Tuesday, January 18, 2005
ECUMENICAL AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE BLOG (BELOW) - UPDATE
Earlier today I blogged information about The World Community for Christian Meditation which is associated with dissenting speakers Richard Rohr and Mary McAleese, as well as Fr. Laurence Freeman who has appeared on a program at the Temple of Understanding. This organization promotes the John Main Seminars which are associated with the Unity Churches. There are a couple of additional names to add to the John Main Seminar list--names of speakers at the "Paths to the Heart" seminar which I had blogged about yesterday.
Huston Smith spoke at a John Main Seminar in 1999 in Tucson, Arizona, topic: "Return to the Light".
Kalliston Ware spoke at a John Main Seminar in 2002.
Additionally, an article from The Tablet, written by Fr. Laurence Freeman, confirms Ware's involvement and adds more information about John Main seminars. The Benedictines are a part of this. Thomas Merton is cited. The article closes with a reference to "tradition":
Essentially through silence, they are faithfully forming a new kind of Christianity deeply rooted in tradition and bravely open to the very different realities of the present.
It's "different", alright.
Eddie Russell at Blaze Magazine identifies this group as the New Age syncretists they are:
On the weekend of April... in Houston Texas, Father Laurence Freeman, OSB, the director and spiritual teacher of the World Community for Christian Meditation, and Father Richard Rohr, OFM, Founding Director and animator of the Center for Action and Contemplation, will present a conference entitled Seeking Peace: A Dialogue on Jesus.
...Both Father Laurence and Father Richard believe that Jesus is one of the few individuals in history who can be called a universal teacher by all people. Jesus teaches and embodies not just a path of personal spiritual formation, but a way of tolerance and compassion, a unique bridge of the spirit among people of different faiths, between rich and poor, and among those suffering conflict or division. The great social and psychological distresses of modern society call for a new and deeper contemplative response. Each human being, whatever his or her circumstances, is called to a contemplative peace, and is capable of it."
Incredible! - Jesus is not presented as Lord of all, but as a "universal teacher embodying a unique BRIDGE of the spirit to OTHER FAITHS!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
=========================================
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE
John Main Seminar 2000 "The Way of Peace"
In addition to the Dalai Lama, Seminar presenters include former John Main Seminar speakers: Laurence Freeman, O.S.B., Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation; President Mary MacAleese; William Johnston, S.J.; Prof. Charles Taylor of McGill University in Montreal; Isabelle Glover, teacher of Sanskrit, Pali and other ancient languages; Prof. Robert Kiely of Harvard University; Sr. Eileen O'Hea, psychotherapist and teacher of Christian Meditation; Derek Smith, Professor of Anthropology at Carelton University in Ottawa, Canada. Plus: Andrew Philips, Founder of the Citizenship Foundation; Rev Malcolm Stonestreet, Anglican priest and Chairman of the United Religions Initiative in the UK;
The history of John Main's meditation techniques can be read at the John Main Prayer Association website. The source is a Hindu monk:
Father John Main, an English benedictine monk who lived in Montreal, Canada, rediscovered Christian Meditation and introduced it anew to contemporary Christians as a very simple, yet deeply contemplative form of prayer.
In Christian Meditation (published by the Benedictine Priory of Montreal, 1977) John Main explains the role of his teacher, Swami Satyananda, a Hindu monk. While in the case of the Swami and John Main there are parallels that may be drawn between Hindu mantra meditation and the Christian goal of prayer, at the time the Swami transmitted the teaching to John Main, the technique involved was one of Hindu meditation, not of Christian prayer. Only later did John Main discover that similar practices within the history of the Christian tradition existed.
Although Swami Satyananda was a Hindu monk, he was educated at a Roman Catholic school and had considered becoming a Christian.
