A 4-Session Reading and Practice Formation Series
Engaging Parker J. Palmer's Healing the Heart of Democracy
A four-session, guided formation series exploring how spiritual grounding, relational courage, and embodied practices can help us meet political anxiety without losing our humanity—or one another.
Series Description
In times of political upheaval, many of us feel pulled between fear, fatigue, anger, and a longing for something wiser and more humane than what dominates our public life. This Reading and Practice Formation Series offers a spiritually grounded space to reflect, listen, and re-center—without demonizing those who see the world differently.
Drawing on Parker Palmer’s Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit and "Five Habits of the Heart that Make Democracy Possible," participants will engage both text and practice: reading thoughtfully, reflecting communally, and experimenting with spiritual habits that cultivate resilience, compassion, and moral clarity. This is not a debate or a strategy session—it is an invitation to tend the spiritual heart that sustains democratic life and faithful presence in a divided world.
“If American democracy fails . . . [it] will happen because we—you and I—become so fearful of each other, of our differences and of the future, that we unraveled the civic community on which democracy depends, losing our power to resist all that threatens it and call it back to its highest form. If American democracy fails . . . [it] will happen because we—you and I—become so fearful of each other, of our differences and of the future, that we unraveled the civic community on which democracy depends, losing our power to resist all that threatens it and call it back to its highest form.
. . .
“The democratic experiment is endless, unless we blow up the lab, and the explosives to do the job are found within us. But so also is the heart's alchemy that can turn suffering into community, conflict into the energy of creativity, and tension into an opening toward the common good. We can help keep the experiment alive by repairing and maintaining democracy’s neglected infrastructure, whose two levels are the primary concerns of this book: the invisible dynamics of the human heart and the visible venues of our lives in which those dynamics are formed.
. . .
“For those of us who want to see democracy survive and thrive - and we are legion - the heart is where everything begins: that grounded place in each of us where we can overcome fear, rediscover that we are members of one another, and embrace the conflicts that threaten democracy as openings to new life for us and for our nation.”
—Parker J. Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy
Format
- Four Sessions: held on Mondays from March 9 thru April 6 (no session on March 23) at 4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern; 90 minutes per session.
- Readings: Each session will cover approximately two chapters from Parker J. Palmer's Healing the Heart of Democracy, as well as occasional articles and media.
- Preparations: Each participant is expected to read or view the material prior the live sessions and contribute to the conversations.
About the Instructor
Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., is a theologian, songwriter, and spiritual teacher who draws from wisdom and mystical traditions, relational worldviews, depth psychology, and the intersection of spirituality and science to help people find meaning, belonging, and transformation. She serves as director of Process & Faith with the Center for Process Studies, interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, Florida, and teaches regularly for the Haden Institute and Claremont School of Theology, from which she earned her doctorate. She is the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation, and editor of Renewing Faith: Reigniting Faith and Ministry through Process and Open & Relational Theologies. As a public speaker, Sheri delivers dynamic presentations to groups, and offers courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats. She can be found online at sherikling.com.
Price
- Lifetime access to session recordings
- Receive early notification of future offerings
- Watch live or follow your own schedule
- *If you cannot pay this amount, please contribute whatever you feel the course is worth or whatever you can afford to help support this and other programs like it.
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