SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT & MINISTRY TRAINING
The cherry tree pathway
The Heart of Our Training
KNOWLEDGE
Learn from seasoned tutors and peers, exploring diverse spiritual traditions and practical skills for meaningful interfaith ministry.
GROWTH
Transform your understanding of yourself and others while gaining tools for personal and professional development to create lasting impact.
COMMUNITY
Join a group united by a shared commitment to personal growth and creating positive change within themselves and their communities.
At times it feels like there is so much to learn and do and read and to answer the endless how and why questions, and then I am afraid of missing something, not saying anything, and desperately wanting to hold onto it all. And at the same time, the course feels like it is already alive within me and if I give it space and time, all will be well. It’s a tension between that excitement and allowing. I really love it. Thank you.
Ivan, Current Student
Who We Are & What Our Training Is
OneSpirit’s Spiritual Development and Ministry Training programme has emerged as a groundbreaking response to the ever-changing challenges of our contemporary world. With over 25 years of experience, we guide receptive individuals towards inner leadership development, tailoring our methods to address the evolving needs of humankind.
We offer training for those who want to contribute towards the evolution of consciousness amongst humanity and deepen the expression of love, compassion and respect for self and others. Our Ministry training is rooted in deep listening draws on the wisdom traditions inherent in the world’s many faith paths, and explores the role of spiritual accompaniment, sacred activism, ritual, and ceremony in today’s world. Our curriculum is grounded in learning how to nurture our innate capacity for making peace with our experience of the world, and how to use these insights and skills in developing inner leadership.
We welcome everyone who feels called to deepen their understanding and awareness of Self and Spirit, in whatever form that takes for you. We are committed to sharing our journey of exploration into what it means to be human.
Our Vision
A world in which humanity awakens in an inclusive, global spirituality that encompasses us all in a field of love and life.
Our Mission
To work towards evolving consciousness in the world, by facilitating open-hearted people to awaken to inner leadership and their capacity for forgiveness, reconciliation and peacemaking.
Our Touchstones
Inclusivity, compassion, authenticity, spiritual transformation.
Overview of Our Training
The Cherry Tree Pathway builds on the success of our Aspen and Birch Pathways, we are delighted to share the Cherry Tree Pathway with you. As the world around us continues to change and grow, we too have spent time adapting our ministry training to ensure it continues to be of service to the world we live in. Four key principles underpin this pathway:
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.
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is deeply experiential, drawing on your own rich and diverse life experiences, and using this to shape explorations in class. This leads to opportunities for deep self-reflection, opens us up to hearing diverse perspectives and allows us to continually meet others with love and respect.
The world is our classroom, and for each of us to be in sacred service, however, this may look for you, our work must remain connected to the world in which we live.
At the heart of the curriculum is recognising the inherent worth and sacredness of ourselves, and being able to recognise this in others; allowing us to come into loving relationships with ourselves and others. We draw on the principles of nonviolent communication to see how we may engage with difference and continue to work with love. Deep empathic listening is the golden thread that connects each aspect of our curriculum.
The Cherry Tree Pathway follows both an inner and outer curriculum. The inner curriculum refers to our relationship with ourselves and the Divine. This aspect of the curriculum follows a self-reflective process for growth and development, whereby in deeply listening to ourselves, we become more attuned to our internal landscape and able to access our inner wisdom.
This is an essential part of the work as we move towards the outer curriculum; who we are in the world. The outer curriculum examines our relationships with that which is not within us, how our inner work manifests in the world and in our relationship with others.
This two-year journey will be delivered through a blended approach; weaving together live weekly classes – both as a whole class and in small groups – alongside resources in our bespoke online classroom, and a dedicated student communications platform, all to nurture your development.
You will learn what it really means to meet people where they are in sacred service, whatever form this may take for you.
To guide this work, our curriculum takes on a cyclical structure, encompassing a range of key themes that are explored again and again. Together, these themes allow you to delve deeper into both the inner and outer aspects of the curriculum.
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.
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.
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.
Curriculum Delivery
The Cherry Tree Pathway offers a rich and engaging learning experience through a blended approach designed to suit diverse learning styles.
You’ll participate in live weekly classes that foster connection and real-time interaction with tutors and peers, alongside a bespoke online classroom filled with resources to support independent study at your own pace.
Personalised guidance is provided through 1-1 meetings with tutors, offering tailored feedback and support to integrate your learning into your personal and ministerial journey.
In-person opportunities add depth, creating space for embodied learning and community building.
Rooted in a flipped learning approach, this pathway places independent study at the heart of your progress.
By preparing through personal exploration, you shape and enrich the collaborative work that happens in the classroom, empowering you to take an active role in your transformative journey.
Live Classes
Wednesday evenings will become dedicated to your weekly classes. These will be a mix of whole class meetings and small group work. Facilitated by your tutor team, these will be deeply experiential in nature, with active participation and they are an essential part of the two year training.
Online Classroom
Our bespoke online classroom will nurture your independent learning. The resources we share with you in this space are a fundamental part of your journey. Each week, we will share new materials for you to engage with to prepare for your weekly webinar.
Tutor Support
You will be supported throughout the training through a range of support meetings with your tutor team and our body of accredited supervisors. These meetings will support you in reflecting on your journey through the training.
Optional Modules
Our bespoke online classroom will nurture your independent learning. The resources we share with you in this space are a fundamental part of your journey. Each week, we will share new materials for you to engage with to prepare for your weekly webinar.
Online Community
You will have access to a purpose-built and intentional online communications platform.
Spiritual Practice
During webinars, 1-1 spaces, and study groups you will notice the ways the sacred is invited into the seemingly every day. You are expected to maintain a daily spiritual practice that will support you in your ministry.
Meet Your Core Tutor
Annie’s own spiritual formation is lifelong and ‘out of the box’; she models an ‘interfaith’, or ‘inter-spiritual’ love of the way we touch and inspire one another, and how we can learn to appreciate one another and find a connection. Annie has a pluralist and non-proselytising approach to teaching, with an interest in how each participant brings a unique perspective which interweaves with the whole. Annie found a natural ‘connection’ from her youngest days in the wild and ancient places, with a particular affinity with trees, through spending much time outdoors, while brought up in a household where the Christian faith had a big influence for many generations.
Annie’s exploration of world faiths began through school religious education lessons, realising that religions are related to one another, and are in communication with each other. The resonances and differences were a fascination! This and her own ‘alternative’ explorations and experiences in extra-sensory perceptions inspired her to immerse herself in beliefs of the world at the university level, which then deepened further through forming relationships with diverse people from different walks of life. Through this, Annie experienced a ‘wake up’ call to respecting the extraordinary lives people live and the ways a sense of meaning and love can sustain us through the most challenging situations. She has since found particular refuge in the Dharma and is a student of the Dao through her tai chi practice, a ‘grassroots mystic’ at heart.
Annie’s passion for experiential spirituality and soulful humanity has led her into diverse faith paths, spiritual traditions and cultural communities over the last three decades. Through study and relationships with friends, neighbours and colleagues, Annie has been touched by the privilege and challenge of being welcomed into others’ worlds. Annie shares this ongoing and self-reflective exploration in the Ministry training programme.
Alongside her tutor role at OneSpirit, Annie is currently engaged in a ‘grassroots’ voluntary ministry in a local urban project, where she is the ‘garden chaplain’ of a therapeutic gardening project for vulnerable members of the local community.
Annie is drawn to this ministry through her lifelong affinity with the natural world, nourished through her druidry practice. She finds particular meaning in empowering others to share in cherishing and regenerating green spaces, including improving the quality of life for all in urban environments.
A favourite topic of conversation is the wonders and mysteries of her garden pond! Annie is an experienced spiritual accompanier/coach and qualified chaplain, with NHS training in mental health spiritual care in an interfaith context. She draws on a degree and MA from Cambridge University in Theology and Religious Studies and her professional formation as a teacher, undergirding her commitment to diversity and social justice issues of inner cities. Annie joined OneSpirit as a tutor in 2016 and is ordained. She enjoys working with classes in day workshops, residential and online contexts and is interested in how we form deep, mutually enriching connections through these different approaches. With a side-line in mural painting and a prolific writer, Annie has published numerous books and articles offering reflections and ceremony resources, particularly about key interests in the Feminine Divine, deep ecology and the mystical heart of sacred texts.
Annie is steady, calm, open, knowledgeable, curious and loving. She is modelling how to really listen and respond to the actual needs of the people she is interacting with. The materials she is sharing are well thought out, balancing inspiration and practicality. She foregrounds safety and welcomes in her facilitation of the class in a way that invites bravery, accountability and community. I am grateful to be taught by her and to share sacred space with her.
Words from Our Students
It has been great. I have very much enjoyed working with all three tutors and look forward to the onward journey. I have found all three tutors to be very knowledgeable, professional and supportive in a very mindful and caring way. They do so in a way that shows compassion and genuine care for the well-being of students.
Paul, 2024 Graduate