Creating Meaningful Practice that Honors Spiritual Diversity
A friend is grieving. A family is celebrating a new beginning. A community is facing change. Sometimes words aren't enough, and we want to create a moment that helps people feel seen, supported, and connected.
Ritual can help us do that.
But how do we create something meaningful when the people gathered have different beliefs, traditions, or relationships to spirituality? How do we welcome everyone without overlooking what makes their experiences distinct?
True belonging doesn't require us to believe the same things. It begins when we make room for what makes each of us different.
Join Bobby Ansari for a three-hour, hands-on workshop exploring how to create rituals that honor life's important moments while respecting the people and traditions involved.
You'll learn a five-step approach to ritual design, explore questions of cultural context and permission, and create a short ritual of your own.
You'll leave with a ritual you've designed and a practical method you can use again in your personal life, community, or professional work.
Saturday, November 21, 2026
10 AM – 1 PM ET
Live on Zoom · Recording included
General Public $90 · OSLA Affiliated Alumni $75
What We'll Explore
Why Ritual Matters
Ritual gives us ways to acknowledge experiences that can be difficult to put into words: grief, transition, uncertainty, celebration, and hope. We'll explore how simple actions, symbols, and shared attention can help people recognize important moments and feel connected to one another.
Belonging Without Sameness
Creating an inclusive ritual doesn't mean blending everyone's beliefs into one generic experience. We'll consider how to invite participation while respecting different understandings of spirituality, religious practice, and the sacred.
Respecting the Traditions We Learn From
When is it appropriate to draw from a spiritual practice? When might doing so require permission, deeper understanding, or a different approach? We'll examine cultural context, lineage, power, and responsibility, and how these considerations can help us create rituals with greater care.
A Five-Step Approach to Ritual Design
Bobby will introduce a practical framework: Intention → Threshold → Action → Witness → Integration
We'll explore how each step contributes to a meaningful ritual and how the framework can be adapted to personal, professional, and community settings.
What You'll Take Away
A Practical Method for Creating Ritual
Learn a five-step framework you can return to whenever you need to create a meaningful experience.A Ritual You've Designed Yourself
You'll have time to develop a short ritual for a real situation in your life or community, with opportunities for reflection and feedback.Greater Confidence in Honoring Spiritual Difference
Explore ways to welcome people with different beliefs and backgrounds without requiring agreement or assuming everyone experiences the sacred in the same way.A More Thoughtful Approach to Cultural Responsibility
Learn to consider context, lineage, permission, and power when drawing inspiration from spiritual traditions, so your choices respect the communities and practices involved.
How We’ll Practice
This is a hands-on workshop, with opportunities to discuss, experience, and create ritual. We'll use silence, sound, images, and symbolic objects to explore how simple actions can take on meaning when approached with intention. You'll leave with a ritual you designed yourself, plus a framework you can use again in the future.
During the workshop, you will:
Participate in brief guided ritual practices.
Explore examples of rituals from different spiritual and religious traditions.
Reflect on how cultural context shapes the meaning of a practice.
Discuss questions of permission, adaptation, and inclusion.
Work with others in pairs or small groups.
Design a short ritual for a real situation in your life or community.
Have an opportunity to share and refine your ideas through reflection and feedback.
Please bring a small object that holds personal meaning for you. We'll incorporate it into the workshop experience.
Who Should Attend
If You're New to One Spirit
You don't need to be ordained, religious, or experienced in ritual design to participate.
Perhaps you support people through grief, teach, lead a community group, care for patients, or simply want to mark important moments in your own life with greater intention.
This workshop offers a practical introduction to creating rituals that acknowledge life's experiences while welcoming people from different backgrounds.
If You're a Minister or Spiritual Practitioner
If you already lead ceremonies, memorials, retreats, spiritual gatherings, or community circles, this workshop offers an opportunity to strengthen your approach to ritual design.
You'll explore how to create experiences that feel meaningful to those gathered while remaining attentive to cultural context, religious differences, and ethical responsibility.
All Are Welcome
The workshop draws on interspiritual principles associated with Wayne Teasdale, including humility, solidarity, and prophetic action. No prior knowledge or experience is required.
All are welcome, including One Spirit students, graduates, and people encountering our community for the first time, from any spiritual background or none at all.
About Your Presenter
Bobby Ansari, MA, CWP, CCC, (she/her), is a spiritual wellness practitioner, educator, and founder of Rose of Jericho Wellness™.
Trained in spiritual care, trauma-informed practice, and interfaith engagement, her work explores meaning, ritual, cultural humility, and belonging across religious and spiritual differences.
She has worked in healthcare, higher education, workplace wellness, and community settings, and has studied with teachers and communities across multiple spiritual traditions.
Her approach combines practical ritual design with careful attention to cultural context, lineage, power, and responsibility. She speaks internationally on spiritual wellness, meaning, and culturally responsive approaches to human flourishing.
“The transformative value of this workshop is that participants will learn how to create ritual as a practice of ethical relationship rather than spiritual consumption.
They will develop a way to ask not only, ‘What feels meaningful?’ but also, ‘What is mine to use, what requires context or permission, and how can this practice preserve the dignity of everyone present?’
Participants will leave with a practical framework for creating shared experiences that foster reflection, belonging, and connection without demanding theological agreement.”
— Bobby Ansari
Registration Details
What Your Registration Includes
Three-hour live, interactive workshop with Bobby Ansari.
Workshop recording, accessible through June 30, 2027.
Five-step ritual-design worksheet and reusable template.
Reflection questions on cultural context, power, and permission.
Resource list on ritual, interspirituality, and cultural humility.
Opportunities for guided practice, discussion, and personal ritual design.
Registration Pricing
Public: $90 · OSLA Affiliated Alumni: $75
Taking more than one workshop? Buy 3, save 15%. Buy 4, save 20%!
Discount applied automatically at checkout.OSLA Alumni: Log in to your OSLA Portal to apply your affiliate discount.
Not affiliated yet? Learn More about Affiliation
After You Register
You'll receive a confirmation email with instructions for accessing the workshop's Hylo Course Board, where you'll find the Zoom link and workshop materials.
Can't attend live? The recording will be available within 72 hours of the workshop to the Hylo Course Board.
Questions? Contact help@1spirit.org.
