Remembering What You Never Knew: Discovering Your Ancestral Legacies
Live in-person
WEEK 1 July 10-15
M-Th 9AM-12PM
For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years. Think for a moment – How many struggles? How many battles? How many difficulties? How much sadness? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? – did your ancestors undergo for you to exist in this present moment?
Like the double helix of DNA, history, and genealogy gives us our genetic, sociological, psychological, and spiritual identities. Lived experiences (genealogy) and the reflection on those experiences (history) shape a double helix.
This workshop uses the genogram to connect the stories between these spiral ladders. An annotated family tree, the genogram reveals physical, emotional, spiritual, and vocational hereditary patterns. These patterns form relationships and identify how family history is connected to the larger historical narrative.
“History belongs to the intercessors – those who believe and pray the future into being.” Walter Wink. Intercessory prayer can heal the past so the future can flourish. Using the genogram as a discernment tool shows us what and how to pray.
In preparation for this workshop, identifying at least three generations of your family members, ancestors, or descendants, will be beneficial.
Rev. Dr. Paula Owens Parker
Presenter
Rev. Dr. Paula Owens Parker is the program associate for The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA, and the senior program developer of Roots Matter LLC. Dr. Parker is the creator of RAPHA: A Course in Contemplative Healing Prayer, a spiritual director, and a certified facilitator of Emotional Emancipation Circles (EEC), originated by the Community Healing Network.
Dr. Parker holds a BA in Sociology from Fisk University, an M.Div. from Union Presbyterian Seminary, and a D.Min. from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She is an advisory board member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network and a presenter for the North Carolina Institute for Spiritual Direction and Formation.
Dr. Parker is the author of Roots Matter: Healing History, Honoring Heritage, Renewing Hope (2016) which recognizes the impact of generational trauma in the African American community. She has contributed articles to Healing Line, Christian Century and Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology and chapters in Kaleidoscope: Broadening the Palette in the Art of Spiritual Direction (2019) and Walking through the Valley: Womanist Explorations in the Spirit of Katie Geneva Cannon. (forthcoming 2022)
5-day Workshop with Lunch Commuter Rate: $75
Workshop with Meals & Overnight Stays: $625
Learning Grant Rate: $125