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Vision 2025: Thoughts From Shalem’s Founder
When I read Shalem’s Vision 2025, I found it truly visionary, sophisticated, and valuable for Shalem’s way forward. I’m grateful for all that went into its articulation. 50 years ago, at the founding of Shalem, we envisioned a place for contemplative prayer, a place of awe and wonder. We knew that Shalem’s life was ultimately a…
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Unity in Diversity
You’ve probably heard the adage “There’s unity in diversity.” I’d like to share my perspective on this reality, and what better time than now! February, designated as the month to celebrate Black History, a history I celebrate 365 days a year — is a good time to talk about diversity and my affiliation with Shalem…
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Introducing Vision 2025: Our Ongoing Hope
And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.”— Habakkuk 2:2 Dear Beloveds, Our hearts leapt when we encountered Shalem – we were changed. For Margaret this happened in the 1980s, for Jackson in the 2010s. Both of us, like many of you, encountered…
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New Year, New Life, Renewed Call
Early one morning something was stirring outside. It was almost as if something was tapping on the window, beckoning me out. I pulled open the front door and immediately felt light gusts of wind as I stepped onto our sheltered patio. As I looked heavenward, the upper branches of the eighty-foot redwoods by the garage…
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Ready to Keep Listening
When my former Senior Rector suggested I sign up for Shalem’s Crossing the Threshold: Contemplative Foundations for Emerging Leaders program, I don’t think he quite knew what this course would come to mean to me and how it would intersect in such beautiful ways in my life. I certainly didn’t. However, I can say without…
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Joseph, the Righteous Dreamer
Matthew 1:18-24 I’ve always thought that Joseph got shortchanged in the Gospel, and in the church’s devotional life. Mary gets so much attention, and rightly so, but Joseph doesn’t even get a speaking part! Unlike Mary’s Annunciation, Joseph’s Annunciation that we heard last week doesn’t get a lot of notice. But his “yes” to the…