Cedar Ridge Community Church, founded by Emergent Christian leader Brian McLaren, hosts contemplative prayer gatherings in our historic barn in Burtonsville Maryland. We come together to experience a combination of ancient and contemporary prayer practices and to offer support for each other as we seek to center ourselves in the loving compassion of God. In the quiet shelter of the 100 year old barn, we listen to prayer, poetry and scripture and share conversation and plenty of silence. Bring an …

Meditation, an ancient practice sometimes called contemplative prayer, is common to most major faiths and wisdom traditions. Everyone knows that Buddhists and Hindus meditate. Most practicing Christians, however, are usually surprised to learn that there is a living tradition of meditation within Christianity that goes back to Apostolic times. My teacher of meditation, John Main, was an English Benedictine monk, who spent the last ten years of his life living and writing about that tradition, an …