- In the early 1980's, an alumni from my MBA program began bugging me to attend
personal growth trainings called Insight Seminars, which are designed to achieve a greater measure of
self knowledge and effectiveness in life through the application of heartfelt, practical tools for living
life more successfully and lovingly.
At the time, this was the last thing I wanted to do. With 20/20 hindsight, I am eternally grateful
to her for her persistence because these trainings reawakened something authentic in me that had been dying.
I took every training they offered and in the process connected with a group of people affiliated
with the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA). They invited me to a taped lecture
by John Roger, the spiritual director of MSIA. I experienced such a deep resonance of truth in his
teachings that MSIA became my spiritual home. To find out more about MSIA and its related organizations,
go to www.msia.org.
- I was ordained in 1985. The charge of our ministry is to honor all religious and
spiritual traditions and to minister to all regardless of race, creed, color, situation, circumstance,
or environment. My ministry is largely silent in the forms of prayer, meditation, and acts of anonymous
service. The more public forms include providing support and counseling to those in crisis; officiating
at wedding ceremonies and other rituals. I also facilitate seminars and workshops on practical
spirituality.
- While I was attending a ministers' meeting in 1991, one of my fellow ministers was
sharing about how much he loved to officiate at weddings and how few interfaith and ecumenical ministers
were around at that time. I knew in that moment that I wanted to offer my services in this way. I was
terrified my first time. Then, little by little, I developed a methodology for helping couples to design
their weddings, as well as running rehearsals and officiating the ceremonies themselves. Now, hundreds
of weddings later, I am thrilled to have just published The Wedding Ceremony Planner: The Essential Guide
to the Most Important Part of Your Wedding Day (Sourcebooks, ISBN 1402203438).
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