Fall Gathering 2023: Wonderful Music, Wise Words, Beautiful Moments

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By Clara Sims
Assistant Executive Director, IPL New Mexico & El Paso

This year’s Annual Gathering celebration, held at Monte Vista Christian Church in Albuquerque on October 19, was filled with wonderful music, wise words, and beautiful moments of honoring our Sprout and Seed awardees.

Bishop Hunn, Ryan Tate, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Clara Sims

Our panel discussion offered profound insight for pathways to healing sacred relationships in our world and we are grateful the event was recorded so folks can go back and revisit what was shared. Especially prominent in that conversation was the theme of ancestry – the pain, the beauty, the possibilities that can awaken in us as we become present to our ancestors’ living presence in us, in the land, in everything. I hope if you did not have the opportunity to attend that you will go back and listen to this rich conversation – it was a balm and an inspiration. Thank you Ryan, Eilleen, and Bishop Hunn!

Interwoven throughout our time together, was stunning music offered by David Poole.

Thank you, David, for offering and teaching us songs of peace and healing and hope for our beloved people and our beloved planet. May we all continue to find such needed, embodied ways to pray for healing and peace.

Thank You!

To our Sprout and Seed awardees – we thank you again for your incredible spirits of love and dedication to our sacred earth home. The words you offered in receiving these awards were full of such tenderness and wisdom and they were a beautiful reminder of all we learn about ourselves and one another when we pause to give thanks.

Here again, were our awardees this year:

  • SPROUT: Judy Smith, Congregation Albert Green Team and NM IPL Board Member
  • SPROUT: Sr. Odile Coirier, El Paso Organizer with NM & EL Paso Region IPL
  • SPROUT: Norm Gaume, Middle Rio Grande Advocates
  • SPROUT: Caryl McHarney, educator and eco-artist
  • SEED: Little Sisters of the Poor with Villa Guadalupe Care Facility

Continuing in a spirit of thanksgiving, we want to give a special shout out to our Annual Gathering Planning team: Hayley, Cynthia, Ruth, Terry, Emma, Arcelia and Joan! From the delicious, locally sourced food to the delightful offerings of the evening, to the photography and video duties, you made it possible. Thank you!

We ended the event with a reflection from  Clara Sims, IPL NM/EP assistant executive director. Here is the closing blessing