HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. --- The second half of life is a time to wake up to what has been true all along: life with all of its ups and downs is a sheer gift.

The Very Rev. Dr. Alan Jones and the Rev. Margaret Guenther will explore that gift Feb. 27-29 when they keynote “Encore! Spirituality for Life’s Second Act” at Kanuga Conferences.

A major Christian thinker and writer, Jones was the dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco from 1985 until 2009. Previously, he served as the Stephen F. Bayne Professor of Ascetical Theology and director and founder of the Center for Christian Spirituality at General Theological Seminary in New York. He is the author of many books on spirituality, including Reimagining Christianity, Seasons of Grace and Soul-Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality.

Guenther is a noted retreat leader, lecturer and author whose books include Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction, Toward Holy Ground: Spiritual Directions for the Second Half of Life, At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us and her most recent book, Walking Home: From Eden to Emmaus. She serves as associate rector at St. Columba's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., and is a professor emerita of ascetical theology at General Theological Seminary in New York, where she served for many years as director of the Center for Christian Spirituality.

The conference will focus on “living into the second half of life and living into all the challenges and the mysteries of it with joy and with some confidence,” Guenther said.

“It excites me that we are becoming more and more aware of the spiritual aspects of the aging process,” she said. “I am delighted to see this part of our life being looked at from the perspective of people of faith and people who are open to new insights and can see this as possibly a time of joy and fruition, not just diminishment.”

The Rev. Jane Sigloh of Charlottesville, Va., author of Like Trees Walking, a book about the journey into the second half of life, will serve as chaplain. The conference is coordinated by the Rev. Dr. Joe Bowden, a retired doctor who volunteers as the part-time assisting priest at Church of the Holy Comforter in Martinez, Ga.

Affiliated with the Episcopal Church since 1928, Kanuga is a 1,400-acre camp and conference center in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Hendersonville, N.C. Financial aid and discounted rates for commuters are available. For more information, visit www.kanuga.org or call 828-692-9136.

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