Sacred Earth Sacred Soul

Join us for an evening with renowned Celtic Spirituality teacher, John Philip Newell, on Sunday, July 16th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.. John Philip will speak from his new book, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West.

Newell will be accompanied by a specially convened chorus performing selections from Sam Guarnaccia's compositions, A Celtic Mass for Peace and the Emergent Universe Oratorio. Deborah Felmeth, director; Tim Guiles, pianist; Soprano 1 - Bethany Barry, Cami Davis, Annamarie DeBoer; Soprano 2 - Chris Murphy, Linda Patterson; Alto - Deborah Felmeth, Suzanne Monzel; Tenor - Wendy Goodwin, Margaret Roddy, Gerry Zickler; Baritone - Derek Larsen, Larry Lawson, Richard Reed.

Workshop Schedule

7:00 p.m. Overture from the Celtic Mass for Peace

7:08 p.m. Earthrise/Amen

7:15 p.m. Introduction of John Philip Newell

7:20 p.m. Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul - John Philip Newell

8:10 p.m. Emergent Universe Oratorio introduction

8:20 p.m. Emergent Universe Oratorio Chorus/Recitatives

8:45 p.m. Closing Music

Quotations from Sacred Earth Sacred Soul

• ‘In Celtic wisdom the sacred is as present on earth as it is in heaven, as immanent as it is transcendent, as human as it is divine, as physical as it is spiritual.’
• ‘The consequences of not remembering the sacredness of the earth and the human soul are disastrous, both individually and collectively. This is what we are living in the midst of today.’
• ‘What is deepest in us is of God. Every child, every woman, every man, and every life-form is in essence divine.’
• ‘To be made of God is to be made of sacred imagination. It is to have the capacity to dream our way into new beginnings, in our lives and in our world.’

About John Philip Newell

John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being. Canadian by birth, and a citizen also of Scotland, he resides with his family in Edinburgh and works on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2016 he began the School of Earth and Soul and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada.

His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books. Newell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic world, seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern.

Samuel Guarnaccia and John Philip Newell

About Sam Guarnaccia

Sam Guarnaccia is a composer, classical guitarist, scholar, and founder/director of Sam Guarnaccia Music (SGM) www.samguarnaccia.com. He studied privately at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and received a Master of Fine Arts in Guitar performance from the California Institute of the Arts. He created and, for ten years, taught and directed the guitar program of the University of Denver’s renowned Lamont School of Music. He has also taught and instituted programs at Middlebury College and the University of Vermont, as Spanish scholar, player/performer, and composer.

His composition, A Celtic Mass for Peace, Songs for the Earth, a collaboration with Celtic Spirituality scholar, writer, and teacher, John Philip Newell, has been performed throughout the United States, Iona and Edinburgh, Scotland, and was featured in a major peace celebration on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 on September 11, 2011, in New York, and in Vermont.