spiritual Center with Michael Bernard Beckwith.
Her passion is building “The Beloved Community” and healing socio-political/cultural divides. Wherever she goes, her message is one of transformation, inclusion, empowerment, and possibility.
**Rev D invites us to bring something from your ancestral lineage that represents a legacy that you continue as a blessing to the world. She will be leading us in some ancestral healing work during her offering.
Ceremony 7: Ven. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda
Ven. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda is the first fully ordained Theravada bhikkhuni in Thailand (2003) and has been engaged in giving education on ordination for women since 1984. Her temple has become an international center for foreigners who seek to have a better understanding of Buddhism, both at a philosophical level and practical level. Some of her books on Buddhism are bilingual. She is on among the very few learned scholars and even less as monastic who is capable to deliver the sermon and teaching to both Thai and international audience. Her role as educator is outstanding both in Thailand and abroad.
Dhammananda will guide us in meditation, and then we will listen to the chanting of young nuns, and finally we will be guided in another short meditation by Dhammananda’s main assistant, who is a powerful practitioner and professor in her own right. This offering will be pre-recorded.
Ceremony 8: Kuniatsu & Dorette
Kuniatsu Susuki and Dorette Roos have a unique partnership. He leads meditation, chanting Buddhist sutras, in Japan. And Dorette accompanies him on her cello in South Africa.
Ceremony 9: Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq
Angaangaq was born in Greenland in 1947. He is an elder, traditional healer, spiritual teacher, and shaman from Greenland. His teachings come from the Eskimo Kalaallit – a peaceful culture that is thousands of years old and has not experienced war. These teachings have enabled people to survive in one of the harshest places on earth. They call us to bridge the distance between our minds and hearts through strength and gentleness, compassion and love, courage and determination, to make personal and global transformation and healing possible.
Angaangaq conducts circles, seminars and ceremonies. He will pre-record a ceremony for OWBW.
“It is easy to melt the ice on the ground. The hardest thing is to melt the ice in the heart of man. Only by melting the ice in the heart of man, man will have a chance to change and use his knowledge wisely.”
Ceremony 10: Brother David Steindl-Rast
We are blessed to have Brother David Steindl-Rast joining us via a special recording for our last ceremony. Brother David’s presence and teaching opens us to gratitude for the amazing gift of Life. That we wake every morning and can see is in itself miraculous. Every minute of Life is a gift, and Brother David has a unique power to awaken and deepen our gratitude for that gift.
Closing Ceremony & Dialogue
For the Closing Ceremony, we will begin with a brief meditation, and then you will join Elizabeth and Thomas in a reflection and collective dialogue about the journey we have been on together.
So, the ceremony is YOU.
We will unmute your microphones so that you can join in the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
One World Bearing Witness is both a global ritual and a vigil.
Human beings create vigils, often staying up through the night, as a way of showing love and respect for something or someone. By transcending our usual boundaries, we show our reverence and care for the purpose of the vigil.
A vigil is a form of ritual, which is a solemn ceremony used to mark or celebrate important events in the life of a human being or people. Rituals are communicative actions, often designed to access deeper dimensions of life.
One World Bearing Witness is a new kind of ritual that allows us to come together globally to show our love and respect for all of humanity in its beauty and struggle.
Using the connectivity of the latest web-based videoconferencing, communities across the planet will be able to see and hear each other engage in rituals that express the beauty of their particular way to access Spirit. That’s what makes it possible to create a global vigil and ritual.
“Bearing Witness” has a deep spiritual, historical, and psychological significance that all relate to taking a stand through one’s presence.
In Christianity and Islam, bearing witness refers to acknowledging and standing for the Light, Goodness, and Truth – no matter what the cost.
After the Holocaust in World War II and in contexts like the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission, bearing witness means bringing the truth to light so that a nation or people may grapple with their past. The core hope is never again.
In trauma therapy, where listening with empathy to someone’s story is a first step in healing, bearing witness brings the survivor back into human community through the empathic recognition that he or she has suffered a deep moral wrong.
Virtual means that the event happens online, through your smartphone, tablet, laptop or computer. The event will be live-streamed using the latest Zoom Videoconferencing and Webinar capacities. While the team producing the event will be in Frankfurt, Germany, anyone from anywhere there is 4G or internet service can participate. After you register, you will be sent information and a link to access the event by the end of November.
You can bear witness by giving your presence and full attention to the spiritual guides when they offer their ceremonies. After each ceremony, there will be a 45-minute meditation period for you to take in and bear witness to what you have just experienced. You will receive more information about this after you register and closer to the date of the event.
No, you can take part for as long as you want to or can. We suggest that you might want to take part in one of the 2-hour ceremony cycles. That way you can have the experience of bearing witness and going through the process of one full cycle. But it’s up to you. Keep in mind, though, that a vigil often involves staying up through the night as a gesture of honor and respect. You may find that this is what you feel pulled to do.
Yes, we will be recording the entire vigil on video. We will not record the meditation sessions. Those are private. We will make the recordings available as soon as we can after the event. We also encourage you to donate to help us to cover the costs of processing the recorded material.
Yes, in fact, many of the spiritual guides will ask for your participation in their ceremonies. You will be invited to pray, sing, or chant along with the guide. Some will ask for you to participate at home in specific ways. Also, another critical part of the vigil will be creating a unified field of consciousness: you are invited to hold and deepen the field by meditating, whether alone, with your friends or group, via Zoom videoconferencing.
Your donation goes to One World in Dialogue, which produces this event and others like it for free or on a donation basis. Each of the spiritual guides are given a small honorarium, too. Depending on the total amount of donations, we make a substantial contribution to indigenous organization(s) working to protect our sacred Earth. The past two years we have contributed to Amazon Watch.
You can always contact us here: info@oneworldindialogue.com For the event itself, we will have staff available the full 24-hours. One of the biggest problems is that our emails end up in the Junk or Spam folder and you miss critical information (like the link to Zoom for the vigil!). To avoid this, please put the address above in your contacts list.
Credits:
First, a big thank you to James Redenbaugh of Iris Cocreative for his great help with the design.
We are grateful to Unsplash and the photo and graphic artists there for these images:
Candle in the Thai monastery: Prasongsom Punyauppa Path; sunset with shooting star: Ben Collins; beach from above: Dan Grinwis; light through leaves: Greg Rosenke; snow covered path in the woods: Veli; desert sands from above: US Geological Survey; snowy forest from above: Thomas Beckett; sunset with moon: Kyle Cut Media; green leaves: Erol Ahmed; dandelion: Olena Ivanova.
Portrait of Joanna Macy by Adam Shemper.
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/