Visit the link below for more information:

www.SpiritistSymposium.org

I would like to take a moment, as we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Conscious Living Spiritist Group, to reflect on our journey to this point and to acknowledge important events and people who helped us to become what we are today.

The CLSG was established in 2006 after a very good friend, Cristina Ferrara, could no longer lead the group known at the time as “Home of Ehlael”. She trusted Marcelo and I with the task of continuing the work of love that she had done up to that point.

Our first thought was to find a name that would speak to the non-Portuguese speaking people and demonstrate the values we saw as centrally important.

How should we name this new group?

We believed that the purpose of the Spiritist Center should be to console people, to educate and to enlighten them, to promote and to teach them to live according to principles of the Gospel and of the Spiritist Philosophy. It is an embraced and renewed heart, through knowledge, self-awareness, and inner-transformation, that is the beginning of, and the most powerful tool, in the propagation of the Spiritist Principles. We wanted people to live conscious of the meaning of life, of who they are, and where they stand in the spiral of evolution. Bingo! Conscious Living was born!

…

The next step, after all the administrative ones, was to give a face to the group. A logo and a web page were created.The logo was created by Cecilia Simoes begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, and the web page was initially created by the idea of a very good friend who remains with us in heart, but who is currently living in Brazil, Raul Carrasco.

We loved the logo and the site. Our main goal was for the site to be simple, light, with enough for people to know what we were about, with some basic information about Spiritism, and with links to much more complete sites that could provide more extensive information.

As for the logo we wanted an image that would translate some of our main values such as inclusion, diversity, union, brotherhood and peace.

We wanted to make sure that people understood our mission so the words “enlightenment” , “awareness” and “peace” were placed at the top of the home page.

Five years later, we are very happy to see that the CLSG has embraced all the values that were initially articulated and they can be felt in each person and in the group as a whole.

The main emphasis has been in the investment of people, in the relationship realm, in a spirit of cooperation, exchange, and respect for every opinion.

The outcome is evident. A strong sense of community has emerged, a feeling of brotherhood, and a sense of spiritual home, of family underlies all work of the center.

We could not have arrived at this point without the cooperation of the Spirits, the blessings of God, and many friendly hands who were there with us at one time or another and are now gone, and many others entering the center’s door each day. Friends like Vanessa Santos e Wagner Rodrigues who left a deep mark in each one of us, and who contributed to the dissemination of Spiritism in a diversity of ways. Friends like Fabiano Levy, who continues to follow us and who helped us with his generous heart. Friends like Murillo Soranso who in such a short period of time became a strong contributor of the center and continues to be though he lives in Chicago. Friends like Geraldo Coura who taught the first courses and who today is a committed worker of Bezerra de Menezes.We cannot name everyone. We would not be here without the friendship of so many people, including all the directors and workers of the Spiritist Federation of Florida who visit us often, sharing their knowledge and nurturing our souls with their love.

Among these friends we would like to acknowledge in special, the group CEFA, who partnered with us in the development of our English group and who opened the doors of their facility to house us during the months that we found ourselves homeless.

I am blessed to say that today we have an amazing group of people working together. Our last worker’s meeting was tallied at 30 participants. We currently have a public meeting in Portuguese, a study group of the Gospel and of the Spirit’s Book, also in Portuguese, and a medium’s group. We offer children’s class every Tuesday nigth.We provide the community with English classes for free on Wednesdays. We have a time for music prior to our Tuesday meetings. We have an English meeting on Sundays.

As part of our celebration we just added a new room to the center, thanks to the loving offer of Melissa from CEFA and the incredible work of her brother Michael who spent 6 days working primarily alone without charging us anything other than the cost of the material. We are in the process of acquiring Internet access. We are in the process of starting a new study group, in English. We intend to expand our Children’s class on Tuesdays since we can better accommodate our children. We are looking to start a new children’s class for our very little ones on Sundays in January of 2012.

There are many plans. There is an abundance of blessings.There is deep gratitude in our hearts for every single person who is part of this group.

We understand that all these blessings translate into greater responsibility.We do not fear work. We embrace it as long as we continue to walk holding hands, sharing ideas, loving each other, specially, when we differ in thoughts and feelings.

We have modified the logo slightly to reflect this new phase of our work. During the month of October the logo will show a commemorative banner. The year that the center was founded will be added to the logo once the month of October is over. The base where we stand became more solid and a new dimension was added to it. The base is Jesus and Kardec. Under the light and guidance of these mentors we today have a harmonious group of brothers and sisters and a very deep sense of brotherhood. This is now part of the base where we stand and upon which the work is built.

To all my friends, brothers and sisters, to every single participant of this group, I thank you for being there and for making such a difference. We are just starting. Let’s keep going.

Love,
Suzana Simoes.

Listen every Saturday morning to a live interview on Kardec Radio. Visit the website to access old shows.

Join one of the Web Courses offered by the United States Spiritist Council: Gospel on Saturday’s morning and The Spirit’s Book on Wednesday’s night.

A comprehensive website where you can explore what Spiritism is all about.

This course if followed by a continental breakfast prior to the public workshop (11:30 am)

This course if followed by a continental breakfast prior to the public workshop (11:30 am)