Welcome

I'm a Scottish sacred musician, interspiritual minister and singer songwriter now living in rural Vermont.  These songs & reflections are my soul's way of making sense of the beauty, vulnerability and endless richness of this human life. It's a gift and a pleasure to share them with you. 

Upcoming:

BirdSong Vespers

5pm live from Kanuga or posted soon after on Youtube

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Previous events

Patreon only concert

(EST, UTC-05) (EST, UTC-05)

Livestream only

I'd like offer a relaxed 'house concert' style gig to my Patreon supporters to say thank you to them for their ongoing support and care.

If you love my work and would like to become a Patreon supporter you can join my online community on Patreon from as little as $5 a month. https://www.patreon.com/simondevoil

If you are a supporter here is the event link: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/patreon-only-concert4

Musician for Dr. Catherine Meeks and David Whyte gathering

 — (EDT, UTC-04) — (EDT, UTC-04)

I'm delighted to be serving at the conference musician. https://www.kanuga.org/our-programs/adults/lansinglee/

Please note that in addition to the main conference myself and few other creatives will be leading deep listening practices: such as forrest bathing, music, creative writing and art in the days prior to the main conference. I will at Kanuga sharing song from the evening of Monday 9th Oct until the evening of Thursday 12th of Oct.

Concert: Sacred Earth Sacred Song **** SOLD OUT

(PDT, UTC-07) (PDT, UTC-07)

Finnriver cider garden, 124 Center Road, Chimacum

This event has been postponed to October 5th

I've booked a listening space within Finnriver so that this concert will be an intimate sharing of story and song. Please come and tell your friends.

You can purchase your tickets through this website or at the door.
Tickets are $20 or $10 concession (if purchasing online use code 50OFF at check out to reduce your fee).
6.30pm Pacific time.

Workshop: Sacred Earth Sacred Song

 — (PDT, UTC-07) — (PDT, UTC-07)

Finnriver cider garden, 124 Center Road, Chimacum

This event has been postponed and will now take place on Oct 5th. All the other details are the same.

A 4 hour afternoon spiritual retreat into the voice of the land and Heart. According to Greek mystic Pythagoras, “The highest goal of music is to connect one’s soul to their divine nature.” More than mere entertainment, music is a powerful agent for transformation, both personal and collective; song can call us into opening, attune our hearts to a shared rhythm, and stir us to deepen our connection with self, other, and the divine. In this retreat, Rev. Simon Ruth will explore the power of breath and voice to awaken the soul and foster deep connection with the sacred in a variation on the ancient monastic practice lectio divina. The afternoon will include listening and singing together, storytelling, and an orchard bathing walk with time outdoors creating presence and withnessing the land -- finding our place in the web of creation and depth of connection with one another.

This is an in person only event.

Cost is $80

(50% discount available for all who need this - use code 50OFF at checkout)

Please note that there will also be a 6.30pm Concert in addition to the workshop. https://simondevoil.com/event/5182383/645579287/concert-sacred-earth-sacred-song

Deep Calls Unto Deep: A Contemplative Exploration of the Psalms in Our Life and Practice

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

Online only

Join Abbey of the Arts for this experiential webinar with guides Simon de Voil and David Wallace. We will be learning about and engaging with the Book of Psalms through teaching, music, writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship. All spiritual wayfarers from any (or no) spiritual orientation or tradition will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish their life’s journey.

Week 1 — An Intimate Encounter: Engaging with the Psalms as Living Poetry of Our Souls

Week 2 — The Psalmist as Spiritual Companion: Examining the Unique Gifts We Each Bring to The Psalms

Week 3 — The Fullness of Life: Discovering Our Shared Humanity

Week 4 — Embodying the Psalms: Serving as Anam Cara to All Beings.

Cost = $100 (you can pay a little less or more depending upon your income) https://abbeyofthearts.com/calendar/deep-calls-unto-deep/

Deep Calls Unto Deep: A Contemplative Exploration of the Psalms in Our Life and Practice

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

Online only

Join Abbey of the Arts for this experiential webinar with guides Simon de Voil and David Wallace. We will be learning about and engaging with the Book of Psalms through teaching, music, writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship. All spiritual wayfarers from any (or no) spiritual orientation or tradition will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish their life’s journey.

Week 1 — An Intimate Encounter: Engaging with the Psalms as Living Poetry of Our Souls

Week 2 — The Psalmist as Spiritual Companion: Examining the Unique Gifts We Each Bring to The Psalms

Week 3 — The Fullness of Life: Discovering Our Shared Humanity

Week 4 — Embodying the Psalms: Serving as Anam Cara to All Beings.

Cost = $100 (you can pay a little less or more depending upon your income) https://abbeyofthearts.com/calendar/deep-calls-unto-deep/

Deep Calls Unto Deep: A Contemplative Exploration of the Psalms in Our Life and Practice

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

Online only

Join Abbey of the Arts for this experiential webinar with guides Simon de Voil and David Wallace. We will be learning about and engaging with the Book of Psalms through teaching, music, writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship. All spiritual wayfarers from any (or no) spiritual orientation or tradition will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish their life’s journey.

Week 1 — An Intimate Encounter: Engaging with the Psalms as Living Poetry of Our Souls

Week 2 — The Psalmist as Spiritual Companion: Examining the Unique Gifts We Each Bring to The Psalms

Week 3 — The Fullness of Life: Discovering Our Shared Humanity

Week 4 — Embodying the Psalms: Serving as Anam Cara to All Beings.

Cost = $100 (you can pay a little less or more depending upon your income) https://abbeyofthearts.com/calendar/deep-calls-unto-deep/

Deep Calls Unto Deep: A Contemplative Exploration of the Psalms in Our Life and Practice

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

Online only

Join Abbey of the Arts for this experiential webinar with guides Simon de Voil and David Wallace. We will be learning about and engaging with the Book of Psalms through teaching, music, writing, and contemplative listening, with opportunities for sharing and for spiritual companionship. All spiritual wayfarers from any (or no) spiritual orientation or tradition will find wisdom, song, and practice to nourish their life’s journey.

Week 1 — An Intimate Encounter: Engaging with the Psalms as Living Poetry of Our Souls

Week 2 — The Psalmist as Spiritual Companion: Examining the Unique Gifts We Each Bring to The Psalms

Week 3 — The Fullness of Life: Discovering Our Shared Humanity

Week 4 — Embodying the Psalms: Serving as Anam Cara to All Beings.

Cost = $100 (you can pay a little less or more depending upon your income) https://abbeyofthearts.com/calendar/deep-calls-unto-deep/

POSTPONED - Celtic Christianity in Modern America

(PDT, UTC-07) (PDT, UTC-07)

Online only

New date is Tuesday August 29th.

This workshop is no longer in person and will be hosted on Zoom

Workshop description:
For a loosely woven spiritual tradition that took shape some 1400 years ago, Celtic Christianity has a surprising amount to teach about living a good life today.

Emerging from the clan and place-based cultures of Ireland, Britain, Wales, and Brittany, Celtic Christianity offers a very different ethos than the doctrine delivered by the imperial, patriarchal Roman Church. Some of the guiding principles we can draw from Celtic Christianity include:

  • Recognizing the living earth as the substance of Godde

  • Discovering Christ in the stranger’s guise (in creatures, creation, and fellow humans)

  • Learning to read the big book of Creation alongside the wee books of scripture

  • Awakening the soul through beauty and ritual

  • Cherishing the earth as an active spiritual practice

In this experiential workshop, Simon will incorporate song, storytelling, and both ancient and modern prayer to share his living version and vision of Celtic Christianity.

Cost is $20

(50% discount available for all who need this - use code 50OFF at checkout)

Offering sermon & song with Washington UU Congregation VT

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

UU church, 2938 VT Route 110, Washington

This is an in-person event only as this rural summer-only church does not have wifi.

Sermon title: The Spiral Way The Celtic spiritual tradition is a spiral way, one that honors non-linear consciousness and intimately follows nature’s rhythms of rising and falling, fullness and emptiness. When we open ourselves to this way of being in relationship to time’s unfolding, we discover a profound wisdom that honors our own seasons of flowering and fruitfulness, as well as seasons of release, surrender, fallowness, stillness, and mystery. This talk will explore the holy days of the Wheel of the Year, and invite us to consider how we might use these touchpoints to live in a way that deeply honors both body and soul.

Offering sermon & song with Washington UU Congregation VT

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

UU church, 2938 VT Route 110, Washington

This is an in-person event only as this rural summer only church does not have wifi.

Title: Bardic Blessing: Song as Prayer.
According to Greek mystic Pythagoras, “The highest goal of music is to connect one’s soul to their divine nature.” More than mere entertainment, music is a powerful agent for transformation, both personal and collective; song can call us into opening, attune our hearts to a shared rhythm, and stir us to deepen our connection with self, other, and the divine. In this service, Rev. Simon will explore the power of breath and voice to awaken the soul and foster deep connection with the sacred.

This Church service is in person but I will be preaching and sharing music remotely via zoom; all are most welcome. 10am Pacific time zone. Details can be found here https://suquamishucc.org Join on zoom = https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8711889085 Watch on FB = https://www.facebook.com/suquamishucc

Title: I Am Not a Mistake - Meeting God as a Queer Soul

A God that doesn't include us all is too small to believe in.
Growing up queer and non-binary, I was introduced to a God that didn't have room for me, and a church that didn't believe in me.

As I aged and grew into my transgender identity, I was blessed to meet another God entirely: a God who is in and of every single one of us. A God who delights in our gorgeous variety. A God who speaks through radical love and hospitality. A God who invites us into not just affirmation but joyous celebration of all sexuality, all genders, all families, all love. Come meet that God with me.

Taizé-Inspired Sacred Chant

(EDT, UTC-04) (EDT, UTC-04)

On zoom

Join Rev Simon Ruth de Voil for this Taizé inspired service of contemplative chanting that honors the Christian & Jewish traditions.

Taizé is an ecumenical abbey in France with an emphasis on simplicity, reconciliation, and kindness. In the 1950s the prior commissioned a composer to set many of the core teachings into simple chants that the pilgrims and youth who flock to Taizé could participate in voicing. The result was the birth of a new form of monastic chanting that is beautiful, meditative, accessible, and sings to the heart of the Christian tradition.

https://abbeyofthearts.com/calendar/taize-inspired-sacred-chant-june23/

Iona & the Papar monks (with poet Kenneth Steven & musician Simon de Voil)

 — (EDT, UTC-04) — (EDT, UTC-04)

Zoom event

Simon de Voil and Kenneth Steven, musician and writer respectively, share on the theme of Iona's pilgrim monks the Papars. Iona has been part of who they’ve become and what they believe, and in this time of sharing poetry and song they will talk together about what inspires them about these early Celts monks.

Link to the replay of this event https://www.crowdcast.io/c/iona-papar

This 90 min experience workshop will be online and in person. Scholarships will be available to both the public and members of SDI.

Workshop description: According to Greek mystic Pythagoras, “The highest goal of music is to connect one’s soul to their divine nature.” More than mere entertainment, music is a powerful agent for transformation, both personal and collective; song can call us into opening, attune our hearts to a shared rhythm, and stir us to deepen our connection with self, other, and the divine.

In the Celtic Bardic tradition, music is understood to be a divine gift, intrinsically linked with community-based rituals and with individual spiritual practice. Music belongs to and arises from each of us, regardless of our training—we all carry soul-songs. This participatory workshop will consist largely of shared music and shared contemplative silence, including the opportunity to experience audio divina, deep listening as a form of prayer, and to optionally join in chanting and song, exploring the power of breath and voice to awaken the soul and foster deep connection.

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-events/conferences/conference-2023/workshops-a/#a9