Glastonbury Abbey's
Listening to Other Voices
Listening to Other Voices 2024-2025 series...
Does Prayer Matter? Faith Perspectives
Listening to Other Voices is now in its 26th season! Sharing the particular insights of various faith traditions, the speakers will address how their own faith addresses this question. All presentations will take place at the Morcone Center on the Glastonbury Abbey campus at 7:15 PM. While we do offer all presentations virtually, we urge in person attendance to enjoy the full experience of each speaker. Click here for more information on the program.
October 17, 2024 Christian Wiman
The Days We Cannot Pray: Poetry, Prayer, and Other Forms of Listening.
Christian Wiman author, and current Professor of the Practice of Religion and Literature at Yale University.
Click here to register for Christian Wiman.
November 21, 2024 Swami Tyagananda
Prayer as a Spiritual Discipline
Swami Tyagananda is a Hindu monk of the Ramakrishna Order and presently the head of the Vedanta Society in Boston. Currently he is the Hindu chaplain at MIT and Harvard University.
Click here to register for Swami Tyagananda.
January 16, 2025 Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones
Prayer as Soul Talk: An Enriching Practice for Spiritual Engagement
Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones is an adjunct professor of social ethics, preaching, and pastoral ministry at Andover Newton Theological School.
Click here to register for Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones.
February 20, 2025 Chaplain Omer Bajwa
Conversing With God: An Islamic Approach to Ritual Prayer
Chaplain Omer Bajwa serves as Director of Muslim Life in the Chaplain’s Office at Yale University and is a Lecturer at Yale Divinity School.
Click here to register for Chaplain Omer Bajwa.
March 20, 2025 Kathleen Noone Deignan, CND. Ph.D.
Prayer Matters in the Dark Night of Creation-The Ecological Wisdom of Thomas Merton
Sr. Kathleen Deignan, C.N.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Religious and Environmental Studies at Iona College and President Emerita of the International Thomas Merton Society.
Click here to register for Sr. Kathleen Deignan.
April 24, 2025 Cantors Rosalie Will and Ellen Dreskin
Heart of the Matter: A Jewish Musical Perspective on the Significance of Prayer
Cantor Dreskin and Cantor Will are both leaders in communal worship and ritual and bring their collective musical abilities to this presentation.
Click here to register for Cantors Dreskin and Will.
The is program is offered by the Glastonbury Abbey Listening to Other Voices interfaith lecture series, which is an extension of the rich Benedictine monastic teaching tradition found at the Abbey.
All our programs are offered free, but donations are gratefully received to cover the costs of producing our programs online. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.
Listening to Other Voices celebrated 25 years with its 2023-2024 series...
Please click here for the press release. And click here for the story published in the Hingham Anchor.
What Does it Mean to be Fully Human? A Faith Perspective
Sharing the particular insights of various faith traditions, the speakers addressed how their own tradition looked at our human story. And the speakers were truly ecumenical in scope for the 2023-24 program, coming from very varied traditions. Click here for more information on the program.
Almost all 2023-24 presentations were recorded and available for personal viewing only (see links below).
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, "Acknowledging Relationship: A Recall of the Conscious Heart."
This was not recorded: Shabana Basiq-Rasikh, president and co-founder of SOLA, the first boarding school for girls in Afghanistan, "Seek Knowledge, Even to the Ends of the Earth."
Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director Religion & Society Program at Aspen Institute, “The Light We Give: Sikh Wisdom on Seeing Our Shared Humanity.”
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, "A Faith Perspective from Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry."
Rabbi Karyn Kedar, senior rabbi at Congregation BJBE in Chicago, “Building a Vessel of Compassion.”
Narayan Helen Liebensen, guiding teacher of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, "What Does it Mean to be a Human Being?"
The is program is offered by the Glastonbury Abbey Listening to Other Voices interfaith lecture series, which is an extension of the rich Benedictine monastic teaching tradition found at the Abbey.
All our programs are offered free, but donations are gratefully received to cover the costs of producing our programs online. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.
Our 2023-2024 series...
What Does it Mean to be Fully Human? A Faith Perspective
Sharing the particular insights of various faith traditions, the speakers will address how their own tradition looks at our human story. And the speakers are truly ecumenical in scope for this year’s program, coming from very varied traditions. Click here for more information on the program.
Almost all 2023-24 presentations were recorded and available for personal viewing only (see links below).
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, "Acknowledging Relationship: A Recall of the Conscious Heart."
This was not recorded: Shabana Basiq-Rasikh, president and co-founder of SOLA, the first boarding school for girls in Afghanistan, "Seek Knowledge, Even to the Ends of the Earth."
Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director Religion & Society Program at Aspen Institute, “The Light We Give: Sikh Wisdom on Seeing Our Shared Humanity.”
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, "A Faith Perspective from Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry."
Rabbi Karyn Kedar, senior rabbi at Congregation BJBE in Chicago, “Building a Vessel of Compassion.”
Narayan Helen Liebensen, guiding teacher of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, "What Does it Mean to be a Human Being?"
The is program is offered by the Glastonbury Abbey Listening to Other Voices interfaith lecture series, which is an extension of the rich Benedictine monastic teaching tradition found at the Abbey.
All our programs are offered free, but donations are gratefully received to cover the costs of producing our programs online. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.
Christian Wiman
Swami Tyagananda
Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones
Chaplain Omer Bajwa
Kathleen Noone Deignan, CND. Ph.D.
Cantors Rosalie Will and Ellen Dreskin
Our 2022-2023 series...
The Journey Continues: Reclaiming the Heart of Faith
This year our lecture series looked at the state of religion in America, where our traditions seem to be now and where they may be going. All 2022-23 presentations are recorded and available for personal viewing only (see links below). For more information on the 2022-23's lecture series content, click here.
Diana Butler Bass, PhD, award-winning author & inspiring teacher, "Freeing Jesus and Freeing Ourselves."
Imam Asif Hirani, scholar & author, "Purifying Hearts with the Divine Guidance and the Process of Self Development."
Rabbi Noa Kushner, writer & Rabbi, “Connecting Heaven and Earth: Building Modern Religious Community in San Francisco.”
Brian McLaren, author, activist, theologian, "Staying Christian When the Church is on Fire."
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, UCC pastor & intergenerational speaker, “Dancing in the Darkness.”
Rev. James Martin, SJ, Catholic priest & author, "Where is the Church Going? A Conversation with James Martin, SJ."
These recordings are offered free, but donations are gratefully received to cover the costs of producing them. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.
Our 2021-2022 series...
Hope and Healing in a Fractured World:
A Faith Response
Almost all of the 2021-22 presentations are recorded and available for personal viewing only (see links below). For more information on the 2021-22's lecture series content, click here.
The theme of the 2021-22 interfaith lecture series centered on the fractures, the breaks and the antagonisms that we find today in church and society. Our featured speakers addressed the crises with faith and hope. They also have the experience of having already faced these problems and thereby gave us hope.
Pádraig Ó Tuama, poet & theologian, "What Were You Arguing About Along the Way?" (recording not available).
Rev. Bryan Massingale, Catholic priest & social ethicist, "A Spirituality of Racial Metanoia."
Cantor Rosalie Will, worship leader & performer, "Prayer, Song, Breath...Healing for Self and Community."
Rabbi Ariel Burger, author, teacher & artist, “In Search of Melody: Reweaving the Bonds of Human Community in 2022.” (recording not available).
David Gushee, Christian ethicist, "Torn Asunder: How White Evangelicalism Became a Central Part of Our National Fracturing."
Traci Blackmon, UCC pastor & Activist, “Embracing the Power of WE.”
These recordings are offered free, but donations are gratefully received to cover the costs of producing them. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.
Our 2020-2021 series...
"We All Live in the Same House"*
A Faith Response to Climate Change
*Rep John R. Lewis
The future of our earth is in crisis! Many seem asleep to this reality and feel uncertain about what they can do. In this series we heard from various interfaith speakers who shared their insights on how we can help the natural environment.
The 2020-2021 virtual interfaith lecture series is now completed but you can access recordings of all five lectures. Click on the links below to access the recordings on our YouTube channel:
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
"Our Essential Interdependence: of Souls, Nations, Faiths, and Species"
Rev. Jim Antal
"God's Call - Our Voices - in a Time of Climate Chaos"
Cary Wollinsky
"Burning Oz, Why Australia Is So Weird"
Nana Firman
"Walking Gently On Earth"
Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
"Laudato Si: The Cry of the Earth, the Cry of the Poor"
These recordings are offered free, but donations are gratefully received to cover the costs of producing them. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.