Why Contemplation Matters Now: Forming the Church for the Sake of the World - Introduction Jan. 2026

This month’s learning includes:

• A 9-minute video reflection - Watch part of a conversation between Brother James Dowd and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on the importance of this movement.
• A simple contemplative practice (one minute of intentional silence)
• Reflection questions for individual or shared use

This month’s learning may be engaged individually, in small groups, or within leadership settings. If you’re looking for a way to practice contemplation with others, this learning also connects directly to our ongoing live sits.

Explore the Month 1 course materials here. Use them as part of your personal faith study or with community groups, vestries, or Sunday school classes.

Come as you are. Begin simply. And, you are always welcome to join our Centering Prayer sits. View the schedule.

View the transcript of this video below, lightly edited for clarity and flow for reading:

Brother James Dowd
You know, I'm perhaps uniquely situated to have discovered, I think, this contemplative movement because I give a lot of retreats on contemplative prayer and living a contemplative lifestyle. I do a lot of spiritual direction. So, you know, if you're a person who goes to a contemplative retreat or does spiritual direction, you're inclined in that direction anyway. But I really do believe it's more now than ever. So much so that I'm starting to develop a kind of philosophy that we're entering into a contemplative age, which seems in complete opposition to what is happening around us and in the media and in real life. And I see this most of all from the ground up.

I see a lot of people, some of whom actually know what contemplative prayer and a contemplative lifestyle is, some of whom don't. But they are just looking for the vocabulary. They want to understand more deeply. Some of them are just flailing around, but are primed to move into this kind of life together. And I think that we are uniquely positioned as Episcopalians and as Anglicans in Canada through our liturgy, through our tradition, and also through our institution to grow this life, to develop it further. But it always comes back down, from my point of view, to formation. I mean, we've got to help our people be formed into a contemplative way.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe
No, I think that's right. And I'm a person that tends to be envious of those who are naturally inclined toward the contemplative life. I never have [been]. It's never been a natural inclination. I tell this story all the time. I read Thomas Merton's Seven Story Mountain when I was 20 years old. That was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever read. I mean, that's, you know, a kind of spiritual arrogance, right? But I just didn't know any better when I read it and I thought, now this is... what is this? Has this guy ever been anywhere else? But, you know, I mean, I [didn't] know how I could ever embrace anything [like that], I guess.

And so my coming to a more contemplative way... it's been a lifelong journey. You know, there was, like, nothing I would dread more than sitting in silence looking at a candle or something. Right? Well, I mean, that was just part of my journey. I just didn't come out of the womb a contemplative, but I want to be one. So, I've been on a journey and now… You know, in the last few years, one of my projects theologically is reading [and] rereading Merton. And I found it life-changing, over the last ten years. I've always got my own spirituality [changing]. So this is just what part of my story is.

But I see more and more how those contemplative practices have grounded some of the biggest changes we've seen in… the civic sphere, in the world around us. The Civil Rights Movement. These were people that were deeply grounded in a tradition. And so I see it that, as an institution, we can provide a place for this kind of way of being in a world of so much noise. We can provide a platform and a way of amplifying this way of being. And I believe it will be transformational for us and for the world.

I wonder, you know, how many people does it take with that effort—that are engaging in contemplative practice, that are living in the heart of God more than not—to change the world? What's the what's the tipping point on that? So, I think we are, in our liturgy and our tradition, all set to push us in that direction. And I think, we have an institution. And the importance of the institution… is to support that [tradition]. And then to give voice to the action when it's time.

I think that the change we're talking about and the kind of action we're talking about is local. It's hyper-local. The change that is going to happen is going to happen at the level of the community, at the level of the congregation, the level of the of the cathedral, wherever it is that we're serving. And we'll know when to act. I think that what is key is that we figure out ways to amplify the work at the local level that we're able to create, [have] helped to create, and to amplify more networks. Like what you've done, Brother James, here.

How do we continue to build those networks as they emerge? Really understanding that, yes, I think our existence is resistance, but it's not… [by] way of being outraged at everything that happens. It's in a way of being formed.. such… that we know when to act at the local level. And, I think the ways that we could do that as a church-wide body is to promote it and support, particularly the networks like you're building, that others are building. And the fact of the matter is, we could have a tremendous reach. I think of people like Richard Rohr (and the Center for Action and Contemplation) who has had, you know, tremendous, tremendous reach. Ours could be greater than that. I'm not saying, like, …[that] the goal—to be greater than that. But I think the goal is reach. How do we have a span? I think we could really do that.

Brother James Dowd
I agree with that. I think that the there really is genuine hunger for a contemplative way. And I think what I want to do here, given the habit and the whole thing, is just clarify for people that being contemplative does not equate to being a monk. Monks certainly are contemplative. You're not going to be a really great one if you don't do that, right? But this is a gift given by the Holy Spirit to the entire church. And there are people in every walk of life—monastics, clergy, laypeople, all of us from the youngest to the oldest, who are called into that life. And I kind of was one of those guys who was born, you know, thinking Thomas Merton was the greatest thing before he even knew who he was! Right? Some come to it that way and others come to it the way of the presiding bishop. That's right. But in all of it, it's just part of the journey to build up the body of Christ.

…In the in the mystical Jewish tradition, there's a belief that there are 36 people who are chosen by God and that they're all over the world, and only they know that they are one of the 36. And their prayer life is what is holding together the world. And when one of them dies, God chooses another person to fill that 36. This is across faith traditions that there are people who are meant to be healers in the world and who are meant to be the people who hold it together spiritually. That is pretty universal. And the experience of being able to grow that community is exactly, I think, one of the major pieces. I don't think it's the only thing, but I think it's one of the major pieces that we're called to in our tradition at this time. And I think we're in a great position to do it.