Meet our presenters
Lifelong social change advocates Jim Tull and Karina Lutz have been facilitating this workshop for seven years.They were trained in The Work That Reconnects by Buddhist eco-philosopher Joanna Macy.
Jim is a teacher and social activist with 35 years of experience in confronting local, national and international social problems. Formerly, Jim directed Amos House, a Catholic Worker-inspired hospitality house offering meals, shelter and social services to the poor and homeless in Providence. Since then, he has taught courses in Community Service, Social Change, Philosophy, and Peace, Environmental, and Global Studies at several Rhode Island colleges. He facilitates workshops and retreats on community building and cultural transformation. 
Karina is a workshop leader, poet, yoga teacher, and permaculturist. She was co-founder of People’s Power & Light, a nonprofit energy consumers’ alliance with a mission to make energy affordable and environmentally sustainable. She has been a writer and editor and involved in sustainable energy issues for three decades.
Jim and Karina are co-founders and co-owners of Listening Tree Cooperative, an intentional community in Chepachet, RI, focused on living and demonstrating the Great Turning.
The Work That Reconnects
Restoring our selves
our ecology
and our interbeing
Bolton Congregational Church
Bolton, CT
Burnout is endemic to social and environmental justice advocates as unstable social systems worldwide seem to have lost credibility, effectiveness, or their veneer of sanity. We can look at it as "the Great Unraveling"--that systems are collapsing. Or we can see that unsustainable systems must change, and some unraveling is necessary for the scale of change we need at this point. To move towards a healthy, peaceful, and life-sustaining culture will require transformation of our social systems and structures. This "Great Turning" will also require shifting our awareness: to see in systems--how life flows and relates--and to reconnect with life itself.
Starting with gratitude for living in earth, we'll move into honoring our pain for the state of the world, then see with new eyes--looking at the world through a holistic, systems-based and life-affirming paradigm--and finally end with exercises to help us go forth into the world with renewed passion, clarity, and a sense of ‘power with’--instead of the prevailing ‘power over.’ This process, developed by Joanna Macy and colleagues, is called the spiral of The Work that Reconnects. Developed in response to the nuclear threat and environmental degradation, Jim and Karina also apply it to anti-oppression and other social justice and cultural healing issues. It's all connected, truly.
Dana accepted. $50 suggested, but no one will be turned away.
Bring a bag lunch. Water, coffee, and tea will be provided.
OUR ORGANIZERS