Cynthia was welcomed to Salt Spring initially due to her capacity as a scholar of medieval liturgical drama. After All Saints' inauguration, the parish invited her back to direct “The Play of Creation,” a fourteenth‑century drama, as part of their new festival life, and then again in May–June 1996 for an extended residency. During that initial residency, she both directed a modern liturgical drama she had written, “The Voyage of Saint Brendan to the Promised Land of the Saints,” and quietly began offering Centering Prayer teaching alongside the parish’s existing contemplative life. As Margaret and others recognized both her depth of practice and her vocational calling, the possibility arose for Cynthia to serve as hermit‑in‑residence for All Saints by the Sea. When the parish ultimately discerned that it could not fund such a position, Margaret Haines and Sandy Gordon gathered a small group, formed a society, secured an Anglican diocesan residency grant, and resolved to support Cynthia’s presence themselves.​

That new society soon took the name The Contemplative Society. From the beginning, the arrangement wove together multiple strands: Cynthia living as a hermit, assisting the parish as needed, teaching centering prayer and leading retreats to sustain the work financially. Existing contemplative structures (a regular eight‑day retreat at the Society of St. Anne in Sooke and an active Centering Prayer group) gave her an immediate context in which to teach and experiment. Supported by the community, she began to articulate what would become the Wisdom School model, and by July 1999, at "Fairacres" (then known as the Contemplative Centre, a parishioner’s unused property on Salt Spring Island), the first-ever Wisdom School was hosted. In this convergence of a small island parish, Margaret’s vision, and Cynthia’s emerging Wisdom teaching, The Contemplative Society was truly born.​

Those early retreats continue to reverberate in the life of The Contemplative Society today. What began as a small island community supporting a hermit‑in‑residence, gathering for largely silent retreats and experimental Wisdom Schools, has matured into an ongoing commitment to contemplative practice, teaching, and hospitality that now reaches far beyond Salt Spring Island. The same impulse that led a handful of parishioners to form a society so Cynthia could live, teach, and pray among them still animates today’s programs, partnerships, and online offerings.​

Seen from this vantage point, the early retreats are not just a charming preface but the DNA of the Society’s current work. The rhythms of silence and chant, the integration of Centering Prayer with liturgy and sacred drama, and the willingness to risk new forms of Wisdom teaching all continue to shape how the Society discerns teachers, curates retreats, and now stewards this digital archive. As new voices join the lineage and the work takes fresh forms, the community still moves in continuity with those first gatherings: a small circle, listening deeply for the Wisdom that wants to emerge for this time.

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Please see some of the historical documentation on the foundations of The Contemplative Society below.

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Sincerely, 

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Your Archival Administrator