In July, the Onespirit community came together to celebrate the joyful ordination of a new class of Ministers. Huge congratulations to the Class of 2024!

For me, this year marked my first anniversary of being ordained as an Interfaith Minister with OneSpirit. The anniversary of this milestone has felt really significant to me and has prompted a lot of deep reflection.

During that week or so last July, I grasped the sense that I was doing something that I was ‘meant’ to be doing with my time on this earth. It was a remarkable experience and one of the best weeks of my life.

No wonder, then, that I felt a little numb, a little deflated afterwards. The height of the high sometimes dictates the depth of the low needed to return to homeostasis.

The year after the course is often called the informal ‘third year’ of the course, and I think I understand why now. In the absence of the intensity of the course proper, there was a profound deepening into the lessons that I learned over the two years. Little cracks in my heart and self were broken wide open. I missed the deeply supportive container of the course and my beloved class. At the same time, I began having difficulty finding work and struggling with my mental health, making it feel impossible to consider ‘starting’ my public ministry (though of course, it started long ago). So all told, the year following ordination was more challenging than I could have expected.

It took a while to recognise that there was no ‘going back’ after the course ended. Accepting the call of the course was like diving into the ocean. The course itself may be a two-year wild ride in the slipstream, but the end of the course doesn’t deposit you back at the shoreline – it shoots you far out into open ocean.

This anniversary has given me a new opportunity to grieve the end of the course, which meant so much to me, but which maybe I wasn’t ready to mourn at the time. At the same time, it allowed me to celebrate all that was so beautiful about it, and start to look ahead to what’s next.

I’m sure the informal third year works itself in different ways in all of us. For me, at least, it feels like the informal ‘third year’ is the true conclusion of my training – though not of course of my learning or growing.

I share my experience in the hope that our newly ordained Ministers might work with the powerful energy of their third year in the way that support them, and that if they do find it challenging, they’ll reach out. I for one would be very happy to listen.

A deepest thankyou to everyone and everything that has held me during my informal third year. Here’s to whatever this new phase holds – for all of us.