Saturday, September 6, 2025, 9:00 AM- 3:00 PM

Contemplative Outreach Birmingham Annual Conference - Rescheduled

Location: Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 3775 Crosshaven Dr., Birmingham, AL 35223

$70 (credit card online) OR $65 (mail-in check) lunch included OR $60 at the door (check only) no lunch included

OR

Make a check payable to Contemplative Outreach Birmingham and mail to:

Jane Cooper

5533 Heath Row Drive

Birmingham, AL 35242

Please note on the check your lunch choice (regular box lunch or vegetarian box lunch) and your contact information.

Poetic Imagination and the Consent to the Divine Presence

Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham, Presenter 

Contemplative Outreach Birmingham is honored to host Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham for a one day contemplative conference focusing on ‘Poetic Imagination and the Consent to the Divine Presence’.  Toward the very end of his life, Fr. Thomas Keating engaged poetry as a means to express his greatest non-dual awareness of the Divine Presence.  His poems are both a description of his personal encounter as well as a teaching tool for us to explore in our own practice.  Given the significance of the insights, it is important for us to see why Fr. Thomas explored poetry at that point in his life.

How can poetry nurture such an awareness of the Divine Presence in our lives?  What can we learn about the juxtaposition of poetic imagination and contemplative practice – specifically Centering Prayer?  This retreat will focus on the ways poetry nurtures our spiritual hearts and fosters that deep consent to the Divine Presence that is a hallmark of Centering Prayer Practice.

Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham, Bio:

The Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham is an Episcopal priest and serves as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Georgia.  He is also Assistant Professor in the Practice of Spiritual Formation and Ministry at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.  He is the author of The Heart of a Calling: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness in Congregational Ministry and a new collection of poetry, Bones of Light: Poems of Spiritual Imagination.