The Thread That Holds:
What We Can Choose, What We Can’t, and How We Stay Connected
This course was created for this moment…
This is a time of grief, unraveling, emergence, and holy discomfort. What if the way we habitually respond to these moments perpetuates the crisis? In this moment, we are being called into something different. The Thread That Holds is not a retreat from the world, but a place to remember what holds us as we move through it.
We gather for the first time as an emerging community for six live sessions across five months (September to January), each one supported by small group circles for reflection, embodiment, and connection. This is not about fixing yourself. It’s about being with what is present, together.
This course was created for those who…
Are preparing for ministry, chaplaincy, spiritual leadership, or soul-centered service
Are curious about how to lead in liminal times—when the ground is shifting and certainty is scarce
Long to integrate spiritual practice with truth-telling, grief work, and communal healing
Are tired of surface-level “nice” spirituality and want to root into something honest, brave, and kind
Want to show up in spaces of pain, conflict, or possibility without losing themselves or others
What You Will Receive / Grow / Practice
Participants in The Thread That Holds will deepen their capacity to:
Sit with fracture and not flee
Learn to stay present to brokenness—in communities, in systems, in the self—without collapsing or rushing to fix.Hold multiple truths with compassion
Cultivate the ability to listen across difference, hold paradox, and let go of needing certainty in the face of mystery.Lead and minister from a place of integrity, not performance
Unlearn habits of control and image management, and return to authentic presence as the foundation of spiritual leadership.Build relationships rooted in accountability and care
Develop spiritual tools for naming harm, offering repair, and remaining connected—even when it's hard.Discern what is yours to carry, and what is not
Practice boundaries as sacred acts, and learn how to companion others without over-functioning or disappearing.Engage spiritual practice not just for personal peace, but collective liberation
Reframe prayer, ritual, and contemplation as acts of justice, interconnection, and sacred resistance.
This course is formative, not performative. It is designed to stay with you.
Everyone who completes the course will receive a certificate of completion. If you're on an ordination track, this course will count toward your requirements.
How We Learn
To quote adrienne maree brown’s emergent strategy (2017): “…emergence shows us that adaptation and evolution depend more upon critical, deep, and authentic connections, a thread that can be tugged for support and resilience…Dare I say love.”
This cohort is grounded in several core principles:
Interspirituality: We honor many traditions—none as dominant, all as sacred.
Embodiment: The body is a site of wisdom, memory, and transformation.
Relational Learning: We grow in connection, not isolation.
Nature as Teacher: The natural world reflects our cycles of growth, decay, rest, and renewal. We look to its rhythms as sacred guidance.
Practices Over Performance: We value what is lived—not what is polished.
Truth-Telling: Staying with what is, not rushing to resolution. This is a space for complexity, not easy answers.
Our approach is messy, heart-forward, and rooted in care. That means you might not feel “finished” here—and that’s by design.
You may feel stretched. Sessions may bring up your “stuff.” At times, you may feel unseen or misunderstood.
And also…
You may feel deeply heard.
You may feel profoundly seen.
You may even feel something begin to heal.
Course Details
This course starts on September 20 and runs on select Saturdays through January 10.
It includes a mix of self-paced online learning, live large-group Zoom sessions, live small-group Zoom sessions, and one-on-one meetings with a Guide.
One-on-one sessions will be scheduled individually based on your and your Guide’s availability.
Session Overviews
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We begin with the truth that we are always connected. Exploring the mycelial wisdom of mutual support through vast networks — both above and below ground. This session grounds us in the spiritual and ecological truth of interbeing—across and within spiritual traditions, communities, generations, and species.
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What happens when the ground shifts and ruptures occur? This session invites us to stand in the cracks—a phrase inspired by Bayo Akomolafe’s How to Be Available Now: Sidenotes from the Para-Pragmatic, where he explores what it means to remain present in times of fracture and uncertainty. Together, we’ll ask: How can we meet discomfort with compassion, experience vulnerability as sacred, and honor the courage it takes to keep showing up—especially when the heart is tender? We’ll also reflect on the paradox of venom and freedom, a theme drawn from The Wisdom of the Hive (Johnson & Butaine, 2025), where the authors explore the transformational potential hidden in the sting of experience.
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In a world addicted to urgency, slowing down becomes a radical act. This session explores how rest, pause, and embodiment can offer clarity, deepen discernment, and an opportunity to settle ourselves in the midst of crisis.
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Joy is a spiritual discipline. In this session, we reclaim pleasure and play as sacred birthrights, not luxuries. We explore what it means to delight, to create, and to remember pleasure even in the midst of struggle.
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This session calls us into honest reflection about harm, power, and responsibility. Together, we explore how to hold ourselves and one another with truth, tenderness, and a commitment to repair rooted in love—rather than resentment or punishment.
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We close our program with ritual in the sacred witness of the group. Through collective reflection, we name who we are becoming, and with holy imagination, we are guided forward.
Your Facilitators
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Rev. Dr. Melissa Stewart
Facilitator
Rev. Dr. Melissa Stewart, DMin, LCSW-R, is an Interspiritual Minister, educator, and group facilitator. She mindfully cultivates an Interspiritual sensibility that requires an embodied and deeply related form of interpersonal engagement, affirms global interconnection, and supports anti-oppressive awareness, advocacy, and action. Melissa is also a spiritually attuned oncology social worker and supervisor. She promotes spirituality in medical care, particularly with people impacted by cancer and their loved ones. Melissa's dissertation, Living Into the Questions: Augmenting Oncology Social Work Practice through Spiritual Location and Deeper Inquiry, integrates social work and spirituality and identifies a new concept she calls Vicarious Blessing. She lives in Madison, WI with her wife.
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Rev. Nathan Brisby
Facilitator
Rev. Nathan Brisby is an ordained Interfaith Minister and Interspiritual Companion and Counselor. He consults with organizations and leaders on how to build spirituality into their work. Nathan founded a not for profit, Broadway Gives Back, which connects non-profit organizations with the Broadway community. He is also a certified grief counselor. He grew up in a deeply evangelical Christian home, going back for generations. He currently lives in Westchester Country, NY with his husband, Stephen, his son, Dean, and their dogs, Effie and Chewy.
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Rev. Diane Berke
Guest Facilitator
Rev. Diane Berke is the Founder and Spiritual Director of One Spirit Learning Alliance. Ordained as an interfaith minister in 1988, she is a respected pioneer in the field of interfaith/interspiritual education; this past June (2020) she stepped down after 18 years as Director of the One Spirit Seminary Training. Diane has worked closely with Andrew Harvey in his Institute for Sacred Activism, is a founding member of the Contemplative Alliance of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, and is a co-founder of Transformation 365, an online platform to introduce people to a broad range of contemplative practices. She is also a certified facilitator of the Circle of Trust® work of the Center for Courage and Renewal. Diane maintains a private practice in spiritual counseling/companionship and supervision of spiritual counseling students and practitioners. In addition, she is a licensed mental health counselor in New York State. A student and teacher of A Course in Miracles for over 30 years, Diane has led retreats and workshops on spiritual development throughout the United States and internationally. She is the author of several books and educational manuals, including Love Always Answers, The Gentle Smile, Developing and Deepening Your Spiritual Practice, and Forgiveness as a Path of Awakening. Diane is known for the clarity and wisdom of her teaching, the sincerity and depth of her compassion, and her ability to create exceptionally safe and nourishing learning and companioning spaces in which people can heal and blossom. She continues to actively serve One Spirit as a "spiritual grandmother" and guide.
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Rev. Dr. Don Ajené Wilcoxson
Guest Facilitator
Ajené Wilcoxson has a Doctorate in Multifaith Theology, an MBA in Entrepreneurship, is a Certified Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Advanced Facilitator, Assessor, and a Preferred Partner with Six Seconds, the largest global EQ network. Ajené has also assisted small business owners from idea development through grand opening for over 22-years.
With a focus on developing an EQ Mindset, he facilitates inspirational presentations, seminars, workshops, and discussions, but most importantly, he is a teacher. A teacher from the perspective of being a guide, helper, and mentor in the life-learning process. His passion and foundation are living and teaching how to experience a Centered, Spiritually Emotionally Intelligent Life.
For Ajené, this life begins with gaining insight into one's Spiritual Emotional Intelligence (SEQ) and Emotional Intelligence. Utilizing SEQ and EQ tools, through dialogue and contemplative realizations, "our wisdom, compassion, and peace awaken internally and are expressed in the world through our gifts and talents.”
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Pastor Greg Stamper
Guest Facilitator
Pastor Greg Stamper is the co-founder and co-pastor of Celebration Spiritual Center (CSC), a New Thought ministry based in Brooklyn, NY.
Pastor Greg, aka PG, is an ordained interfaith minister, fourth-generation preacher, recording artist, life coach, and entrepreneur.
As a life coach, PG created the Multimanifestor app, coaching program, and courses to support neurodivergent spiritual seekers, like himself, to create a more prosperous life of happiness, radiant health, success, and wealth without trying to figure it out on their own.
In addition to coaching, Greg has 20+ years of experience in Information Technology. Most recently, he was the Senior Manager of Technology for WITNESS, a global human rights organization founded by musician Peter Gabriel. As a dedicated practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation technique® (TM), Greg is a tireless advocate of this effortless practice for personal health and well-being and has the potential to cultivate global healing and world peace.
PG has shared conference stages with luminaries like Michael Beckwith and Les Brown, appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, and is the 2018 New Thought Walden Award honoree for Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding. Pastor Greg studied at New York Theological Seminary and attended Morgan State University. -
Rev. Dr. Jackie Jenkins
Guest Facilitator
Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Jenkins is an organizational psychologist, evolutionary executive coach, and ordained interspiritual minister. She is the founder and CEO of Earthseed, a learning sanctuary and sacred movement for visionary leaders who are ready to lead with courage, heal what’s hidden, and co-create a more just, inclusive, and spiritually grounded world.
With over 20 years of experience, Jackie has served as a trusted guide to leaders and institutions navigating deep change—including the United Way of New York City, Luminary Labs, The New School, Oregon Consumer Justice, Progyny, Seeding Justice, Google and the NBA. She is also a professor of social-organizational psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches leadership, executive coaching, and intercultural competence.
Jackie holds advanced degrees from Princeton, Stanford, and Columbia University, is a certified professional coach, and received her ordination from One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. Her scholarship explores systems psychodynamics, social identity, and spiritually-integrated change leadership. She is the co-author of X-Ray Vision at Work: A Research Tool for Uncovering Systems Psychodynamics to Advance Organizational Change.
Through Earthseed, she integrates cutting-edge social science with timeless spiritual wisdom to help leaders move beyond surface-level solutions and embody a sacred, healing-centered approach to leadership. Her work is grounded in the belief that meaningful transformation—organizational or societal—begins within.
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Rev. Dr. Jerry Maynard
Guest Facilitator
Rev. Dr. Jerry Maynard is The People’s Priest: Spiritual Renegade & Social Revolutionary. As a Two-Spirit Person (Xochihua) Father Jerry strives to offer healing medicine at the intersections of church & society through pastoral care & public witness in Houston, TX.
As a Postmodern Ministry Specialist & Researcher, Father Jerry’s writing on digital ministry helps practitioners develop a more integrated pastoral approach for an increasingly hybrid age. A public theologian, Reverend Dr. Jerry’s essays and articles cover timely and timeless topics including postmodernism, protest/movement chaplaincy, queer hermeneutics, practical spirituality and much more.
For several years, Father Jerry has facilitated trainings in-person & online with different nonviolence/peace organizations offering an integrated approach to faith-based social action.
Father Jerry holds a Doctorate of New Theology from The New Theology School where they serve as The Berrigan Brothers Professor of Social Justice specializing in contextual & constructive theologies. Other academic achievements include holding a Master’s Degree in Contextual Ministry from Northwind Theological Seminary with a concentration in Postmodern Ministry & Leadership with master-level certifications as a Coach & Trainer.
Father Jerry is a member in good standing of the American Academy of Religion.
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Rev. Dr. Sushmita Mukherjee
Guest Facilitator
Sushmita Mukherjee (she/her/hers) is based in New York City, on indigenous Lenape land. She is an Associate Professor of Research, and Director of Optical Microscopy & Image Analysis at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also an ordained interspiritual minister, an interspiritual companion, and a past faculty member at One Spirit Seminary. Her work thrives at the interface of Interspirituality and an engagement of the image - whether scientific, psychological or spiritual. Her vocation straddles cutting edge biomedical research technology, a systems biology perspective on life as composed of complex interconnected and interdependent systems, and a spirituality that is imbued with awe, magic and wonder. Her work is deeply influenced by the teachings of Carl Jung and James Hillman, and the creative perspectives of poets and writers, too many to name. Her current influences include Bayo Akomolafe and Sophie Strand. She is trained in Interspiritual Companioning/Direction, Jungian Dreamwork, SoulCollage® and Chakradance. Sushmita is deeply committed to Inclusion and Belonging in all fields of engagement.
Who This Is For
This offering is for those who feel the ache of the world—and still want to show up with soul.
You don’t need a religious identity or spiritual title. You only need a willingness to listen to the deeper current inside you.
This may be for you if:
You’re craving sacred space that welcomes doubt, complexity, and vulnerability
You’ve been unraveling old beliefs and want to reconnect with what’s true
You hold space for others and want to be held yourself
You want to live with more courage, clarity, and care—even in hard times
You’re seeking a rhythm of spiritual practice rooted in community, not perfection
This is a tender, honest space. We come as we are—and honor the sacredness of others doing the same. To protect that integrity, we hold clear boundaries.
This may not be for you if:
You are looking for a fast-track certification, linear curriculum, or quick fix
You are uncomfortable with conversations that include grief, trauma, or systemic injustice
You prefer a debate-oriented, theological learning environment
You are not ready to engage in honest reflection or hold space for others’ truths
This container is intentionally spacious—but not for everyone. If you're unsure, we invite you to attend the info session or reach out with questions.
Tuition & Registration
We believe in making soul-centered learning as accessible as possible.
Course Cost:
General Enrollment: $1,400
Affiliate Rate: $1,250 (for Thread affiliates)
What’s Included:
All live sessions and recordings
Small group gatherings and 1:1 sessions with a Guide
Digital materials and resources
Ongoing access to our eLearning and community platform
Support & Flexibility:
Payment plans are available.
If cost is a barrier, please don’t hesitate to reach out.