Rev. John R. Mabry, Ph.D. is Director of the Chaplaincy Institute's Spiritual Direction program. Additionally, he is a core faculty member in the areas of spiritual direction, world religions, and interfaith theology. In 2004, he founded a small publishing house that specializes in books on religion, spirituality, philosophy, apocryphilia and poetry, called the Apocryphile Press.
Rev. Mabry has written several books in his lifetime, his most recent text is titled Sermons that Connect: A Beginners Guide to Crafting and Delivering Powerful, Excellent Sermons.
"The task of preparing and delivering a weekly homily can paralyze even the bravest seminarian. Sermons that Connect can help. A simple, nuts-and-bolts guide, it provides new preachers with a simple and effective model for powerful and compelling sermons. It then shows preachers how to flesh out sermons in a simple step-by-step process that is insightful and painless. As a beginner's guide, it provides in one sitting everything someone will need to create meaningful sermons for years to come. For those who have been preaching for a while, it will be equally instructive, helping preachers polish their sermons into even more effective works of art, providing invaluable suggestions for recognizing and articulating the essential elements of good sermons."
Those studying to become Interfaith Spiritual Directors may also be interested in reading his books Faith Styles: Ways People Believe (Morehouse Publishing, 2006) and Noticing the Divine: An Introduction to Interfaith Spiritual Guidance (Morehouse Publishing, 2006). You can visit the Apocryphile Press website to learn more about these and other texts.
Rev. Mabry earned a Masters Degree in Spirituality from the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality (now called the Sophia Center at Holy Names College), and a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is pastor of Grace North Church in Berkeley, CA, an interfaith liturgical community, and serves as bishop for the Old Catholic Order of Holy Wisdom. He has served as editor of CREATION SPIRITUALITY magazine, and of PRESENCE: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION.
