Christian Zen
“The future for Christians is Zen and Christianity.”
Thomas Merton
NEW STORY COMMUNITY
Rev. Ann Ankai Wagner, Sensei, a Christian contemplative, social activist and Zen Teacher (Dharma Successor) of Roshi Paul Genki Kahn, has developed an open and welcoming congregation practicing Christian Zen, called New Story Community.
The mission of New Story Community is to provide a nurturing home for progressive Christians that encourages contemplation, participatory liturgy, gender equality, a forum for engagement in social justice, and life lived in the spirit of service.
As Director of Christian Zen, Rev. Ankai works in the tradition of Thomas Merton, integrating the teachings and practices of Jesus with the transformational methods of Zen.
We believe in a God present in all creation and transcendent as unity, whose energy lives in us, and through which we live, weaving a fabric of relationship among all creation. We follow Jesus’ example of awakening to the divine source and living in the spirit of love, peace and the struggle for social justice and liberation.
Members of New Story Community can take classes and engage in practices specific to Christian Zen, as well as participating in any other offerings at Zen Garland as they wish.
New Story Community members celebrate the common rites of Christianity, sharing responsibility for the rituals and liturgy. Our Christian Zen Ministers are guides and good friends to the congregation. They do not serve as intermediaries between practitioners and the spiritual.
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.”
Karl Rahner
CHRISTIAN ZEN PRACTICE PATH
Christian Zen also offers a Practice Path for those seeking a more structured spiritual direction. For these individuals, Christian Zen provides four Expressions: Spiritual Development, Teaching, Chaplaincy and Ordination as a Christian Zen Minister.
The Advisory Board for Christian Zen includes Suzanne Golas, CSJP, Frank McCann, Fr. Terrance Moran, CSJPA, and Kiernan Scott, Ph.D.
EXPRESSIONS
Practitioners in the Christian Zen Path initially follow the Zen Garland General Path, which provides a common foundation uniting us. This includes Zen mediation, study relationship with Rev. Ankai as Spiritual Director, textual study, liturgical worship, ethics, embodiment and psycho-spiritual developmental practices and service. Leaders in the Christian Zen movement provide courses specific to Christian Zen and Christian mysticism at Zen Garland’s Community Study Center and Seminary.
Teachers within Christian Zen can be lay or ordained. There are five levels of Christian Zen Teachers – Mentor, Instructor, Assistant Teacher (Dharma Holder), Teacher (Sensei), and Master Teacher (Roshi). Teachers, first and foremost, are committed to a life of spiritual practice. In addition they study pastoral counseling, Zen methods of instruction and spiritual development, public speaking, non-profit administration and finance.
Zen Garland’s Tara Care offers classes and supervised internships leading to certification as an End of Life Caregiver. This training prepares individuals to be skillful in presence with family, friends and strangers. This training also prepares individuals to work as volunteers in Hospice Programs.
Zen Garland offers a two-year Chaplaincy Program open to lay and ordained members of Christian Zen. The program includes certification in pastoral counseling, classes in the bio-psycho-social aspects of End of Life care, world religious practices at End of Life, and 200 hours of supervised service.
Christian Zen ordains Ministers whose life mission is maintaining Zen practice for realizing and manifesting the wisdom teachings of Jesus, and maintaining spiritual relationship with the members of the Christian Zen community.
The training for ordination as a Christian Zen Minister includes studies in Buddhism, Christian theology and mysticism, pastoral counseling, liturgy and ceremony, ethics, public preaching and teaching, world religious traditions and inter-faith cooperation, administrative and financial church management, and creating and managing a faith-based social service 501c3.
To apply for ordination, a candidate must:
• have an Interview with the Director, Rev. Ann Ankai Wagner, Sensei
• be a member of New Story Community
• have completed the General Path in Zen Garland
• have taken the basic course work in Christian Zen
• have taken the Zen Garland Vows
• have a study relationship with Rev. Wagner and
• attend regularly scheduled retreats.
PLEDGE OF THE CHRISTIAN ZEN MINISTER
“To be a Christian Zen Minister is to live as Jesus the Universal truth of love your neighbor as yourself; to do to unto others as you would have them do unto you; to care and love all creation. This is to live Christ Consciousness.
I will know and care for the members of my communities. I will assist in developing and conducting the liturgy and ceremonies of each Community. I will manifest and maintain practice and places for practice. I will cultivate oneness with Ultimate Mystery, oneness with all other human beings, and oneness with the cosmos.
I will open the Gate of Enlightenment, stand just outside that threshold hearing the cries of existence, and usher all creation through before entering. This is the life of a Christian Zen Minister”.