Our Board of Directors
The current board of The Contemplative Society was elected at the Annual General Meeting on October 2022 in Victoria, BC, Canada. Board members bring to the society a broad range of skills and experience. It is a working board in which members take leadership in areas to which they are drawn.
Board members maintain a regular meditation practice and are committed to the vision and mission of The Contemplative Society. They are familiar with the Christian contemplative tradition and with the audio and written works of Cynthia Bourgeault and other teachers of the contemplative path. They frequently attend various contemplative events and small study groups.
Working well together is balanced with having fun together, and board members bring humour, dedication, and commitment to the task of directing the ongoing growth and evolution of The Contemplative Society.
You can download a copy of the bylaws by which we are governed by in accordance with BC’s Society Act.
Our Board Members
Therese DesCamp, Director & President
Therese DesCamp, Director & PresidentTherese has a deep longing to encounter the Holy as expressed through the being-ness of creation. She lives this out here in the Kootenays through her long-term practice of meditation and prayer, as well as through her life as a spouse, writer, spiritual director, minister and recovering alcoholic. She is committed to the work of The Contemplative Society in part because of the profound wisdom she has found in the teachings of Cynthia Bourgeault; but also because she believes in The Contemplative Society’s capacity to offer training, support and community to those who are “holding the post” in our wide-flung communities. Therese was recently long-listed for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Award. See more at: www.widespot.ca
Lorie Martin, Director & Vice-President/Secretary
Lorie is a spiritual director, retreat leader, and clergy in the Anglican Church of Canada. She is passionate about “soul work” and highly values contemplative practices, creating sacred spaces, and gathering together in community. Lorie is a director of The Centre for Spiritual Renewal, located in Langley, Aldergrove, and Chilliwack, BC. She and her husband, Dwight, raised 5 children and now live at Lindell Beach near the water in the woods, and enjoy their grandchildren, hiking, and paddling in their kayaks. https://loriemartin.com/
Gerald Morton, Director & Treasurer
Gerald Morton has been a member of TCS since 2011 and a board member since Spring 2012. He has shared leadership of weekly contemplative prayer meetings at St. Philip Church in Victoria for two years.
Gillian Drader, Director
Gillian is a trauma therapist, educator, workshop facilitator and spiritual director. Gillian has a particular passion for working with the intersection of trauma healing and spirituality with her own healing and spiritual journey being greatly influenced by the work of Dr. James Finley and Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault. She loves to facilitate contemplative women’s circles and watch the transformations that can occur when people connect to Divine Love and to their true identities. Gillian lives in Deroche, B.C. with her husband and her fur baby. www.gilliandrader.com
Kim Gye, Director
Kim Gye, DirectorKim Gye is a business owner and father of two girls. He feels that the contemplative practice supports his life goals to be a better father, partner, and employer. While he acknowledges the daily practice can be a struggle at times, he finds it has highlighted areas of growth for him. Kim feels grateful to support TCS in his role as an Board member since Spring 2012.
Milla McLachlan, Director
Milla is grateful for a meandering life journey in which the call has always been to see more widely, experience more deeply, and to weave together the spiritual impulse and the daily demands of work and life. Encountering Cynthia Bourgeault’s teaching while studying ecopsychology and integral theory in Colorado felt like a homecoming for Milla, and it continues to enrich and challenge her. Milla brings years of experience as a team leader, coach, and facilitator in social development efforts in the USA and Africa. She has a passion for poetry and the simple joys of long walks and baking good bread. Milla lives with her wife, Elizabeth, and two cats in Oregon, and enjoys being Ouma.
Our Staff
Tom Esakin, Executive Director
Tom is a long-serving spiritual director, trained through Jubilee Associates Ontario. He also serves on the Wisdom Circle of the Pacific Jubilee Program that trains in spiritual direction in British Columbia, Canada. Tom’s professional background includes Executive Director, Program Director, and university-level instructional and curriculum design experience in fields as diverse as sustainable development, youth-at-risk, and end-of-life. Tom brings a breadth of interfaith knowledge and practice to his spiritual companioning. He is at home with: Christianity (Anglicanism, Catholicism, ecumenism); Buddhism (Theravada); Sufism (Universal); the Spiritual not religious; Agnosticism; Atheism; and holds a general understanding of Judaism, Kabbalah, and Hinduism. From Simon Fraser University, he holds a minor in Philosophy focused on ethics and a major in Political Science, and from Staffordshire University, he holds an MA in Sustainable Development. He is a former member and Co-Chair of the Ecumenical and Multifaith Unit of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster. ‘Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.’ – Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī