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Metanoia

"Let your minds be remade"

Special Series

In this online series on the WCCM’s theme for 2023, an international group of contemplatively oriented leaders, thinkers and activists bring wide-ranging perspectives to focus on how we can change our mind. With insights from religion, science, politics, economics and technology, this series will be a year-long discovery of hope and fresh insights into our future. Discussion groups will meet between the monthly online talks to allow participants to share their insights with others.

The solutions to our global problems and their means are already within our reach. What we conspicuously lack is the common mind to make them effective and to change the disastrous course humanity is on.

Metanoia is a Greek word that simply means change your mind. This is something that comes right from the heart of the Gospel. The call of Jesus at the beginning of his public teaching was to repent. The Greek word behind that is in fact metanoia: Change the way you're looking, don't beat yourself up for the mistakes you've made but understand where you are and change your perspective.
Laurence Freeman OSB
"Is it the flag or your mind that is moving?" Dogen, Zen koan

Register for the Full Series

£200
£ 140
  • Register for full series (get 10 talks for the price of 7)
  • All sessions are preceded by a group meditation (optional)
  • Time to interact with the speakers
  • Lifetime access to recordings (single sessions registrations give 1 year access)
  • Registration form at bottom of page

The prices reflect the need to achieve self sufficiency. Therefore if you’re able to give a little more we would be very grateful. Please, click here to donate.

If you need a concession please let us know. We do not turn anybody away for lack of resources. Please click the email address  support@wccm.org to contact us.

Metanoia is a Greek word that simply means change your mind. This is something that comes right from the heart of the Gospel. The call of Jesus at the beginning of his public teaching was to repent. The Greek word behind that is in fact metanoia: Change the way you're looking, don't beat yourself up for the mistakes you've made but understand where you are and change your perspective.
Laurence Freeman OSB
  • Schedule of Dates & Speakers

17 January

Barry White

Science & Art of Healing

The Science & Art of Healing

The talk will explore the path to self healing through contemplative living.

28 February

Diane Tolomeo

Education

“Teach me what I do not see”

In confusing times of rapidly changing ideas about everything , how and why do we keep learning? In this talk, Diane shares her experience of learning, teaching and meditation to suggest how we can find comfort and growth in uncertainty, and, like the psalmist, make it a habit to say “lead me in your way and teach me”.

21 March

David Egan

Relationship & Equality

The Multi-Species Community

The densely settled and sedentary communities that are the norm for almost all human beings today are multi-species communities. 

25 April

Giovanni Felicioni

The Embodied Person, Plasticity

“Embodiment” — In my flesh I shall come face to face with God (Job 19:26)

In this talk Giovanni will speak out of his 30 year of experience, working with people through touch and movement, as a Rolfer, yoga teacher and movement therapist. He will show how the very young science of human movement uses the term “embodiment” to herald a new way of understanding how we come to “know” our bodies and how we humans get up on our two feet and move about in a world.

30 May

Mark Medish

Democracy

Reflections on Human Scale

Throughout a career that took him to high levels in international affairs, law and finance, Mark Medish has pondered over the concept of “human scale” and its significance for the contemporary world. Classical and Renaissance thinkers placed heavy value on the ideas of proportion, scale and optimal balance as keys to individual fulfillment and social order. How can and should we — as citizens, parents, workers, individuals — understand and apply those age-old concepts in our lives in today’s increasingly scaled-up and digitized world?

13 June

Matthew Fox

Religion

“Letting Our Minds be Remade regarding Religion”

The crises facing humanity today are real and profound. From climate change to wars including threats of nuclear war to the demise of democracy as we know it, we are facing our own extinction as a species. In this talk, Matthew raises many questions among which how religion has to change, if religion and humanity have a future, and what that might look like.

25 July

Jane Williams

Scripture (how to read)

Metanoia: Letting scripture remake our minds

Christian meditation requires attention to the nature and purpose of God, or it can be in danger of becoming an entirely personal and inward practice with no impact on what we are becoming or how we relate to others. Scripture inevitably draws us into the strange, diverse community, stretching through time and across place, of those who try to live in the reality of God’s presence and action. This talk will explore why and how we engage with scripture and meditation.

5 September

Marco Schorlemmer

Technology

For a Radical Transformation in our Techno-Scientific Thinking

Our world is in big trouble. We won’t get out of this mess merely with more techno-scientific progress. Science and technology have often been regarded as a symbol of humanity’s progress towards more free and just societies. However, increasingly we see that while every new technology can bring benefits, it can also produce greater divisions and inequalities among people, and even threaten the life of our planet. 

21 November

Jane McAuliffe & Dennis McAuliffe

Interfaith

Contemplation and a Culture of Encounter

Dennis McAuliffe, who has written on Dante and contemplation, and Jane McAuliffe, whose publications deal with Islam and interreligious understanding, will speak from their respective areas of expertise on how a change of attitude from hostility to toleration to engagement has opened the way for the many interreligious encounters that now exist and that offer a vivid example of “minds being remade” and, consequently, of the world being changed.

12 December

Mark Carney
Mark Carney

Economics

Mark Carney is the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance. He addresses our theme of Metanoia from a distinguished career in finance that included serving as Governor of the Bank of England and of the Bank of Canada. With a contemplative perspective that informs his professional vision, he will discuss how we can change our mind in order to change the present perilous direction in which humanity is moving.

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