There will be a short talk, followed by a gentle experiential exploration. Embodiment begins at conception when we have our first experience of our spirit joining with the physical. As we grow our body in the womb, we are beginning to learn about what it feels like to be a spirit living in a body. At the same time we are living inside of another body! Ideally, during birth we learn how to birth ourselves, which gives us a healthy imprint about how to continue to express our creative impulses in life by emerging into new projects, into new phases of life, to be able to make good transitions, and to be able to follow through from beginning to end. Many experiences during our Journey Into Life can interfere with our being fully present in our bodies, and therefore in our lives, and this journey has profoundly influenced how embodied we are today; You will gently discover something new about your personal story of embodiment that may help you to be more present in the coming new year.

About Karen Melton:

Karen Melton is a Prenatal & Birth Therapist trained in the field of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health. She has a practice in Sebastopol in which she supports babies, kids, adults, and pregnant people who need help with their early imprints. Karen also prevents early trauma and promotes healthy bonding and attachment. She is especially fascinated by the spiritual journey into embodiment.

December 1st is World AIDS Day. When we realized that our next "Many Lights" event would be happening that evening, we decided to do something different. "Many Lights" is a multifaith program and each month we have invited someone from a different faith tradition or practice to share with us. To honor World AIDS Day we decided to create an evening in which people from different spiritual paths will be presenting together. In the course of this evening we will be praying, meditating, and singing with and in support of those in our community and the world who are living with HIV/AIDS, who are caretakers, health care workers, and community activists. We will also have a chance to share stories and rememember those in our lives and in the world who have passed on. Please join us for this unique evening, as we come together in community to mourn, heal, celebrate, and step into the future as people of faith and people of action.

A despacho is an Andean ritual offering or a gift of reciprocity for what we receive every day in our lives. The act of creating a despacho places us in right relationship (ayni) with Mother Earth (Pachamama) and the Mountains (Apukuna). The offering consists of natural items intricately arranged on paper, prayed over, infused with gratitude and thanksgiving, and then folded into a bundle to be burned buried. In this ceremony we will be creating a despacho to honor the ancesters.

The creation of a despacho is a way to give back through prayer, intention, and love. This reciprocal exchange promotes balance and interdependence with Spirit. It is proper to purify one's self and consecrate the ground before preparing a despacho. Each natural item placed in the despacho has a specific meaning which Drake will share as the despacho is created. You will participate by creating a 3-leaf kintu in which you will blow your personal prayers into. These kintus will be added to the despacho.

The end result before folding into a bundle looks like a graphic mandala. When the bundle is burned, the prayers in the despacho ascend to the Spirits in the form of smoke. Since Day of the Dead is the day before this despacho ceremony, the veil between the worlds will still be thin. This ceremony will be a great place to honor our ancestors and those that have already passed. You might want to bring copies of photos to add to the prayer bundle that you will create (and which later will be burned or buried).

About Drake:

Drake, has studied Andean shamanism for many years. He will lead the ceremony in the tradition he learned from the great shamans (pacos) in Peru. He is a member of the Flesh and Spirit community and has been providing monthly Reiki at MCCSF for several years. You can learn more about Drake at his website www.DrakeInnerprizes.com

Can we envision the earth as our lover and not as a mother to exploit and abuse? Noted artist, author, and sex educator Annie Sprinkle will be sharing an evening of art, stories, meditation, and a guided walk through our city streets that will ground us in the natural world. On this walk Annie will lead us through a spiritual practice that will support us in making an energetic connection to the plants and trees, the earth and sky that surround us at every moment, bringing us back Home again to the world in a new vibrant way. Through this process of breath and heart-opening, we will learn to marry the earth, as part of a journey of spiritual healing and transformation.

About Annie Sprinkle, Ph.d:

Annie received a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts and earned a degree in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. As a writer and performance artist, her work spans more than three decades and is studied in courses at numerous universities.

In preparation for the High Holy Days — Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur — Jews traditionally focus on the practice of T'shuvah, which means Return: Return to the Natural Radiance of the Soul. It is a time for deep Self-Reflection and Renewal of Spiritual Direction.

In this experientially oriented program, we will draw from the rich treasury of Jewish practices (Meditation, Prayer, Chant, and Text Study) to get a taste of the Healing Potential of T'shuvah -- Returning to the Luminous Essence of our Souls.

About Jeffrey Kessler:

Jeffrey Kessler is a lifelong student and teacher of Meditation, Tai-Chi, and Chi Gong, who has participated in the practices and teachings of a wide array of psycho-spiritual traditions. For many years, Jeffrey has taught Meditation and Contemplative Shabbat Services at Chochmat HaLev, a Center for Jewish Spirituality in Berkeley. He also does Somatic Therapy, Soul-Healing, and Body-Based Spiritual Direction.

Are you curious about the Tarot?

Do you wonder what the Tarot really tells you?

Can it be part of a spiritual practice? 

How can a deck of cards be deeply meaningful?

Join Donny Lobree and Kirk Prine as they offer an experience with the Tarot.  Find out how the Tarot can be a part of your everyday life. Learn how to begin to read the cards yourself and take a real Tarot Journey in Community with us.

About Donny and Kirk:

Donny Lobree has been using the Tarot as part of his spiritual practice for many years.   He also has taught the Tarot, beginning and advanced, on many occasions. Donny, an MCCSF member, is a gifted teacher, a deeply spiritual person, and very, very fun!

His partner, Kirk Prine, also an MCCSF member has led many rituals, workshops and retreats.

Both bring humor, compassion and insight to the art of the Tarot.

For more about Donny and Kirk, please visit their website at themissingthread.com/.

Please join Will for an evening of queer spirits and faerie magic as he talks about his work in queer spirituality over the past three decades and shares the practice of Applied Meditation.

About Will Roscoe:

Will Roscoe is one of the most widely published authors in the field of lgbt culture and spirituality. His first book, The Zuni-Man Woman, which explored the two-spirit (“berdache”) tradition of the Zuni Indians, received the Margaret Mead Award and a Lambda Literary Award. He subsequently published Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America and Queer Spirits, a collection of gay myths, stories, and archetypes from around the world. After attending the first radical faerie gathering in 1979, he began working extensively with movement founder Harry Hay, publishing a collection of his writings in 1996. Will received a second Lambda Literary Award for his book Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same-Sex Love, which uncovers hidden connections between same-sex love and mysticism within the earliest traditions of Christianity and traces these back in time and across cultures to their origins in the practices of queer shamans and third gender priesthoods in the world’s oldest civilizations.

For more about Will, please visit his website at www.willsworld.org.

The Channupa Wakan, or the sacred pipe, was given to a camp of people of the plains called the Lakota a very long time ago. It was given to them by White Buffalo Calf Woman in a time of great need, of great famine. She gave it to them as an instrument of communication with the healing spirits and with the Creator his/herself. When we come together, we are reaching out to the infinite amount of healing energy that is available to us at any moment. This ceremony may be used for personal healing and for the healing of relatives and more generally, for the entire world/cosmos.

The ancestors have made it very clear to us: when we speak in prayer, we are heard. And every prayer is answered.

About Lyla Johnston:

Lyla Johnston is a Dine woman from Taos, New Mexico raised with an understanding of the Lakota philosophy: that we are born beautiful for a joyful life. She is honored to have the pipe carry her, and happy to carry it to others as means of connection with each other and with Spirit.

April 22nd is Earth Day. In preparation for Earth Day and to recognize the tragedies that continue to unfold in Japan, and around the world, we will be holding a different kind of "Many Lights" event in April. In the past each program featured a guest presenter from a different faith or spiritual practice. This month we are inviting everyone to become part of a group event that we will create together.

Please bring prayers, poems, and songs for and about planet, and bring a small object to place upon an Earth altar that we will create together. The evening will begin with silence, and then as we feel moved, each one of us will share the words and songs that we have brought with us. We will end the evening as we began, in silence. You do not have to bring anything to partipate in this event, but we hope that together we can create a liturgy of interwoven music and readings that come from all around the world, and from every tradition.

On March 5, 2011 at 5:00pm, Victoria Rue, a Roman Catholic woman priest, along with members of the MCC community will celebrate Eucharist together. This celebration welcomes all to the table. It will be a feminist Eucharist that holds both tradition and new approaches: inclusive language, shared leadership, a shared homily, embodied prayer, the honoring of other faith traditions, silence and song. Please join us!

About Victoria Rue:

Dr. Rue MDiv, Union Theological Seminary, NYC, Ph.D. Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Her dissertation focused on how feminist theatre enacts feminist theology. She is a lecturer in Women’s Studies and Comparative Religious Studies at San Jose State University. Her book, Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies was published in 2005 by Pilgrim Press.

Victoria was among the first four women ordained in North America. Victoria has presided at masses at Call to Action, Dignity NYC and Hawaii, and throughout the U.S. She has spoken about RCWP in Korea, Costa Rica, the U.K., and most recently in Indonesia.

She presides at a monthly liturgy of a Eucharistic community in Santa Cruz, the Sophia Catholic Community. She is also a Spiritual Care Counselor at VNA and Hospice in Salinas.

Dr. Rue is a theatre writer and director whose plays have been produced at the Mark Taper Forum, the American Conservatory Theatre and other theatres.

Victoria and her partner of 20 years, Kathryn Poethig were married in September’08.

In a world so sadly divided by religious disagreements, Andrew Ramer made a vow to God that for the entire year of 2010 he would pray once a week in a religion other than his own. An active member of a Reform-affiliated synagogue, Sha'ar Zahav, Andrew spent the year attending Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Baha'i, Hindu, and Wiccan services. During the year he gave two sermons in a church, participated in two Muslim-Jewish dialogue groups, organized a Christian-Jewish interfaith service at Sha'ar Zahav, as well as a day of Muslim and Jewish prayer and conversation. He was also invited to be on the planning committee at MCC for this series, "Many Lights," which each month offers an evening of spiritual practice from a different faith tradition.

Praying with others helped to open Andrew's heart, and by the end of the year he found himself paradoxically more grounded in his Jewish life and more open to other religions. Join Andrew as he shares the story of his year, leads a series of guided meditations that will evoke/invoke different spiritual paths – and consider taking a similar vow yourself. Recognizing the challenge of praying this way each week, Andrew hopes that you will join him for a year of praying once a month in a faith tradition other than your own.

In a world so sadly divided by religious disagreements, this is an invitation to you to become an active agent for change. To support you on your journey, Andrew will be offering simple guidelines to follow in your year of prayer, and will be hosting three follow-up sessions (dates and locations to be announced later) for the group to gather, share their adventures, and support each other in making the world a better place.

This award winning documentary film about the ordination of Roman Catholic Women Priest is being premiered in San Francisco at the Balboa Theatre (Balboa at 38th ave) The film will be followed by a Q &A with Film Director Jules Hart and Rev, Victoria Rue, Roman Catholic Woman Priest featured in the film. Tickets are $10 in advance.

If you would like to join the MCCSF group attending this film, feel free to RSVP to Barbara Buckley and we can arrange to sit together. Many Lights is planning a program/worship with Rev Rue at MCCSF early in 2011.

Whether or not you knew ChiSing when he led QSangha at MCCSF, this will be a wonderful opportunity to connect with him and with others in community who want to experience the peace and joy of mindfulness and meditation.

Brother ChiSIng will lead us in a heart-opening evening of sitting meditation, walking meditation, and mindful movement

Br. ChiSing, M.Div., M.A. is an Interfaith retreat facilitator, spiritual director, ritual artist, musician, and the founder of Awakening Heart

His primary meditation teacher is the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, and he was ordained by him into the "Order of Interbeing" (Unified Buddhist Church) in 2003 with the spiritual name of "True Wonderful Happiness." He was also commissioned into ministry by a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1995.

Br. ChiSing's vision for ministry is to encourage Buddhist, Christian and other faith communities to practice Mindful Spirituality in an Interfaith Earth-based way, with an emphasis on creativity, music and the arts.

Music is one of the most universal tools for triggering religious experiences. And one of the most powerful techniques is to combine the sonic driving of a steady drumbeat with ecstatic dance to induce trance states that open into spiritual worlds. To begin this evening, Dr. Sylvan examines the relationship between music, trance, dance, and religious experience in a number of different religious and musical cultures, including the rave/electronic dance music scene, identifies key features of this phenomenon, and explores recent brain science research that confirms the 'trance forming' power of music. Then we will have a hands-on experience of trance dancing, as he leads us through an electronic dance music ceremony. Using intentionality, ritual practices, and specific movements and formations, we will focus and direct the powerful energy of the trance dance experience in a specially designed hour-long sequence that traces the arc of a ceremony – creating a sacred container, generating energy, and dedicating that energy.

Robin Sylvan, Ph.D., is the founder and director of The Sacred Center, a spiritually oriented educational organization. He has taught in both mainstream academic and alternative experiential contexts, including the Library of Congress, Graduate Theological Union, The California Institute of Integral Studies, Naropa University, The University of California Davis, The College of Wooster, and The Ojai Foundation. He is the author of Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture. His most recent project has been a major study for the Templeton Advanced Research Program on "Music, Religion, Spirituality, and the Human Brain."

InterPlay is a set of practices for connection, community, and change. It asks you to do a few simple actions, then notice what's happening. Doing this alone, and with others, in playful ways, leads to surprising conclusions. Unlock the wisdom you've accumulated in your body. Come experience this sneaky spiritual practice.

Randy Newswanger has been an MCCSF member for 12 years. He is currently studying toward a Master of Divinity degree at Starr King School in Berkeley. He says, "I'm currently curious about bewilderment. When are you surprised or intrigued to look at the world differently than you expected?"

We are delighted to welcome Sharon Bernstein, Cantor of Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, leading us  in an evening of reflection, story telling and singing.  Sharon will share and teach  “niggunim” —  wordless melodies from the mystical Hasidic tradition, which was founded on the belief that spirituality and joy should dominate one's relationship to G-d.

Sharon Bernstein (voice, piano) has been involved in Jewish music for over 20 years. As both a Cantor and Yiddish singer, she likes to delve into the relationship between text and music: incorporating musical expressions of life and prayers from around the world, unearthing the stories of forgotten songs and melodies, weaving new rituals, and writing music for liturgy and Yiddish poems. Her work has been featured at festivals and concerts in Europe, Israel, and the US, and on the CDs Metamorphosis and Af Di Gasn Fun Der Shtot. Since 2007, she has been happily ensconced as the Cantor of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco.

Tantra (a Sanskrit word meaning “weave”) is a set of principles, practices, and attitudes that include the mind, heart, and whole body on the path to enlightenment. Far more than just being a way to improve your sex life, Tantra offers us the potential of experiencing our erotic energy as spiritual "rocket fuel"! Tapping into living tradition, in this evening’s experience, we will practice movement and meditation, both individually and in connection.

A student of classical Tantra for more than ten years and a psychotherapist, Alex is also on the faculty of the Body Electric School. Among her specialties are gender exploration, classical Tantra and exploring with an open mind and heart.

Judaism is a spirit path that is profoundly relational. We can be good Jews with or without God but we cannot be good Jews without each other. This relational aspect extends to our interaction with the world as a whole, with food, and touch, with taste and song. In this evening, we will experience the ritual of Havdallah which is a ritual of awakening and engaging with the physical world through our senses.

Jhos Singer a Maggid (preacher) serving the Coastside Jewish Community in Half Moon Bay. He has served as the Coastside Rabbi since 2000. His humor, energy and down-on-it approach to Judaism has been appreciated by congregations (both Jewish and not) all around the bay area.

Universal Sufism, as brought to the West by Hazrat Inayat Khan, is a message of spiritual liberty, a message of unity of religious ideals, respect of all religions, prophets and holy books of humanity. It is a mystical path with its roots tracing back into the hermetic tradition in Egypt.

In this evening we will share some of the wealth of this message, as well as taste its effect through body prayer practice. Our guest presenter is Isa Magdalena, who has been been on the Sufi path for more than twenty years. Namaste,

The Rev. Jana Drakka of Zenkei Zen Sangha works with homeless people in San Francisco. She will give a dharma talk and meditation in the Zen Buddhist tradition.

Through demonstration, interactive exercises and informative discussion, Rik will support us in the process of reconnecting to the natural unity of our mind, body & heart. A somatic mindfulness approach to stress, anxiety, grief or loss can enlarge our experience of being more fully present in the moment and connected to our spiritual heart.

Rik Center is a Buddhist/Interfaith Chaplain, Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction & Meditation Teacher. For more info about Rik, visit www.comingintobalance.com