SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT & MINISTRY TRAINING
The cherry tree pathway
Welcome to the Cherry Tree Pathway
A journey of spiritual deepening, inner growth, and compassionate service.
The Cherry Tree Pathway is more than training. It is a soul-deep invitation to become who you are here to be. Over two years, you will explore spiritual traditions, reflect on your personal calling, and grow into the kind of presence that brings healing and connection into the world. You will engage not just your mind, but your heart, your spirit, and your lived experience. This is formation. It is an integrative, transformative journey toward ordination as an interfaith minister.
Whether you are a spiritual seeker, a quiet contemplative, a curious questioner, or someone longing for depth and community, this pathway meets you as you are and supports you to grow into who you are becoming. Like the cherry tree that blooms in cycles, this training honours transformation, rootedness, and renewal. For nearly 30 years, OneSpirit has supported people in becoming compassionate, courageous ministers. People who do not just understand the sacred, but embody it.
Enrolment for the Cherry Tree Pathway is open until 30 September 2025. Apply by 1 August to save ÂŁ500 with our Early Bird Offer. It is a meaningful step toward your future, with a little extra support to get you started.
Before we begin, here is what you need to know. Your journey starts with a gentle induction period, including independent preparation tasks and an Induction Webinar on Wednesday 1 October 2025, 6.00–7.30pm UK time. From there, you will ease into a weekly rhythm of live webinars, a blend of whole-group and small-group sessions, held on Wednesdays from 6.00–9.00pm UK time. Looking for the full list of webinar dates? You will find them on page 7 of the Info Packet, which is linked throughout this page.
We’ve intentionally kept this page spacious, so you can breathe as you read. In some sections, you’ll see a gentle note inviting you to download our full information packet — offering more detail about what you’ll learn, how you’ll be supported, and the richness of the experience. Download the Cherry Tree Pathway Information Packet here.
FAQ: Is this for me if I don’t follow a specific religion?
Absolutely!
This training honours all traditions and none, meeting you exactly where you are.
You don’t need to belong to any particular religion to study at OneSpirit. Our interfaith approach welcomes people from all backgrounds, religious, spiritual, agnostic, secular, or questioning.
Interfaith doesn’t mean religious, it means creating space for everyone, equally and compassionately. We embrace a universal spirituality that respects all faiths and none. Our focus is on spiritual growth, compassionate service, and personal development, not on adhering to any one tradition.
WISDOM
Expand your understanding of the sacred, within yourself, others, and the world. Explore the rich tapestry of spiritual traditions and human experience, weaving them into your own authentic ministry.
GROWTH
Awaken to your deeper self. Transform how you relate to yourself, others, and the world, as you cultivate the resilience, compassion, and vision to serve with authenticity and grace.
COMMUNITY
Belong to a circle of seekers, healers, and changemakers, a living, breathing community grounded in connection, growth, and shared commitment to a more compassionate world.
The Heart of Your Journey
Our curriculum invites you to bring your whole self into the learning space. Your questions, your experiences, your longings, all are welcomed as sacred material. This is not about stepping away from the world, but learning how to meet it more fully, with compassion, curiosity, and presence.
Through experiential learning, personal reflection, and shared dialogue, you will begin to recognise the sacred in yourself, in others, and in the world around you. You will learn to listen deeply, to hold complexity with care, and to honour both your voice and the voices of others.
This is a space where growth happens gently but powerfully. A space where you do not simply gain knowledge, but begin to embody the qualities of spiritual leadership. The Cherry Tree Pathway is held within five guiding themes that shape your two-year journey, helping you not only learn, but become.
FAQ: What does 'ministry' mean in this context?
Ministry at OneSpirit simply means serving from your heart. It might look like ceremonies, creativity, community work, chaplaincy, or simply being a calm, grounded presence in the world.
As one of our year-two students recently shared:
“Even my ideas of ministry have changed. You know, the world needs light, the world is in so much need of light and love and connection. Just spiritual connection and connection with each other, and that’s what this training is about.
However your ministry unfolds, this course will help you discover your own light and then give you the tools to bring that light into the world. And that is ministry.
Whether you’re getting paid for it or not, it doesn’t matter. People’s ministries evolve over time. If you’re feeling unsure or don’t have a clear idea yet, that’s okay.
You’ll find your way — and the training will support you to do that. Really, if you think of ministry as finding your light and bringing it to the world, then there is your ministry.”
DEEP EMPATHIC LISTENING
What does it truly mean to be present with another? You’ll explore how to meet others with stillness, presence, and compassion, not just to hear them, but to witness them. Rooted in the BACP framework and spiritual accompaniment, this invites you to listen with your whole being, and honour the voice within as well as the voice across from you.
LOVING RELATIONSHIP
Ministry is born in relationship. This theme explores how we come into authentic, loving connection, even across difference. Through principles like nonviolent communication, you’ll develop the tools to meet others with care, integrity, and empathy, building the trust and awareness needed for deep connection and healing.
BIRTH & DEATH CEREMONIES
Thresholds shape our lives. Here, you’ll engage with the sacredness of beginnings, endings, and all that lies between. Through studying life’s key transitions, and the ceremonies that honour them, you’ll begin to create meaningful rituals rooted in your own voice, and grounded in respect for many traditions.
STRUCTURES & GUIDES
Every journey benefits from a map, but not all maps look the same. This theme offers gentle frameworks to support your self-awareness, conflict navigation, and interfaith engagement. Drawing on models like Kilmann’s conflict resolution and Stendahl’s interfaith principles, you’ll explore new ways of understanding yourself and relating to others.
HONOURING SACRED JOURNEYS
Your ministry will be as unique as your story. This theme invites you to explore what sacred service means for you, not as a title, but as a way of being. You’ll reflect on your path to ordination, your expression of ministry, and how your presence can be a blessing in the world.
Becoming an Ordained Interfaith Minister
Ordination is not the end. It is a beginning.
After two years of deep exploration, personal growth, and spiritual practice, you will be invited into a new way of being. Ordination is a moment of recognition, not just of what you have learned, but of who you have become. It marks a step into ministry that is shaped by your heart, your values, and your unique presence in the world.
You will be ordained as an interfaith minister. Someone who listens with compassion, serves with integrity, and honours the sacred in all people, traditions, and moments.
“You come in curious… and leave feeling like you’ve come home – to yourself, and to a purpose that’s quietly been waiting for you all along.”
Ministry takes many forms. It is not limited to pulpits or public rituals. For some, it lives in bespoke ceremonies or gentle one-to-one listening. For others, it is found in chaplaincy, creative expression, sacred activism, or simply how they show up in their relationships and communities. It might be present in your garden, your journal, your parenting, or your quiet presence in times of change. It evolves, just as you will.
After ordination, some ministers go on to:
- Offer spiritual companionship through soul mentoring, deep listening, or spiritual counselling
- Create and lead ceremonies such as weddings, funerals, baby blessings, and life transitions
- Work in chaplaincy or community care — in hospices, prisons, hospitals, schools, or justice spaces
- Facilitate groups or coach individuals seeking clarity, healing, or deeper purpose
- Express ministry through poetry, storytelling, music, visual arts, or nature-based practice
- Engage in sacred activism, building bridges, tending to the earth, and supporting human dignity
Many arrive without a clear destination, just a longing to live more truthfully, more compassionately, more connected. Others come already in service, ready to deepen what they offer. Some feel called by the disconnection they see around them and want to be part of creating something more whole.
However ministry lives in you, this training will help you name it, nourish it, and live it with integrity. You will leave with tools, companionship, and insight to make a difference, in your own life, and in the lives you touch.
FAQ: Will I be automatically ordained as an interfaith minister?
Ordination is offered when you’re ready and have demonstrated the key skills and awareness required. It is a sacred invitation, not a box to tick. While many students choose to be ordained at the end of the programme, not everyone does — and that’s okay.
Some reach the end of their training and recognise that ordination as an interfaith minister isn’t the right path for them, and simply completing and graduating from the training is what feels most aligned. Just as each journey begins in a different place, it also ends in a different space.
Know that you can go into this training and come out an ordained interfaith minister, but take the pressure off and enjoy the journey as it comes.
How Your Journey Will Unfold
The Cherry Tree Pathway is a living, evolving experience.
It meets you as you are and invites you into deeper connection with yourself, your community, and your sense of spiritual service. This is a space where your individuality is honoured and your growth is supported, both gently and meaningfully.
You will be held throughout the journey by:
- Live weekly classes, where real-time connection creates a shared learning community grounded in authenticity, curiosity, and care
- Personalised one-to-one support from your tutors, who offer compassionate guidance as you integrate your learning into life and ministry
- A dedicated online classroom, designed to encourage reflection, creativity, and engagement that goes beyond knowledge to embodiment
- Small group learning, where trust, dialogue, and shared transformation take root
- Optional in-person gatherings, which provide space for embodied exploration, ritual, and deeper community connection
At the heart of this pathway is not traditional content delivery, but presence. Learning happens through experience, reflection, and relationship, with yourself, with others, and with the sacred.
You are not expected to arrive with certainty. What matters is that you arrive with openness. This is not just education. It is formation. And it is shaped not only by what you receive, but by what you bring.
Prefer more detail? Download the Cherry Tree Pathway Information Packet here.
FAQ: What if I can’t attend a live session?
You can catch up by speaking with your tutor and reviewing any shared materials. While sessions aren’t recorded to honour presence and safety, your learning journey will be supported all the way through.
As one of our year-two Aspen students recently shared:
“The course material is always there. You can read the hub post right after the webinar or a week later, or revisit it again and again. How you engage is really up to you. I’ve found myself reflecting during walks, in the car, or even while making dinner. That’s part of the beauty of this work, it becomes part of your life. Some weeks I might spend just the three hours on the webinar and an hour with the hub post, others I’m writing poetry or journaling for hours, but it’s never expected of me. That space is mine to shape.”
The time you dedicate each week can vary. There is no rigid requirement beyond showing up for the core sessions, the rest flows with you!Â
Each gateway is supported by a creative, reflective assignment designed to deepen your understanding of yourself and your path. Our online classroom provides resources, prompts, and space for independent exploration, guided by your curiosity and lived experience.
At the heart of the training, we invite you to explore how you relate to others, and how you show up in the world. It’s not just about tools; it’s about becoming someone who can meet others with empathy, even in moments of tension or difference. We draw on different models, such as compassionate communicaton and nonviolent communication, to deepen our self reflection.
Your weekly live sessions, both in full group and small group settings, are the heartbeat of the training. These are not lectures, but rich, experiential gatherings where presence, participation, and shared growth unfold.
For each gateway, you’ll receive dedicated supervision from an accredited supervisor. These sessions offer a sacred space to pause, reflect, and listen inward, a powerful companion to your ministerial formation.
Our online classroom supports your independent learning with carefully curated resources each week. It’s a space for reflection, preparation, and quiet growth, gently guiding your journey alongside the live sessions.Â
The Shape of Your Journey
The Cherry Tree Pathway is co-created.
It offers a dynamic, participatory curriculum that grows and evolves with each class. While there are key foundations every minister will explore, voicing your presence, deep listening, sacred witnessing, and serving across diverse communities, how you embody these elements will be entirely your own.
Each class follows a steady and supportive framework, but the journey is shaped by the people within it. Your questions, your creativity, your experiences, all of these become part of the learning. Every student brings something that cannot be taught, only discovered.
You can expect:
- A strong foundation in essential ministerial skills, including presence, listening, ceremony creation, and interfaith awareness
- A responsive learning journey, shaped by the collective energy and needs of the group
- Space for poetry, silence, ritual, storytelling, nature connection, art, movement, and reflection
- An experiential and embodied approach to learning, where growth is lived rather than tested
- A deeply inclusive environment, where accessibility and care are woven into the way we teach and connect
We are committed to making this training feel meaningful and manageable for everyone. If you are neurodivergent, use assistive technology, or have specific access needs, we will work alongside you to ensure you feel welcomed and supported.
Our online classroom is designed with high contrast, screen reader compatibility, full alt text, and flexible tools for different learning styles. Whether you process through movement, voice notes, visual art, quiet reflection, or written word, there is space here for you.
If you need something, just let us know. We are always open to finding the best way forward, together.
Prefer more detail? Download the Cherry Tree Pathway Information Packet here.
FAQ: I learn differently or have support needs — will this training work for me?
Yes. We have had this conversation with many students, you’re certainly not alone.Â
You can share your reflections in the format that works best for you, and our tutors will support you with care, and try to find a way that works best for you. We are also committed to accessibility and inclusion, our aim is to make sure this programme works for you, not the other way around.
We are committed to creating a learning environment that is inclusive, flexible, and supportive. Our team has experience supporting neurodivergent students and those with access needs. Through compassionate pastoral care and adaptable pacing, we aim to meet each student where they are.
Meet the Team Beside You
At OneSpirit, you are held with care. Learning here is grounded in warmth, deep listening, and lived experience. Our tutors do not simply teach, they accompany. With gentle guidance, open presence, and compassionate challenge, they support your growth and honour the unfolding of your unique path into ministry.
Each tutor brings their own wisdom and insight, and together they create a supportive, steady presence throughout your journey. They are here not to give answers, but to walk beside you as you discover your own.
Along the way, you will also learn in smaller circles. Group tutors work closely with Annie and your cohort, creating spaces of trust, reflection, and authentic connection, the kind of spaces where true transformation can take root.
You will also meet associate tutors and guest speakers, including experienced ministers, facilitators, and changemakers. Their presence brings new perspectives, fresh questions, and deeper insight into what ministry can mean in a changing world.
Curious to learn more about the people holding this experience? Behind it all, OneSpirit is held by a small, closely knit remote team, working quietly across the UK to weave this community together. Meet our tutors, staff, and wider faculty — and explore the community behind the training — by clicking here.
FAQ: Will I have one consistent tutor throughout?
Yes, your main tutor will be with you throughout the training, supported by group tutors, guest tutors and guest speakers.
Annie is holding the Cherry Tree Pathway, just as she has held the Birch Pathway and the Aspen Pathway before it. She holds these courses with such care and love, and pours herself into each one. You’ll have the chance to work with Annie directly over the course of the two-year programme, which helps to make the experience more personal for you.
Alongside Annie, you’ll also be supported by a wider team who offer wisdom, encouragement, and care throughout your journey.
Annie is a writer, chaplain, and mural artist whose practice is grounded in interfaith wisdom, sacred ecology, and justice. Her presence is gentle, wise, and quietly transformative.
“Annie is steady, calm, open, knowledgeable, curious and loving… She foregrounds safety and welcomes in her facilitation in a way that invites bravery, accountability and community.” – Ben
“She is a great role model. I’ve never felt so safe before… What a gift!” – Hara
“My experience with Annie has been truly inspiring… I have much gratitude that’s our Core Tutor.” – Gina
Sarah is a creative soul and spiritual companion, known for her compassionate clarity and her ability to hold space with grounded grace.
“Sarah’s facilitation is with ease – gentle, soft, and flowing like the Dao.” – Carolyn
“An inspirational tutor… her knowledge of Qi Gong and Daoism encourages curiosity.” – Michael
“She connects us to nature and our bodies… gentle and loving in her approach.” – Jane
Monica brings her love of community, laughter, and spiritual depth into every space she holds. She has years of experience guiding people through transition, healing, and purpose.
“Monica is truly inspirational, it felt like I was getting a gift when I had my 1-1s with her.” – Rebecca
“She overspilled expectations with her natural spiritual wise and gentle approach.” – Maxine
“An extraordinary tutor with powerful creativity and deep connection.” – Jennifer
A Glimpse Into the Student Experience
No two students arrive in the same place, and that is exactly as it should be. Some come with years of exploration behind them. Others are just beginning to ask the deeper questions. Some feel grounded in a tradition. Others have let go of beliefs that no longer fit and are searching for something more honest, more alive.
Wherever you begin, what matters most is the journey that unfolds.
You will be welcomed into a living, breathing community where difference is celebrated and where courage, curiosity, and authenticity are the only prerequisites. Here, joy and challenge move together. Growth is both tender and transformative.
You will deepen your connection to your own truth, and form meaningful bonds with others who are learning, listening, questioning, and becoming, just like you. There is no single path through this training. There is only your path, and a community ready to journey beside you.
Curious to hear from our students? You’ll find inspiring video testimonials, honest interviews, and heartfelt quotes that offer a glimpse into what it’s really like to journey through the Cherry Tree Pathway. Explore their stories, experiences, and reflections, in their own words and voices — by clicking here.
FAQ: Do I need to be in a certain place spiritually, or follow a specific tradition, to begin this training?
Not at all. Everyone arrives at a different point in their journey, spiritually, personally, and professionally, and for different reasons.
You may be newly exploring spirituality, reconnecting after time away from faith, or drawn to personal and collective growth without identifying with any tradition. You may also be deeply rooted in a particular path and wondering if that will still be honoured here. The answer is yes. Many of our students remain fully connected to their own tradition while training in an interfaith context.
The beauty of this training is that it meets you where you are. All you need is curiosity, openness, respect, and a willingness to explore.
Ben, Current Student
I’m based in Ireland. I love to be in ceremony, in nature, in stitches laughing… even all three at once if possible. I felt called to [the training]. I feel strongly that people from my intersecting communities deserve to feel welcome and connected and accompanied in exploring what faith can be for them.
I am autistic, trans, queer and highly creative, from an academic, scientifically-minded background, with my spiritual experiences woven through time spent in Buddhist, shamanic and mystical Christian traditions. The idea of Interfaith ministry really appealed to me as a way to help me figure out what an alternative ministry, that is open to learning and connecting with multiple faith paths and cultures, might look like.
Gina, Current Student
I am a curious open-minded seeker of what it is to be a human. It’s been an internal journey of self-inquiry to explore the many layers of complexities & parts to discover what is my ‘true authentic self’. With much of this curiosity surrounding that which cannot be seen, or fully explained.
Having undertaken a variety of spiritual training, together with a study of the psychological aspects of human development, I felt I wanted a platform from which they all could be somehow incorporated. On reading OneSpirit’s Core Beliefs this resonated with an opportunity for me to delve deeper into my questioning & bring all these fragmented strands of my learning into one cohesive whole.
Tony, Current Student
I am 59 years old and live on the Irish Coast. I have always enjoyed serving my community, and am involved in many volunteer roles. I have always tried to live a meaningful life filled with purpose and service. I keep myself very fit and play golf, squash, and run.
I enjoy connecting with other people, love playing music with friends and good food. [I have] a desire to serve my community in a deep and meaningful way.
Hara, Current Student
I am a shamanic sound healer, tutor for the College of Sound Healing and Transpersonal psychologist. I love to offer ceremonies for my community and run a weekly Sacred Healing Dance group. I feel more connection to Spirit, to the earth and our deepest soul selves is imperative to help our species protect the earth and to survive and thrive in the challenging times to come.
I decided to undertake this ministry training to widen my skills, expand my knowledge and experience and give me a better vehicle to serve the Divine and support people.
Claire, Current Student
I live in England with my dog Scooby where I work as a celebrant – mainly funerals – and I also have a holistic healing business offering Soul Plan readings, Soul Transformation Therapy, Reiki, and Qigong. I have one son and one grandson who I love spending as much time with as possible. I enjoy walking, reading, music and cricket!
I am a student of A Course in Miracles and part of Robert & Hollie Holden’s Everyday Miracles group. Hollie mentioned the course a year or so ago and I felt called to investigate further! After attending the online introductory meetings I decided it would not only benefit my work as a celebrant but also (and probably more importantly) my own ‘journey’.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Notice we said the next step, not the first. If you are reading this, you have already begun. You have felt something stir, a question arise, a curiosity open. That matters.
The next step is simply to feel into whether this path feels right for you, right for where you are now, and where you feel called to grow. You do not need to have the answers. You do not need a list of questions prepared. If there is a gentle pull in your heart, that is enough.
Trust that. And if you are unsure, we will explore it together. Whatever your next step looks like, you do not have to take it alone. We are here, ready to meet you, just as you are.
Click Here to Apply
If you already feel that quiet “yes” within you, we welcome you to apply. Your application isn’t a test, it’s a doorway. It’s the start of a conversation about who you are, where you are, and where you’re called to grow.
Click here to apply and take the next step toward a ministry that is as unique and expansive as you are.
Open the Info Packet
Still feeling it out? That’s perfect. Our detailed information packet offers a deeper glimpse into the heart of the Cherry Tree Pathway, the kind of journey it invites, the way it might change you, and the community that will hold you.
Click here to download the packet and explore all the richness we couldn’t quite fit on this page.
Join an Intro Day
Sometimes you need to feel it for yourself. Our Intro Days are relaxed, welcoming spaces where you can meet our tutors, hear from current students, ask questions, and get a sense of whether this community feels like home.
Click here to join us in a space where there is no pressure, only love, and an open door.