Leading With Love - The Virtual Community
The Sessions
During this 12-month curriculum you will be engaging as a leader rooted in your context. That means not only will we be sharing the facilitation of the monthly virtual sessions, but also—vitally—you will be trying out these new practices and leading them in your own contexts and communities. As a cohort, you will then have the opportunity to discuss, reflect on, and learn from your own and each other's experiences in context.
The sessions will take place on the third Tuesday of each month from 6:00 - 8:00 pm (EST). The specific dates and content for the sessions are as follows:
BUILDING COMMUNITY
- May 20, 2025: Building Community Mirror and Window Practice
- June 17, 2025: Building Community Scriptural Reasoning Practice
- July 15, 2025: Building Community Sharing Stories of Experience with Practices in Context
BRIDGING DIVIDES
- August 19, 2025: Bridging Divides Talking Circles Practice
- September 16, 2025: Bridging Divides Futuring Case Study
- October 21, 2025: Bridging Divides Futuring Together to Bridge Divides
PURSUING JUSTICE
- November, 18, 2025: Pursuing Justice The Powers Practice
- December, 16, 2025: Pursuing Justice Transforming Sacred Texts Practice
- January, 20, 2026: Pursuing Justice Sharing Stories of Experiences in Context
HEALING THE WORLD
- February 17, 2026: Healing the World
- March 17, 2026: Healing the World Theopoetics Practice
- April 21, 2026: Healing the World
The attached calendar and sign-up sheet is designed to help you plan how you intend to participate in both the virtual sessions and apply the practices in your context.
While a member of the Auburn Leadership Team will guide key elements of each session – with monthly recaps, framing and check-in, helping folks to dig deeper into the topic for each section, and setting participants up for the following session at the end of the two hours – the bulk of the leadership will be the responsibility of the cohort participants.
A grounding and closing practice are included in each of the areas. These are leadership opportunities where members of the cohort get to practice anchoring the group during the opening and closing of each session.
Unless otherwise indicated all practice sessions will take place in small breakout rooms. This means there should be a dedicated leader for each breakout. The leader acts as the overall facilitator for the given activity and is not a participant. All practice leaders will be provided with detailed instructions on how to lead the practice in advance of the session.
Did you miss a session? Do you want to revisit a conversation or insight from a member of your cohort? What about that great grounding or closing practice? Could their words inspire and equip you on your leadership journey?
Come here to access video clips from past sessions. This content is meant to support your process as a healing centered leader by sharing the powerful sources of wisdom and knowledge emerging from the cohorts' reflective engagement with the practices and skills explored in each session and throughout the entire curriculum.
Come here for additional resources related to each session.
SESSION ONE - Building Community - Lens to Mirror Practice
Video clips
- Building Community in my context - Community check in and reflections
- Grounding led by Tyler Cole - Breathing Practice and a reading offered from the Unitarian Universalist tradition
- Closing led by Amany Darkaoui offered from the Islamic Tradition
Additional Resources
- Peter Block, Community: The Structure
of Belonging (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc) 2018. - adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy, (AK Press) 2017.
- Kaitlin B. Curtice. Native Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God. (Beacon Press), 2020.
- bell hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism (Holt Paperbacks), 1996.
SESSION TWO: Scriptural Reasoning
Video Clips:
Community Check in & Reflection
Additional Resources
- Peter Ochs, Religion Without Violence: The Practice and Philosophy of Scriptural Reasoning, Cascade Books, 2019
- The Rose Castle Foundation https://www.rosecastlefoundation.org/scriptural-reasoning
SESSION 4: Bridging Divides--Talking Circles Practice
SESSION 5: Bridging Divides--Building Simulations Practice
SESSION 6:
GROUNDING LED BY SARAH KAPLAN
somewhere, a mother unclenches her jaw for the first time in years. her child is home. alive, though not whole. none of us are. mere miles away a father digs through dust, whispering names like droplets, each syllable a world that once was. we call this peace. we call this progress. we call this what our ancestors would have wanted. I call it what it is: a wound too deep for language. a grief too loud to name. so i light a candle. and i say: may the light find every lost one. may the fire stop at the edge of the children. may no one’s safety require another’s ruin. i place my hand on my heart and my belly. i say: i will not let them make monsters out of my people again— not by dying, and not by killing. i call on my ancestors who fled and those who stayed, those who fought back, those who hid, those who chose life anyway. i call on the mothers who have no graves to visit. i call on the fathers who dig with bare hands. i call on all who breathe in smoke and keep saying never again until it truly means everyone. let this be the turning. let this be the truth-telling. let this be the end of choosing whose blood counts. amen, and also—enough.
SESSION 7: Pursuing Justice through Narrative Change--Naming, Unmasking and Engaging the Powers
Clip of the session "Digging Deeper: Walter Wink's Work on the Powers and Naming, Unmasking, and Engaging the Powers Practice". https://us02web.zoom.us/clips/share/I4UjR_DdQbiP9ftE1q48nA
Closing Readings:
Isaiah 43:1-3, from Haftarah for B'reishit (B'reishit is the Torah portion which includes Genesis 1:1-6:8 in which God declares that all God has made is good.)
Now thus says the Eternal One,
your Creator, O Jacob;
your Maker, O Israel:
Have no fear, for I will redeem you;
I have called you by name, you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I am with you;
when you pass through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you,
when you walk through fire, you shall not be scored,
the flame shall not consume you.
For I, the Eternal, and your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Deliverer
The Sacred Dance for Life by Hafiz
I sometimes forget that
I was created for joy
My mind is too busy
My heart is too heavy
Heavy for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the sacred dance for life
I was created to smile
to love
to be lifted up
and lift others up
O sacred one
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares
Free my soul
That we might
Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.
Additional Optional Reading:
Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way by Walter Wink
The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium by Walter Wink
Here you will find worksheets, guides and instructions for the various practices we will engage throughout the program year. These tools are designed to help you lead practices in your context.
Building Community Practices
- Beloved Meditation
- 2X2 Conversations
- Lens to Mirror Practice
- Opening Practices Worksheet
- Scriptural Reasoning Practice
Overall Evaluation
- Context, Impact, Action Worksheet
- Use this sheet to offer feedback to members of your cohort
- Shared Stories of Practice in Context Worksheet
- Use this sheet to record your experience with the practices and tools in your context
Each virtual session will follow a similar structure, intentionally designed to facilitate learning and build community within the cohort.
Each month will include the follow elements:
- Framing, recap - Auburn team led overview of the monthly session and recap of where we have been on our learning journey
- Community check-in - This is our "what's up" moment
- Grounding ritual - Cohort-led opportunity to center our community of practice with resources informed by our religious/spiritual traditions
- Digging Deeper - Auburn team-led opportunity to add depth to the theme and practice of the month, through focused conversation, resource sharing and reflection
- The Practices - cohort-led opportunities to lead practices and methodologies on building community, bridging divides and pursuing justice introduced during the intensive in preparation for sharing them in your context
- Report Back - Highlights and insights from small groups for the good of the whole
- Wrap-Up - Auburn team led "housekeeping," in preparation for upcoming session
- Closing ritual - cohort-facilitated session closing that, like the grounding at the beginning, sends us forth with a word from our traditions.
Learning Objectives
This curriculum will help you...
Course Components
Introduction
-
Welcome and Introduction
10 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked
Building Community
-
May Session Building Community from Lens to Mirror and Window Practice
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
June Session Building Community Scriptural Reasoning Practice
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
July Session Building Community Sharing Stories of Experience of Practices in Context
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked
Bridging Divides
-
August Session Bridging Divides Circle Practice
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
September Session Bridging Divides Futuring Case Studies
120 MinutesLesson Locked -
October Session Bridging Divides Futuring Case Studies Part II
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked
Pursuing Justice
-
November Session Pursuing Justice The Powers Practice
In this first of three sessions on Pursuing Justice, we will dig deeper into what Walter Wink means by the Powers, the Domination System and Domination Myth, and how to name, unmask, and engage the Powers; engage in cohort-led practice; and consider how this practice can be applied in your context.120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
December Session Pursuing Justice Transforming Sacred Text I
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
January Session Pursuing Justice Sharing Stories of Practices in Context
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked
Heal The World
-
February Session Heal the World
10 MinutesLesson Locked -
March Session Heal the World Theopoetic Practice
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
April Session Heal the World Celebration
120 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked
Features and Benefits
The 12-month virtual curriculum provides a sustained learning experience while cohort members are rooted in their community contexts. This enables participants to take learning from the Intensive and practice it in context, with ongoing opportunities for reflection, discussion, and support as you build your leadership skills.
How This Equips Faith Leaders
Auburn's Emerging Leaders Curriculum begins with an in-person multi-day Intensive followed by 12 monthly virtual sessions. The virtual curriculum is designed to deepen and extend learning from the intensive, provide opportunities for cohort members to learn through facilitating practices with each other, and discuss and reflect on experiences of using the practices in community contexts. Through the year-long curriculum, Emerging Leader cohorts deepen their grounding in faith traditions and a multifaith community of learners; become better equipped with vocational practices and tools to sustain their work long-term and intergenerationally, and connect with other leaders who are committed to healing the world with peers across religious and cultural difference.
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Auburn Emerging Leaders Program '25
Taught by Rev. Dr. Shannon Daley-Harris and Auburn Team
This 12-month virtual journey strengthens emerging faith leaders to integrate love, justice, and community-building within their ministry contexts—bridging divides through spiritually grounded leadership and reflective practice.