John Hebenton tssf
Bay of Plenty
Chaplaincy, Church Leadership, Climate Change, Creativity and Spirituality, Grief and Loss, Interfaith, Men's spirituality, Social Justice, Spirituality of ageing, The Environment, Treaty Partnership
Contemplative, Covid Vaccinated, Welcomes LGBTQI+
Contact details
Religious background
I am an Anglican Franciscan.
As a Franciscan I try to live the gospel in the way of Francis and Clare of Assisi, I acknowledge my poverty and look forward to discovering God at work in all I meet.
I have been an ordained Anglican Priest for nearly 40 years – which just makes me feel old. Most of my ministry has been in youth work, for both Anglicans and Methodist, at the regional and national level. I am still very passionate about young people.
From 2012 – 2024 I had the pleasure of being vicar at the Anglican Parish of Gate Pa, Tauranga before retiring in May 2024. It was both a joy and responsibility to be vicar of a parish that sits on the site of one of the last battles of the New Zealand Land Wars, and all the hardship and injustice that followed that for mana whenua.
I am married, and much of my time in ordained ministry has been in job sharing positions with my wife. We have three adult children.
I trained as a spiritual director as part of the Spiritual Growth Ministries Spiritual Direction Formation Programme in 1999-2000.
Approach to spiritual direction
William Barry and William J Connolly describe spiritual direction as
“the help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship”
It is being helped to pay attention to the activity of God in your everyday life. It is more than “spirituality” or even the development of spirituality.
The key question in every direction session, is, in some words or other:
“How is God present in your life and what is God inviting you to at this time? or as Creasy Dean and Foster say “What has been going on between you and God?”.
Spiritual direction encourages you to explore a closer relationship with God. Many of us find it difficult to notice God’s action in our busy daily lives, yet long for a more conscious experience of God’s presence and love.
Spiritual direction is not really about being “directed” or told what to do. Rather, it is helping you hear and see the invitation to grow in intimacy with God and to encourage you to live out the consequences of this deepening relationship.
William Barry and William J Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction, p.8.
Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster: The Godbearing Life.
