We are proud to announce a new fellowship at the Mesa Refuge: the Toby Symington Sacred Advocacy Fellowship! This fellowship supports writers who are advocates of truth and equity—who feel a deep connection with the sacred and who apply the wisdom at the core of the major spiritual traditions to the cause of social, ecological, and geopolitical justice. The fellowship supports, in particular, women who see themselves as “citizens of the world.”
The 2023 Symington Sacred Advocacy Fellow was Gwen Mitchell, a writer, meditation teacher, and activist who founded the Moyo Institute, a nonprofit whose mission is to offer heart-centered educational experiences that foster inner peace, happiness, creativity, connection and oneness. She teaches meditation and self-care as a radical self-affirming response to racism. She is currently spearheading a project, Love Letters to Our Bodies, for African American women journeying with cancer. Gwen cohosted Black Space, a sacred listening event in response to the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the consequent outpouring of grief and anger. At the Mesa Refuge, Gwen worked on a spiritual quest memoir that explores the connection between social justice and spiritual enlightenment.
Toby Symington is the executive director of the Lloyd Symington Foundation, which for almost 40 years has funded visionary, grassroots cancer programs that offer healing on multiple levels. He also has a private practice in astrological consulting designed especially for people going through major life transitions. His central passion is philosophy, understood as an integral way of being and a guide to wise and compassionate living.