Spiritual centre being formed without walls
Group holding events around CBRM to raise awareness about spiritual life in religious and non-religious people
A spiritual life centre is being built, without the walls.
Anthony O’Connor, a priest who was active in parish work for 35 years, is spearheading what he refers to as a “guide group” in creating the centre.
“It’s not physical, we don’t have a building and don’t intend to have any rental space.”
Instead O’Connor, of Sydney and Guysborough, said the group will be holding various public events in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in the hopes of raising the awareness of the spiritual life in religious and non-religious people.
The idea is not in focusing on getting people to join the group but rather to come to the events, he said.
“We want people to come to the public events, to talk and chat and learn from each other.”
The first event is a presentation about sharing spiritual teachings in a good way,’ by Jeff Ward, manager of the Membertou Heritage Park, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the heritage building.
“Jeff is very spiritual and very dedicated to the Mi’kmaq traditions,” he said.
“We are happy he is starting us off and on our Indigenous spirituality, the one that was first here before Christianity.”
As well as parish work, O’Connor taught at several universities, including religious studies and philosophy at Cape Breton University.
O’Connor said the idea of the spiritual centre came from seeing and hearing from a lot of people who don’t seem to be inspired by what churches offer and are not attending.
“We aren’t giving the diagnosis but we see the effect and the fallout. People are looking for spiritual things but not where they used to look years ago.”
O’Connor said spiritual seekers seem to be going in different directions, which could be Buddhism or meditation.
“It’s felt if there was something spiritual or fulfilling there for them, they might be attending.”
As a result, he said a small group of people of common interests have been meeting since July to discuss what a spiritual centre would look like.
O’Connor said they believe people are spiritual and don’t have to belong to a particular church or part of a religion.
“We have enriched ourselves with our conversations in getting ready for the launch of the centre,” he said.
“We want to inspire small groups of people forming to talk about spiritual life. We hope to then work with other small groups that are like-minded.”
O’Connor said a small such group was started at Cape Breton University.
“To us that’s all good news. They are similar to us, we’re all working towards the same interest and goals.”