A New Name, Our Next Horizon

Dear Friends,

In 2016, I launched the Omega Center as an online forum for promoting the vision of Teilhard de Chardin. My aim was simple: write a monthly blog to share Teilhard’s ideas and host occasional webinars to spark public conversation. Within a few years, the Center grew from a handful of followers to several thousand.

In 2018, a trademark issue forced us to change our name on short notice. We wanted something that reflected Teilhard’s core ideas, but the lexicon offered limited options. We chose “Christogenesis” for its deep resonance within Teilhard’s thought — though we have learned over time that the name can feel perplexing, and even alienating, to those outside the Christian tradition.

Despite that challenge, the Center has continued to flourish. Our email list now exceeds 10,000 subscribers, our website has drawn more than half a million visits, our blogs are widely read, and webinar attendance has remained strong. The addition of Dr. Robert Nicastro to our team has been especially fruitful. Robert brings a rich theological background and expertise in Teilhard’s writings. Through our ongoing conversations, we have come to see that it is time to turn a new corner.

One of the most urgent tasks of our era — and one Teilhard himself recognized — is the need to reconcile science and religion within a coherent, integrated paradigm. This has been the heart of our scholarship. But scholarship alone is not enough; we must also educate, helping to deepen and expand this new paradigm into a lived reality.

With that conviction, we are making two changes: a new name and a new direction.

We will now be known as the World Institute for Science, Religion and Culture (“WISR”). Under this name, we will launch an online educational initiative exploring the intersections of science, religion, and culture, in addition to our current work of blogs, webinars and Christophany groups. Our educational initiative will be guided by a cosmotheandric vision — one in which God, self, and world are interrelated dimensions of a single reality, a new reality that affects how we develop our lives into the future—from religion to politics. This is Teilhard’s vision, evolving toward Omega: deepening thought in service of deepening love.

I hope you will join us as we embark on this exciting new chapter. Together, we can build a new understanding of ourselves in a world of change, one that can anticipate human flourishing on a new level of global life in the 21st century.

Peace,

Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF
Founder