Settler soul work: the discipleship of finding a way for restorative solidarity
Thursdays: Sept 7, 14, 21, 28, & Oct 5
1:30 - 3pm ET online
in collaboration with Servant Partners Canada
Join the Learning Centre for a 5-week series exploring how our own stories, both ancestral and present day, offer meaningful answers to the question many settler and white people ask when thinking about addressing systemic racism; "What is the work that I am to do?"
This multi-modal facilitated group experience will incorporate psychoeducation, a theology of shalom, somatic exercises, ancestral family history and reflection exercises to disciple our way into healing and solidarity.
Using materials as inspiration from Elaine Enns & Ched Meyers’ book Healing Haunted Histories, we will take a look at the storylines we walk with, the stories we walked from and in the present day and the stories that inspire and sustain us. If you are able to read this book beforehand or during, it will certainly deepen your engagement with the material but is not a pre-requisite.
Week 1 (Sept 7) - Introduction
As a group we will familiarize ourselves with somatic tools, basic psychoeducation, and theological underpinnings to engage in cross-cultural solidarity and a discipleship of decolonization.
Week 2 (Sept 14) - Engage
We engage our senses and our understanding of your ancestral and Christian faith history within the larger story of race in Canada. We will exploring the ghosts and questions that inhabit the geographies in which our ancestors have lived.
Week 3 (Sept 21) - Explore
We will explore our unique stories of being white inherited to us as well as our current favourite false white identities. Using the concept of “Songlines” we will explore the stories that formed us and the new stories we tell ourselves
Week 4 (Sept 28) - Respond
We will engage a Bibliodrama exercise of Mark 10:17-31 through a re-narration of Indigenous Jesus and Powerful Settler Official to form a springboard of brainstorming experiments for restorative solidarity. At the end of this we will ask you to answer the question "How will you engage with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30th in response to the learnings from this group?"
Week 5 (Oct 5) - Reflect (with Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, authors of Healing Haunted Histories)
In our final session we will be welcoming Elaine Enns and Ched Myers. We’ll make space for supportive storytelling of our learning and engagements on Sept. 30th, as well as next steps of a sustained discipleship path for allyship in cross-cultural relationships and addressing systemic racism in our specific context.
Facilitator
Register
There are two options to access the New Leaf Learning Centre: a monthly subscription or a one-session pass (below). For the monthly subscription, please visit here.
The suggested amount is $50 ($10/week); simply choose your amount in the drop-down menu and “sign up now”.
We would like for you to join us, so if you can’t afford the registration at this time, please reach out to us and we will make sure you are able to participate: admin@newleafnetwork.ca
