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A weekend with the entire NTUC community to create our future together
Facilitated by Rev. Kelly Isola, MDiv, Certified Peace Worker and Transitional Consultant
January 20 - Friday, 6:30 – 9:00
"Who Have We Come Here to Be?" The purpose of this exercise is to help us see that our personal story unfolds in the context of our spiritual purpose. We each possess attributes and qualities that must be expressed in order to live from a point of purpose, rather than a point of view. The same is true for our community – who have we come to be together on this path? And we are showing up as the Truth of who we are…or not. This is a fun and enlightening evening together!
January 21 - Saturday, 9:00am – 4:00pm
"Creating Our Shared Vision and Future"
This is a time to bring the entire community together to tell our story, and to begin to see the ways we have created identity, continuity, meaning, and purpose as the context from which we see ourselves, and are present to circumstances and future possibilities. This process will help us become aware of how our story has been compelling, limiting, diminishing, empowering, wounding, fragmenting, or freeing. By understanding our story as a rich framework for our life orientation, we will discover that we are greater than our story, and what we've made that story mean, as well designing frameworks for releasing unresolved issues.
January 22 - Sunday, 1-3pm
"The Healing Circle" This day is a time of healing – an opportunity to experience resolution and completion regarding unresolved issues that may be hampering our spiritual health and well-being. Rev. Kelly will speak at the Sunday morning service, followed by the Healing Circle in the afternoon. This is a gentle and powerful time of reconciliation.
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February 3rd Spiritual Cinema is the movie "I AM"
 I AM is an utterly engaging and entertaining non-fiction film that poses two practical and provocative questions: what's wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better? The filmmaker behind the inquiry is Tom Shadyac, one of Hollywood's leading comedy practitioners and the creative force behind such blockbusters as "Ace Ventura," "Liar Liar," "The Nutty Professor," and "Bruce Almighty." However, in I AM, Shadyac steps in front of the camera to recount what happened to him after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good. Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged with a new sense of purpose, determined to share his own awakening to his prior life of excess and greed, and to investigate how he as an individual, and we as a race, could improve the way we live and walk in the world.
 Armed with nothing but his innate curiosity and a small crew to film his adventures, Shadyac set out on a twenty-first century quest for enlightenment. Meeting with a variety of thinkers and doers–remarkable men and women from the worlds of science, philosophy, academia, and faith–including such luminaries as David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynne McTaggart, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks, and Marc Ian Barasch – Shadyac appears on-screen as character, commentator, guide, and even, at times, guinea pig. An irrepressible "Everyman" who asks tough questions, but offers no easy answers, he takes the audience to places it has never been before, and presents even familiar phenomena in completely new and different ways. The result is a fresh, energetic, and life-affirming film that challenges our preconceptions about human behavior while simultaneously celebrating the indomitable human spirit.
Ironically, in the process of trying to figure out what's wrong with the world, Shadyac discovered there's more right than he ever imagined. He learned that the heart, not the brain, may be man's primary organ of intelligence, and that human consciousness and emotions can actually affect the physical world, a point Shadyac makes with great humor by demonstrating the impact of his feelings on a bowl of yogurt. And, as Shadyac's own story illustrates, money is not a pathway to happiness. In fact, he even learns that in some native cultures, gross materialism is equated with insanity.
Shadyac's enthusiasm and optimism are contagious. Whether conducting an interview with an intellectual giant, or offering himself as a flawed character in the narrative of the film, Shadyac is an engaging and persuasive guide as we experience the remarkable journey that is I AM. With great wit, warmth, curiosity, and masterful storytelling skills, he reveals what science now tells us is one of the principal truths of the universe, a message that is as simple as it is significant: We are all connected – connected to each other and to everything around us. "My hope is that I AM is a window into Truth, a glimpse into the miracle, the mystery and magic of who we really are, and of the basic nature of the connection and unity of all things. In a way," says Shadyac, a seasoned Hollywood professional who has retained his unerring eye for a great story, "I think of I AM as the ultimate reality show."
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