St. James Speaker Series: Dr. Winston B. Charles
Finding Deeper Ground: Living from the Spiritual Heart
These past months have been extraordinary times of stress: the pandemic, the painful exposing of systemic racism revealing the need to grow in oneness, the severe weather events evidencing shifting climate, as well as the regular challenges of life. We have experienced much loss and will likely face more. Still, God is with us, within us, among us: holding, comforting, healing, empowering us toward life in its fullness. These are clear invitations to find deeper ground on which to stand. On Tuesday, May 4, as part of the St. James Parish Speaker Series, Winston Charles will speak on leaning ever more deeply into the Spiritual Heart by reclaiming the ancient Christian tradition of contemplative prayer and spirituality.
Winston B. Charles grew up attending St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bennettsville, a small town in South Carolina. He graduated from the University of the South (Sewanee) and Virginia Theological Seminary. Ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1974, Winston served parishes in the Dioceses of South Carolina, New York, and North Carolina before retiring from parish ministry in 2009 after fifteen years as rector of Christ Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. In midcourse, he earned a Ph.D. in Church History from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. For the past decade, he has been involved in many ways with the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, which for over forty years has been reclaiming the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer and spirituality, teaching living and leading from the Spiritual Heart. Winston and his wife Judy live in Raleigh and enjoy the beauty of the Carolinas.