Climate Grief

(13+)

with Anna Bigland-Pritchard

Participants can expect to create a container to uncover inner resources for coping with climate grief, and more safely explore our feelings about the climate crisis. Participants can expect an expressive arts approach, which can include movement, music, visual art, and writing. No experience with those mediums is necessary to participate.

about the facilitator

Deeply resourced by studies in expressive arts therapy, as well as extensive classical music and community leadership training, Anna uses a mindful, earth-centred practice of art-making to help others to feel supported through the joys and challenges of life. Anna believes art must be activism, true self-care and community-care are an act of bold resistance, and that the expressive arts are a tool for both self-care and social change.

Take To The Streets

with Rachelle Friesen + Julie Brown

DESCRIPTION TO COME

about the facilitators

Rachelle (she/her) trained with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in 2017. Since then she has been the Canada Coordinator for CPT which has allowed her to do accompaniment work in Iraqi Kurdistan and at the US Mexico Border. She is also the coordinator for the Turtle Island Solidarity Network that focuses on Indigenous solidarity. Prior to working with CPT, Rachelle spent 5 years in Palestine doing peace work. Rachelle has a passion and background in nonviolent direct action, decolonization, and local peacemaking. Julie trained with CPT in 2015 and spent four years on the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan field team before taking a position as CPT’s Outreach Coordinator.

Ritual and Community Building

(All ages welcome, but participants should know that mature content and language will be used.)

with Kimmothy Cole

The creation and engagement of shared culture invites us into community. In environments where folx assemble from various backgrounds, the formation of shared culture can be a key to unlock a sense of shared vision. Ritual is one way to co-create a shared identity based on the specific needs and preferences of community participants. Ritual and Community Building begins with conversation and Kimmothy sharing about the structure and tools of ritual. Participants will then utilize this information and their own knowledge and aesthetic preferences to practice inventing new rituals for their daily practice or community space. Participation in ritual building is encouraged, but observers are welcome.

about the facilitator

Kimmothy Cole (they/them) is an educator, collaborator, performer, designer and ritual artist. Their work is oriented around small-impact, ripple-effect methods of sharing that include healing practices, space creation and equipping members of their community to (re)discover their capacity to be the authors of the changes they wish to see. Their work grows from experiences with devised theatre, songwriting, herbalism, LARP (live action role playing), faith-based community practices, choreography, immersive performance and community organizing. They are currently serving as the Coordinator for Communitas, a community initiative and sacred collective based out of Austin, TX. Their ritual, instructional and performance work has been featured at festivals, venues and domestic spaces across the US.

Love Tenderly Olympics

(All ages)

with Tim O’Connor + Elle Crevits + Shannon Neufeldt

An annual classic at Camp Micah, the Love Tenderly Olympics come to Cahoots for the first time ever. Bring your competitive edge, but remember, this is a team event! All your skill, creativity, and cooperation will be required to complete each activity TOGETHER! People of all ages and abilities are welcome. The more diversity, the more creative the teams will be challenged to be! Can you build a human pyramid or get your whole team over the river of piranhas without “losing a limb”? Brought to you by Camp Micah staff and youthful camp alumni.

about the facilitators

Tim has been playing the Love Tenderly Olympics for 15+ years. As a recently retired high-school teacher – the kind that is everyone’s favourite teacher – he knows how to get people motivated…and make people laugh. He may say it with a straight face-but look out for the twist! Elle started in these Olympics at the tender age of 15. After several years as a competitor, she has now logged more years as a coach and judge. She says, “I am a whole-hearted, down-to-earth, and compassionate teacher at heart. I am a life-long learner that believes we can only do what we believe we can. In my spare time you can find me in the kitchen, whipping up the next batch of delicious, or around the dinner table using food as tool to build community and connection. Shannon is the relative newcomer to the Love Tenderly Olympics team with just 3 years of practice, but Shannon and her family are also experienced Cahoots participants. A professional social justice activist, Shannon is committed to building community and passing on a passion for justice. Years as a camp counsellor solidified her appreciation for this type of team building cooperative games.

Playing the Holy Fool

(12+)

with Mäki Ashe Van Steenwyk

Within Christianity there is a strange subset of the prophet called the “Holy Fool.” Holy Fools defy social convention in both word and action–sometimes in bizarre ways–out of their religious devotion. In this workshop, we will engage this “archetype” of the Holy Fool. We learn about specific historical examples, spend time in spiritual practice, and explore ways of allowing the Holy Fool to shape our praxis in the world.

about the facilitator

Mäki Ashe Van Steenwyk (they/them) is a writer, teacher, organizer, and spiritual director. For nearly 15 years, they have sown seeds of subversive spirituality throughout North America. Ashe is is the Executive Director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination in Minneapolis. They co-founded the Mennonite Worker in Minneapolis in 2004 with their spouse Amy. Ashe is the author of That Holy Anarchist, unKingdom, and A Wolf at the Gate.

Biblical Storytelling for Beginners

(All ages welcome, though participation will be easier for those who are able to read.)

with Michele Rizoli

We will take a piece of scripture and bring it to life by creatively telling it in our own words. Come and see how stories you have heard before take on new meaning when told by your Cahoots friends!

about the facilitator

Michele (she/her) is a pastor who is passionate about lifting scripture off the page and recovering the tradition of oral storytelling. She is a member of the Network of Biblical Storytellers.

Screenprinting – Drop In (All ages)

with Rachel + Astrid Erb

Once again we will be offering folks the opportunity to make their own Cahoots apparel. Bring a shirt, skirt, bed sheet, knickers, etc., and adorn it with the lovely Cahoots logo. If you have a Cahoots shirt that you made last time and no longer want, bring it along to give it to someone else.

about the facilitators

Rachel and Astrid are a mom and daughter living in Kingston, Ontario where they’ve spent many years learning together as homeschoolers and dabbling in various artsy-craftsy and musical endeavours.

BikePacking and Stealth Camping 101 (All ages)

with Mark Graves

We will begin by looking at the ways that biking allows us to interact with the world and how to get started in bikepacking. We’ll talk about hardware, bikes, routes and where to set up for the night, whether that is stealth camping or parks or public lands. Lower technology equals more connectedness!

about the facilitator

Mark has wandered through many careers over the past 30+ years. He has pastored, started IT businesses, worked as a bicycle mechanic, corporate trainer, writer, musician and manager. In 2017 when his corporate career eroded he rode his bicycle from his home in Stratford across North America. It is in this that he discovered a new enjoyment in bike-packing and cycling. He is a passionate advocate and evangelist of seeing the world from the seat of a bicycle.

Like a Tree Planted By Streams of Water: contemplative prayer in the forest (12+)

with Leanne Wild

This workshop will use the practice of silent attentiveness to/in the woods as well as practices and texts from various ancient forms of christian contemplative prayer to provide an opportunity for prayer (possibly unlike anything you’ve called prayer before!) in and among the community of the forest: our fellow created beings. It could be called ‘lectio natura’ (something like ‘lectio divina’, an ancient method of prayer through silent attentiveness to specific words of scripture): we will ‘read’ from the book of creation. As we slowly wander a path through the woods we will alternately listen (to short readings; questions or prompts), perceive, meditate, share observations, walk, stand and sit.

about the facilitator

Leanne has been a community development worker, trainer of camp leaders, writer, high school drama teacher, grief support facilitator, and theology student, and has been a lover of both the woods and Jesus since she can remember. Her recent experience of homeschooling led to new ways of seeing and being in the woods; and her experience of a Theology course in Contemplative Prayer led to new ways of knowing and understanding prayer. Together, these discoveries have opened a space for praying in a way that is instinctive, gentle and powerful, and she has been sharing it with others whenever she can.

Drag as a Spiritual Practice: Theology and Performance Art

with King Julez

In this session we will look at the history of drag and very key figures in the development and popularization of the art. Participants will learn the different forms of drag, queer performance, theatre, and music. Participants will be guided through different skills and themes that artists have needed through the ages, and how drag can now fit into religious spheres as an expression of theology.

about the facilitator

Julian/ King Julez (they/them) is the chair of Affirm United/S’affirmer Ensemble, a national non-profit organization that works for full inclusion and affirmation of 2S-LGBTQ+ folks in religious spaces and in all of society, and a board member for Student Christian Movement. After getting a BA in Diversity and Equity, King Julez is studying their Masters of Divinity with the goal of becoming a drag clown reverend with their own congregation to serve. Drag as a spiritual practice embodies theology and works to express understandings of God’s word in new and exciting ways while paying homage to the queer artists that paved the way so we can exist freely in the world today.

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