Sabr - Syria

Syria is home to some of the worlds oldest continually inhabited cities and their continuous cultures. For thousands of years people of different backgrounds and beliefs have co-existed, shared, and clashed in Syria, creating echoes that have shaped Western and Eastern civilisations alike.

Throughout Syria’s ancient and modern challenges, spirituality has played a crucial role in communal resilience, cohabitation, sense of identity, and healing from trauma.

Since 2011, Syria has been plunged into one of its most challenging periods in living memory, with war, natural disasters, and economic strangulation stripping most Syrians of nearly everything they held dear. Faith and connection to the long-historical arc of perseverance through trials remains as one of the few certainties Syrians have left.

It is in this context that this program takes participants to the coalface of what faith and spirituality mean when everything else has been taken from you, and what it influence it has on both individual and communal healing.

Duration: 12 Days + 4 x 2.5 hour preparation sessions

Occurs: April and September

Cost: US$4,500

*Price does not include flights and insurance.

  • Echoes of Destruction

    The heart of Aleppo - its old city - has been destroyed by both war and earthquakes. For both Christian and Muslim communities, rebuilding their sites of devotion has been the start of rebuilding life as it was. We walk the alleys of Aleppo and the path back to hope.

  • Ancient Practice

    Syria is home to some of the most ancient Christian churches in the world. We retreat to a mountain monastery to experience the life of devoted monks first hand.

  • That Which Cannot Be Said

    Art approximates the divine, and the body is a universal way of accessing and understanding that which our rational mind cannot. We visit and learn from Sufi schools still practicing in Syria.