Virtual Gospel of Thomas Groups
Gospel of Thomas Programs
I am so very pleased to share with you expanded opportunities for those on the Wisdom path to participate in ongoing Gospel of Thomas groups. Having worked on a deepened lectio divina process for the past dozen years, I have recently encouraged fourteen seasoned practitioners and group facilitators to organize and run their own Gospel of Thomas groups. For now, most of these new opportunities will utilize the technology of Zoom.
Rather than following an educational approach to an academic understanding of the text, these groups will allow the Gospel of Thomas to serve as a living text that will deepen the sharing and interaction among the participants. Moving beyond a more traditional model of lectio, the work has proven essential in deepening and integrating the spiritual transformations of the group members.
The group organizers, then, rather than being academic experts, are facilitators who will guide these groups in their inquiries and their interactions. Having experienced the power of these conversations themselves, they will work to facilitate the group process. The alchemy comes from the container of trust and safety which allows the participants to risk sharing their authentic reactions and their deepest ponderings. Rather than pointing forth a point of view designed to convince others, rather than finding forced agreement, and rather than posturing in any way—the participants are encouraged to listen deeply and without judgment and to risk being authentically real. This is what deepens the integration of Wisdom.
Most of the facilitators listed here will be running Gospel of Thomas groups that will meet weekly for 90 minutes. The facilitators will generally run a series of 10 to 12 weekly sessions, which we call chapters. Participants will be asked to commitment to a full chapter—although there is generally no expectation that everyone will be able to attend every group session. Between chapters there may be a break of some duration. Participants can then choose to stop at that point or to continue in the next chapter. Generally, new participants are brought on board at the beginning of a chapter.
With each facilitator listed will be a probable day of the week and a general time of day as well as an approximate starting date for his/her group. In this way, potential participants will be able to pick days, times, and starting dates that will be desirable.
Many of the groups will have a small charge per chapter (approximately 10 to 12 sessions). Because each facilitator will handle this matter uniquely, the information can and will come directly from them. Indeed, sign up and further information about each facilitator’s group can be done through her/his direct E-mail.
I am privileged to continue to participate through ongoing support of the group of facilitators.
Carol Tolonen
About 12 years ago, I realized that living life in the self sufficient way I had been doing all my life left a great deal lacking. I discovered what was missing in the precepts of Wisdom spirituality, especially in the ramifications of the idea that the inherent nature of Creation is a profound interconnectedness. But to live out of this perspective requires community. My goal in facilitating a Gospel of Thomas group is to help us co-create a small community within our growing Wisdom community that will nurture the spiritual growth of each of us as individuals, strengthen our larger community, and enhance our capacities to live our daily lives out of the perspective we are gaining from the Wisdom transformation.
My hope is to get together a group of no more than eleven from our current Wisdom community to begin working together in mid-April. The group will meet weekly on Mondays, midday, preferably 12-1:30 EDT. I ask that participants commit to be involved for the full first "chapter" of ten weeks, although there is no need to apologize if "life" keeps you from coming on any given week.
If you would like to talk more about whether this is the right next step for you on your spiritual journey or if you have any questions, please email me at caroltolonen@gmail.com
Edie Kausch
If you are considering joining a Gospel Of Thomas Group then I bid you a warm wholehearted welcome.
As human beings, we have a longing to belong to a loving community that can see and accept us as we truly are and we feel blessed and honored when others in that community gift us with their own deep authenticity. This is what a Gospel Of Thomas Group can offer to you.
With the Apostle, Thomas, as our guide, let us begin a journey to explore the vast uncharted regions of our hearts through the secret sayings of Jeshua. Experience how each Logion reveals itself though your own life and circumstances. Watch how your own wisdom voice evolves as we affirm and resonate with your growing sense of wholeness. Let us feast in the joys of learning to lovingly tend to ourselves and each other in life-giving ways. Let us begin to drink from our true Source.
I would love to begin this sacred journey with you and possibly 8 other people starting this 10 week session from April 7 – June 9. We will meet on Zoom each Thursday at 6 am. (PT) Pacific Time (I live in California). To join this group or if you have any questions, you can email me at: growingdiva@gmail.com
Elizabeth Combs
Have you ever planted flower bulbs without knowing what color they will be until they blossom? Or come upon a high mountain hut in the most unlikely (and completely welcome) spot? Or been surprised by a moment of stillness in seemingly unending motion -- the water drop in the cascade? Gospel of Thomas groups in a wisdom format can be like that: equal parts hospitality, patience and wonderment, all in the service of LOVE.
The text itself is a living participant in our group; Yeshua is a living presence of wisdom-transformed love on Earth. We are accompanied. We arrive. We sense into our grounded and centered presence together. We gaze at each other. We listen with all aspects of our being. And the colors become more luminous with our gazing, the silence more resonant with our listening, within us individually and as a group. The blessings flow.
You are welcome here.
Mondays
4:30 - 6 pm ET
April 25 - June 13
8 weeks via Zoom
12 participants
Contact me with questions or to register: Elizabeth.s.combs@gmail.com or 360-319-2164
Heather Vesey
Relating with the Gospel of Thomas lectio divina-style, has been one of the most profound and rewarding practices for me in recent years. Engaging with the text in community – with a bunch of ten or so people – is what makes this practice so multi-layered for me, where we are able to weave together our insights, experiences and perspectives, always with the purpose and intention of helping each other to deepen in love. And so it is this – the desire to help facilitate and cultivate a deeper way of being, knowing and loving, that brings me - and you! – to Bill’s website and to this opportunity. I can’t wait to discover the group I’ll be working with and to see what we can create together, and what we can learn together. What’s most exciting of all, is having Yeshua (through and with the words of Thomas) – in our midst, knowing that in some mysterious way, his divine presence is informing our insights and our sharing. What could be more wonderful?! I so look forward to meeting whoever becomes part this group, and to travel this path of deeper love and transformation together.
When: (in the first instance) starting Monday April 4th, for eight weeks. 3:00-4:30pm EST (last one May 23rd).
The idea is to basically commit to all eight sessions, but if you have to miss one or two, no problem. Sessions will be recorded on zoom and sent out to the group.
To find out more, or if you want to chat about anything to do with this, email heather@vesey.net
Martha Eskew
Hi, I am Martha from Atlanta. I have been a lifelong seeker. Curiosity about what makes a person tick is what makes me tick. I was sent by Richard Rohr and faculty from the Living School into the university of ‘The Great Unknowing’, in October 2021. In my 2 years in the Living School, I learned that Love was what makes us all tick. And that love even though it resides deeply in our own hearts it lives and expresses most fully in community. Jesus is the Master teacher about Love, He was love. The Gospel of Thomas is our guide today. I have been a consultant about human relation issues, marrying people into org; I have been a coach, helping people integrate into their own self, their life, and their work; I have been a teacher of servant leadership, and now I want to delve deeply into the teachings of the great master of Love with a community. Perhaps we will all learn something about ourselves, the ways we move in the world, the ways we love ourselves, love others and allow others to love us. I look forward to meeting a few of you to explore this wonderful Gospel comprised of the teachings of Jesus.
I am offering a first chapter together April 20 to June 8 for 1.5 hours each gathering together on Wednesday @ 7:00 PM EST. A commitment to make the meetings is the way we can come into community but don’t worry if you miss one or two over the chapter. We need a minimum of 8 people for a group to make. We will discuss all this housekeeping in our first gathering. I leave open the hope and possibility of continuing the group with breaks for my travel in July and again in September.
For more information please contact me at: marthairis@mac.com
Melissa Auten
It is with great joy and deep humility that I approach this new venture to begin sharing The Gospel of Thomas in a Lectio Divina style group with interested wisdom seekers. This gospel offers us a unique opportunity to wrestle with a little known wisdom text that was largely lost to humanity until the 20th century. Written by Thomas, disciple of Jesus, this unique gospel allows for spacious reflection that requires all of our centers- cognitive, heart, and body in order to sense meaning and application to our own lives and lived experiences. Sharing in community is the very best way to approach Thomas, as it is in the midst of us where the Spirit breathes, enlightens, and enlivens each perspective causing something akin to a new arising to occur. If you are interested in joining such a group, please contact me at: auten.melissa@yahoo.com
Details: 10-week chapters with reset periods in between where participants can decide if they wish to continue on or take a break.
Wednesday evenings: 6:30-8 pm
Stannie Brewer
I have been in a group of women for over 20 years. Together we seek a deeper knowledge of our relationship with God and each other through exercises for the mind and body to open our hearts. We have done a study of the Gospel of Thomas and will be revisiting Thomas through Lectio Divina. We are hoping to experience the Logia through three-centered awareness of mind, body, and heart, not just the intellectual work that we've already done. This is a closed group, but I may be available in the Fall of this year to lead an in-person group for people interested who live in the Raleigh, NC area. You may contact me through email: whifferb@gmail.com.
Mary Travis
Wisdom calls us into a willingness to encounter and experience a new way of knowing and an ever-deepening experiential awareness of oneness. There is something about the Gospel of Thomas, when we hear it read, when we share where it resonates in our heart/body/soul, and when we hear others sharing how it resonates within them that draws us into deeper community with each other and our own being, as if the Logions of Yeshua have a life of their own that invests in our individual and collective unfolding.
It is my own profound experience of participating in a Gospel of Thomas group led by Bill that has stirred a deep desire within me to facilitate a Gospel of Thomas group myself. A safe space of acceptance and inclusion where the Lectio Divina style is complimented by the freedom to share and explore together in response to the logion as we grow both individually and as community. We are part of each other’s growth and unfolding!
I would like to offer a Gospel of Thomas group that meets Sunday afternoons from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. (ET). Each chapter will run 8 weeks with a two-three week break between chapters (as decided by the group). You are welcome to participate in as many or as few chapters as you feel you need to. Trust and community is built through continuity, but please know I understand that life happens and sometimes you may miss a session or need to arrive late or leave early. It is about being together not legalistic attendance.
The first meeting will be Sunday, April 3rd (2:30-4:00 p.m. ET) with the last meeting of the first chapter on May 22nd.
Paul Rietmann
A Taste of the Gospel of Thomas - a four week Zoom class
You are invited to join this four week Zoom class offering a “taste” of the Gospel of Thomas. Meditating on this ancient Gnostic Gospel provides fresh insights into the wisdom teachings of Jesus and facilitates ever deepening insights into the wisdom of our own souls. Using Lectio Divina and group reflection we will draw new insights from this deep well of ancient wisdom.
The class will meet the four Monday mornings of April from 9:00-10:00 AM Pacific Time, beginning on Monday, April 4. For more information and to sign up, please contact me at prietmann@gmail.com. I would love for you to join us.
Paul Rietmann, Thomas group facilitator
www.paulrietmann.com
Pam Butler
I have been a wisdom seeker for most of my life. Chasing after God, following that yearning found deep inside and in that sense, God has been there for me, leading me, guiding me along the way. And yet, there was still something missing.
Then a friend introduced me to Bill Redfield and I started taking his online classes and suddenly the pieces started coming together for me. Each week we were given the opportunity to meet in break out groups over zoom. I started feeling seen and loved by others that didn’t even know me. I am amazed how much our stories and our experiences overlap. These encounters have helped me along this path of finding connection in community.
I would like to walk along this path with you as well. In The Gospel of Thomas group, you will hear some familiar scripture, but with a living presence. There is something that moves when the group gathers. During our time together as we read the logion, someone sees something that I had never thought about or someone shares a life experience that is exactly what I am feeling. It is truly amazing, truly life changing.
If you are interested in joining this group or if you have questions, please feel free to contact me at: butlerpw711@gmail.com
Details: 8-week chapters with 2-3 weeks in between, where participants can decide if they wish to continue or to take a break. The idea is to commit to all 8 sessions (a chapter), but if you must miss one or two, not a problem. Sessions will be recorded on Zoom and sent out to the group.
Time: Tuesday 5-6:30 pm EST via Zoom