By Steve Weatherbe

FOR a year, Comox Valley Presbyterian Church has been holding weekly sessions of centering prayer – a spiritual practice which some Christians find controversial.

The sessions produced sufficient interest to prompt the church to show three videos over the month of May to 15 – 20 people. They all featured Father Thomas Keating, the 87 year old Cistercian monk largely responsible for the development of centering prayer.

Centering or contemplative prayer is offered at Comox United and a half dozen Anglican and United churches on the Island, as well as the Queenswood Retreat Centre in Victoria. St. John the Divine Anglican in Victoria has a regular contemplative eucharist.

As well, the  Contemplative Society of B.C. offers courses based on the Keating model as interpreted by Cynthia Bourgeault, an Anglican priest living on Salt Spring Island.

But belying its name, centering prayer has been something of a divisive force, attracting lots of  vocal detractors. In terms of silent supporters, however, there are reportedly 40,000 of these in 800 prayer groups, in 39 countries.

BCCN spoke to Comox Valley church secretary Jeannine Taylor, a practitioner of the technique.

She explained “it is a silent prayer” which, at least in the weekly sessions, lasts for 20 minutes. Those praying select a sacred word, not to repeat over and over again as in some techniques, but to “return to” if stray thoughts succeed in gripping one’s imagination. The goal is to not to think of nothing, but rather to be in a state of receptivity.

“The idea is to do it once or twice a day,” advised Taylor, who manages it a couple of times a week.

The Cistercians who promoted it emphasized its roots in the mysticism of the early church, especially the Desert Fathers – who were the first hermits. Nonetheless, detractors detect the influence of New Age and Zen Buddhist concepts, and warn that centering prayer could open the practitioner up to these religious views – or, at worst, to demons.

Critics include Catholic priests such as Father John D. Dreher, a Rhode Island pastor; and fundamentalist radio pundits like Memphis broadcaster Brannon Howse.

Dreher argues that centering prayer promises union with God through physiological and psychological practices. What’s more, he charges, it stems from an essentially Buddhist and Hindu understanding of  a divinity that is identified with the universe, and found within each person.  

Continue article >>

“The confusion of technique over encounter arises from a misunderstanding of the indwelling of God,” Dreher said. “The fact that God indwells us does not mean that we can capture him by techniques. Nor does it mean that we are identical with him in our deepest self. Rather, God indwells us by grace – which does not blend human and divine natures.”

Howse, host of the internet radio station ChristianWorldviewNetwork, interviewed a critic of centering prayer who described how, “after 20 minutes or so” of hypnotically repeating a “sacred word” or mantra, “people allegedly hear God’s voice.” He then declared: “First of all, scripture teaches us to fill our minds with prayer. We’re not to empty our minds, we’re to fill them.”

Howse compares centering prayer with Ouija boards. While people may use with good intentions to contact God, he asserted, “we all know the path to hell is paved with good intentions.” He warned that demonic spirits may use both Ouija boards and centering prayer to ensnare the gullible.

But at Contemplative Prayer Ltd., the New Jersey headquarters of the organization that distributes DVDs and organizes workshops on centering prayer, spokesperson Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler said most critics seize on isolated aspects “taken out of context.” The sacred word is not repeated again and again to achieve a hypnotic state, she said, but is “returned to” if a person’s consciousness becomes engaged with a passing thought. There is no expectation that centering prayer will produce, after 20 minutes, the voice of God.

“The intention is to have a deeper relationship with God; but it is unpredictable. You allow God to lead the relationship.”

Fitzpatrick-Hopler said that if there are recognizable “fruits” of centering prayer, it may well be others who see the fruits rather than oneself.

“My daughter-in-law always wants me to be around when her family faces some crisis, because she said I have such a calming influence. But I may find the situation quite disturbing. But I hear over and over from others that I’m calmer.”

In Comox, Peggy Zimmerman has led centering prayer at Comox United Church for five years. She got started with a book by Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer, after trying several methods of meditation – but, she noted, “the odd thing about them is that I was never able to stick with them.”

At her church, the 20-minute centering prayer, with everyone sitting silently in a circle, is followed by another 20 minutes of “lectio divina” – another ancient practice, which involves reading the same scripture passage three times and allowing a phrase or a word to emerge as the focus.

Zimmerman also reported that the unsought effect of such prayers is that she is  much calmer, less irritable and more friendly. “Five years ago,” she told BCCN, “I would have laughed if you had told me that today I would be coordinator of pastoral activities at this church.”

July 2010