Oxford Centre for Spiritual Growth

Thursday lunchtime talks at St Giles’, Trinity Term 2016

The Gift of Meditation: a Pearl of Great Price

28 Apr: Chris Cullen; 5 May: Sandie Chubb; 12 May: Kallistos of Diokleia; 19 May: Josephine von Zitzewitz; 26 May: Chris Cullen; 2 Jun: Liz Watson; 9 Jun: Cyprian Blamires; 16 Jun: Keith Ward. About our Speakers Chris Cullen Chris Cullen is a teacher at the University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre. He is co- founder of the Mindfulness in Schools Project, and teaches mindfulness courses in the Houses of Parliament. He leads Buddhist Insight Meditation retreats and has a psychotherapy practice in Oxford.

Sandy Chubb Sandy Chubb began practising meditation in 1985 and now works as an accredited Zen Teacher with the Sanbo Zen school of Meditation in Kamakura, Japan guiding The Oxford Zen Centre in Old Marston. She taught prisoners and prison officers meditation for 21 years with the Oxford-based national charity The Prison Phoenix Trust working as its Director for 10 years. She is the author of 3 books for prisoners: "Becoming Free Through Mediation and Yoga", "Freeing the Spirit Through Mediation and Yoga" and "Yoga without Words". She is a qualified Albion and British Wheel Yoga Teacher. Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia Metropolitan Kallistos is an Assistant Bishop in the Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. He was formerly Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies in the University of Oxford and he is an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. His best-known works are The Orthodox Church (Penguin Books) and The Orthodox Way (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press). Josephine von Zitzewitz Josephine von Zitzewitz has been meditating for 20 years and is the coordinator of the WCCM Young Meditators in London, as well as an oblate of the WCCM. She is also an academic teaching Russian literature and a keen runner who practices yoga.

Cyprian Blamires DPhil, OCDS With qualifications in Languages, Theology, and History, I have for many years lived a composite existence involving work for a small charity together with freelance translation, historical research, and writing. My field is European Intellectual History from 1789 to 1945, and I am currently researching the origins of the ideology that drove the Holocaust. My most recent published translation was a book about the special spiritual friendship between St Teresa and a young Carmelite priest. I am on the National Council of the English and Welsh Secular Carmelites – Seculars follow a version of the Carmelite Rule adapted for lay life in the world as opposed to life in community – and I am an occasional speaker on Carmelite topics. Dr Liz Watson Liz Watson became interested in the Christian mystical tradition after returning to Christianity and beginning to meditate in her early forties. Previously she had pursued a career in public libraries, having graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Latin. She has since studied for a Master’s Degree in Theology at Exeter University and is now closely involved with the World Community for Christian Meditation, teaching, leading retreats and as a spiritual director. Her particular interests include Evelyn Underhill and Etty Hillesum and she has written about both in Journey to the Heart: Christian Contemplation through the Centuries (edited by Kim Nataraja, Canterbury Press, 2011).

Professor Keith Ward Keith Ward was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and is now a Research Fellow at Heythrop College, London, and Fellow of the British Academy. He is a priest of the Church of England, and has written mostly on comparative theology, Christian doctrine, and issues in religion and science. His latest book is 'Christ and the Cosmos' (CUP), which is on the doctrine of the Trinity.