By Rev. Elizabeth Rechter and Colleen Thomas

Stillpoint is growing. And because we are growing so has our staff. We have been gifted with the presence of Chris Ng, Krystle Hart, Dana Cagle and Ravi Verma and now Colleen joins us as our new Associate Program Director. She brings with her a contemplative spirit and experience along with many years as a television producer.  Colleen’s area of focus will be with our Spiritual Journey and Wisdom in Practice programs. Our One Day Retreats and Group Spiritual Direction initiative. I hope you will add your prayers to ours as she begins this new journey with us.  

Blessings for Your Journey, 

Elizabeth+

I asked Colleen to finish this introduction in her own words: 

Nothing is the same as it was one year ago. When change happens to us, a new way of living becomes inevitable. This new way can be welcomed, or resisted. My experience over the last year has been a little bit of both, and I'd venture to imagine the same may be true for you. 

One of the great joys of all of the change in my midst is that I've recently accepted this position as Associate Program Director for Stillpoint. Needless to say, this opportunity is a dream job for me in many ways. 

"How good it is to center down!

To sit quietly and see one's self pass by!" 

Howard Thurman

A common theme for much of my work of late is how to share the gift of contemplative Christian practice to a younger and more ethnically diverse community. My spiritual life has been deeply enriched over the years as a result of my own contemplative practice. It remains my mission to continue to imagine more inclusive ways of offering to others what was so freely offered to me.

In addition to my work with Stillpoint, for nearly a year now, I have been partnered with another young contemplative, Keith Kristich. Together we are offering Centering Prayer groups to what we call the next generation of contemplatives. Keith and I met on Instagram during the height of our pandemic lockdown. A fitting medium of connecting when we consider how to engage with a new generation of those who seek God in the quiet prayerfulness of this ancient contemplative way. While my own engagement with social media has been in rapid decline in recent months, it goes without saying that any new model of spiritual community will find it hard if not impossible to ignore the use of social media as a tool of connecting.

I continue to have my reservations, along with my fair share of Zoom weariness as this pandemic marches on. We have yet to see the real spiritual impact of connecting through apps, and probably won't notice much for some time still. In the meantime, I pray we all spend more time than ever connecting with God, and away from these screens and devices. If the mystics taught us nothing else, it's that God dwells within us and these physical bodies of ours are surging with the ousia of the Spirit. It is in our beings that we are connected to one another so let us forsake not the assembling of ourselves together. 

Be wise. Be gentle. Be still. 

Colleen