Contemplate This! Interview with Rev. Dr. Tilden Edwards

Guest

Rev. Dr. Tilden Edwards

Founder and Senior Fellow, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, Washington, D.C. Executive Director of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation from its inception in 1973 until 2000.

Over the years he has designed and led many ecumenical extension programs for spiritual leaders (beginning with one of the earliest programs for spiritual directors), as well as many ecumenical and denominational workshops, retreats and lectures related to the spiritual life for both ordained and lay people, across the United States and in Korea, Canada, and South Africa.

He is author or editor of eight books: Embracing Spiritual Depth; Spiritual Director, Spiritual Companion; Living in the Presence; Spiritual Friend; Sabbath Time; Living with Apocalypse(ed.); All God’s Children; and Living Simply Through the Day, as well as a booklet on “The Promise of a Contemplatively-Oriented Seminary,” and articles in various periodicals.

He holds a B.A. degree in cultural anthropology, magna cum laude, from Stanford, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, a PhD from the Union Graduate Institute, a Certificate of Anglican Studies from the Episcopal Theological School, and an honorary Doctor in Divinity from the Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1962 in the Washington National Cathedral.

Prior to Shalem, from 1967-1978 he was Executive Director of the Metropolitan Ecumenical Training Center in Washington, D.C., focused on societal and congregational concerns of twelve sponsoring religious denominations; at the same time he was director of the Urban Training Program for five seminaries in the Washington area. Prior to that, from 1962-1967, he was part of the team ministry of the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington.

He was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in Texas, New York, Oregon, and California. He is married to Mary Jane Edwards, a clinical social worker, and he has three grown children and three grandsons. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

• shalem.org

This third interview is with the Rev. Dr. Tilden Edwards, an Episcopalian priest and founding member, former Executive Director, and now Senior Fellow of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Shalem is a Hebrew word meaning "whole" or "complete," or as Tilden explains in this podcast, the Hebrew captures the notion of "movement toward wholeness." According to their website, "Shalem is grounded in Christian contemplative spirituality yet draws on the wisdom of many religious traditions." Through Tilden's leadership Shalem was one of the first institutes designed to train ministers and church leaders for spiritual direction, particularly outside of the context of monasteries where the practice has continued since the earliest centuries of the Church. In that regard, Tilden is a particularly important figure for the rebirth of contemplative spirituality in a distinctively ecumenical context - that is, among Christians of all denominations and backgrounds. It is also worth highlighting that his background includes congregation-based social justice work in Washington, D.C., in his early career as a pastor - he talks about leading others down 16th street in his cassock in the March on Washington in 1963 - and that his introduction to contemplation was further ignited through intensive introductions to contemplation early in his career both with an Episcopalian Benedictine monastery and with a Tibetan Buddhist lama.