John Main Seminar 2020

             
Explore how ancestral wisdom and spirituality can shape a common path to the future
2020 John Main Seminar: Indigenous wisdom and the future of humanity

Every year the World Community for Christian Meditation comes together WITH FRIENDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD to honor the memory of John Main and his legacy to ENRICH AND EXTEND the teaching of Christian Meditation. The 2020 John Main Seminar will focus on the theme ‘One Heart, One Hope – Indigenous wisdom, and the future of humanity‘. It is organized by the WCCM Community in Mexico and will be held fully online, from 19 to 22 October 2020.
We will be hosting our first John Main Seminar online using the Zoom platform. The live sessions will be in Spanish and English (with simultaneous translation into English, Spanish and Portuguese). The participants will be able to watch the video recordings a few hours after each session – and they will remain available online for one month after the Seminar.

The 2020 John Main Seminar Schedule

Packed with talks from speakers from all over the world, the 2020 John Main Seminar schedule is availablefor download here.

In this video, Enrique Lavin, WCCM National Coordinator for Mexico and Gabriel Parrodi, part of the John Main Seminar Organizing Team introduce us to the theme of the seminar, Indigenous wisdom and the future of humanity and how each of the speakers taking part will cover this theme from the perspective of their indigenous wisdom.

https://youtu.be/GiV1VLj3pE4

About the speakers

Speakers at this year’s John Main Seminar will take us on a journey into indigenous wisdom and how that will undeniably affect the future of humanity.

Alex Zatyrka SJ, MEXICAN Jesuit and THE keynote speaker, talking about “Indigenous Wisdom”, at the event, describes the Seminar: “It is very enriching to see that experience being expressed in many different cultures, through many different sensitivities. Each one of us can build one common faith, one common goal, one common sensitivity”

Among the other speakers, Argentinian anthropologist Ana María LLamazares will help us explore the cosmogony of the native peoples from South America and how they are related to native peoples from other regions of the world. In her talk ‘Building Bridges’, Ana María will also explore how by working together we can awaken our consciousness and build bridges between new paradigms and ancestral traditions of wisdom.

Ivan Rosypskye, carver, together with Ron Berezan, Anglican deacon will take us on an explorative journey of indigenous struggles for justice, reconciliation and decolonization in Canada in their talk ‘Reconciliation’. Through a shared journey, they worked together on a carving project on the Anglican church grounds in Powell River, BC.

“We found that people feel spirituality instinctively and that their own cultures can help to give balance to their lives” says PulengMatsaneng, from the Jesuit Institute of South Africa. Through the work that has been done by the Jesuit Institute, Puleng’s talk ‘Liturgy’ will explore how African themes and practices of spirituality dialogue with Western traditions, and how the use of storytelling and song can be part of the prayer process.

Tau Huirama, internationally trained indigenous Māori speaker, has a deep reservoir of indigenous cultural and spiritual stories and a wealth of storytelling skills that bring everything he says to life – inviting his listeners into his world while connecting to theirs, in ways that bridge differences and create connection and relationship. In his talk ‘Healing’, Tau will share, together with Vanessa Eldridge, Manager, Day Hospice, their experience of indigenising spaces to better serve Māori people – and how this approach, in turn, can enrich everyone.