Our Team
The Contemplative Society is guided by a committed board of directors, supported by our Executive Director and Communications Co-ordinator, and strengthened by the dedication of volunteers. We share a common devotion to sustaining and expanding the Christian Wisdom tradition through retreats, resources, and community life.
Board of Directors
The current board was elected in October 2022, brings a wide range of skills and experience to The Contemplative Society (TCS). The board operates under a hybrid of a policy/working board (with the board identifying an intentional split of an 80% focus on policy and a 20% focus on hands-on work as its mix). Our board is supported by two standing committees: an Executive Committee, which provides oversight and support to the Executive Director in day-to-day operational matters, and an Events and Retreats Planning Committee, which helps identify retreat themes and Wisdom teachers and may include both board and non-board members.
Each board member is rooted in a regular meditation practice and deeply committed to the Society's mission and vision. Grounded in the Christian contemplative tradition. Board members are familiar with the teachings of Cynthia Bourgeault and other wisdom teachers, and regularly participate in retreats, study groups, and contemplative events.
Balancing dedication with a sense of joy, TCS's board works collaboratively to guide the ongoing growth and evolution of the Society.
You can download a copy of the Society's bylaws by which we are governed in accordance with BC’s Society Act.
You can download a copy of the Society's Governance Policies of TCS’s Board of Directors by which the board operates.
Director & President
Therese DesCamp
Therese 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
Director & Vice-President/Secretary
Lorie Martin
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/
Director & Treasurer
Gerald Morton
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.
Director
Gillian Drader
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
Director
Kim Gye
Kim 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 a Board member since Spring 2012.
Director
Milla McLachlan
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.
Director
Virginia Bennett
Virginia has had a life-long urge to understand and find meaning. Initially this led to studying the earth sciences, then social sciences, then ethics. She has lived on both coasts of Canada, as well as in Europe and Africa. Virginia’s peripatetic lifestyle has proven fertile ground for contemplative practice. She was a member of a theosophical group for many years but on reading Cynthia Bourgeault’s work knew this rang true. This was a ‘recognition event’. Virginia lives in Victoria with her husband, two dogs and a cat.
Executive Director
Tom Esakin
Tom is a long-serving spiritual director, trained through Jubilee Associates Ontario. He served for many years on the Wisdom Circle of the Pacific Jubilee Program that trains in spiritual direction in British Columbia, Canada, prior to that Circle widning down for PJP. 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