Hello contemplative friends!
In our part of the world, we’ve bid farewell to summer heat, and now feel the cool of fall settling on the west coast. The familiar turning of the seasons again reminds us of the never-ending rhythms of Sacred Presence. With the turn comes the shift of creative energy that is so needed to plan and implement the pieces that will see us through the winter months.
Now is a good time to update you on the new movements here at The Contemplative Society, and how these may involve you.
In this update you will find:
- a brief summary of our work as TCS Board this past year
- an invitation to explore our new website
- an announcement of the appointment of Charlotte McNeil as our Audio Sales Manager
- an announcement of the TCS Annual Meeting, October 30, 2021 and
- an invitation to our membership to Board leadership.
This past year and a half, each of us has addressed upheaval: COVID, heat waves, fires, floods, and political and economic turmoil. The undertow has been severe, but we have also seen the transformative effects of our practice – the Law of Three in vivid flow. (Thank you, Cynthia, for helping us see the challenges as opportunity). The TCS Board has had its own challenges, observing and working with the Holy triad of Affirming, Denying, and Reconciling energies as we tried to gain clarity of our organization’s role and identity. In these changing times, we have been discerning our place within the world-wide Christian Contemplative Wisdom movement.
With the help of our talented and knowledgeable administrator, Eilen deVerteuil, and much volunteer effort, we have found the place of Holy Affirming in our work by:
- putting TCS on a solid financial footing. streamlining our administration, making the audio library production and sales more efficient,
- successfully running several virtual contemplative events (with teachers David Frenette, Ward Bauman, and Jennifer England),
- building new areas of collaboration with Wisdom Waypoints and other hubs of our contemplative wisdom network,
- updating our website.
Along with these positive aspects, we have also experienced some Holy Denying constriction in the flow of our work. Board members and our wider circle of volunteers have had to deal with personal tragedies, loss, and illness; COVID restrictions continue to affect our activities; and some of the administrative changes to our organization have been more difficult to implement than initially expected.
As well, Eilen deVerteuil, our current administrator, has tendered her resignation effective October 15th. We give our deepest thanks to Eilen, for helping TCS through this time of change, and for so capably and graciously implementing many of the necessary administrative changes over the last many months.
Through the challenges, we continue to discern and respond to the third energy, Holy Reconciliation, that is now carrying us towards a new arising. We sense that this will take the form of new leadership from our TCS membership to take us to the next phase or our evolution. Later in this letter, there is an invitation to you, the TCS membership, to offer your gifts, experience, and energy to help TCS move to the next phase of our work and mission.
Welcome to our newly updated website!
We are pleased to announce that Charlotte McNeil, who joined the TCS Board last year, has been appointed our audio sales manager. Charlotte will be taking care of your orders for cd’s and audio downloads of retreat teachings. As always, we are immensely grateful to Brian Mitchell, Peggy Zimmerman, and their team of volunteers for their continued dedication to editing the audio from TCS retreats so that we can share this precious resource with our contemplative community.
Featured MP3s: Half Price for October!
In celebration, we are offering 50% OFF these two MP3 recordings until October 31st, 2021:
Luminous Wisdom: Our Lineage with Cynthia Bourgeault
and
The Wisdom Path: Contemplative Practice and Evolving Consciousness with Matthew Wright.
Click on the above titles, or on the images below to take you to our order page.
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Something new! Print transcriptions of our favourite audio resources are now in development. We are indebted to a committed team of volunteers who are working steadily on this time-consuming task. Individual transcripts will be released as they become available.
Our first full transcript is already available here: Christophany: Experiencing the Fullness of Christianity – teaching with Cynthia Bourgeault
Please take part in The Contemplative Society AGM on October 30th, 2021, 2:30pm – 3:30pm Pacific Standard Time.
It will take place in-person at the Multifaith Centre at the University of Victoria, AND you will be able to join us via Zoom from a distance to allow participation of our membership far and wide.
Zoom and location details, reports, and an agenda will be made available to those who register to attend (see link below).
The focus of TCS work over the next year may involve:
- making connections and developing a strong regional hub on the west coast as part of the Christian Contemplative Wisdom community world-wide
- offering and collaborating with others in our network to provide in-person events and retreats in our region with online accessibility. (Note that we anticipate that a retreat with Cynthia Bourgeault will now take place in April 2022, after several postponements due to COVID).
- developing group learning activities and e-courses using our treasury of audio resources.
- engaging young people in our contemplative learning and practice to help build our contemplative community for future generations.
Interested in joining us? Please register using the link below:
An Invitation to help shape the future of TCS!
We need your vision and experience! Realizing our vision requires leadership from you, our TCS membership. We seek leaders who can apply their skills and experience in coordinating contemplative events, forming learning and practice groups, and collaborating with others in our network to further Contemplative Wisdom in our region and beyond.
Have you personally benefited from the rich contemplative ways of knowing that Cynthia Bourgeault and others in our network have taught and practiced?
Are you now ready to expand the powerful field of knowledge by helping others learn from your experience?
TCS and our community needs leaders like you to serve on the Board, or to offer leadership for specific events and activities.
If this opportunity sparks your interest, please contact me, Henri Lock, at henrilock@gmail.com to talk about how you can take part in shaping the future of The Contemplative Society’s exciting journey in Wisdom Christianity.
We welcome you!
Blessings,
Henri Lock
President
The Contemplative Society
TCS is a non-profit society run by a volunteer Board and a part-time Administrator. Formed in Victoria BC Canada in 1997 to serve an emerging contemplative renewal and to support and spread the teachings of Cynthia Bourgeault and other distinguished Wisdom teachers.
We would love for you to join us as a member and to help sustain and build our offerings with a donation of any amount.
