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Update on the International TOS Conference in 2013
 

.We are happy to remind you of the three-day international TOS Workers’ Conference to be held at the national centre of the TS in America in Wheaton, Illinois from the evening of Tuesday 23 July to the evening of Friday 26 July, 2013.

A five-day Summer National Convention of the TS in America will take place immediately preceding the Conference, from 19 July to 23 July. All are invited to attend this event as well.

The registration forms are available here (Word documents) –
  For USA members  |  For international members

If you have any questions about the suitability of the TOS Conference for you, write to Diana at tosinternational@wanadoo.fr.

An updated outline of the programme is included towards the end of this page.

Participants in the 2007 International TOS Conference

The second floor of the TS in America’s headquarters

The extensive, peaceful grounds

Principal presenters: Maria Parisen and Vicente Hao Chin, Jr

We are delighted to announce that Maria Parisen, Director, Krotona School of Theosophy, and Vicente Hao Chin, Jr, President of the Golden Link College in the Philippines, have agreed to be our principal presenters at the conference. They will both present a keynote talk as well as conducting a workshop.

Maria Parisen, a member of the Theosophical Society since 1969, has served on the Board of Directors for the TS in America, the Detroit Lodge, the Krotona Institute of Theosophy, and the Theosophical Order of Service. She has lectured and guided interactive programmes for the TS throughout the United States and internationally. Currently Maria, and her husband Jon, are part of the Krotona Institute’s resident staff.

A retired Registered Nurse, Maria earned a Master of Science in Nursing, specialising in cardiovascular and rehabilitation practice. She has taught Therapeutic Touch in clinical and community settings, as both a healing science and a way of life. Maria is most interested in applied Theosophy as found in individual and communal spiritual practice. She is deeply committed to a way of cooperation, among ourselves and naturally with other beings, in which our mutual innate wisdom and creativity has full play. Maria compiled the Quest anthology, Angels & Mortals: Their Co-Creative Power (1990). She writes occasionally for theosophical journals and guided the 2005 TSA National Lodge corresponding study, The Technique of the Spiritual Life.

Vic Hao Chin, Jr is a past president of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines. He has also published a number of books, including The Process of Self-Transformation and Why Meditate? He edited the chronological edition of the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, and was the Associate Editor of the Theosophical Encyclopedia.

Vic is also the President of Golden Link College, a theosophical educational establishment operating from pre-school to tertiary level, established in 2002.

For many years, he has been travelling to various parts of the world conducting the Self-Transformation Seminar, a workshop that seeks to integrate theosophical principles and ideals with daily behaviour.

Tuesday 23 July

• Conference opening
• Programme overview
• Locks of Love: a simple act of service

Wednesday 24 July

• The TOS into the Future (1): “What has been achieved in the past five years?”
• Keynote Talk: “The TOS 100 Years from Now” by Vicente Hao Chin, Jr
• Choice of workshops e.g. “Deep Listening” by Maria Parisen; “Social Action as Spiritual Practice” by Vic Hao Chin, Jr, “Tapping the Amazing Potential of Volunteers” by Carolyn Harrod.
• Orientation to the TOS’s international website

Thursday 25 July

• The TOS into the Future (2): “Planning for the next five years”
• Keynote Talk: “Creative Meditation: Balancing Inner and Outer Action” by Maria Parisen
• Choice of workshops
• Round table discussion: “Rising to the challenges we face in our TOS work”

Friday 26 July

• The TOS into the Future (3): “Commitments to action”
• Panel of short talks: “Social action as sacred labour”
• Conference closing

(Check out 27 July)