Events Details
Date: October 30, 2026 - November 1, 2026Time: All Day
Sponsor: Creation Spirituality Communities Website: https://www.cscommunities.org/gathering2026
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Location Details
Event Location:Mercy Conference and Retreat Center, 2039 North Geyer Road, St. Louis, Mo, United States
Details
Defiant Love: Nurturing Resilient Community is the 2026 CSC Gathering, held October 30 through November 1 at Mercy Retreat Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Register here.
More than a conference, the weekend is designed as a participatory experience of learning, ritual, creativity, ecological consciousness, and community. Together we will explore what it means to nurture resilient communities capable of responding to difficult times with courage, imagination, responsibility, joy, and what we are calling “Defiant Love.”
The Gathering brings together many voices rather than centering a single keynote. Matthew Fox, Brian Swimme, Ursula Goodenough, J. D. Stillwater, Nancy Ellen Abrams, and others will contribute through dialogue, presentations, ritual, storytelling, and shared reflection. Participants will also learn with St. Louis educators and storytellers exploring land, labor, memory, and legacy, and hear emerging voices from young filmmakers and artists reflecting on their relationship with Earth and the future they are inheriting. Read more below in the Voices of the Gathering.
Defiant Love: Nurturing Resilient Community
Dates: October 30 to November 1, 2026
Location: Mercy Retreat Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Participation: In person or online through selected livestreamed sessions
Registration: Residential, commuter, and virtual participation options are available
One of the distinctive experiences of the weekend will be Saturday evening’s All Beings Cosmic Masquerade, a participatory Halloween celebration weaving together masks, ritual, music, movement, storytelling, grief, gratitude, and ecological imagination. Rather than simply talking about hope and resilience, the Masquerade invites participants to embody them together through creativity and celebration.
Come deepen your connection with one another, the living Earth, Spirit, the cosmos, and your fullest self as we imagine what faithful, loving resistance can look like in difficult times.
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Event Posted by: Brian Dorsett
