nurturing the relationship between spirituality and social justice
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Contact us
by e-mail at
leavencenter@leaven.org
by mail at Leaven
P.O. Box 97
Lyons, MI 48851
or by phone at
989/855-2606.
Upcoming Events
We invite you to join us at the following events sponsored or led by Leaven! For more information about an event, you may call us at the Leaven Center office, (989) 855-2606, write us at Leaven, P.O. Box 97, Lyons, MI 48851 or e-mail us at leavencenter@leaven.org. The Leaven Center is near Lyons, Michigan, midway between Lansing and Grand Rapids.
There are two ways for you to register. You can register on-line by VISA, Discover, or MasterCard, paying the full amount of the registration fee by credit card. Or you can print out a registration form and send it by mail to our post office box. If you register by mail, you have a choice of making the specified deposit to hold your space, or you may send a check for the entire registration fee. Partial scholarships are available for all events.
Save money by registering at least one month in advance!
Leaven Center Calendar 2010
September 8-9. Individual Retreat (self-directed).
September 10-12. Politicizing Pleasure and Disability: Your Sex, Our Movement --- 10th Annual Retreat for Disability Activists and Allies, with Bethany Stevens, JD, MA.
September 14-15 (opening retreat). Sister Colleagues: A Seminar for Women in Ministry, with Karen Bota.
October 13-14. Individual Retreat (self-directed).
October 15-18. Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-racist White People, with Melanie Morrison and Aaron Wilson-Ahlstrom.
October 21-24. Reconnecting with Our Wild Souls, with Annie O'Shaughnessy.
September 8-9, October 13-14, November 3-4
Individual Retreat
This year the Leaven Center is offering space for individual retreats each month in the Lodge. Retreatants can come for Wednesday or Thursday only, for Wednesday and stay over Wednesday night, for Wednesday night and stay over Thursday — or for the entire time.
There will be no programming — the time is yours to make of it what you choose. Meditatively walk the 20 acres of meadows and woods, sit and write beside the Grand River, read, or simply catch up on much-needed rest.
Overnight retreatants each will have their own room — maximum for overnight is seven. Bring your own food for meals — snacks and beverages provided. Daytime guests will have use of the grounds and the common areas of the Lodge.
This event is gender inclusive.
Leader: Self-directed
Time/Cost: Total amount is due with registration form.
- Wednesday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. — $25
Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. — $25
- Wednesday, 9 a.m., to Thursday, 11 a.m. — $55
OR Wednesday nite, 5 p.m., to Thursday, 5 p.m. — $55
- Wednesday, 9 a.m. to Thursday, 5 p.m. — $75
To print and send registration form
September 10-12, 2010
Politicizing Pleasure and Disability: Your Sex, Our Movement
The 10th Annual Retreat for Disability Activists & Allies
The Disability Rights Movement has a rich history of improving the lives of people with disabilities through political action yet continues to largely be silent about sexual and reproductive health. It is time we politicize our pleasure by adding sexual and reproductive health to the agenda of the Disability Rights Movement. Through exploring the personal aspects of sexuality and analyzing how disability stigma impacts our sexual health, we will work together to develop concrete approaches and methods for addressing sexual and reproductive health on a broader sociopolitical level. Essential to this method is the creation of a safe and inclusive space to prompt discussion of our deepest pleasures and pains related to these issues.
Through in-depth discussion, journaling, meditation in nature, and media analysis of films provided by the successful disThis film series in NYC; we will render visible the political nature of our personal sexual lives. By confessing our truth in this space we will begin the task of ending the silence around sexuality thus providing practice on how to do the same in the Disability Rights Movement.
This retreat is gender inclusive and open to disability activist, allies and partners.
Leader: Bethany Stevens
Time: Friday, 7:00 p.m. – Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
Cost: $215 ($75 deposit + $140 balance due) (Partial scholarships are available --- for info, e-mail leavencenter@leaven.org).
Bethany Stevens has identified as an uppity crip activist and disability studies nerd for a decade. She's currently a faculty member and policy analyst at the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University. Diligently striving to infuse her work with a radical disability ethos, she hosts disability awareness-raising campus and community events as well as implements coursework at a graduate and undergraduate level. Bethany researches the nexus of disability and sexual health, media representation, gender, transability, and social movement capacity building. Before joining the faculty at Georgia State University, she served as a Center of Excellence for Sexual Health Scholar under former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher at Morehouse School of Medicine. Bethany has a B.A. in Art History, a J.D., a M.A. in Sexuality Studies and is a member of the California Bar Association.
September 14-15, 2010 (opening retreat)
Sister Colleagues: A Seminar for Women in Ministry
If you are a woman in ministry* who is seeking a nurturing, challenging, and ecumenical context to gather with other colleagues, please join us for this monthly seminar. Since 1989, Sister Colleagues has been a supportive community where women with a call to ministry:
- find support and encouragement from sister colleagues
- commiserate and consult with one another
- explore changing theological and biblical perspectives
- discuss topics that arise in our ministry settings
- express personal and professional concerns
- celebrate together experiences that are invigorating and confirming
September 14-15 will be the opening retreat and first of five overnight retreats to be held every other month through May 2011. Each time we gather, there will be opportunities for worship and singing, checking-in with each other, sharing of stories, and exploration of a given topic or theme. Articles, book chapters, or audio/visual recordings will be assigned as a way of helping us prepare for discussion of seminar topics.
* Recognizing that not all religious institutions fully affirm the gifts of women, we welcome sisters who have answered a call to ministry, however you define that.
Leader: Karen D. Bota
Dates: Five overnight retreats --- September 14-15, November 9-10, January 11-12, March 8-9, and May 10-11. Sessions begin at 6:00 p.m. and end the following day at 3:30 p.m.
Cost: $500 ($100 deposit + $400 balance due). Tuition may be paid in installments over the course of the seminar.
Karen D. Bota is executive director of the Leaven Center, and a freelance journalist and writer. She has spent more than 20 years working in religious communications, but has used writing as a part of her spiritual practice all her life. Karen is co-founder of the Women's Spirituality Project (www.womensspiritualityproject.com), a self-sustaining community of women on a faith journey. She regularly leads workshops and retreats that encourage writing as a means to share our stories in our own voices and to have our voices heard.
October 15-18, 2010 and November 19-22, 2010
Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-Racist White People
For 16 consecutive years, Doing Our Own Work has provided a unique context for white people who seek to deepen their commitment to confronting and challenging racism. Offering more than 40 hours of "class time," Doing Our Own Work equips white people with the analysis, skills, and tools needed to be more effective anti-racist allies with people of color and to help bring about institutional change.
People from communities all across North America have taken part in this intensive seminar. Here is what some of those participants say about the experience:
- " Doing Our Own Work is life-changing. It has affected my choice of where to live, what do with my life, where my priorities lie, everything."
- "After attending Doing Our Own Work , I am much more willing to take risks as a white person when working alongside of, and in solidarity with, people of color."
- " Doing Our Own Work gave me a broader and deeper knowledge of anti-racism, white privilege, my people's history, and the way oppression functions."
If you are a white person who is ready and eager to do some deep, soul-stretching, and exhilarating work with other white anti-racist allies, Doing Our Own Work is the place for you!
Leaders: Melanie Morrison and Aaron Wilson-Ahlstrom
Dates: October 15-18 and November 19-22, 2010. Participation in both extended weekends is required.
Time: Friday, 7:00 p.m. (EST) - Monday, 1:00 p.m.
Location: The Leaven Center in Lyons, Michigan
Cost: $690 ($100 deposit and $590 balance due). The balance may be paid in installments extending beyond the close of the seminar. The cost includes program, materials, lodging, and meals. Partial scholarships are available.
For more information or to register: Visit www.alliesforchange.org/calendar.html.About the Leaders
The facilitators are committed to working with the participants to create a respectful and truth-telling environment where we may bring our whole selves to this vitally important work.
Melanie Morrison is Director of Allies for Change and a seasoned anti-oppression educator and activist with 20 years experience designing and facilitating transformational group process. Melanie is passionate about working with individuals and organizations to better understand the connections between systemic oppressions and to nurture collaborative action and authentic relationship across differences such as race, age, gender, abilities, and sexual orientation. She believes it is possible to grow ever more aware of the depth and complexity of injustice without surrendering our capacity for compassion, joy, and hope. She has led numerous anti-racism seminars and workshops. This is her 16th year of facilitating the Doing Our Own Work seminar.
Aaron Wilson-Ahlstrom is a teacher who is passionate about the role of schools in working for social justice. He works for the Henry Ford Learning Institute, a non-profit that is developing a network of small, innovative charter schools based on the Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, Michigan. Aaron believes that racism is present everywhere and, while it does not oppress white people, it does damage them by making white people complicit in the oppression of people of color. He sees anti-racism work as critically important if white people are regain their collective humanity. In addition to being a facilitator of Doing Our Own Work, Aaron is a community training partner with the Michigan State University Extension multicultural awareness program.
October 21-24, 2010
Reconnecting with Our Wild Souls:
A Workshop with Annie O'ShaughnessyTo nurture a soulful, creative life we need to reconnect tenderly with our wild soul. We need to
create a loving, open, nonjudgmental space for our tender parts to gain footing and courage. We
need to create a clear path for Spirit to flow through our lives.This weekend workshop is for men and women who:
- Want to remember who they were before they became so skilled at doing what everyone expected.
- Want to feel what it's like to be truly seen and heard.
- Want to get in touch with playfulness, truthfulness and tenderness.
- Are ready to live a more full and soulful life.
- Want to spend time with open-hearted, kindred souls.
Requirements are few:
- The desire to rest the mind and allow the soul to speak.
- The willingness to share in writing privately to yourself or with others. (No one will be forced to
share with the group. Silent participants who choose to witness quietly are just as essential as
those who will share all!).- A desire to relax into our unfolding.
- A respect for Love, Soul and Spirit.
- A commitment to honesty and growth.
- A love of beauty and nature.
What we will do together:
- Quiet
This event is gender inclusive.
Leader: Annie O'Shaughnessy
Time: Thursday, 7:00 p.m.-Sunday, 1:00 p.m. (includes lunch)
Cost: $275 if you register by September 21; after September 21 cost is $300. (Partial scholarships are available.)
Annie O'Shaughnessy is a writer, workshop leader and founder of Soul Flares www.soulflares.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the resources and inspiration needed to live a purposeful and soulful life in harmony with nature and all beings. "Soul Flares was born out of the belief that the change we need to see in the world begins inside each of us as a small light —a soul flare waiting to be expressed," Annie says. "When we dissolve the boundaries that separate us from our truth and beauty, from each other, and from nature we create the conditions for each of us to shine more brightly. Motivated by love instead of fear or shame, we become a collective force for good."
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