Voices of the Gathering

Virtual Attendee

Matthew Fox will join the Gathering virtually for a Saturday afternoon dialogue exploring the ecological, spiritual, and cultural imagination needed to nurture resilient and defiant communities.

Their conversation will invite us to consider how our understanding of the living universe can shape the voices, communities, and movements we create in response to the challenges of our time.

Virtual Attendee

Brian Swimme will join the Gathering virtually for a Saturday afternoon dialogue exploring the ecological, spiritual, and cultural imagination needed to nurture resilient and defiant communities.

Their conversation will invite us to consider how our understanding of the living universe can shape the voices, communities, and movements we create in response to the challenges of our time.

Virtual Attendee

Ursula is a retired Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University in St. Louis, where she researched on eukaryotic algae. She authored the textbook Genetics and the best-selling book The Sacred Depths of Nature and speaks regularly about religious naturalist orientation and evolution. She contributed to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture from 2009 to 2011. She currently serves as president of the Religious Naturalist Association. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. 

Virtual Attendee

Nancy Ellen Abrams is a cabaret singer, philosopher of science, lawyer, and lecturer at UC Santa Cruz.  With world-renowned cosmologist Joel Primack she co-authored two books about the dark matter/dark energy universe, how we humans fit in, and why it matters.  Her solo book, a radical rethinking of the idea of "God", won the 2015 USA Best Book Award in philosophy.  Nancy has performed in 19 countries and posts her recent songs at https://nancyellenabrams.substack.com/

Live Attendee

Stephan is an astronomer, educator, and cosmic guide with over thirty-five years of experience exploring the meeting place of science, spirituality, and the human search for meaning. Through his work with the Deeptime Network and other organizations, he leads workshops, retreats, and programs that connect personal and collective transformation with a deeper relationship to the living cosmos. His books include Cosmic Conversations, Living a Cosmic Life, Becoming the Change (co-written with Carol Kilby), and the forthcoming Traveling in the Shadow of the Moon (February 2027). Visit him at www.cosmicconversations.org

Virtual Attendee

I am, we are all evolutionary elders living in the sixth mass extinction." Carol comes with a Master of Divinity from Emmanuel College in Toronto (1991) and a Doctor of Ministry from University of Creation Spirituality (2005). The United Church of Canada clergy stepped out of the pulpit and into the woods to found Gaia Centre for Eco-Spirituality and Sustainable Work. She is author of  
Cosmic Beatitudes - A Code of Being for This Evolutionary Moment, Evolutionary Dancer - In, Out, and on the Fringe of the Church, and Becoming the Change - Evolutionary Rituals and Practices for Everyday Emergence with cosmic commentaries by Stephan Martin. She offers programs with Earth Literacies, Sisters of Earth, Creation Spirituality, and the Deep Time communities. "My work in these times is crafting ritual grounded in a Universe Story that ignites human-earth community."

Virtual Attendee

JD Stillwater is a science ambassador who shares insights from mainstream conventional science as a source of interfaith spirituality, with messages of deep connection, stewardship, and kinship with natural reality. More to explore at jdstillwater.earth

Virtual Attendee

Georgiana Lofty, Doctor of Ministry, is a Licensed Psychotherapist and meditation guide with more than four decades of experience exploring psychological and spiritual well-being. Her doctoral studies were guided by theologian Matthew Fox and included study with Clarissa Pinkola Estés, along with retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Lauren Artress, and Pema Chödrön. Blending contemplative wisdom with professional experience, Georgiana invites others to slow down, listen within, and discover greater peace through the simple practice of being present. Georgiana just published The Art of Simply Being: A Meditative Journal for Life Transitions and Life After Retirement.

Virtual Attendee

Penny Andrews arrived at UCS having been a teacher and social worker. She is ordained and worked as a hospital chaplain. She is  a regular speaker with a Unitarian Universalist congregation, a community organizer for Earth Charter and bioregionalism, a coherence guide with the Deep Time Network, and currently serves as a spiritual companion and instructor for these last 4 years with CS Communities teaching Cosmology.

Virtual Attendee

Barbara Booth found UCS as she began a sabbatical year from her career in School Psychology. The first part  of that year she explored Europe and Mexico and second part she lived a dream at UCS in Oakland, California. Since completing the D.Min. Degree she retired and developed her own business -- Sacred Wisdom Centre -- bringing prominent Spiritual Teachers to Canada at affordable prices to serve the community.

Virtual Attendee

Tricia J McMahon (aka cosmic earthling triciaj) is currently writing her Autocosmology, and participating in weekly cosmic conversations, to deepen her connection to and participation in the Ecozoic Era we are capable of and to keep moving forward communally. She also loves engaging with groups/organizations re: Living Our Sacred Universe Story viaexperiential retreats and workshops. Her desire to affirm and evoke others in their conscious participation recently led to initiating a collective writing project of human beings -- the working title - Stories of Being Catapulted: Evolutionary Moments of Our Lives. 17 people participating (so far!) and many who are new to such conversations! Each one is excited and grateful to reflect and connect with others in this way.

Live Attendee

Saundi McClain-Kloeckener is an educational Consultant - Teacher - Storyteller -- she has held space at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers for more than 15 years. A member of the Native Women's Care Circle, a prayer group supporting health and welfare in the local Native American community, she has participated in numerous Indigenous-led prayer walks along rivers and lakes on Turtle Island and leads local water-blessing ceremonies.

Live Attendee

Jeffrey Harrison, S.J. is a St. Louis native whose work has taken him to many corners and roles in the world. He is currently the project coordinator for The Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project which studies the history of Jesuit and Catholic slavery. He has been on the faculties of De Smet Jesuit and St. Louis University High Schools in St. Louis, Regis Jesuit High School in Denver, and the Jesuit English School in Taunggyi, Myanmar. He served as project director with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Eastern Africa and worked in Belize in Central America twice. Until August 2023, he was the pastor of St Matthew the Apostle Parish in the St Louis Ville area. He has a BA in philosophy and an MA in history from St. Louis University and MAs in Divinity and Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in St. Louis on June 12, 1987.

Live Attendee

Suzanne Renard is a retired teacher and linguist. Her favorite languages include music, the vibrations of healthy soil and water, and shared food.

With her husband Tom, she has homesteaded and homeschooled 3 sons (all born at home). They grew up in the company of kind neighbors, goats, chickens, a spring fed creek, and a food forest. She revels in the company of her nature-loving grandsons. Her latest studies include Biofield Tuning and Zen Shiatsu. She envisions the time when humans heal one another through heart-to-heart coherence in union with the Sacred Heart of All Creation.

Virtual Attendee

Charlie Dorsett is the founder of Seraphic Grove, author of Creation’s Paths, and hosts the podcasts Creation's Paths, Hallowstead, and Church of the Oak. As a nonbinary Christopagan Druid, science fiction and fantasy author, podcaster, and artist, Charlie brings a unique blend of creativity and spiritual depth to their work.

They serve as a vision keeper for sacred spaces within the Charter for Compassion and have practiced Creation Spirituality since 1999, inspired by Matthew Fox’s teachings. A lifelong mystic with a deep connection to saints and angels, Charlie has delved into western esotericism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Shamanic Judaism. Their personal spiritual practice, shared through the creationspaths.com website, reflects their belief in the power of lived spirituality.

Live Attendee

Mark Steiner began his journey with Matthew Fox and Creation Spirituality in 1990. Soon after he co-founded Cultivating Connections which supported the Creation Spirituality Connectors Network and through which he has hosted workshops, retreats and conferences.  Mark is a trained facilitator in Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects whose life's focus has been centered on fostering the connections between people and with the natural world. He tries to live out poet Mary Oliver's Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Live Attendee

Michael Mansfield began his Creation Spirituality journey in 1978 when he first heard Matthew Fox presenting at the National Pastoral Music Convention in Detroit, MI. In 1986, he studied at Holy Names College’s Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality (ICCS) in Oakland, CA with Luisah Teish and experienced Matthew’s liturgical exploration at The Mass of the Inner Child. In fall of 1986 until spring of 1992, Michael began teaching Creation Spirituality through dance, drama, and ritual at Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. In 1994, he joined the faculty at ICCS. In Fall of 1996, Creation Spirituality moved “On Broadway” in downtown Oakland as The University of Creation Spirituality (UCS). Michael continued as faculty and began serving in the administration during the founding of this new moment in Creation Spirituality history. From 1996 until the present, Michael has been involved in The University of Creation Spirituality and Wisdom University in all of its many incarnations. Currently, he collaborates with the creative Creation Spirituality teams organizing First Sundays and Creation Spirituality Community Gatherings. His interest is in the intersection of dance, theater, education, justice, and Spirit. He has a kinesthetic bias.

Live Attendee

Lori joined Creation Spirituality Communities not long after the pandemic ended In 2021. When Patty Mcgrath went to Italy for the winter Lori volunteered to take her position and fill in for Our First Sunday’s gatherings which were then CSIWE and we met every week. When Patty returned, Lori stayed on as part of the team and became more and more involved, creating the slides and the PowerPoints and the tech stuff and contributing a significant amount of content including her own poetry. She has taken all of the certification courses and a number of others and has audited some of them a second time. Lori has been a very active volunteer at her Unitarian Universalist Church in Shenandoah Valley of Winchester, VA. She’s worked on the worship committee for the last three years and is now taking the position of Adult Faith Development Coordinator. This work has synced with Creation Spirituality in so many ways. The many presentations and talks she has done at her UU church are similar to the goals and ideas of Creation Spirituality. Lori taught high school English for 20 years and still has a deep love of education, literature, and spirituality. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992 with a Masters in Education and a major in English and Secondary Education. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi. Lori is retired and after many hours working with Creation Spirituality and her church, she loves to garden and read and spend time working with others.

Live Attendee

Patty attended the University of Creation Spirituality from 1998 to 2009 and earned her DMin degree. It did take eleven years, and the benefit was meeting so many faculty and students in its incomparable program. Her novel focus was on the Wonders of the Milky Way Galaxy. That was an enriching and life changing influence. In March of 2013 she retired from IT Project Management and transitioned to work in Environmental and Social Justice issues. She has sponsored workshops on the East Coast by UCS faculty: Michael Mansfield and our beloved, late Jeremy Taylor. Patty co-hosted with Rev. Dr. Wayne Schwandt, of beloved memory, the 2012 CSC National Gathering in Rockville, Maryland, the 2024 Cape Cod Gathering, and the 2025 Virtual Gathering. Patty works with the CS team preparing liturgies for the First Sunday evening gatherings.

Live Attendee

Bob Kent is an interfaith minister, chaplain, and spiritual community facilitator rooted in Creation Spirituality, the Universe Story, contemplative practice, and emerging spiritual community. After 35 years practicing law, he now serves in spiritual ministry, creating spaces for embodied connection, belonging, and deeper relationship with the Divine.

Virtual Attendee

Barbara Flaherty is a poet, writer, editor, teacher, and spiritual practitioner whose work weaves together Creation Spirituality, creativity, wisdom traditions, and healing. She teaches writing, art as meditation, and Creation Spirituality, and brings experience in interfaith chaplaincy, counseling, and mentoring artists.

Virtual Attendee

Diane (Wolverton) Sontum has published poetry and essays in anthologies and periodicals, and in 2003 released the novella, Return of the Yin. She holds a B.A. in English, an M.A in Adult Education and a D.Min. in Creation Spirituality.  She is a past board member and president of Creation Spirituality Communities. She lives in Laramie, Wyoming with three rescued orange cats and a giant tortoise.

Live Attendee

Brian Dorsett brings a rich background in finance, hospitality, and media to the Creation Spirituality Communities (CSC) Board. With over a decade of experience as a restaurant owner and manager, Brian developed strong skills in team building, operations, and bookkeeping. Before that he was in banking, insurance, and mortgage services, including time as a licensed insurance agent and assistant branch manager. Brian now supports digital media projects, serving as a podcast editor and operations coordinator for spiritual and creative content for Creationspaths.com. Passionate about community, justice, and sacred storytelling, Brian has over four decades studying religions, philosophy and spirituality with over two decades practicing Creation Spirituality after being inspired by Matthew Fox's work in 1999 and currently assists Creation Spirituality Communities through web and tech support.