Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Religion and Ethics Newsweekly came to Seattle, Washington, to film a story about prayer and spiritual direction. PBS filmed interviews, a retreat, a spiritual direction session, and a seminary "Introduction to Spiritual Direction" class. Why? To tell the story of how people are learning to pray and how spiritual direction contributes to cultivating prayer and compassion in communities. PBS is also filming in other locations. Spiritual Directors International will announce the television air date as soon as the date is determined by PBS. The estimated date is late January to early February 2010.

Thank You To ...
Thank you Christina Puchalski, MD, for your interview in the Washington, DC, area with PBS correspondent and co-producer Lucky Severson.

Many thanks to PBS co-producers Ned Judge and Lucky Severson and to Director of Photography, Paul Thiriot for your journalistic passion and professionalism.

Thank you to Interfaith Community Church and participants in the Blushed of the Beloved retreat for inviting the filming of interviews and retreat presentations from Rabbi Ted Falcon, Karen Lindquist, Pastor Don Mackenzie, Sheikh Jamal Rahman, and Liz Budd Ellmann. Thank you to The Very Reverend Michael Ryan and Sister Joyce Cox, BVM, for opening St. James Cathedral to filming and interviews. Thank you to Seattle Recovery Cafe volunteers Kayce Hughlett and Mary Ellen Weber for demonstrating a spiritual direction session and to the Peace and Spirituality Center of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace for opening the retreat center for filming the session.

Thank you to Mary Rose Bumpus, RSM, Patrick O’Leary, SJ, and the Seattle University School for Theology and Ministry for welcoming PBS into the seminary classroom. Thank you to everyone who came to the public PBS filming of the story of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, patron saint of spiritual direction in the Christian tradition, as told by Pat O’Leary, SJ. Thank you to Spiritual Directors International staff members, Molly Bauthues and Jennifer Williams, for helping with camera equipment, RSVPs, and making the film schedule go smoothly.

Please Pray ...
Please pray for Ned Judge and the film editing process.

We pray that the message of the PBS television segment will embrace people of all faiths. We pray this film will communicate the power that prayer and spiritual direction offer for healing, for nourishing exhausted hearts, for building capacity for compassion in community, and for connecting us with the source of compassion and peace. We pray the segment will provide encouragement and hope for the weary and downtrodden.

Thank you for your prayers. 

Photo credits thanks to Faren Bachelis and Molly Bauthues.