The first Universal Worship Service was held in London on Saturday, May 7th, 1921. Its intention was to underscore the core essential truth shared by all religions. Created by the Sufi mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), in close collaboration with his student, Murshida Sophia Green, the Universal Worship offers a service recognizing six primary world religions— Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—as well as “all those religions known and unknown.” 

Over the course of four days, September 29 to October 2, 2022, we will gather those who have committed part or all of their life’s work to the message of unity. Ministers in the Universal Worship, called Cherags (lamplighters), will gather worldwide online via Zoom, and also in-person at Roslyn Retreat Center in Richmond, Virginia. If you are not yet a Cherag and have a sincere interest in learning more about the Universal Worship, please join us, no matter your faith. All are welcome and encouraged to join.

A “convocation” is literally a large, formal assembly. Our assembly is well-timed, 101 years after the original Universal Worship Service. As our first ever global gathering of Cherags, this will be a rich and exciting opportunity to come together as a community of Cherags, Sirajs and friends of the Sufi Message – sharing, inspiring and growing in our capacity to work in service to the One. If you are a Cherag, we anticipate seeing you!

We expect 80+ people in Richmond, and another 100+ online. Pir Zia Inayat Khan, grandson and successor of Hazrat Inayat Khan, will be with us daily. Amina Hall and Urs Qutbuddin Shellenberg, Vice Presidents of the Universal Worship activity, will open the convocation on Thursday and will be joined by many other leaders within the Universal Worship who will guide elements of the program. Together we hope to grow and support one another in our sacred mission of holding the Universal Worship into the future.

Along with a Universal Worship Service and a Universal Worship Celebration, we will offer four courses during our time together: Presence and Atmosphere in the Service; Awakening the Heart of Humanity; Prophetesses: Their Inspiration & Importance; and Care of the Planet. Recordings of the Universal Worship Convocation will be made available to all who register. Update: We will no longer be offering translation for Deutsch or Français.

Registration for the Universal Worship Convocation will open on Monday, July 11, 2022. Please mark the dates of September 28-October 2 on your calendar. We warmly invite anyone who has a connection with Universal Worship or wishes to learn more about its services and approach to join us in attending the convocation. 

There will be a limited number of partial scholarships available on an as-needed basis, with priority given to those who plan to attend in-person. If you would like to apply for a partial scholarship to attend or have questions about our Universal Worship Convocation, please email our registrar Josh at astana@inayatiyya.org. 

Check-in begins on Thursday from 2:00 – 6:00 pm, with dinner at 6 pm and an evening program at 7:30 pm. We will end on Sunday at noon with an optional lunch at 12:30 pm.

PRICING

In-person pricing includes tuition, room, and board with three meals a day* (w/ the exception of Thursday and Sunday), beginning with dinner on Thursday and going through to lunch on Sunday.

Please note there are no single rooms available, only shared rooms. All rooms have two beds and a private bathroom. Couples should each select “Double Room per Person)” when signing up.

• Double Room per person (Two Twin Beds, includes Meals) $725 per person (Full Price), $665 per person (Sliding Scale Option 1), or $600 per person (Sliding Scale Option 2)
• Commuter Rate per Person (includes Meals) $480 per person (Full Price), $420 per person (Sliding Scale Option 1), or $365 per person (Sliding Scale Option 2). Please register early if this is your preference.
• Online Only $290 per person (Full Price), $230 per person (Sliding Scale Option 1), or $175 (Sliding Scale Option 2)

Please note the State of Virginia collects a 6% sales tax, while the County of Henrico collects a 4% meals tax and an 8% lodging tax. If taxes are applicable to the ticket option you select, the amount has already been included in the prices listed above.

ROSLYN CONFERENCE & RETREAT CENTER

Roslyn Retreat Center, on the western outskirts of Richmond, is owned and operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, welcoming guests from many groups and faith communities. 

Roslyn is known for its peaceful grounds, comfortable rooms with private baths, and gorgeous, minimalist chapel overlooking natural surroundings through a wall of windows behind its altar. You may learn more about Roslyn on its website. Also, here are directions to the campus.

GETTING THERE

Roslyn Retreat Center is conveniently located near the Richmond International Airport (29 miles, approx. 30 minutes). It is a 20-minute drive from Main Street Station, which is serviced by Amtrak (12.5 miles).

For GPS purposes, Rosyln’s address is 8727 River Rd, Richmond, VA 23229.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about the Universal Worship Convocation, including scholarship requests, please email us at astana@inayatiyya.org. When you register, an initial registration confirmation email will be sent immediately, with additional details sent in August.

Please see below for our Covid and Cancellation Policies.

UNIVERSAL WORSHIP CONVOCATION SCHEDULE

Please note this schedule is a sample only and may change as we come closer to our gathering. Arrival, departure, and meal times will remain the same. All times listed are for the Eastern Time Zone (New York). To find the time in your local time zone, please check https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html.

Thursday, September 29

• 2 – 6 pm Arrivals
• 6 – 7:30 pm Dinner
• 7:30 – 7:45 pm Welcome and Introductions
• 7:45 pm – 9:00 pm Universal Worship Service

Friday, September 30

• 8 – 8:45 am Breakfast
• 8:45 – 9:00 am Daily Check-In
• 9:00 – 9:15 am Silence
• 9:15 – 10:30 am Pir Zia Session
• 10:30 – 11:00 am Break
• 11:00 AM – 12:15 pm Pir Zia Session
• 12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch
• 1:30 – 3:00 pm Developing Presence and Atmosphere in Services, Sermons, and Storytelling
• 3:00 – 3:30 pm Break
• 3:30 – 5:00 pm Awakening the Heart of Humanity
• 5:00 – 5:10 pm Announcements
• 6:30 – 7:45 pm Dinner

Saturday, October 1

• 8 – 8:45 am Breakfast
• 8:45 – 9:00 am Daily Check-In
• 9:00 – 9:15 am Silence
• 9:15 – 10:30 am Pir Zia Session
• 10:30 – 11:00 am Break
• 11:00 AM – 12:15 pm Pir Zia Session
• 12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch
• 1:30 – 3:00 pm Prophetesses: Their Inspiration and Importance
• 3:00 – 3:30 pm Break
• 3:30 – 5:00 pm Care of the Planet: Our Sacred Trust
• 5:00 – 5:10 pm Announcements
• 6:30 – 7:45 pm Dinner

Sunday, October 2

• 8 – 8:45 am Breakfast
• 8:45 – 9:00 am Daily Check-In
• 9:00 – 9:15 am Silence
• 9:15 – 10:30 am Pir Zia Session
• 10:30 – 11:00 am Break
• 11:00 – 12:30 pm Universal Celebration
• 12:30 – 2 pm Lunch
• 2 – 3 pm Departures

BIOGRAPHIES

Pir Zia Inayat Khan carries the Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. He received his Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University. His books include Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity, and the Mystical Quest, Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions, and Dream Flowers: The Collected Works of Noor Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Suluk Academy. He and his family live between Richmond, Virginia and Suresnes, France. pirzia.org

Amina Linda Hall is currently the Vice President of the Inayatiyya’s Universal Worship Activity in the Americas and Oceania. She is the co-founder and co-leader of the Rochester Center for Sufi Studies in Rochester, New York. In the business world, Amina has founded and managed multiple national consulting firms to facilitate organizational transformation for large and small companies alike, providing executive leadership development for over 200 CEOs and their teams over the years. Amina has also provided consultation and development support to many non-profit boards as well, serving on and chairing more than twenty non-profit boards of trustees. She currently serves as Chair of the Universal Worship Trustee Council for North America & Oceania and served on the Inayatiyya North American Board of Trustees for a decade and as Chair from 2010-2016. Amina is currently Chair of the Inayatiyya North America Advisory Council. She is also a graduate of Suluk Academy’s Alif class and the new Divine Art Suluk Graduate course. She serves in leadership as an Inayatiyya Representative and Guide, as a Shefayat in the Healing Activity, and as an experienced Farmer in the Ziraat Activity. She lives in Rochester with her husband, Husamuddin Richard Bachner.

Mumtaz Kammerer, a student within the Inayatiyya since 1976, lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He spreads the Message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty as a Representative and Guide of the Inayatiyya Inner School, the Center Leader for Inayatiyya Baltimore, a Universal Worship Siraj, a Sufi Healing Order Conductor, a Ziraat Farmer, a Knight of Purity, and a certified leader of the Dances of Universal Peace. He currently serves on the Universal Worship Trustees Council for North America & Oceania and on the Knighthood Council, and formerly served on the Inayatiyya & Abode of the Message Boards of Trustees. Retired from a career in management, Mumtaz enjoys spending time with his husband of 43 years, gardening, and volunteering as a docent at Evergreen Museum and Library.

Tara Anne Muir is a long-time student within the Inayatiyya, a Siraj and Retreat Guide. For 15 years she has acted as Director of the Universal Worship Secretariat in North America appointed by Shahabuddin Less and continuing with current Vice President Amina Linda Hall. Living in Sarasota, Florida she is one of the teachers at Rising Tide Center. She is privileged to share with candidates the Universal Worship as a powerful path of spiritual unfoldment and sharing the message of Love, Harmony and Beauty with our fellow inhabitants of planet earth.

Jabbar Rick 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.

Yaqin Joseph Aubert has been studying Sufism for more than 40 years and is a Senior Teacher in the Inayatiyya. He is the Vice President of the Inayatiyya North America Board. The Inayatiyya takes a universal approach to spiritual unfoldment. He was initiated by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and now studies with his successor, Pir Zia Inayat Khan. Yaqin is a Siraj in the Universal Worship and has been a teacher in the Suluk Academy, a school of contemplative study with branches in the United States and Europe. He is a founding member and former director of the Abode of the Message, a spiritual community and retreat center in upstate New York. Yaqin is a storyteller and leads retreats and seminars in North America.

Nurullah Anya Godwin was introduced to Sufism through the meeting of hearts with her now husband of 29 years. Hearing the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan rang a note of truth in her soul offering a realization that the Sufi path was her spiritual path. Since then, Nurullah has been ordained as a Cheraga in 2000 by the late Murshida Halima McEwen at the Sharda Centre Aotearoa/New Zealand. In 2012, Shahabuddin Less ordained Nurullah as the World Wide Siraj for Children’s Universal Worship. She now offers training for Cherags for this delightful sacred service as well as having a leadership role in the growing group of Cherags doing this work across the globe. 

Nurullah Anya Godwin is on the Inayatiyya Message Council for Oceania as well as serving on the Universal Worship Board for North America and Oceania. As an artist, author and counselor, Nurullah has an expressive life tuning into her abundant creativity bringing colour and beauty into form.

Sirrullah 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.

Aliah Anne Garrett is a long-term member of the Aotearoa New Zealand Sufi community. She took initiation and received teachings with Sheikh’al Masheika Halima MacEwan, who founded the Sharda Centre in New Zealand. Aliah originally came to the Path through the Dances of Universal Peace and continues to love this expression of the Divine. She holds the lead Cherag post of the Universal Worship at the Sharda Centre, has helped with Children’s Universal Worship and assists the Aotearoa Siraj Sirrullah. Aliah has helped her partner create and maintain a productive food forest at the Auckland Sufi Centre Naubahar. She has also been a T’ai Chi instructor for decades, and taught adult literacy and English for speakers of other languages. 

Lorell Frysh was initiated into the Inayatiyya in 1993 and currently serves on the Universal Worship Trustees Council. She is a Senior Teacher in the Inayatiyya, and is an ordained Cherag and Mentor. Lorell received her Ph.D. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA. Her doctoral studies focused on interfaith spiritual counseling, transpersonal psychology and the development of consciousness. She works as a Transpersonal Psychologist and teaches at Kashi Ashram, Atlanta. She is a member of the Spiritual Emergency Network, and The Association for Spiritual Integrity. 

Abdul Hakim Oerton is a South Australian Representative of the Inayatiyya and a recent addition to the Oceania Siraj team. He currently works part-time as a Spiritual Care Practitioner in an Aged Care facility and has a supervisory role in Clinical Pastoral Education. Most recently he graduated from Suluk Global. He looks forward to joining with the impulse that sees the Light and Blessings that flow from the Universal Worship reaching far and wide, deeply rooted in Hazrat Inayat Khan’s ideals and presence, relevant to the needs of our contemporary societies. To answer the cries of a people and a planet in pain, Hazrat Inayat Khan gives us ways forward; to nurture ideals, purpose, meaning and connection; and to raise us above the distinctions and differences which divide us.

Haqiqa LeDantec is a Cherag and a Universal Worship Council of Trustees member. She came onto the Sufi path through Buddhism and non-duality. An activist by nature, Haqiqa worked for Greenpeace and Amnesty International for many years. She is aware of the profound interconnectedness of our world and believes that nature can be our biggest teacher—if we allow it.

Akbar 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.

Jessica Bromby is a Shefayat, Healing Cheraga, Healing Retreat Guide, and Suluk Graduate in the Inayatiyya. She has served on the Universal Worship Board for four years. She runs her own private healing practice. She teaches French, Cultural Connections, Human Relations, and Nature Studies to children of all ages at her local Mangrove School of Sarasota, where she also helped to start the Forest Friday program and School Garden. She also helped to start Little Seedlings, a mother-baby program at her school. She also runs a rite of passage/coming-of-age program for teenagers in the Sarasota area. Jessica has hosted Universal Worship Services at Rising Tide for over eight years, including at the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto. She has led and participated in numerous Universal Worship services worldwide online and in-person, including at the Abode, Zenith Camp, Ozarks, and more. Jessica works closely with her guide Devi Tide and with the Grandmothers of the Sacred We. Her love for nature and all creatures has always been a big part of her life. Raised on a farm in rural Quebec, Canada, she now resides by the Gulf of Mexico in Florida with her husband Christopher and cat Bibi.

And others TBA closer to the event!

COVID POLICY

The Inayatiyya will follow the Roslyn Retreat Center’s Covid policy. Currently, guests are invited to attend events regardless of vaccination status. It is preferable for guests to be fully vaccinated. All Roslyn staff are vaccinated.

The wearing of masks indoors is the individual’s preference. Roslyn’s mask protocol is based on current CDC recommendations.

We ask that if you have any signs of illness, or if you have been exposed to Covid, you please forgo coming to the Universal Worship Convocation.

CANCELLATION POLICY

For this program, cancellations are allowed up to Thursday, September 15th, and will receive a 50% refund. Cancellations received after Thursday, September 15th will not be eligible for a refund.