Just in time for Christmas 2024, we have two ministers who are associated with Progressive Christianity, a growing movement that runs counter to fundamentalism and the mainstream churches whose attendance continues to decline. Together, they present a vision of a different kind of Christianity. 

Rev. Nicole Lamarche has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ since 2005 and now serves as pastor of Community UCC in Boulder, Colorado. She believes that “communities of faith can be powerful places for personal and social transformation.” 

Rev. Jim Burklo is the pastor of the UCC church in Simi Valley, CA, and also serves as Executive Director of Progressive Christians Uniting.  Formerly the Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California, he’s the author of seven books on Progressive Christianity, the latest of which is Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus. 

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Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and comparative theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and the founding director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at the same school. He’s a specialist in the religions of India and the author of more than twenty books, most recently Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas and The Samkhya System: Accounting for the Real.

He serves as an advisor to multiple organizations including the Forum on Religion and Ecology, the Ahimsa Center, the Dharma Academy of North America, the South Asian Studies Association, and the International School for Jain Studies. Our conversation centered around the five yamas and five niyamas of Classical Yoga. These are essential guidelines for living a profoundly ethical and deeply spiritual life. 

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Jeffery D. Long is a professor of religion, philosophy, and Asian studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, where he has taught since receiving his Ph.D from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 2000. Both a practitioner and a scholar of Hinduism, his work focuses primarily on the religions and philosophies of India and themes such as nonviolence, pluralism, religion and popular culture, and the concept of rebirth.

He has spoken three times at the United Nations and appears in documentaries for PBS and the History Channel. He is also the author, editor, or co-editor of twelve books, including A Vision for Hinduism: Beyond Hindu Nationalism; The Historical Dictionary of Hinduism; and the award-winning Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds. His latest book is Discovering Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Thought. 

Find Jeffrey Long on Facebook

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Rev. Carol Allman-Morton is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire, and her husband, Rev. Tadd Allman-Morton, is the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Great Barrington, United Church of Christ. They met at Andover Newton Theological School, where Carol was awarded the James Luther Adams Award for excellence in the study of liberal theology” and Tadd was a member of the Jonathan Edwards Honors Society. We talked about their early spiritual experiences, their motivation for seeking ordination, the decline in church participation and doctrinal belief, and what the marriage of ministers of different theological orientations is like. 

Read this article in the Berkshire Edge about Rev. Tad Allman-Morton

Find out more about Philip Goldberg here

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With the Middle East aflame with violence, we explore the opposite with two of the three Interfaith Amigos. Laura Duhan-Kaplan is Rabbi Emerita of Shalom Synagogue in Vancouver and professor emerita of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. The recipient of many awards for teaching excellence, she is a popular lecturer and retreat leader, and the author or editor of ten book, including The Infinity Inside: Jewish Spiritual Practice Through a Multi-Faith Lens; Encountering the Other: Christian and Multi-Faith Perspectives; and Spirit of Reconciliation: A Multi-Faith Resource.

Imam Jamal Rahman teaches at Seattle University and Pacific Lutheran University, and is the co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary. A popular speaker on subjects related to Islam, Sufism, and interfaith relations, he is the author of several books, including Sacred Laughter of the Sufis: Awakening the Soul with the Mullah's Comic Teaching Stories and Other Islamic Wisdom; Spiritual Gems of Islam; and The Fragrance of Faith. He is also coauthor of Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos Guide to Personal, Social, and Environmental Healing; Religion Gone Astray; Out of Darkness Into Light; and other works. Their inspiring work together has healing messages for harmony among religious traditions. 

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Carl Siciliano is a nationally recognized advocate and provider for homeless LGBTQ youth. In 2002, he founded the Ali Forney Center (AFC) in New York City. AFC has grown to become the nation’s largest and most comprehensive housing program for homeless LGBTQ youth.

His work has been featured by NPR, CNN, The Daily Show, and New York magazine. Now he’s told his compelling story in a new book, Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging, and a Safe Place for LGBTQ Youth. We spoke about his own coming out, his relationship with the Catholic Church, his spiritual transformation, the value of engaging in service work, and his moving experiences over many years of advocacy for a disadvantaged population. 

Find out more about Carl Siciliano and The Ali Forney Center



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A special episode on the growing discipline of yoga therapy and scientific research on the benefits of yoga practices. Two guests this time. Catherine Justice is an integrative physical therapist, certified yoga therapist, and the program manager for the Division of Integrative Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis. The associate editor of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy, she has conducted research on yoga for arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, and lower-back pain.

Sat Bir Khalsa has been engaged in research on the effects of yoga and meditation practices on physical and psychological health since 2001. He’s conducted clinical research on a number of disorders, including insomnia, PTSD, and anxiety, and his numerous affiliations include: certified instructor of Kundalini Yoga; director of research for the Kundalini Research Institute; research associate at the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine; research affiliate of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and chair of the scientific program committee for the International Association of Yoga Therapists' annual symposium on yoga research.  

Catherine Justice The Art of Well Being

Sat Bir Khalsa

International Association of Yoga Therapists

Connect with Philip Goldberg Author, Speaker, Spiritual Counselor, Writing Coach

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Henry Shukman is a poet, author, and Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage. Born in the UK, where his parents taught at Oxford, he now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he’s spiritual director emeritus of the Mountain Cloud Zen Center. He teaches various forms of mindfulness meditation and is the creator of a meditation app called The Way. He tells his personal story in a memoir titled One Blade of Grass, and he’s the author of a new book, Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening. We spoke of his spiritual origins, the different forms Zen teaching has taken on, the nuances of mindfulness and meditation, and especially his new book and what he means by "original love." 

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Marie Grace B. is a cofounder of, and spokesperson for, Spiritual Emergence Anonymous (SEA). SEA describes itself as "a grassroots world-wide 12-step program for spiritual emergence." The program's purpose is "to support spiritual emergence in individuals whose spiritual transformation is so powerful that they desire assistance and support from a group in integrating their spiritual experience by seeking stability, clarity, and being of greater service in the world." Because SEA is modeled on the 12-step ethic, anonymity is a central principle, which is why Marie Grace, when representing SEA, does not use her last name or state her professional training and background. We spoke about the origins of SEA and the value it has in the lives of participants.  

https://spiritualemergenceanonymous.org/ 



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We welcome two returning champions to Spirit Matters. James Finley is a clinical psychologist, a spiritual director and a faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Early in his life he was a monk in a Trappist monastery and a novice under the well-known mystic Thomas Merton. He is a recognized authority on contemplative Christianity and mysticism whose books include Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, The Contemplative Heart, Christian Meditation, and The Healing Path.

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She teaches and speaks in various venues on contemplative practice, mysticism, and inter-spiritual dialog. Her earlier books taught readers about the great Christian mystics (John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila). Her more recent books include Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation, and her latest, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground. 

They are on the show together because they are teaching a workshop together this fall (November, 2024) under the auspices of Gladdening Light, in which they will draw upon the teachings of Christian and Non-Christian mystical traditions to offer "practical guidelines in the gentle art of contemplative practice."  

James Finley

Gladdening Light.org

Find our more about Philip Goldberg Author, Speaker, Spiritual Counselor, Writing Coach

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