"Search within, you will find everything." ~Meister Eckhart
We invite you to peruse the information below to learn more about who we are and how we got started, or click one of the buttons below to explore a particular topic.
Our Vision
To provide a place to rest in God and experience renewal within, inspiring service to others and the world.
Our Mission
Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation (PCSF) offers contemplative experiences in the San Francisco Bay Area that are rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition and enriched by interfaith practices. We provide contemplative practice groups, retreats, and referrals to spiritual directors to those who want to experience a deeper awareness of God’s loving presence within.
Our History
The Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation was founded in 1984 in the San Francisco Bay Area by a group of clergy and lay leaders of diverse spiritual backgrounds who shared the experience of being trained as spiritual directors at The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC.
In the summer of 1984, Francis Geddes, Carol Saysette, John Stansbury, Bill Moremen, Joanna Macy, and Rich Byrne gathered every Wednesday morning at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley to share contemplative prayer together. Through prayer and contemplation, they felt called to offer wider opportunities for contemplative practice and spiritual deepening throughout the Bay Area. Susan Murphy and Joyce Harris led a practice group for many years, originally in person at a church in Los Altos and then on Zoom.
As others were invited to the staff and board of Pacific Center, the location and variety of program offerings grew. In addition to local contemplative practice groups, Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation has offered opportunities to explore new contemplative practices (referred to as “Taster Days”) and retreats. Over the past several years, our offerings have been both on Zoom and in-person, at Bay Area seminaries and retreat centers.
Over the years, Pacific Center sponsored retreats and lectures from many spiritual leaders, including the late Marcus Borg, the late Huston Smith, the late Gerald May, and Tilden Edwards. We have also provided a platform for current authors and contemplative leaders, such as Rev. Dr. Daniel London (“The Cloud of Unknowing, Distilled”).
Today, Pacific Center continues to offer regular opportunities for contemplative prayer, retreats, and spiritual guidance to those seeking a deeper connection to the Holy.
Our Leadership
Rod Dugliss
Board Member
After 30 years, Rod recently retired as the Dean of the Episcopal School for Deacons, a working ground for the nexus of prayer and praxis, contemplation and action. He is a Shalem trained spiritual director, a member of the Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership, and on the regional staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He co-leads Pacific Center’s annual summer silent retreat on Buddhist and Christian meditation practices.
Jane Ferguson Flout
Board member
Jane is Director of Strategic and Community Partnerships at Catholic Charities. She is a commissioned presenter of Centering Prayer by Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. and has written about contemplative prayer particularly as it relates a person’s health and life. She is interested in the intersection of contemplative practices and social justice as they contribute to inner peace and outer social harmony. Jane received her Doctor of Ministry from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley and her Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Richard Flout
board member
Richard is a psychotherapist in private practice who has had a lifelong interest for the integration of spirituality and the psychological healing process. His experience includes leadership for church liturgy, retreats, contemplative prayer and meditation groups and a daily practice of Centering prayer. For many years he has been an oblate with the Camaldolese Benedictine monks at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California. He is also an associate at the Interfaith Counseling Center in San Anselmo, CA.
Andrew K. Lee
web designer and spiritual director
Andrew is a Ph.D. student at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where he studies medieval mysticism and spirituality, Christian history, and comparative religion. At Graduate Theological Union and at San Francisco Theological Seminary, he has taught the academic study of mysticism as well as practical courses on contemplative spirituality. Blending teaching from the mystics with contemplative practices, he has created and led meditations and retreats for San Francisco Theological Seminary, the Marin Interfaith Council, the Episcopal School for Deacons, and the Episcopal Diocese of California.
Kathryn Lee
board member and spiritual director
Kathryn is passionate about sharing contemplative practices and helping cultivate new contemplative lay leaders as a lay leader herself in the Episcopal Church. She explores and shares contemplative practices through restorative circle practices, chant, and exploring art as a contemplative practice, especially knitting and crochet. She serves as a retreat leader and a beginning spiritual director. At Christ Episcopal Church, she leads the prayer shawl ministry, which makes knitted and crocheted shawls as physical expressions, and also provides spiritual formation workshops.
Kevin Omi
Board member and spiritual director
Kevin Omi is a spiritual director who helps directees discover themselves in God and to be anchored in what Thich Naht Hanh describes as the “present moment, wonderful moment.” He leads retreats and gatherings using both Christian and Buddhist practices for the Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation. He is a graduate of and peer group leader with Shalem’s Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats program; and member of the Shalem Society. He has served three congregations as a United Church of Christ pastor and was previously a co-chair of a Committee on Ministry.