Social change philosopher and activist Joanna Macy will be visiting Oxford to give a talk and lead a two day workshop in May 2005. She is an author, scholar and spiritual teacher who has been active worldwide in movements for peace, justice and deep ecology. She is known for the resilience and vision that her trainings inspire. Her books include: World as Lover World as Self; Rilke's Book of Hours; and Coming Back to Life.


The Talk

Joanna will be giving a talk on 9th May at 6pm "Facing Global Warming & Other Great Adventures" at Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford. Entry on the door - donations between £2 and £5. The venue will hold 400 people so feel free to publicise this event widely. If anyone in the Oxford area would be happy to help with putting up posters, then please get in touch with Jo Hamilton on  jo@risingtide.org.uk



The Workshop

Joanna's workshop uses experiential activities to harness heart as well as head. The workshop aims to release the energy within ourselves, power that springs from our interconnectedness with all beings. Joanna takes the view that a sense of despair about the suffering of the world is simply a sign that we know we are connected to life and shows that we have the collective potential to respond to that suffering. People the world over find that this work transforms despair into courage, creativity and community. A key theme of this workshop will be the issue of climate change. Details of the workshop are as follows:

Dates: 10th and 11th May
Time: 9am - 5.30pm

Cost: Individuals: £50 waged, £10 unwaged Organisations: £200 Donations will be requested for the cost of meals and other refreshments.

Venue: Friends Meeting House, 42 St Giles. Oxford.

Contact details: For bookings and general enquiries, please contact me, Pippa Bobbett, at  pippa@spiral-learning.co.uk or  pippabobbett@tiscali.co.uk or 01865 777297.

Pre-workshop requirement: Please read Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown. New Society Publishers 1998 Chapters 1 - 5 available from www.greenspirit.org.uk/books If you are in Oxford, the Inner Bookshop in Magdalen Road might also have some copies or try their website www.innerbookshop.com

Travel request: Given the theme of the workshop, please ensure that you travel in the most environmentally sustainable way - by bus, train or in car with all seats occupied. If you have to fly, then please consider flying one way only or flying from a nearer airport. We realise that this may increase the cost so we are willing to give our best low cost accommodation (with Oxford families) who come a long distance and choose not to fly. Accommodation help will be coordinated by Lucy Ford. Her email is  lford@brookes.ac.uk

Applications: The number of people who have expressed an interest in the workshop already exceeds the number of places. We have decided to apply criteria for selection guided by Joanna's wishes and so we are asking you to give some details about yourself when you book so that we can try to apply those criteria fairly. One of the key issues of the workshop will be climate change. People working on the climate change agenda find that responses of despair, numbness and denial are common and hard to communicate about. Since this is one of the key issues of our time and an issue of importance to Joanna, we are particularly hoping to attract people who have this area of interest. It is however not the only criteria and people who can use the Work that Reconnects with groups active in other areas of social change and transformation are also invited to apply.

Please:

a) tell us a little about your social change work including whether you consider yourself to be an "activist" and whether you have done any work on climate change specifically.

b) explain how you might use your learning from the workshop in your future activities, for example, are you interested in using the Work that Reconnects in workshops with groups you have contact with? Do you already do some sort of groupwork with people who would be interested?

c) Tell us your full name, postal address, phone number and email address.

We opened the bookings on 15th March and we are allocating spaces according to the criteria until the workshop is fully booked which will be fairly soon so please reply as soon as possible. We should be able to let you know by 15th April if you have a place.