R O S I M 

ROSIM is more than a professional register. It is a living community of interfaith ministers committed to serving with heart, integrity and professionalism.

We live in a time of profound spiritual hunger alongside increasing complexity in how we offer care to one another. As interfaith ministry grows and evolves, so too does the need for clear professional frameworks that serve both ministers and those who seek their guidance.

Professional registration isn’t about bureaucracy, it’s about creating a container of trust. When someone invites a minister into the most sacred moments of their lives-birth, marriage, illness, death – they deserve to know that this person operates within a framework of ethical practice, ongoing development, and peer accountability. ROSIM exists as that framework, visible and robust, offering assurance to the public whilst supporting ministers to serve with confidence and integrity.

The landscape is shifting. Hospitals, prisons, schools, and other institutions increasingly expect spiritual care providers to demonstrate professional registration and ongoing development. Wedding venues ask about credentials. Families research ministers online before making contact. This isn’t about jumping through hoops, it’s about interfaith ministry taking its rightful place alongside other recognised caring professions, offering the same level of assurance and commitment to excellence that the public rightly expects.

Professional registration isn’t a constraint – it’s freedom. When you serve within a clear ethical framework, supported by established policies and peer oversight, you gain the confidence to navigate complex situations knowing you’re not alone.

ROSIM protects you through:

• Clear ethical guidelines that offer direction when situations become challenging or ambiguous
• A complaints process that ensures fairness for all parties and protects your reputation through proper procedures
• Peer support and consultation when you encounter situations beyond your experience
• Professional boundaries that help you serve with appropriate closeness whilst maintaining healthy limits
• A safety net during difficult times, whether that’s a misunderstanding with a client, a complaint, or uncertainty about how to handle a particular situation

This framework doesn’t limit your ministry; it expands it. When you know you’re held within a professional structure, you can serve more freely, take on more challenging work, and rest in the knowledge that you’re not carrying the weight of your ministry entirely alone. Accountability, far from being restrictive, becomes the very thing that allows you to serve with greater courage and compassion.

ROSIM isn’t just for ministers – it’s fundamentally a service to the public. When someone is searching for spiritual guidance, they need to know they’re placing their trust wisely.

The ROSIM mark tells them:

• This minister has completed rigorous training in interfaith practice and pastoral care
• They operate within a Code of Ethics and are accountable to professional standards
• They commit to ongoing development, keeping their practice current and considered
• They carry appropriate insurance and follow established client care policies
• There is a proper process in place should any concerns arise
• They are part of a recognised professional body, not operating in isolation

For those seeking a minister, ROSIM provides the assurance that allows trust to begin. It answers the unspoken question: “Can I rely on this person to hold my vulnerability with care, competence, and integrity?” In a field where there is no statutory regulation, ROSIM serves as the public’s guarantee of quality – a promise that we, as a profession, take our responsibility seriously.

By maintaining high standards and transparent accountability, we protect not only those we serve but also the integrity of interfaith ministry itself, ensuring it remains a force for genuine healing and transformation in the world.

Here’s a truth worth holding: every minister who joins ROSIM strengthens the professional standing of every interfaith minister in the UK and beyond. We are not building a membership list-we are building a movement.

When you join ROSIM, you add your voice to a growing chorus that speaks with authority and clarity. You help interfaith ministry gain recognition alongside chaplaincy, counselling, and other caring professions. You contribute to the campaign for legal recognition of interfaith weddings across the UK. You help ensure that when hospitals, prisons, or schools seek spiritual care providers, they think of interfaith ministers as credible, professional, and essential.

Your membership strengthens:

• The visibility of interfaith ministry in professional settings
• The collective bargaining power when seeking recognition or access
• The credibility of all ministers when approached by media, institutions, or policy-makers
• The ability to shape standards and ethics across the profession
• The resources and support available to every member

Conversely, when ministers choose to remain outside professional registration, they inadvertently weaken the collective voice-suggesting that standards, accountability, and ongoing development are optional rather than essential. We need a critical mass of ministers standing together, saying clearly: “This is professional work. We meet professional standards. We are here, visible, accountable, and committed to excellence.”

Your membership isn’t just for you – it’s a gift to the profession and to all those who will seek interfaith ministers in years to come. Together, we are laying the foundation for the future of interfaith ministry.

We respect that every minister must choose their own path, but it’s worth considering honestly what operating without professional registration means:

• Professional Isolation: Without ROSIM, you navigate challenges, ethical dilemmas, and complex situations alone, without access to peer consultation or professional guidance. There’s no community to turn to when you’re uncertain, no framework to help you think through difficult decisions.
• Reduced Professional Credibility: Many institutions-hospitals, hospices, prisons, schools, and professional wedding venues-increasingly require or strongly prefer ministers with demonstrable professional registration. Without ROSIM membership, doors may simply not open, opportunities may pass you by, and your ministry remains confined to informal networks.
• Vulnerability When Things Go Wrong: Without the protection of a professional body, if a complaint arises or a misunderstanding occurs, you face it without support, without clear procedures, and without the credibility that comes from operating within an established framework. Your reputation rests entirely on your own ability to navigate conflict.
• Invisibility to Those Seeking Help: People searching for an interfaith minister increasingly start with the Find a Minister directory. Without ROSIM membership, you simply don’t appear in their search. Your gifts and calling remain hidden from those who might most need them.
• Stagnation Without Ongoing Development: Ministry can become stale without the stimulus of ongoing learning, peer connection, and exposure to new ideas. ROSIM’s commitment to continuing professional development keeps your practice fresh, inspired, and responsive to changing needs.
• Lack of Ethical Compass: Working without a clear code of ethics means relying entirely on your own judgment in situations that may be far from straightforward. Professional ethics aren’t constraints – they’re hard-won wisdom that protects both you and those you serve.

We don’t share these realities to create fear, but to offer clarity. Professional registration isn’t an optional extra for those who enjoy credentials – it’s becoming fundamental to practising interfaith ministry with responsibility, protection, and genuine effectiveness in today’s world.

The Investment is £11 per month. ROSIM membership costs £11 per month (£132 annually), an investment that’s tax-deductible as a professional expense because ROSIM is recognised by HMRC as a professional body. If you pay income tax at the basic rate (20%), the actual cost to you after tax relief is approximately £8.80 per month, or £105.60 per year. For higher rate taxpayers (40%), it’s approximately £6.60 per month, or £79.20 annually.

The Return: Value That Far Exceeds the Cost

Consider what £11 per month provides:

• Professional Insurance Savings: Discounted rates on Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance through Balens Group often save members £50-100+ annually-potentially covering your entire membership cost.
• CPPD Course Discounts: Members receive discounts on all Continuing Professional and Personal Development courses. Attending just one or two courses per year can save you £30-60+, again offsetting membership costs.
• Visibility and New Opportunities: Your profile in the Find a Minister directory brings enquiries you wouldn’t otherwise receive. Most members report that just one additional wedding, funeral, or ongoing client relationship each year more than pays for their entire annual membership many times over.
• Resources You Don’t Have to Create: Access to templates, policies, branding materials, and professional resources saves countless hours of work and potential costs for professional services.
• Tax-Deductible Investment: Unlike many professional expenses, ROSIM membership reduces your taxable income, making it one of the most cost – effective professional investments you can make.
• The Real Calculation: This isn’t an expense – it’s an investment in your professional sustainability, credibility, and growth. For less than the cost of two coffees per week, you gain everything ROSIM offers: recognition, support, ongoing development, professional protection, collective voice, and the tangible opportunities that flow from being part of a recognised professional body.

The question isn’t whether you can afford ROSIM membership – it’s whether you can afford to practice without it.

Ordination as an interfaith minister is a threshold moment-a recognition of your readiness to serve. But completing your training is not the end of the path; it’s the beginning of your professional journey. ROSIM is the natural next step, the bridge that carries you from student to established practitioner.

The Transition You Navigate: After ordination, you step from a structured learning environment into the open landscape of independent practice. Suddenly, you’re responsible for your own development, your own boundaries, your own ethical framework, and your own reputation. This transition can feel exhilarating and daunting in equal measure.

ROSIM provides structure for this liminal space:

• Professional identity that signals to the world (and yourself) that you’re no longer simply a graduate, but a working minister
• Ongoing support that replaces the cohort and tutors you’ve left behind
• Clear expectations for continuing development, helping you maintain momentum rather than stagnating
• A pathway into professional contexts where your training alone might not provide access
• Accountability structures that keep you honest, humble, and growing

From Private Practice to Public Profession: Your OneSpirit training equipped you with knowledge, skills, and spiritual depth. ROSIM membership declares that you’re ready to operate in the public sphere with professional standards. It marks the difference between “I’ve trained as a minister” and “I am a professional minister, recognised and accountable.”

For newly ordained ministers especially, ROSIM isn’t an optional extra to consider later-it’s the essential foundation for building a sustainable, credible, and supported ministry. It answers the question: “Now what?” with a clear response: “Now you join your colleagues in professional practice, and we walk this path together.”

This is your invitation to step fully into your professional identity-to stand alongside colleagues who are shaping the future of interfaith ministry in the UK and beyond. Join a movement that’s transforming how spiritual care is offered in our diverse society. Every minister who joins ROSIM adds their voice to a growing chorus calling for recognition, respect, and professional standing for interfaith ministry. Together, we’re building something that will outlast any individual practice-a profession that serves with integrity, accountability, and heart.

Step into your full professional identity. You’ve trained, you’re ordained, you’re serving-now claim the recognition and support that makes your ministry sustainable. ROSIM membership declares that you take your calling seriously enough to operate within professional frameworks that protect both you and those you serve.

Be part of the generation that establishes interfaith ministry as a recognised profession. History has its eyes on us. We are the ones creating the structures, setting the standards, and building the bridges that future interfaith ministers will cross. Your membership today shapes the landscape tomorrow.

The path forward is clear. The community is waiting. The work needs you – not just your gifts in ministry, but your presence in the collective body of professional interfaith ministers.

Ready to join ROSIM? Complete your application today and step into the next chapter of your ministry, held and supported by a professional community committed to excellence, integrity, and transformation.

Still Have Questions?

Meet the beautiful Lavinia – Lavinia is our Community Development Lead and serves as the vital bridge between OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation, the educational charity, and ROSIM, OneSpirit’s professional register of ministers. She’s your main point of contact for anything ROSIM-related.

With roots stretching from London to Jamaica to Liverpool, Lavinia has always been passionate about community building in its many forms. Her goal is to empower individuals to recognise and harness their influence within their communities.

Beyond OneSpirit, Lavinia works on local initiatives focused on social justice, area regeneration, and mental health. As a hypnotherapist and healing practitioner, she also supports people on their personal healing journeys.

When she’s not working, you’ll find Lavinia watching Star Trek, diving into sci-fi books, or being (regularly) defeated in rock-paper-scissors by her son.