White Fields Dinner with William Wilson, Nov. 18th at Vivo’s Restaurant in Bellevue
We are tentatively scheduled for Vivo’s in the private room downstairs to enjoy a private buffet and our good friend Fr. William. We will gather at approximately 6:30 p.m. and began serving appetizers at 7pm with dinner following. Dinner cost TBA. Our special guest is William Wilson who was a Trappist Monk for over 25 years also serving as a missionary among the poorest of the poor in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He will share his unique and amazing story and how through our life of faith, with Jesus indwelling presence, we are enabled to be the body of Christ to a broken world! Make sure to get this one on your calendar as many of our brothers have been impacted in a powerful way by Will in past years.
More About William Wilson:
William Wilson grew up amidst alcoholism and poverty in the inner-city of Philadelphia. Seeking union with God, at nineteen William became a silent Trappist monk for the next 25 years. Seven of those years he lived in solitude as a hermit monk. At 37, William was called out of the hermit life to serve as Chaplain and confessor to Trappistine Nuns and also as Novice Master in his own monastery. In these pastoral roles he became a spiritual director and taught classes in the history, theology, and practice of classical Christian spirituality.
In 1981, at 44 years of age, William went to live and serve among the poorest people in the world in the Bolivian Andes. During these years, aided by Christian friends in the United States, Fr. William founded Amistad Mission, which now supports a school and operates a medical clinic and an orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
As a Trappist monk William had learned the ancient ways of union with God in solitude. As a missionary among the poor, he learned to seek and find union with God while loving people. In 1989 he married a medical missionary, Dr. Susan Winchester. Excluded from the priesthood in the Roman Catholic tradition, he was received by the Episcopal Church. In recent years, Father William earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University. Most marvelous of all, since 1996 God has made Dr. Susan and Fr. William proud and grateful adoptive parents of two children. The experience of parenthood has given the final enrichment to his practice of contemplation in the world.
Now an Anglican priest of the Diocese of Bolivia, William is Director of Ministries of the Spiritual Life Ministry Foundation in Birmingham. In this role he offers the ministry of retreat leadership, lectures, and spiritual direction to people in many parts of the United States. His recently published book, FOUR ESSENTIALS: Classical Disciplines of Christian Spirituality, is currently receiving glowing reviews.
