A Letter From Cynthia Bourgeault, Resident Teacher, April 2002

*Image: Sr.Marguerite Lalonde,SSA and Fr.Thomas Keating, OSB Victoria, BC, March 2002 (LOST)

Dear friends and fellow sojourners,

The Annual General Meeting of the Contemplative Society will take place this year on Saturday, May 4, at St. Philip's Anglican Church, 2928 Eastdowne Road, in the Oak Bay section of Victoria. The meeting will begin at 10 am, followed by our traditional luncheon. I hope you will make every effort to attend, as the air right now is electric with possibility and important decisions about the shape and direction of the Society need to be discerned by as many of us as possible.This past year has been an important time of transition and "coming of age" for the Society. The double challenges of having to say farewell to Fairacres, our marvelous first home on Salt Spring Island, followed by my three-month sabbatical in Maine, presented a real test of the breadth and depth of the our little organization, and I'm delighted to report that the Society passed the test with flying colours! With Heather Page steady at the helm as administrative assistant, and Christopher Page and Diane Tolomeo stepping brilliantly into the teaching roles, the Society maintained its strong presence in both Victoria and Vancouver throughout the fall.

I am delighted to report that the my new living arrangements at Genairley, the Sisters of St. Ann's beautiful retreat centre in East Sooke, have worked out wonderfully, and the three Contemplative Society retreats that have taken place here during the winter have been grace-filled and joyous. I'm delighted to report that the Sisters of St. Ann have invited us to continue in this arrangement for another three years.

Without a doubt, the high point of the year was the eight-day invitational retreat with Fr. Thomas Keating in early March, followed by Fr. Thomas' public lecture in Victoria on March 12, which drew over 500 people. The challenges involved in coordinating and publicizing such an event are formidable, and Contemplative Society board members rose to the occasion with impressive teamwork. It was a sweet moment for us all when Fr. Thomas received a standing ovation from a packed-to-overflowing audience: a confirmation of the spiritual hunger out there in our culture, and the Contemplative Society's unique role in helping to fill it....which brings us to a consideration of the future, the real subject of our upcoming meeting. The Contemplative Society began in 1997 with five founding members and an annual budget of $11,000. We have now grown to a mailing list of over 250 and a budget of $30,000. Our original program, which basically centered around instruction in Centering Prayer and Christian Meditation and opportunities for meditation retreats, has now grown to a diverse program of teaching retreats, deep immersion retreats, Contemplative Eucharists, Living Presence group (seven at latest count: in Victoria, Vancouver, Salt Spring Island, Kamloops, Winfield, Nelson, and Seattle), and Wisdom Schools. It is clear that the real hunger is not only for contemplative practice, but for Wisdom: the integrated theory and practice of spiritual awakening taught and modeled by Jesus and flowing through the mystical and visionary teachers of our Western Christian tradition. This sort of integrative training is available neither in universities or in seminaries - not even dependably in monasteries - but it seems to be tapping a deep spiritual hunger, and almost in spite of ourselves, the Contemplative Society seems to be delivering the goods.

In the first five years of its organizational life, the Contemplative Society has made an outstanding beginning. My own sense is that the road up ahead is going to present us with the task of strengthening organizational infrastructure in order to manage a substantially increased budget. This is a delicate time in the life of any organization: the move from the innocence and informality of institutional childhood into the increased responsibility of growing up. We need to do it, and do it well together. Because however cliched it may sound to say it this way, I'm pretty sure that the Holy Spirit is at work in all this.Please turn out if you possibly can on May 4. Bring your prayers, your dreams\emdash and if possible, some fruit or baked goodies to round out our luncheon feast.

Please RSVP to Penny (250-598-9844 or email:penelopemartin@shaw.ca if you are able to stay for lunch.

God bless you all,

Cynthia