My pal and colleague, the Reverend Dorsey Blake, who was vp of the College of Creation Spirituality from its starting to its closing, died this week. He was pastor at Howard Thurman’s Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco for 31 years.
That church was the primary consciously interfaith and interracial church in america. It obtained particular recognition in October 2023 as a “Historic Landmark” by the Metropolis and County of San Francisco, and Dorsey invited me to provide an tackle on that distinctive event.
It proved to be the final time I noticed Dorsey and I’m grateful that we had a wonderful 30-minute dialog in his workplace earlier than the award ceremony started.
I owe Dorsey so much. He was the primary to introduce me to Howard Thurman and the primary e book of his he inspired me to learn was Deep River and the Negro Religious. It was not the very best recognized of Thurman’s works, but it surely touched me deeply that his theology employed music and artwork and liberation—parts that have been foundational to our pedagogy in Creation Spirituality.
I used to be so taken by Thurman, his story (his grandmother who helped increase him was an ex-slave), his ecumenism, his integrity and poetic language, that I ended up studying most all of his works and listening to a lot of his tapes. Certainly one of my favourite problems with our Creation Spirituality journal was one devoted fully to Howard Thurman which contained articles by a lot of his former college students.
Dorsey as a younger man had sat as a scholar at Thurman’s ft and was dedicated to his tasks as pastor of his church carrying on his legacy in that function proper as much as his loss of life. Even after UCS shut down, whereas educating and administering at Star King and Pacific Faculty of Faith, he oversaw the church most Sunday mornings. I marveled at his dedication and generosity to his pastoral duties whereas working full time in academia.
He requested me to evangelise and lecture on events at Thurman’s church and it was there that I met Thurman’s spouse Sue Bailey Thurman who was a lady of magnificence inside and outside and an activist in her personal proper. She died on Christmas Day on the age of 95.
At UCS, Dorsey taught a category every year on “King, Gandhi, and Thurman” and in addition a category on “City Spirituality” that caught the eye of the black mayor of Oakland, Lionel Wilson, who was very a lot taken by the thought of an “city spirituality.”
As vp of UCS, Dorsey launched a particular outreach to the black neighborhood and one such outreach that went on for years was an occasion on Martin Luther King Jr. Vacation the place our faculty linked up with Taylor Memorial Methodist Church in West Oakland to rejoice that Holy Day.
It was standing room solely every time and I used to be invited to talk from the pulpit on these events together with others and leaders within the black neighborhood gave awards to younger individuals demonstrating nice promise. Following the service was a lunch ready by the church neighborhood the place all interacted in a spirit of shared conviviality.
One other thought Dorsey sponsored was to provide an honorary doctoral diploma from UCS to the inspiring and prophetic pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, Rev. Cecil Williams. Dorsey is survived by his brother Carl who lived with him for a few years and is a famend pianist having carried out in live performance halls in america and Central America. He as soon as gifted me with a private and memorable live performance at a piano within the floor flooring of our UCS constructing.
Dorsey’s co-minister at Thurman’s church has been Kathryn Benton, a UCS graduate.
Dorsey was a champion of justice and represented his neighborhood with grace and righteous anger and was an excellent man to work with. I used to be honored to name him a pal and colleague. In his final correspondence with me he known as my current e book on Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ an “necessary e book” that wanted to get into the world.
See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 160, 311, 332, 352, 425, 427, 442.
Additionally, Fox, “Warriors for Ecological and Financial Justice: Meister Eckhart Meets Dorothy Stang, Karl Marx, David Korten, Serge Latouche, Anita Roddick, and Howard Thurman,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Instances, pp. 221-230.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
See additionally Fox, One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from International Faiths
And Fox, editor, “Honoring Howard Thurman,” Creation Spirituality Journal, March/April 1991.
Banner Picture: Dr. Marlene DeNardo, Matthew Fox, and the Rev. Dorsey Blake stand on the inauguration of the College of Creation Spirituality constructing in Oakland, CA. Photograph from Dr. DeNardo’s assortment, used with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
Do your experiences with Dorsey Blake and/or Howard Thurman play prominently and gratefully in you at this important time in human and planetary and American historical past? Isn’t it a blessing to know of the lineage of mystics and prophets who’ve responded generously and faithfully, joyfully and courageously, to their calling and vocation?
Advisable Studying
Confessions: The Making of a Submit-Denominational Priest (Revised/Up to date Version)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his private, mental, and non secular journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. 5 new chapters on this revised and up to date version deliver added perspective in gentle of the writer’s continued journey, and his reflections on the present modifications happening in church, society and the atmosphere.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible non secular revolutionary enlivens the thoughts and emboldens the guts — should studying for anybody taken with braveness, creativity, and the way forward for faith.”
—Joanna Macy, writer of World as Lover, World as Self
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally needs to introduce Eckhart to in the present day’s activists addressing up to date crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is maybe the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a spot between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to in the present day’s spiritual disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Writer of Religious Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each spiritual and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient via which we be taught to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the present of a great and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a standard floor for spiritual seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Observe.
“I’m studying Liberating Presents for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox. He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand new life regardless of a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out an entire new route for Christianity—a route that’s in truth very historic and really grounded in Jewish considering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is commonly uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed approach.
“Unique Blessing makes out there to the Christian world and to the human neighborhood a radical treatment for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these could have originated.” –Thomas Berry, writer, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the that means and apply of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and world therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the way in which towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Properly price our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from International Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all of the world traditions for his or her knowledge and their inspiration in a piece that’s way over an inventory of theological place papers however a brand new technique to pray—to meditate in a world non secular context on the knowledge all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes which might be foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all of the world non secular traditions provide knowledge about every.“Studying One River, Many Wells is like getting into the wealthy silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you learn this textual content, you mirror, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Really no phrases can totally specific my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to up to date spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, writer of Anatomy of the Spirit
