Quick links to information about TE 2026 1-4 October 2026
- Workshops and Electives
- Programme
- Printable PDF version of Programme
- Open Day information – share it with your friends…
- Registrations here
Presenters and Workshop Leaders for TE 2026 1-4 October 2026
Bishop Steve Maina
Bishop Steve Maina serves as the Anglican Bishop of Nelson, cultivating vibrant local communities of faith that seek the flourishing of people and places in Christ. Originally from Kenya and now grounded in Aotearoa New Zealand, he has long encouraged the Church to live confidently in the power of the Gospel to transform lives. He is married to Watiri, and together they have two daughters. He enjoys running, exploring the outdoors and sharing good Kenyan coffee with friends.
Brad Wood
Brad Wood is an Anglican priest, youth ministry leader, supervisor, and creative practitioner based in Whakatลซ Nelson. He serves as Vicar of Waimea Parish and Youth Enabler for the Nelson Anglican Diocese. Alongside his ministry work, Brad is a potter and photographer whose creative practice often explores themes of restoration, formation, beauty, and belonging. He is passionate about helping people encounter God through story, creativity, contemplative practice, and community.
Catherine Whaley
Catherine Whaley lives in New Plymouth. She is married with three grown children. Originally a primary school teacher, Catherine taught in both state schools and within the Catholic system, particularly using art practices as a way of processing and recording ideas and feelings. She is excited to now be in this new space of spiritual direction where she loves creating a space for others to meet with God. Catherine often notices life around her and within her by experimenting with drawing and painting. She loves to share this way of seeing and experiencing with others. She is curious about how this can be a gentle invitation to notice and respond to the extraordinary in our everyday lives.
Courtney Wilson
Rev Courtney Wilson is a Spiritual Director, priest in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia and from 2008โ2024 served as Program Director for Creation Care Study Program, an interdisciplinary tertiary program whose mission is to “educate students to be agents of God’s shalom, especially through understanding and caring for creation”. Although originally from Canada, she has called Kaik home since 2008. She loves living by the ocean, and enjoys kayaking, swimming, and walking.
Hilary Mitchell
Hilary Mitchell is a retired Catholic. Initially a secondary school teacher, she was co-author with her late husband John (Te ฤtiawa, Ngฤti Tama) of four volumes of “Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka โ A History of Mฤori of Nelson and Marlborough”. Earlier, John and Hilary opened the first co-ed student hostel at Canterbury University, lived and worked for five years at the Outward Bound School at Anakiwa, grew tomatoes commercially, and established Mitchell Research in 1985 to undertake social research. Eventually Mฤori issues and reports for the Waitangi Tribunal took up most of their time.
Karen Moynagh
Karen’s first encounter with Soul Collage was when asked to bring a magazine to her spiritual direction formation. She cut, pasted and processed and was awestruck. Soul Collage became a cherished practice, a spirit-filled form of prayer. In the USA she attended a SoulCollageยฎ retreat at a Benedictine monastery. This deepened her practice and expanded her discoveries. Post Covid, monthly Zoom sessions began and enabled continued growth within a community. Karen lives in Richmond in the Nelson region, where the landscape is a daily gift. She is embracing her senior years with a commitment to simple, contemplative living. Meditation and time in nature help her flourish with the Divine.
Kaye Bustin
Kaye is an Artist, Art and Dance Teacher and Spiritual Director who loves engaging with God through the senses, imagination and the creative arts. She loves to help others discover joy and more of what God has for them through using these too. Kaye is also a wife to Tim and mother to Ella and Zac. She loves creating, mostly out of clay but other tactile mediums too and keeps active with her dog, mountain biking and walks with friends. She loves offering hospitality and travelling to new places.
Lori Brudvik Lindner
Lori is a mother, a spiritual director, a rest home chaplain, a seven-year Hospice life-story writer, a retired psychotherapist and Chair of the Nelson Astronomical Society. She loves cats, dancing, folding laundry, the sea and stars; she twirls the baton, rings Cathedral bells and gives thanks to Divine Love every day.
Lori’s relationship with prayer spans from childhood to today. Her prayer practices have varied and matured over the course of her life. A significant boost to her prayer formation happened while living in Los Angeles in the 1980s. She was eager to learn about religious practices outside traditional Christianity and undertook a six-month comparative religion study project. Her key takeaways: prayer seems to be the most ancient and widely distributed of all religious rituals; the Golden Rule exists in all major religions; and this type of project takes a lifetime, not six months. The subject of prayer continues to hold Lori’s attention. She is currently enjoying Sister Wendy Beckett’s book “Sister Wendy on Prayer”. Lori’s Spiritual Director Page
Miriam Jessie Fisher
Miriam Jessie Fisher is an interdisciplinary lecturer at Laidlaw College in theology and education. She works in arts-based research methodologies and has a background in teaching, including as a specialist arts teacher. She is interested especially in the Bible and the ways God is always present in the fringes of the story, affirming human dignity. She is a poet and textile artist, and a lover of dark chocolate, laughter, reading and moving to music. Miriam Jessie has a strong commitment to theology that honours Aotearoa and the context of te reo me ลna tikanga Mฤori. Deaf culture and NZSL are part of this context for her too. Miriam is married to Mike and they have two sons.
Sarah Carruthers
Sarah Carruthers is a spiritual director, creative arts therapist and neurocoach. For more than 20 years she has accompanied people through life’s most difficult terrain. Shaped by the loss of her husband and her own family trauma, she knows personally the path back to wholeness โ and to God โ through the dark. She works with complex and developmental trauma, including ACC sensitive claims and sexual abuse. Her practice draws on Polyvagal-Informed Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Interactive Drawing Therapy, Havening and Guided Drawing, all held within contemplative presence and spiritual accompaniment. She flourishes in the simple gifts of God: sea air, long walks on Nelson’s beaches with her spaniel, and the quiet grace found in the natural world.
Spanky Moore
Spanky Moore is an Anglican minister who’s played in punk bands, been a Student Radio breakfast host, run a monastery, has worked as a University Chaplain, and dabbles in podcasting. He is passionate about discipleship and mission with people beyond the church walls, and has written a book on his journey with Vocatio โ a community which ran in Christchurch for 3 years working with de churched young adults.
Steve Tollestrup
Steve is a Spiritual Director and supervisor based in Auckland, practising in Herne Bay and online. He is also a working artist living in the Waitakฤre Ranges and a guide at Auckland Art Gallery. His background includes leadership roles with Industrial Chaplaincy Northern and TEAR Fund, and service as an elected member within Auckland Council. He works with Christian individuals, leaders and institutions, as well as people beyond formal faith traditions. Steve loves the work of Spiritual Direction and senses we are entering a fresh and emerging understanding of this practice.
Sue Cunningham
Sue has always wanted to help and support others โ whether in administration, banking, co-ordinating Sunday school, as a Youth Leader or Elder in a Church. This desire led her to Spiritual Direction. She also offers supportive accompaniment with Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats and co-ordinates the monthly support prayer for Crisis Pregnancy.
Prayer and scripture are vital to her, and a yearlong Enneagram Certification Course led by Russ Hudson and Jessica Dibb (completed mid-2025) has deepened her contemplative life. Sue is a fellow traveller on the journey of life and believes that, regardless of where we are on our journey, there is always more โ sometimes in abundance, sometimes in endurance. She lives in Nelson with her husband John. They have three children, one of whom they lost in an accident at the age of 13. Their two daughters and their families live locally and are their delight. Sue Cunningham Spiritual Director Page
Vicki Roberts
Whakapapa links through Mum (Ngฤ Ruahine / Te Atiawa), Dad (Scottish English) into New Plymouth 1878 โ so tuturu (authentic/original) Taranaki! A background in Pastoral Work, Community development, teaching, Trustee Board work offers lots of context and experience to hold with her Spiritual Direction practice.
