Supervisor Spotlight: Sarah MacDonald
What year were you ordained? 2014
What inspired you to pursue training with OneSpirit? After many years of quite intense practice in Qigong and Meditation, I felt a strong connection with spirit but struggled to bring that understanding into the world and to communicate a sense of Spirit. One Spirit Interfaith training was the gateway for me to be able to integrate my spiritual life with my life in the world.
What motivated you to expand your ministry by becoming a Supervisor? I love how Supervision calls on the knowing of the Head, the Heart and the Hara in equal measure, engaging Intellect, Intuition and Instinct. It is a wonderfully holistic process where we can meet ourselves and each other very fully. Supervision feels expansive, challenging, and mysterious, as we try between us to catch a glimpse of what is really going on. As we try, with all our skill and all our senses and all our integrity, to catch a glimpse of Truth.
What services do you provide? I offer 1:1 Supervision online, and in person in the Bristol area. I am available to lead Group Supervision. As a member of the OSIF faculty, I am not available to Supervise students. I also offer Spiritual Accompaniment. I specialise in embodied practices, grounded in my lifelong practice of Qigong, and have a particular interest in sacred activism and anti-racism.
How can clients get in touch with you? Email me here, or contact me via my website – exploringspirit.co.uk.
What do you consider the most rewarding aspect of being an ordained interfaith minister? Ministry is a constant invitation to live my life each moment in accordance with the commitment I made at Ordination. It is an ongoing path of spiritual growth and personal development, which means the ongoing growth of service to others and to the world. the greatest reward is gradually, gradually coming closer to God.
What do you consider the most rewarding aspect of being an accredited supervisor? I love supervision! Supervision is like the most serious and most glorious game in the world! Here we are together, crouched by the edge of the pool, or standing on the edge of the cliff, looking out, looking in, trying with all that is in us to catch a glimpse of the Truth that will bring us into harmony with Truth. Wow!
How do you put your personal ministry into practice? Long before I ever heard of One Spirit, I yearned for what I thought of as “an integrated life”, where every element of my being pulled together – work supporting home supporting hobbies supporting values supporting relationships supporting work. 35 years down the line, Ministry is my container for an integrated life. How it looks outwardly changes over time. Just now my ministry is most active in my work with The Coat of Hopes, in anti-racism work and in my teaching practice as a Group Tutor on the OneSpirit faculty team.
Where do you see your ministry taking you in the future? I have no idea. It’s a bit like asking “Where do I see God taking you in the future”? The whole point is in the not knowing, in the letting go of my own ideas and plans and being open and faithful to every next step that appears before me in the mist. Right now ministry calls me into Sacred Activism, doing what little I can to address the roots of the Climate and Ecological emergency in myself and in the world. I hope that ministry will lead me further in this direction and allow me to play my part well.
How do you personally interpret the words “interfaith” or “interfaith minister”? Interfaith to me means “Between Faiths”. Sometimes this is understood as “dialogue” or “meeting”, or understanding” between faiths. But I understand it to mean Living Between Faiths. Interfaith Ministry exists in the spaces between faiths: in just the same way dandelions and grasses and bits of moss live in between the paving stones on my patio. I feel a great kinship with those little plants that grow in the cracks. That is what an interfaith minister is, to me: a small and unconsidered being that lives in the cracks and gives warmth and nourishment and shelter to little unseen creatures, and occasional flashes of beauty and colour to inspire everyone near.
Why do you believe supervision plays an essential role in developing and deepening a minister’s practices? Supervision is essential for anyone who works deeply with anyone else, to help us untangle the threads of “me” and “you”, and to help us feel the pain and the love within any deep encounter. For Ministers, it is especially important in addition to keeping our work in the context of spiritual practice and related to a spiritual path. This path can be narrow and steep and slippery. And it can branch and wander. The mist can come down. We can find ourselves turned around or at a cliff edge. A good Supervisor, with their own embodied spiritual practice, can help us along this path, either because they are a few steps ahead, waiting at the next bend, able to point out pitfalls and handholds to help you along, or because you are there together in the mist, sharing everything you each already know to help you, the supervisee, to take the next right step.
What inspires you to do this work? Love inspires me to do this work. I really love doing it! I love bringing all my senses and all my skills to bear; I love the intensity of listening and opening and waiting; I love it when something that was clouded becomes clear when a hidden belief reveals itself when someone laughs with the relief of how simple it has all suddenly become. I love the moment of “Oh! So, that’s why!”. I love the outcomes and I equally love the process. The Work itself inspires me to do it.
What aspects of your work do you find the most inspiring, rewarding, etc.? The best of this work, for me, is when I manage to come together with you, and we stand side by side each using and sharing all our strength and skill to understand.
How do you bring forward innovation and creativity to your supervision practice? I keep my supervision fresh by keeping my spiritual practice fresh. Among other things, Qigong is a practice of perception that supports and trains our ability to perceive more clearly and more deeply and more subtly. It is also a practice of embodiment, of perceiving with increasing subtlety and depth, what is happening in the body, and between bodies. This is the practice that supports and invigorates my supervision work and provides and endless source of innovation and creativity.
What sets your ministry apart from others? My ministry is not tied down. It is in the fabric of my life. Therefore I can be flexible, adaptable and responsive. My ministry is about unifying spirit and matter, form and formless, which means bringing spiritual practice down from the mountain and onto the street. My ministry is intensely practical. I am always asking how ministry can act in the world. How can it help me address the climate crisis? How can it help the cause of peace in the world? How can it work for harmony and equality between people and an end to racism and racialisation? I need my ministry to be active and proactive and to be effective. It has to make a difference.
Unlock an inspiring journey with Sarah! Join her for the transformative ‘Sacred Activism: Living Non-Violence’ course, making its awaited return in May 2024. Discover more about this life-changing course here.