Thursday, November 16, 2023
7:00 - 8:00 pm, ET, Online
Available by: Join by Videoconference Only (learn more about videoconference)
Free Event
“Our most powerful response to the horror in Israel and Palestine is to refuse to surrender our humanity.”
Please join with us in community and spiritual practice to ground ourselves in our shared humanity and offer the power of our consciousness in service to compassion and peace.
Facilitated by: Rev. Diane Berke, Rev. Dr. Salome Raheim, and Rev. Laurene Williams.
Facilitated by:
Rev. Diane Berke
Rev. Diane Berke is the Founder and Spiritual Director of One Spirit Learning Alliance. Ordained as an interfaith minister in 1988, she is a respected pioneer in the field of interfaith/interspiritual education; this past June (2020) she stepped down after 18 years as Director of the One Spirit Seminary Training. Diane has worked closely with Andrew Harvey in his Institute for Sacred Activism, is a founding member of the Contemplative Alliance of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, and is a co-founder of Transformation 365, an online platform to introduce people to a broad range of contemplative practices. She is also a certified facilitator of the Circle of Trust® work of the Center for Courage and Renewal. Diane maintains a private practice in spiritual counseling/companionship and supervision of spiritual counseling students and practitioners. In addition, she is a licensed mental health counselor in New York State. A student and teacher of A Course in Miracles for over 30 years, Diane has led retreats and workshops on spiritual development throughout the United States and internationally. She is the author of several books and educational manuals, including Love Always Answers, The Gentle Smile, Developing and Deepening Your Spiritual Practice, and Forgiveness as a Path of Awakening. Diane is known for the clarity and wisdom of her teaching, the sincerity and depth of her compassion, and her ability to create exceptionally safe and nourishing learning and companioning spaces in which people can heal and blossom. She continues to actively serve One Spirit as a "spiritual grandmother" and guide.
Rev. Laurene Williams
Activist. Counselor. Innovator. Minister. Known for her ability to give voice to the deepest expressions of Spirit and connect them to the daily experiences of living, Reverend Laurene Williams delights in creating spaces in which people can express love, experience connection, demonstrate responsibility and empower community. She believes the purpose of ministry is to serve and empower community such that people experience their natural connection to others. Reverend Laurene asserts, “The more we function from understanding the depth of our interrelatedness and degree of our interdependence, the more each of us can consciously create our lives and contribute to a world that serves us ALL. Church would expand beyond its walls as a ‘house of God’ to ‘God housed in us’ and the congregation from a group of ‘people assembled for worship’ to ‘worship resembled in people.’ God, the Nameless and Named, is a “Lived Experience and Living Presence”—the spiritual experience of a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional relationship to ourselves, one another and Life that we express and embody as our divine essence.” Whether it was human development, psychology, religious studies and sociology electives she studied as an undergraduate at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania or her choice to attend an interfaith seminary at One Spirit Learning Alliance in NYC, Reverend Laurene believes a curious mind cultivates a consciousness mindset. “Curiosity encourages us to look beyond the facts, explore the limits of what we know to discover what is True—that we’re intimately and intricately connected. My curiosity has led me to meet people from all walks of life and walk in life with all sorts of people. And with not despite our differences, we are the same in our essence.” A truth that has only deepened and expanded for her through more than 20 years of study in various educational and transformational trainings. Sought after for her compelling conversations, engaging inquiries, sense of humor and unique perspective on spirituality-infused living, Reverend Laurene explores with people how to embody their personal truth in alignment with Spiritual Truth for greater fulfillment, power, joy and peace of mind. This is accomplished through her writings, counseling, ministry, public speaking and transformational workshops and innovative programs. Born in Westbury, Long Island, Reverend Laurene Williams currently lives in Bloomfield, NJ.
Rev. Dr. Salome Raheim
Rev. Dr. Salome Raheim is an Interfaith Interspiritual Minister and 1st Year Dean at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. She is a leadership and spiritual coach and an organizational consultant and trainer. She is passionate about actualizing the depths of human potential for caring, compassion, connection, healing, and justice. She has more than 40 years of experience in higher education, is Dean Emeritus at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, and Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany—SUNY School of Social Welfare. Among her areas of expertise are promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B), addressing implicit bias, and implementing practices in organizations to foster wellbeing. During her career, she has led two schools of social work (University of Connecticut and University of Iowa) in organization-wide, multi-year change initiatives to increase DEI&B. Rev. Dr. Raheim’s commitment to creating more just and healthy organizations has taken her across the United States and to four continents to deliver presentations and provide training and consultation to schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, governmental organizations, and businesses. Recent clients include Georgetown University; Office of the County Executive and Department of Children, Youth and Families, Albany, NY; Liberty Healthcare Corporation; National Association of Social Workers; and LiveWell Dementia Specialists in Connecticut. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Rev. Dr. Raheim received ordination from One Spirit (www.1Spirit.org), holds the PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa, MSW from Catholic University of America, MA in Integrative Health and Healing from The Graduate Institute, and BSW from Bowie State University, a historically black college. She is a certified mindfulness and chair yoga instructor.