“It is my belief that in the Presence of God there is neither male nor female,
white nor black,
Gentile nor Jew, Protestant nor Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, nor Moslem,
but a human spirit
stripped to the literal substance of itself before God.”
​~Howard Thurman

Prior to written history, humanity has looked to the stars searching and yearning for some greater connection to Creation and the Creator. Since ancient times, mystics and sages have sprung from various cultures and traditions to unearth symbols and words that might express the universality of these sacred experiences and knowing. The mystery springs from the same Source; from Love itself, God, Goddess, Spirit.
 
In today’s world, we seek with a heightened urgency the knowledge of this very same sacred connection. Some, in frustration with religious structures, have set down the relationship with the Holy all together. And yet, even in the most chaotic times an inward nudge suggests that there must be something more beyond this battle of material life. In 1897, artist Paul Gauguin had scrawled this ongoing contemplation across the top of one of his paintings; “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”

The Tree of Life Interfaith Temple Seminary allows for a safe and inner-exploratory pathway to our sacred connection and union with this Creative Source of Love. As our Temple Founder, Rev. Dr. Stephanie Rutt has written: 
 
“Here you will be invited to join a select group of Lovers, found across faith traditions, who have entered into the portals of religious experience, the Love, in search of their Beloved, to experience moments of mystical unity with their God. On the way, by engaging in practices from across faith traditions, you will discover for yourself, 'Many are the ways we pray to one God' for each portal opens us to the same mystery, deeply personal and intimate, yet graciously beyond all understanding.”

Seminary Class of 2013

Your only pre-requisite is to step forward with your authentic self, inviting your past, your inherited traditions, your ancestral beliefs, your questions, your angst, your troubles, your Love, and your willingness to glimpse into the timelessness of the Divine.
 
Patiently waiting within you as you explore the mystical traditions of various faith traditions is something yet to be fully known. There is a spark of the Divine within.  It’s yours, and it’s worthy, and it waits.  
​
Rev Ahjan Grossman
Seminary Director (2023-25)

The Program

Testimonials