Patrick Oliver
KEY NOTE SPEAKER: PATRICK OLIVER
I was born in Brisbane, and have spent most of my life in the south-east corner of Queensland. It has been my privilege to have accompanied folk for thirty years: ten in pastoral situations, and twenty years in specific spiritual direction. From my boyhood, I had always been fascinated with the ways that people talked about God. Far more intriguing to me than “what does this person believe?” was “what has led them to relate to God in the way they do?”
Michelle and I have been happily married now for eight years (it was a later marriage for both of us) and we have been blessed with two children – Daniel who is 6 and Rahel who is 2. We live in Stafford, Brisbane, and I conduct my direction sessions in the downstairs office at home.
I’ve learned so much about God from the family, my children and from my directees. Yet reading still is a love of mine when I have the chance. I have enjoyed lately reading a recent book “Eager to Love” by Richard Rohr, and also re-reading an oldie, “King Saul: the Tragic Hero” by John A. Sanford.
My suburban garden often beckons me, and now and then I do enjoy a little time amongst the plants and weeds (although children are very creative in completely hijacking one’s carefully planned garden arrangements). I also love being involved with my sister in leading the music ministry in our local Catholic parish.
As far as official studies are concerned, I completed an M.A. in Studies in Religion back in 1994, and a PhD in 1999. The doctorate centred on verifying the place of a mythopoeic approach to reading the scriptures – which blends in very well with how scripture is often used in spiritual direction. Another long-time passion of mine is the world of dreams, and how they can help us to listen and to love.
Retreats are also a joy to me, and they have gifted me with the opportunity to meet many small groups on the “grass-roots level” in various places throughout Queensland. I also love writing, and have self-published quite a few books and CDs through the years. My personally favourite books are “A God to Fall Into: Seven echoes in the great adventure of living in the heart of God”, “All in the Flow: The enneagram’s gift to prayerfulness”, and “The Freeing of God: Revisiting the gospels as the years go by”.
I was born in Brisbane, and have spent most of my life in the south-east corner of Queensland. It has been my privilege to have accompanied folk for thirty years: ten in pastoral situations, and twenty years in specific spiritual direction. From my boyhood, I had always been fascinated with the ways that people talked about God. Far more intriguing to me than “what does this person believe?” was “what has led them to relate to God in the way they do?”
Michelle and I have been happily married now for eight years (it was a later marriage for both of us) and we have been blessed with two children – Daniel who is 6 and Rahel who is 2. We live in Stafford, Brisbane, and I conduct my direction sessions in the downstairs office at home.
I’ve learned so much about God from the family, my children and from my directees. Yet reading still is a love of mine when I have the chance. I have enjoyed lately reading a recent book “Eager to Love” by Richard Rohr, and also re-reading an oldie, “King Saul: the Tragic Hero” by John A. Sanford.
My suburban garden often beckons me, and now and then I do enjoy a little time amongst the plants and weeds (although children are very creative in completely hijacking one’s carefully planned garden arrangements). I also love being involved with my sister in leading the music ministry in our local Catholic parish.
As far as official studies are concerned, I completed an M.A. in Studies in Religion back in 1994, and a PhD in 1999. The doctorate centred on verifying the place of a mythopoeic approach to reading the scriptures – which blends in very well with how scripture is often used in spiritual direction. Another long-time passion of mine is the world of dreams, and how they can help us to listen and to love.
Retreats are also a joy to me, and they have gifted me with the opportunity to meet many small groups on the “grass-roots level” in various places throughout Queensland. I also love writing, and have self-published quite a few books and CDs through the years. My personally favourite books are “A God to Fall Into: Seven echoes in the great adventure of living in the heart of God”, “All in the Flow: The enneagram’s gift to prayerfulness”, and “The Freeing of God: Revisiting the gospels as the years go by”.
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 Fran Francis
Joining the Dots: a workshop on creativity and spiritual direction offered by Fran Francis.
Let’s explore together how making stuff helps connect us to God and how to work with what our creative directees bring to a session. Fran and her husband Vic have been in pastoral ministry for over twenty years with the Vineyard Movement Aotearoa New Zealand leading two congregations on Auckland’s North Shore. Following a sense of call to soul care Fran has established Solace spiritual direction practice with her colleague Kris Telfer and together they write and lead retreats, focus days, workshops, and contemplative liturgies and also meet with directees. Fran feels that creativity can be daunting for those who don’t consider themselves artistic and enjoys opening non-threatening, accessible creative opportunities for people so they can see the movement of God in their lives. |
 David Crawley
Workshop by David Crawley: Power in the Spiritual Direction Relationship.
We will look at cultivating sensitivity to power dynamics which operate in the spiritual direction relationship as we support our directees in the co-authoring of their stories with God. David and his wife Sarah live in Titirangi, and both lecture at Laidlaw College on the Auckland campus. David’s teaching area is spiritual formation, which connects well with his work as a spiritual director and supervisor. He is also preparing for ordination as a sacramental minister at St Francis Anglican Church. When not busy with those responsibilities David enjoys walking, drinking coffee in the local cafés, watching movies, listening to music, and attempting to play the saxophone. |
 Brainstorm – Click to Enlarge
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 Adrienne Thompson
Workshop by Adrienne Thompson: “Living in the land, celebrating the seasons of Aotearoa.”
So much of our spiritual inspiration is drawn from the past and present traditions and teachers of the Northern Hemisphere. But we live in Aotearoa! What does it mean for us to observe Advent in Spring, Lent in Autumn, new year in June? How can we help ourselves and those we accompany to broaden our experience of God in our own context, our own land, our own seasons? A chance to explore and exchange ideas and practices together. Growing up in India, working 20 years in Bangladesh and now resident in Wellington, please don’t ask me ‘where are you from?’ Since doing the SGM formation course I’ve been offering spiritual direction and supervision in Wellington. My difficult and joyful ‘God-assignment’ at the moment is learning to live well in Aotearoa, even though Asia will always be home. |
 Pauline Simonsen
Workshop by Pauline Simonsen: Hebrew ‘knowing’: integrating head and heart in spiritual direction.
A spiritual direction truism is that we need to encourage our directees to move from their heads to their hearts. This can suggest a dualism – that these parts of us ‘know’ separately. What might a more holistic Hebraic understanding of human ‘knowing’ bring to our spiritual direction practise and indeed to our own self-knowledge? How might our different ways of knowing be integrated? How can our hearts say “come in” to our heads? Or our heads say “come in” to our hearts? Pauline Simonsen is a Christian teacher and spiritual director, married to Roger, and living in Palmerston North. She is dean of the Emmaus teaching community there, after previously holding leadership roles with the Lutheran Church of NZ and Laidlaw College (formerly Bible College of NZ). When she’s not preparing lectures or engaging in spiritual direction, she is usually reading detective novels or meeting friends for coffee! |
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 Sue Pickering
Workshop by Sue Pickering: Ageing as a braided river
When we look at our beautiful braided rivers, it’s hard to tell which of the several streams will dominate as the water flows to the sea because each will move as it will, affected by things beyond its control such as environmental influences, changes in weather patterns, and direct human intervention. As we age we are likely to encounter one or all of the following ‘streams’ but we cannot predict the relative flow, direction or shape of each stream: the stream of ‘falling’ as we move ever closer towards Hope the stream of ‘letting go’ as we move ever closer towards Faith the stream of ‘unknowing’ as we move ever closer towards Love In this workshop we will explore these three ‘streams’, what they might mean for us as individuals, and the opportunities and challenges we face as spiritual directors among those who are nearing the divine ocean of Love which awaits us all. Sue Pickering is an Anglican priest living in New Plymouth. She has previously been involved with the formation of spiritual directors as Coordinator of the Spiritual Directors’ Formation Programme run by Spiritual Growth Ministries and has published books on spirituality, retreats, and spiritual direction. More recently she has been involved in chaplaincy in elder care, as well as working as a spiritual director, supervisor and conductor of retreats and quiet days. |
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Workshop Presented by Regina Daly – An Exploration of the Relationship Between Cosmology and Spiritual Direction.Regina Daly is a Presentation Sister since 1978, born in Ireland and living in Aotearoa, New Zealand since January, 2010. Regina is passionate about the opportunity to explore this topic believing that “An individual’s harmony with his or her ‘own deep self’ requires not merely a journey to the interior but a harmonization with the environmental world.” Hillman
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 Regina Daly
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