How do you connect with God or experience the mystery of the divine?  In this workshop we will discuss different types of prayer and meditation, and focus on a few specific types of prayer including: praying with icons, guided meditation, and centering prayer. Prayer is often not seen as being multi-dimensional and is more about listening than talking. We will also explore the connection between contemplation and action:  how can our devotional life lead to greater engagement in the world?

Biography: The Rev’d Joel Nau

Pastor Joel Nau is the Chaplain for Lumen Episcopal/Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Utah.  He was born in Buffalo, New York, and received degrees from Arizona State University, the University of Illinois, and the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest (on the campus of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest). His interests include mythology, church history, and rhetoric.  Joel and his wife, Annie, have two children, Sam and Bekah. In his spare time he enjoys distance running and discovering forgotten films on Netflix.

Biography: Tyler Pruessner

Tyler Pruessner is the Province VII representative of the Episcopal Student Leadership Team (ESLT). He is currently a Healthcare Administration senior at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. He was raised in the Church of Christ and discovered the Episcopal denomination during his first year at Texas State. He values the Episcopal Church's unifying, accepting, diverse, and liturgical atmosphere. In his spare time, he enjoys running and reading.

Workshop: Mission in the 21st Century Workshop

Times are certainly changing- what does this mean for evangelism, stewardship, and the entire way we understand the mission of the church? This workshop will guide participants to talk about emerging challenges and opportunities, what has and has not worked for the Episcopal Church in the past, and what new things (such as technology and other aspects of our lives) can point the way to becoming effective stewards of the Good News.

Biography: Terry Parsons

Terry Parsons became the Program Officer of Diocesan Services for the Episcopal Church in April 2008 after working more than eleven years as the Stewardship Officer. Before beginning her work with the Church in 1996, she worked as a magazine editor, a marketing consultant to small businesses, and a director of development for a not-for-profit agency.

Workshop:  Christian Sexual Ethics: A Young Adult Perspective

When it comes to sexual ethics in today’s world, the Episcopal Church is being true to our heritage: we are living into a reality before we have worked out the theology of it. College students -- straight, gay, and other – often want to be guided by our faith traditions as we navigate our sexual lives, but what does that mean in 2008? Students from Canterbury Northwestern are creating spaces for dialogue about sexual ethics both at Northwestern and in the wider church. Foundational questions for this conversation include: "What is Christian identity?" "What makes any ethic a Christian ethic?" and "What would a church have to look like for me to feel safe being honest about my sexual life there?" Our conversation is guided by a desire to live authentically and to understand how embodiment affects our spiritual journeys both as individuals and as a community.

Our conversation will be led by Canterbury students and by: Kelby Harrison, PhD Candidate in the Department of Philosophy, and Gender Studies program at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the intersection of ethics (secular and theological) and sexuality (identity and practice). The Rev. Liz Stedman, chaplain to Canterbury Northwestern.  She holds a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

How Am I Called: Discernment & Vocation - Panel

On our journey to seek, encounter, and embody the light within ourselves, we cannot help but wonder where that journey may take us and what role we will have in the church. Each member of the panel has an active role in the church, but is not necessarily an ordained pastor. One student is currently involved in the ordination process; another decided it was not right for him a few months before he would have started. Come to this panel and ask students and theologians about their faith journeys. Come prepared to ask questions or just to listen in!

Biography: Canon Sue Cromer

Sue Cromer is canon for Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Diocese of Chicago. Sue played an important role in redeveloping the Diocese of Chicago Ordination process to help mold it for all persons who meet the ordination requirements so that the Diocese of Chicago attracts a diverse set of candidates for ordination who offer a dynamic set of life experiences. Sue has worked with hundreds of young adults over the course of her lay ministry and has walked with several individuals through the ordination process.

Biography: Ms Ann Urinoski

Ann Urinoski is the Province III representative to the Episcopal Student Leadership Team (ESLT).  She grew up in Watchung, New Jersey attending the Church of the Holy Cross in North Plainfield. Ann is excited to have recently started the discernment process in the Diocese of New Jersey. She is a senior at the University of Delaware, where she is president of her school's Episcopal Campus Ministry. Ann Urinoski is also president of Province 3's Higher Education Leadership Team (PHELT). On her vacation time, she enjoys reading and writing and is most often found at home with her family in Gulfport, Mississippi and Somerville, New Jersey.

Biography: Mr. Steve Ishmael

Steve Ishmael attended the University of Illinois and graduated in 2008 with a B.S. in Psychology. While there, Steve was a peer minister at the Canterbury Association. He explored a call to ordained ministry throughout college and was accepted to Yale Divinity School.  However, he did not pursue a career in Ordained Ministry and now works at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. While attending University of Illinois, he had the privilege of planning Gather and a Provincial Gathering. He has also represented the Episcopal Church on an Ecumenical Group of young adults and students called the Council for Ecumenical Student Christian Ministry. He has had the wonderful opportunity to deliver guest 'sermons' at several venues in the United States. Steve believes we are all called to simply be ourselves in a world that sometimes asks us to be so much more. Come to "How I am Called" to hear more of Steve's story and how he understands the role of Ordained and Lay leadership in the Church.

Workshop: Spiritual Leadership Workshop

This multi-media workshop, led by the Reverend Shirley Bowen, helps students explore how they can think about their leadership roles in new ways and how they can turn dominance-based leadership into servant-leadership.

Biography: The Rev’d Shirley Bowen

The Reverend Shirley Bowen is the Missioner for Campus Ministry for the Diocese of Maine and Episcopal Chaplain at the University of Southern Maine. The grounding of the chaplaincy in Maine is "Faith in Action - Christ's Hands & Feet in the World". Shirley also serves as one of the chaplains on the Episcopal Student Leadership Team.

Q & A Discussion with Fr Michael Battle

Father Michael Battle, provost and canon theologian for the Diocese of Los Angeles, and priest-in-charge of the Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel, is a well-known writer, speaker, and retreat leader. His ministry covers the globe and focuses on Christian non-violence, human spirituality, and African Church studies.

Father Michael lived in residence with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa for two years, 1993-1994, and was ordained a priest in South Africa by Desmond Tutu in 1993. He has written many books, including "Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu", "The Wisdom of Desmond Tutu", "The Church Enslaved: A Spirituality of Racial Reconciliation, and "Blessed Are The Peacemakers: A Christian Spirituality of Nonviolence".

The Spirituality of Sustainability

Extreme poverty afflicts nearly half the world's population, while the average American consumes and consumes, eventually discarding 1,460 pounds of trash per year. How can we pray to God with a clean conscious when we have so much and our global neighbors have so little?

In this workshop, we take a hands-on and hearts-on approach to this problem.  By investigating a spirituality of ‘attention-al’ privation, we will learn to pray and live in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are in want.  Through an engagement with the Millennium Development Goals and sustainability, we explore how the church is making a difference in the world.  Particular emphasis will be placed upon the international development work of Episcopal Relief & Development.

Biography: Luke Fodor, Episcopal Relief & Development's Church Relations Network Coordinator, manages ERD's national network of diocesan, parish, and seminarian volunteers and speaks widely on Millennium Development Goals and sustainability. Impassioned by environmental issues, Luke participated in the Episcopal Church Center's ‘815 Green Team’ which works to raise awareness and ‘green’ corporate church practices.  Luke is a postulant from the Diocese of Long Island in his junior year at Bexley Hall Seminary in Columbus, OH.  Luke is married to Willow Fodor and they have one son, Aidan