Judith Favor

Author

The Spirituality of Waiting
— An Advent Retreat led by Stillpoint

By

December 3, 2022

9:30am – 2:30pm PT

This retreat will be held online.
All sessions will be recorded
for later viewing.

When the external light lessens, creation takes its deep breath and enters a season of waiting. In her darkest hours creation waits, restoring herself and preparing for a new season of life and growth. But we are not good at waiting, we prefer to keep getting things done. The good news of Advent is that – like creation, we do not wait alone. We wait in community with others.

You are invited to an on-line guided contemplative retreat to pause and wait in the company of others to give attention to what needs restoring and what is waiting in you. Noticing how you are waiting for God, and how God is waiting for you.

RETREAT SCHEDULE

9:00am – 12:00pm PT
Morning Session


Lunch/Screen Break: 12:00pm – 1:00pm PT
Centering Prayer: 12:00pm – 12:20pm


1:00pm – 2:30pm PT
Afternoon Session

COST

$70 registration

Stillpoint desires to keep our retreat registration cost low in order to be accessible to everyone. There are a limited number of “no cost” options available.

email banner image for The Spirituality of Waiting online Retreat at Stillpoint

Writing Your Ethical Will

By

Judith Wright Favor portrait photo

Thursday, August 04
– Friday, August 26

Link to Spirituality & Practice page

  • What do you want your legacy to be?
  • What are the foundations of your life choices?
  • What do you need to produce an effective set of documents?

 

This new program, designed by Judith Favor, a Discovery Writing guide for more than 50 years — will consist of Zoom meetings bookending every emailed session, before and after. You will discover how to pass your values, principles, practices, and stories on to your loved ones and future generations. Thus far, Judith has led three other writing programs for Spirituality & Practice: “As It Is: Spiritual Journaling”; “Contemplative Writing and Listening”; and “Composing Your Spiritual Memoir.”

“I love to help people find and express their true voice through contemplative writing. I love guiding people ‘in and down’ to uncover fresh new truths and form surprising new connections. I offer inventive exercises and prompts to bring out surprises percolating beneath the surface. Skilled writers and shy writers are equally welcome because I emphasize process more than product.”

The Discovery Writing approach is well suited to writing an ethical will. Usually written in a letter form, an ethical will consists of:

  • meaningful personal & family stories
  • qualities & attributes you try to exhibit
  • lessons you have learned over the years
  • beliefs & spiritual practices
  • expressions of love & gratitude
  • apologies & amends
  • hopes & dreams for current & future generations
  • questions & guidance for others to consider
  • blessings for present & future loved ones
  • and anything else you would like to share

In this one-month program under Judith’s guidance, you will learn basic tools for Writing Your Ethical Will (also known as a “Legacy Letter to Loved Ones”).

Your writing will be sparked by prompts and poems, carefully curated quotations and questions, and examples from ethical wills and legacy letters penned by ordinary people throughout the ages. You’ll be encouraged to write messy rough drafts on themes from past memories, present practices, and future hopes and blessings. Weekly writing will help you will find your voice. You’ll be encouraged to express what you cherish in everyday words, not fancy language or legalese.

You will also have access to an online Practice Circle. This for posting excerpts from your writing, which Judith and other participants can read and offer supportive comments.

During Zoom meetings, at the beginning and end of the month, you will have more opportunities to share your legacy writing and be inspired by the writing of others.

Schedule:

  • August 4, 2022: introductory email
  • August 5, from 12 – 3 pm PDT, we will meet on Zoom for talks about key themes, do some short writing, and meet in triads to hear emerging thoughts from each other. Zoom gatherings will be recorded, so if you have to miss any or some, you can catch up later.
  • On Thursdays, August 11, 18, and 25, you will receive emails with a range of examples of ethical wills and legacy letters penned by ordinary people throughout the ages. Past, present, and future themes will be highlighted in these excerpts to help you articulate what matters most to you, what loved ones mean to you, and how you want to be remembered.
  • On Friday, August 26, we will meet again on Zoom and you will practice how to organize what you’ve composed over the month, and break again into triads. You will learn how to review and renew your ethical will in years to come. This Zoom gathering will also be recorded.

A Personal Word from Judith Favor:

I am an octogenarian who has been guiding contemplative writing classes and retreats since the 1970s. Dr. Ira Progoff, Intensive Journal founder, was my first — and most influential — spiritual guide and mentor in this work. During the 1980s, Gerald May and Tilden Edwards accompanied me in learning the art of spiritual guidance. I spent hundreds of hours with these great teachers, infusing my bones with the practices and principles of contemplative listening and writing.

I was ordained in the United Church of Christ and pastored churches in San Francisco during the Nineties. For the next decade, I taught at Claremont School of Theology, and led spiritual formation programs with Stillpoint at Ghost Ranch.

After becoming a convinced Friend in 1998, I took up the ministry of writing for publication. Six of my books are out in the world, and more are in the works. All this while teaching Discovery Writing consistently brings me great joy. I love serving as mentor and midwife, bringing forth living words from writers of all ages, states and conditions.

In this course, I offer a trusting (occasionally intimate) atmosphere in which writers can feel safe and supported. I also set high standards for undivided attention, courtesy, respect and kindness.

I have found that feeling pressured often reduces honesty in writing — and honesty is essential in composing an ethical will, so I never want writers to feel stressed. Verbal sharing will be encouraged, but not expected. You may always pass if you’d rather keep something to yourself. Baring your soul does come with the territory, however. It happens naturally. I will bare my soul along the way and encourage you to risk the same when you feel ready and willing. Writing Your Ethical Will is, after all, based upon diving deep and authentically expressing your truest, most cherished values, principles, practices, and stories.

To join me and other open-hearted souls in August,
click on the Subscribe button below.

Thursday, August 4 – Friday, August 26

$80.00

SUBSCRIBE — GIVE AS GIFT

Composing Your Spiritual Memoir

By

Judith Favor - Author - Portrait

E-Course
with Judith Favor
January 14 – June 11, 2022

Are you ready to write a spiritual memoir?

How can you sincerely convey
your deepest faith, values, and practices?

What sort of remembrances to you want to give
to the people who matter most to you?

Are you ready to see your life through a new lens
and reveal to yourself and a caring community
the hidden parts of your wholeness?

After last year’s popular program on Contemplative Writing and Listening,
Judith Favor is back to guide you through the process of converting
the stories of your life into a spiritual memoir.

Online Writing Student Example Image

This five-month program will consist of 22 weekly emails with writing prompts and 6 monthly Zoom gatherings with teachings, guided writing practices, and listening sessions with peers.

You’ll be encouraged to choose from a palette of themes to craft your own memoir, read excerpts from published memoirs, and do meditations to support your writing.

This program is a rare opportunity to receive sturdy listening support
from peers combined with guidance from an author who has published
five memoirs in 12 years. Read more and register here:

Spirituality & Practice logotype image

SpiritualityandPractice.com/Spiritual Memoir

 

Epiphany Writing Retreat

By

A One-Day Retreat
on
Epiphany Writing

In-Person in Los Angeles (map)
and Livestream
Google Calendar ICS

What to expect in a One-Day Retreat

9:00am – 12:00pm PT – Session One

12:00pm – 1:00pm PT – Lunch

1:00pm – 4:00pm PT – Session Two

This one-day retreat
will be held in-person
and also accessible
through livestream.

 

About the Presenter:

Rev. Judith Favor is an active Quaker,
retired UCC pastor and teacher
at the Claremont School of Theology.
A seasoned spiritual guide and author,
she has been a contemplative companion to others
for many decades.

 

Cost:

$60 per person (livestream registration)
$68 per person (in-person registration)
$78 per person (in-person registration + lunch)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 

 

WRITING FOR CHANGE IN CHALLENGING TIMES

By

Presence and Practices of
JERRY MAY, ROSE MARY DOUGHERTY
and TILDEN EDWARDS-Infused
Writing for Change
in Challenging Times

An Online Day-Retreat

sponsored by:

Spirituality & Practice
July 25, 2020

 

Although Shalem’s founders could not have envisioned 104 seekers gathered in one virtual Zoom room, they would have recognized the underlying spirit of unity, love and group spiritual direction that anchored the event. Some folks signed in early: I asked them to post hopes and expectations in the Chat section. I followed Jerry’s example by inviting participants to dedicate their retreat to someone they hold dear. I lit a candle and dedicated the day to IRA PROGOFF, whose journal workshops provided the chalice where my contemplative – activist soul came to awareness. Progoff was my first spiritual director, though neither of us called it that in the early 1970s.

I sensed Tilden’s spirit when I designed our Sabbath-rhythm sessions to include short teaching stories, queries and shared stillness. Rose Mary’s wisdom shaped guidelines for triads to listen contemplatively, not conversationally. S&P’s MARY ANN BRUSSAT suggested the pattern of two hours for guided writing and reflection, two hours of unstructured time to ease Zoom fatigue, followed by two more hours of writing and reflection. KEZIAH GRINDELAND posted photos to support participants’ interactions with nature during the break. Twice during the day, S&P used the Zoom feature to divide people into breakout groups. I asked the person with the longest hair to speak first, a quick visual way for polite strangers to establish speaking order when sharing delights, difficulties and discoveries, or reading short excerpts from their journals. 18 folks chose to keep silence during the triads, and I held all participants in tender care.

I also prayed for 99 women and 5 men while they responded to writing prompts on themes including Cracked & Broken, Faith & Doubt, Not Listening, Injustices, Reaching, and Endings. On-screen Zoom images permitted me to peek into participants’ faces and homes while they journaled. I adapted Tilden’s icon-gazing practice to rest my eyes on folks hunched over desks, stretched on couches or gazing skyward. Tenderness washed over me. The sweetest surprise was how natural it felt to prayerfully embrace people in separate physical spaces. The Beloved infused each and every one of us.

I owe great gratitude to MARY ANN and FREDERIC BRUSSAT, who co-founded Spirituality & Practice, following decades of work providing resources for spiritual journeys through their newsletters. Their prophetic work has offered spiritual literacy and interfaith wisdom to seekers around the globe through online interaction. Following their path, Spiritual Directors International and Stillpoint have instituted similar programs. I can hear Jerry May’s hearty laughter rocking the room as spiritual leaders collaborate across traditions, enriched by expansive new technologies. I celebrate the inclusive, low-cost spiritual outreach that is emerging from Covid-19 restrictions.

Online retreats offer unexpected depth
and intimacy for soul companioning,
especially among contemplative writers.

To join the circle of
AS IT IS: Spiritual Journaling 2020
click on this link:

https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/course/view/10176/as-it-is-spiritual-journaling/key/jf

JUDITH FAVOR completed Shalem’s Spiritual Guidance program in 1986.
She is retired from UCC ministry (San Francisco),
teaching at the Claremont School of Theology,
and guiding Stillpoint Ghost Ranch programs.

Judith remains active in soul companioning, retreat guidance,
Quaker service and her personal ministry of writing for publication.

A recently widowed great-grandmother,
she resides at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, CA.

In September 2020,
Readers Magnet will release her
Sabbath Economics: A Spiritual Guide Linking Love and Money.

Learn more at www.JudithFavor.com and Facebook.

Big-Hearted Democracy

By

(Original Post on Spirituality & Practice Website)

This post has been contributed by Judith L. Favor, who is rooted and grounded in Quaker tradition and contemplative practice. She is retired from pastoral UCC ministry in San Francisco and teaching at the Claremont School of Theology. She created the “As It Is: Spiritual Journaling” e-course for S&P.

This year I’ve found myself reflecting in my journal about the meaning of democracy to me. I have turned to some traditional Quaker queries and crafted some of my own as I have explored my feelings about and experiences with my country and its leadership. One query that I suggested in my last blog post is: Which persons or events helped to shape your democratic values? How? It led me to both memories and reflections about what I call “Big-Hearted Democracy.”

Big-Hearted Democracy became real for me on the day We, The People elected Dwight D. Eisenhower as 34th President of the United States. On November 4, 1952 — through the miracle of television — democracy became visible and audible to me for the first time. My school principal placed a small, boxy television at the edge of the stage in the auditorium. It was the size of a Shredded Wheat box and had a tiny twelve-inch screen. Each class had thirty minutes to crowd in and watch. We, the sixth graders of Richmond Elementary in Portland, Oregon, got to see Democracy at work across the nation, in living black and white. Rowdy boys stopped their fart contests and spitball wars to stare at crowds cheering for political candidates in the streets of the United States. Gawky girls stopped whispering secrets to each other and fussing with their hair to watch voters emerging from polling places with big grins and expansive gestures.

At home, Big-Hearted Democracy played triumphantly on a brand-new television console, purchased by parents who usually had to work on Tuesdays. Mom was a file clerk and Dad was a milkman, but their bosses gave them paid time off on Election Day. (In the Fifties, Oregon employers supported workers’ voting rights.) After casting ballots, my folks celebrated by buying a TV set, and installing it while we were at school. The new television was a total surprise to my brothers and me. We were so proud to be the first on the block to own a TV that we quickly spread the news to our neighbors. Chinese, Cuban and Irish families on our dead-end street arrived bearing snacks, and we invited everyone in to watch the returns.

In my 12-year-old memory, Big-Hearted Democracy became permanently imprinted with Attention, Connection, Enthusiasm, Hospitality and Zeal on Election Day 1952, sixty-plus years before I met the authors of Spiritual Literacy!

In college, I was startled to learn The Constitution of the United States — as originally written and ratified — does not grant American citizens the right to vote! Individual state laws determine voter eligibility. Did Mr. Hill, my sixth-grade teacher, emphasize this fact? If so, it didn’t stick. I am uneasy knowing that for more than 100 years (!) there was no federal ruling to eliminate race or gender voting barriers in the United States of America. Systemic disenfranchisements were later eased by passage of the Fifteenth Amendment (in 1870) and the Nineteenth Amendment (in 1920.)

I recorded these Practicing Democracy memories and reflections on August 6, 2020, the centennial of the passage of the constitutional amendment ensuring women’s right to vote. In California, however, women won the vote in 1911, (four years before my parents were born) and nine years before American women gained universal suffrage. California efforts began in 1908 (the year my Dad’s parents were married), when bold determined women in San Francisco linked arms for what is believed to be the first equal-vote demonstration in America.

On August 27 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time, we can watch history unfold at the San Francisco Public Library website:
Undocumented History: America’s First Suffrage March and the San Francisco Women Who Led It

Register here:
https://bit.ly/Suffrage8-27-20

 

Embodied Writing through Contemplative Inquiry
with Rev. Judith Favor

By

https://stillpointca.org/calendar/2019-writing

  • Pilgrim Place
  • at the Napier Center — 625 Mayflower Road, Claremont, CA, 91711 United States (map)

Description

“Embodied writing supports the fruitful discipline of finding and asking ever keener and more beautiful questions. Writing in contemplative community helps us become larger, more generous and more courageous, equal to the fierce invitations extended to us as we grow and mature.” — David Whyte

  • Who and what helps you identify the questions you don’t want to answer?
  • In the clamor of social noise, where do you find silence to reflect inwardly?
  • During times of political-economic disruption, what softens you enough to notice delicate new forms of awareness emerging?

Showing up for your self at this moment in history is an audacious act. It takes courage to consult your bones long enough to corral new insights onto the page. It takes bravery to plumb your viscera deeply enough to bring forth congruent new questions that lead toward wholeness.

Beautiful questions point toward new possibilities hidden in the spaces between the words. Going toward the creative is where healing and strengthening begin. The annual Epiphany Retreat offers guidance in the fruitful discipline of embodied writing, where Stillpoint’s seasoned community supports your intrinsic need for stillness among friends.

“All creativity comes out of an extended encounter with silence.”

— Matthew Fox

Registration

Cost is $58 ($68 with lunch)

Register before December 22 for a $10 discount, automatically reflected in the prices below!

Would you like to purchase a lunch with your registration?

 
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About the Presenter

Rev. Judith Favor is a retired UCC pastor and teacher at the Claremont School of Theology. A veteran spiritual director and writer, she has been a contemplative, seeker, and companion to others for many years.

The Art of Spiritual Direction

By

Judith Favor in discussion at Ghost Ranch

The Art of Spiritual Direction

Monday, November 13-Monday, November 20

Price: $2,395.00 – $2,895.00

This experience nurtures openness to the many ways God enlivens both participants and their companions on life’s spiritual journey. Rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition, we draw on and study the wisdom from many traditions. An experienced staff of distinguished spiritual directors facilitates sessions using role-plays, presentations, discussions, spiritual practices, demonstrations, contemplative exercises and prayer.

Participants who apply and are accepted in the program will travel to Ghost Ranch for four, one-week (7 nights) residential intensives. In between the residential intensive weeks, field work and assignments will occur.

Go to Ghost Ranch webpage for more details

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