Pools of Grace: The Gift and Call of Contemplative Worship (On Being a Contemplative Church)

In recent decades, there has been a revival of the practice of Christian contemplative prayer in the Western church. Yet this contemplative renewal has not necessarily permeated the ethos and practice of regular worshipping communities. Though some parishes or congregations have a meditation group as one of their activities, fewer allow for a liturgy shaped and undergirded by contemplative silence in their main service; fewer still are committed to a contemplative approach suffusing the whole of their life together. What does contemplative common worship look and feel like? How might congregational leaders learn to shape and create contemplative liturgy? This book draws on the experience of Benedictus Contemplative Church, an ecumenical worshipping community based in Australia. It explores the gift and call of contemplative congregational worship and its power to connect us to what is deepest and most essential for our life in the world, and for the life of the world.

Sarah Bachelard is the founding Director of Benedictus Contemplative Church. Ordained in the Anglican tradition, she is a theologian and teacher with the World Community for Christian Meditation and author of several books, including A Contemplative Christianity for Our Time (2020).