About the Heart’s Rest Co-Founders
Therese DesCamp and George Meier are spouses and co-founders of Heart’s Rest Retreat. We created Heart’s Rest within the context of relationship—with each other, with the Holy, with our communities, with this physical world—and we endeavour to ground Heart’s Rest in mutual generosity and compassion. We believe our work here at Heart’s Rest—supporting renewal, change, and creative vision for individuals and communities—to be sacred work, one small way among many ways that the world will be healed.
While we learn willingly from all traditions, we consider our spiritual home to be the broad communion of Christianity. We believe that our life work is to love God and all of God’s creation as Jesus loved God and all of God’s creation.
Therese DesCamp has a life-long commitment to prayer. This, combined with her scholarly work in cognitive linguistics and biblical studies as well as her 12-step recovery experience, shapes her work as a retreat leader and author. Currently recognized as a minister of the United Church of Canada, she was raised Roman Catholic and ordained in the United Church of Christ (US) in 1993.
Therese received a PhD in Biblical Studies with a concentration in cognitive linguistics from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, in 2004. She has 27 years of experience designing and leading retreats; 25 years in 12-step recovery groups; 19 years serving as an ordained minister; and 10 years experience teaching. She has worked with groups in the United Church of Canada, the United Church of Christ, the Anglican Church, the Episcopal Church, and the Presbyterian Church. She has taught in two inter-religious seminaries, and co-taught with a Zen Buddhist priest and a Theravadan Buddhist teacher; co-ministered with a Jewish rabbi; and first learned meditation from a Sufi teacher. She is the author of one book on cognitive linguistics, co-author of another, and has published numerous scholarly articles. She writes regularly for the United Church Observer magazine, as well as writing Still Points on the Heart’s Rest website.
Therese’s volunteer commitments include serving on the board of the Slocan Lake Stewardship Society as well as 12-step sponsorship. Past employment includes work as a pastor, adjunct seminary faculty, director of a non-profit ministry, and legislative advocate for people with disabilities.
George Meier uses a blend of 37 years of experience as a minister, attorney, non-profit executive and non-profit board member to help community leaders thrive in their work to transform organizational performance and individual lives, and to foster just, compassionate, and sustainable communities. He has a passion for “heart-sighted” work, where leaders learn to apply their gifts, develop their capacities, and discover how to see, with the heart, the invisible deepest things.
George is currently the Conference Minister for the Kootenay Presbytery of the United Church of Canada. He also provides consultation to churches and non-profits on leadership and systems change.
George has extensive experience in the development and leadership of non-profits. His pastoral experience includes systems analysis, extensive facility renovations, and strategic planning. Before his work in ministry, George practiced law for 19 years. He has received training in conflict management, provided workshops on leading change, and served as President of the Northern California/Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ Board of Directors during a significant transitional period.
George’s volunteer commitments include serving on the boards of the Rosebery Parkland Development Society and Specialized Mobility Services of Portland, Oregon.
