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Common Ground

"Common Ground" is the embodiment of Brother Wayne Teasdale's vision of inter-spirituality. Each year, participants gather at The Crossings near Austin, Texas to deepen their inter-spiritual experience with the common ground we create.

Current Common Ground and Abraham Walk Programs

Common Ground, Abraham Walk, and other inter-religious activites at The Crossings will be an ongoing commitment of the ISDnA network. Information on these activities will be posted here as promptly as possible but, in the meantime, always feel free to consult The Crossings at that site's entries on Common Ground, Abraham Walk, and Interfaith Relations.

Common Ground 2007

On the first weekend of December 2007 a broad-based group of Texas spiritual practitioners and leaders, all sharing a growing trans-traditional religious experience, gathered at The Crossings with members of InterSpiritual Dialogue in Action, their Crossings hosts, and numerous others.

The 2007 conference was centered on the wonderful book The Amazing Faiths of Texas (Roy Spence, author & photo editor) and featured presentations by dozens of persons who spiritual experience, and growing interspirituality, had been featured in this profound publication of moving texts and photographs. Kurt Johnson and Gorakh Hayashi of ISDnA, and Michael Pergola of the One Spirit Learning Alliance and Interfaith Seminary, added deep perspectives from their friendship with Brother Wayne and familiarity with the growing work of his legacy. This was a wonderful weekend and certainly a fitting tribute to the dream of interspiritual community, dialogue and action that Brother Wayne envisioned.

Common Ground and Abraham Walk 2006

The program for 2006 included September weekends featuring the ISDnA Common Ground get-together and the Abraham Walk, linking closely with Austin area ecumenical groups. The fall 2006 issue of Infinite Sensitivity includes a detailed report and photographs. The summer issue of Infinite Sensitivity was dedicated to the planning and vision of these events.

Common Ground 2005

Common Ground 2005, An Experience of Interspiritual Activism, was a tribute to the work and vision of Brother Wayne Teasdale, author of The Mystic Heart, and spokesperson for a core mysticism that would inspire and guide the unfoldment of world peace through committed interfaith service projects.  The conference was intended to further Brother Wayne’s dream of an international association to promote interspirituality and interspiritual dialogue, as well as create a working model of how individuals from different religious traditions and backgrounds could come together through indigenous ritual, shared music, and individual and group creative processes to synthesize a unified energy field that could, in turn, inspire and support individual and small group service projects for years to come.

Out of ritual silence, participants listened for how the times are calling them to contribute to the unfoldment of this world dream, and in what areas of interest or concern such as ecology and nature, visionary arts, educating young people, interfaith work, etc., they most wanted to bestow their gifts and services.  They also envisioned how these particular areas of concern could contribute to the betterment of the planet. From a space of oneness using improvisation, they conceived methods for individuals to collectively design and implement transformative interspiritually-based projects for the future.

Among the featured presenters: Father Thomas Keating on centering prayer, Joan Borysenko on creative play, Betty Sue Flowers on organizational design, and Gorakh Hayashi on synthesizing and balancing yin and yang energies as experiential and contextual support for the different aspects of the conference process. Core teachings of Brother Wayne Teasdale were also explored to inform and inspire this unfoldment. A number of celebrated musicians participated, along with ritual elements provided by leading ceremonialists like Oscar Miro Quesada of the Andean indigenous traditions. Participants from a various groups and constituencies initiated and nurtured by Bro. Wayne were in attendance. Seven members of the ISD New York-based Service Council also participated, informing the audience on Brother Wayne's inspirations and directions to them.

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