spiritual and ministerial development
27th of February 2021 10.00 – 12.30 on zoom Led by Nick Helm for Rochester Canterbury Diocese Spirituality Networks How do we recognise where God’s invitation to us is in life when there are many possibilities / options and challenges? It can be really tricky to sift the options and find some clarity. In this session […]
The origins of this reflection go back nearly twenty years. I wrote it for presenting in the final stages of ‘The Art of Spiritual Accompaniment’ in Sheffield. What began as a fairly straight presentation I discovered was actually a meditation. I recently revived it for presenting on the final day of Sarum College’s spiritual direction […]
Julian of Norwich has long been a soul friend of mine. Over the last couple of months I’ve had several conversations with friends who’ve been discovering her wisdom and finding it enriching through this time. At first glance we might wonder what a 14th century anchorite can say to us today, but a little deeper […]
The poem below was sent to me recently. It beautifully describes something of the depth of what Spiritual Direction offers. To be honest it somewhat awes me in terms of how I as a directee live up to this description. But then I’m also awed by what it is to sit with someone and be […]
Some powerful quotes on ministry For me August is set aside as a kind of sabbatical month. I’ve been using some of the time to try and bring some order to the myriad of papers and electronic documents that I have collected over 30+ years of ordained life. No small task, and one I’ve been […]
Encouraging conversations revealing Seismic Shifts The two zoom meetings of people involved in Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Direction training on the 14th and 21st July respectively were really encouraging. I had a strong sense of being in the company of a deeply engaged group of people with a passion and commitment to Spiritual Direction and […]
I’ve just had two fascinating zoom sessions looking at impact of Covid-19 on the ministry of Spiritual Direction. The first yesterday afternoon (14 July) was an online meeting I organised in which 42 participated from around the UK – a time to share experience and listen to what is emerging. I was struck by the […]
As we live through what might be the tail end of a middle stage of lockdown, there is an opportunity to ponder what has been learned, what challenges have been risen to for the better, what realties still need to be faced I was told by a directee last week that I’d asked a really […]
Thursday 6th February 2020: The final day of the six day course ‘Discerning Listening’ with a great group who have engaged well and run with it. The team of Steven Baggs, Nicky Seabright and I have really enjoyed working with the group. This is a really bare bones programme that has whittled down the concept […]
I’ve been running this programme with Helen Guinness of 4×4 Consulting for several years for clergy in the Hereford Diocese. We come today to the final session of the current programme. Its always a privilege to work alongside parish clergy to develop further in ministry. In passing we quoted Eugene Peterson, and his preface to […]
