Deepening Conversation, Finding Common Ground: Circles with a Spiritual Center: Parliament of the World’s Religions
At the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City, I experienced anew the power of sacred circles. For about six weeks before the Parliament began, I had the joy of joining a circle through telephone conversations as we connected and planned the Parliament workshop, “Deepening Conversation, Finding Common Ground: Circles with a Spiritual Center.” My friend Ann Landaas Smith, among those featured in my book She Lives!, invited me to participate in this workshop as a circle facilitator. Although 8 to 12 women took part in each of our phone conversations, we followed the circle principles of giving each voice equal value as we each shared our wisdom.
On the day before the Parliament opened, I connected in person with some of these women and many others in an afternoon of sacred circle. Kathe Schaaf, one of the co-founders of Women of Spirit and Faith, whose leadership I’d experienced at a Circle the UN program at the 2014 UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW), was among those who created this awesome pre-Parliament event titled “On Feminine Ground: The Alchemy of our COLLECTIVE Wisdom and Strength.” Women of Spirit and Faith collaborated with Gather the Women, Millionth Circle, and several other organizations to co-create this event. Approximately 100 women from multiple organizations and networks gathered in a lovely room at the Episcopal Church Center of Utah to practice the core values of leadership “On Feminine Ground”:
Everyone is a leader.
Everyone has wisdom to share.
Every voice is heard.
Every voice matters.
We divided into many small circles to connect our hearts, affirm our intentions, and ground the Parliament in the Sacred Feminine. Dorothy “Rowdy” Brewick, whom I’d also connected with in New York City at the UN CSW, facilitated our circle of women from various faith traditions, generations, and ethnicities. In just a few hours we formed deep connections, making reality this vision for our time together:
We will:
meet ourselves and one another
experience the power of sacred space
deepen our skill of generative heart-listening
discover resonance and reverence
nurture the root system of women’s spirituality.
Our collective wisdom and strength will become a dynamic and effective organism that keeps showing up throughout the Parliament.
Our wisdom did continue to show up throughout the Parliament. Women from the “On Feminine Ground” event led 26 scheduled workshops, and we continued to receive additional invitations to lead workshops and participate on panels at the Parliament.
After experiencing the amazing circle at the “On Feminine Ground” event, I felt a dissonance while attending the plenary sessions and many of the workshops where the rooms had a linear arrangement with rows and rows of seating and speakers on raised platforms at the front. Instead of hearing the voices of all participants as in circles, we heard only the speakers and a few people who asked questions at the end of presentations.
One of my most powerful experiences of sacred circle came on Sunday at the Parliament workshop presented by Millionth Circle: “Deepening Conversation, Finding Common Ground: Circles with a Spiritual Center.” Although the large meeting room was arranged in the same linear style as most of the rooms at the Parliament, we quickly took the presenters’ chairs from the platform and formed a semi-circle for us to sit on the same level with everyone there. Leslie Lanes, co-designer of The Rose Circle, a community organization training women to be Circle Mentors for girls’ circles, began by introducing us and describing how we would move into small circles for our time together. She gave the Circle Principles we would follow:
Create a sacred space.
Open and close by hearing each voice.
Speak and listen from the heart.
Listen with discernment instead of judgment.
Speak from your own experience.
Hold in confidence what is shared in confidence.
Use silence for reflection, meditation, and prayer.
Jean Shinoda Bolen explained a little of the background and purpose of circles. The Millionth Circle Initiative, an idea that began at the 1999 World Parliament of Religions in South Africa, was inspired by her book The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World. The Millionth Circle is a metaphoric number that, when added to all the others, creates a tipping point in planetary consciousness. Every circle draws upon and contributes to a morphic field that is energized by compassion, interconnection, and the principle that we are all one. Circles with a spiritual center become circles of understanding, compassion, and wisdom for people whose theology and religious traditions may differ, but who share the common ground of a deep spirituality. Circles are a form through which transformation can take place through dialogue and silence. Circles with a spiritual center facilitate speaking and listening from the heart, and support authenticity, creative solutions, and compassionate actions. Circles are dynamic, inclusive, and nonhierarchical.
The circle I facilitated was indeed dynamic, inclusive, and nonhierarchical. In our circle we all became facilitators. Although the 4 of us came from 4 different parts of the country and 4 different faith traditions, after a little more than an hour of sharing our stories and our deepest hopes, we felt as though we’d known each other for a long time. We shared the common ground of visions for a future of peace and justice. We wrote words expressing our prayers on hearts to place on a display in the Parliament exhibit hall. Artist and designer Penny McManigal, one of the circle facilitators, created this display which illustrated the Parliament theme, “Reclaiming the Heart of Our Humanity” and included her beautiful artwork “Peace for Our Children.”
After the workshop I walked over to the Parliament exhibit hall, where I found Ann Landaas Smith and Penny McManigal. Ann and I placed our heart prayers on the display while Penny photographed us.
A young woman, Aline Kras, walked up with videography equipment and began a conversation with Ann and me. We learned that Aline is a photographer, videographer, artist, and associate producer of the documentary film The Future of Energy. She mentioned that she’s also working on a film on gender equality and reconciliation, and we told her about our involvement in Millionth Circle and our Parliament presentation “Reclaiming the Divine Feminine.” Aline asked if she could interview us for the documentary on gender equality. In the interview she asked us to talk about our passion for gender equality. We talked about how passionate we are about gender equality because it’s connected to peace, care of creation, racial equality, economic justice, marriage equality, and justice for all people, and about how important it is for women and men and all people to work together for gender equality. We spoke about the transformation that comes through changing hierarchies to circles and through balancing female and male multicultural images of the Divine in our religious and spiritual traditions.