Holy Resistance: Becoming Mystics and Prophets ~ Advent Retreat
with Christine & John Valters Paintner, Coke Tani, Felicia Murrell, Jo-ed Tome, and Te Martin
Forum facilitators Amber Andreasen and Adrianne Dyer
November 30 – December 25, 2026
Opening live Zoom session on Monday, November 30th
4-6pm Ireland
11am-1pm Eastern
8-10am Pacific
This is the only live session, the rest of the retreat unfolds with daily pre-recorded content.
Advent tells us that a child born into a foreign occupied land in the humblest and most vulnerable of circumstances will change everything.
Program Description
Join us for a transformative four-week Advent journey exploring how four wise mystics of the 20th century speak their own words of holy resistance to our times.
The dominant culture we are immersed in races toward the end of December, bowing to the gods of consumption through excessive spending on gifts, and to the gods of productivity demanding that we socialize with every group we are a part of and work overtime to create a “magical” holiday experience. All of this is a distraction from a world where people suffer due to violence, poverty, racism, environmental destruction, and other kinds of neglect.
We are living through ever more chaotic and cruel times.
From authoritarian governments to climate chaos, from genocides to cost of living crises, we may sometimes feel singularly alone in how to respond to it all.
Advent tells us that a child born into a foreign occupied land in the humblest and most vulnerable of circumstances will change everything. We hear Mary’s Magnificat, reminding us that the mighty are overthrown. We encounter the God of love and compassion become flesh.
This retreat invites you into an alternate rhythm and way of being during these December days. Advent begins the new church year with its emphasis on waiting and holy birthing, it calls us out of chronos and linear time and into kairos or God’s time, the eternal now.
In times like these, we can call upon our spiritual ancestors, those who lived through their own horrors. The twentieth century brought two world wars with mass destruction of human life, alongside civil rights abuse and massacres.
This Advent we are calling upon four mystic-prophets who cultivated their connection to the divine and in that sacred intimacy found the strength and clarity to live a life in profound alignment with the gospels and Jesus’ witness to inclusivity, healing, and care for those most vulnerable. They lived in resistance to powers of destruction and cultivated ways of being that helped them to embrace life and beauty.
Join us as we embark on a four-week pilgrimage with Howard Thurman, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer guiding us through this season of holy waiting.
These guides held onto hope during profoundly disorienting and distressing times. They witnessed to a different way of being in the world. They offer us gifts. We need only listen and engage.
You have lifetime access to all online programs.
How the Retreat Unfolds
Sunday: Christine (pre-recorded session with teaching materials and meditation)
Monday: John (scripture reflection) (+ first week – opening live session with Christine and Te Martin)
Tuesday: Felicia Murrell (meditation)
Wednesday: Jo-ed Tome (writing or visual art explorations)
Thursday: Coke Tani (movement exploration)
Friday: Reflecting on the week
Saturday: Sabbath day of rest and integration
Weekly Themes
Week 1: Howard Thurman
Resist destruction | Embrace holy birthing
“An endless process of births is the perpetual answer of life to the fact of death.”
–Howard Thurman
Week 2: Simone Weil
Resist distraction | Embrace sacred attention
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
–Simone Weil
Week 3: Dorothy Day
Resist cynicism | Embrace beauty and the little way
“Truly ‘Love’ is the reason for it all.”
–Dorothy Day
Week 4: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Resist power | Embrace humble strength
“The throne of God in the world is not as human thrones, but is in the depths of the human soul, in the manger.”
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This retreat invites you into an alternate rhythm and way of being during these December days. Advent begins the new church year with its emphasis on waiting and holy birthing, it calls us out of chronos and linear time and into kairos or God’s time, the eternal now.
What's Included
- Six days each week you receive an email with a link to the day’s content. The 7th day is a time for rest and integration. The materials are in written, video, and/or audio format which you can view and listen to at any time.
- A lovingly facilitated forum is also included in this live version of the retreat. Feel free to share what you are discovering with a community of kindred souls.
- We will turn on closed captioning during the live Zoom session (which you are able to turn off in your settings if you find distracting) as well as provide a video recording with closed captioning available and a text transcript of the session. Captions and a transcript are available for all video material.
- The live Zoom session will be recorded for those who pre-register but are unable to attend at the scheduled time or who want to view again. You will be sent a notification when this is ready to view.
- You have lifetime access to all online programs.
Your Guides for the Journey
Christine Valters Paintner
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE is the online Abbess and director of AbbeyoftheArts.com, a virtual monastery exploring contemplative practice, creative expression, and ways to nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness. She is a spiritual director, teacher, pilgrimage guide, Benedictine oblate, and author of numerous books on spirituality and the arts. Her deepest belief is that the earth is the original monastery–a wisdom guide and mentor in living a soulful and vibrant life. Visit the “About Christine” page for more information.
John Valters Paintner
John Valters Paintner, MTS studied education and earned a teaching certificate in his home state of California. John later went on to earn a Masters in Theological Studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. After working in parish ministry for several years, John returned to the classroom, teaching high school religion for twelve years. He now works as Prior of the Abbey of the Arts alongside his wife of thirty years, Abbess Christine. Visit the “About John” page for more information.
Coke Tani
Colleen “Coke” Tani, MSW, MFA, MDiv lives, creates and facilitates at the intersection of spirituality, the arts and social justice/transformation. As a queer cisgender Asian American woman raised in the United Methodist Church and devoted to the intersectional Sacred Feminine, she is intrigued by the possibility of bodies as sacred texts. Coke currently provides soul care/spiritual coaching, teaches movement meditation and poem-making, and is composing a fragmented body memoir. CokeTani.com.
Felicia Murrell
Felicia Murrell is a spiritual director and the author of AND: The Restorative Power of Love In An Either/Or World. With over 20 years of church leadership experience, her writing has been featured multiple times in the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Daily Meditations and their biannual journal ONEING. As a contemplative thought leader, Felicia has spoken at the Black Contemplative Prayer Summit and other widely recognized organizations. She believes Love is the source of our authentic power and that a love ethos can be embodied as a way of being in the world. For Felicia, the Way of Love (agape) is to consciously participate with the Divine in how we live, move and have our being. Mom to 4 adult children, she makes her home in Woodbury, Minnesota (USA) with her husband, Doug. FeliciaMurrell.com.
Jo-ed Tome
Te Martin
Te Martin is a song-keeper and ritual artist whose work is shaped by the pacific ocean, coastal redwoods, desert gorges, circus arts, and theater games. Born on Ramaytush Ohlone land (san francisco), Te facilitates oral tradition singing spaces that center song as a tool for collective liberation, somatic regulation, and ancestral connection.
Te co-organized Thrive Street Choir in the san francisco Bay Area for six years, co-founded Mountain Song, a 4-day community singing gathering in the high desert of New Mexico, and is a student of Gaelic song and the Irish bodhrán drum.
In 2021, Te released their debut EP of original songs, Water & Bones, along with a professional music video for “May This Body Be a Bridge.”
Forum Facilitators
Adrianne Dyer
Adrianne Dyer serves as a spiritual companion and medical spiritual care provider. She delights in weaving her contemplative spirit with artistic expression. She believes writing and sharing stories in various forms can mend the soul, viewing each story as a vessel of insight and medicinal wisdom. For Adrianne, storytelling is healing. Her outlook is shaped by the tapestry of her culture and ancestors, the natural world, and the journeys she has shared with others.
Adrianne worked in education for 20 years. She earned a Master’s in Pastoral Studies from Seattle University. She serves as a spiritual companion and formation leader for Puget Sound SEEL (Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life). She is a student at the Center for Action and Contemplation and volunteers with the American Red Cross at the US Naval Hospital.
Adrianne is married, has two sons, and lives overseas supporting military families. She enjoys outdoor activities, reading, writing, quilting, and spending time with loved ones. She authored My Quilted Memoir: Stories Pieced Together from the Fabric of New Mexico.
Adrianne offers spiritual companionship online, by phone, or by email. Contact her to inquire.
Amber Andreasen
Amber Andreasen, PhD is a contemplative, ever desiring to deepen into and dance the rhythms of monk and artist. She has trained as a spiritual director, receiving her M.A. in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from The Institute of Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology. She has her B.S. and M.S. in Kinesiology and a Ph.D. in Holistic Nutrition. She has also done training in BioSpiritual Focusing as a holistic approach to spiritual growth. Wherever she finds herself, she desires to nurture a compassionate space where others can be listened, beheld and loved into fuller being by the Beloved. She is continually awed by the body as sacred storyholder and storyteller and by dance and movement as conduits of deep interior silence, stillness and joy. Her heart beats loudly for the weaving together of creativity and spirituality in the discovering of what it means to live an embodied, fully human life in all its mystery and wonder.
The mystics held onto hope during profoundly disorienting and distressing times. They witnessed to a different way of being in the world. They offer us gifts. We need only listen and engage.
Registration
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