Advisors

Pascaline Coff, OSB

Sr. Pascaline Coff is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration since 1951. She spent one year at Father Bede's ashram in S. India and was one of the founders of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Board. She created and edited the East-West Intermonastic Bulletin while serving as Executive Secretary for 10 years. She coordinated and participated in eight hospitality exchanges between Christian and Tibetan monastics in Asia and the U.S. She is foundress of Osage Monastery in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, U.S.A. where Father Bede enjoyed satsangs and gave numerous conferences. She is a member of the Bede Griffiths International Literary Trust. Osage Monastery is one of the the Bede Griffiths Centers which has a significant collection of his works.

Bruno Barnhart, OSB Cam

Bruno Barnhart is a monk of New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, USA. His chief area of interest is the Christian wisdom tradition and its contemporary re-emergence. Fr. Bruno has edited The Golden String newsletter since its beginning and is the author of two books:

GOOD WINE: READING JOHN FROM THE CENTER
SECOND SIMPLICITY: THE INNER SHAPE OF CHRISTIANITY

John P. Douglas

Attorney-Mediator; Captain United States Navy Reserve (Ret.); served as President of the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas, Texas, USA; Member of Bede Griffiths Trust; Camaldolese Oblate; directed famine relief program in India for three years; strongly influenced by living with Thomas Merton and the monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani.

Meath Conlan

Born in Western Australia, Meath has traveled extensively in Asia, having undertaken his first Buddhist vipassana meditation training in Thailand at the age of eighteen. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1973, becoming W.A. Director of Worldwide Marriage Encounter and later, a Pastor. He spent his sabbatical year with Father Bede at Saccidananda Ashram in South India, and has, with Father Bede’s mentoring, been active in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue among Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus for twenty years, occasionally leading small groups on pilgrimage to the holy places of these religions. Meath hosted Father Bede in Australia during his speaking tours there in 1985 and 1992, when he renewed his long-standing friendship with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Meath has been Father Bede’s companion during his frequent visits to the Ashram. Upon Father Bede’s death in 1993, he was elected Co-Chair of the Bede Griffiths International Literary Trust. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Religion and Religious Education, with High Honours from Fordham University in New York. His thesis focused on Father Bede as a spiritual guide in mid-life. Meath is completing his doctoral research into the spirituality of human occupations at an Australian university.

Shirley du Boulay

Shirley du Boulay is a free-lance writer living in Oxford, England. She was for many years a producer for the BBC, first with radio, then in the Religious Department of Television. Since resigning from the BBC she has concentrated on writing and her books include biographies of St. Teresa of Avila, Desmond Tutu, Dame Cicely Saunders and Father Bede Griffiths. She is currently writing a biography of Swami Abhishiktananda. She is also a contributor to various collections of articles and to the International Catholic magazine The Tablet. She was married to the late John Harriott.

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