Sowing Shalom: Soul-Anchored Practices for Racial Healing and Nurturing the Beloved Community
Sowing Shalom is a four-season retreat series that invites participants into a contemplative journey of healing, belonging, and transformation rooted in the way of Jesus. Drawing from the rhythms of the natural world and the wisdom of Christian spiritual practices, each retreat explores a different season of growth through a distinct spiritual practice. In Fall, participants engage Guided Lectio as they consider what must be released. Winter invites the practice of the Examen of Consciousness as a pathway into grief, lament, confession, and repentance. Spring centers on Centering Prayer and the possibility of renewal and new growth. Summer explores Imaginative Prayer as participants reflect on the fruits of transformation and the cultivation of beloved community.
Each retreat includes guided spiritual practices, Scripture reflection, silence, storytelling, personal reflection, and meaningful conversation. Participants are invited to deepen their relationship with God, grow in compassion for themselves and others, and discover how inner transformation can shape the communities to which they belong.
This is the last retreat in a series of four retreats for the Sowing Shalom Cohort. Applications for the cohort close July 20, 2026.
About the Facilitator
Afrika Afeni Mills is an author, spiritual director, educator, and ordained elder who helps individuals and communities cultivate deeper belonging through contemplative practice, spiritual formation, and racial healing. She is the founder of Soul Compass and the author of Open Windows, Open Minds: Developing Antiracist, Pro-Human Students and the forthcoming Sowing Shalom: Soul-Anchored Practices for Racial Healing and Nurturing the Beloved Community. Her TED-Ed Talk, Four Ways to Have Healthy Conversations About Race, has been viewed more than one million times. Afrika serves as an Assistant Pastor with Grace Communion International and is a participant in the Transforming Center's Transforming Community. She is known for creating spaces marked by warmth, honesty, curiosity, and grace.