Thirty years after the WCCM was formed at the John Main Seminar led by Bede Griffiths, Jason Gordon comes to New Harmony to lead a contemporary reflection on where we as a community and as a human family have come. He will raise the question of how we can act hopefully in a collapsing civilisation with such hostile forces of de-humanisation. How can we understand contemplation in this social and spiritual crisis? But in facing these hard questions, he will invite us to consider the twin path of contemplation and synodality: a faith-filled, hopeful way to a better world and a fuller humanity.

In a world collapsing in on itself in a failure to listen and to open to others, the resounding wisdom of Isiah’s call to ‘widen your tent’ is like a beam of light. It summons us to open our hearts, our ears and our minds in all directions in an ever-widening spirit of universal welcome and solidarity.

As always meditation will shape the days of the week’s Seminar and there will be sessions too where the listening and mindful sharing of Synodality will be practised (and take the place of the usual silent retreat.)