Earth Day 2023
Earth Day – April 22nd, 2023
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET / 9:00 – 10:30 pm CET
Come celebrate, pray, and support Mother Earth together as a community on Earth Day, 2023. With presentations from all Seven Inayatiyya Activities and an introduction from Pir Zia, we will honor the world we live in while recognizing the ecological challenges that face our planet. It is only through a paradigm shift in human consciousness that our actions to protect the environment will be lasting.
Speakers
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Amina Georgia FeliouAmina Georgia Feliou is the Kefayat and Vice President of the Inayatiyya Healing (IH) in Europe. She is the leader of the IH in Athens, Greece and a representative for the Inayatiyya Inner School. She is a psychotherapist following Murshid’s path since 2008. Before working as a psychotherapist, she was working for more than 10 years at the United Nations and in particular the United Nations Information Center for Greece, Cyprus and Israel, stationed in Athens, Greece. She has studied philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy, and library and information science. She enjoys swimming, hiking and practicing fascia exercises. She is dedicated to the service of fellow human beings, non-human friends and Mother Earth to the best of her abilities.
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Haqqiqa Noor Gail StephensonHaqqiqa Noor is a Shafayat and holds the Healing Concentration for Australia.
Driven by a passion to empower others to help themselves, Haqqiqa Noor taught yoga for 16 years in ashrams as well as in the wider community. More recently, having been present during the deaths of close family and friends over the years, she was led to volunteer in palliative support, trained as a death doula, and continued this work for 11 years. She feels privileged to be able to sit with people who have a life ending condition, in the sacredness that exists at that time. Haqqiqa Noor has a family of adult daughters and a newly adult granddaughter with whom she treasures spending joyful times and going on many adventures. -
Raqib KittelRaqib Kittel was initiated in the Inayatiyya by Pir Vilayat in 1981 at the Alps Camp and into Ziraat in 2000. He served representing the German leaders on the board and Ethics-Committee. At present, he is one of the two European VP´s for Ziraat. Raqib studied self-taught geomancy. He worked many years half-employed as a social-worker as well as a coach and supervisor on freelance. At present he is training teams and coaching people on their jobs. Together with his wife and two girls of 17 and 14 years, he likes camping and canoeing. In a small garden Raqib, practices coming in resonance with nature and he loves doing handicraft.
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Subhan Jim BurtonSubhan Jim Burton has also been a student in the Sufi tradition since 1975, serving as a spiritual guide (Shaykh), center leader, healing conductor, retreat guide, Farmer in Ziraat, and ordained minister (Cherag). He currently is a member of the Universal Worship Trustees Council for North America and Oceania. Dr. Burton earned his Ph.D. degree in business administration from Georgia State University. He has worked as a business executive and university professor. Subhan has led more than thirty years of leadership and communications training for businesses, universities, and governmental agencies. He has also served as sponsor, fundraiser, site leader, education director, spiritual guide, and trainer for many youth service projects in the United States and many other nations. Subhan is the author of HUMAN NATURE MEDITATIONS – CONCENTRATIONS FOR MANAGERS AND OTHER HUMAN BEINGS (2012); translated to Chinese in 2014 and Arabic in 2019. Dr. Burton is the father of three adult children, the grandfather of eleven, and great grandfather of one.
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Tasnim StupacTasnim Stupac graduated from the Suluk Tuba class and since January 2023, serves as Vice President of the Inayatiyya Ziraat Activity in Europe. She studied history of Eastern Europe and slavistics and has worked with refugees and migrants for over 15 years. She is passionate about permaculture and gardening. Tasnim was born in Bosnia and Herzegowina and is now living in Switzerland.
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Mette Hayat BuusMette Hayat Buus has traveled the Sufi path for 25 years. In Denmark she offers Nature Meditation weekends and is currently the European Vice President of Kinship.
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Jabbar BriggsJabbar Briggs is a Siraj of Universal Worship and member of the Universal Worship Trustees Council for North America & Oceania. He also holds the designation of Healing Cherag and has been privileged to participate in the development of other Healing Cherags. He has participated with others to offer Universal Worship at the Parliament of World Religions in Salt Lake City, USA and Toronto, Canada. He was one of the presenters on a panel discussing new directions in inter-spiritual understanding at the Parliament in Toronto. He has presented for many years about spirituality and developing wellness from substance use and mental health conditions.
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Sirrullah ChristoffersenSirrullah Christoffersen has been a lover of the Message of love, harmony, and beauty since meeting Murshida Halima MacEwan in New Zealand in 1977. He took bayat in 1979 from Pir Vilayat at the Summer Camp in the French Alps and was ordained as a Cherag of the Universal Worship the following year. He currently serves in the role of Siraj for the Inayatiyya in Aotearoa-New Zealand. He passionately believes in respect and inclusion for all the people of our world, in all their diversity, especially for our faiths and spiritual traditions. He is active in interfaith dialogue and is a member of the Advisors Panel for the Auckland Interfaith Council. In his work as a psychotherapist, counsellor and facilitator, he has worked for community agencies with at-risk youth, and with men in the area of Stopping Violence, as well as his own private therapy practice. Currently he has a role as a Wellbeing Consultant for a large local council organization.
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Shafia Cooksley ND.Shafia has 40 years’ experience as a Qualified Naturopath, Shiatsu Practitioner & International tutor of Natural Health & Oriental Medicine. She has been the Founding Director & Tutor of a College of Oriental Medicine & Shiatsu for 4 decades & the only person in NZ honored as a life member of the NZ Shiatsu Practitioners Assoc NZ. Shafia was recognized as a young child by Elders, Healers, Indigenous Wisdom keepers & Tohunga (Maori Healers/Shaman) as being from a long lineage of Healers on both her mother and father’s side. She was honored with receiving a National Award for Service to NZ Health, for her part in helping bring Health Practitioners of many modalities together to represent NZ Health Practitioners to liaise
with the New Zealand Government on Health Policy and setting NZ National Natural Health Standards. She has been a seeker on the Sufi path since 1980 & is a Healing Conductor, a Cherag, an initiate of Ziraat (since 1982) & currently the holder of the Inayati Healing Order for Aotearoa/New Zealand. She is also a Trustee and Custodian of The Sharda Centre. Her interests are organic & permaculture gardening, saving heritage seeds, dancing, and selfless service. -
Pir Zia Inayat KhanPir Zia Inayat Khan, PhD, is a scholar of religion and teacher of Sufism in the universalist Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Sulūk Academy, a school of Sufi contemplative study and practice. He is the author of Immortality: A Traveler’s Guide; Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions; Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity and the Mystical Quest; and the editor and compiler of Dream Flowers: The Collected Works of Noor Inayat Khan, for which he also wrote the critical introduction. Pir Zia divides his time between Richmond, Virginia and Suresnes, France. inayatiyya.org
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Akbar Chris MillerAkbar Christopher Miller is a Healing Cherag, Coordinator, Suluk Graduate, and Healing Conductor in the Inayatiyya, He was initiated in 2009 and is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Inayati Young Adults Council since 2017. He offers Universal Worship Services and Universal Services for All Beings inspired by the Universal Worship at Rising Tide International, Mendocino Redwoods Sufi Camp, the Parliament of World’s Religions (2015 & 2018), and deeply believes that the unity of religious ideals is a vehicle for planetary, ecological, and social upliftment. He works with Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding NGO Abrahamic Reunion, with the intertribal Grandmothers of the Sacred We, and helps coordinate and guide Sacred Tours & Pilgrimages to India and Israel/Palestine. He offers nature retreats, zikrs, spiritual workshops, teen and young adult workshops and jams, and poetry classes, many with his wife Jessica. They live 10 minutes from the saltwater on Calusa Lands along the Florida Gulf Coast, with their cat Bibi, in a tiny jungle.
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Shams KairysShams Kairys has been a student and guide in the Inayatiyya for over 45 years, and served as coordinator of the Kinship Activity in the North America region for 20 years. His has worked with many innovative organizations and projects dedicated to helping heal the world. His love of the natural world and growing awareness of its degradation led him to focus on shedding light on the root sources of the global ecological crisis and fostering a deeper rapport with the web of life at this critical time. He enjoys walks in nature and is an editor professionally.
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Wali ViaWali Via has been following the Sufi path since 1978 and serves a number of roles within the Inayatiyya, including as the current Vice President of Ziraat in North America. Wali has spent his adult life farming organically and biodynamically at a commercial scale. He is now retired from farming, though the farm continues on in good hands (wintergreenfarm.com). He spends as much time as he can in the wilderness, hiking, backpacking, climbing mountains, and kayaking, and playing with his grandchildren. Wali is dedicated to providing opportunities for people to deepen their spiritual lives including their relationship with the natural world to foster the Earth’s healing.
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Siddiqi Heather JohnsonSiddiqi Heather Johnson has been a student of Hazrat Inayat Khan for over 25 years and was Administrator of Suluk Academy in its early years. Originally from the US, she now lives in southwest Wales with her husband and three sons and is a counselor in private practice. She has recently started a new Inayatiyya group in southwest Wales and is currently in the leader’s training program.
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Sara Tarana JobinSara Tarana Jobin is the Inayatiyya’s Music Director and Emeritus Vice President of its Music Activity. Professionally, she has a long career as an opera conductor and continues to freelance professionally. As a student of Sufism since 2010, and graduate of Sulūk Academy, she is dedicated to reviving and sharing the musical legacy of Hazrat Inayat Khan with all who find a home in his teachings.
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Kabir Gilles ClainchardKabir Gilles Clainchard, a clinical psychologist, has been on the
Sufi path of the Inayatiyya for over 25 years. He has been a representative for France of the Purity Chivalry Path since 2018. His interest in chivalry goes back a long way, as he belonged to other initiatory orders of the Western tradition before his involvement in Inayatiyya. In parallel to his spiritual commitments, he is also involved in numerous associations including international solidarity, support for migrants, support for women and victims of gynecological violence. -
Qayyima Marie ClainchardQayyima Marie Clainchard, a former journalist, has been on the
Sufi path of the Inayatiyya for over 25 years. She has been a representative for France of the Purity Chivalry Path since 2018. Her interest in chivalry goes back a long way, as she belonged to other initiatory orders of the Western tradition before her involvement in Inayatiyya. In parallel to her spiritual commitments, she is also involved in numerous associations including international solidarity, support for migrants, support for women and victims of gynecological violence.
