The 40th Anniversary conference was a time of telling stories, stories of how Father Thomas touched our lives, maybe from one of his books, or a video or maybe you met him at a conference or on a retreat or you may have known him in person.
We have so many interesting stories. William Meninger found inspiration for the prayer in The Cloud of Unknowing. Father Carl shared with us that he started meditating 50 years ago with William Meninger. One of Father Thomas’ nephews made A Rising Tide of Silence, a video about his life. And Cynthia Bourgeault has a new book coming out next month about her experience of Thomas Keating. So many stories.
For those who came expecting to hear the official story of Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach, they may have been disappointed. There is no official “This is how it happened story.” Rather we each have our own story. Each of us can say “This is how it happened to me.”
– Jenny Adamson, Colorado, conference planning team
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The 40th anniversary Conference at Atlanta’s Emory University began in the backdrop of Hurricane Helene. Many had to cancel because of difficulties traveling there, some speakers changed from in-person to Zoom appearances. Still, many of us made it there before airports cancelled flights. In some ways, it seemed like an appropriate analogy to the journey of Contemplative Outreach over the past 40 years by consenting to God during adversity. One of the opening session talks by Wendy Maree from South Africa was on the significance of 40 from a Biblical perspective where forty is referenced hundreds of times.
The conference center was in a beautiful, wooded setting with fall color just beginning. There are courtyards all around and the rooms where we did our group sits three times a day looked out to nature. Sitting together was such a memorable experience. At different times during the conference, we were led though Lectio, the Welcoming Prayer, and given revisions to the Intro to Centering Prayer to remind us of their transformative power.
There were many great talks throughout the conference. Fr. Bill Sheehan opened on Saturday morning remembering how he ended up at the first Llama retreat where Fr. Thomas Keating gave his original teachings on Centering Prayer and Lectio including ‘all prayer is relationship and develops over fidelity to the practice’. He pointed out that Thomas Keating will be remembered through his teaching of spiritual development through human growth and development along with the pure receptivity of the prayer.
Later that afternoon, a talk by Netanel Miles-Yepez D.D., Chair of Religious Studies and Director of Keating Schachter Center for Interspirituality and Naropa University, profoundly said that the two pillars of Thomas Keating’s work was Centering Prayer and inter-spiritual dialogue. He chronicled the time from 1981 when Thomas resigned as Abbott to free himself to travel and engage more with teachers from other world disciplines and religions. In 1984, the same year Contemplative Outreach was formed, Thomas convened the first Snowmass Dialogue where he invited Zen, Tibetan, Buddhist and other masters who practice silent meditation to come together and focus on agreements of beliefs and common language to describe the experience of silence such as Ultimate Reality (often used in Alcoholics Anonymous). Netanel said the philosophy is taken from German linguist Goethe, who said ‘A person who knows only his language, knows nothing of his.” In the same way, a person who knows only his religion, knows nothing of his. Thomas wanted to know what the common heart was of people who sat in silence. These dialogues have continued, a book published, and a few videos recordings are available.
Many other interesting workshops and talks were by groups such as the Young Contemplatives, New Monastics, Prison Ministry, Extension Contemplative Internacional, and two 12-Step speakers. All of these were areas Thomas supported and gave of himself in the last 10 years of his life. In most of these areas, the Christian language could be modified to spiritual language to make Centering Prayer accessible to the particular population.
Speakers from the Candler Center spoke about the curation of Keatings and Contemplative Outreach documents. So far, they have 105 boxes that include original drafts of books, photos, AV materials from the first conferences at the Llama Institute, and more. They are in the process of arranging content in a coherent manner, providing descriptions and storing in a safe suitable environment. The campus was closed due to the storm, so we weren’t able to see the collection.
The board and staff of Contemplative Outreach Ltd presented the new servant leadership framework — an evolution from hierarchical leadership style. It is called the Council of Servant Leadership. The change was based on Thomas’ desire to rely on the Holy Spirit. The makeup of the council will be from service teams and volunteers. At this time, there are 11 ‘types” of members. The chapters are represented under Community Connections. Each group will have one person represented on the Council.
Overall, I heard from many people there that this was the best conference ever. A long-time member said it was the first truly de-centralized conference where it no longer relied on the top members of the organism (Contemplative Outreach does not describe itself as an organization). My feeling about the time there was it was almost like being with Thomas for a few days. There were so many remembrances of him from long-time friends and ministries that spread because of him, I left with a close Presence of Thomas.
– Dave Dierig, Arizona, Welcoming Prayer service team, 12-step community member and volunteer
Note: An edited playlist of conference recordings may be found here.
