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PSDP Leadership Training Conference

For Shalem Graduates

To learn more about this conference, click here or on the left hand side bar for information on Conference Details, Directions to Dayspring, Application Form.  

Preparing Teams for Partnership with Shalem

After 15 years of offering the Personal Spiritual Deepening Program: Living in God (PSDP) as a year-long extension program, we believe the Spirit is calling for the worldwide community of Shalem graduates to offer PSDP in a variety of formats and settings.

We invite any Shalem graduate, who has completed one of Shalem's long-term programs, to consider applying to this leadership training conference. 

This includes:
  • Prayerful discernment of a call to offer PSDP in your local setting within the next year;
  • Commitment to shared leadership in partnership with Shalem;
  • Attendance at the leadership conference with a co-leader.

Leadership Conference

Time: June 15-21, 2012  (3pm June 15 to 2pm June 21)
Place: Dayspring Retreat Center, 11301 Neelsville Church Road, Germantown, MD 20876
Staff: Ann Dean, Patience Robbins, Anne Grizzle and Al Keeney
Application Deadline: May 1, 2012

This week-long conference is to prepare Shalem program graduates who are called to offer contemplative leadership for Shalem's PSDP in their local settings as part of a two-member co-leadership team.  Each team is asked to commit to the full conference together.  The conference schedule will include:

  • morning seminars on PSDP core components: Contemplative Living: Intent and Assumptions; Listening and Transformation; Discernment; Spiritual Community; Earth Wisdom; and Sacred Activism
  • afternoon sessions on leadership issues and spiritual practices regarding the seminar topic of the day.  This time will also include discussion and preparation for Retreat Leadership, Small Group Formation guidelines and norms, consideration of program formats, ongoing Shalem support and link to the Deepening Contemplative Leadership Program.
  • evening sessions in small groups called Listening Circles you will reflect on the day, listening together for emerging questions  and challenges which may apply to your local settings
  • experiential contemplative practices
  • materials and practices that you may use with your participants

At the end of the week, there will be an opportunity for a mutually discerned commitment to partnership with Shalem. 

For more details about this partnership and the conference, click here.

About the Staff

Ann Dean is Shalem's Program Director for the Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups & Retreats: Transforming Community Program and Director of the PSDP Leadership Initiative.  Ann is a nationally-known leader of ecumenical retreats and conferences and a spiritual director.  She has been a minister in the  community of the Church of the Saviour since 1994 and is a member of the Dayspring Retreat Mission Group.

Tilden Edwards is Shalem’s Founder and Senior Fellow, an Episcopal priest, author or editor of eight books on the spiritual life (including one on group spiritual formation), and leader of introductory and continuing spiritual formation/exploration groups at Shalem for 25 years.

Patience Robbins completed the Shalem Spiritual Guidance Program in 1988 and has served on the associate staff of Shalem since 1997.   She leads workshops, retreats and groups, and has written a booklet:  Parenting: A Sacred Path.  She accompanies others in spiritual direction and is a teacher and facilitator of group spiritual direction.

Anne Grizzle is a spiritual director, family therapist, retreat leader, and author of three books, including Reminders of God.  A graduate of Shlem’s Group Spiritual Direction Program, Anne also serves on Shalem’s faculty for the Personal Spiritual Deepening Program.

Al Keeney is an Episcopal priest in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. He serves as a Shalem Regional Coordinator for the Northeast. Al is a retreat and pilgrimage leader and has taught workshops in Spiritual Direction, Journaling, Contemplative Prayer and Praying with Icons.

Cost

$45 non-refundable application fee; $2,185 tuition, which includes room, board and tuition.

To Apply

If you are called to this partnership, please complete the application form and return it with a non-refundable fee of $45 to the Shalem Institute.  We will limit the number of partnerships to no more than 8 teams.  If you have any questions about the program or your participation, feel free to contact Ann Dean at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Patience Robbins at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  For general questions, contact Shalem's program registrar, Christine Jeffrey, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .