online training
THE WILLOW PATHWAY
2026-2028
Welcome to the Willow Pathway
A two-year journey into sacred presence and accompaniment.
The Willow Pathway is a two-year journey of spiritual formation and sacred becoming, a deeply relational programme that prepares you for ministry while also transforming how you live your own life. Whether you are drawn to active, public-facing ministry or seeking a profound deepening of your spiritual presence and inner life, this training meets you where you are.
Held fully online, the Willow Pathway offers the same depth of formation and community in a format that is accessible, spacious, and rooted in presence. At its heart is a distinctive approach to learning, one that honours your own lived experience as the primary teacher and understands transformation as something that unfolds over time. Our curriculum moves between sensing, reflecting, integrating, and articulating, a spiral that deepens with each turn. Woven through everything is our Conscious Communication Framework, which invites you to listen without judgement, speak with care and clarity, and meet others with genuine presence. These are not add-ons to the training. They are the ground it grows from.
In practice, this means that before each live session you’ll engage with an Enquiry Hub post, a short reading, recorded teaching, or reflective invitation, so that live sessions become spaces of shared exploration rather than instruction. Through weekly teaching, small group reflection, and careful facilitation, the online space becomes a steady container for inner work, spiritual growth, and meaningful connection, wherever you are in the world.
Who This Pathway Suits
This training is for those who sense a spiritual calling, whether or not they know yet what form it will take. It may be especially meaningful if you:
- Are seeking deeper connection to your own inner wisdom and spiritual life
- Want to develop presence, embodiment, and the capacity to hold space for others
- Long for community with others on a similar journey
- Feel drawn to contemplative practice and serious inner work in a supportive container
- Are called to conduct weddings, memorials, and rites of passage
- Want to offer spiritual care, chaplaincy, or interfaith ministry
No prior experience is required, simply a willingness to meet yourself and others with openness and love.
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“Feeling totally safe and respected without judgment has been really supportive, freeing me to make mistakes and be myself. Supervision has been really growthful as I’ve felt so deeply seen and had my worth reflected back to me in a way I never have before. It’s done wonders for my confidence and trust in my path and my connection to the Divine.”
– Hara, Aspen Class of 2025
“I have become more self-aware and able to recognise what might trigger me and to boundaries and strategies to cope with that in a non-confrontational way. Self-reflection has also enabled me to (re)discover what is important to me and in which direction I see my ministry taking me.”
– Claire, Aspen Class of 2025
Practical Details
- Length: Two years, structured through five gateways per year
- Format: Weekly live online sessions, alternating between whole-group teaching and small group spaces
- Location: Fully online, with students joining from across the UK and beyond
- Learning experience: Designed to support deep engagement without the need for travel, allowing the work to integrate naturally into your everyday life
- Time commitment: Around 6–8 hours per week during active teaching periods, including live sessions, independent study, reflective practice, and assignments, structured to support steady, sustainable engagement alongside your existing life
- Key info: Sessions take place on Tuesday evenings, 6:00–9:00pm UK time, weaving together whole-group teaching and small group spaces
- Early Bird Offer: Save £500 by enrolling before 1st August 2026. Enrolment means signing your Training Agreement and paying the £250 deposit
- Fees: Full details, payment schedules, and options are available in the prospectus. Supervision is arranged separately with an accredited OneSpirit supervisor of your choosing, at an additional cost of approximately £200–£400 per year
- Bursary: We offer a limited number of bursary places of up to 50% for Black and Brown applicants. This initiative exists to actively address the underrepresentation of Black and Brown ministers in our interfaith community and wider spiritual leadership spaces. To find out more, reach out to Lavinia. Please note, the deadline to apply for the bursary place is 1st September
- Deadline: Applications for the Class of 2028 close at midnight on 30 September 2026. To take advantage of the early bird offer, we recommend applying by the start of July at the latest
“I am better as a human being for having walked this road, for having delved deeper and for having awakened a little more. In the awakening is a greater strength within and also more tears for the tenderness of our world and a resolve to authentically serve.”
– Audrey, Aspen Class of 2025
A Two-Year Journey of Inner Formation and Ministry
The Willow Pathway unfolds across two years, held through five immersive gateways per year, that trace a movement from deep inner grounding to ethical ministry and sacred service in the world. Each gateway invites you to be both witness and participant, to yourself, to others, and to the relational field of community that holds the learning.
A full overview of the gateway dates, themes, and curriculum details is available in the prospectus.
Year One
Roots and Formation
The training is shaped around five gateways, each exploring a different aspect of your development. Together, they move from learning to be present with yourself, to meeting others with openness and humility, to recognising the inherent worth in all people, to engaging with ethics and responsibility, and finally to deep listening as a way of service. You are invited to take part fully. To reflect, to question, and to grow within a supportive learning community.
Each gateway opens a different space:
Sacred Welcome: Arriving into community and exploring what it means to feel a sense of belonging.
Sacred Encounter: Meeting difference with curiosity, and developing your capacity to listen and reflect.
Sacred Worth: Recognising and affirming the dignity of yourself and others, including through ceremony.
Sacred Responsibility: Exploring ethics, power, and accountability in spiritual and relational work.
Sacred Listening: Deepening your ability to accompany others with presence, care, and attention.
Year Two
Embodiment in Ministry
The second year is shaped around the embodiment of your learning, as your inner development begins to take form in the world. Building on the foundations of presence, reflection, and self-awareness, the focus shifts towards how you accompany others through ceremony, spiritual care, and interfaith engagement. The gateways return with greater depth, inviting you to work with life’s significant thresholds, to engage with complexity and difference, and to develop an ethical and grounded way of serving.
You are invited to step more fully into your role, to practise with intention, and to grow into a way of being that can meet others with presence, care, and responsibility.
Each gateway opens a different space:
Sacred Listening: Deepening your capacity to accompany others with presence, care, and attention.
Sacred Encounter: Working with complexity, difference, and relationship through ceremony and connection.
Sacred Worth: Honouring life’s key thresholds, including through the design and holding of funeral ceremonies.
Sacred Responsibility: Exploring ethics, boundaries, and accountability as your ministry takes form.
Sacred Welcome: Stepping into your own presence as a minister, culminating in ordination.
Elective Modules
Space to Deepen
Alongside your core training, elective modules offer space to explore the areas that call to you more personally. These modules complement your main pathway, allowing you to follow your curiosity, deepen your practice, and engage with different aspects of ministry in a more focused way. Each module brings a distinct theme, while remaining rooted in the wider ethos of the training.
You will learn alongside students from different pathways and year groups, as well as ordained ministers, creating a rich and connected learning environment. This shared space invites the exchange of perspectives, experience, and insight across the wider OneSpirit community.
Modules are offered both online and in person, giving you flexibility in how you take part. Held in dedicated blocks throughout the year, they allow you to step more fully into a particular area of interest, while continuing to shape your learning in a way that feels responsive to your own path. Please note that in-person modules carry an additional cost to cover accommodation and venue expenses. All information can be found in the prospectus.
“What a journey it’s been, rich, humbling, and deeply transformative. I can hardly believe how quickly this first year has passed. From day one, I committed to being fully in the arena, heart open, spirit listening, showing up with presence and courage. What stands out most is the depth of connection: with self, with others, and with the sacred in all things. The practice of truly listening, without fixing, judging, or rushing, has changed me. OneSpirit has offered a mirror, a balm, and a fire, all at once. I feel stretched, softened, and inspired to keep walking this path with reverence and love…”
– Juliet, Birch Class of 2026
Vow Taking and Ordination
A Sacred Threshold
No matter which path you take, online or in person, this is a shared moment across the whole community.
After two years of deep exploration, practice, and growth, you are invited to mark this threshold in a way that feels true to you. Ordination is a personal choice, not a requirement. You may choose to be ordained as an interfaith minister, someone who listens deeply, serves with care, and honours the sacred in all people and paths. Or you may choose to complete the training and graduate as a student alumni, carrying everything you have learned into your life in your own way. Both are equally honoured here.
For those who choose ordination, July 2028 brings two powerful ceremonies: vow taking and ordination. Your vow is your own. A personal commitment that reflects what you stand for and how you wish to serve. It is spoken in community and held with care as the foundation of your ministry. Ordination marks a threshold. Not an ending, but a beginning. A moment where your journey is witnessed and you are welcomed into ministry.
Many describe these ceremonies as one of the most meaningful parts of the training. A space of reflection, connection, and quiet transformation. And for those who choose to graduate as alumni, completion is its own threshold, equally witnessed, equally celebrated. Whichever path you choose, this is the beginning of a lifelong unfolding.
Where This Training Can Take You
A Life Lived with Intention
There is no single path that follows this training, and that is part of its beauty. For many, the Willow Pathway becomes a quiet revolution. Not a dramatic change of direction, but a shift in how they move through the world. How they listen, how they relate, and how they show up for the people around them.
For some, this leads into chaplaincy, offering presence in hospitals, hospices, prisons, or community spaces, supporting people through life’s most significant and uncertain moments. For others, it becomes ceremony work, designing and leading weddings, funerals, naming ceremonies, and rituals that honour each person’s story with care and intention.
Some go on to teach, speak, or facilitate. Others offer spiritual accompaniment, retreats, or community spaces. And some carry their formation more quietly, weaving it into family life, existing work, and everyday relationships. This is ministry too, and it is deeply needed.
You may not yet know what this will look like for you. Many people begin there. What the Willow Pathway offers is not a prescribed destination, but a deepening. A way of being that continues to unfold long after the training ends, wherever your life is already taking you. Whether you leave as an ordained minister or as a graduate alumni, what you carry with you is the same: a transformed way of listening, relating, and showing up in the world.
Our Faculty Team
Those who hold the space
At the heart of the Willow Pathway is a dedicated and experienced faculty team, committed to holding a safe, inclusive, and deeply supportive learning environment. You will be guided not by a single voice, but by a collaborative teaching team who bring a rich diversity of lived experience, spiritual practice, and professional expertise. Together they share an unwavering commitment to presence, compassion, and ethical practice.
Your learning is supported through live teaching and facilitation, one-to-one tutorials, supervision, and input from associate tutors and guest contributors actively working in ministry. Our role is not to shape you into a particular kind of minister, but to support you in discovering your own authentic expression of ministry, at your own pace. And beyond the teaching team, a wider group works behind the scenes on programme coordination, curriculum development, and community support, all grounded in the same values as the training itself.
“Learning that I have what I need and to lean into my experiences and who I am rather than compare myself to others. Learning to listen to myself consciously and consider how I may come across to others. Also, the emerging friendships are important to me.”
– Clare, Birch Class of 2026
Curious about our in-person training?
Our in-person training, known as the Sylvan Pathway, offers a shared, immersive experience in a physical space. It brings learning into a held environment of community, nature, and presence. You’re welcome to explore and see which path feels most like you.
Not sure if this is the right step?
Speak with OneSpirit’s Programme Development Lead, Maddy, for an informal one-to-one conversation. A chance to ask questions, explore your calling, and get a feel for whether the Willow Pathway is right for you. Book a call with Maddy here.