Celebration on the Altar of the World - Altar del Mundo
A Sunrise Contemplative Liturgy
Celebrate Earth Day with a sunrise contemplative liturgy that honors the Divine presence in all of creation. Through bilingual readings, gesture, music and silence we will hold together the joy and suffering in the world. This is a contemporary re-rendering by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew of Teilhard de Chardin’s personal “Mass on the World.” Liturgy led by Fanny Prema Manishi Fernandez and Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew. Movement led by Emily Jarrett Hughes.
Celebra el Día de la Tierra al amanecer con una liturgia contemplativa honrando a la Divina presencia de toda la creación. Vamos a crear un espacio con lecturas, música, movimiento y silencio para reflexionar acerca del júbilo y del sufrimiento en el mundo. Esta celebración es una representación contemporánea de "Misa en el Mundo" de Teilhard de Chardin escrita por Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew y celebrada por Rhonda Miska y Mary Martin.
Co-sponsored by Plymouth Congregational Church
Celebration on the Altar of the World - Altar del Mundo
Based on Teilhard de Chardin’s “Mass on the World” re-interpreted by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew
In English and Spanish
Saturday, April 18th, 2026
6:30 AM - Sunrise! Approximately 45 minutes.
Overlooking the Mississippi River
4367 W River Pkwy, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Please bring your own chair. In person only.
On this Earth Day, bring your delight in this beautiful world as well as any bitterness of limitations and grief. Together we will remember where to find Divine presence amidst all the joys and sufferings of life. In the splendor of the sunrise, we will praise all creation.
Teilhard de Chardin was a mystical Jesuit priest whose evolutionary theology and penetrating insight have been a source of profound inspiration to the modern Christian Contemplative movement. When Teilhard de Chardin was unable to celebrate the Christian liturgy of the Mass in the trenches during WWI and again when he was banished by the Jesuits in China, he instead practiced a “Mass on the World” in which he symbolically lifted up the holy cosmos to the Creator. This is a contemporary re-rendering of Teilhard de Chardin’s personal mass (The Heart of Matter) which is much longer.
About Your Facilitators
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is a wisdom teacher and writing coach dedicated to facilitating creative emergence. As a writer she elicits the spirit’s movement within stories; as a teacher she supports transformation within writers and on the page. She received her MFA in creative nonfiction from Hamline University, her spiritual direction training from the Center for Spiritual Guidance, and her contemplative formation from the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Living School. She is the author of the spiritual memoir Swinging on the Garden Gate, now in its second edition; the novel Hannah, Delivered; a collection of personal essays, On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, and Holiness; and two books on writing: Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice, winner of the silver Nautilus Award, and Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir. You can connect with Elizabeth at www.spiritualmemoir.com and www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com.
Fanny Prema Manishi is a holistic practitioner and community wellness facilitator who supports diverse communities through spaces of reflection, connection, and emotional wellbeing. She is the founder of Infinite Prema and Embracing Community Balance, initiatives focused on culturally responsive wellness practices. Fanny facilitates community circles, workshops, and individual sessions that integrate mindfulness, energy healing, and ancestral-informed approaches to support resilience and collective wellbeing.
An Introduction from Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, interpreter of this liturgy
“In this rendering, I attempt to remain faithful to Teilhard’s soaring language and incarnational theology, contributing economy and flow to create a functioning liturgy, and layering in the principle of the sacred feminine—God-bearer, the Theotokos. I’ve imagined myself as a translator, making accessible to contemporary Christians a dimension of their mystical heritage that most often remains hidden. It is my prayer that this service reinvigorate the sacrament of communion, reconnecting it to what Teilhard calls “the majesty of the Real itself”: our good earth, our embodied lives.”
Read more about Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew here.
This is a donation-based event. Donations in support of the work of the Eye of the Heart Center for Creative Contemplation are gratefully received. Co-sponsored by Plymouth Congregational Church.