Center for Prayer & Spirituality (CPS)
NOTE: We endeavor to keep St. John's Cathedral a sacred space for spiritual growth and contemplative practice. Due to the ban on gathering to stop the spread of coronavirus, all meetings and classes are now being held online. For a complete list of offerings, click here.
Our Mission Statement
To reawaken an interest in Christian spirituality and to integrate mind, body and spirit by offering contemplative practices, classes, lectures, workshops and spiritual direction to foster connection, understanding and compassion for self, others and the mystery that beautifully and expansively holds us all.
Director
Owene Courtney
[email protected]
Board
Susan Bancks
Megan Cochran
Lisa Duncan
Liesl Gavronsky-Howsare
Joe O'Shields
Linda Privitera
A Prayer for Reconciliation
Where there is separation there is pain.
And where there is pain there is story.
And where there is story there is understanding
and misunderstanding
listening and not listening.
May we — separated peoples, estranged strangers,
unfriended families, divided communities —
turn toward each other,
and turn toward our stories,
with understanding and listening,
with argument and acceptance,
with challenge, change and consolation.
Because if God is to be found,
God will be found in the space between.
Amen.
~Pádraig Ó Tuama
Truth & Reconciliation Conversations
Truth & Reconciliation Conversations
Soul Tending
The Center supports the Cathedral's Prayer Flags project through preparation, maintenance and prayer during the challenging fall of 2020. All are invited to participate.
Please contact: Susan Bancks [email protected] for ideas and to pick up flags you've made.
Prayer Flags and Common Humanity
Quiet Garden Mornings at the Cathedral 2020
Mornings of holy silence with spiritual reflections, readings and prayers. Quiet Garden Mornings are held on the grounds of the Cathedral, including Ingram Lounge, Cummings Chapel, and the Gardens. Join us as we "Listen for the Still Small Voice."
Held on the second Saturday of the month, 9:30 am - 12:00 pm
Offerings will resume in September and will be Virtual
For more information please contact: Owene Courtney, Director.
The Quiet Garden Movement
The gardens at St. John’s Cathedral are registered with the international Quiet Garden Trust and throughout the year host regular opportunities for hospitality and prayer. The Quiet Garden Ministry began in 1992 with the first Quiet Garden in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England. At the heart of Christianity is a treasure to be unearthed: the treasure of contemplative prayer and quiet resting in silence reaching back to Jesus himself, who regularly took time out to pray in solitude and in still places. The Quiet Garden Movement rediscovers these riches and makes them accessible to a spiritually hungry world by providing contexts of natural beauty and stillness where we may refresh our soul. St. John’s Cathedral supports this mission and ministry, eagerly offering its Quiet Gardens to feed the soul of the hungry searching for places of quiet and prayer.
Quiet Spaces in the Center for Prayer and Spirituality
These spaces are available for personal refection and meditation: 3rd Floor Cathedral House
The Rev. Bernie Dooly Lending Library and The Chapel of the Transfiguration. Please check in with the cathedral receptionist.
Tuesday Yoga - Now led online: Weekday Live
Friday Contemplative Eucharist
Conducted by cathedral clergy and lay leaders, this service combines contemplation and holy communion in a warm, welcoming worship service. Please wear a mask and observe social distancing. Cummings Chapel, 12:10 pm.
Weekly e-Words
E-mailed quotations from works of religious leaders, inviting personal reflection and prayer.
Sign up for the weekly email here.
