Awakening the Spirit of Healing and Restoration

March 28-29, 2025
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
In-Person and Online

Co-Sponsored by the Pneuma Institute

What would it be like to restore sanity in our world and our souls? What kind of leadership creates the conditions for people to be generous, creative, and kind? In challenging, troubling, or dark times, how do we care spiritually for ourselves and others?

Join Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the Pneuma Institute for a two-day conference designed to spark creativity, promote healing and wholeness, and begin the processes of restoration and reconciliation in ourselves and in our communities. Gather with spiritual leaders and directors, pastors and church leaders, congregational care practitioners, chaplains, community leaders, healthcare providers, and community and interfaith organizers for a shared experience of global awakening with inspiring speakers, engaging workshops, and restorative practices in community. Come into an environment designed to promote learning, build community, and restore your own state of being with music, meditative practices, and table fellowship.

Friday night’s keynote address will be given by bestselling author and speaker Dr. Margaret Wheatley, who will invite us into focused reflection and conversation. On Saturday, Pittsburgh Seminary’s Joan Marshall Associate Professor of Pastoral Care the Rev. Dr. Leanna Fuller will share her groundbreaking work on congregational conflict and practices of reconciliation. These workshops by Dr. Fuller and Dr. Michael Mervosh will explore organizational healing and reconciliation and intra/interpersonal challenges and resilience. Then, local leaders will share their stories of cultivating peace, healing, and generosity within their particular contexts.

Presenters

Dr. Margaret Wheatley began caring about the world's peoples in 1966, as a Peace Corps volunteer in post-war Korea. In many different roles--speaker, teacher, consultant, advisor, formal leader--her work has deepened into an unshakable conviction that leaders must learn how to invoke people's inherent generosity, creativity, and need for community. As this world tears us apart, sane leadership on behalf of the human spirit is the only way forward. She is co-founder and president of The Berkana Institute, an organizational consultant since 1973, a global citizen since her youth, and a prolific writer. She has authored 13 books, starting with the classic Leadership and the New Science. She has been honored for her groundbreaking work by many professional associations, universities, and organizations. To keep up with her current work: www.margaretwheatley.com/currentthinking

The Rev. Dr. Leanna Fuller is the Joan Marshall Associate Professor of Pastoral Care at PTS. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (Ph.D.), Vanderbilt Divinity School (M.Div.), and Furman University (B.A.). Her most recent book is titled When Christ’s Body is Broken: Anxiety, Identity, and Conflict in Congregations (Wipf and Stock, 2016). Dr. Fuller has earned numerous fellowships, awards, and honors. She was selected to participate in the 2016-2017 Wabash Center Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty, and she received the Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship in 2010-2011. Dr. Fuller’s most recent conference paper, “One Body, Many Parts: An Ecclesiology for Churches in Conflict” was presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Her ministry experience includes serving as associate pastor of Oakland Christian Church in Suffolk, Va., where she coordinated youth ministry and Christian education programming. Dr. Fuller also worked as chaplain resident at Riverside Regional Medical Center, in Newport News, Va., providing pastoral care for patients. Dr. Fuller's family includes her spouse, the Rev. Scott Fuller, a UCC minister and chaplain; and their young son, Simon.

Dr. Michael Mervosh is a licensed psychologist, psychotherapist, and founder of MGM Pychological Associates in Pittsburgh. He has been devoted to full-time private practice, providing intensive individual and group psychotherapy, for 33 years. He originally honed his psychotherapy skills for four years at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Dr. Morvish is the founder and driving force behind Hero's Journey Foundation, a nonprofit that provides mythological programs for individuals and groups responding to life's universal call - to move beyond current circumstances, confront and transcend personal limitations, and to emerge with renewed vitality and purpose. Dr. Mervosh has worked with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, consulting with their leadership and has leading monthly support and development groups for clergy.

Schedule

Fri., March 28

5:00-6:00 p.m. Registration and networking social with refreshments

5:45-6:00 p.m. Welcome/Prayer

6:00-6:30 p.m. Keynote: “Restoring Sanity for Spiritual Leaders” with Dr. Margaret Wheatley (virtual presentation)

6:30-7:00 p.m. Facilitated discussion with Dr. Wheatley

7:00-7:15 p.m. Break

7:15-8:00 p.m. Roundtable Spiritual Conversations

8:00-8:15 p.m. Closing Prayer and Day Two Invitation

Sat., March 29

8:00-8:45 a.m. Registration and Light Breakfast

8:45 a.m. Welcome and Prayer

9:00 a.m. Keynote: The Rev. Dr. Leanna Fuller

10:00 a.m. Break

10:15-11:45 a.m. Workshops

Session A: Intra/Interpersonal Challenges and Resilience with Michael Mervosh

Session B. Organizational Healing and Reconciliation with Leanna Fuller

12:00-1:30 p.m. Lunch

1:30-3:00 p.m. Panel: Cultivating Peace, Healing, and Generosity in Our Communities

3:00-3:15 p.m. Break

3:15-4:00 p.m. Spiritual Insights from the Day

Registration

Please click here to register. (Registration closes at 4:00 p.m. ET on March 21.)

Questions

Please contact or call 412-924-1345.

Awakening the Spirit of Healing and Restoration Conference