Participate in discerning the next phase of our life.

Join us in discerning the way forward for the Spiritual Direction Forum UK. 

 

We’d love to have your input as we look to the future and ponder how God is inviting us to develop. 

 

In this mailing we describe something of the history and development of the Forum over the last four years and invite you to participate in the discerning process we are embarking on. 

 

Read on, or click this button to register to be part of our discernment process. 

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A brief history of the Forum

The idea of a forum for spiritual directors in the UK emerged at a gathering of just four people in London in September 2019. That led to a discernment process to find out whether this idea was supported and what would be important in its development. About 170 participated in that initial consultation which took place over the summer of 2020 and fed into a discernment day from which emerged a vision statement. Our prayer and reflection, and the vision subsequently drafted, had a flow to it that gave us an exciting sense of being led by the Spirit and gave us the energy to go forward.  So off we went! 

 

The vision statement that emerged was shared and explored through 2021 in various online gatherings leading to the launch event in Spring 2022. Since then, we have hosted online events and circulated email newsletters and information. Our online events attract upwards of 80 people and sometimes have exceeded 100. We now have a mailing list with about 1000 people signed up. We became a registered Charity earlier this year. 

The Forum Vision:

We desire 

  • to support and resource spiritual directors
  • to promote and protect good practice 
  • to advocate and encourage the creative development of this ministry within the church and in a changing world. 

The Forum’s Values / Way

In the same spirit in which Spiritual Direction is conducted, we will endeavour to:

  • be a ‘common table’ through dialogue and hospitality
  • be led by the Spirit, in prayer and discernment
  • be theologically reflective 
  • act with wisdom and humility
  • be exploratory and collaborative
  • be responsive and gracious
  • be inclusive and ecumenical
  • be appropriately professional and not professionalised
  • promote equality and respect for all
  • maintain openness and transparency
  • build things organically, being both adventurous and realistic
  • use simple communicative processes

Core Committee and Subgroups

 

The core committee has sought to encourage and enable the development of the subgroups and to establish the legal foundation of the Forum. 

 

Current membership is Nick Helm, Julie Dunstan, Ruth Holgate, Susanne Carlsson, Catherine Williams. 

 

The three subgroups identified in the vision statement have developed. 

 

The Support and Resource Group, chaired by Catherine Williams, have hosted events exploring aspects of spiritual direction and established a FaceBook group that has over 200 members. Members: Ray Andrews, Mary Flitcroft, Henriette Howarth, Peter Rainford & Vron Smith. 

 

The Promote and Protect Good Practice Group, co chaired by Susanne Carlsson and Nick Helm, have hosted events for spiritual direction network leaders and are working at producing information around Safeguarding and spiritual direction. Members are: Chris Mason, Rachel Overton, Ruth Holgate

 

The Advocate and Encourage Creative Development Group have established the Edge Walkers series of events, hosting conversations related to cutting edge issues for spiritual direction. Chaired by Julie Dunstan, with members Chris Chapman, Julia Mourant, Naomi Gates and Sarah Lear. 

The Forum’s Mission (2022)

Create a Core Committee 

  • with wide representation and a time-limited period of office.
  • responsible for developing sustainable structures and processes for developing and maintaining the work of the forum.
  • Focussing on the following key aspects:
  • Vision
  • Communications including website, social media, mailings, newsletters etc
  • Co-ordination of the work of the sub-groups
  • Finance & Administration including membership and fundraising

Create three working groups to represent the three faces of the forum

1. To support and resource spiritual directors by

  • developing ways to come together to encourage, listen and discern; by zoom gatherings, national conferences, regional meetings
  • gathering and sharing wisdom and inspiration by newsletters, websites, social media

2 To promote and protect good practice by

  • an ongoing articulation of a shared understanding of good practice
  • involving networks, training courses, relevant organisations
  • producing clear guidelines and resources 
  • establishing an ongoing process for developing these over time 
  • inviting ongoing discussion and development
  • commending good practice to practitioners 

3. To advocate and encourage the creative development of this ministry within the church and in a changing world by

  • embracing the wisdom of the Christian tradition and learning from all people’s lived experience both in the church and in society. 
  • understanding and supporting the prophetic and contemplative dimensions of our ministry.
  • fostering contexts for creative conversations about spiritual direction in the 21st century.
  • exploring and encouraging a diverse range of ways and places to bring the wisdom of spiritual direction to the wider world.
  • promoting awareness of the value of spiritual direction amongst those involved in church leadership and resourcing them to signpost their communities towards engagement in this practice.

Looking at our initial Vision we see that much of the ‘Mission’ it identified is now underway and so we need to consider what next. The committee have set aside a discernment day in early December to listen for the lead of the Spirit in this.

The questions and concerns we find ourselves holding are:  

What are the next priorities for our development? 

We see the need for website development to provide greater resources, information and opportunities for discussion. This needs time and energy from people to develop this, most likely at a level that is greater than can be done voluntarily by the committee. This might involve paying for administration and raising funds for this. Do we invite more donations, seek grant funding, charge a membership fee or some combination of these?

Are there other ways in which the Forum might live out its vision that we are not seeing?

Are there values that we need to be challenged to live up to, or be more explicit about?

With these questions and more, we would be very grateful for your prayerful contribution to this process of discernment. 

Please would you give some time – perhaps an hour for prayerful reflection on the Forum and then give us your feedback through an online form.

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