February 19, 2026
Online at 6:30–8pm CST
With Maureen Wild
Hosted by The Well Spirituality Center
For the sake of life’s very survival, Thomas Berry implored humanity to foster a mutually enhancing presence within a sacred earth community. The prerequisite is to stop thinking of everything as a collection of objects and to embrace the truth that we are, in fact, an integral part of a communion of subjects. This major shift away from the prevailing worldview of separation and dominance to one of interdependence and responsibility he named as our Great Work and the most ennobling work we will ever undertake with others. We will explore how Thomas expounded on the Great Work that is before us to do.
Eco-philosopher Joanna Macy also accentuates that each of us has an important purpose and role to play at this perilous time for our living earth as we discover that which is uniquely our own to do in The Great Turning. She highlights our interbeing with everything else, what it means to embrace our ecological self as one body with earth’s body, and to be at the service of life and something so much larger than we can imagine. She describes this transformed way of thinking, being, feeling, and acting as the essential adventure of our time while linking arms with others to co-create a life-sustaining civilization. We will explore how Joanna describes the various dimensions of The Great Turning needed now: beginning with gratitude, honoring our pain, seeing with new eyes, and going forth.
Maureen Wild, a Sister of Charity (of Halifax), is deeply influenced by the teachings and wisdom of Thomas Berry and made her final vows (’90) in a forest setting. Her Master of Education focused on the epic story of our evolving universe and earth community and how this story informs and transforms humanity’s way of seeing and relating to the whole. Joanna Macy was another of Maureen’s formative teachers. Maureen’s spiritual ecology programs and retreats have developed for over 30 years and shared widely throughout Canada, the US, and elsewhere both in-person and virtually. She is a founding member and dedicated volunteer with the Sisters of Earth network (since ’94) and is featured in the book Green Sisters published by Harvard University Press. Maureen lives on Canada’s BC coast.
Registration fee: $25