Dates: Thursday, April 1, 2021, 7:00 - 8:00 pm ET
Available by: Join by Videoconference Only (learn more about videoconference)
Suggested Love Offering: $ 10.00
Compassion for All Beings
Take an inspiring dip into interspecies spirituality with the more-than-human world and founding members of the Compassion Consortium.
Rev. Sarah Bowen (2017), Rev. Erika Allison (2020), William Melton (2021), and Victoria Moran.
We are so excited to offer this Gathering for our One Spirit community AND also let you know about the launch of the Compassion Consortium, a non-sectarian and interfaith religious center offering spiritual guidance, support, and fellowship to vegans, vegetarians, animal rights activists, animal lovers, and all humans who care about and advocate for animals and the planet. The consortium will have monthly worship services, as well as events with top authors and filmmakers in the area of interspecies advocacy. This all-inclusive community seeks to fill a blind spot in many religious communities—the exclusion of other species or "non-humans."Our first service will be held on April 25th!
Read this PRESS RELEASE to learn more!
FACILITATORS
Rev. Sarah Bowen is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual/ interspecies minister, animal chaplain, and faculty member at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City. Especially interested in the intersection of spiritual values with animal welfare, Sarah is a fierce advocate for all creatures, teaching interspecies mindfulness practices, working with humans around the grief and loss of companion animals, loving up animals in shelters, and providing wildlife struck by cars a sacred sendoff.
An award-winning author, Sarah’s Spiritual Rebel: A Positively Addictive Guide to Finding Deeper Perspective & Higher Purpose, won Nautilus and other book awards. Her forthcoming book is titled Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice for Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, and Trying to Heal the Planet. Sarah is a columnist for Spirituality & Health Magazine and regularly co-hosts Unity Online Radio’s “Big Universe” show. She holds a BA in Human Ecology from Michigan State University, a MA in Religious Studies from Chicago Theological Seminary, and an M.Div equivalent from One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. A forever learner, she is completing post-graduate work in Anthrozoology & Humane Religious Studies.
As a member of Spiritual Directors International, the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement, as well as several 12-step recovery and spiritual communities, she guides others in connecting with the higher power of their own understanding to reduce suffering. To learn more about Reverend Sarah’s background and story, click here.
William Melton was, in his first career, an international business and technology lawyer living in seven countries and working in more than thirty others. This gave him exposure to myriad cultures and religions. In 2019, he decided to shift gears and pursue a ministry of compassion dedicated to healing the suffering of animals, the environment and the human heart.
Trading in his lawyer’s robe for a clerical collar, he is now a second-year student at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, and he will be ordained as an Interfaith Minister in June, 2021. William also is a certified Animal Reiki Master. He offers animal chaplaincy, animal Reiki and TTouch holistic healing services as part of this ministry.
Rev. Erika Allison is an interfaith minister and inspirational speaker who helps the queer community—and also really cool straight people--find spiritual liberation and live joyful, authentic lives. She is the author of Gay the Pray Away: Healing your Life, Love, and Relationships from the Harms of LGBT Conversion Therapy which hit Amazon best-seller status in four categories on its recent release.
Formerly a practicing mechanical engineer, Erika sees the world in systems and connections. Her healing journey led her to expand this view through the study of bodywork, Healing Touch, Energy Psychology, JourneyDance, and breathwork. Erika became ordained through One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, a progressive program exploring the deep truths at the heart of all authentic spiritual traditions. She offers workshops, programs, coaching and retreats to strengthen one's inner compass through awareness and alignment.
Birthed out of her own suffering at the hands of unconscious religion, Erika is a committed vegan in her quest to reduce suffering for all beings. Her mission is to empower the queer community (and other marginalized groups) to guide humanity towards a more awakened path forward. Enthusiasm is her spiritual practice. Erika lives in western Massachusetts with her partner Toni and two teenage stepsons. They provide a great reality check when she thinks she has it all figured out!
Victoria Moran
Intrigued by the spiritual since childhood and vegan for thirty-six years, Victoria spent three years as a librarian and editorial assistant at the Theosophical Society in America; made two trips to India and Tibet to research the spirituality of daily life, and volunteer in Tibetan refugee communities in Nepal and Himachal Pradesh; and earned a BA degree, summa cum laude, from North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, in comparative religions.
An undergraduate fellowship enabled her to research vegans in the UK, leading to her first book, Compassion the Ultimate Ethic. Subsequent books include The Love-Powered Diet, Shelter for the Spirit, Creating a Charmed Life, The Good Karma Diet, and the iconic Main Street Vegan. Listed by VegNews Magazine among the "Top 10 Living Vegetarian Authors," Victoria has written books endorsed by Neal Barnard, MD, Larry Dossey, MD, Sharon Gannon, Milton Mills, MD, Moby, Michael Moore, Thomas Moore, Christiane Northrup, MD, Dean Ornish, MD, Marianne Williamson, and the late Louise Hay and Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
She has been featured on Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, and All Things Considered, as well as in the 2019 Curiosity Stream docu-series, The Future of Food. She also acted as lead producer of Thomas Jackson's documentary, A Prayer for Compassion, introducing the vegan lifestyle to people of faith. Since 2012, Victoria has both hosted the Main Street Vegan podcast on Unity Online Radio, and directed Main Street Vegan Academy, training and certifying vegan lifestyle coaches and educators. She is herself a certified life coach, certified holistic health coach, graduate of the T. Colin Campbell/e-Cornell program in plant-based nutrition, and a registered yoga instructor. She lives with her husband, William Melton, their rescue dog, Forbes, and rescue pigeon, Thunder, in a green condo in Upper Manhattan. Find her at www.mainstreetvegan.net.
If you have questions about registering for this course, please contact One Spirit Learning Alliance by email to info@1spirit.org or call 212-931-6840.