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***** Blogs *****
Natural Knowing
The Nature of Things
Cosmic Reflections
***** Websites/ Social Media *****
The Nature of Things
Website
Calling EcoElders
Facebook
Discussing This Changes Everything
Facebook
***** Books *****
In Chewing Sand, An Eco-Spiritual Taste of the Mojave Desert, I invite readers to share in my adventure of bonding with this special place, and taste its unique wisdom. For over the course of an interim ministry year spent here, I learned that the spirit of this space does not ‘naturally’ mirror the Middle Eastern desert of the Bible that was brought to the new world by the Pilgrims and Puritans; rather, out here, where ‘god is red,’ the sacred appears as a Trickster, a coyote dance upon sun burnt sand that disrupted everything I thought I knew. When I returned seven years later in order to go deeper into this knowing, the sacred text of the desert itself became both a macrocosm and a microcosm of the major challenges facing our era. Yet it also instructs us in acts of non-violent resistance, inspired by a perspective of deep time that is set within a desert-clarifying silence.
Light Year; a Seasonal Primer for Spiritual Focus, sets forth twenty-seven carefully designed writing exercises that invite readers into a deeper awareness of how the light of our sun affects and informs the spiritual dimensions of life. Topics explore the universal human impulse behind all the seasonal rituals and cultural rites that celebrate the earth's movement around the sun.
This offering grew organically while I served several congregations as an interim minister and led writing workshops in which congregants could to do their personal and collective inner work.
Finding the Voice Inside, originally published as Writing Re-Creatively; a Spiritual Quest for Women, presents forty writing exercises that invite women to explore their uniquely feminine spirituality.
My insights on women’s issues first shaped themselves into a writing workshop for women that then won a Feminist Theology Award from the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation and grant money to put them into a book. It is still in print and in use these twenty years later.
Hopi Birth Morning is my gift to the Hopi children struggling to reconcile their culture with that found in the 'for extra reading' storybooks in their reservation’s classrooms, where I tutored for a week one spring. Invited by an elder to write down his narration of the traditions surrounding a Hopi birth, I listed my name under my own birth name of Steeves, to honor the Hopi matrilineal culture.
My first published book was for children and an attempt to connect my daughters with their father’s family back in India. The pictures, drawn from the photos I took during my second trip to Bombay, are of actual family members. The premise of the book was one I used with one daughter's first grade classmates: growing up in India was just another way of doing the same things they did every day.
***** Articles*****
Faithful Witness in Southern Nevada
by Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive Posted on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 12:00PM
Holding Up Sister MeganAs Southern Nevada endures record-setting summer temperatures (oh, but it’s a dry heat!), Sister Megan Rice is experiencing the not-so-dry heat of a summer in Georgia, where she’s in prison awaiting a September sentencing. Her latest Transform Ploughshares Now action at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, nuclear weapons facility, was originally considered to be misdemeanor trespassing, with one year of jail time.But now it has been labeled felony terrorism, which carries up to 20 years in federal prison. Sr. Megan is 82 years old: you can do the math.
In a recent response to a letter I sent to her in prison, Megan wrote, “Have no concern for my ‘comfort’ here. It is always a privilege experiencing and sharing life on the margins.” To deal with my own outrage, worry, and grief, I seek comfort in a favorite poem by Rebecca Parker, president of Starr King School for the Ministry (Unitarian Universalist), where I earned my Masters of Divinity.
In the midst of a worldmarked by tragedy and beauty
there must be those
who bear witness
against unnecessary destruction
and who, with faith,
stand and lead
in freedom,
with grace and power.
For me, Sister Megan embodies such witness; she is word become flesh.... Click to read the complete article.
.
***** Workshops *****
Awakening the Cosmos Within:
Preparing ourselves for the Great Work of our era,
Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive and Milt Hetrick
First Universalist Church, Denver, CO, 26-27 August 2011
Friday Evening
The Universe Story (pdf)(PowerPoint) (html)
Saturday
Writing Exercises Handout (pdf)
What is the Universe Telling Us? (pdf)(PowerPoint) (html)
What are 7 Billion Humans Doing? (pdf)(PowerPoint) (html)
Resources
(pdf)
Awakening the Cosmos Within
Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive
Stillpoint Spiritual Center, Las Vegas, March 19, 2011
Slide Show (History of Nature)
Video of Workshop
***** Sermons *****
First Universalist, Denver, CO 5 July 2015
The Spirit of America and the Challenges of Climate Change (Audio File)
High Plains Church Unitarian Universalist, Colorado Springs, CO 31 August 2014
"Baseball, Emerson and Climate Conscience"
Columbine Unitarian Universalist Church, Littleton CO, 10 August 2014
"Columbine Becoming: A Context for Climate Conscience"
St. George, Utah 12 Feb 2012
Cultivating Universe-al Consciousness (Part 1) 9:46
- August 24th 2008
- August 24th 2008
![](http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/qrPcIxvAoa4/default.jpg ""Opening to the Truth of Light" Part 1")
Opening to the Truth of Light (Part 1) 9:58
Opening to the Truth of Light (Part 2) 9:40
Cosmic Differentiation, Subjectivity and Communion (Part 1) 10:54 - 16 November 2008.
Cosmic Differentiation, Subjectivity and Communion (Part 2) 10:55 - 16 November 2008.
Experiencing Eternal, Everyday, Emergent Time (Part 1) 8:11
Experiencing Eternal, Everyday, Emergent Times (Part 2) 9:10
***** Blogs *****
Natural Knowing |
The Nature of Things |
Cosmic Reflections |
***** Websites/ Social Media *****
The Nature of ThingsWebsite |
Calling EcoElders |
Discussing This Changes Everything |
***** Books *****
| In Chewing Sand, An Eco-Spiritual Taste of the Mojave Desert, I invite readers to share in my adventure of bonding with this special place, and taste its unique wisdom. For over the course of an interim ministry year spent here, I learned that the spirit of this space does not ‘naturally’ mirror the Middle Eastern desert of the Bible that was brought to the new world by the Pilgrims and Puritans; rather, out here, where ‘god is red,’ the sacred appears as a Trickster, a coyote dance upon sun burnt sand that disrupted everything I thought I knew. When I returned seven years later in order to go deeper into this knowing, the sacred text of the desert itself became both a macrocosm and a microcosm of the major challenges facing our era. Yet it also instructs us in acts of non-violent resistance, inspired by a perspective of deep time that is set within a desert-clarifying silence. | |
|
Light Year; a Seasonal Primer for Spiritual Focus, sets forth twenty-seven carefully designed writing exercises that invite readers into a deeper awareness of how the light of our sun affects and informs the spiritual dimensions of life. Topics explore the universal human impulse behind all the seasonal rituals and cultural rites that celebrate the earth's movement around the sun. This offering grew organically while I served several congregations as an interim minister and led writing workshops in which congregants could to do their personal and collective inner work. |
|
Finding the Voice Inside, originally published as Writing Re-Creatively; a Spiritual Quest for Women, presents forty writing exercises that invite women to explore their uniquely feminine spirituality. My insights on women’s issues first shaped themselves into a writing workshop for women that then won a Feminist Theology Award from the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation and grant money to put them into a book. It is still in print and in use these twenty years later. |
|
Hopi Birth Morning is my gift to the Hopi children struggling to reconcile their culture with that found in the 'for extra reading' storybooks in their reservation’s classrooms, where I tutored for a week one spring. Invited by an elder to write down his narration of the traditions surrounding a Hopi birth, I listed my name under my own birth name of Steeves, to honor the Hopi matrilineal culture. |
|
My first published book was for children and an attempt to connect my daughters with their father’s family back in India. The pictures, drawn from the photos I took during my second trip to Bombay, are of actual family members. The premise of the book was one I used with one daughter's first grade classmates: growing up in India was just another way of doing the same things they did every day. |
***** Articles*****
Faithful Witness in Southern Nevada
by Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive Posted on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 12:00PM| Holding Up Sister Megan |
As Southern Nevada endures record-setting summer temperatures (oh, but it’s a dry heat!), Sister Megan Rice is experiencing the not-so-dry heat of a summer in Georgia, where she’s in prison awaiting a September sentencing. Her latest Transform Ploughshares Now action at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, nuclear weapons facility, was originally considered to be misdemeanor trespassing, with one year of jail time.But now it has been labeled felony terrorism, which carries up to 20 years in federal prison. Sr. Megan is 82 years old: you can do the math. |
| In a recent response to a letter I sent to her in prison, Megan wrote, “Have no concern for my ‘comfort’ here. It is always a privilege experiencing and sharing life on the margins.” To deal with my own outrage, worry, and grief, I seek comfort in a favorite poem by Rebecca Parker, president of Starr King School for the Ministry (Unitarian Universalist), where I earned my Masters of Divinity.
In the midst of a worldmarked by tragedy and beauty For me, Sister Megan embodies such witness; she is word become flesh.... Click to read the complete article. |
|
.
***** Workshops *****
Awakening the Cosmos Within:
Preparing ourselves for the Great Work of our era,
Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive and Milt Hetrick
First Universalist Church, Denver, CO, 26-27 August 2011
Friday Evening
The Universe Story (pdf)(PowerPoint) (html)
Saturday
Writing Exercises Handout (pdf)
What is the Universe Telling Us? (pdf)(PowerPoint) (html)
What are 7 Billion Humans Doing? (pdf)(PowerPoint) (html)
Resources
(pdf)
Awakening the Cosmos Within
Rev. Gail Collins-Ranadive
Stillpoint Spiritual Center, Las Vegas, March 19, 2011
Slide Show (History of Nature) ***** Sermons *****First Universalist, Denver, CO 5 July 2015 The Spirit of America and the Challenges of Climate Change (Audio File)
High Plains Church Unitarian Universalist, Colorado Springs, CO 31 August 2014
"Baseball, Emerson and Climate Conscience"
Columbine Unitarian Universalist Church, Littleton CO, 10 August 2014
"Columbine Becoming: A Context for Climate Conscience"
St. George, Utah 12 Feb 2012
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