"Mystics and the Mind:
Towards an Understanding of Interfaith Spirituality"
with Laura Duhan Kaplan.
Saturday, April 25th, the Education for Ministry (EFM) group of the diocese is presenting an EFM Day of Reflection. Join fellow EFMrs, old and new, as Rabbi, Dr. Laura Kaplan speaks about “a spiritual basis for interfaith understanding found in mysticism and depth psychology”. There are common dimensions to the human encounter with the Divine that these disciplines describe and that find expression in our religious traditions and theologies.
The day-long event will be held at St. Stephen the Martyr in Burnaby’s Burquitlam district located at 9887 Cameron Street adjacent to the Lougheed Mall’s north access. Things get underway at 9:30 am with refreshments and check-in, in advance of a10 am start. You are encouraged to bring a bag lunch and the program will conclude at 3 pm.
In the past these events have only been open to EFM members but new this year all are welcome to attend Dr. Kaplan’s morning presentation.
Recommended Donation (to defray costs) $20.00 at the door.
For additional details please contact the Reverend Paula Porter Leggett
Biography
Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan Kaplan holds a B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University (1980), a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Education from Claremont Graduate University (1991), Rabbinic Ordination from ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal seminary (2005), and a Graduate Diploma in Spiritual Direction from the Vancouver School of Theology (2010).
From 1989-2004, Laura served as Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and for seven years coordinated the university’s Women’s Studies program. Her books include Philosophy and Everyday Life, Family Pictures: A Philosopher Explores the Familiar, and two co-edited volumes on the Philosophy of Peace. For her innovative work helping students use philosophy to explore their life narratives, she received five teaching awards, including the Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. Professor of the Year award and an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy degree from Niagara University.
Laura arrived in Vancouver in 2005, where she served for nearly ten years as Rabbi at Or Shalom Synagogue. Since 2005, she has also been a core faculty member at the ALEPH seminary. She has served as co-chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress Jewish-Christian dialogue, led weeklong summer workshops at the United Church’s Naramata Centre, and taught at VST and UBC Religious Studies as an adjunct faculty member. She is a fellow at Rabbis Without Borders, a progressive, pluralistic U.S.-based Jewish think tank. Laura’s most recent publications explore the phenomenology of prayer and images of animals in the Hebrew Bible.
Laura, a native of New York City, is married to psychologist and musician Charles Kaplan. Together they are parents of two young adults, and caretakers of a changing array of companion animals