Hartford Seminary is pleased to announce that its longstanding work in Transformative Leadership and Spirituality, under the able and dynamic leadership of Emerita Professor Miriam Therese Winter, is thriving and growing. This work, evolving and now being recognized as a formal Center at the Seminary, will soon begin collaborative work with the Spiritual Life Center (SLC) located in West Hartford.

The SLC provides a variety of services and programs that help people explore meaning, discern choices they face, and choose ways to put their faith or spirituality into action for justice and peace. As such, SLC offers a beautiful complement to the current work of Hartford Seminary’s Center.

Hartford Seminary and SLC will begin working together to offer additional programming that aspires to enhance the spiritual life of our two communities, and by extension, the world at large.

This collaboration is the next iteration of Emerita Professor Miriam Therese Winter’s pioneering presence at Hartford Seminary.

The decision to enhance and augment the work of Professor Winter as a formal Center is the result of a long-term strategic planning process approved by Hartford Seminary’s Board of Trustees in 2020.

The Center’s building at 76 Sherman Street in Hartford, redesigned and dedicated in 2010, with an outdoor labyrinth added in 2014, will continue to offer programs and events in applied spirituality, growing its work into the future.

The Center is the home of the groundbreaking Women’s Leadership Institute – now in its 23rd year. Many who have graduated from the program have made this next step possible through their financial and other contributions. They are convinced that, in the spirit of Professor Winter, additional and ongoing programming will help more people experience an embodied spirituality grounded in the real world of our personal and public lives. The transformative energies of many can make an impact during these challenging times.

In discussing the Center’s future, Professor Winter speaks of a transformative presence that radiates far and wide. “I want to establish ad hoc or permanent groups for exploring and embracing the transformative wisdom inherent within all creation – through nature, books, film, personal and group reflection, the labyrinth, and through music and ritual celebrations. I want to encourage others to be a healing presence in ways that make all people feel affirmed and included.”

President Joel N. Lohr, in responding to the growth of the Center and its new partnership, remarked, “What a gift to see Professor Winter’s work recognized, and now complemented by the extraordinary Spiritual Life Center in West Hartford, many members of which are her students. We look forward to journeying together into the future, even as we remain committed to our own important communities. Thank you, MT, and thank you, SLC. Congratulations on this milestone!”

Please look out for announcements about upcoming programs.