ABOUT FORREST
After ten years of ministry in 
congregations, my wife and I recently moved to Bloomington, Indiana to be closer to her family and create a lifestyle more supportive of our children and our relationship with the Spirit. That has led me to new work as the Assistant Director of the Shalom Community Center, serving people experiencing poverty and homelessness, and in private practice as a pastoral counselor and spiritual director.
I am an ordained Unitarian minister, having served mid-sized congregations in Monterey, California and Princeton, New Jersey. I also have worked as an outdoor educator and wilderness guide. Spiritually, my emphasis is not on dogma, but on a direct experience of the sacred known by many names. I’ve worked with people from every faith tradition and belief system, including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Naturalists, Pagans, Agnostics and Atheists. I believe the ultimate spiritual experience is of Oneness - a deep, transformative awareness of the self as interconnected with all that is.
I graduated from Cornell University in 1993 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resources with an emphasis on wildlife biology. In 1998, I completed a month-long training with the School of Lost Borders and became a vision fast guide. In 1999, I graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry (a Unitarian seminary) with a Master’s of Divinity and was ordained as a Unitarian minister on April 16, 2000. I am a contributing author to two books: Wrestling with Adulthood and The Seven Principles in Word and Worship.
a quick view
Name:
Rev. Ian Forrest Gilmore
FAMILY:
Husband to Jill
Step-dad to Hannah & Noah
Home:
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Education:
Cornell University, B.S. with Honors
Starr King School for the Ministry, M.Div.
interests & passions
Spirituality, Nature, Music & Singing, Baseball, Photography
some favorite quotes:
“If we are to remain open and capable of engaging with our world rather than succumbing to depression or cynicism, we must learn to live with a broken heart... It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected: the heart cannot actually break, it can only break open.”
- John Welwood
“To find our calling is to find the intersection between our own deep gladness and the world's deep hunger.”
- Frederick Buechner
“Let your soul go free for a moment into that scene outside your window... and there encounter, gape-jawed and silent, the God of birds and birth defects, trees and cancer, quarks and galaxies, earthquakes and supernovas - awesome, edifying, dreadful and good, more beautiful and more terrible than is strictly necessary. Let it strike you dumb with worship and fear, beyond words, beyond logic. What is it? It is everything that is."
- Chet Raymo
