A big thank you to both congregations from Andrea for the gift of a sabbatical. It was a wonderful time of renewal!

Andrea spent three weeks this summer in the New Hamlet of Plum Village, with ~200 guests, ~50 Buddhist nuns and staff. When the three hamlets of Plum Village gathered together to hear talks by the world renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, there were ~900 people all together. The focus of the 3 weeks was the practice of mindfulness – mindful breathing, walking, eating, talking, silence, dish washing – mindful everything.

The September 11th service was inspired, in part, by Andrea’s 3 weeks in Plum Village, and by the speakers this past Wednesday in Montreal at the "2nd Global Conference on World's Religions after 9/11", on the theme of 'Peace through Religion', and featuring, among others, the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, and Catholic theologian, Gregory Baum (http://www.gcwr2011.org/index.htm).