Glastonbury Abbey's

Listening to Other Voices

Listening to Other Voices  2025-2026 series...

Living the Heart of Your Faith

This lecture series, hosted by Glastonbury Abbey has been offered for over twenty-five years. The monks, as part of their ongoing commitment to interreligious dialogue, offer this yearly series in which speakers from various faith traditions offer their perspective on a given theme. This year the theme is Living the Heart of Your Faith. Please join us as we hear from six different faith leaders.  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. Lectures are free; however, registration is required and donations are always welcome.

October 16, 2025, Rabbi Shai Held, Judaism is About Love

Rabbi Shai Held, one of the most influential Jewish thinkers and leaders in America, is President and Dean of the Hadar Institute in New York City. He has authored a number of books, including Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence and his newest book, Judaism is About Love.

November 19, 2025, Kaitlin B. Curtice, Practicing Presence in Chaotic Time

As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin Curtice writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity. In 2020 Kaitlin’s award-winning book Native: Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God won Georgia Author of the Year in the religion category. She has also published a number of children’s titles, and has written online for Sojourners, Religion News Service, and On Being.

January 15, 2026, Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz, Despite Cruelty:  Sustaining Hope in a World That Breaks Our Hearts

The Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz served as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, the human rights organization, from 1994-2006, having been President of the Unitarian Universalist Association for eight years prior to his Amnesty service. The New York Review of Books has said that “William Schulz…has done more than anyone in the American human rights movement to make human rights issues known in the United States."  Dr. Schulz has taught at New York University, the University of Chicago and Meadville Lombard Theological School; been President of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee; and recently retired as a senior fellow at the Center for Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School. 

February 19, 2026, Dr. Thomas H. Groome, Ed.D., The Compassion of Jesus

Thomas H. Groome is an author and a professor in theology and religious education at Boston College. He is recognized as one of the leading religious educators of our time and has lectured widely throughout the world, His areas of expertise include Religious Education, Young Adult Ministry and Practical Theology.  Professor Groome's publications include his most recent book What Makes Education Catholic: Its Spirituality. Practical Theolog

March 19, 2026, Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle, Awakening to Wisdom and Love Along the Buddhist Path

Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle, a pioneer in Mind/Body medicine, is a writer and dharma teacher whose work has been inspired by over fifty years of practice in Buddhist meditation, psychology and the wisdom traditions. She’s the author of an award-winning best-seller on Alzheimer’s, a book on conscious aging titled Aging with Wisdom, and most recently a memoir Ley Lines of Love: Adventures Along the Spiritual Path.

April 16, 2026, Haroon Moghul, What Will We Teach Our Kids When We Know Everything?

Haroon Moghul is founder and President of Queen City Diwan, a travel company that designs and leads global tours and international youth leadership programs. In 2023 and 2024, EqualityX named him one of the fifty most influential Muslims in the Americas. An award-winning journalist and opinion columnist, Haroon is the author of How to be a Muslim: An American Story and Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of a Muslim Future.

This 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  2024-2025 series...

Does Prayer Matter? Faith Perspectives

This was Listening to Other Voices' 26th season! Sharing the particular insights of various faith traditions, the speakers  presented how their own faith addressed this question. All presentations were recorded and are available to watch on YouTube (see links below). Click here for more information on the program.

Christian Wiman, author, and current Professor of the Practice of Religion and Literature at Yale University: The Days We Cannot Pray:  Poetry, Prayer, and Other Forms of Listening. 

Swami Tyagananda, Hindu monk of the Ramakrishna Order, head of the Vedanta Society in Boston,  Hinduchaplain at MIT and Harvard University:  Prayer as a Spiritual Discipline

Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, adjunct professor of social ethics, preaching, and pastoral ministry at Andover Newton Theological School: Prayer as Soul Talk: An Enriching Practice for Spiritual Engagement

Chaplain Omer Bajwa, Director of Muslim Life in the Chaplain’s Office at Yale University and Lecturer at Yale Divinity School: Conversing With God: An Islamic Approach to Ritual Prayer

Kathleen Noone Deignan, CND. Ph.D., Professor of Religious and Environmental Studies at Iona College and President Emerita of the International Thomas Merton Society: Prayer Matters in the Dark Night of Creation-The Ecological Wisdom of Thomas Merton

Cantors Rosalie Will and Ellen Dreskin, leaders in communal worship and ritual: Heart of the Matter:  A Jewish Musical Perspective on the Significance of Prayer

This 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.

Rabbi Shai Held

Kaitlin B. Curtice

Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz

Dr. Thomas H. Groome, Ed.D.

Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle

Haroon Moghul

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.