 January/February 2000 (XXXVIII 1) |
Nurturing the Spirit in Recovery program begins Thursday, January 6, under the care of Central Philadelphia Meeting and the PYM Family Relations Concerns Group. The program will meet weekly from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at Friends Center, 15th and Cherry streets, Philadelphia. Participants are welcome to begin the program at any session.
Nurturing the Spirit in Recovery provides a space for the spiritual nurture of those suffering from addiction or codependence, and anyone seeking a spiritual path in recovery or stress relief. Quaker workaholics are invited to explore the basis of that addiction.
NSIR is a spiritual discipline that uses discussion, Friendly prayer techniques, and other meditation forms to help people live in the virtue that takes away the occasion for all addictions and the violence inherent within those addictive patterns. Centering prayer, worship sharing, opening to the Light, mindfulness of breath, and Hatha Yoga stretching are all used as tools to explore the destructive inner forces that often are the seeds of addiction, and for the relief of stress. As the program engages the individual, self-revelation grows, leading to a coherent spiritual experience within the concept of addiction recovery.
The program will be facilitated by Sam Chamberlain, a sojourning member of Central Philadelphia Meeting, initially under the guidance of NSIR creator Richard Squailia of Willistown Meeting (PA). Richard, a graduate of The School of the Spirit, has facilitated the NSIR group at Willistown for the past three years. He has taught many of the same techniques in a stress management class for medical students at Thomas Jefferson University. Sam practiced similar techniques in his self-generated recovery while serving six years in federal prison for marijuana cultivation. He is a member of the Drug Concerns Working Group.
Inquiries may be made at mwhaley@unix.temple.edu.
Sam Chamberlain
Central Philadelphia Meeting
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM