Special Friends of CFU – Theresa Marks

Special Friends of CFU

Theresa Marks – Spiritual Director

By Susan Lyon

We are pleased to share the ministry efforts of yet another "Special Friend" of the CFU, Theresa Marks, with our Behind the Scenes audience...

Theresa is a self-described "spiritual rights activist," a trained spiritual director (also called spiritual companion or guide) and the author of A Spiritual Bill of Rights for Humanity. The combined blessings and hurt she experienced during her thirty-eight years in institutional religion fueled a twenty-year reconstruction process which included explorations of many diverse spiritual paths.

Also an accomplished musician, Theresa plays piano, clarinet, Native American flute and Celtic harp. She has been a church pianist since she was a teenager – a ministry that has also led her spiritually far and wide. She has played for several Christian denominations as well as other faiths. Her current post is with a Lutheran congregation. She performs on clarinet with the Portland Opera Orchestra and other orchestras in Oregon. Her home is in the Salem, Oregon area with her husband and talented artist, Gary Marks.

We think you will enjoy Theresa's story. After leaving her native religion, she partnered with her late husband, Bruce Porter, in running Kindred Spirits Retreat Center, an unaffiliated spiritual retreat center in Eugene, Oregon, where together they hosted hundreds of spiritual seekers on their personal search for truth from 2010 to 2016. After Bruce's death in 2020, she discerned her vocation to become a spiritual director with a special outreach to people who have been hurt by religion.

In 2023, Theresa was inspired to write A Spiritual Bill of Rights for Humanity that lays out seven fundamental spiritual rights to protect the spiritual freedoms of all people. It also calls on religious and spiritual leaders worldwide to unite in striving toward global spiritual freedom and oppression-free religion.

We've featured one of her videos which is an overview of the Seven Spiritual Rights of Humanity – what they are and why they are important. The video is a summary of the Bill of Rights for Humanity and discusses key issues in putting the Spiritual Rights into practice. To read the document and for more information visit Theresa's website spiritualbor.org.

We've provided links throughout this page to her wonderful videos, including a longer one telling her story.