Board Team
The Board Team of Contemplative Outreach is humbly entrusted with keeping the vision and mission of Contemplative Outreach as guided by the Holy Spirit. It seeks to uphold the spiritual and service aspects of Contemplative Outreach in harmony with the Contemplative Outreach Vision, Theological Principles and Guidelines for Contemplative Outreach Service.
The Board Team fulfills this purpose through careful consideration of topics that affect the community of Contemplative Outreach and aims to make its decisions with prayerful discernment and consensus. The Board Team meets in-person several times per year and at least monthly on teleconferences. Minutes of these meetings are posted here.
If you wish to be in touch with the Board Team, which actively seeks input, please direct your inquiries to the Contemplative Outreach Resource Center at office@coutreach.org with subject line “Board Team” or call 973.838.3384. Or you may contact any one of the board members individually using their contact information below.
Jim McElroy
Jim McElroy has been practicing Centering Prayer since 1996 and has been a commissioned presenter since 2002. Jim has been on the leadership team of 12-Step Outreach since its formation in 2005 and is especially interested in teaching contemplative practices to the recovery community. He is a former coordinator of St. Louis (USA), is on the Welcoming Prayer Service Team, and is a member of the Living Flame teaching team. Jim spent his career in the insurance industry as an Account Executive. He is passionate about spreading the gift of Contemplative Prayer. He currently lives in St. Louis with his husband, Tim, of 25 years.
Diane Ryan
Diane Ryan is a commissioned presenter of both the Introductory Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina workshops. She is a Centering Prayer group facilitator and has led one day silent retreats for her group. Diane is a retired physician living in Breckenridge, Colorado, USA. She, her husband and their Great Dane, Bhakti, love outdoor activities . They have three adult children. One of Diane’s passions is learning to play cello since retiring. She has a special interest in the contemplative dimension of other religions and in exploring interspiritual activities.
Carol Quest
questcarol@gmail.com
Carol is a retired high school teacher living in St. Paul, Minnesota who began practicing Centering Prayer in 1993. She is a Centering Prayer group facilitator and a commissioned presenter of the Centering Prayer Introductory Program. As past co-coordinator of the Minnesota Contemplative Outreach chapter, she continues as a member of the chapter coordinating team. She volunteers with a team offering Centering Prayer at a Minnesota state prison. She has served on the Centering Prayer Introductory Program Service Team and currently is a member of the Chapter Support Service Team. In 2019 she was part or the Contemplative Outreach International Conference Planning Team.
Tom Carr
Tom Carr has been practicing Centering Prayer since 1998. He was one of the founding members of the Centering Prayer Group at St. Patrick’s Church in Miami Beach, Florida and he is very active in the various ministries of the parish. He is a corporate attorney with experience in the structured finance industry. Tom has lived all across the US in New York, Tennessee, Connecticut, Michigan, California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. He currently resides with his wife and three children in Florida. Tom’s hobbies include CrossFit training and reading about history, spirituality, and management.
Mary Dwyer
sycamore50@gmail.com
Mary Dwyer is a long-time student of Fr. Thomas Keating and has been practicing Centering Prayer since the 1980s. In the early 1990’s, she lived at Chrysalis House, a contemplative live-in community experiment blessed by Fr. Thomas in Warwick, New York. Her housemates included Mary Mrozowski, David Frenette and Cathy McCarthy. The community lived according to a rule of life, and became an incubator of practice and programs in the early years of Contemplative Outreach’s growth. It was her experience at Chyrsalis House – what she refers to as her “inpatient” or “residential treatment time” – that proved to her that a life of prayer, consent and practice is real, stable and deeply rewarding. Mary Mrozowski taught her that a devoted life of prayer was the real work of life; what we did the rest of the time was just how we made a living.
Mary received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. in economics and spent some time as a banker and college administrator. After a few years at Chrysalis House, she went back to school and became a licensed clinical social worker and practiced this vocation for the next 15 years, all while maintaining her commitment to the contemplative life and to the mission of Contemplative Outreach. In 2008 she met her beloved Juan through the Living Flame program. She moved to Miami, Florida in 2009 and they married. When Juan retired they moved back to Erie, Pennsylvania in July 2018.
Mary is currently is in private practice as an LCSW in the Erie area. She also is serving as a member of the Welcoming Prayer Service Team of Contemplative Outreach. She previously has served as Chairperson of the Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. Governing Board; member of the Contemplative Outreach Faculty and Gift Committee; and coordinator for the Living Flame program and coordinator of the Miami chapter. Mary now devotes her time between private practice and giving retreats and workshops on behalf of Contemplative Outreach throughout the US and internationally.
