Shalem’s Contemplative Voices Award

Honoring two Members of SDI

The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation held their first Contemplative Voices Award Benefit on Thursday, November 3, 2011, in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. This award was created to honor individuals who make significant contributions to contemplative understanding and whose witness helps others live from the divine wellspring of compassion, strength, and authentic vision.

This year, the award was given to Reverend Margaret Guenther, Episcopal priest, writer, teacher, and grandmother, and to Reverend John Phillip Newell, a Church of Scotland pastor, poet, scholar, teacher, and former warden of Iona Abbey. Both are active members of SDI.

During the ceremony, Guenther read a piece entitled “Tips for Travelers” from her latest book, Walking Home: From Eden to Emmaus. Light hearted and humorously, she read, “As one who travels a great deal and who stubbornly insists on carrying her own luggage, I am an expert packer. …And when I arrive at my destination, my greeter almost always exclaims: ‘Is that all you have?’ I smile modestly and enlarge my reputation as one of Jesus’ humble foot soldiers. Surely Jesus would have approved of my packing skills, while the twelve would probably have shot me nasty looks for making them look bad.”

Newell shared “the India story” from the first chapter of his book, A New Harmony: The Spirit, the Earth, and the Human Soul. He read of his first night in India and his dream of drinking vodka with Mikhail Gorbachev. The story continued with an elderly Indian gentleman who told him, “I must be going now, but I have one final thing to say to you. You are God. And until you realize you are God, you will not be wise, you will not be happy, and you will not be free. Namasté.” Newell continued, “One of the most emphatic things to be said about the Indian banker’s words to me is that he was not addressing my ego. He was addressing the essential depth in me that is also his true depth and the true depth of everything that has being. He was pointing to the Ground of my being, to the Self within all selves, to the One in whom all life is rooted.”

Guenther and Newell were awarded a carved statuette made from an oak tree that had fallen on New Hampshire Avenue in Washington DC, USA. These were carved by an organization that honors and values trees while creating beautiful custom-designed pieces from “salvage” logs.

Editor’s note: Therese Taylor Stinson serves on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International and the board of directors of Shalem.

If you are interested in learning more from John Philip Newell, join Spiritual Directors International in Boston in April 2012. John Phillip Newell keynotes the conference.