Irene Maxwell-Curnock is a retired spiritual director, counsellor and marriage celebrant, based in Tauranga, New Zealand. She discovered Interactive Drawing Therapy in the 1980’s and trained with it’s creator, Russell WIthers. In this blog post, Katrina Tulip has a conversation with Irene about IDT and how it has shaped her practice as a contemplative, counsellor and spiritual director over many decades.

Jenna Edgar is a freshly-minted spiritual director and the new Spiritual Growth Ministries Administrator. We are blessed by Jenna’s grace, bubbly personality and her extraordinary administrative skills. In this blog-post, Kathryn Overall-Cass has a conversation with Jenna about her new role and why she and her husband, Zach are seeding the first donation into the newly formed SDFP Alumni Partnership Fund.

Jonathan Chan is a writer and editor. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities. He is the author of the poetry collection going home (Landmark, 2022) and Managing Editor of poetry.sg. His poetry and essays have appeared in Ekstasis, Fathom, Inheritance, The Yale Logos, Poems for Ephesians, and the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity. More of his writing can be found at jonbcy.wordpress.com.

This July we invite you to invest in our shared future by giving to SGM’s Contemplative Horizons Fund. Workgroup is committed to discerning and developing SGM’s growing edge. We feel called to developing these two spiritual growth opportunities at this time.

Darryl Tempero is a follower of Jesus, a husband, father, minister and lecturer who loves finding God in all things, including the outdoors, sport and movies. In this blogpost he reflects on the contemplative community that the folks at Kiwichurch in Christchurch are creating together.

Adrienne Thompson lives with her husband and flatmates by the Waipāhīhī stream in Karori, so spiritual direction and supervision sessions are punctuated by music from kākā, riroriro, and tūī. In this blogpost she shares her experience of learning to weave as a contemplative practice.

Sam Harvey is the lead pastor at Bay Vineyard Church in Napier. In this blogpost, David Crawley has a conversation with Sam about his passion for spiritual formation being at the centre of church life, attending the Practising the Way conference in Portland and his message of encouragement and challenge to Spiritual Growth Ministries.

Kenneth Fleck is a Dunedin-based spiritual director with a particular interest in companioning people who are deconstructing their faith, or on a spiritual journey outside of traditional faith structures. In this blogpost, Kathryn Overall has a conversation with Kenneth about his personal experience of deconstruction as “an act of love” and his insights for spiritual directors who are accompanying people on similar journeys.

Amanda Pilbrow is a spiritual director, an LGBTIQA+ ally and speaker. She is the founder of www.alreadyenough.co.nz, a website to resource LGBTIQA+ people of faith, (and those who walk beside them). In this blog post, Kathryn Cass has a conversation with Amanda about her research paper ‘Spiritually Directing LGBTIQA+ People of Faith’ and the personal journey that lies behind it.

I thought you’d be interested to know about our recently updated Book List for the Spiritual Directors Formation Programme (SDFP). Whether you completed your formation with SGM three or thirty years ago, I think you’ll find something here to enrich your practice!

Strahan Coleman is a spiritual director, musician and writer who creates his Commoners Communion offerings from a beach-side cabin in Tairua, before returning home to the noisy chaos of family life with his wife Katie and three growing boys. In this blogpost, Kathryn Overall has a conversation with Strahan about his new book ‘Beholding, his partnership with Practising the Way and his sense of the contemplative currents flowing throughout Aoteara, New Zealand.

Rachel Kitchens is a spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and workshop facilitator for the SGM Spiritual Directors Formation Programme. She is married to Andrew Shamey and is mother to three children. In this blog post, Kathryn Overall has a conversation with Rachel about how her contemplative journey collided with the realities of parenting young children, and how she rested in and journeyed creatively with God during those all-consuming years.

Alice Wood is a spiritual director, university chaplain and retreat facilitator with a particular gift for facilitating creative processes in a contemplative way. In this blogpost, Kathryn Overall interviews Alice about her experiences of the gifts of creative processes, both personally and in her practice as a spiritual director.

With some trepidation, I accepted an invitation to tread in the gifted footsteps of Jane Wilkinson who resigned as Convenor at our hui along with Trish O’Donnell. Both Trish and Jane have made huge contributions to SGM with a combined tenure on Workgroup of 34 years!

Kathryn Overall has a conversation with Naomi Holt about her formation journey as a spiritual director, being the youngest person in her cohort, and some of the changes that have happened in her life as a result of following her draw to contemplative spirituality.

To celebrate the release of the 2023 SGM Retreat Calendar, Kathryn Overall invited Phoebe Mackay to share this poem written on retreat and to reflect on the value that contemplative retreats have offered in nourishing her spiritual life.

Rachel Kitchens is a spiritual director, retreat facilitator and workshop facilitator for the SGM Spiritual Directors Formation Programme. In this blog post, Kathryn Overall has a conversation with Rachel about the convictions she holds about the power of spiritual direction and what she notices in her own practice about the spiritual needs of people in their 20’s and 30’s.

Jim McInnes is a church leader, lecturer and a spiritual director with a particular interest in accompanying people in vocational Christian ministry. In this blogpost, Kathryn Overall has a conversation with Jim about his formation as a spiritual director during a ministry sabbatical and the gifts that are emerging on the other side of the deep soul-work of a mid-life transition.

Vic Francis is pastor of Shore Vineyard Church and a spiritual director. He has a particular interest in offering spiritual direction to pastors, and after 30 years in ministry has an inside understanding of the needs and challenges facing church leaders in post-COVID Aoteaora, New Zealand.

When Holly Walton turned 50, her planned party celebrations had to be cancelled thanks to COVID. After receiving beautiful letters from loved ones near and far, she wondered “What would God’s letter to me have said?” In the quiet of lock-down, she re-read a life-time’s worth of journals to find out.