Mary Manin Morrissey

Mary Manin Morrissey (born 1949) is a New Thought minister from Oregon, U.S.A. She currently conducts seminars, lectures, and retreats in the Pacific Northwest, primarily in the Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington areas. Occasionally, she conducts workshops in other regions of the country. Mary Manin Morrissey has served as president of the Association for Global New Thought and hosted an annual congress for the International New Thought Alliance New Thought Alliance history . She has spoken before the United Nations with Arun Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi) regarding the Season for Nonviolence Season for Nonviolence speakers roster, listing Morrissey, and has participated in interfaith dialogues with the Dalai Lama Sythnthesis Dialogues website. She is the author of "Building Your Field of Dreams" Random House catalogue, a book that was adapted as the basis of a PBS special titled "Building Your Dreams" Public Broadcasting listing for Building Field of Dreams.

In the mid-1970s, Mary Manin Boggs, along with her then-husband Haven Boggs and her then-mother-in-law Lorraine Boggs, helped to found Living Enrichment Center. After her divorce from Haven Boggs in the early 1990s, Mary Manin Boggs married Edward Morrissey. As Mary Manin Morrissey, she eventually became the focalpoint of Living Enrichment Center, and the church eventually grew to become one of the largest churches in the state of Oregon, as well as the largest New Thought church in the state, and even one of the largest New Thought churches throughout the entire world. In its official publications, Living Enrichment Center claimed its congregation numbered from 2,000 to 5,000. Additionally, Mary Manin Morrissey's Sunday sermons at LEC were broadcast to an estimated 2 million homes on the US West Coast via her "Life Keys" cable access series Access Tuscan listing for Life Keys. The Portland, Oregon, media often referred to Living Enrichment Center as a "mega-church". Some New Thought lecturers referred to Living Enrichment Center as a "mecca" for the New Thought Movement.

Living Enrichment Center closed in the summer of 2004 with $10,000,000 debt. The financial scandal gained a considerable amount of attention in the Portland, Oregon, media. Religion News Blog Willamette Week Morrissey cover story Mary Manin Morrissey was listed as a defendant in many lawsuits filed against her by former members of the Living Enrichment Center congregation. Many former congregants claims that Mary Morrissey had failed to repay loans that they had been pressured to make and that they had been told were secure and would earn interest. The Morrisseys later struck a plea bargain wherein only Mary Manin Morrissey's husband, Edward Morrissey, pled guilty to money laundering and using church funds for the personal expenses of himself and his wife. Edward Morrissey is currently serving time in a Terminal Island, a California prison, for these crimes. [http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=68625-065&x=33&y=23 Ed Morrissey inmate listing Mary Manin Morrissey agreed to repay the debt to her congregation. As of the summer of 2006, the state of Oregon says $45,000 has been repaid. Repayment information as posted on LEC World Refugees site Retrieved July 14, 2006

After Living Enrichment Center's closure, Mary Manin Morrissey founded her current organizations called Friends of Mary Friends of Mary , Evolving Life Ministries Evolving Life Ministries, and Life Soulutions Life Soulutions.

Rise to New Thought fame

Mary Manin Morrissey was a popular student at Beaverton High School. But at age 16 she became pregnant and, due to the conventions of 1960s middle class America that still found unwed pregnancy to be scandalous, she was forced to leave her high school and enroll in a night school for delinquents. But she held on to her convictions and resolved to one day be a teacher. Mary Manin Morrissey later became a minister, and eventually co-founded Living Enrichment Center with her then-husband Haven Boggs.

Though LEC had many associate ministers, such as Rev. Sally Rutis, Revs. Faith and Michael Moran, and Rev. Bruce Robinson, Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey was the undisputed focalpoint of the church. In her ministry, which came to include Life Keys, a cable access program beamed to many cities on the West Coast, Morrissey cultivated a devoted following, particularly among women. Her New Thought sermons, which often referenced the wisdom of Jesus, as well as Buddha, Krishna, and Mohammed, inspired many people. Some followers even claimed that Morrissey's talks were divinely inspired and channeled directly from God. Others, however, feared that Morrissey was becoming a cult figure akin the Rajneesh (whose organization was headquartered in Oregon in the 1980s), noting how attendance dropped off when Morrissey herself was not the key speaker for a given service. "People don't come to worship God. They come to worship Mary," one congregation member was quoted as saying in the local Portland, Oregon press. ^*

Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey eventually became a well known and respected figure within the New Thought and human potential movements. For a time, she served as president of the Association for Global New Thought. She also became well respected for her ability to "network" with many famous speakers in her genre, such as Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch, Deepak Chopra, and Jean Houston, all of whom spoke at Living Enrichment Center. (Jean Houston came to fame in the early 1990s for encouraging first lady Hillary Clinton to "talk to" Eleanor Roosevelt.) Mary Morrissey became a founding member of the "Season for Nonviolence" and addressed the United Nations with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, regarding the need to teach peaceful resolutions to conflicts. Mary Morrissey also participated in interfaith dialogues with the Dalai Lama [http://www.synthesisdialogues.org/.

By the late 1990s, Mary Manin Morrissey had become something of a celebrity in the New Thought genre, as well as in her local community.

Teachings on "prosperity" and pleas for financial support

Because lessons about prosperity consciousness and "co-creating with God" were cornerstones of Mary Manin Morrissey's Sunday talks ^*^*^*, many of her followers felt it was acceptable that during her tenure as Senior Minister of Living Enrichment Center she lived a life of luxury, driving a BMW and living in a large house on Bull Mountain in Tigard, Oregon. It was only proof, they reasoned, that Morrissey was knowledgeable about the dynamics of prosperity and that she effectively put such knowledge into action in her own life. Others, however, were offended by the life of wealth she lived, because Mary Morrissey continually portrayed Living Enrichment Center as struggling financially and she continually asked her congregation and television viewers for money to help support the church and save it from closure.

Additionally, in the late 1990s Mary Morrissey had announced to the congregation and to her Life Keys audience that she took no salary as head minister but donated her services to the church free of charge. Morrissey claimed that she earned enough income from the sale of her books and the profits from her various talks conducted throughout the United States and the world and therefore did not need to rely upon the church for financial support. After Morrissey resigned as senior minister of Living Enrichment Center, it was reported that Morrissey had in fact been taking a salary of $10,200 per month as senior minister of the church.

"Church officials have cut operating hours, eliminated workshops, stopped publishing newsletters and plan to slash staff to a handful of people. On Thursday, they issued the last of the paychecks to employees -- including $10,200 in monthly salary to Morrissey," wrote Lisa Grace Lednicer and Jeff Manning in an Aug. 6, 2004, article for The Oregonian ^*.

In the May 19, 2004, Willamette Week cover story "The Profit Margin," Janine Robbin wrote: "Then there's the issue of Morrissey's pay. In March, the congregation was told that the debt includes more than $600,000 in unpaid compensation owed to Ed Morrissey. Mary Morrissey, they were told, had agreed to waive a comparable amount of unpaid compensation owed to her. This upset at least one church member, who was under the impression that Mary Morrissey was living off proceeds from such things as her book and tape sales. 'I got so angry, I had to leave,' says the now-former congregant. 'Mary has stood up and said, so many times, that she takes no salary.'" ^*

Church founded on Boggs Farm

On April 24, 2000, the Portland, Oregon, newspaper The Oregonian published an article titled "An Uncertain Future for Migrant Camp" ^*. The article discussed Campo Azul, which was identified as one of the most heavily fined migrant camps in the state of Oregon. This article revealed that Campo Azul was run by the Boggs family and was part of the Boggs farm, the same farm on which Mary Morrissey (Mary Boggs, at the time) had helped to found Living Enrichment Center in the 1970s.

The article's main focus is on the property battle that ensued regarding ownership of the property after the death of Lorraine Boggs, mother of Haven Boggs and former mother-in-law of Mary Morrissey. The article claims that Lorraine Boggs had once envisioned that her son and daughter-in-law would eventually convert the Boggs farm into Living Enrichment Center, presumably using the dilapidated migrant camp houses as cabins for Namaste Retreat Center. (A photograph of the interior of one of Campo Azul's shacks is available on the main Campo Azul article.) Though the Oregonian article never mentions Mary Morrissey by name, it is understood that the daughter-in-law in question was indeed Mary Morrissey.

When Mary Morrissey's connection to Campo Azul was revealed, some were outraged and angered at the fact that she had looked the other way while people lived in utter poverty on the same plot of land as her. Others, however, noted that Morrissey had never been directly involved in the management of the farm and therefore she had not been directly responsible for the living conditions of the migrant workers.

The April 24, 2000, Oregonian article refers to church groups who attempted to improve living conditions of Campo Azul. Living Enrichment Center is not listed among the church groups.

Mary Manin Morrissey makes references to the Boggs farm in her books "Building Your Field of Dreams" ^*. However, Mary Manin Morrissey makes no reference to the Campo Azul migrant camp.

LEC closure, bankruptcy, and Ed Morrissey prison sentencing

During its various incarnations from the 1970s until the 1990s, Living Enrichment Center held services in various locations in the Portland, Oregon, area. For a time, services were held at Valley Theatre in Beaverton, Oregon, and even in a tent in a parking lot in Tigard, Oregon. Eventually, in 1992, Living Enrichment Center moved to the abandoned Callahan Center in Wilsonville, Oregon, adjacent to Dammasch State Hospital on the outskirts of the city. LEC's Wilsonville headquarters consisted of a three-level 94,000 square foot building on a 93-acre lot. The lot also included 13 cabins, with over 60 rooms, which were used for spiritual retreats conducted via LEC's sister organization, Namaste Retreat Center.

Shortly after its move to the Wilsonville property, Living Enrichment Center began to experience a series of financial problems that would eventually result in its closure little more than a decade later. (It might be of significance to note that it was shortly after the church's move to the Wilsonville property that Mary Manin Boggs left Haven Boggs to marry Edward Morrissey. Willamette Week quoted Haven Boggs as saying, "There were a lot of surprises for me. Things I didn't know Mary was doing, like seeing someone else. I guess I just didn't know her.")

Donation drives and various other means of encouraging congregation contributions were a cornerstone of the church. But by 2003, the church's financial situation had deteriorated to a point beyond recovery. In November of 2003, Mary Manin Morrissey told her parishioners that Living Enrichment Center had a debt of $600,000. Then, in late February of 2004, Mary Manin Morrissey told her congregation that the church's debt was $15 million. A month later, in March of 2004, the congregation was told that the debt had risen to $20 million. Mary Manin Morrissey claimed that the church owed over $10 million on the Wilsonville property which was purchased in the early 1990s for less than $3 million. Others, however, noted that while there had certainly been capital improvements on the Wilsonville property over the more than ten years during which the church had occupied it, there had not been $7 million worth of improvements.

After little more than a decade at the expansive Wilsonville property, in the summer of 2004 Living Enrichment Center moved from its Wilsonville lot and returned to its earlier location of Valley Theater in Beaverton, Oregon [http://wweek.com/story.php?story=5101/. By the time of the return to Beaverton, as a result of the financial scandal, which gained consider attention in the Portland, Oregon, media, the LEC congregation had been diminished by 20% or more. Shortly after the return to Valley Theater, Mary Manin Morrissey resigned as senior minister of Living Enrichment Center. In August of 2004, Living Enrichment Center held its final service at the Valley Theater. Mary Manin Morrissey did not attend the final service of the church she had helped to found more than two decades previous.

Mary Manin Morrissey had been listed as a defendant in several lawsuits filed by former members of her congregation. These former congregation members accused Rev. Morrissey of encouraging them to purchase unsecured stocks in various companies controlled by Rev. Morrissey and her husband Edward Morrissey. Some congregation members claimed that Rev. Morrissey encouraged them to make sizable loans to the church, promising a high interest return and prompt repayment. However, payment was usually not prompt; often there was no interest paid, and in many cases the loaner was asked to forgive the debt and consider their loan a donation to the church.

Many congregation members also claimed that Rev. Morrissey never made them aware of the extent of the church's debt prior to the requests for loans and donations. Others allege that though Rev. Morrissey made available the church's financial portfolio prior to requests for loans, the portfolio made no reference to the church's outstanding debt to other congregation members.^*.

One member of Rev. Morrissey's congregation, a mentally disabled woman whose affiliation with the church consisted primarily of viewing Life Keys programs on television, claimed Rev. Morrissey encouraged her to invest her lifesavings in stocks the Morrisseys claimed, but turned out not to be, secure. ^* This congregation member claims that Rev. Morrissey made repeated telephone calls requesting the loan.

Shortly before Living Enrichment Center filed for bankruptcy and closed in the summer of 2004, Rev. Morrissey announced that her husband, Edward Morrissey, had been suffering from manic depression for some time and that he was in a psychiatric facility being treated for his condition. Rev. Morrissey also claimed that much of the responsibility for the financial problems faced by the church were the fault of her husband's mental state.

Some former congregants and employees of Living Enrichment Center have speculated that the Morrisseys have used Edward Morrissey's mental state as an excuse and cover for consciously made dishonest financial practices in which Mary Manin Morrissey played a willful part. Some suspect that Edward Morrissey might not even truly suffer from any mental disorder, and that he might be using his claim of mental instability, and taking all the responsibility for the financial impropriety, as a manipulative technique with the intention to preserve Mary Manin Morrissey's marketable public image. In such a view, the Morrisseys would be able to make it appear that Mary Morrissey did not consciously and intentionally mislead anyone, nor did Edward Morrissey.

Some believe that the Morrisseys are attempting to make it appear that all the responsibility for the financial implosion lie with Edward Morrissey's mental instability, which would allegedly be something beyond his control. In this view, the Morrisseys would be attempting to make the financial implosion of Living Enrichment Center appear as nothing more than an accident that was ultimately beyond their control. Some former LEC congregants note that such a position would be ironic as it is contrary to the lessons Rev. Morrissey taught with regard to "prosperity consciousness", "manifesting", and "dream building" ^*^*." target="_blank" >In her Sunday lectures, Rev. Morrissey often told her congregation that one is not the victim of the world nor of the circumstance within which one finds oneself, and yet it appears to some that Rev. Morrissey is claiming she was exactly that with regard to the financial implosion of Living Enrichment Center. [http://www.wweek.com/storyforum.php?story=5101

In the spring of 2005, Edward Morrissey accepted a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney's Office. As a result of their settlement, neither Edward Morrissey nor Mary Morrissey may sell securities and the Morrisseys agreed to undertake a repayment plan wherein all who loaned funds to Living Enrichment Center would be reimbursed. Edward Morrissey also pled guilty to one federal count of money laundering, and admitted to using church money for personal expenses. Allan Garten, assistant U.S. attorney who worked with the investigation team, was quoted as saying that Edward Morrissey "deceived congregants into thinking they were loaning to the church and that their loans were secured," and, "Not only were the loans not secured, but some of the money was also going for the personal use of Mr. Morrissey and his wife." [http://www.religionnewsblog.com/11010

Jeff Manning of The Oregonian wrote, "Some former Living Enrichment parishioners were angered that Mary Morrissey eluded federal charges. Mary Morrissey leaned hard on parishioners to make the loans, some said, but she has claimed she had no knowledge of her husband's use of that money."^*

Jeff Manning also reported that Mary Morrissey did not attend her husband's plea hearing in U.S. District Court before Michael W. Mosman.

Edward Morrissey was sentenced to 33 months in a medium security federal prison. He began serving his sentence in August 2005. ^*

Prior to Living Enrichment Center's move from the Wilsonville campus to the Valley Theatre in Beaverton, Oregon, Mary Morrissey was quoted in the local press as saying that the property owners had foreclosed and sold the property, thus necessitating the move. In point of fact, the former Wilsonville LEC campus is still listed as being for sale. The owners are asking $11,900,000 for the building and plot of land. There has been speculation that the former LEC Wilsonville building might be demolished, and the grounds incorporated into the nearby Villebois development. [http://www.villebois.net/loc04_rec.php

Failure to meet repayment deadline

October 15, 2005, was the first deadline in the loan repayment plan that the Morrisseys agreed to undertake as a condition of their plea bargain ^*. According to Michelle Teed, Chief of Enforcement of Consumer & Business Services, Department of Finance and Corporate Securities, Corporate Securities Section, the Morrisseys failed to meet the deadline of this first installment.^* ^* ^*

In early 2006, Mary Manin Morrissey was invited to speak at New Thought Ministries of Oregon, the successor to Living Enrichment Center most of whose staff served as ministers at LEC. In an e-mail circulated on the Yahoo group "LEC World Refugees", Rev. David Alexander is quoted as saying: "The invitation extended to Mary to speak at NTMO has nothing to do with any details of her personal life or legal obligations." [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lecworldrefugees2/message/15

Some former members of the Living Enrichment Center congregation have expressed frustration that no New Thought organization, including New Thought Ministries of Oregon, have spoken out against the financial scandal that led to LEC's closure.

Struggles with addiction

In private e-mails forwarded to the Yahoo! group "LEC World Refugees" Rita Allen Boggs and Joe Stark claimed that while living with Mary Manin Morrissey (then known as Mary Manin Boggs) on the Boggs family farm in the 1970s and 1980s, they witnessed Mary Manin Morrissey using marijuana, psychedelic mushroom, and cocaine. Joe Stark also claims that Mary Manin Morrissey used these substances in front of her own children and eventually shared these substances with her own children. The two also claim that Mary Manin Morrissey went through a period of selling drugs ^* ^*. In her e-mail, Rita Allen Boggs theorized that after Mary Manin Morrissey recovered from her cocaine addiction, Mary Manin Morrissey became addicted to money. "Money has been her drug of choice ever since then," wrote Rita Allen Boggs. (In her e-mail, Rita Allen Boggs also claimed that years previous to the financial scandal of Living Enrichment Center, Mary Morrissey accepted a $64,000 loan from her mother-in-law, Lorraine Boggs. Rita Allen Boggs claimed that Mary Morrissey did not pay back this loan but left repayment responsibilities to her ex-husband, Haven Boggs.)

Rita Allen Boggs is Mary Manin Morrissey's former sister-in-law and also a former employee of Living Enrichment Center. Joe Stark is also a former employee of LEC and the Boggs family farm.

In these accounts, it was also claimed that in the early 1990s, Mary Manin Morrissey's son embezzled Living Enrichment Center for thousands of dollars in order to support his cocaine habit. In order to escape prosecution, Boggs and Stark claim Mary Manin Morrissey's son fled to Mexico (which is where Haven Boggs, father of the son in question, lives ^*).

Some members of the "LEC World Refugees" Yahoo group, which is comprised of former congregation members of Living Enrichment Center, noted that Mary Manin Morrissey had spoken extensively from the pulpit about her son's cocaine habit, though she had never revealed that her son embezzled Living Enrichment Center to support his cocaine habit nor that he fled to Mexico to escape prosecution. Additionally, Mary Manin Morrissey had never spoken of her own addiction to cocaine. Morrissey has, however, spoken of her past alcohol abuse, as well as her subsequent recovery.

Rita Allen, Joe Stark, Mary Manin Morrissey (as Haven's wife), and Living Enrichment Center are all referred to in the April 24, 2000, Oregonian article titled "An Uncertain Future for Migrant Camp" ^*. Although this article is about the Boggs family farm and Campo Azul, it does not define nor refer to Mary's past or her involvement with the property. It may be a useful reference, however, as a means of verification of the authenticity of said individuals and their respective roles within the Boggs family farm, Campo Azul migrant camp, and Living Enrichment Center.

Further verification of the respective roles of said individuals can be found in various products published by Mary Manin Morrissey. Joe Stark is alleged to be the "Joe" referred to on page 163 of "Building Your Field of Dreams" and Rita Allen Boggs is referred to in the "acknowledgments" section of "A Miracle in Motion" on page 6 [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1886491003. Both books are authored by Mary Manin Morrissey.

The private e-mails in question were addressed to Andrew Parodi, the founder of "LEC World Refugees". Mr. Parodi is a former congregant and employee of Living Enrichment Center who claims that in 1999 he was banned and blacklisted from LEC by Mary Manin Morrissey for speaking out against the financial corruption of the church ^*^*. Prior to forwarding the e-mails in question, Mr. Parodi claims to have met personally with Joe Stark so as to verify the authenticity of Mr. Stark's statements about Mary Manin Morrissey's past. As further verification of the authenticity of Joe Stark's claims, Mr. Parodi also presented his group with various pieces of evidence (including early candids of Mary Boggs, Haven Boggs, early LEC product prototypes, an early LEC audio cassette meditation program with Joe Stark's name on the label, and a picture of Joe Stark himself) which Mr. Parodi claimed Joe Stark shared with him at their personal meeting. Mr. Parodi claimed he considers this to be sufficient verification of Joe Stark's past involvement with Living Enrichment Center, Boggs family, and Mary Manin Morrissey. However, Mr. Parodi made no such claims of verification with regard to Rita Allen Boggs' statements.

Notes

Related discussions and websites

External links

Corporate Securities Findings Regarding Morrissey Investigation

Related websites, blogs, and discussion groups

Index of articles from The Oregonian and other Portland area papers

Friends of Mary and Evolving Life Ministries are Mary Morrissey's current organizations.

LEC World Refugees is an online support group for former members of Mary Morrissey's former church, Living Enrichment Center.

Synthesis Dialogues is the official site for the interfaith dialogues in which Mary Morrissey participated with the Dalai Lama. Morrissey is pictured on the front page of this site, holding the Dalai Lama's right hand.

Mary Manin Morrissey's Spiritual Mastery program is a site, no longer in use but still available for viewing, that was once used to promote a Morrissey product.

"Intersection of Spirituality and Fleecing" blog entry by Jeff Bull regarding the plea bargain struck with Ed and Mary Morrissey wherein Mary Morrissey did not serve time in prison.