By Melanie P. Moore, et al.
Each month, we publish a listing of upcoming contemplative and spiritual opportunities recommended by folks here at The Abbey. Many of us have floundered around in the past looking for community and deep engagement with other pilgrims on the spiritual path. Here we share a curated list of what we are finding, in hopes you might find some of it helpful on your journey. We’ve included a Comments section with each listing detailing what we as participants have liked. If you know of something coming up in October or November and would like to have it listed here, please email the information as shown below to editor@theabbey.us by September 18 to be included in the post at the beginning of October. Please note that all times are listed in Central Time.
September
Buddhist-Based Resilience: For Caregivers with Loved Ones with Disabilities (from Upaya Zen Center)
Dates and Times: Thursdays, Sept. 3, 10, 17, 24; 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free, donation requested
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: 4 weeks; 2 hours/session
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: Caring for a loved one with a disability can be both a challenge and an opportunity for growth. Caring for a child with autism, a mother with dementia, or a partner after a stroke involves a great deal of invisible work that can last for decades. It also often involves a high level of exhaustion and potential social isolation. At the same time, caring for a loved one is a learning journey that offers multiple opportunities to grow and develop new strengths. We can learn to transform the difficulties we encounter into greater resilience, empathy, and the capacity to love. We can transform the loneliness we sometimes feel into a greater search for connection and social action.
The objective of this course is to offer a safe space to practice resilience through techniques that emerge from Buddhist psychology. The focus is on cultivating the equanimity and compassion necessary to understand and alleviate suffering and sustain ourselves and our loved ones with greater stability and love.
During the course, we will create a support group that will allow you to connect and share your experience with other caregivers going through similar situations. Each session lasts two hours and includes a short meditation, a brief theoretical presentation, and a specific practice to exercise each week.
Comments: Upaya has always done a lot of training for caregivers, healthcare providers, and physicians. This program seems especially good for many of us with aging relatives and/or younger family members with disabilities. We like that their programs are free with requested donation, which makes them more accessible to a wider audience. Their programs, across all genres, are very high quality. We always enjoy participating and appreciate how responsive they are to comments and questions. Even though their audiences can be–and often are–large, each experience feels personal.
Wild Goose Festival
Dates and Times: Thursday – Sunday, September 3 – 6
Registration: Open
Cost: All tickets sold out EXCEPT Full-price Adult Weekend Pass, $349 (non-refundable)
Frequency: Annual event
Duration: 4 days
Format: In-person only, Harmony, NC
Recording Available: N/A
Description: Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Wherever we come together – at our nationwide festival, smaller local and regional gatherings, or online spaces – we learn and grow by co-creating art, music, story, theater, and spectacle, engaging in a wide variety of robust, courageous conversations with each other and with thought leaders and artists from other communities. We believe that the conversations and experiences we have here can lead to actions that make a difference for a world that works for all.
We are welcoming and hospitable to people of all faiths – or no faith – who join us in seeking the common good. We fully affirm and celebrate people of every age, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual identity, education, bodily condition, religious affiliation, and economic background, particularly those who are most often marginalized.
Comments: While this is only an in-person event and is in North Carolina, some of their programming is recorded and later available on their website and by some of the presenters (Co-Creators). It is a social justice, all-inclusive, arguably radical experience for people of all faiths and no faith, with a growing and very loyal following. Interesting to check out if you aren’t familiar with it.
Poetry for the Present Series (from Eremos)
Dates and Times: Tuesdays, September 8, Dec. 8; 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: $30 per session or $100 for all 4 sessions
Frequency: Quarterly
Duration: 2 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: No
Description: As Eremos explores 30 Years of Light as our programming theme in 2026 in honor of our 30th anniversary, so too will our quarterly poetry sessions welcome in the light, even as each facilitator acknowledges what is present in the world and our lives in the moment.
Each session will include experiencing a selection of poems curated by the facilitator, time for personal reflection, and an invitation to write and share in small groups (breakout sessions via Zoom). No prior experience reading or writing poetry is necessary. Sharing your thoughts and writing is always by invitation.
Comments: This is a wonderful opportunity for poets and aspiring poets alike. Eremos does a great job with programs like this–they are accessible and enriching for all levels. The facilitators are Cathy Capers, Julie Bowman, and Beverly Voss.
What do Women do with Christianity (from The Center for Action and Contemplation)
Dates and Times: Friday, Sept. 11, Noon – 1:30 p.m.
Registration: Open through Sept. 10
Cost: $95 (with sliding scale, $30, $10, $5)
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 1.5 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: Have you ever wondered how women navigate faith amid structures that have often marginalized their voices? “What Do Women Do with Christianity?” is an online event offering wisdom, companionship, and space for bold and honest inquiry.
How might Christianity be renewed when women’s voices, bodies, experiences, and wisdom are centered rather than pushed to the margins?
“What Do Women Do with Christianity?” invites us to explore how women navigate faith amid structures that have often marginalized their voices and what a more expansive expressions of faith might look like today.
Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Ph.D., will explore empowerment and spiritual renewal within the Christian tradition. Guest teachers Christine Valters Paintner, Ph. D., and Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows will join Carmen for this 90-minute online gathering. Together, they will discuss how mutual listening and embodied spirituality can help empower us in a faith whose structures have caused so much harm.
Participants will need a device with reliable internet access, such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer, with access to Zoom.
Comments: We have read and followed Carmen Acevedo Butcher and Christine Valters Paintner for years This promises to be a great discussion on a topic where many of us are already engaged—pulling women from the margins into the center of Christian practice.
The Measure of our Humanity: Actualizing Compassionate Action in These Tangled Times: BELONGING with Frank Ostaseski (from Upaya Zen Center)
Dates and Times: Sunday, Sept 20, Noon – 1:30 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free, donations welcome
Frequency: Monthly
Duration: 1.5 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: Since 2020, when the pandemic first unfolded, Upaya has been exploring the necessity of rehumanization, solidarity, and speaking truth to power. Each year, we have deepened this investigation of socially and environmentally engaged Buddhism with remarkable teachers, contemplatives, artists, and activists. This past year’s Awareness in Action series has been part of that ongoing commitment.
In 2026, we turn toward a question that has perhaps been implicit throughout this entire journey: What is the measure of our humanity?
At its very heart, this question is about laying down a path toward a sane and compassionate future. It is about confirming what defines our moral worth, what we stand for, and how we move forward in our tangled world. As we have learned throughout the past 2025 series—from Father Boyle’s unwavering belief that everyone is unshakably good, to Sharon Salzberg’s teaching that love is an ability we develop—our true character is revealed in how we interact with and care for others, the very heart of what Thich Nhat Hanh has called “interbeing.”
The series will explore how we embody values like inclusion, belonging, compassion, respect, dignity, justice, and courage—not as abstract ideals, but as lived practice in these complex times.
Comments: Each program in this series is led by a different person, and some of the leaders in this series are teachers we have followed. We follow this series each year (the theme changes annually) and we like that you can attend any individual session or the whole series. The programs are donation-based.
Contemplative Enneagram Summit: Crossing the Threshold into Presence (from Closer than Breath, and others)
Dates and Times: Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 – 27, 8:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Suggested Standard $119, Reduced $99, Pay it Forward $149
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: Two days
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: The Enneagram is often introduced as a map of personality — a way to understand our habits, motivations, and defenses. But when held within a contemplative perspective, it becomes a way of seeing the patterns that shape us while awakening to our deepest Self, both beneath and within our patterns.
Each of the 9 Types carries its own wisdom, its own struggle, and its own doorway into compassion, freedom, and wholeness. Rather than trying to escape our personality, this summit invites us to become more awake within it — discovering how our very patterns can become pathways into contemplative awareness.
Through in-depth teaching, shared contemplative practice, and real-time interaction, our 2nd Contemplative Enneagram Summit offers a sacred space to explore personality not as a fixed identity, but as living ground for compassion, freedom, and inner transformation.
Comments: We always like the way Closer than Breath runs programs and the variety of presenters. This event has some well-known Enneagram facilitators including Russ Hudson and Suzanne Stabile, among others. We like that they always record the programs and, during the programs, allow time for pracitce.
November
Love, Conflict, and an Unfolding Universe (from the World Institute for Science, Religion, and Culture
Dates and Times: Monday – Wednesday, November 9 – 11
Registration: Open
Cost: $175 Online; $325 In-person, meals included
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 3 days
Format: Online and In-person at Villanova University, Villanova, PA
Recording Available: Yes
Description: Evolution is our story. Movement toward greater consciousness is our direction. And yet we find ourselves in a world wrought with conflict, war, separation, violence, and ecological wounding — the list goes on.
How did we arrive here? Are we doomed to fail as a species? Or is something deeper at work beneath the fractures of our age?
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin lived through two world wars. He witnessed devastation on a scale modernity had never known — and yet, beneath the surface of things, he perceived an energetic depth of love drawing the universe toward greater unity and consciousness. What is this cosmic love? Why is it essential to our moment? And how might it become, once again, the leading edge of our evolutionary becoming?
In November 2026, we will gather to ask these questions together — and to mark a decade of visionary work imagining love as the energy of transformation. This milestone arrives at a pivotal turning point, as that work continues under a new name: the World Institute for Science, Religion and Culture (WISR).
Join us in person at Villanova University, or online from anywhere in the world, to deepen this shared journey.
More details on speaker lineup and schedule are coming soon—for now, plan to join us!
Comments: Led by Ilia Delio, this organization,the World Institute for Science, Religion, and Culture, is the next iteration of the Center for Christogenesis. This event will celebrate the work done under the previous name and look toward the vision of the organization going forward. This group continues to wrestle with spiritual questions around the evolution of religion, science, and technology. In our current moment, these questions feel existential to many of us. We’re eager to hear what the presenters have to say—we have found their approach to be hopeful, particularly with respect to many of the technological advances that are not very well understood just yet.
December
Convergences of Science and Faith (from Contemplative Network, the Scientific and Medical Network)
Dates and Times: Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11 – 12
Registration: Open
Cost: 85 euro (close to $100)
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 2 days
Format: Online (or in person in Rome, Italy)
Recording Available: Yes
Description: This December, in Rome, Italy or online, the Contemplative Network and the Scientific and Medical Network are bringing together 16 distinguished scientists and contemplative clergy of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions for this hybrid conference, held 11–12 December 2026. It will be held at the Palazzo Cardinal Cesi in Rome, one block from St. Peter’s Square, as well as offered online. The 13 December 2026 is available for separately ticketed in-person art tours.
Speakers include Peter Cardinal Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences; cosmologist Dr. Bernard Carr, former doctoral student of Stephen Hawking; Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, senior scientist on the Hubble Space Telescope; and Dr. Federico Faggin, inventor of the microprocessor, alongside Christian mystics, Jewish Kabbalists, and Islamic Sufi contemplative prayer leaders.
The program follows the chapter titles of the textbook Faith and Science: A Journey into God’s Mystical Love.
Comments: This conference was featured in a Contemplative Outreach monthly newsletter and is jointly hosted by Contemplative Network and The Science Medical Network. It is a hybrid event hosted in Italy. It features some familiar Christian speakers such as James Finley and Fr. Laurence Freeman, but includes speakers from other faith traditions and scientific backgrounds. It looks to be an interesting opportunity to explore the intersection of faith and science and to hear some fresh voices. It includes opportunities for Q&A and dialogue for many session as well as panel discussions.
Ongoing
The Divine Exchange with Cynthia Bourgeault (from the Center for Action and Contemplation)
Dates and Times: Self paced
Registration: Open
Cost: $497, $374, or $249 – sliding scale
Frequency: Self-paced
Duration: 15 units
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: This is a self-paced online course exploring the heart of God through the concept of Divine Exchange — Cynthia Bourgeault’s framework based in the Christian wisdom traditions. Learn how kenosis and surrender can lead to a participatory exchange between the finite and the infinite.
The Divine Exchange explores the idea of exchange as the dynamic medium for everything finite and infinite. In this Christian contemplative online course Cynthia unpacks the metaphysics of Christian wisdom taught in traditional Wisdom Schools — ancient and modern contemplative learning communities focused on transformation. Students in The Divine Exchange can take their inner work even further through practices like centering prayer, chanting, and Tonglen breathing.
Comments: We, of course, love presentations from Cynthia Bourgeault. It’s nice that this is flexible and self-paced so that people can participate when it fits into their individual schedules. We’re not sure about the “live calls” mentioned in the link, given the self-paced format, but the calls will be announced on the CAC Connect platform used for the course.
You’re Not the Only One (from Eremos)
Dates and Times: Weekly on Mondays, 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: 1 hour
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: Join us weekly (or as often as you desire) to share how you’re feeling right now about life, what’s unfolding in the world, or whatever you need to speak into the circle.
No fixing, no ranting, no trying to make it better.
Just listening attentively to each other in support and always closing our time together with what gives us hope or what we’re grateful for.
Comments: We’ve met this leader (as a participant) in past programs and have found her to be very thoughtful in her sharing. This looks like an enriching ongoing group.
Meditation Resources for those New to Meditation (from Tara Brach)
Dates and Times: Self-directed, flexible
Registration: N/A – this is a collection of resources
Cost: Free
Frequency: Self-directed
Duration: Varies
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: You are embarking on a journey that can deeply transform and enrich your life. The most important thing to remember is to approach practice with a friendly, curious, non-judgmental attitude.
There’s no one style of meditation that is “best” or fits all people. We’ve offered you some basic practices below that you can explore to see which serve you well. You might end up with two or three that you use regularly as you establish a practice. Over the weeks and months you’ll internalize the instructions and probably practice more and more regularly without the guided meditation. But at times, you’ll find they will help in gathering your attention.
Resources for those new to meditation or if you’d like a refresher:
Beginner’s Meditation Kit – a introductory mini-course
Mindfulness Daily – a free 40-day online course to help to establish a mindfulness meditation practice
How to Meditate FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
How to Meditate (PDF)
Comments: This is a wonderful introduction to (or refresher for) establishing a meditation practice. A well-known and respected meditation teacher, Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. The result is a distinctive voice in Western Buddhism, one that offers a wise and caring approach to freeing ourselves and society from suffering. To learn more about her training, background, and leadership, click here.
Contemplative Chant
Dates and Times: Wednesdays at 4 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: Ongoing
Duration: 30 minutes
Format: Online
Recording Available: No
Description: 30 minutes of contemplative chant from Wisdom Waypoints, with chants led by Susan Latimer and Elizabeth Combs. Chanting is a wonderful practice for bringing both the Moving Center (body, breath, tone) and the Emotional Center (open heart) online. It is a spiritual practice that opens our hearts, nourishes our nervous systems, prepares us for prayer and meditation as a bridge into stillness, and connects us to our innate joy, courage, steadfastness, peace, beauty, truth and goodness. In times of great uncertainty and change, we find chant to be one of the things that most grounds us. These sessions draw chants from Wisdom Schools, various spiritual and religious traditions, sacred texts, old hymns and poetry. Because of the limitations of synching sound on Zoom, all participants are muted except for the one leading. This allows everyone to chant along in their own space. (Great if you are shy about sharing your voice! Fun if you like to try harmonies!)
Comments: Some of us join this contemplative chant weekly and enjoy it very much. We find it a wonderful contemplative practice. Wisdom Waypoints is the wisdom community started by Cynthia Bourgeault, one of our favorite wisdom teachers. Note that this is a small and warm group of regular participants. Therefore, it can be more difficult to participate anonymously.
The Abbey Tuesday Morning Meditation
Dates and Times: Tuesdays at 8 a.m. (Meditation at 8 a.m., optional discussion at 8:30 a.m.)
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: Ongoing
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: A 15-minute sit, followed by a brief reading and optional discussion.
Comments: Of course we love this meditation group! It’s The Abbey, our own contemplative community. We are currently reading a variety of poetry, with one poem each week. The format of the group is that we enter (the Zoom meeting) in silence with an image on the screen for Visio Divina before a 15-minute meditation sit that begins at 8:05 a.m. followed by an optional discussion.
The Abbey Spiritual Book Discussion Group
Dates and Times: Tuesdays, 5 p.m.
Registration: Not required
Cost: Free
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: 1 hour
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: This group reads books to deepen our spiritual lives and to build community among participants. Newcomers are welcome to join the group anytime. Register on The Abbey website and we will send you a Zoom link.
Comments: The group will be reading , Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, by Sharon Salzberg. We enjoy this group and the lively discussion both in small-group breakout rooms and with the whole group.
The Gathering at The Abbey
Dates and Times: Second and fourth Sundays of the month; 10 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Central Time (optional discussion from 10:30 a.m. – 11 a.m.)
Registration: Sign up with link sent via email (sign up for emails at The Abbey)
Cost: Free
Frequency: Twice monthly
Duration: 30 minutes – 1 hour
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: The Gathering is a Sunday morning time of contemplation and reflection in community.
Comments: A rotating group of leaders and spiritual directors lead each session. Readings include poetry and inspirational texts from different spiritual traditions. All are welcome.
Word of the Week (from Contemplative Outreach)
Dates and Times: Emails sent on Sundays, meets each Tuesday at 8 a.m. and Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Registration: Sign up for weekly emails here.
Cost: Free annual subscription (with recommended donation of $95/yr)
Frequency: Weekly, per above
Duration: One hour
Format: Zoom – link is sent weekly in the email on Sunday
Recording Available: No
Description: A beautiful email is sent on Sundays with the reading of Lectio Divina that will be done. There is a sit and then the Lectio Divina.
Comments: We like this because it’s a chance to revisit the reading for the week—and they always include beautiful artwork (it’s Lectio and Visio Divina!). We like the sense of community. It’s a pretty stable group and there’s a chance to share. We also like the balance of it—they are very mindful of the time, it’s just an hour. There’s a rhythm of it that we like. We read the emails each week and appreciate having the email in advance to sit with it a little before the group reading. There are also opportunities to interact online with the group during the week. We will note that it can be difficult to find the link for the Zoom in the weekly email; it is also spelled out here—the third bullet has link to the zoom with poorly brown highlighted “Click on this link,” but it also provides the zoom code and passcode in the email.
Wisdom Waypoints Daily Centering Prayer/Meditation
Dates and Times: Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m.; Monday/Wednesday/Sunday 6 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m.
Registration: No registration required, join via website
Cost: Free
Frequency: Daily, per above
Duration: 30 minutes
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: A collective wisdom pause for “Silence and Stillness.” Wisdom members lead each sit with a brief reading, chant, and meditation/stillness.
Comments: We like this because it is a way to maintain our personal practice alongside others with the degree of anonymity (or not) with which we are each comfortable. Wisdom Waypoints is a part of Cynthia Bourgeault’s network of teaching and practice resources.
The Welcoming Prayer – Videos (from Contemplative Outreach)
Dates and Times: Always available
Registration: N/A
Cost: Free
Frequency: N/A
Duration: Varies, from 5 minutes to 1 hour, most are about 30 minutes
Format: YouTube
Recording Available: Yes
Description: A collection of videos on the Welcoming Prayer (34 videos). There was a series of 8 videos which are part of a larger curriculum for a self-guided online course on this practice, “Embracing Living: The Welcoming Prayer,” which is offered by Contemplative Outreach in conjunction with Spirituality & Practice).
Comments: We regularly enjoy offerings from Contemplative Outreach and are always eager to learn more about The Welcoming Prayer. Some of the 34 videos linked here are from early in the Pandemic (when we were all trying to figure out how to be in community when we couldn’t meet in person), and some videos are more recent.
Mindful Mondays (from the Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing)
Dates and Times: Monday afternoons, Noon – 1 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: 1 hour
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes, for 1 week after each session
Description: Join the Earl. E Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing for an informal hour of gentle movement and guided meditation. Our experienced facilitators will guide you through a series of mindful movement and meditations that will leave you feeling rejuvenated. No prior experience or special clothing is necessary.
We rotate through various modalities of gentle, mindful movement. Please check the Mindful Monday’s registration webpage to learn the specific mindful movement planned for each week’s session. Prior to each session, as best you can, you may wish to secure a space that will accommodate mindful movement and where you won’t be easily interrupted for the duration of the hour-long session
Comments: This is a new offering to us. We saw a forest meditation video produced by this group, found their website, and thought this would be interesting to explore.
The Tears of Things: Integrating the Prophetic Path (from The Center for Action and Contemplation)
Dates and Times: Self-paced
Registration: Open
Cost: $100 (or $80 or $60, based on financial circumstances)
Frequency: Self-paced with 9 prophetic themes)
Duration: Varies
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: A self-guided online course based on Richard Rohr’s new book, “The Tears of Things.” Explore the wisdom of prophets from ancient times to modern day, and discover how we can transform our anger into compassion in our modern “age of outrage.”
“The Tears of Things: Integrating the Prophetic Path” will lead you on a journey from righteous anger at injustice, through grief for the world’s suffering, and—for those committed to the path—finally to grace-filled love for everyone and everything.
Students will explore themes from “The Tears of Things,” like radical grace, collective evil, and the alchemy of tears. Discover deeper meaning in the Hebrew prophets and find inspiration from today’s truth-tellers like Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Etty Hillesum, Howard Thurman, Joanna Macy, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Oscar Romero.
This self-guided course offers a flexible online learning experience to explore prophetic themes from the sacred space of your home. You can enroll anytime and access all course materials through CAC Connect, our new online learning platform. Engage with the material in a space that’s safe for questions and deepen your understanding alongside fellow seekers.
Comments: We’ve previously enjoyed many offerings from the CAC and Richard Rohr. This offering is an online, self-paced program based on his new book, but we are not sure if he is speaking in it. There doesn’t appear to be a live portion of this course and we are not sure if there is online interaction (though they usually do offer that).