Foundation for A Course in Miracles
The Foundation for A Course in Miracles is a study and retreat
center established in 1982 by cofounders Kenneth Wapnick
and his wife, Gloria Wapnick. Wapnick, a clinical psychologist,
was a close friend and associate of Helen Schucman and
William Tetford, the two people whose collaboration was the
initial stimulus for the scribing of A Course in Miracles (ACIM).
He first saw the manuscript of the Course in 1973 and worked
with Dr. Helen Schucman, the person responsible for channeling
the Course from an entity she believed to be Christ. He
helped prepare the manuscript for publication and has sat on
the executive board of the Foundation for Inner Peace, the
corporation founded to publish and distribute the text. He became
a full-time teacher of ACIM soon after it was published.
Wapnick was raised Jewish but turned agnostic. After reading
the works of Thomas Merton, however, he had decided to
convert to Catholicism and become a monk. He was on his way
to Israel to move into a monastery when he met Helen Schucman.
Gloria Wapnick is a former social studies instructor and
high school dean of students who has been working with A
Course in Miracles since 1977. Raised a Catholic, she drifted
away from the religion. In 1977 she had a session with Pat
Rodegast, the person who channels an entity named Emmanuel.
Directed to Wainwright House, a seminar center in Rye,
New York, she found herself in a class on the ACIM. She met
Wapnick at a conference on the Course. They were married in
1981.
Founded to facilitate the Wapnicks teaching work, by 1984
the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM) evolved into
a teaching and healing center in Crompond, New York, which
was quickly outgrown. In 1988 the Wapnicks opened the Academy
and Retreat Center in upstate New York, and in 1995
began the Institute for Teaching Inner Peace through A Course
Foundation Church of the New Birth Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed.
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in Miracles (ITIP-ACIM), an educational corporation chartered
by the New York State Board of Regents. The institute operates
under the aegis of the foundation, administering workshops
and academy courses.
The Wapnicks had been inspired by Plato and saw the foundation
as modeled on Platos Academy, a place where people
could study in an atmosphere conducive to learning, and then
implement the acquired wisdom in their daily life. The foundations
Statement of Purpose is as follows
To foster spiritual development through the study
and practice of A Course in Miracles, a set of three books
channeled by Jesus, that teach that the way to remember
God is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. The
corporation has as its specific aims to teach the Course,
helping those interested to integrate the Courses principles
into their personal lives, that they may better realize
their true identity, shared with all people, as children of
God; to teach and train those who wish to teach the
Course to others; to teach the Courses reinterpretation
of traditional Christian principles such as sin, suffering,
forgiveness, Atonement, and the meaning of the Crucifixion;
to further understanding of the Course by means
of educational and training programs, seminars, and
publications.
The Foundation for A Course in Miracles is headquartered at
1275 Tennanah Lake Rd., Roscoe, NY 12776-5905. It publishes
a periodical, The Lighthouse. The website for the foundation
is at httpfacim.org.
Sources
Wapnick, Kenneth. Absence from Felicity The Story of Helen
Schucman and Her Scribing A Course in Miracles. Roscoe, N.Y.
Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1991.
. Christian Psychology in A Course in Miracles. Roscoe,
N.Y. Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1992.
. The Fifty Miracle Principles of A Course in Miracles. Roscoe,
N.Y. Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1992.
. Forgiveness and Jesus The Meeting Place of A Course in
Miracles and Christianity. Roscoe, N.Y. Foundation for A Course
in Miracles, 1992.
