A tribute to you Kenneth for being the loving teacher, so willing to repeat and teach A Course in Miracles by repeating the same thing over and over and over to my defended and resistant mind, and to do it willingly, with so much love that is tribute-authoritative yet kind and non judgmental. You have made your teaching available in books and articles and commentary and on tapes, CDs, MP3s and even on YouTube, as well as in person. You have touched the world as much of this work has been translated into many foreign languages with your guidance to keep the message pure. This teaching and modeling extends through your demonstration of your love for your wife Gloria and the loving staff who continue to carry the message of A Course in Miracles. You have been and modeled the walking ever presence of love, never excluding anyone, always finding time for loving interaction for everyone in whatever form is needed. Thank you for making teaching and demonstrating A Course in Miracles your life's work for all those who know you and those yet to meet you as they join us all in opening our mind to the presence of Love with the help of your gentle guidance and life's work. I feel so fortunate to have you as a teacher. You have left us everything we need and now I know it is up to me to live and practice A Course in Miracles.

With Love and Gratitude,

Judy Voth

LINGERING LIGHT

During my first trip to the Foundation (Roscoe) I remember now being very excited, and at the same time a little wary. There was definitely some of that desire in me to prove this great teacher wrong, not that I recognized the feeling at the time. But as the week-long academy progressed it seemed that Kenneth wove a spell in which my doubts were put further and further to the side. I continued to try to see that he was not right on all accounts, but the effort seemed tiring and pointless. Then I asked to see him for a personal interview, to which he agreed. As I approached the door to the little meeting room on the set time and day, I remember feeling a wave of apprehension. Something was about to happen.

As I sat before him I knew somehow that this was no ordinary encounter. I tried discussing a couple of questions, but there was no commitment or clarity behind my words. I found it very difficult to concentrate and soon became totally lost. I hoped he didn't see, and it appeared that he wasn't bothered. As I looked at him, I couldn't take my attention off his eyes. Or at least, that was the spot where I was focusing, but my sight went far past that place on his kind and smiling face. To say that I seemed to enter a different world would be putting it mildly. Nothing seemed to matter except that experience of pure gentleness and knowing. He saw all my faults and intentions, and brushed them away to lead me as if by the hand to a far more peaceful, happy place. I seemed to stay there a while, just a few minutes, in that land of freedom to which he had invited me, and my life has not been the same since.

I write this tribute to the one who has led me, and so many others, to that happy and peaceful place, far beyond this world. That place is there; it has not passed. That's where we first met him, and where he waits for us. He lives permanently now in that special, timeless place, the memory of which he brought to us, as these lines from A Course in Miracles capture so beautifully:

It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? (W-pI.169. 13:2-3)

His light still lingers and shall certainly never fade nor die.

Dear Ken,

I said that I wasn't going to write this, because you're gone. You're dead. But I'm writing it anyway because my thoughts about you continue to plague me, and ever since you were in Roscoe I would write to you when I was intensely disturbed, and you would always answer. Maybe that will happen again, but differently; maybe not.

I had gone to your website to check on the progress of your recovery and there was the announcement, "It is with utmost sorrow..." My initial reaction, like so many others, was shock. I was stunned and could only ask "How can this be? The newsletter said that he was getting better and would be holding the Academy in March. How could they all be that wrong?" Then came the pain of your loss—that my friend, my mentor, my teacher, my answerer of questions was dead! There was nothing but tears of devastation, abandonment and despair. Being in North Carolina I felt so alone, and reached out to other students, trying to make sense of it all. One said that you were never really connected to your body and just didn't know what was happening. That sounded absurd and I became angry at you. How could you leave us like that, insisting that you weren't dying? Surely you knew that you were, and that we loved you and what our reaction would be! You taught us about living in the world as students, that students act normally; how normal is this? Were you delusional?

The anger passed, to be replaced by quiet grieving. Yet sometimes, that also recedes and I remember what you taught us repeatedly over the years, that there is no death. You said "Do you know what happens at death? Nothing." And when I am in my right mind, however briefly, I accept that thought and I'm at peace.

In your last letter to me, you told me to do my practice "with Jesus (and me) standing by you." When I do that, I know that you are both there in my mind, that that's where you really were all along, and that you are with me now. In Helen's poem, "The Second Easter," I saw these words which I will try to take with me as I say goodbye to your body:

"For those who grieve cannot behold the light
Through veils of sorrow. They forget the Word
That promised to redeem their failing sight."

I love you,

Kirk

Dearest Ken,

I never did come up with a question I felt worthy of your time to ask you. Looking back, I should have just made the appointment and sat in silence with you for those few minutes.

Nevertheless, I do consider myself one of the lucky few to have met you and to have received a hug and a welcome from you at the Temecula Foundation. What you and Gloria have created along with your dedicated staff is a gift beyond measure.

Since all minds and hearts are joined I haven't a doubt that you know the depth of my gratitude for your contribution and devotion to being the Teacher of Teachers.

And as I strive to comprehend and live the Course you will never be far from my thoughts and for that I am eternally grateful.

Still, I want you to know I miss you so.

For the last four years I have been honored to call Ken Wapnick my friend. While doing the Course I felt a need to write him a ten page hand-written letter. After mailing it I felt silly. Why would a man like him ever write me? Before the week was out I received a reply and received one every week for nearly four years.

I felt like I was writing Jesus. His total lack of judgment, his compassion and humor was an example of everything I want to be. Let me give you an example. After writing him I started having dreams of a life I lived in Egypt long ago. I felt the need to focus on the now so I asked Ken's advice. He suggested I "go with it" and see what happens.

It began with a dream and went from there. To make a long story short, I remembered a life in which I'd raped and murdered Ken. I was a very powerful man and Ken a servant. What "she" possessed was something I did not ... peace. I was outraged and ended up destroying the very person I admired most in the world. This memory literally left me vomiting between sobs as I clung to my toilet.

When I shared the details with Ken I expected him to suggest I find a therapist. I just knew he would never write me again. His unexpected reply read, "I loved you then, I love you now and I will always love you."

Healing began for me that day. There are no words that can describe the gratitude, respect and love I feel for this man, a man who walked his talk. I would also like to express my gratitude to his wife and family for enriching his days so he could be such an inspiration to us all.

Dear Ken,

You no doubt know you were the most important person in my life. You hooked me with your sudden statements and with your wit before I noticed there was so much more you gave.

You gave and gave and gave and gave—you gave your Self.

The first jolt I received from you in 1989 after a workshop in Canterbury where I first got to know you and Gloria. You asked me when we met by chance where I was going, and on my replying that I was going home you said: "You are home."

And then the day Gloria and you invited Margarethe and me to your house (must have been in 1992) we went in to find Archie-pooh on the sofa. Gloria shooed it away, and then you bent down, stroked the cat and said: "Daddy still loves you."

The work with you on the translation is simply unforgettable. Never ever was serious work so light and full of laughter. Staff-walking past us stopped to ask whether we were working, or what?

Another jolt I got when it dawned on me that you were loving, helpful and wonderfully witty with and towards everyone. Ever since I've been coming to the Foundation to see you do this: being the same toward everyone.

Like Jesus, you taught from the mind. You were a master, yet never letting on.

I can't hug you any more, but I still do,

Franchita

How can I express my feelings? I am so sad. Yes, I know there is not death, that the Son of God is free, but I am still sad. Ken was my teacher and my friend. When I had a pressing question, I would write to him and always received an answer immediately! Sometimes they were one liners, often they were laced with humor, but they were always caring and profound! When there was no response to the last letter I wrote in October, I thought that Ken was away on a well deserved vacation, or that my letter was lost. Never did I think: he was ill. When I found that he was, I checked his progress on the web, thinking he was getting better.

It is with heartfelt love and gratitude that I send my condolences to Gloria and their family. Ken will live in the hearts and minds of so very many people he has touched through his teaching, and the volumes of work he has produced throughout the years!

Sincerely,

Pearl Fertell

Dear Foundation,

I wanted to express my condolences to the family and staff at the Foundation, as well as the thousands of Course students around the world, upon the transition of our dear friend Ken Wapnick.

He was a true teacher of God and my spiritual mentor for many years. After my first meeting with Ken, I began to write him and he always replied; we exchanged well over a hundred letters. Ken was so kind and he never forgot to send regards to my wife, Candace, whom he had also met; he'd often remind us to tickle each other and to laugh.

I still have Ken's books and audios to school me in Course wisdom and right- mindedness. Ken was the voice of the Course for me, and others, and he is forever alive in our minds and hearts.

I am blessed to have known such a gifted teacher; he taught me that forgiveness IS our purpose until we all awaken into the Heart of God, and our dream of separation ends.

Thank you, Ken, for being an advanced teacher, and having completed your work, gently laying your body down, as another act of spiritual awakening. You continue to teach us all to give up our ego-fears and accept our true identity as Love.

Sincere Blessings,

Jerry Yah'Kov

In Tribute to, and in Appreciation of
Ken Wapnick

The following comments are in tribute and appreciation of the extensive work and devotion to the purity of ACIM principles, as taught by Ken Wapnick, and as the primary teaching/disseminator of ACIM materials.

Much gratitude and appreciation goes out to Ken for his immense commitment and devotion to focused teaching, explanation and practical application of A Course in Miracles, and thereby leading humanity through a comprehensive understanding of this material. Without his vast scholarly background of psychology, religion, spirituality and music, as well as his incessant ACIM related writings and lecturing, the intricate nature and understanding of ACIM may have been left to an unneeded speculation and delayed comprehension (within our realm of time and space).

In short, he did the heavy lifting for us around mastering this unique material and helping us to move it forward to the ever increasing new flow of students to the Course. He was a living saint and exponent of Course’s message of forgiveness and love. To put it simply; he was called, and chose to listen. He saw the face of Christ in his brothers... and smiled a lot! Mankind was blessed with his presence, strength, humor and peace, which he lived and taught in the essence of sincerity, and in the untiring passion of a most purposeful instrument of the Holy Spirit.

His dedication to assisting the ACIM scribes was crucially essential to organizing its publication. His endless time in preparing ACIM for publishing and reading-readiness, was the work and honor of a religious and spiritual monastic at heart; of which he really was. Some affectionately refer to him as the third scribe!

As the first comprehensive, mainstream teacher, and commentator of ACIM, he knew why he came at this time. There was never any doubt, as what his mission was. He was the unrelenting and walking conviction of the truth. Anyone who ever met or spoke with him, saw and experienced a depth of spirituality and Christ Presence, which touched our hearts and souls, as only a rare enlightened master graces us.

Ken was God’s messenger - for sure. Ken’s instinctive teaching, which was so very readily shared through his expression of happiness and inner peace, could be clearly seen as a innocent demonstration of his essential function of forgiveness, love and trust. His smile and confidence of the Holy Spirit was so contagious, it transferred lovingly to any open heart he met. The memory of Ken, calls to our mind to let all sorrow go, so we may take our place besides our brother Jesus in God’s plan and be restored to what God wills. It is the living proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept our Father’s gifts as ours.

His name and picture should be put in the dictionary under the terms “conviction” and “commitment”, as well as the tenet “he walked the walk and talked the talk”. Our thanks and appreciation go out to him for helping connect the world to the ACIM scribes, Helen and Bill, along with Jesus’ message of the Holy Spirit.

Ken’s presentation style is as heartfelt, storied and visual, as it is practical intellectual and pragmatic. His academic and spiritual background lends itself to teaching the useful practicalities, as well as its technical facts and principles of ACIM. He was ideal as the first fully comprehensive public teacher/disseminator of the material; and presents his comments to include and distinguish the Course’s use of symbols and metaphors, so that a usable earth-world understanding can be appreciated in a real world practical application (“earth-world” referring to all of us in this seemingly dream life on earth).

He is ideally conclusive in recognizing, absorbing and disseminating the extensive ACIM material, by clarifying and presenting the concepts, along with correlating quotations, with which he breaks down the complex material with simplicity and inspiration. Additionally, he adds the personal conviction of his depth of understanding, comprehension and practical application, so as to help facilitate the reader’s understanding and realistic use in practical every day terms and examples.

Albeit simple in its essence, and complex in its explanation, and enduring in its basic 356 day lesson practice and complementary theory, ACIM is as realistically understandable and usable a thought system, as it is a spiritual path for those who relate to the simplicity of its message of forgiveness for salvation. It is even more so academically rewarding for the intellectually oriented seeker; and we are grateful for this accent, along with his dissemination.

Ken presents his commentary and explanation with the highest integrity to the purity and perfection of the material, as well as with his personal conviction of understanding the truth in ACIM. He is quick to point out ACIM’s very specific differences from most all other spiritual systems, and to purposely not hide the less palatable and diametrically opposite points of view, which some students may be slow to acknowledge and/or apprehensive to commit to owning. His articulation is precise to a fault and leaves no room for needless assumption. He interprets, speaks and writes his commentary with a computer like accuracy, along with the applied pertinent principles of the successive and integrating facts. Also uncanny, is the matter-of-fact conviction/assumption of the obvious truth, as if he had one foot in the real world and the other foot still in our illusory dream world; almost as a tether from the actual truth to our seeming worldly reality of illusory truth.

For the sake of a visualized teaching, as well as a more personalized communication, Kenneth often speaks and writes in an analogously storied fashion, so as to include the reader’s personal application or inclusion into the story; as if it were so from the inception of time and space. That is to say, that his commentary and descriptive presentations of the metaphysical guidelines of ACIM, puts us (the audience or reader) into the picture (the story) of a story-line which speaks to us as if we were actually in the real-life historical story (aka the proverbial driver’s seat).

This is his intriguing talent and ability to take a technical sequence of events (or metaphysical structure) and make them appear to come alive, and speak to us as the primary individual and participant in that story/event. In other words, he makes the story come alive and puts us in the driver’s seat, to choose how we want to participate. That’s enough to trigger our imagination and keep our mind front and center in the teacher/student technical information flow, without loosing our interest and attention to theoretical figurations and curriculum facts. This transpires while our “decision-maker” self makes the integrating conversion of teacher/info to student/relevance; a musing of colorful impact and absorbing satisfaction.

So, while that was quite an obviously large mouth full of descriptives, all in all, Ken’s relevant conviction shows/tells us that he fully knows and sees and understands and experiences the ACIM subject matter, as obvious as the sun in the sky; and makes it as engaging as the radiant moon that follows.

Ken thoughtfully writes, as well as conscientiously and lovingly speaks with the musing artistry and mastery of a Mozart, while being the symphonic enthusiast of a Beethoven! And that he certainly does and is! Such is our blessing to have him author the commanding library of teaching commentaries, as he has (painstakingly) lovingly completed, in order to fulfill his obvious mission in this life and for this world. The Holy Spirit has again blessed and graced us with Kenneth’s devoted work.

- Ron Nachtwey / Scottsdale Arizona / June 2020