Listening Together... Encountering God Where We Live

Program Details

Registrations are now open for our online continuing education event "Listening Together ... Where We Live" on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. eastern.

Our Spring Topic: "Listening Together...Where We Live"
The journey that we take as spiritual companions and listeners is not to a place distant from where a person lives. Instead, it is to the place below the surface of where they are and who they are. Our journey to that place is often more varied than we or they imagine, and one just waiting to be explored.

This spring's “Listening Together” event offers connections, conversation and some practical tools to unpack this experience of being present on our way home to love, to God, to the “sound of the genuine” as Howard Thurman says. This workshop helps us as spiritual directors/deep listeners and others we companion along the way to explore “wondering where I am right now,” “what is below the surface,” “how to discern Love,” and “where I find hope”, all essential and timely questions for making this journey toward life and freedom.

Our guest presenter is Helen Cepero (Berkeley, CA)
"I am a wife, mother and grandmother (Oma) to three lively grandsons. Though I’ve been a spiritual director for nearly twenty-five years, I am still energized by the way the Spirit works through all of life’s experiences of the people I companion. I continue to practice spiritual direction and supervision from my home in Berkeley, CA. I am the author of 'Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Encountering God through Attentive Writing,' and 'Christ-Shaped Character: Choosing Love, Faith and Hope,' both published by InterVarsity Press.

Facilitated by John Kiemele & Gayle Kerr

Registration: $40.00

“Listening Together” continuing education events happen twice a year (spring and fall) for budding and seasoned Spiritual Directors/Deep Listeners to experience a supportive community, engage in pertinent conversations, and gain practical insights that deepen our purpose and practice as spiritual directors/deep listeners.

Note: If you are a member of The Listening Collective at Rolling Ridge, don't forget to claim your registration discount. For more information on The Listening Collective, Click Here!

About the Leaders

John Kiemele

John Kiemele, PhD, is a wellbeing educator and spiritual director who companions individuals, teaches seminars and classes on spirituality, lifestyle change and deep listening/spiritual direction, leads contemplative retreats, and serves as director of The Listening Collective at Rolling Ridge. John walks alongside individuals and groups assisting them with life-giving connections, wellbeing practices, and contemplative soul care. He is Director Emeritus of a dispersed community of contemplative companions in the greater Seattle area called Selah Center, former Executive Director of SoulStream Initiatives in western Canada, and is an ordained clergy having served congregations across the US and Canada. John received his PhD in education/spirituality with post-doctoral emphases in Spiritual Direction, Mindful Self-Compassion, the Enneagram Spectrum, and Wellness Coaching.

Gayle Kerr

Gayle Kerr has been involved in Spiritual Direction and Retreat Ministry since 1990. She is a graduate of Trenton (NJ) State College and Chestnut Hill College (PA) and holds degrees in education and Holistic Spirituality and Certificates in Spiritual Direction and the Supervision of Spiritual Directors. She has worked as a teacher, a Director of Christian Education and as a Spiritual Director at the Middleton Center for Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, PA. From 2000-2007 she worked at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ with a team of Spiritual Directors who were invited to help create a program for Spiritual Formation at the Seminary. Gayle and her husband moved to Cape Cod, MA in 2007 where she continues to provide individual and group Spiritual Direction as well as Retreat Leadership from her home on the Cape. She also serves as a small group supervisor in the Gateways to God Program for training Spiritual Directors at Rolling Ridge.