Douglas K. Bleyle is a talented and creative teacher, writer, and spiritual director.  Raised as a United Methodist with a long family history of Methodist ministers, Bleyle lived most of his life in rural parishes in Colorado and came to understand the challenges and gifts of rural ministry with its poverty, rich sense of community, and hard work.  A long-time participant in Lakota ceremonial practices, Bleyle learned Native American contemplative practices and became fascinated with the way those practices resonated with early Christian liturgical and ascetic traditions.  Trained as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, Bleyle developed a unique and comprehensive program for working with children with learning disabilities (autism, ADD/ADHD, fragile x, Asperbergers Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Down Syndrome) and their wider social networks including family, teachers, and friends.  His program created a comprehensive world in which children with a disability, their families, and wider social networks learned to live whole and complete lives, while also addressing the learning and living needs of the children.  Bleyle's gift is to create the worlds that promote well-being and a capacity to flourish, especially among challenged social groups. 

            Bleyle holds a degree from Metropolitan State College in Denver in anthropology and the history of the American West with a focus on Native American history.  He also holds an M.Div. from Iliff School of Theology and a Th.M. from Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he pursued the academic study of asceticism and contemplative practices. His teaching and research focuses on the contemplative practices in various religious systems of Late Antiquity, Eastern Christianity, and Methodist studies.  A Postulant to holy orders in the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of the Rio Grande, Bleyle has a special vocation to minister to Native American peoples and to assist Native American Christians to bridge native and adopted traditions.  He is the co-author of "The Gospels and Christian Life in History and Practice" and currently is co-author on "Centuries of Contemplation" a book project with the Associates of the ICL.