Telluride's Christ Church: "A Charter for Compassion"

12 Mar Telluride's Christ Church: "A Charter for Compassion"

[click “Play”, Rev. Pat Bailey speaks with Susan about Charter for Compassion]

The answer my friend is blowing in the winds of change: Two different and highly respected institutions in Telluride are talking about the same thing more or less at the same time. And it’s a good thing.

On March 7, the Telluride Institute blogged about its upcoming Second Annual Compassion Festival, scheduled for this summer, July 8 – July 10. (The Institute announced early because it is looking for volunteers.) The unique event and the newest festival on Telluride’s cultural calendar is dedicated to exploring compassion for a world in crisis. It is byproduct of last year’s Language of Mental Life conference, also hosted by the Telluride Institute.

Then as now, while some people appear ready to storm the barricades, others are turning inward in an attempt to find ways to play nice in not so nice times: Compassion as an antidote for overheated passions.

During the period of self reflection known as Lent, Reverend Pat Bailey of Telluride’s Christ Church plans to offer a study of Karen Armstrong’s “A Charter for Compassion” and her book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. The study takes place right after the Sunday service, starting this Sunday, March 3 through April 17 (11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) or on consecutive Wednesdays, March 16 – April 20, 12 – 1 p.m.

Armstrong, a former nun and author of numerous works on comparative religion, famously asserted that when you drill down to the essence, all great religions share one universal theme: the transcendent importance of compassion as summed up in the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

In February 2008, Armstrong was awarded the $100,000 TED Prize for drawing up a “Charter for Compassion” in the spirit of the Golden Rule to identify unifying moral themes that would help foster global understanding. The Dalai Lama is a signatory.

To learn more about Reverend Pat’s plans to pursue the study of compassion, click the “play” button.