Kyoki Roberts
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Rev. Kyōki Roberts (OPW) (December 17, 1951 – December 19, 2023),[1] born Christine Munroe Roberts, was an American Sōtō Zen priest from Pennsylvania. She was founder and head priest of the Zen Center of Pittsburgh.
December 17, 1951
Rev. Kyōki Roberts | |
|---|---|
| |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Christine Munroe Roberts December 17, 1951 Sewickley, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 19, 2023 (age 72) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| School | Sōtō |
| Senior posting | |
| Predecessor | Nonin Chowaney |
Early life and education
Christine Roberts[2] was from Sewickley, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Joseph Loughrey Roberts Jr. and Helen Shaw Roberts. She was raised on her family's farm; her father also owned a jewelry store.[3] She graduated from Sewickley Academy in 1969, and earned a degree in agriculture from Colorado State University in 1973.[1] She studied Buddhism in Minnesota, California, and Japan in the 1990s, after her marriage ended.[4]
Career
Roberts ran an organic farm near Yutan, Nebraska, with her husband in the 1980s, and worked as a professional mediator, helping other farmers negotiate with creditors.[5] "We were literally telling people to check their guns at the door," she later recalled of that work.[6] She was ordained as a Zen priest in 1993, and chose the name Kyōki Einin Roberts at that time.[7][8][9]
In September 2000,[7] she opened the Zen Center of Pittsburgh on a six-acre farm in Bell Acres.[4] Her teacher Nonin Chowaney attended the center's dedication.[7] The facility hosted overnight guests and services on weekdays, which raised local concerns about land use and traffic.[10] She published a cookbook, Stone Soup, in 2002.[2] She taught meditation to prisoners in Cambria County.[7]
Roberts blended her practice with art during the 2003 exhibition Gestures: An Exhibition of Small Site-Specific Works at The Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh. Her installation exhibit, No where to go; nothing to do: Just Sitting, invited visitors to experience aspects of Zazen (seated meditation).[11]
Chowaney represented the Order of the Prairie Wind when he returned to the Zen Center to assist Roberts in performing an ordination in 2005.[12] In 2008, Roberts helped welcome a handmade erhu to Pittsburgh.[13] In 2011, she founded An Olive Branch, a project to address the aftermath of sexual misconduct scandals in religious communities.[6]
Personal life
Roberts married Charles Eliason and had a son, Joe. She and Eliason divorced in 1989. In 2016, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska, to care for the aged Chowaney and to be closer to her grown son and his family.[1] Her existing health issues were exacerbated by COVID-19 in 2021, and she used a supplemental oxygen in her last years.[5] Chowaney died in 2022, and she died in 2023, at the age of 72, in Omaha.[9]