William Redfield

Wisdom Journey

Wisdom contends that intentional and disciplined spiritual practice is one of the primary means by which real human transformation takes place.

In Wisdom work we say it is not so much knowing more (in terms of information, theology, etc.) but knowing with more of us. It is, in other words, experiential. The transformational process and the practices that feed this radical change call upon and activate parts of us that we don’t ordinarily use and sometimes don’t even know we have. This kind of transformational spiritual practice thereby gives us a taste of what lies beyond our ordinary ways of seeing, thinking, and knowing.

Moving beyond assumptions of prescriptive lineage, this Wisdom work is inspired by the truth that everyone belongs in this work, that everyone has the potential for transformation, and that the formation of true community profoundly facilitates this Wisdom work.

This work is cultivated best within community. When a safe and trusting container can be constructed within which there can be honest risk taking and attentive listening and within which people can contribute to the spiritual deepening of each other, Wisdom grows.

Rather than just fostering individual spiritual development, then, this work is aimed for the benefit of the greater community. It is offered like the scattering of seed. It is hoped that these seeds might find growing places in others and that they, in turn, will sow these seeds beyond themselves.


Personal History

Although my Wisdom journey got real traction when I began Centering Prayer in 1990, it gradually dawned on me that I have been on this path—sometimes unknowingly and even unwittingly—my entire life.

For me, then, this has been a journey of remembrance—re-membering myself and putting myself back together—as I began to know and act on my own authenticity. Rather than trying to achieve some lofty moral goal or climb some spiritual ladder of attaining spiritual knowledge, I have experienced the Wisdom transformation as an unfolding from within.

I am a clinical social worker and ordained Episcopal priest who served a parish for nearly twenty years. Although most of my earlier training and experience would clearly qualify as traditional, it has been the Wisdom work over the past thirty years or so and my three-decade commitment to Centering Prayer that have opened up new experiential dimensions to my life and have brought me to a new depth of awareness.

I have long been interested in the intersection of spirituality and psychology. Following graduation from seminary and ordination and after the social work graduate school program, I worked for over fifteen years, first, in a social work agency and, then, in private practice. There I led educational and therapy groups in both contexts, and I also taught courses in Group Process and Procedures, Group Development, and Group Leadership Skills in several graduate social work and graduate education programs.

In the early 1990’s I took a sharp turn to work in parish ministry. Even though I had been ordained since 1976, I had rather intentionally avoided explicit professional work in parish ministry. But in 1993, I was called to Trinity Church in Fayetteville, NY, and served this one parish for nearly twenty years. During this time, however, I continued my interest in group work and especially its confluence with ministry in general and eventually with Wisdom spirituality in particular. This ongoing interest was nurtured and deepened in the late 1990’s by my completion of the Shalem Institute’s 18-month training program in “Transforming Community: Leading Wisdom Prayer Groups & Retreats.” By that time, I had already been introduced to Centering Prayer by Cynthia Bourgeault and had traveled to Snowmass, CO, to work with Thomas Keating.

Having retired from the parish in 2013 to do full-time Wisdom work, I now lead retreats and online programs. Additionally, I consult with individuals and groups in a process I call Wisdom Mentoring. The dynamic of this work is very much influenced by my training and experience in both psychological growth and spiritual deepening. But now as never before, I have reached a place where I have positioned myself in the confluence of these two streams. This is the place of deepening Wisdom.

Because of this positioning, I offer something a little different than either traditional spiritual direction on the one hand or psychological consultation and/or life coaching on the other. More than fine tuning life skills, this work aims at profound transformation—from the inside out. And the transformation at the heart of this work promises to touch all aspects of a person’s life.

While one might be initially drawn to the Wisdom principles through books, through presentations, or even by attending a Wisdom School, actively weaving these deeper understandings into one’s life is a more subtle and complex matter. The principal work of Wisdom Mentoring, then, is integration, and it is directed at expressing the unitive principles of Wisdom in the particularities of a unique life.

Sometimes the transformation in Wisdom work can be misinterpreted as leaving the ordinary life with its everyday consciousness behind. But I don’t believe that this is true. We never leave our ordinary self completely behind. Rather, the higher levels of awareness, having been experienced through spiritual practice, must be integrated into the structures of the self. We utilize the experiences and understandings of everyday life in order to do this. This is explicitly how we can move from a temporary state to an enduring structure. The crucial work of integration is often undervalued in this movement or overlooked altogether.

It is in the spirt that I am offering these programs and practices on this platform.