An Annual Festival of Faith, Social Justice & DIY in Ontario
(12+)
After a successful session last year showing us how to bikepack and stealth camp, Mark is back this year with his bike, but using it to show us how to fix ours! Come and learn about your tires, gears, chain and basic set-up.
Mark is a cycling enthusiast, ordained minister, corporate trainer and part-time bicycle mechanic. He is a passionate advocate and evangelist of seeing the world from the seat of a bicycle.
(12+)
Bring your stressed, anxious or burnt-out nervous system and practice listening to its messages about how to care for yourself. We will discuss the stress response and window of tolerance, and how these concepts can help us to understand our bodies’ signals. We will also explore some simple trauma-informed stress release practices involving breathing, humming and shaking.
Esther is a writer, organizer, peacemaker, disturber of the peace, Gestalt psychotherapy student, and nature lover. Since a concussion in 2018, she has been learning to live well with a finicky nervous system, with considerable help from Dr. Shailla Vaidya’s Reconnect Concussion yoga program. Her favourite stress relief practices include yoga, singing, walks by the lake, tea and chocolate.
Join us for a transformative circle conversation delving into opportunities to be an ally to Indigenous peoples. Along with Scott, Clarence will lead us through key steps towards building meaningful partnerships that undermine oppressive, colonial systems. If you are exploring ways to be a more effective ally, this workshop is the perfect opportunity to gain valuable insights and gain new perspectives. Please come prepared to listen, share, and experience wisdom together!
Clarence, founder of Crow Shield Lodge, is a helper, visionary and author who is known for investing his whole self into his community. Clarence originates from Chapleau Cree First Nation and calls Cambridge his home. Scott is the Coordinator of Mennonite Central Committee Ontario’s Indigenous Neighbours program. He will share his perspective as a settler working to earn the title ‘ally’ in his home community on the Grand River Watershed and with partners across Ontario.
Have you ever noticed the National Historic Site across the road? Come walk back through time and see the raised earth mounds that remain from the fortified village that was home to 800-900 Attiwandaron people (also known as the Neutral Iroquois) when they lived here between 1500 and 1650. It is also just a nice long walk (1.5km round trip). So come for the excercise; or come for the joy of historical education; or come to spend time in nature; or come spend the afternoon imagining you live in a Attiwandaron fort. All are welcome.
Jay never misses a chance to read a historic plaque so he couldn’t resist the one across from Cahoots. He’s ready with interesting historical facts for anyone who shares his fascination with Canadian history. He won’t be offended if you hang back a few feet where you don’t need to listen to him.
Back by popular demand! No experience necessary – you will learn how Ultimate works and together we will play this game where mutual respect is valued and demonstrated.
Hugh chases flying plastic with his friends as often as he can. As a co-founder of the non-profit ReachUp (currently on hiatus) he has facilitated ultimate workshops in a variety of Indigenous communities across Ontario. Jubilene is a Grade 12 student at Rosedale School of the Arts in Toronto. Running down frisbee hucks gives her great joy.
The award winning documentary film “Safe Haven” explores the lives of American war resisters who came to Canada as conscientious objectors, seeking asylum from conscription into the USA military. It weaves together the powerful stories of resisters who who sought protection in Canada during wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the risks and challenges, they faced in their quest to be able to live with their conscience and advocate for peaceful co-existence. Esther, who married a deserter from the USA Marine Corps, is featured in one interview. He wrote to her in one of his letters, “I will never be one of them. They may beat me, they may break me, but they will never win me over. If love is not more powerful than hate, that what is there? If killing is more Godly then kindness and love, then how will anyone survive? As for myself, I cannot live with myself knowing I am a lie. To be a Marine would make me and my life a complete and utter lie. I hope that it doesn’t take being a Marine to be a man. If it does, then may my manhood never come.”
After a 34-year career as a Registered Nurse, Esther took early retirement and joined Christian Peacemaker Teams in 2004 as a “second career”. This commitment has taken her to Iraqi Kurdistan, Palestine, Colombia, the USA/Mexico Borderlands, and to many Indigenous communities on Turtle Island. Social justice and activism have been an integral part of her life beginning in 1969, when she came to Canada with her War Resister fiance to seek asylum and to be able to live in freedom with one’s conscience.
Ashe will explore what it means to “queer” spirituality. To “queer” something is to re-examine, deconstruct, or subvert it though a queer lens. It means to pay attention to our deepest longings and listen to the wisdom of our bodies as we join the Spirit in the Great Work of Liberation. This work involves unearthing the toxic myths and ideas that weave through our own consciousness as well as challenging the way these myths and ideas take concrete expression in the world around us. This session, which will benefit cishet folks as well as queer folks, will include a presentation, as well as discussion and contemplative practice.
Ashe (she/they) is the Director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a spiritual director, activist, author, and teacher whose work focuses on the intersection of spirituality and radical action. Ashe is the author of A Wolf at the Gate, unKingdom, and That Holy Anarchist, as well as a contributor to a number of edited tomes and publications. Ashe earned an MDiv from Bethel Theological Seminary, studied Spiritual Direction at the University of St. Catherine’s graduate school, and is currently writing her doctoral dissertation at United Theological Seminary.
(12+)
For years, migrant workers coming to Canada have been subjected to exploitation by employers, landlords, supervisors. Many are underpaid, overworked, abused. This experiential exercise leads participants to experience the exploitation migrant workers face when they arrive in Canada. Through a role-play, participants are guided through some of the exploitation workers experience at various stages of their migration, such as recruitment debt, dangerous work conditions, unlawful pay deductions, and crowded and unsanitary living conditions. After a debrief, the participants are asked to engage in various forms of support, advocacy and reflection.
Varka is Project Manager in the Ministry for Social Justice, Peace, and Creation Care with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto (CSJ). She has in interest and experience in various social justice issues, including migrant justice and human trafficking. Leah is Ministry Director of the CSJ Ministry for Social Justice, Peace, and Creation Care. She holds an M.A. in Peace and Justice from the University of San Diego. Sabrina is a Catholic Environmental Educator from Tkaronto/Toronto. As Creation Care Animator for the CSJ, she’s a long time proponent of Deep Ecology and Integral Ecology. She holds a certificate in Community Arts Practice and an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from York University.
This session will use the practice of silent attentiveness to/in the woods as well as practices and texts from various ancient forms of christian contemplative prayer to provide an opportunity for prayer (possibly unlike anything you’ve called prayer before!) in and among the community of the forest: our fellow created beings. It could be called ‘lectio natura’ (something like ‘lectio divina’, an ancient method of prayer through silent attentiveness to specific words of scripture): we will ‘read’ from the book of creation. As we slowly wander a path through the woods we will alternately listen (to short readings; questions or prompts), perceive, meditate, share observations, walk, stand and sit.
Leanne has been a community development worker, trainer of camp leaders, writer, high school drama teacher, grief support facilitator, and theology student, and has been a lover of both the woods and Jesus since she can remember. Her recent experience of homeschooling led to new ways of seeing and being in the woods; and her experience of a Theology course in Contemplative Prayer led to new ways of knowing and understanding prayer. Together, these discoveries have opened a space for praying in a way that is instinctive, gentle and powerful, and she has been sharing it with others whenever she can.
Laudato Si’ was written to all of humanity from Pope Francis about care for our common home. In this session, participants are invited to take in an overview of the letter and the impact it is having around the world. We will explore questions around the document and how it can be used in care for Creation, decolonization, and climate justice.
Sabrina (she/her), BES, is a Catholic Environmental Educator from Tkaronto/Toronto. As Creation Care Animator for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, she’s a long time proponent of Deep Ecology and Integral Ecology. Her work centers on community engagement, outdoor education and environmental well-being. She uses story-telling, community action and spiritual thought to help all people understand how to act wisely towards our water, air and earth.
