Vivienne Hull

Vivienne Hull is the co-founder of the Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island, Washington, a center for transformational learning since 1972, serving people of all ethnic and spiritual backgrounds from across the planet. Born and raised in Northern Ireland, she is a scholar of Celtic spirituality and theology. She directs annual retreats and conferences on the Island of Iona in Scotland and the Hilltop Retreats, a program of the Whidbey Institute. She is the author of Iona, A Guide to the Sacred Isle, a popular book about the rich heritage of the Celtic Christian tradition, what she calls the “contrary way” in Western religion. She is a Lindisfarne Fellow and a recipient of the 2007 Thomas Berry Award. She lives on Whidbey Island with her husband, Fritz Hull. Together, they are doing what they can to be of help in what may be the crucial work of our time—knowing again our place in the web of life and our responsibility to future generations. For more information on her work, visit ionaretreats.com and whidbeyinstitute.org.

Vivienne Hull in Kosmos

A Pocket Full of Stones

...my home bordered the ‘other neighborhood,’ the one where the Fenians, the Papists, the Catholics lived. The ones I was afraid of. I had stones in my pocket to throw at them if ‘they’ came up ‘my’ street. So I sat on the curb with my friends, waiting for ‘them’ to come.

Published in Volume 18 Issue 3

Coming Soon

The Village Way

Practices for Belonging in a Fragmented World

For thousands of years, we lived according to the principles of village life. Then, around the 14th Century, our lives were reorganized by rulers around growth and accumulation – often at the cost of community, equity, and the living Earth. What would it mean to return to simplicity, and mutual care?

Join us for a 9-month inquiry into this question, exploring how we participate together in a time that calls us back to community, resilience, and shared life,