All Carmelites and friends of Carmel are invited to participate in the founding structure of CarmelStream. To volunteer, please provide your contact details in the form provided at the end of this post. It is the hope of the steering committee responsible for developing this project to make it as broadly collaborative and engaging as possible.

To this end, we have designed the organizational structure to include an Operating Board to which any Carmelite (friar, nun or secular) or friend of Carmel may belong simply by volunteering and offering his/her time and skill to the project. We hope in this way to find Carmelites and associates with a passion for sharing our charism with a world so in need of the wisdom of our great saints and teachers. CarmelStream needs individuals who can serve in one or more of the following working groups of the Operating Board: editorial, technical, administrative, graphic arts and design, funding and finance. Anyone who desires to help with this project is very welcome – there are many tasks that require no technical expertise, but rather a simply willingness to aid the Carmelite family in a collaborative venture of sharing our charism with one another and with the public.

CarmelStream has its origins in the successful twenty-five year series of seminars on Carmelite Spirituality held at Saint Mary’s College Notre Dame and known as “The Carmelite Forum.” When the Forum celebrated its twenty-fifth year, its organizers—most of whom had been with The Forum since its first seminar in 1985—expressed a desire to pass the torch to a new generation of Carmelites—contemplative nuns, friars, laity, and religious sisters—to continue. The “new generation,” of course, saw some exciting possibilities using the emerging forms of “social communication” to maintain an ongoing seminar that would run not just for one week a year but could facilitate a continuing and dialogical exploration of the great themes of this very rich spiritual tradition. It is our hope that as CarmelStream unfolds that not only “the usual suspects” will come aboard this journey into a tried and true mystical heritage but that it will draw a rich variety of participants: believers and seekers, individuals from various sacred traditions and religions, the young and the old, the experienced and the novice, the intellectually curious and the spiritually hungry.

The website will provide (1) original articles, essays and papers in various formats (written, video and audio podcast) solicited by CarmelStream editors; (2) a compilation of the best of these articles, essays and papers (written, video and audio podcast) produced by CarmelStream participants; and (3) user-generated comments, allowing “blog”-type postings to “threads” of content as a means of encouraging dialogue and discussion among those interested in Carmelite spirituality. We hope that from time to time we can organize “webinars” to examine various Carmelite themes and topics. The website will have a concrete physical expression through an annual CarmelStream prize for best original work, through the publication of a “Best of CarmelStream” book series, and, to continue the heritage received from the Saint Mary’s summer session, in-person Symposiums, possibly every 3rd year, featuring CarmelStream contributors.

Please consider volunteering to help as a founding member. If you believe you can give some time, even a few hours each month, please fill out the form below with your contact details. Please indicate what area you believe would most suit your talents and interest. We look forward to our work together, and ask the prayer of all our brothers and sisters for its success.

The Steering Committee: Patrick McMahon, O. Carm., Fran Horner, ocd, David Genders, O. Carm.