Welcome to the Contemplative Outreach
of Northern California Web site
This web site has been designed to provide information about activities in the northern California area and provided by the Contemplative Outreach Organization of Northern California. At the heart of each local community are prayer groups, which make up local chapters. The local chapters, in turn, support regional groups, which together create a global community of oneness in silence.
There are several Contemplative Outreach chapters serving Northern California:
The
San Francisco chapter led by Mary Wyman
The
East Bay chapter led by Elizabeth Wharton and John
Neville.
The Sacramento / Stockton chapter led by Susan
Turpin and
Janice Boyd
The Central California chapter led by Everardo
Pedraza and Beverly Garcia
Contemplative Outreach is a community of individuals and small prayer groups committed to living the contemplative dimension of the Gospel in everyday life. A commitment to the daily practice of Centering Prayer is the primary expression of belonging. These commitments transcend geographical, cultural and religious differences.
“Centering Prayer as taught by Contemplative
Outreach can serve as a spiritual resource for any
structure including a corporate model, but is not
itself a structure. It infuses into all activity
the motive of divine love and personal commitment
to transformation in Christ. It provides interior
resources for many lifestyles without having an
independent existence of its own. Hence, it competes
with no other organization, work of mercy, or spiritual
discipline. It is the contemplative dimension of
the Gospel, not the gospel itself. It can be lived
and practiced in any state of life that supports
or manifests the values of the Gospel without being
identified with any particular state of life. It
fosters the divine way of being human in every situation.
It is not exclusive to any one religion but nourishes
the heart of every religion. Thus it can enhance
the practice of every religion by sustaining as
its primary responsibility the process of human
transformation in Christ, as the eternal Word of
God made flesh.
” Excerpted from Thomas
Keating’s presentation at the 2006 Contemplative
Outreach Annual Conference."
If you have any comments or questions about this web site please email the Web site administrator
