The Universal Christ - an Eight-Week Learning Circle

Come and join us for a contemplative learning circle exploring key themes and insights from Richard Rohr's new book, 'The Universal Christ'. We'll be dropping into a place of prayer and deep listening, opening ourselves to the words of one of the world's most cherished wisdom teachers.

Early evening on Mondays from 18 November to 9 December
and then again from 6 January to 27 January

About the Group

In what may be Fr Richard's last book, he presents a radical take on the Christian faith. In the podcast Another Name for Everything, Fr Richard speaks of the hope that The Universal Christ will be a game-changer that will help reframe the Christian gospel. Check out the video trailer.

Through lectio divina, silent meditation, group sharing and individual reflection, we will tune in to what Fr Richard's text has to say for our individual and collective awakening. We'll be looking particularly at how we can align our personal faith journey with the healing of the Earth Community, and our service in the world.

About the Facilitator

The group will be facilitated by Liz Day, who has been a student of Fr Richard since helping host a speaker event with him in Norwich in 2008. Liz has been practising centering prayer (a form of Christian meditation) for some eighteen years. During this time she has offered and taken part in many workshops, groups and retreats on the Christian contemplative tradition, and she has studied with national and international teachers.

Liz says, "Richard's groundbreaking work presents a renewed understanding of the Christic pattern of life, death and rebirth. He shows how Jesus and the Christian faith reveal a God who is utterly present in nature, through our own bodily human experience, and in the soul of the created world -- our first bible.

"All of which is urgently needed as we struggle to up our game in response to the current ecological crisis. I hope you'll join me in engaging with this important book at a heart level, in the context of community, where I hope it can effect real transformation."

Practical Information

This learning circle is offered on a gift basis: pay what feels right for you. We are asking for a £15 payment up front as a token of commitment and to reserve your place -- this can be revised, up or down, towards the end of the 8 weeks.

The idea is that the sessions will incorporate a 15-minute break part-way, with a view to finishing each session in silence. But we'll have a chance to adjust the timing as we go along, according to the needs of the group.

Though not essential, it is recommended that you buy the book, and/or listen to the relevant episodes from Fr Richard's podcast Another Name for Everything. Please consider buying your book from Norwich's independent bookshop The Book Hive.

We will also be looking at this material in a series of Saturday morning sessions, starting 30 November and 14 December.

Feedback from Liz's Previous Group

"I think Liz's presentation of these evenings was excellent. She was highly intuitive and sensitive to everyone in the group - demonstrating a real wisdom when dealing with difficult questions." -- Dot Lenton

"I really enjoyed the 8 weeks. I think Liz is very skilled at holding the space and keeping a balance between our contributions and the plan for the session. It felt respectful and loving and I didn't feel inhibited about joining in, even though my experience has been very different to that of most of the other participants. I really valued being part of this loving, accepting and thought provoking group." -- Penny Marais

"This group was invaluable to me - the practice, conversations, explanations, silence and quite deep sharing for a newly formed gathering. Above all I think it was the sincere intention from everyone to seek. Thank you Liz for your generous leadership; without a ‘know it all’ perspective but what felt to me like a genuine shared journey." -- Lynne Davies

"Thank you for our Mondays together, always thought provoking, interesting and ‘spiritually companionable’ evenings." -- Sarah

Quotes from Richard Rohr - from the book and the podcast

"Before the incarnation of God in Jesus, there was the incarnation through light, water, land, sun, moon, stars, plants, trees, fruit, birds, serpents, cattle, fish and, as it says in Genesis, 'every kind of wild beast'. This is the Cosmic Christ through which God has 'let us know the mystery of God's purpose, the hidden plan made from the beginning.' (Ephesians 1:9-10) Christ is not Jesus' last name, but the title for his life's purpose. Christ is our word for what Jesus came to personally reveal and validate -- which is true all the time and everywhere."

"The incarnational worldview is the profound recognition of the presence of the divine in literally everything and everyone."

"We collapsed Jesus into Christ; and here's the problem with that -- it leaves 13.5 billion years empty of presence, empty of God. Are you really telling me that God only started talking two thousand years ago? Or even almost five thousand years ago -- a drip in time -- with the beginning of the writing of the Bible? That's why the early Franciscans believed that nature was the first bible, which is also expressed by St Paul very clearly in Romans 1:20: everything we need to know about God is in the world as it is created."

"It's time for Christianity to rediscover the deeper biblical theme of restorative justice, which focuses on rehabilitation and reconciliation and not punishment. (Read Ezekiel 16 for a supreme example of this.) We could call Jesus's storyline the "myth of redemptive suffering" -- not as in "paying a price" but as in offering the self for the other. Or "at-one-ment" instead of atonement."

"Jesus the Christ, in his crucifixion and resurrection, "recapitualited all things in himself, everything in heaven and everything on earth" (Ephesians 1:109). [...] Jesus agreed to carry the mystery of universal suffering. He allowed it to change him ("Resurrection") and, it is to be hoped, us, so that we would be freed from the endless cycle of projecting our pain elsewhere or remaining trapped inside of it."

"Why didn't I say all this with such clarity 40 years ago? But we're ready for it now. The book may well get a lot of pushback. But I'm also willing to be pleasantly surprised that people are ready for a bigger frame: a non-dual frame. In this we're not lessening Jesus, we're not replacing Jesus with Christ, but we're saying that the two notions, Jesus and Christ, these two realities balance and fulfill one another. It changes everything."