Other news
Contemplative Society: An Evening with Matthew Wright
Liz Vickers, Victoria
Volume 32 Issue 7, 8 & 9 | Posted: October 10, 2018
An image has stayed with me from the first retreat I did with Matthew Wright, in 2015. At 6:45 on a frosty November morning, I made my way over to the meeting room at Camp Pringle. It was cold, and the room was too large for the fireplace to keep warm. I wanted to check that the heat was turned on and the temperature comfortable for the first meditation of the morning. Walking towards the building in the dark, I was surprised to see that there was a soft light in the room. Matthew was there already, silently and thoughtfully moving furniture and adjusting lights to create a sacred space for our gathering.
An image has stayed with me from the first retreat I did with Matthew Wright, in 2015. At 6:45 on a frosty November morning, I made my way over to the meeting room at Camp Pringle. It was cold, and the room was too large for the fireplace to keep warm. I wanted to check that the heat was turned on and the temperature comfortable for the first meditation of the morning. Walking towards the building in the dark, I was surprised to see that there was a soft light in the room. Matthew was there already, silently and thoughtfully moving furniture and adjusting lights to create a sacred space for our gathering.
After meditation, at sunrise, we celebrated The Eucharist, with The Mass on the World, the beautiful prayer Teilhard de Chardin wrote in the Ordos Desert of Inner Mongolia, where he had no bread or wine with which to celebrate mass. After breakfast in silence, we had our final teaching session of the weekend. We finished in an open ended circle, chanting together, the circle spiralling inwards, into a joyful singing hug. On October 11th, once again I will be driving up Island for a retreat with Matthew, this time to Lake Cowichan. I am so looking forward to it!
For those unfamiliar with Matthew Wright, he is an Episcopal priest, and a teacher for The Contemplative Society. Cynthia Bourgeault, his teacher, mentor and colleague, describes him as “wise and gracious beyond his years…..widely recognized as one of the most gifted spiritual leaders of the next generation of Christianity.” His students know him to be a brilliant teacher. As is seen in the story of a morning on retreat, he is a sensitive and enthusiastic retreat leader, always putting people at ease and creating an atmosphere conducive to deep learning. His joy in the transmission of his teaching is infectious!
When Matthew met Cynthia, he had another teacher in his life – Kabir Helminski, a master in the Mevlevi Order of Sufis. While studying to become an Episcopal priest, on pilgrimage in Konya, Turkey, and after much soul-searching, Matthew was initiated by Shaih Helminski into the Mevlevi Order, the Sufi lineage that descends from Rumi, the renowned mystic and poet. Two years later he was ordained a Christian Priest. Gradually, always supported and encouraged by Cynthia, Matthew began to give retreats in the Christian Wisdom School tradition. On previous visits from Matthew, we have studied Contemplative Practice and Non-Duality, The Gospel of Thomas, the work of Bede Griffiths and Ramon Pannikar and, of course, Teilhard de Chardin. As we have looked at Christianity in the wider context of inter-spirituality, we have deepened our learning with chanting, and embodiment practices such as Benedictine work and prostration.
Matthew’s teaching has always been informed by what he calls the intertwining of Sufi and Christian mysticism in his inner life, but until recently he has not explored the Sufi thread with students – although I did manage to persuade him to teach us some Sufi whirling at Lake Cowichan last year! This October, our Wisdom School will explore the metaphysics undergirding the teachings of Jesus and how they relate to a similar stream of teaching that flows through Islamic Sufism. Matthew will share his heart-centered wisdom, teaching the gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip, and also the writings of Sufi Masters from Ibn al-Arabi to Jalaluddin Rumi.It will be, as it always is with Matthew, an exciting, heart opening experience. The retreat, made possible by a grant from the Trust for the Meditation Process, a charitable foundation encouraging meditation, mindfulness and contemplative prayer, is from October 11th to 15th. For those unable to make the retreat, there will be a public event at the UVic Interfaith Chapel on October 15th at 6:30pm. For more information and to register for the retreat, please visit contemplative.org, or contact The Contemplative Society at admin@contemplative.org
I will leave the final word to Matthew:
“I am today, a parish priest, rooted in a Benedictine expression of the Christian life (Holy Cross Monastery, the community my wife and I live alongside, is a community of Anglican Benedictine monks), and a Sufi Dervish, rooted in a Mevlevi expression of Islamic spirituality. How, you might ask, does this impact my religious leadership as a Christian priest? ……I am a better priest, and a better human being, because of the practices and spiritual understanding I’ve received from Islam – simply because they’ve taught me how to love more.”
Liz Vickers, Victoria