THE CHERRY TREE PATHWAY
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Discover Our Training
OneSpirit’s Spiritual Development and Ministry Training offers a unique approach to personal and spiritual growth. For over 25 years, we’ve guided individuals on a journey of self-discovery and compassionate service. Our training is designed to help you deepen your spiritual connection, develop your inner leadership skills, and engage in meaningful service.
Through practices like deep listening, inclusivity, and respect for diversity, we explore what it means to be human and how to live a more authentic life. Are you someone seeking personal growth or exploring a career in ministry? For those who value inclusivity, compassion, and authenticity, our profound training offers the opportunity to unlock your potential and embark on a deeper spiritual journey.
No matter the reason that you’re here, we welcome you to join us on this transformative journey…
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is deeply experiential, drawing on the richness and diversity of your own life experiences to shape meaningful explorations in class. This approach creates opportunities for profound self-reflection, opens us to hearing diverse perspectives, and enables us to continually meet others with love and respect. The world becomes our classroom, reminding us that to be in sacred service — however that may look for each of us — our work must remain deeply connected to the realities of the world in which we live.
At the heart of the curriculum:
- Recognising the inherent worth and sacredness within ourselves and learning to see this in others.
- Cultivating loving and compassionate relationships with ourselves and those around us.
We incorporate the principles of nonviolent communication to guide us in engaging with difference, encouraging us to respond with love and understanding. Deep empathic listening serves as the golden thread weaving together every aspect of our curriculum.
The Cherry Tree Pathway follows both an inner and outer curriculum:
- The Inner Curriculum focuses on our relationship with ourselves and the Divine. Through a self-reflective process, you will explore practices that foster growth and personal development. By deeply listening to yourself, you become more attuned to your internal landscape and can access the wisdom that resides within. This inner work is essential preparation for the outer curriculum.
- The Outer Curriculum explores how our inner transformation manifests in the world. It examines our relationships with others, the ways we engage with the world around us, and how we embody sacred service in our daily lives.
Together, these elements guide you on a journey of self-discovery, connection, and meaningful engagement with the world.
Overview of Our Training
Each year, we adapt our training pathways to meet the unique needs of the new students joining our ministry training. This year, inspired by the cherry tree—a symbol of the ongoing cycle of life and renewal—we’re excited to introduce the Cherry Tree Pathway. This blended programme, with community connection at its heart, is carefully designed to support our students’ growth and development.
Building on the success of our Aspen and Birch Pathways, the Cherry Tree Pathway reflects our commitment to evolving ministry training. As the world continues to change, we thoughtfully adapt our approach each year to ensure our training remains relevant, impactful, and aligned with the needs of each new group of students. This pathway is guided by four key principles:
DEEP EMPATHIC LISTENING
This underpins much of our curriculum, focusing on how we listen to ourselves, to Spirit, to the wisdom of the world’s faith paths, and to others. You will approach deep listening as an essential skill to both your inner development and your ministerial outreach.
SELF-AWARENESS
You will explore a range of self-reflective models and how to implement these in your own practice to deepen your self-awareness and personal growth.
HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT
You will journey through the development of the whole self by an active inner exploration of what spirituality means to you, implementing physical and mental practices to dive ever deeper into your self-development.
YOUR MINISTRY
Integrating all the above, you will enquire into who, and what, the community is, exploring the interconnectedness of all beings. In doing so, you will journey through what it means to be of service in community, and how this may realise itself.
The Curriculum Themes
Deep Listening Skills
We emphasise truly listening – a practice that involves not just our ears, but also our hearts. By understanding and acknowledging the experiences and viewpoints of others, we develop our ability to communicate with empathy. This deep listening fosters a personal connection that transcends words, opening a gateway for genuine understanding and dialogue.
Self-Reflective Practice
We explore helpful models, theories and practices and encourage grounded, holistic forms of spiritual practice, including physical forms of energy and bodywork, which resource us in our self-development, nurturing and informing our self-care and self-awareness. A key aspect of this strand is the development of self-reflective practice, as we encourage reflecting on our own life experiences and the emotions tied to them.
Faith Paths and Worldviews
We explore core principles of the world’s religions faiths and spiritual traditions, cultivating respectful, hospitable attitudes to cultural and religious differences through empathy and an experiential willingness to ‘walk in the shoes of the other’; we practice empathy, and look to finding the common ground in the basic human capacity for love.
Spiritual and Pastoral Service in Community
Born from a desire to bring people together after conflict, we work on ways to build peace within ourselves and our communities. We aim to contribute to a healthier society and a better planet by learning how to resolve conflict in a kind and inclusive manner.
Ceremony and Ritual
We reflect on the power of ritual and ceremony at the heart of family, faith and community, as we journey through the stages of life and death. We focus particularly on sacred elements of ritual and on the major rites of passage around baby blessings, partnership or marriage blessings and funerals and how we bring our own creativity to these timeless expressions of humanity.
Ministry of Spiritual Accompaniment
Putting our deep listening skills into practice by offering support just like a trusted friend would do. We learn to be truly present for others, holding space for heartfelt conversations, and walking alongside them without judgment.
Supervision
A key part of your training, and indeed your ministry, is being in regular supervision with an accredited supervisor. We are proud to have our own body of accredited supervisors working with both our student and minister community. Supervision fosters a culture of ongoing learning and development in your ministry and plays an essential role in your own reflective practice. We ask all our students to be in regular supervision throughout their training.
This is not included in our fee structure as we feel this gives you the freedom to work with a supervisor from our accredited body that you feel most drawn to and allows you to work within your own budget.
“My experience of supervision as a client has been transformational, educational, at times thrilling and mind and heart-opening, challenging – and simply game-changing for my own work practice and self and professional development.” – OneSpirit Minister & Supervisor, Nicola Coombe
Why be in regular supervision? There are so many reasons that supervision is a valuable tool, both during your training and afterwards.
Spiritual Support
- Supervision offers a space for guidance and encouragement from a trained individual, an important part of staying connected to yourself, and your boundaries, and preventing burnout.
Accountability
- Regular supervision keeps us continually engaged in reflective practice having someone else to keep us accountable can go a long way in your work.
Personal and Professional Development
- Supervision allows you to reflect on your strengths and your areas for growth, as well as discuss any challenges that have come up for you recently.
Regular 1-1 Support
- Supervision allows for regular check-ins with another individual in a similar line of work, supporting you in feeling you are heard and part of a wider community.
I would heartily recommend the course! For me, the quality of our tutors was an outstanding feature of the programme, especially in their ability to create a sacred vessel, full of love, creativity, agility, sensitivity and wisdom, in which we would learn and grow together: and that was true both online and on the in-person retreats.
The guest speakers on different faith paths were also a joy and a great help. The advice I’d offer if asked, would be that it’s important to be ready to throw yourself into the course – like jumping into an inviting river. It feels vital to be ready to share all your strengths and vulnerabilities and also be willing to join in around the edges (for example in the discussions on the online platform between sessions).
I sense that the more we put in, the more we benefited and grew, even if it wasn’t our instinct to be so engaged. It was beautiful to see everyone’s gifts and qualities emerging, the more the group relaxed and felt supported. I would add that it is important to read the material explaining the purpose and stance of the course, and take on board that this is not a form of therapy (though it will be hugely therapeutic!) but is, rather, a preparation for service.
As such, it demands a high level of self-responsibility and willingness to face challenges.
Jennifer, 2024 Graduate