News » The Guild for Spiritual Guidance Announces the Appointment of Prestigious Faculty
Hudson Valley New York July 15, 2011. The Guild for Spiritual Guidance, a thirty year-old, pioneering organization in spiritual formation, transformation, and the training of spiritual guides announces the selection of faculty members for its two-year Apprenticeship Program in Spiritual Guidance. “We are pleased to announce these faculty appointments. The founders and former faculty members of the Guild represent many leading 20th century American contemplatives and spiritual guides,” stated Bernice Marie-Daly, the Guild for Spiritual Guidance Steering Committee Chairperson. She continued, “The newly appointed faculty members follow this same tradition.”
Faculty members within the Guild are called Cultivators. “The Apprenticeship Program combines the strands of Judeo-Christian mystical tradition, Jungian psychology, and the cosmology of Teilhard de Chardin,” explained the Reverend Dianne Disston, LP, Coordinator of the Apprenticeship Program. She further elaborated, “Faculty members provide instructional and formational experiences for the participants and weave the three content areas together.”
Our Mystics Cultivator will be Robert Jonas MTS. (Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, MA: Masters in Theological Studies), EdD (Harvard, Cambridge, MA: psychology and education). He is the founder and director of The Empty Bell, a contemplative sanctuary in Northampton, MA, with a special emphasis on the Buddhist-Christian dialogue and on the arts. An author, musician and retreat leader he is a Christian in the Carmelite tradition and sits on the Board of the Henri Nouwen Society.
Andrew Harvey will companion our Apprentices through four sessions in the Mystics strand. He is an internationally acclaimed poet, novelist, translator, mystical scholar, and spiritual teacher. Harvey has published over 20 books including The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism (Hay House) and Heart Yoga: The Sacred Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism (North Atlantic Books). Harvey is a Fellow of All Souls College Oxford from (1972-1986) and has taught at Oxford University, Cornell University, The California Institute of Integral Studies, and the University of Creation Spirituality, as well as various spiritual centers throughout the United States. He was the subject of the 1993 BBC film documentary The Making of a Modern Mystic. He is the Founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism in Oak Park, Illinois, where he lives.
The Teilhard Cultivator will be Sr. Kathleen Deignan, CND, PhD, GreenFaith Fellow ‘08, completed North America’s only comprehensive interfaith education and training program to prepare clergy and laity for religious-environmental leadership. A student of Father Thomas Berry during her graduate work in the History of Christian Spirituality and Historical Theology at Fordham University, New York, Dr. Deignan is a Sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame and Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College where she is the founding director of the Iona Spirituality Institute and The Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue. Sister Kathleen is President-Elect of the International Thomas Merton Society and sits on the boards of the American Teilhard Association and GreenFaith.
The Jungian Cultivator will be Harry Fogarty, PhD, who is a Jungian Analyst in NYC, an analyst and faculty member of the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts (PAJA) and the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association in NY, a Lecturer in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary, NYC, and a faculty member for the NY C.G. Jung Institute. Dr. Fogarty received his training at the Jung Institute and his PhD in Religion and Psychiatry from Union Theological Seminary.
The next Apprenticeship Program is slated to begin in January of 2012 at the Mariandale Retreat Center in Ossining, NY. Applications are currently being accepted. The Guild for Spiritual Guidance website is www.spiritualguidance.org. The Guild can be reached via phone at (845) 418-4587 or by email at administrator@spiritualguidance.com.
Contact: Rev. Dianne Disston,
administrator@spiritualguidance.com
(845) 418-4587