A Celebration and Sending Forth

1/23/2025

Earlier this month, we held a graduation-sending-forth-celebration ceremony for our students who completed the 16-month training program for interspiritual and interfaith spiritual companionship. As has been the case with each culminating encounter (though they are never the final encounter given we continue to engage with our alumni after graduation), there were stories, laughter, tears, and honoring each others’ paths into whatever is next. The ritual of the sending forth ceremony serves as a reflection on and celebration of our shared experiences together, insights gained, and personal and communal healing.

We honor the ways that new and old students of spiritual guidance respond to the needs of their clients/companions as they offer the gifts and skills of deep listening and presence, tune into their own inner landscapes as they attune to others’, and work, towards justice and peace – for humans and more-than-humans. We are grateful for the entrustment of each other, the process, the land, our ancestors, and Mystery.