A Thank You to Rev. Dorsey Blake, Carrier of the Legacy of Howard Thurman

My friend and colleague, the Reverend Dorsey Blake, who was vice president of the University of Creation Spirituality from its beginning to its closing, died this week.  He was pastor at Howard Thurman’s Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco for 31 years.  

That church was the first consciously interfaith and interracial church in the United States.  It received special recognition in October 2023 as a “Historic Landmark” by the City and County of San Francisco, and Dorsey invited me to give an address on that exceptional occasion. 

It proved to be the last time I saw Dorsey and I am grateful that we had an excellent 30-minute conversation in his office before the award ceremony began.

I owe Dorsey a lot.  He was the first to introduce me to Howard Thurman and the first book of his he encouraged me to read was Deep River and the Negro Spiritual.  It was not the best known of Thurman’s works, but it touched me deeply that his theology employed music and art and liberation—elements that were foundational to our pedagogy in Creation Spirituality. 

I was so taken by Thurman, his story (his grandmother who helped raise him was an ex-slave), his ecumenism, his integrity and poetic language, that I ended up reading most all of his works and listening to many of his tapes.  One of my favorite issues of our Creation Spirituality magazine was one dedicated entirely to Howard Thurman which contained articles by many of his former students. 

Dorsey as a young man had sat as a student at Thurman’s feet and was committed to his responsibilities as pastor of his church carrying on his legacy in that role right up to his death.  Even after UCS shut down, while teaching and administering at Star King and Pacific School of Religion, he oversaw the church most Sunday mornings.  I marveled at his dedication and generosity to his pastoral duties while working full time in academia.   

He asked me to preach and lecture on occasions at Thurman’s church and it was there that I met Thurman’s wife Sue Bailey Thurman who was a woman of elegance inside and out and an activist in her own right.  She died on Christmas Day at the age of 95.

At UCS, Dorsey taught a class each year on “King, Gandhi, and Thurman” and also a class on “Urban Spirituality” that caught the attention of the black mayor of Oakland, Lionel Wilson, who was very much taken by the idea of an “urban spirituality.” 

As vice president of UCS, Dorsey launched a special outreach to the black community and one such outreach that went on for years was an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday where our school linked up with Taylor Memorial Methodist Church in West Oakland to celebrate that Holy Day.  

It was standing room only each time and I was invited to speak from the pulpit on those occasions along with others and leaders in the black community gave awards to young people demonstrating great promise.  Following the service was a lunch prepared by the church community where all interacted in a spirit of shared conviviality.

Another idea Dorsey sponsored was to give an honorary doctoral degree from UCS to the inspiring and prophetic pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, Rev. Cecil Williams.  Dorsey is survived by his brother Carl who lived with him for many years and is a renowned pianist having performed in concert halls in the United States and Central America.  He once gifted me with a personal and memorable concert at a piano in the ground floor of our UCS building.

Dorsey’s co-minister at Thurman’s church has been Kathryn Benton, a UCS graduate. 

Dorsey was a champion of justice and represented his community with grace and righteous anger and was a very good man to work with.  I was honored to call him a friend and colleague.  In his last correspondence with me he called my recent book on Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ an “important book” that needed to get into the world.

See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 160, 311, 332, 352, 425, 427, 442.

Also, Fox, “Warriors for Ecological and Economic Justice: Meister Eckhart Meets Dorothy Stang, Karl Marx, David Korten, Serge Latouche, Anita Roddick, and Howard Thurman,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, pp. 221-230.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

See also Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

And Fox, editor, “Honoring Howard Thurman,” Creation Spirituality Magazine, March/April 1991.

Banner Image: Dr. Marlene DeNardo, Matthew Fox, and the Rev. Dorsey Blake stand at the inauguration of the University of Creation Spirituality building in Oakland, CA. Photo from Dr. DeNardo’s collection, used with permission.

Queries for Contemplation

Do your experiences with Dorsey Blake and/or Howard Thurman play prominently and gratefully in you at this critical time in human and planetary and American history?  Isn’t it a blessing to know of the lineage of mystics and prophets who have responded generously and faithfully, joyfully and courageously, to their calling and vocation?  

Recommended Reading

Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)

Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit