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December 22, 2020, Adrian, Michigan – Noted writer, speaker, and workshop leader Diarmuid O’Murchu offers a virtual presentation, “Incarnation: Christianity’s New Horizon,” from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday, January 16, 2021, through Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

Diarmuid, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order and a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, presents incarnation as a celebration of God’s embodied presence – not only in the person of Jesus but in all forms of embodied presence that adorn creation. This newly expanded horizon carries several implications for how we are called to live out our faith today.

A social psychologist, Diarmuid counts among his recent books Incarnation: A New Evolutionary Threshold (2017); Beyond Original Sin: Recovering Humanity’s Creative Urge (2018); and When the Disciple Comes of Age (2019).

The cost to attend is $30 and registration is required to receive the live stream link. Limited scholarships are available. Register at www.webercenter.org and click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing [email protected]. 

December 11, 2020, Adrian, Michigan – Journey has often been used as a metaphor for travel through life and time as well as through geographic space. In their December 2, 2020 presentation, “Journey to Bethlehem,” Sisters Janice Brown, OP, and Nancyann Turner, OP, compare the journey that Joseph and Mary made from Nazareth to Bethlehem with the journey that people of faith are making this year through Advent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their presentation – part of a series of monthly spirituality presentations by members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Spirituality Committee – was live streamed and recorded.

“We take the journey down the road to Bethlehem every year when we tell the story of the birth [of Jesus],” Sister Nancyann said. She noted the difficulty of the journey  – especially for a young woman who was about to give birth – involving roads that curved back, hills and mountains, and hazards such as the rough terrain, wild animals, and bandits. 

“We, too, are on a long journey,” Sister Nancyann said. “2020 took us on a journey we’d never foreseen. We had to be more separate and yet grow closer – and we had to learn and relearn that love does cast out fear.”

Sister Janice pointed to the unusual challenges of 2020: from the inability for many people of faith to attend worship services together to the loss of activities that feed the soul, such as visiting museums. “What we know is that Christ is with us in the people, the world that surrounds us,” Sister Janice said. She encouraged her audience to “find ways to heal the divisions of this country, to listen, to be kind, even to those who are very hard to be kind to.” The challenge, she said, is to build the beloved community often referred to by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Both Sisters offered the audience opportunities to pause and reflect on their own journeys to Bethlehem, through Advent, and through the pandemic.

Watch the entire video below.