St. Paul denver

As we gather together from differing faith perspectives (Buddhist, Christian, and various others), we remain rooted in our own traditions without the compulsion to force common ground.

Yet, without the need to defend out own turf, we are profoundly challenged by one another's wisdom, delighting in mutual enhancement. Maybe more importantly, we always move beyond words as we share sacred silence.

Groups
The InterSpiritual community would like to invite you to participate in our Prayer Shall Group or Virtual Sangha groups.

To learn more please click here for more information.

 

Stained Glass Window Project
To learn more about the Stained Glass Window Project click here.

 

Kindly Donate
The Sunday Meal Program and Health Kits for Haiti are in need of donations.

For More information click here.

 

March/April 2010

 

MEDITATION, LECTURES, CONVERSATIONS
Childcare provided for the Sunday Service

* Read More About the Ongoing Presenters at the BCIC *

To see what happened last month, click here.

5pm Sunday Services & Events

Sunday, March 7th
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “Becoming More Free: Wisdom of Buddha & Jesus” Speaker: Dr. Bob Mischke Director of the Center for Spiritual Transformation Bob will present the convergences of spirituality in the teachings of Jesus and Buddha that cultivate freedom.
Saturday, March 13th
10am-Noon	Meditation Class Teacher: Don Morreale Buddhist Insight Meditation Instructor and Author Complete Guide to Buddhist America March 13 - Anapanasati-Mindfulness of the Breath - Vipassana: Mindfulness of the Totality of Experience April 17 - Maintaining a Healthy Attitude Towards the Practice - Working with Difficult Mind States The classes are good for both beginners and longtime practitioners. Don is a very engaging and interactive teacher. For more information please click here.
Sunday, March 14th
11:30am	HEALTH KITS for Haiti assembly (for those kits needing to be put together)
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “Muslim/Christian Dialogue: Cultivating Awareness of God Beyond All Concepts” Speakers: Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni, Shiite Cleric & Scholar of the Holy Qur’an & Rev. Toni Cook, Minister of St. Paul Church Ibrahim and Toni will be sharing personal experience and insight from their traditions. Also, they will be including thoughts on the new book by Karen Armstrong, The Case for God. She says that Ancient religious traditions, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam understood faith primarily as a practice rather than a system. “ Their God was not a being to be defined or a proposition to be tested, but an ultimate reality to be approached…”
Sunday, March 21st
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “Ignation Meditation Practice” Speaker: Father Tom Nelson Father Tom is a Vincentian Priest, Social Activist, and Ignatian Meditation Retreat Leader Last month, Father Tom did an introduction to the ancient meditation practice developed by St. Ignatius. It is a practice that engages the imagination and invites us to enter the sacred stories. This evening, Father Tom will lead us through an Ignation Meditation on a Parable of Jesus.
Sunday, March 28th
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “Reflections on the Peace Speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Speaker: Professor Vincent Harding, Ph.D. Scholar of Religion & Society, Spiritual Elder, Historian of the Civil Rights Movement, Respected for his work with and writings about Dr. M.L. King, Jr., including Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero Professor Harding wrote the original draft of this famous speech delivered at Riverside Church. It has great meaning for us as a warring world both today and in the future. There will be a PBS Special on this with Dr. Harding and others to be broadcast March 31. Dr. Harding will engage us in sacred conversation and meditation on the meaning of peace in our lives. You may read a copy of the M.L. King speech at: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
Sunday, April 4th
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service BCIC will not meet on Easter
Sunday, April 11th
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “Knowing the Unknowable: Wisdom of Buddha & Jesus” Speaker: Dr. Bob Mischke Director of the Center for Spiritual Transformation Bob will present the convergences of spirituality in the teachings of Jesus and Buddha that cultivate freedom.
Saturday, April 17th
10am-Noon	Meditation Class Teacher: Don Morreale Buddhist Insight Meditation Instructor and Author Complete Guide to Buddhist America April 17 - Maintaining a Healthy Attitude Towards the Practice - Working with Difficult Mind States The classes are good for both beginners and longtime practitioners. Don is a very engaging and interactive teacher. For more information please click here.
Sunday, April 18th
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “Listening to Your Spiritual Guide” Speaker: Leonard E. Barrett, Jr. Leonard is an acclaimed actor and singer. He has awakened his own healing energies to live with MS. He practices deep meditation. He says, “Your spiritual Guide is not a myth. It has been there tangibly, every second of your life on a sensory level.” He invites us to note our own energetic signals. “They’re a spiritual guide, allowing you to breathe and allow the energy to go forth and bring joy to your experience.”
Sunday, April 25th
5:00pm	Buddhist Christian Interspiritual Service: “The Power and The Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship Into Joy” Speaker: Dr. Andrew Holecek Andrew brings such a wonderful presence to his thoughtful and accessible teachings on Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and Bardo wisdom. He has published numerous articles in the Shambhala Sun, Bodhi Magazine, and other periodicals, and is a student of Ponlop Rinpoche. Andrew has just published a new book, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy. We all encounter obstacles on a daily basis—from small inconveniences and nuisances to the really big hardships wreaking havoc with our lives. Sometimes just the small things are enough to set us reeling. Andrew offers us a progressive path, beginning with common, easily understood hardships, and moving on to more subtle and challenging ones that commonly arise on our spiritual journeys.

 

Kindly Donate

THE SUNDAY MEAL PROGRAM
The Sunday Meal Program at St. Paul Church is now in its 23rd year of providing a free, hot meal every Sunday morning to the homeless and others who are hungry! In the last two years, we have seen a steady increase of meal guests. In 2009, we served over 8,000 meals. But financial support is decreasing even as demand is increasing. Your support is needed to continue the program. Please contribute to the Sunday Meal Program. You can place your donation in an offering plate or mail it to St. Paul Church, 1615 Ogden, Denver, CO 80218 (mark in the memo: SMP). We can do this together! Thank-You!

HEALTH KITS FOR HAITI
UMCOR—the United Methodist Committee on Relief – is in Haiti providing food, comfort, and assessment of long-term recovery needs. Health Kits are needed. All items must be new. Please bring to St. Paul by March 14. Each kit includes:

▪ 1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27", No kitchen towels)
▪ 1 washcloth
▪ 1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
▪ 1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
▪ 1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)
▪ 1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)
▪ 6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages
▪ $1.00 to purchase toothpaste
▪ place these items inside a sealed one gallon plastic zipper bag

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Plan Ahead

Sunday, May 2nd, 1:30pm-4:30pm
“Conference on Human Trafficking” with Professor Claude d’Estree

Special Rapporteur, United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking Director, Human Trafficking Clinic, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver co-led by Members of the University of Denver Human Trafficking Research Clinic

Human Trafficking Conference will include:
1) An Overview of the forms of Human Trafficking In Colorado and around the World Including what is happening in Haiti

2) The Religious Response – how faith based communities have played a role both positive and negative – and possibilities for the future

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Project

Stained Glass Window Project
St. Paul’s 100 year old windows are showing their age. We are planning a restoration and repair project, and have received a $5000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to begin our fund raising drive. If you are interested in helping, please call the church office at 303-832-4929.

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Groups

*MEDITATION CLASS*
Teacher: Don Morreale
Buddhist Insight Meditation Instructor and
Author Complete Guide to Buddhist America

Don will teach a Meditation Practice, meaningful for both beginners and those who have been meditating for a while. He will provide interactive teachings and practices. This will be a 4 part series on the 3rd Saturdays of the month.

Jan. 16 Introduction & Practice
Feb. 20 Breath Practice
March 20 Insight Practice
April 17 Putting Together Your Own Practice

For more information please click here.

 

* PRAYER SHAWL GROUP *
Several individuals from the Sacred Activists group of the Buddhist Christian Interfaith Community at St. Paul Church have started a "prayer shawl" group. The group meets once a month to work on a knitted or crocheted project to give to a person in need (can be someone known or not). Ability to knit or crochet is not a requirement - lessons are provided. It is a simple way to get to know people in an interfaith gathering of sitting in conversation while doing something of service. There is a short "generic" reading/meditation/service at the start of the gathering and an offering of prayer for the person for whom something is being made.

Please contact Rena at AJARZ5@aol.com if you are interested.

 

* VIRTUAL SANGHA*
For those of you looking for a chance to raise the bar on your meditation practice, please join our "virtual sangha" (sangha - community). We "meet" via conference call every morning, participating in a prayerful silence together, each in our own space, some even participating from different parts of the country.

We begin at 6:15 a.m. Denver time Monday through Friday and 8:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, beginning with a call for prayers, a short reading, then about a 20-minute silent meditation, ending our call in silence, respecting the peace we have shared.

If you are interested in enhancing your daily practice by sitting in silence with this community - without having to migrate to a prayer center - please consider joining this phone meditation community.

At 6:15 (M-F), 8:00 (S-S) Mountain Time, dial 1-218-339-3600.

1. You will be prompted to enter a code. The group's code is 934902#.
2. Feel free to identify yourself, but if it's after 6:20, it is asked that you remain silent as the meditation will likely have started. 3. PLEASEMUTE YOUR PHONE by entering * 6 after the bell has been rung in order to avoid the sound of rustling clothes, coughs, sneezes, inquiring spouses/children, etc.
4. NOTE: The conference call is free but the long-distance call isn't, so use your free minutes for this.

If you have any other questions about the group or this practice in general, or if you would like to be on our mailing list, please contact Val atvonstep@ecentral.com. Peace to you, and blessed open-heartedness on the silent part of your journey.

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Parking for BCIC

Parking is available in the following locations:
• St. Paul’s Lot (adjacent to west side of church)
• Case Management Lot - across alley west of the church along 16th (alley access)
• Montview Tower Lot - the northeast corner of 16th & Downing (Sundays & Evenings)

 

Purpose of the InterSpiritual Community

The Buddhist Christian InterSpiritual Community fosters exploration and understanding of diverse spiritual paths. Together we cultivate the Sacred within ourselves and the world around us.

 

Sponsors

St. Paul's United Methodist Church
The Shambhala Center of Denver
The Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange
The Iliff School of Theology
The Denver Zen Center
The Denver Buddhist Temple

Founders of the B/C community

Rev. Dr. Toni L. Cook, Pastor of St. Paul's United Methodist Church.
Professor Jose Cabezon, Ph.D., The Iliff School of Theology.
Sister Mary Luke Tobin, Sisters of Loretto, Director Emeritus of The Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange.

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