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Appreciations from the Gathering in Quebec City

August 10, 2016 by Christine Lines 7 Comments

Dear Center’s Gathering friends,

Thank you for warmly welcoming me and Elena to the 2016 Gathering.

I am still settling into the sweetness of everyone’s presence; all the heartfelt conversation, declarations, explorations that you gifted so openly. What an incredible group of people! Thank you to the leaders who ushered this event into being. Thank you to the facilitators, who tenderly brought out the best in us.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: 2016 Quebec, Featured Posts, Testimonials

From ‘Holy’ to ‘Holistic’ is a Short Distance

May 27, 2016 by Christine Lines 1 Comment

Report from Centers Gathering, Quebec City, May 2016
by Peter Moore

Within the history of contemporary holistic centers, there has been a tradition of annual meetings of founders, administrators, program directors and other staff members going back more than 30 years. During these three+ decades, representatives of such centers have met at holistic centers located throughout North America, UK, Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia and China. I’ve had the sincere pleasure of attending such meetings over the past decade and both I, and the holistic center I represent, Breitenbush Hot Springs, have benefitted in so many ways from the unique mind-meld and practical information exchanged between colleagues from so many different centers. What a gift.

IsabelleWebIn the spring of 2013, I attended the International Holistic Centers Gathering (IHCG) at Esalen Institute, in California. There I met a participant who had not previously attended such gatherings, Isabelle Duchesneau. She informed us all of a major initiative to establish a holistic center in Quebec City, Canada. She told a story about an historic monastery established in 1639 by three nuns of the Order of Saint Augustine, devoted to the healing of body and soul.

These three nuns, and the many who followed their example over the next almost four centuries, built their “Hotel de Dieu” inside the fortified walls of the old city, including hospital, church and four stories of rooms dedicated to the cloistered life of prayer and service. Here they mixed their natural apothecary medicines influenced by healing traditions from both Europe and the native peoples of the Province, and here they tended the injured and ill. During the war between the English and the French in the 18th Century, nuns from this monastery cared impartially for wounded soldiers from both sides, as well as the native peoples drawn into the conflict. From this place satellite centers of healing to help all people were established throughout the Province over the centuries.

IsabelleSisterLiseIn recent years the Catholic nuns, aware of their aging and dwindling population, were aware they could no longer fulfill the mission of their beautiful monastery in the thriving center of the city. They made common cause with Isabelle and other visionaries to plan for renewal of this space where their work in service of healing could be continued beyond the boundaries of their own denomination. Isabelle and her team conducted a major fund-raising campaign for this project, raising millions of dollars in public/private donations, and the work commenced. It was at this point that Isabelle attended the IHCG, seeking useful holistic models of healing and transformation applicable to the program of the newly established holistic center at Le Monastére des Augustines.

The following year, at the 2014 IHCG hosted by The Haven on Gabriola Island in Canada, participants of the conference were invited by Isabelle to hold our annual meeting in Quebec following the reopening of Le Monastére des Augustines. The response was an enthusiastic Yes!

Later that year, in October 2014, I visited this monastery in Quebec City with my friend and colleague Ludwig Fischer. Rehabilitation of the massive structure was in full force, it was a major construction site at the time. Wearing hard-hats and walking carefully through multiple floors of the maze of the old building, we witnessed careful attention being paid to retain the original character of the place while bringing it up to modern standards of comfort, convenience and structural integrity.

CirclewebBetween May 15 -20, 2016, the International Holistic Centers Gathering convened at Le Monastére des Augustines in Quebec City. Some 40 people gathered at the newly opened center to reflect, discuss, and work on plans of action. These included the usual cast of characters from existing holistic centers—program directors, executive directors, operations managers—but also included founders of future centers, scholars in related fields and consultants to centers.

Holistic centers from the USA included Kalani Honua, Esalen, Omega, Breitenbush, Saratoga Springs, Harbin Hot Springs, Hawaii Island Retreat, Mount Madonna Center, Broward College/Abrevista and New York Open Center. From Canada were The Haven, Hollyhock, Le Monastére des Augustines and IHWA. From the UK were representatives from the Findhorn Foundation and Newbold House. Also in attendance were representative of centers from China (New Haiwen & House of I), Greece (Kalikalos), France (La Roane), and India (Auroville), as well as representation of the Global Ecovillage Network.

PicnicwebWithin the supportive atmosphere of the historic meeting rooms and nourished by excellent French cuisine, the meetings were conducted in a congenial and inspirational atmosphere. In the spirit of connectedness of body/mind/soul, the daily schedule included components otherwise not normally part of a professional conference. The day began with an Awakening Series of yoga, meditation and body movement, followed by a silent breakfast in the tradition established by the nuns since the 17th Century, all of which provided an inner focus before the work sessions of the day began. Prior to lunch and dinner was a Vitality and Revitalize Series. Evenings were left intentionally open for small groups to pursue subjects of interest. Museum tours of the 40,000 artifacts and manuscripts collected over three+ centuries at Le Monastére, plus guided walking tours of the Old City, gave participants a sense of the history and space within which our meetings took place. In 10 sessions of 90 minutes each topics relevant to the responsibilities, challenges and joys of developing and maintaining holistic centers were addressed.

TikiCircleThe gathering began with a brief state of the holistic union, a report from different centers about issues, trends, best practices, growing edges, etc. A need for the increase of networking was identified as a major topic, including the exploration of new technological possibilities to share information. Organizational and hierarchical structures in the context of holistic vision was discussed, as well as balancing cooperation and collaboration with the reality of a shared demographic of potential clients. This last was considered in context of growing that demographic (“growing the pie”) based on shared cultural values that are changing all over the world, moving incrementally towards holistic awareness.

Similarly, the mission, vision and purpose of holistic centers in the current culture—with its rapidly evolving paradigm shift from a materialistic base to an ecologically sustainable and inclusive diversity paradigm—was discusChineseChatsed. How to serve the needs of individual health and holistic lifestyle seekers, with courses not offered by conventional academic and educational institutions, was discussed. We explored the challenges of remaining true to the ideals of vision and curriculum while not losing sight and paying due attention to practical economic “realities” of each center—to survive and thrive in volatile conditions of the current economic times. Concrete strategies to improve effective marketing tools, with focus on the role and impact of social media and the accessibility and general public perceptions were also an area of focus.

Among action items coming out of this Gathering were:

  • Transition from voluntary cooperative networking towards formalization of an organizational structure is a priority, with paid staff to further goals and objectives of holistic centers worldwide.
  • It was determined that the not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation known as BrDavidyeseitenbush Eco Fund will be the common platform for fundraising at this time. 100% of the newly established bursary fund money, raised during this year’s IHCG, will be used to assist chosen beneficiaries to attend future IHCG, thus expanding diversity of people and centers that participate in the gathering. Criteria for choosing beneficiaries of bursary assistance remain to be worked out. BIG thanks to all who contributed to the new bursary fund, what a spontaneous outpouring of generosity!
  • Repurposing the Breitenbush Eco Fund toward working more seamlessly with the IHCG is an initiative to be accomplished through updating Bylaws, Board development, development of job description for Executive Director, development of goals & objectives for the organization, etc.
  • The IHCG affirmed the 2017 annual meeting will be held at Hawaiian Island Retreat on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Personal reflections: Participants TibetanBowlsSmilesof this year’s Gathering received a gift from Le Monastére of an old key that had opened a door in the monastic past, to symbolically re-enter the sacred space consciously. This key provided a poignant example of the Quebec motto, printed on the license plate of every vehicle in the Province, Je me souviens (“I remember”). Le Monastére des Augustines offered participants a beautiful mix of monastic and modern amenities, enhancing the experience of the International Holistic Centers Gathering, thus honoring the heritage of the place with its new mission to work towards solutions for the future.

The long tradition to heal body and mind, carried on since the 16th Century by the devotion of the Augustinian nuns, finds its continuation in the dedication of contemporary visionaries who build on that tradition through the work of this holistic center. May we all profit from the example of this year’s host center and continue our essential work in the world.

Peter Moore
Business Director and Founding Member, Breitenbush Hot Springs

Click the video link above to be transported via a five minute visual journey into the spirit of the 2016 Gathering at Le Monastère des Augustines, accompanied by evocative music.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: 2016 Quebec, Featured Posts

The Power of Centers’ Gathering

March 12, 2016 by Christine Lines 4 Comments

An interview with Christine Lines

Holistic centers, like plants, rarely flourish on their own. They grow in a dynamic ecology of participants, teachers, venues and more. The vision for a holistic center, while important, is simply a seed. It requires labor and love and a myriad of resources in order to develop. In nurturing a beautiful blossom, we risk forgetting the forest that supports the landscape around, which is so often full of aliveness, and other flowers of significance too.

The Centers’ Gathering is an informal organization dedicated to serving the network of holistic centres around the world and fostering communication and collaboration between them. Christine Lines is the coordinator of the Centers’ Gathering website, and lives and works at the well-known Findhorn Foundation Community in the far north of Scotland. Christine is passionate about creating connections between the visionaries who work behind the scenes at these various centers. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 2016 Quebec, Featured Posts

Win a ticket to the 2016 Gathering

March 8, 2016 by Christine Lines 3 Comments

We’re delighted to announce a contest to win a free ticket to the 2016 International Holistic Centers Gathering, in partnership with Le Monastère des Augustines, Retreat Guru, NuMundo, Wise Goose and LetsGlo.

Hosted by Le Monastère des Augustines, located in the heart of Old Quebec City, Canada, from May 15th to 20th, this is a unique opportunity to connect with your peers from other centers and share ideas, insights, wisdom and experience in an open, supportive and creative environment. The theme of the Gathering this year is “Together for a Health-Conscious World”.

A member of Healing Hotels of the World, Le Monastère is the site of the continent’s first hospital north of Mexico and has been sensitively restored and redesigned. Today it offers a unique wellness experience and many imaginative ways to connect with the Augustinian Sisters’ remarkable heritage. The Augustinian Sisters arrived from Europe in 1639 amongst the first ships of settlers, as apothecaries and nurses. For nearly four centuries, they devoted themselves to caring for body and soul.

Today many centers dedicated to holistic health, well-being and consciousness exist all over the world. In 1962 the Findhorn Foundation Community was begun by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. For over fifty years it has been pioneering a holistic culture, living lightly on the earth and linking up with other centers around the world to form a network of love and light. Today we’re more aware of the existence of these different centers and the spirit of collaboration is at the very heart of the Gathering.

In the words of co-founder Peter Caddy, “It is very much our work to be a point of synthesis, to link centers together to see where we can unite. Each center has something different that we can learn from, that they can give to us, and we can give to them.” Together we can support each other fulfill our purpose and potential and contribute to the healing and transformation on the planet.

If you’re involved in a holistic center we invite you to join us for this unique event. Click here to enter the contest to win a ticket to the 2016 Gathering…

Filed Under: 2016 Quebec

Announcing the 2016 Gathering in Quebec

July 18, 2015 by Christine Lines 8 Comments

We’re delighted to announce the International Holistic Centers Gathering of 2016 will be hosted by Le Monastère des Augustines in Québec City, Canada from May 15th to 20th.

In 2013, Isabelle Duchesneau attended the Gathering at Esalen, her first connection with the network of holistic centers. In her role as Executive Director of Le Monastère des Augustines, Isabelle has overseen an incredible project to transform a haven of culture and heritage in the heart of Quebec City into a Centre of Wellness which celebrates it’s official opening this summer.

For the participants of the Gathering in recent years it’s been a great joy to witness a center emerge and establish itself and then become the host of the next event!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: 2016 Quebec, Featured Posts, Previous Gatherings

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