Earth Responders
Wednesdays, April 3rd to May 15th, 2024
A Kinship Program Designed in Collaboration with Other Inayatiyya Activities
By a deep insight into nature we discover that the creation is the same as the Creator. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
The global ecological crisis deeply impacts us all. The Earth Responders program provides insights, approaches, and tools for those who are called to bring deep presence to this most immediate need of our time.
The framework of the training is built on the foundation of the five stages Murshid gave for the development of the ideal of Kinship: Respect, Sympathy, Understanding, Forgiveness, and Unity. By embracing each of these qualities and perspectives, we prepare to serve in a deeply rooted understanding, knowing that when one part of existence suffers, we all suffer.
By appreciating our abiding interrelationship with the natural world, reading the sacred manuscript of nature, and immersing ourselves within it, we are inspired and strengthened to help protect and restore the whole web of life.
This program draws on values and teachings found in several Inayatiyya Activities:
- Awareness of the sacredness of the natural world, as taught in Ziraat, grounds us in the five elements—Earth, Water, Air, Fire & Ether—and their transformational qualities.
- Devotion and prayer, central in the creation of nature ceremonies, are qualities exemplified in the Universal Worship.
- Sympathetic resonance, a focus of the Inner School, bolsters our ability to support and understand each other.
- Transforming difficult emotions like grief and anger is central to Kinship, which nurtures care and harmonious relationships with all life.
These and other qualities support our ability to serve the human and other-than-human communities at this time of ecological crisis.
Celebrating Black History Month
w/ Jabriel Hasan & Kenneth Sparks
Saturday, February 24, 2023
Please join us on Saturday, February 24th for a celebration of Black History Month, featuring African American contributions of art, poetry, music, inventions, and biographies. Kenneth Sparks and Jabriel Hasan will be our hosts for this lively event. Come celebrate with us and (maybe) learn something new!
A WORLD THAT WORKS FOR ALL
Fall 2023 Kinship Programs now on Saturdays
Our fall Kinship series explores how we can support a world that works for all of us. Many aspects of our world are in a state of disruption — the natural world, community cohesion, a sense of respect for differences, and a sense of belonging. Where do we need to focus our attention to nurture a world that works for all? Can we help cultivate a world where animals, plants, ecological systems and disenfranchised communities all have the full respect and consideration for their well-being? This semester we will focus our attention on the care of the animal world, the food we eat, and the possibility of restorative justice for communities that have experienced colonialism.
Kinship with Animals
Exploring Our Regard and Disregard for the Creatures of the Earth
Saturday, September 23rd, 2023, 4 – 5:30 pm ET / 10 – 11:30 pm CET / 9 – 10:30 am (next day) NZDT VIDEO
In this gathering, we will hear and tell stories about pivotal experiences that have deepened our awareness of and solidarity with animals.
For many, the joy of sharing our life with beloved pets, or caring for farm animals, or encounters with wild animals may be foremost in our hearts. Yet we will also consider the many animals who suffer grievous torments and dangers in our world – from domestic livestock trapped in the machinery of industrialized animal food production to wild animals threatened by habitat destruction, pollution, and global heating.
Murshid warned that “unkindness towards the animals is a breach of moral law.” Might the rise of materialism that he witnessed, rooted in a largely unconscious legacy of human supremacy, have allowed us to tacitly countenance these harms?
A range of perspectives will be examined as we explore the spiritual and moral implications of our profound kinship with other animals, and with all life.
Kinship with Animals is the first part in a three-part series hosted by the Kinship Council of North America & Oceania. Kinship Council member Shams Kairys will facilitate our discussion.
Food & Climate
Saturday, October 28th, 2023, 4 – 5:30 pm ET / 10 – 11:30 pm CET / 9 – 10:30 am (next day) NZDT VIDEO
Food needs to be grown, processed, transported, distributed, prepared, consumed, and sometimes disposed of. Each of these steps creates greenhouse gasses that trap the sun’s heat and contribute to climate change. About a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food.
In this gathering, we will explore how we can be more attentive to caring for the world through our food choices. Participants are invited to share information about what their local communities are doing to make the processing and disposal of food more Earth-friendly. You are encouraged to view the online resources listed below prior to our gathering.
To my mind, the most important thing we can do is learn about our food and how it’s produced. Food is so basic and is tied to everything. It might sound idealistic, but there’s no way around it: humans must inhabit food communities that are ecological and ethical, that grow wholesome food in friendship with the natural world — and this nutritious food has to be available for all. —Eileen Crist, author, environmental scholar, and activist whose work focuses on the ecological crisis and its root causes and pathways toward creating an ecological civilization.
Food & Climate is the second part in a three-part series hosted by the Kinship Council of North America & Oceania. Kinship Council member Batina Sheets will facilitate our discussion.
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IF POSSIBLE, read these articles before the Food & Climate program:
- Your Questions about Food and Climate Change Answered (article)
- Food and Climate Change: Healthy Diet for a Healthier Planet (article)
- Food Waste is Contributing to Climate Change (video)
- The Effect Food Production Has on Climate Change (video)
Healing the Wounds of Colonialism
A Restorative Justice Approach from New Zealand
Saturday, December 2nd, 2023, 4 – 5:30 pm ET / 10 – 11:30 pm CET / 9 – 10:30 am (next day) NZDT
Countries around the world, and not least those of the British Commonwealth, are seeking to address and recover from their colonial past. New Zealand is sometimes held up as a positive example of the process, the truth, however, is complex. Join Papa Hone, a kaumātua (Māori elder), as he presents the Māori perspective on mana and restorative justice, in conversation with Majid David Vowells.
Healing Wounds is the third in a three-part series hosted by Kinship Council of North America & Oceania. Kinship Council member Majid Vowels will facilitate our discussion.
Return to the Sacred Masculine: Attuning to the Male Archetypal Energies
by Raqib Yakel
I want to give a huge thank you to all who participated in our initial offering of Remembering the Sacred Masculine: Attuning to the Masculine Archetypal Energies in the summer. We spent four weeks exploring masculine archetypes, Jalali energies, and their role in our world today. We had a great turnout and initiated some deep, enriching dialogue.
This fall we will continue to explore the many faces of masculinity through the experience and embodiment of mature masculine archetypes. Thousands of years of patriarchal narratives have not only traumatized our planet and its inhabitants but have also trapped men into a mode of being that limits their full expression while cutting them off from qualities necessary to support individual and collective healing. Join me for Remembering the Sacred Masculine: Attuning to the Male Archetypal Energies as we aim to support the healing and unfoldment of this sacred energy during our times.
This offering is open to anybody seeking to attune to the healing nature of the masculine energies. The group will meet via Zoom on the second Wednesday of each month from 7:00- 8:30 pm, ET beginning on October 11th, and concluding on January, 10th, with biweekly check-ins. There is no cost, but registration is requested. For further information, registration, Zoom link, etc., contact: Raqib at jonah.yakel@gmail.com
In Case You Missed It….
SOCIAL JUSTICE BOOK GROUP
Began September 2023
The Sufi message warns humanity to know life better and to achieve freedom in life; it warns humanity to accomplish what it considers good, just, and desirable, and before every action, to note its consequences by studying the situation, by judging one’s own attitude, by studying beforehand the method which one adopts to act in life. ~ Social Gathekas, Hazrat Inayat Khan
The North American Oceania Kinship Activity invites you explore, in community: Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, by Ruha Benjamin.
Before the pandemic, Benjamin was focused on making big, structural changes concerning race and justice. Then Covid-19 hit, and increasing anti-Black police violence, and Benjamin began to think about the importance of small, individual actions in precipitating change. Viral Justice is a vision and manifesto that explores how we can transform society through the choices we make every day.
“This [book] vibrates with ideas on ways to make a new world out of the interlocking crises of COVID-19 and racial capitalism. Progress may be a ‘tear-soaked mirage, ‘ as Benjamin writes, yet her book is far from devoid of a sense of humor or hope, full of ways to ‘live poetically’ while remaking the systems that have failed us.”– New York Magazine
The Social Justice Book Group is dedicated to reading books on issues of antiracism, indigenous rights, immigrant rights and more. The book group will meet every other week, starting in September. If you are interested in joining us for this book, please email Fazilee: fazilee@gmail.com. We will send out a Doodle poll to those who express interest in order to select which day we will meet, every other week. We will begin each session together in meditation. We will then move into small breakout groups and spend most of our time with the discussion questions and practices from the book.
This group is intended to be a space of learning together, reflecting on the stories we have been told about race, unpacking our racial conditioning, and identifying and challenging racial oppression. This kind of reflection can cause unintended harm for people of different racial experiences. Therefore, although this group is open to anyone interested in participating, we would like participants to know that the facilitation team currently identified is composed of white people, who, along with the participants, will be engaging in this process of learning, and are not experts on this topic.
If you are interested in joining us to discuss this book, please contact: fazilee@gmail.com in order to register. A Zoom link and reading assignments will be sent to registrants, once a start date is selected. Registration for Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want* closes Sept. 1st.
*Used copies are available on Abebooks.com. If you have a local Black-owned bookstore in your area, we also encourage you to look there.
Earth Day 2023
from Shams Kairys
In the Kinship Activity we foster a deeper sense of conscience, responsibility, respect, justice, service – all elements of the spiritual maturity we need to address the call of our times, upholding the worth and dignity of all people and deepening our sense of relationship with each other, and with the Earth at this time of ecological crisis.
Murshid speaks of the world of human beings as one interdependent family, and found a model of kinship in “the flocks of birds flying in the sky, the herds of animals in the forest, the swarms of little insects, all living and moving together.” We are so fortunate to have in our Murshid one who speaks so beautifully of his mystic delight in the natural world.
~ ~ ~
Practice, from Nature Meditations:
Unfold Thy secret through Nature (inhale)
and reveal Thy mystery through my heart. (exhale)
~ ~ ~
We tend to think that we live “on” the Earth, but actually we live “in” the Earth, and indeed are a dimension of the Earth. You know, the narrow band of life on the planet, in which we live, is little more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide, from the outer edge of the atmosphere to the ocean depths. Something to contemplate . . .
I want to draw on Pir Vilayat for our closing thoughts:
“If one only knew what intelligence, what emotion, what beauty lies beneath the spectacular display of life on the planet, one would realize how much is gained by discovering and contacting this world of the soul, which has its correspondence in us, and comes through the forms and behavior of Nature as the unwritten law of life.
“A new consciousness is arising in line with the whole trend of our time: ecology, respect for the Earth, re-establishing our bond with nature which has been so often violated. It requires a sacred tryst between humans and Nature, our promise to respect her and to sanctify our relationship with her in the name of God. We need to establish a covenant of mutual respect with the Earth. It is urgent!
Past Kinship Circles, 2023:
Feb 17th: Honoring Black History and Justice Leaders VIDEO
Join Dr. Lauranett L. Lee and Jabriel Malik Hasan for a conversation on the importance and purpose of Black History Month. Learn about lesser-known champions of civil rights and social justice, and bask in the eloquence of Black poets and musicians. What is the impact of knowing one’s ancestral past; what is the impact of not knowing one’s lineage and history?
March 17th: Honing Our Capacity to Heal in Precarious Times VIDEO
The rapid decline of Earth’s living systems is the greatest threat we bear, and we are the cause of this decline. Facing difficult truths is part of the path to becoming agents for healing. This transformation is hard-won, for our deepest nature is as vulnerable as other living systems. Wild wisdom and internally rooted ethics are as endangered as any natural system – and as resilient. How do we support each other on our journey of ecological awakening? How might this occur in everyday interactions or in challenging conversations with those close to us? Join ecopsychologist Renée Soule and host Shams Kairys in exploring what it means to heal and evolve for the sake of life in the context of ecological crises.
This program is part of the Inayatiyya Kinship Council of North America’s “Responding with Love and Courage to the Ecological Crisis” series.
April 21st: Acknowledging a Nation’s Difficult Past in Ways that Honor and Heal VIDEO
Let’s continue the journey of our 21 Day Challenge to explore our racial awareness. Can we imagine how to heal and restore communities rent asunder by discrimination, oppression and exclusion? From memorials to cemeteries to accurate history and returned land, how do we acknowledge histories of inequity, antisemitism and enslavement? How do we re-build trust and repair the rifts caused by acts of intentional exclusions – the Holocaust, slavery, Jim Crow, and the genocide of Indigenous people. Join Batina Sheets, Rabia Povich and friends as we look at efforts of healing and repair made in Germany, the United States and elsewhere.
Participants are invited to engage with some material before this important conversation. While everyone is welcome, we invite you to take time to listen, read and watch the material below before our gathering.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on how to uphold truth with courage and compassion.
May 19th: Skills that Support Better Communication—Non-Violent Communication VIDEO
Non-Violent Communication (NVC), designed by Marshall Rosenberg, offers techniques to improve communication, understanding and connection. Fazilee Buechel, a student of NVC, will explore the NVC process and share practices that help us hold challenging conversations through non-judgmental observation. With NVC we learn to hear our own deeper needs and those of others. Through its emphasis on deep listening—to ourselves as well as others—NVC helps us discover the depth of our own compassion. NVC can help people peacefully and effectively resolve conflicts in personal, organizational, and political settings.
On February 26, the Kinship Activity presented an illuminating presentation in celebration of Black History Month: Who Brought Sufism to the West? Discovering Omar ibn Said. Many thanks especially to our guest speakers Dr. Carl Ernst and Dr. Mbaye Lo and host, Rabia Povich.
The video recording is now available online through the Inayatiyya Vimeo page, “Celebrating Black History Month”.
Past Kinship Circles, earlier Years:
December 16 – Beloved Community and Climate Justice with Paloma Pavel and Carl Anthony, hosted by Shams Kairys VIDEO
Join us for an important conversation with Paloma Pavel and Carl Anthony, pioneers in environmental justice work and founders of the Breakthrough Communities Project. Viewing through the lens of their rich experience, they maintain that our ecological crisis will not be solved by techno fixes and legal/policy regulations solely. We’ll explore their most recent work developing the field of eco-chaplaincy for the beloved Earth community and a transformative curriculum for ecological and climate justice, which requires a transformation of consciousness.
November 18 – Bridging Experiential and Cultural Gaps to Build Belonging with Fatima Hafiz-Muid, hosted by Rabia Povic VIDEO
You are invited to a community conversation with Dr. Fatima Hafiz, about creating welcoming and safe spaces for clarity and connection to help bridge cultural differences that lead to healing, harmony and belonging. We will explore the historical impact of violence and trauma on intergenerational patterns of behavior and life outcomes. She will address the gaps in communications across racial boundaries that adversely impact the human potential of individuals and families living in a society that devalues their humanity based on race.
October 21 – Belonging in a New Country – The Refugees’ Challenge with Daena Thelen-Daniel, hosted by Rabia Povich VIDEO
Join Daena Thelen-Daniel, a member of our Inayatiyya community, as she shares her experiences serving refugee families and children in Germany. As an art therapist, Daena has been supporting dozens of displaced children from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and now Ukraine as she helps them express their experiences through art. What is needed to feel part of a community of belonging for families who are navigating a new culture, language and way of life?
September 21 – Belonging with the Natural World with Maori Grandmother Jamia Haqq Eila Paul, hosted by Shams Kairys VIDEO
The Maori concept of whanaungatanga tells us we belong in a web of life in which everything is intimately related. This is true not only of our relationship with the living world but also to the past, present and future through our whakapapa (our lineage), which is our relationship with those who came before us and are yet to come. Join Jamia Haqq to explore how these understandings of belonging are expressed and lived in the Maori worldview.
This program is part of the Inayatiyya Kinship Council of North America’s “Responding with love and courage to the Ecological Crisis” series.
February 18 – Building Resilience & Preventing Burnout w/ Raqib Kogan and Elizabeth Leach, hosted by Jabriel Hasan VIDEO
Join two healing professionals as we explore: How can we sustain our balance and well-being during this time of pandemic, political discord, unresolved racial injustice and ecological crisis? What do we need to reduce stress, avoid burnout and cultivate hope? The two presentations can be downloaded here:
March 18 – Growing into New Ways w/ Diana Badger, hosted by Shams Kairys VIDEO
Join us as we inquire into how we are called to change, adapt, and grow into new ways of being while experiencing massive, ongoing earth changes and their many resulting impacts. What new (to us) frameworks might aid us in the necessary adaptation and transformation we are called to? What assumptions, habits, and values need to be let go of, and what others need to be called to the fore, on the individual as well as collective levels?
April 15 – Radical Hospitality w/ Stephen Hitchcock and Kenneth Sparks, hosted by Khatidja Rodriguez-Ruiz VIDEO
What is required of us to open ourselves, our spaces and our hearts to others, especially those who are challenging or different? What is needed of us to extend comfort to the broken, support to those in need, and to befriend the seeker after truth? Join us for an engaging conversation with heart activists as they share their experiences with radical hospitality.
May 20 – Living with Relevance w/ Joanna Macy, hosted by Shams Kairys VIDEO
In this time of climate change and other global threats, we will explore how to apply Joanna’s wide-ranging work with the psychological and spiritual aspects of ecological awareness. Her work brings a new way of seeing the world – as our larger living body – freeing us from the assumptions and attitudes that now impact all of life on Earth.
This program is part of the Inayatiyya Kinship Council of North America’s “Responding to the Ecological Crisis” series.
This program is part of the Inayatiyya Kinship Council of North America’s “Responding to the Ecological Crisis” series.
Kinship Circle: The Food Connection w/ Jemaluddin Bolling
Friday, December 17, 3 – 4:30 pm ET VIDEO
The Kinship Activity of North America invites you to join us for a special Kinship Circle on the current global Ecological Crisis, with a special focus on its connection to food security.
Jemaluddin will describe his experience of taking the “teachings” to the street, where he found that food can be a means for relieving spiritual as well as physical hunger, and a tool for social and individual transformation. His ministry also led him to bring different civic and faith groups together in dialogue, as well as shoulder to shoulder, to help those in need. Following this, we will explore his insights into the potential impact of the global ecological crisis on food security here and around the world, highlighting pitfalls and remedies.
This Kinship Circle is open to all who are sincerely interested. Registration is not required. Please see the sidebar for the time in your local area.
Kinship Circle: Connecting One Heart to Another
Friday, November 19, 3 – 4:30 pm ET VIDEO
There is no relationship that can be compared with friendship. For it is in learning the law of friendship that one understands ethics and morals, and also the relationship between the person and God. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Kinship Activity of North America invites you to join us for a special Kinship Circle on the spiritual, ethical, and experiential dimensions of friendship. We will share our experiences of friendship. Please bring a poem or a story to share as we delve into qualities of friendship and explore how friendships develop and how they sustain us.
Rabia Povich, Vice President of the Kinship Activity in North America, will host this group exploration. She will be joined by friends from the Kinship Council and you!
Kinship Circle: The Intersection of Love and Justice w/ Omid Safi
Friday, October 15, 3 – 4:30 pm ET VIDEO
The Kinship Activity of North America invites you to join us for a special Kinship Circle with Omid Safi examining the intersection of love and justice, a topic of enduring relevance and urgency. Omid will illuminate the teachings of love and justice from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions and look at what the Prophets, then and now, say about using love and justice to address the challenges of the day.
Omid Safi is a teacher in the Sufi tradition of Radical Love & Founder of Illuminated Courses & Tours. His online, video-based courses range from Sufi approaches to the Qur’an to Rumi. The Illuminated Tours offer spiritually oriented tours to Turkey and Morocco. He is a professor at Duke University specializing in Islamic spirituality and contemporary thought. His Memories of Muhammad is an award-winning biography of the Prophet Muhammad. His most recent book is Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. Omid is also deeply committed to liberationist prophetic traditions in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Rabbi Heschel, and Malcolm X. He has been invited by the family of Dr. King to speak at Ebenezer Church on the relevance of Dr. King for today’s America, and has delivered the Martin Luther King keynote in the annual national MLK service.
Staying Awake w/ Nora Manon Müller & Anselm Ibingy
Sept 17, 2021 3:00 – 4:30 pm EDT VIDEO
What is the deeper sense behind this cascade of planetary crises for the sea of souls that we are?
The Kinship Activity of North America invites you to join us for a special Kinship Circle with Nora Manon Müller and Anselm Ibing on the pressing issues confronting each of us when we face the future. They raise big questions right out of the fabric of their lives for us to consider:
“In our family life – our son Émile was born mid-January – we deal with questions of carbon emissions, water footprints, pollution, and uneasy future scenarios every day, and try to navigate this ‘minefield’ as we make choices for our future and that of our son and the world around us.”
Responding to the Global Ecological Crisis: The Joy of Nature
June 18, 2021 3:00 – 4:30 pm EDT VIDEO
There is much that needs to be attended to in our beleaguered world, but the first thing that needs attention is the condition of our own hearts. When we attune to the rhythms of Nature, we can find there the natural state of joy.
This Circle will be hosted by Shams Kairys, with special guests Alexia Allen and Daniel Hamid Kirchhof of Hawthorn Farm in Woodinville, Washington. After hearing from our presenters, we will move into breakout groups to explore our response to what has been shared.
Shams Kairys has been Inayatiyya leader for over 45 years. His love of the natural world and growing awareness of its degradation led to decades of study and efforts to deepen our kinship with all of life at this critical time.
Alexia Allen and Daniel (Hamid) Kirchhof live and work on Hawthorn Farm in Woodinville, Washington with their sweet “farmily.” They are an integral part of the ecosystem they inhabit, and are passionate about farming with horses, teaching, and growing amazing food. In 2017 they spent the year eating only hand-harvested food, paving the way for understanding the mysticism and practicalities of being fed from the abundance of the garden and of wild spaces, and for expressing gratitude for the land. Alexia and Daniel will share the story of this food challenge, and invite us all to examine how nourishing our bodies can also nourish our connection to Earth. Join us for a brief and joyful look at Hawthorn Farm!
This program is part of the Inayatiyya Kinship Council of North America’s “Responding to the Ecological Crisis” series.
A Conversation with a Younger Generation on Social Harmony & Service
May 28, 2021 3:00 – 4:30 pm EDT VIDEO
Join Kinship Council and Young Adult Council member who is currently living at the Abode of the Message Amir Bisio as he explores the social harmony and the role service has and continues to play in the lives of two young adults: Fazilee Buechel and Jabriel Hasan.
Fazilee Buechel is a mentor in the Prisoner Interaction Project, an Inayatiyya Retreat Guide and Healing Conductor, and a member of her local chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). She is also an AmeriCorps alum and a certified mediator. She has volunteered with the Alternatives to Violence Project as a facilitator in three different countries. She lived and served at the Abode of the Message as a khadim in the Programs Office, farm, and gardens. Fazilee is a lifelong world traveler seeking clarity on her vocation, and enjoys deepening her skills in Nonviolent Communication, Spanish, meditation, and connecting with and honoring nature everywhere.
Jabriel Hasan is a second year seminarian pursuing his Master’s in Divinity at Union Presbyterian Seminary. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer and a former resident of Richmond Hill, a local ecumenical Christian community and retreat center. He is also a founding member and officer of the Black Coalition of Change, a local community organization in Richmond, Virginia. In his spare time Jabriel enjoys activism, exercise, nature, writing, and prayer.
Service in Everyday Life VIDEO
April 16, 2021 3:00 – 4:30 pm Eastern
As we walk the Path of the Heart, we take particular notice of our interactions with our fellow human beings. Our hearts awaken in sympathy, and we look to see how we can serve God and humanity. As we seek to realize the ideals of love, harmony and beauty, our efforts need not result in something grand or large, but can be embodied in “unassuming work, noiseless work, a humble service without any pretense of being a worker” [Hazrat Inayat Khan]. Join Rabia Povich, head of the North American Kinship Activity, Zakir-Amin Povich, Charlottesville Center representative, and others as we explore, in small group discussions, how kinship and service show up in our everyday lives
Responding to the Global Ecological Crisis: Kinship With All Beings VIDEO
March 26th, 2021 3 – 4.30 pm Eastern
This month Shams Kairys will be joined by Sharifa Oppenheimer, who will share the four directions of kinship — with the Divine, with others, with the earth, and with all creatures. We will then focus on kinship with Mother Earth and our cousins, the creatures of the earth. Sharifa has been a student of Sufism for forty-five years. A former Waldorf teacher, Sharifa has authored several books oriented toward parents of young children. Now retired, she has returned her attention to her love of the living earth, and offers Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self gatherings that explore our inter-being with Gaia.
The Adab of Service VIDEO
February 19th, 2021 3 – 4.30 pm Eastern
To serve others with gratitude is good adab. A seeker on the path looks for opportunities to serve, knowing that service is an essential part of the spiritual path.
Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan considered the practice of adab as the initial teaching for seekers to develop Akhlaq Allah, the Manner of God, aka: The Manner of Friendliness. Looking at the realm of service, the guiding principle of the Kinship Activity, we will investigate how some of the expressions of the adab teachings relate to our service work, however it may manifest.
Mikail Davenport will facilitate this exploration. Mikail has been a servant-leader in Inayatiyya for over 35 years. He coordinates the Prison Book Program and the Prisoner Interaction Project of the Kinship Activity, serves as a Cherag, Healing Conductor, and Representative, and is a founding member of the Pir Vilayat Legacy Project. Mikail formerly served as Ziraat Secretariat in the mid 80’s and early 90’s. His work of the past 20 years is in interfaith prison ministry for the incarcerated in 10 state prisons. Mikail passed away on March 10th, 2021.
Kinship Circle January 15, 2021, 3:00 – 4:30 pm Eastern
We have all been impacted by the actions of violence and insurrection at the US Capitol last week. Our country is deeply divided. The roots of colonization and inequity are at the heart of this hostility. These attitudes are not new to our black and brown brothers and sisters, but they are more fully unveiled.
Amidst the conflict, we seek to hold our balance and equanimity so that we may become the anti-bodies to violence and division. We must not allow our hearts to harden. Nor can we achieve justice by denial. We are called upon to be honest in our assessment of ourselves and our lives.
Let us join together to support making the whole of humanity as one single family in the parenthood of God.
The Call of the Sacred: Healing our Relationship with the Earth
December 18, 3:00 – 4:30 pm Eastern VIDEO, Healing our Relationship with the Earth with Wali Via (Audio), Wali Via’s Nature Meditation (Audio)
“Humankind is far removed from nature both within and without, and has become an exile from the ideal state of life.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
“If one only knew what intelligence, what emotion, what beauty lies beneath the spectacular display of life on the planet, one would realize how much is gained by discovering and contacting this world of the soul.” – Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
The global ecological crisis is calling us to become a healing force on the planet by radically changing our relationship with the Earth. When we realize that the connective strands of the web of life are sacred, we treat them with reverence. In establishing this covenant with nature, a shift of consciousness dawns. Our choices and actions are no longer bound to fear for survival, or economic opportunity, but are inspired by respect and love. Most of you reading this know of this awakening; we look forward to exploring its implications together. For the zoom link go here.
• Shams Kairys has been an Inayatiyya leader for over 45 years. His love of the natural world and growing awareness of its degradation led to decades of study, and efforts to deepen our kinship with all of life at this critical time.
• Wali Via is a retired biodynamic farmer living in western Oregon, in the ancestral lands of the Chelamela tribe of the Kalapuya. He has been leading ceremonies for the healing of the Earth farmers for many years. His passions include serving in various roles in the Inayatiyya, spending time in the wilderness, composting, nature photography, and playing with his grandchildren.
Indigenous Reconciliation, Inclusion and Unity:
Exploring the Love Languages of The Algonquin People in Canada
November 20 SLIDES, VIDEO
Murshid guides our exploration of the languages of love needed for these times in The Art of Personality and Unity of Religious Ideals. Grandmother Judi and Mu’izza Mizen have worked together guiding Indigenous Reconciliation, Unity and Inclusion with the Ottawa Inayatiyya community over the past 12 years. They will share with us the qualities needed in this process.
Wab Kinew (a Canadian Indigenous wisdom keeper and leader): “Reconciliation is not something that happens on a grand level, when a prime minister and national chief shake hands. It is realized when two people come together and understand that what they share unites them and their differences need to be respected.”
Having Civil Conversations in Difficult Times
October 16, 3:00-4:30 pm Eastern
This month we will share how our beloved community can reach across the great divide that partitions our current landscape. Join us as we explore how we can bring a spirit of loving-kindness to our interactions with others – especially with those with whom we disagree. Come with a sense of inquiry and a commitment to dive deeply as we seek to shed light on our relations with others. Join Batina Sheets, retired Texas Child Protective Services social worker and active retreat guide, Espabad Babbs, attorney, social worker and retreat guide, and others as they frame our time together.
Longing to Belong: Responding to the Crisis of the Day with Love
September 18, 2020
We live in a time of turmoil and change. Come share your wisdom as we look to the words of Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, Pir Vilayat Khan, and former-Representative John Lewis for ways to avoid the spirit of agitation and create a loving community that sustains us. Facilitators for our sharing are two members of the Kinship Council: Nur Azad Mangold, spiritual guide and psychotherapist, and Batina Sheets, retired Texas Child Protective Services social worker and retreat guide.
What is Mine and Ours, To Do about the Ecological Crisis
August 15, 22 & 29, 3:00 – 4:30 pm EDT
In these 90 minute sessions, we will explore the ecological crisis with diverse co-presenters, breakout groups, full-group discussion, and tie-in with environmental justice. Hosted by Shams Kairys, a long-time student of global ecology, and former vice president for Kinship.
Registration required, with the fee for the three sessions $11-33, sliding scale. All are welcome and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Some of the funds raised from this event will support the Prison Book Project. If possible, participants are encouraged to attend all three programs.
Session 1: Global Warming and Climate Disruption – August 15 (VIDEO)
Climate Change 101 features a presentation by Isfandarmuz Maggie Hanna, a geologist with expertise on reducing our environmental footprint and developing a post-carbon future. She will provide a simple, accurate understanding of the basic science of climate change, along with a glimpse of energy systems of the future. For the Powerpoints and resources on this Kinship Circle go to Belonging to the Human Family on our Resources page.
Session 2: What impedes, and supports, our ability to make personal changes to address the crisis, and to engage others? – August 22 (VIDEO)
This exploration will include a presentation by Helena Doku, co-founder of Haywanat, a new Inayatiyya network that brings young adults together to seek ways to address the ecological crisis using earthly healing practices and engaging in sacred activism. To view the recorded session:
Session 3: What can the Inayatiyya community do to help remedy the ecological crisis, and how can I help bring that about? – August 29 (VIDEO)
This session features a presentation on Agriculture and Climate Change by Firos Holterman ten Hove, an agricultural engineer specializing in organic methods, and vice president for Ziraat in Europe. For the Powerpoints and resources on this Kinship Circle go to Belonging to the Human Family on our Resources page.
Other 2020 Events
Conversations on Identity and Inclusion: A four-part series of on-line calls for Inayati leaders: March to May 2019
Growing out of a desire to overcome feelings of separation, the Inayatiyya Order Worldwide Message Council has encouraged conversations and communion, exploring that which makes us unique and that which unifies us. Inayatiyya Order North American leaders, emergent leaders and leaders in training in all Activities are invited to participate in a series of Zoom calls where we begin to explore our identities – the realities of our lived lives – acknowledging and honoring our differences. We hope to work as a group to discover, “What does it take to be part of a collective ?”
July 17, 2020
We will consider what it means to serve one another. We will be joined by Board members of the Delhi-based Hope Project, Pir Vilayat’s legacy service activity. They will share the inspiration behind the Project, the history and evolution of programs offered, and provide an update on how the Coronavirus is impacting the communities served.
Come and connect! No advance registration required.
“Love lies in service. Only that which is done, not for fame or name, nor for the appreciation or thanks of those for whom it is done, is love’s service.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
June 19, 2020
As we explore Murshid’s teachings on Kinship, we will contemplate a seed thought. We will engage in both large and small group discussions. Come and connect! No advance registration required.
Today the world is crying for justice and equity. Rabia Povich, Vice President of Kinship in North America, along with others will facilitate a heart-centered discussion on awakening justice with courage and kindness. As a springboard for our personal reflections we will contemplate the 5th Sufi Thought: “There is One Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience, together with a sense of awakened justice.”
April 18, 2020
The Global Ecological Crisis: Responding with Love & Courage to the Call
The Kinship Activity of North America will host an online, inter-generational zoom call to reflect on the planetary ecological crisis. On this call, Shams Kairys, who has focused on this predicament for decades, will open with some thoughts on how we can strengthen the capacity to sustain our gaze on the fraying of the natural world and maintain a positive spirit of engagement, followed by reflections from Sab Bonfonti, a community organizer and facilitator working on social and ecological issues in diverse settings. The call will offer an opportunity to connect with others concerned about this critical issue with time for small group breakout discussions and full group sharing. This event is free and open to the public.
For an archive of 2017-2019 Events, please go here.