Friday, July 2nd, 2004
It was a joyful and noisy crowd at the doors of the Sheraton Ballroom this morning for the Claiming Our Spiritual Heritage workshop at the Conference of Service. Those who were just arriving were grandly welcomed by those who had been attending the Conference meetings and workshops earlier in the week. There were big hugs and lots of kisses all around, as everyone stood in line, waiting for the moment when the doors would open. When the doors did open, we walked enthusiastically into the room to find our seats.
Rachael Morgan opened the meeting by calling in the Light, followed by a brief discussion of workshop logistics (lunch orders, raffle tickets to attend the Blessings Brunch on Monday, July 5th), and such. One of the most impressive things observed was the profound and simple peace that seemed to infuse the room, the participants, and the assisting team. NOW Productions rolled out their latest product, a set of two DVDs and two CDs entitled “Journey to the East”, containing video and audio moments from all of the years of the MSIA Peace Awareness Trainings (PAT IV & PAT V) traveling in Egypt and Israel. Various clips from the set were interspersed throughout the day.
Howard Lawrence and Jeeni Lawrence facilitated the workshop, one which they designed based upon the exercises used in the PAT V that took place in 1995. (Details of these exercises are to be experienced, not described.) We launched into the morning’s work, and then were sent off to a lovely lunch served on the lawn across the circular drive outside the Ballroom. When we came back, it was to an even sweeter session of PAT V exercises. There were more raffle drawings for the remaining seats at the Blessings Brunch, further announcements by the head of Insight, Candace Semigran, and a video clip from the Institute for Individual and World Peace, featuring the Adopt-A-Horse program and some beautiful footage taken at Windermere Ranch up in the coastal hills above Santa Barbara, California. We also did a group “seeding” for the health of John-Roger, founder of MSIA and Peace Theological Seminary.
And then the “pi
