Fr. Kevin Hunt Installed as Zen Teacher
On April 17, 2004, Fr. Kevin Hunt, OCSO, a Trappist monk of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, and a former member of the MID board, was installed as a Zen teacher (Sensei) in a ceremony held at the abbey. The installation was led by Fr. Robert Kennedy, S.J., who is the only North American Jesuit who is also a Zen Master (Roshi) and who served as Fr. Kevin’s teacher. The installation was witnessed by the abbot of St. Joseph’s and the rest of the monastic community as well as by over seventy guests, including Zen teachers and members of Catholic religious orders from around the country.

Fr. Kevin thereby became the first Trappist monk who is also a Zen teacher. In recognition of this unique event, letters of commendation were written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and by Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the superior general of the Society of Jesus. Fr. Kolvenbach wrote, “Many Christian have found Zen to be a valuable instrument for progressing in the spiritual life. By coming to focus on the present moment through the practice of the techniques of Zen meditation, the Christian can become aware of God’s immediate loving presence.”

Fr. Kolvenbach’s remarks reflect the commitment made by the Jesuits at their 34th General Congregation to foster dialogue with other religions, an activity that they called “a shared commitment to a transformation of the cultural and social life within which people live.” Noting that Pope John Paul II has wished to make interreligious dialogue an apostolic priority for the third millennium, Fr. Kennedy said that his work with Fr. Kevin was one way in which this priority could be carried out. He added that this installation ceremony points to “the unity and cooperation between the Jesuits and the Trappists as well as to the friendship and mutual esteem between Buddhists and Christians.” He also sees it as a continuation of the dialogue between Christians and Buddhists that has been fostered over the past half-century by persons such as Thomas Merton, himself a Trappist monk.

Seventh Annual Vaishnava-Christian Dialogue
On April 16-17, 2004, three persons directly connected with the North American MID were among the sixteen who participated in the seventh annual Vaishnava-Christian Dialogue, held at Rockwood Manor Park in Potomac, Maryland, under the co-sponsorship of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The three MID personnel were Dr. John Borelli, one of the board’s advisors who is now Special Assistant to the President for Interreligious Initiatives at Georgetown University, board member Fr. Philip Simo, OSB, and Fr. James Wiseman, OSB, editor of the MID Bulletin.

As in most past years, the first day of the program included addresses by a Christian and a Vaishnava participant, each commenting on texts from the two traditions. This year the Christian text was the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, especially material from its Second Week, while the Vaishnava text was the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu of Rupa Gosvamin, who lived in India in the sixteenth century and so was a contemporary of St. Ignatius. Fr. James Redington, SJ, currently an associate professor of interreligious dialogue at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, gave the first of these addresses and was followed by Dr. William Deadwyler (Ravindra Svarupa dasa), who is the first Vice Chair of ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission. Their opening talks elicited lively dialogue among the other participants for the rest of the day and on into the next day, which began with the singing of hymns and chanting of prayers from the two traditions.

Up to this point, no printed outcomes of these dialogues have been published, but many of the participants expressed the hope that this could soon be done. It was also agreed that next spring the Christian text would be selections from the works of St. John of the Cross dealing with the themes of suffering and love.

Bulletin 73 • Index