Immaculate Heart Community welcomes all to a Dec. 14 Advent retreat with theologian Matthew Fox titled “A Great Coming: Creation Spirituality and the Renewal of Religion, Humanity, and Holy Mother Earth.” The retreat is scheduled from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, 540 S. Commonwealth Ave., with an option to participate on Zoom. On Sunday, Dec. 15, there will be a second, Zoom-only session scheduled for 9-11 a.m.
An Episcopal priest, Fox is an activist for gender and eco-justice. He is committed to reinventing and reinvigorating ritual within the Western tradition, establishing new pedagogy be melding the ancient Western wisdom tradition with contemporary scientists and modern mystics, and developing a new vision of activism in support and defense of Mother Earth.
“Advent is about waiting for a Great Coming — not passively but actively,” Fox said of the retreat. “We will explore how creation spirituality and an original blessing rather than an original sin-based religion can bring about a new humanity and a renewed relationship to Holy Mother Earth. We will explore how Christianity can and must re-define itself after 2000 years as it moves from a modern to a postmodern world, from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius, and the role that a recovery of a cosmos and earth-based mysticism means in this renewal.
“As Father Bede Griffith put it, ‘if Christianity cannot recover its mystical tradition and teach it, it should just fold up and go out of business.’ But if it can recover its mystical/prophetic tradition, then what? We have a new birth, a happening such as the original Christmas promised: ‘Peace to all people of good will’ two-legged, four-legged, and all species who inhabit our Earth.”
In-person attendees are asked to pay $80 each, and $40 on Zoom, with an option to pay only what one can afford. A lunch box is available for purchase for the Saturday session, and participants are also invited to bring their own. Register for the event here.