The Forum at Grace Cathedral with John Philip Newell (In-Person)

Can the wisdom of Celtic spirituality help heal the earth, overcome our conflicts, and reconnect us to the sacredness of the earth and one another?

John Philip Newell (born 1953) is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of the earth and every human being. In his most recent book, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, he writes: “The crises that we are in the midst of today, whether ecological, political, or societal, stem from the fact that we treat the earth and one another as less than sacred.”

Each year the cathedral chooses a theme for inspiration and reflection, and in 2022 our theme is connection. Join Dean Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Newell about how his earth-based spirituality can help us rediscover our connection with God, with each other and with the earth.

We hope you will join us for this first in-person Forum since March 2020. John Philip Newell also preaches at Choral Eucharist at 11 a.m.

The Forum will be posted on our Youtube channel for viewing on the following day.

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. Click here to give or text Think to 76278.

About the guest

John Philip Newell (born 1953) is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of the earth and every human being. Canadian by birth, and a citizen also of Scotland, he resides with his family in Edinburgh and works on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2016 he began the School of Earth and Soul (originally called the School of Celtic Consciousness) and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland. His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books, including A New Ancient Harmony, Sounds of the Eternal, The Rebirthing of God, and his latest major publication Sacred Earth Sacred Soul. Read more …

About the Book

The Celtic spiritual tradition is a clear-flowing stream that can help us in this hot and thirst moment in which we find ourselves. –Bill McKibben

John Philip Newell has been leading the way for a number of years now…And I’m convinced that we’ve only begun to see just how far and wide his voice is going to be heard. – Rob Bell

This is not merely a book about the wisdom of Celtic saints and seers of the past. It is a work of a contemporary Celtic prophet urging the world to awaken. – Diana Butler Bass

I commend this book to anyone who is ready to be born again. – Barbara Brown Taylor

We, including a new generation of readers, need this Celtic wisdom urgently. – Richard Rohr

About the host  

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.    

About  The  Forum 

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host, Malcolm Clemens Young, the dean of Grace Cathedral, and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.   More about Grace Forum Online

Host or Publisher Grace Cathedral, San Francisco