Beyond Binaries: Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses – Self-Paced Webinar

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Experience stories of spiritual companionship, presented by a diverse group of queer Mystics, who approach their work as spiritual companions through diverse and open-hearted containers. All spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers are encouraged to participate, walking any straight, queer, or otherwise crooked path to Wholeness.

This engaging new SDI series, open to all people and all identities, invites us to explore our lives, our work as spiritual companions, and our very souls, through the prism of queer perspectives. Indeed we can understand Queerness as a wisdom path – one which, along with our other spiritual traditions and orientations, offers deep wisdom, profound insight, and spiritual liberation. And in true openness and interspiritual dialogue, all of us, queer or straight,  can glean insight from the spiritual jewels of the mystical path of queerness.

If that statement invites excitement and possibility, this webinar is for you. If it invites discomfort, this webinar is also for you.

Presenters

Larry J. Morris III

Cassidy Hall

Menachem Cohen

Jamari White

Br. John Michael Longworth, OEF

Dates

August 5, 12, 19, 26, 2024

3PM – 4:30PM PDT 
6PM – 7:30PM EDT 

Find your own local time here.

Duration

6 hours (total)

Webinar will be recorded.

Queerness is a mystical path, and it has deep wisdom we can all learn from as spiritual companions.

When you think of the word ‘queer’, what comes to mind? Is it a person who identifies as queer, as in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer)? Is it a cultural aspect of queerness such as a certain popular tv show? Or perhaps you have some understanding of Queer Theory, which applies a critical lens towards those aspects of life we have traditionally understood as normative around sexuality and identity. Queerness is also showing up all around us in broader culture and in politics, oftentimes in ways that are fraught with superficial understandings, confusion, misunderstandings, and even enmity.

The exact 16th century origins of the term queer are uncertain, but you are probably familiar with the initial meanings – that something or someone was strange, odd, peculiar, or eccentric. 

Strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric… don’t these terms describe important aspects of our spiritual journeys?

So with all that in mind, what if we contemplated queerness as a mystical path?

All authentic spiritual paths invite us to deeper meaning and deeper life, beyond our constructed self, and towards our True Self – our Essence.  This often involves leaving behind old aspects of our learned selves, deconstructing harmful ideas we were taught, and shedding notions of our lives, and reality, that are lodged deeply. We have a hard time letting go of these – occasionally, we are nagged, disturbed, and upended. But through open-hearted, compassionate investigations with a spiritual companion, we are invited to new ways of being, new insight, and new life.

Who better to teach us of these spiritual processes than those who have walked the queer path, out of traditional understandings of identity and self, and into the non-binary? Those who sometimes have done, and are doing so, despite the sufferings that can arise. History has tragically shown us again and again how we treat those who fully awaken. With courage, and much trial, one walking an openly queer path is met with broken relationships within family and community, marginalization, exclusion, and even violence. In spite of these difficulties, and perhaps blazing through them, the queer path is a realization of True Self that fully embraces the unknowns of the mysteries of Life and Reality, in a deeply incarnate way.

What does it mean to be queer, to exist beyond binaries and challenge normativity? What does it mean to live into that freedom? And, who doesn’t ultimately want that kind of freedom?

When we learn from those who walk this mystical path, what new possibilities arise for our work as spiritual companions? What walls within our containers are breached? What liminal edges are discerned, and moved beyond? What new spaces does queerness invite us into, and how can we cultivate that space, and hold it, as spiritual companions – for all those we serve!

Sessions

Session 1 (August 5): Cassidy Hall: Queering Contemplation

Session 2 (August 12): Rabbi Menachem Cohen

Session 3 (August 19): Jamari Michael White: (Trans)cendent Souls: Insights from Soul Ultrasounds

Session 4 (August 25): Br. John Michael Longworth: “Finding Queer Gender, Affection, and Relational Structures in my Spiritual Lineage”

When

The webinar series will run 4 consecutive Mondays: August 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2024.

Find your own local time here.

This series has been scheduled to be convenient to as many people around the world as possible. With that said, if that timing doesn’t work, you can enjoy the webinar any time you like.

Presenters

Larry J. Morris, III (Co-Host)

We are thrilled to have Larry J. Morris back to help facilitate this series! Rev. Larry J. Morris III is a practicing spiritual director, apostle, scholar, and digital marketing professional with experience in branding, public relations, social media, and content creation, having supported nonprofits and social enterprises for over 15 years. He has a BS in Psychology at Alliant International University, an MDiv and MTS from the Claremont School of Theology, and is currently a Ph.D. student at Christian Theological Seminary. Larry’s research interests are at the intersections of race, sexuality, and sacred rhetoric. Learn more at www.larryjmorris3.com

Cassidy Hall

Cassidy Hall (she/her/hers) (MA, MDiv, MTS) is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her films include In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger.  

Her new book, Queering Contemplation, Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality is available now. Cassidy is widely published and currently resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.

Menachem Cohen

Menachem Cohen (he/they) does spiritual direction, coaching & mentoring, in addition to being an InterSpiritual rabbi & tabletop game designer. He has a special commitment to queer people, non-monogamous people, sex workers & the kink/fetish community. Much of his work is in the design/use of roleplaying games (similar to Dungeons & Dragons) for growth, exploration & healing. He is the rabbi of Makom Shalom Mitziut in Chicago. His smicha/ordination is from Rabbi Douglas Gloidhamer, z’l, of Hebrew Seminary, where he serves on the board. He earned a Graduate Certificate in Spiritual Direction from Loyola University and an MFA: Writing from SAIC.

Jamari Michael White

Jamari (he/him/his) is a Black trans Christian mystic, spiritual teacher and technician with a rare gift – the ability to see and connect with the soul. Through Soul Ultrasounds, he helps individuals reshape their life stories to rediscover their soul’s beauty, power, and love. Hailing from a lineage of healers and spiritual leaders, Jamari holds sacred knowledge in dozens of rituals and practices and is a certified transformational coach and ancestral practitioner. Recognized as a Dalai Lama Fellow and 2019 SDI New Contemplative, Jamari’s leadership is distinguished by his compassion, humor, integrity, devotion, and profound insight.

Br. John Michael Longworth

Br, John (they/them) is a life professed Ecumenical Franciscan, an ordained Christian clergy-person since 2007 and has been in intentional community since 2010. They became a spiritual director through the Daughters of Wisdom and through a Spiritual Accompaniment Practicum at Still Harbor in Boston, MA. Br. John serves as a housing advocate and grant writer for Vermont’s largest organization accompanying people through homelessness, and previously served as the Coordinator of Formation Ministry for the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans. Queer spirituality and a celebration of the non-binary complexity of the Holy and the Divine are key parts of their practice.

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