By Alisa Volz | FāVS News Reporter
Spokane’s Inland Northwest Unitarian Universalist Community (INUUC) and British Columbia’s Clear Sky Retreat Center will partner for Lighthouse Spokane, a study group that will explore metamodernism, a worldview that seeks to recognize multiple truths without collapsing into cynicism or naïveté.
The partnership will commence with a free and public “Soul Weaving” service on Sunday, March 15, at 11:30 a.m. at the Spokane Friends Meetinghouse, 1612 W Dalke Ave. in Spokane. The service is also available on Zoom. A coffee hour will follow the service for in-person attendants.
INUUC formed in 2020 after about 50 members left the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane following a prolonged dispute over the Rev. Todd Eklof, who was ousted from the UUA’s ministerial credentialing body after refusing to engage with criticism of his self-published book, “The Gadfly Papers,” which critics called racist and homophobic. The departing members had sought a congregation with a stronger emphasis on spiritual sustenance and social justice.
Clear Sky Retreat Center, located near Cranbrook in the British Columbia Rockies, is a conscious community dedicated to contemplative practice. Qapel Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei co-founded Clear Sky in 2004.
Pawasarat approaches metamodernism not as abstract theory but as a framework for practice — a cultural and spiritual stage capable of holding multiple perspectives at once while remaining oriented toward awakening and collective transformation, according to Planet Dharma.
Grounded in Buddhist and cross-traditional wisdom, the Clear Sky community aims to develop wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all beings, according to the center’s quadruple bottom line.
Pawasarat, co-founding teacher and chief visionary officer of Clear Sky Retreat Center, will speak about the common values between the practices of the INUUC and Clear Sky communities, touching on topics explored in the emerging field of metamodernity.
Pawasarat will draw on Clear Sky’s Vajrayana Buddhist and Western Mystery traditions to explore common ground with Unitarian Universalism’s Seven Principles.
Lighthouse Spokane is made possible by the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “New Communities Partnership,” a grant written and received by INUUC member Mariah McKay.
The study group will meet at least once a month to explore ideas and techniques related to metamodernism, which is also known as the liminal web.
“We’ll be exploring different topics and ideas that are common throughout the liminal web and metamodern movements, and I’ll be introducing people to some of the spiritual leaders of metamodernism,” McKay said.
Then, study group members will discuss how the material they learned changes how they approach daily life.
“Something that’s very characteristic of metamodernism is the idea of epistemic humility,” McKay said. “That is, my way of understanding reality is not inherently better or worse than your way of understanding reality.”
McKay said study group members will share their individual practices with the rest of the group, exploring different creative and serious play practices, meditation techniques and discovering common threads.
“Something I appreciate about Unitarian Universalism is our epistemic humility and wanting to learn from faith traditions around the world,” she said. “We’re always radically open to hear from other spiritual practitioners, because we do believe there are common threads throughout all of humanity. I’m just grateful that my church is willing to host these folks.”
The study group is open to anyone who is willing to learn.
“I’ve spent a couple years studying this, but I’m still pretty new to it,” McKay said. “The field itself is new. I’m not coming into this like, ‘hey friends, I’m going to teach you.’ No, it’s like ‘hey friends, I’ve found something that has preserved my heart in this wreckage that we’re all in, and I would like to learn more about with you.’ That is my desire and my approach for this study group.”
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