Spiritual direction in Chichester Diocese

Time to listen to you.

Time to listen to God with you.

Time to explore spiritual growth with you.

Maybe you have heard a lot about a new fad – people seeking help and guidance from a ‘life coach’. Life coaches are supposed to help you through life's hurdles, helping you to better navigate life's journey. Having a spiritual director is somewhat similar, but with one very important difference – a spiritual director helps you to lead a more meaningful life by helping you to discover a deeper and more lasting relationship with God.

Spiritual direction is the opportunity for an accompanied reflection (to reflect with a trained spiritual director) about your life, its events, relationships with God and others. Spiritual direction is a graced way of serving another believer – of helping the other to grow in intimacy with God and to live out the consequences of this intimacy.

While some spiritual directors may be trained and some not, the crux of the matter hangs on whether the director is able to assist you in your experience of God. The director should be able to help you to notice God's movement in prayer and in the circumstances and events of your life.

Contemporary spiritual direction presumes that God communicates through ordinary human experience, and in that experience is to be found God's invitations, urgings and confirmations. A spiritual director is a companion on life's journey, asking reflective questions and pointing out resources. They assist with resistances and roadblocks, helping you to come to breakthroughs in your relationship with God and its lived consequences.

A spiritual director may be especially helpful to you when you are seeking to develop a deeper relationship with God in the following situations:

when the search for God seems to be at a crossroads
when you want to explore new methods of prayer
when prayer becomes difficult
when you feel the need for help in discerning the call of the Spirit
or when you feel the need for a companion on the spiritual journey to walk with you and to listen

Spiritual direction is useful and available for people of all Christian traditions. The frequency of sessions can be discussed with the director and decided upon according to your individual needs. Some prefer to speak of this ministry with the title of ‘spiritual companion’ or ‘soul friend’ to emphasise that direction is always unforced as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

To find out more about spiritual direction available to church members or to request to be linked up with a spiritual director who lives reasonably close to you, please contact the diocesan spirituality consultant (Diocese’s adviser for spiritual direction), the Reverend Tony Fiddian-Green who serves within the mission and renewal team as match maker within the diocesan spiritual direction network. For more information of his ministry and the wider ministry of spiritual renewal contact Tony or on 01892 864265 .

Spiritual direction - some questions answered

John Twisleton reflects on a hidden away ministry vital to the health and outreach of our churches.

What is spiritual direction?
Spiritual direction is a term used about a prayerful process in which people help one another to come closer to God. The traditional phrase ‘spiritual direction’ is a rather uncomfortable term to modern ears and many prefer the term ‘spiritual companion’ or ‘soul friend’. In his book ‘Sacred Companions’ David Benner gives this definition: Spiritual direction is a prayer process in which a person seeking help in cultivating a deeper personal relationship with God meets with another for prayer and conversation that is focussed on increasing awareness of God in the midst of life experiences and facilitating surrender to God’s will.

Who needs it?
Perhaps more people than realise it – which is why we held the forum and promised to follow it up by popularising the process and doing some ‘demythologising’. The Holy Spirit is our spiritual director but it is easier to say so than to grasp hold of his wisdom – which is why people are more and more finding it helpful to share with other Christians even just as a form of ‘mentoring’. Any resource that can build awareness of our need of grace is worth taking seriously. In our forum we became aware of how Christians from very different traditions have come to value having a ‘soul friend’ as a means of strengthening faithfulness in a challenging culture.

Who offers it?
No child of God is incapable of helping one of their sisters or brothers to be drawn closer to their Lord. At the same time some people seem to have a special gift for encouraging faith in others. Many of these people are by their very spiritual nature too modest to suggest themselves as possible spiritual directors. This is where the clergy have a special responsibility as part of their calling to draw out such gifts for building up the body of Christ. Other believers are less shy of seeking training to support their aptitude for this ministry. Priests themselves can never escape this ministry and many are currently seeking to resource it more fully.

Where can people find a spiritual director?
The mission and renewal department provides a match-making service for church members seeking a spiritual director. To request to be linked up with a spiritual director who lives reasonably close to you, please contact the diocesan spirituality consultant (Diocese’s adviser for spiritual direction), the Reverend Tony Fiddian-Green who co-ordinates the diocesan spiritual direction network. For more information of his ministry and the wider ministry of spiritual renewal contact Tony or on 01892 864265 .

Spirituality Soundings - news of events and resources for clergy and those in the diocesan spiritual direction network

See November 2008 - Issue 9