Quaker Center, a retreat and conference center located in Ben Lomond, California, offers annual calendar of both online and in-person programs that explore spiritual growth and deepening, the faith and practice of Quakerism, peace and social justice, environmentalism, and much more. Here are some ongoing and upcoming programs in March, April, and May.
Wednesday Morning Online Worship sharing
each Wednesday at 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Many of us are over-scheduled. Even the lives of our children are over-scheduled. When we can allow ourselves to rest and relax, healing becomes possible. There is no healing without relaxation. In the Plum Village Tradition, we learn the art of being lazy, at least one day a week.
We think that when we are not doing anything we are wasting our time, that is not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be, to be what? to be alive, to be peace, to be joy, to be loving. And that is what the world needs the most. So we train ourself in order to be. And if you know the art of being peace, of being solid, then you have the ground for every action… because the ground for action is to be. And the quality of being determines the quality of doing. Action must be based on non-action.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Queries: Is meditation part of your life? Do you take time out to do nothing?
Dancing with History: a life for peace and justice
In-Person
Friday, March 3rd-Sunday, March 5th, 2023
George Lakey returns to Quaker Center to talk about his new memoir Dancing with History and the growing anxiety around polarization in our country. With lessons he learned as a young man facing violence in the streets and risking his life for human rights, Lakey shows readers how to find hope in even the most challenging times through strategic, joyful activism.
Racial Wealth Gap Learning SImulation
Online Workshop
Tuesdays, April 18, 25, 2023 at 4-5:30 PM Pacific Time
This simulation helps people understand the connections between racial equity, hunger, poverty, and wealth. Participants learn how federal policies created structural inequalities—property ownership and education are just two of many areas affected—and how these policies increase poverty in communities of color.
Facilitator Beverly Ward is the field secretary for Earthcare, Southeastern Yearly Meeting and co-clerk of Quaker Earthcare Witness.
Writing Mental Illness
Online Workshop with Ben Brazil
Wednesdays, May 3, 10, 17, and 24 at 6:30-8:00 PM Pacific Time
Mental illness affects roughly one in four American adults—or about 61.5 million people—in a given year. Yet despite its prevalence, mental illness carries a social stigma, and our mental health “system” offers scant, spotty support for those who suffer. This class asks us, as writers, to engage with the personal, moral, social—and spiritual—dimensions of mental illness. Note: this course involves pre-reading and space is limited.
Ben Brazil directs the Ministry of Writing program at the Earlham School of Religion, a Quaker seminary in Richmond, Indiana.
