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New Age, New Opportunities
By Dan Wakefield

"O God, how manifold are your works! in wisdom you have made them all. . . "
Psalm 104:24

A few years ago, I met a young minister who told me he was fearful of members of his congregation being lured away from the true religious path (the way of the church) by the glamour and seduction of "New Age" practices. I was curious what specific interests his parishioners were involved in. Had they taken up crystal-gazing? Were they listening to channelers with messages from ancient Ptolemaic seers, transmitted in sepulchral tones? What, exactly, had caught their spiritual fancy?

"The fear and apprehension stimulated by the very term 'New Age'. . . prevents us from seeing unique opportunities for faith communities. "

"Meditation, " he said.

I was more startled than if he had said his parishioners were into fire-walking. I thought meditation was a practice he would welcome, one that is part of the Christian tradition, if not always under that particular name. What could be controversial about meditation? It seemed to me the notion of simply having parishioners who wanted to sit still and be

Dan Wakefield's books include Returning: A Spiritual Journey (1989), The Story of Your Life: Writing a Spiritual Autobiography (Beacon Press), and New York in the Fifties (1992). He has served on the vestry of King's Chapel and on the national board of the Unitarian-Universalist Christian Fellowship.

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quiet for a period of time would be welcome to a minister, under any name at all! The term "meditation," though, is one of the frequently practiced forms of a popular, contemporary form of spirituality available outside of churches (as well as within) and is associated with Eastern religious practices, which makes it suspect to many as alien and dangerous.

There is also, it turns out, a similar form of contemplative practice that began in the second or third century in the Christian tradition, according to Father Basil Pennington, the Trappist monk whose book Centering Prayer provides a contemporary guide to such practice. Father Pennington, who is currently based at a monastery in Hong Kong, teaches centering prayer in the Pacific Basin as well as on his trips to the United States.

“. . . 'centering prayer' is simply a contemporary term for the form novice monks learned as 'the prayer of the heart'. . . "

I recently had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Father Pennington, who explained to me that "centering prayer" is simply a contemporary term for the form novice monks learned as "the prayer of the heart," similar to the form described in The Cloud of Unknowing. The twenty minute practice of silence is comparable to meditative techniques like transcendental meditation, an emptying of the mind to stillness. However, instead of using a Sanskrit word or meaningless sound as a "mantra," this form uses what Father Pennington calls a "loving word" like "God" or "Jesus" to return to when thoughts enter to distract and pull attention from the "center" of being. The period of silence in centering prayer ends when a leader quietly begins a spoken prayer like the Lord's Prayer and others join in.

Father Pennington serves on the board of the Mastery Foundation, which offers an ecumenical workshop on "Making a Difference in Ministry" that uses both centering prayer and some of the "technology" developed in human potential programs. Father Pennington told me, "Some critics say our workshop is 'New Age'-that's a label for anything you don't like. We Trappist monks say we're the New Age. The New Age came when Jesus Christ was born."

"NEW AGE" FEARS

Basic, age-old practices being introduced to the lay public through non-church avenues of spirituality need not necessarily be seen as a challenge or diversion to either church or synagogue but as an opportunity to refresh, enliven, and strengthen one's own religious faith. The fear and apprehension stimulated by the very term "New Age" (which seems to agitate journalists even more than ministers, activating knee-jerk

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reactions of put-down and dismissal) prevents us from seeing unique opportunities for faith communities.

Rather than being intimidated by "New Age" practices, religious leaders have the opportunity of using what they find valuable in its potpourri (while separating the wheat from the chaff) and adapting techniques from other traditions for their own heritage. An example of this approach is the work of Nancy Roth, an Episcopal priest and teacher who is author of A New Christian Yoga. Roth explains that as a dancer she discovered that the physical discipline of a strenuous ballet class required an "absolute attentiveness" that had a calming and "centering" effect she felt was "spiritual." When she enrolled in a yoga class at an adult education center, she had a similar experience. The exercise affected her spirit as well as her body, and "the period of relaxation and visualization at the end of the class became for me a doorway into prayer."

“What a loss it is to dismiss or shy away from a practice like meditation or yoga out of fear of what may be unfamiliar to us . . .”

"It did not matter that we had chanted 'Om' or that the exercises had Hindu names," Roth explains. "My awareness of my own 'incarnatedness' drew me closer to the Incarnate One. The One I encountered, as I lay on the gym floor with my body relaxed and my body and spirit attentive, was the God I knew in Jesus Christ."

She suggests for meditation at the end of a yoga class some of her own favorite mantra terms, such as "Jesus Christ," "my Lord and my God," "Holy Spirit," "be still and know that I am God." In her book, Roth supplies passages of Scripture appropriate for meditation with particular yoga asanas (postures) and includes a section for the basic yoga series called "Salute to the Sun:"

I discovered that, in an uncanny way which helps to convince me that we all seek one God, this sequence of movements-which originated in the Hindu tradition-expresses the petitions of the Lord's Prayer and could very appropriately be called "The Salute to the Son."

In a wise introduction to A New Christian Yoga, Tilden Edwards, Executive Director of The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, D.C., explains:

Many Christians today, from monks to lay people to clergy, find themselves turning to hatha yoga as a way of more fully living out an incarnational Christian faith. That faith has valued the human body as a precious divine gift worthy of Christ. For a variety of unfortunate historical reasons, however, it has never, in practice, paid systematic, positive attention to the body in spiritual formation. To the degree Christ asks us to see and share his inspirited body as itself a sign of God's loving presence with us, we could say that the body itself is a sacramental reality. "This is my body-take and

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eat-"; incorporate into yourself my body-spirit, reveal God in your whole being.

… What makes a particular practice Christian is not its source, but its intent. If our intent in assuming a particular bodily practice is to deepen our awareness in Christ, then it is Christian. If this is not our intent in any spiritual practice, then even the reading of Scripture loses its Christian authenticity.

What a loss it is to dismiss or shy away from a practice like meditation or yoga out of fear of what may be unfamiliar to us or because it may originate in or be identified with another tradition or culture. Such fears and negative attitudes are often stimulated by the press, whose accepted orientation seems to be a pose of jaded cynicism, whether about "New Age" spirituality or, indeed, anything religious that might be taken seriously in public life-as Stephen Carter has so powerfully documented in The Culture of Disbelief.

The press leaped howling onto Michael Lerner's call for a "Politics of Meaning" in Tikkun, the excellent liberal Jewish magazine he edits, when it caught the attention and admiration of Hilary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Lerner was described as a "Torah-thumping" journalist (suggesting he must be some kind of fanatic) in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and labelled by The Wall Street Journal "an aging '60s radical who still sees only a Government of the Good." Quoting from Lerner's editorials as well as a speech by Mrs. Clinton, The New Republic jibed, "It's good to know the First Lady is pro-meaning. But before signing on, one question: What on earth are these people talking about?" In a later issue the magazine announced it was "still mystified" by Mrs. Clinton's "spiritual quest."

". . . I found in the silent physical movements of yoga practice a still point of faith and sustenance."

I feel especially passionate about the distortion and dismissal of concepts labelled as "New Age" because I have gained so much, and my own faith has been so supported and deepened by courses, workshops, and teachers regarded as part of that realm. In a time of personal darkness, when the kind of prayer I had been practicing for ten years suddenly seemed shallow and mocking, I found in the silent physical movements of yoga practice a still point of faith and sustenance. In the much-maligned Est training, which I found to be not a "cult" but a way of empowering my own faith, my long struggle with alcohol was resolved. In Zen "sitting," I found a way back to Christian prayer. At The Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, I discovered a deeper appreciation of nature and understanding of mind-body-spirit through programs like the "Aikido" workshop of George Leonard, a former Look magazine writer

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and editor who dropped out of establishment journalism to become a leader of the human potential movement and a black belt in the martial art of Aikido at age fifty-two.

In my own workshops in "Spiritual Autobiography" and "Creating from the Spirit," I have been moved by the sincerity and dedication of seekers of all faiths, not only those in Christian congregations but those without a church or synagogue at adult education centers, whether "New Age" or simply community-based, like the Boston Center for Adult Education. People who come to such workshops are seeking a way, a path, an entry to a spiritual dimension in life, and for some it may lead back to their own Jewish or Christian heritage, for some to Buddhism, or other Eastern faiths. In serving these people, as well as in exploring other ways of faith commitment along with them, led by others, I have never felt my own Christianity challenged but rather enhanced.

THE THREAT OF CRAYOLAS

I am sometimes surprised by the suspicion of any practice or methodology not familiar to the orthodox style. I was once asked if I would give my workshop in spiritual autobiography at a conference center in the South and then was told that the director of that institution did not want me to come when he learned that part of the process involved drawing with crayons, which seemed to him "too far out." The threat of Crayolas!

"In Zen 'sitting,' I found a way back to Christian prayer. "

The crayons also eliminated the chance to give a spiritual autobiography workshop for a business group on the grounds that the use of such tools made the program sound "too touchy-feely." That term is even more damning than the dreaded "New Age." My proposal to write an article on the work of Father Henry Nouwen, the Dutch theologian, priest, writer, and speaker who pastors the L'Arche community called "Daybreak" in Toronto (communities in which volunteers live and care for mentally handicapped people who would otherwise be placed in institutions) was turned down by a national magazine I have written for often in the past on the grounds that the subject sounded "too touchy-feely."

If the mainstream press is so unnerved by spiritual subjects and practices outside of Sunday services, you may be wondering how such things can be successfully incorporated into the life of a mainline church-if they have any place there at all. I would refer you to my minister, Carl Scovel, who serves as pastor of the very "Bostonian" congregation of King's Chapel, a Christian Unitarian church in Boston. In his quiet, non-threatening, thoughtful way, Reverend Scovel has introduced such powerful work in the church as meditation, silent re-

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treats, a healing group, a yoga class, the innovative Bible Study method taught by Walter Wink, and, perhaps most important to me (as well as many of my friends at King's Chapel), the "religious autobiography" course that Carl originated. Those eight Wednesday night sessions in the Parish House back in 1984-when I drew pictures with crayons for the first time since Public School #80 in Indianapolis-started me on my own writing on religion and spirituality and continues as the model of the "spiritual autobiography" course I have often led.

"I am sometimes surprised by the suspicion of any practice or methodology not familiar to the orthodox style. "

I believe Carl Scovel would agree, as I do, with the eloquently stated belief of Tilden Edwards that "a truly universal faith is free to discern the hand of God at work anywhere in God's world, and let what is seen enlarge our vision of Christ and our means of realizing that vision."

One important proviso: The seers and avatars of all faiths impress on seekers the importance of rooting their spiritual journey in one tradition, whether it is Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, or any other system of belief. While it is healthy and invigorating for Christians to "enlarge our vision of Christ" through alternative practices and wisdom from other traditions, it is also important to continue returning to the source and base of our own faith, to Christ himself, to be anchored and renewed, to be at once grounded-and uplifted-through the rituals of the church, through the bread and wine of communion, the reading of Scripture, the preaching of the word of Jesus. That home truth came back to me recently when, after spending many weekends giving workshops in secular settings, I led a course in spiritual autobiography for a retreat of the Chicago Presbytery and heard Joanna Adams, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, preaching Jesus Christ with such clarity it was like fresh water from a spring, and I realized how thirsty I had been.