Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute has announced two new opportunities for formation and mentorship, each being piloted during the 2023-24 academic year.
GEII is offering the Graymoor Peace, Reconciliation, and Ecumenicity Program (GPREP), a retreat-based course of study and discernment at Graymoor, as well as the GEII internship at the Interchurch Center in New York City.
The Graymoor Peace, Reconciliation, and Ecumenicity Program is designed to equip participants as “ambassadors of reconciliation” and “artisans of peace,” both within their communities and in relationships with religious others.
The internship is a paid opportunity for graduate students and seminarians to pursue their own research while participating in ongoing GEII programs, and deepening their ecumenical and interreligious experience and perspective through collaboration with the GEII staff.
Peace, Reconciliation and Ecumenicity Program
This program will be comprised of five separate overnight retreats, held two months apart from October 2023 to June 2024, at the Holy Mountain Franciscan Retreat Center at Graymoor.
The program features academic instruction; dialogical training by ecumenical and interfaith experts; shared prayer; meals together and open-ended conversation. Each retreat has as its theme one of five pillars of Franciscan spiritual direction and formation, each aligned with the liturgical season.
The first retreat, titled Conversion/Creation, takes place October 2-3, 2023. This program takes place in the Season of Creation, between World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (September 1) and the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4). Academic attention during the retreat will be focused on “spiritual ecumenism.”
The second retreat will take place December 4-5, 2023, and is themed Minority/Advent. Taking place during the liturgical season of Advent, this retreat focuses on preparation, purification, and hope, as well as on the scriptural and patristic foundations for ecumenism and peacebuilding.
The third retreat, on Contemplation/Lent, will take place February 5-6, 2024. This program reflects on the spiritual trajectory of needing to be converted and preparing ourselves with eyes to see and ears to hear, before trying to understand others. Academic instruction will focus on the early generations of ecumenical engagement.
The penultimate retreat, titled Abundance/Easter, will take place April 8-9, 2024. Retreatants will examine the relationships between the collaborative practice of justice, the interpersonal and intercultural labors of peacemaking and the fundamental integrity of life on earth that renders the others sustainable.
The last retreat is themed Engagement/Pentecost and will take place June 3-4, 2024. This program will center on engagement across lines of religious, cultural and ideological differences, as well as on taking stock of the ecumenical future.
Program faculty will include Friars of the Atonement with decades of experience in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue; Graymoor Institute staff with doctoral training and extensive scholarly activity in the field; and guest instructors who bring a wealth of personal insight and professional expertise relating to the themes of each retreat.
Applications for the GPREP are being accepted until August 15, 2023. Applicants who apply by July 15 will receive an early bird tuition rate.
To apply and for more in-depth details on each program and costs, please click here.
GEII Internship
The Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute invites graduate students and seminarians to apply for nine-month research and program internship, which will take place on site at the Interchurch Center in New York City, from September 15, 2023 until June 15, 2024.
GEII offers interns quiet, climate-controlled and web-connected office space to conduct research and writing; a library of ecumenical and interreligious resources to which interns have full access; experience in planning, executing and designing new public-facing or scholarly programs in ecumenical and interreligious engagement; mentorship practical advice relating to service and leadership in the field; and a stiped of $1,500.
Interns are expected to pursue their own research project for the duration of the internship, while supporting and participating in ongoing GEII programs. Interns are expected to be based in the Interchurch Center office 1-2 times each week, though they are welcome to be on site more frequently.
Application consists of a curriculum vitae; a cover letter describing your research and indicating your interest in ecumenical and interreligious engagement; and a brief letter from an academic supervisor or program coordinator confirming that you are a student in good standing.
Applicants are asked to send all materials by email to info@geii.org no later than July 15, 2023.
For more detailed information on the GEII internship program, please click here.