The international yearly John Main Seminar will be held in-person and virtually in New Harmony, Indiana, USA July 8-13, 2024. Full details of the 40th John Main seminar are available on the seminar website.
The John Main Seminar has been an annual event since 1984. It was established to honor John Main’s memory and develop the influence of his teaching in new fields and dialogue with the modern world.
Archbishop Jason Gordon from Trinidad and Tobago will be leading the Seminar and with Laurence Freeman, he will help to guide the synodal discussions. Previous presenters include the Dalai Lama, Bede Griffiths, John Main, Mary McAleese, Bernard McGinn, Richard Rohr, Charles Taylor, Thomas Keating, and Sarah Bachelard.
The title of this year’s Seminar comes from the prophet Isaiah (54:2). The whole verse goes on: ‘Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.’ He delivered this message 2,800 years ago at a dangerous crisis in the life of his people. It is no less a call we need to hear, understand and act on in the global crisis of our time.
Our WCCM history is intertwined with this historic town, more aptly described as a village or a “space away”. In 1991, Fr. Bede Griffiths led the John Main Seminar in New Harmony, with the theme “The New Creation in Christ: Christian Meditation and Community”. Our name was inaugurated at that seminar, embodying many new hopes and plans. It was a true Pentecost moment.
Join this return to New Harmony with a contemplative gathering of individuals from all over the world to discern, and through discourse and silence, participate in ways to ‘widen our tents’.