Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership
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by Carole Crumley
For many years, graduates of Shalem's extension programs have asked us for ongoing support for their continuing journey, especially in their roles as spiritual leaders in the various ways the Spirit calls them in their lives. They have told us that their desire to live from a contemplative orientation, to be led by the Spirit, is easily undermined in an often unsupportive society and culture. They also have expressed a need for an ongoing personal discipline, communal support and stimulus that reinforces their desire to live from that deeper place of the Spirit that a contemplative orientation helps foster.
For the last two years, we have felt the strong urging of the Spirit to respond to these needs and have dedicated ourselves to praying about how we might be called to do that. We have tested ideas in a variety of settings-with program participants, at regional gatherings, and in a questionnaire sent to 400 of our extension program graduates last year. The feedback from all of these efforts has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, confirming both a readiness and willingness for more dedicated commit-ment and mutual support among many of our graduates.
We now believe that we are being called to give as much sustained, dedicated support as possible for the continued deepening of Shalem graduates as they serve in both formal and informal spiritual leadership roles so that, in turn, they can offer the fruits of that deepening to those with whom they live and work.
The result of all this thinking and praying is the formation of the new Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership, open to all of Shalem's extension program graduates. The Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership is a community of Shalem graduates dedicated to fostering deeper spiritual grounding for self, church/faith community and world, with the vital help of a contemplative orientation and practice. It will be built around three major components: an annual gathering of Society members, ongoing sharing of resources and spiritual insights, and commitment to a shared discipline adapted to individual situationns.
Society members will come from various vocations which may include those who serve in designated positions as spiritual leaders as well as those who act as spiritual leaders in less formal ways. Thus spiritual leadership includes: heads of faith communities, congregational clergy and lay leaders; chaplains; spiritual directors; leaders of prayer, meditation and retreat groups; teachers; parents; advocates for peace, justice, social vision and care giving; organizational, business or government leaders who share a grounding in contemplative openness to God and are dedicated to living and leading from the spiritual heart.
We are inviting all extension program graduates who feel called to be part of this new Society to join us October 2-6, 2006, for the Society's inaugural annual gathering at Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Marriottsville, Maryland. Our time will include:
- fresh input from Shalem leaders;
- workshops and opportunities to probe issues of spiritual leadership with others in one's own vocational setting;
- time to envision and collaborate with a larger body of contemplatively oriented leaders;
- significant time for guided and unguided solitude;
- time with others to form or reconstitute peer support and accountability groups;
- commitment to a shared discipline during the following year, which is intended to maintain support and accountability for one's spiritual life and leadership.
It is exciting and life-giving to envision the transformational power and impact such a dedicated community could have in today's world. It could be a vital part of the Spirit's shaping of a global movement that claims a deeper and more inclusive spiritual ground for all dimensions of religious and societal living. Such a movement could contribute to the desperately needed recovery of deeper common ground that will draw people together with hope and collaborative action across the many fault lines that divide and threaten us today.
We welcome your wisdom, feedback and prayers as we embark on this pioneering effort and together seek a more enduring and evolving contemplative way.