The Whidbey Institute
for Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future is an
inter-religious organization and a distinctive
learning and retreat center committed to providing
diverse educational offerings that contribute
to positive spiritual, ecological, and cultural
transformation. It is located on Whidbey Island
in the Pacific Northwest bioregion on seventy
acres of evergreen forest and meadow-land known
as Chinook, with administrative offices in the
nearby town of Clinton. The Center features a
restored 1900 era farmhouse, the new Thomas Berry
Hall, a meditation sanctuary, labyrinth, medicine
wheel, ropes course, retreat house, several rustic
cabins, and an expansive network of nature trails.
Seeking to bring together individuals with common
concerns and commitments, the Institute welcomes
people of all religious traditions and spiritual
paths to participate in its events and programs.
The Institute has many year-round programs. Our
Way Forward is a growing community of
people dedicated to the vision of the Earth
Charter who meet on the first Sunday of each
month to foster collaborate efforts and support
creative action strategies throughout the Northwest.
Beginning its sixth year in January 2004, Spirited
Work is a dynamic, co-creative, self-organizing
learning community composed mainly of professionals
from the Northwest and beyond. Using open space
technology and the seasonal archetypes of cultural
anthropologist Angeles Arien, Spirited
Work inspires and supports the vision
of a more just, sustainable, and hopeful future.
The Leadership for the New Commons program
gathers a diverse group of professionals four
times a year to collectively develop a new
vision of bioregional leadership capable of
working for a sustainable future within an
interdependent and increasingly complex world.
The Seasons Program for Women As Leaders brings
together women from diverse professions, communities,
and backgrounds four times a year to foster
the experiences, talents, and insights of women
as agents of change and healing and to support
women’s work on behalf of the earth community.
Through the Bountiful Table program,
people gather to discuss social and environmental
concerns particularly around issues of food
security, heath, and sustainability. Annual
Iona Retreats and Conferences bring groups
to the ancient Island of Iona in Scotland to
draw wisdom and inspiration from the Celtic
tradition for the renewal of spiritual life
in the context of a religiously-diverse, interdependent
earth community. In conjunction with Schumacher
College in England, annual summer courses are
led by a faculty of leading thinkers and innovators
on such issues as ecology, economics, holistic
science, spirituality, and philosophy. In collaboration
with the Forum on Religion and Ecology, the
Whidbey Institute also offers Religion
and the New Cosmology Thomas Berry Seminars on
a nearly annual basis.
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