Anglican Women's Studies Centre

Connecting Anglican Women in Aoteaoroa, New Zealand, Polynesia

  • Home
  • About us
    • Anglican Women’s Studies Centre
    • Council for the Anglican Women’s Studies Centre 2020-2022
  • Latest News
    • Older Newsletters
  • Virtual Theology Chat
  • Womens Stories
  • 2022 Hui Information
  • Tikanga
    • Tikanga Maori
    • Tikanga Pakeha
    • Tikanga Pasefika
  • Our Hui
    • Virtual Theology Chat
    • Gatherings – in person and online
    • Council/Link Meetings
  • Contact us
You are here: Home / Reflections / Listen into Life

Listen into Life

April 11, 2020

The Revd Dr Jenny Dawson describes her Spiritual Direction training, in Australia.

Why does she go to remote Kincumber four times a year?

Jenny Dawson
Jenny Dawson
  • Is it because I just love learning?
  • Is it because I know I need more skills to offer the people who come to me for spiritual direction?
  • Is it because I have had some formation, enough to know the riches of experiencing more?
  • Is it because, like many of my friends, I have a child living in Australia and want to have opportunities to visit?
  • is it because I won Lotto so have lots of money to spend on travel?


All these factors are part of my response (yes to all of them except the last!) when people ask me why I am doing a course that will require me to have weekends in Australia four times a year over the next four years.  

Since I enjoyed the Ignatian-based SEED course run by Pamela Warnes in Christchurch nearly two decades ago, I have gradually and at first hesitantly moved into the role of spiritual director for people who have approached me, and eventually I realised that my questions need deepening and re-framing, probably through some further formation.

I have completed the Thirty Day “long retreat” and have long felt drawn to Ignatius, although I have a personal commitment to a Cistercian monastery whose ethos is rather different. 

There are so many tools and so much wisdom out there. SEED covered much that is offered in the highly-regarded Spiritual Growth Ministries programme so I looked forward to learning with the group, which  is now called Ignatian Spirituality NZ in the two-year Te Wairua Mahi course.  Sadly, when their dates came out, I had already committed the first weekend and could not change it. 

So, disappointed, I remembered a friend talking about the “Listen Into Life” programme offered by an ecumenical group called Barnabas Ministries and based at Kincumber Retreat Centre near Gosforth in New South Wales.  It seemed crazy, but suddenly some money came available and I found myself beginning the rigorous application process – and was accepted.

I have now participated in three of the 2019 training weekends, with the 7 other people in Year One and the nearly 40 others on the course.  I have discovered various ways of travelling from Sydney to Kincumber (mostly involving hitching rides with new and old friends) and have begun to enjoy being part of a very diverse learning community. 

The ethos is strongly contemplative and expects participants to be open to personal transformation, which I believe is happening as I learn more about noticing the movements of God within myself and others.

The weekends involve community worship, “quads” (a slightly scary process where we take different roles in the process of direction, involving real issues), input on a different topic each weekend in three solid sessions, and time with a supervisor who responds our written work, asking searching questions about personal transformation. Between weekends there is more work to be done: reflection on learning, assignments particularly on the history of Christian spirituality, and book reviews.

I am Changing

Bless the confusion. Let it be.
Commend it to Earth – like autumn leaves,
scattering, half-rotten, seeding the future,
becoming fertile food, for sleeping rose roots.
Be a leaf. Lie low. Be blown.
Receive rain. Fly to Earth. Become a rose.
I bless the confusion and let be

– between seasons, I am
changing into me

Other Resources about Spiritual Direction and Ignation Spirituality

  • Spiritual Growth Ministries https://www.sgm.org.nz/
  • Barnabas Ministries – https://barnabasministries.org.au/listen-into-life/
  • St Josephs Kincumber https://www.stjosephskincumber.org.au/
  • Southern Star Abbey http://kopuamonastery.org.nz/
  • Association of Christian Spiritual Directors https://acsd.org.nz/

Jenny lives in Pukerua Bay, where she offers spiritual direction/consultancy, supports the Living Wage Movement and the Cistercian Associates of the Southern Star Abbey at Kopua, and enjoys movies and books and painting.

Find Jenny on facebook: Eccles Unlimited  Consultancy.

Filed Under: Reflections Tagged With: Ignation Spirituality, Jenny Dawson, Spiritual Direction

Virtual Theology Chat
Listen on Youtube

Keep in Touch

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Join our Email List

Posts on this Site

  • Dioceses (11)
    • Christchurch (3)
    • Waikato (8)
  • Gatherings – in person and online (63)
    • Council and Link Meetings (9)
    • Our Hui (15)
    • Virtual Theology Chat (21)
  • International (22)
  • New Appointments (11)
  • Places of study and retreat (5)
  • Reflections (33)
  • Resources (54)
    • Book Reviews (6)
    • Liturgical Resources (16)
    • Prayer (7)
    • publications (22)
    • Theological Education (5)
  • Study Opportunities (19)
  • Tikanga (80)
    • Maori (37)
    • Pakeha (44)
    • Pasefika (37)
  • Uncategorized (6)
  • Womens Stories, Talanoa (58)
  • Young Voices (10)

Latest Posts

  • Trauma and Theology Conference
    With Dr Karen O’Donnell
  • AWSC goes to Samoa
  • A Writing Retreat- is it for me?
  • Women’s Writing Retreat, Vaughan Park Retreat Centre, Auckland 25-29 October 2022
  • Blood, Bellies, and Breasts: A Theology of the Womb
  • Three ways to go to Lambeth
  • Climate Change in the Pacific: how one woman is making a difference.
  • Energy and Exploration: Waikato Women’s Clergy Gathering

Tag Cloud

AAW Anglican Bible bread making change Christchurch earthquake Christian Network-Talanoa climate change Council Covid-19 Diocese of Polynesia education Emily Colgan Fiji gender justice Gender Violence God grief House of Sarah Jane SImpson Jenny Campbell Kelera Oli liturgy Mana Wahine Patricia Allan Pechakucha prayer publication Ruihana Ruihana Paenga scholarship Scholarships Spiritual Direction spirituality Talanoa Telling our Stories theology Tonga Tonga 2019 UNCSW United Nations VAughan Park women priests World Council of Churches young women

Wisdom from members

The strongest call from this hui for me was the message we as kin are called to be peacemakers, co- creators with God and that loving leaders are a very powerful thing.

— Nai Cokanasiga, https://anglicanwomen.nz/the-way-of-the-cross-the-way-of-sorrow-2/

The Council and Links 2021

Join our Email List

Contact us

Ceridwyn Parr, Administrator
anglicanwomenstudies@gmail.com
Home Office 027 573 8073

General Synod Office
Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia

+64 9 521-4439
www.anglican.org.nz
Postal: PO Box 87188,
Auckland 1742, New Zealand

Snapshots

Val-Riches-Wendy-Scott-Ceridwyn-31-Jan-2020-Copy
Jenny-Dawson
Kaye-Dyer
Bishop-Ellie
Carole-Hughes
Pacific-hui-7
Bridie-Boyd
jenny-campbell
Adi-Tuidama-lighting-candle
ELizabeth-Coleman-book
Rene-Maiava
Ellen-Bernstein-UNCSW-2017-2-photos
Episcopal-Womens-History-Project
Wash-and-Pray
Mele-Prescott-79274930_10158144996404434_3976904772794974208_n
Jenny-Quince-Bettina-Maxwell-Deb-Cole-
Patricia-Allan-and-Ceridwyn-Parr
Book-2020-editorial-meeting-7-March-2020
The Revd Dr Patricia Allan
Farewell-to-Numia-and-EVelini
Jenny-te-Paa-Daniel
Adi-photo-9
1_Mele-Prescott-79274930_10158144996404434_3976904772794974208_n
Feb-Hui-Mila-and-Bettina-rotated
Jean Palmer
Eleni Tevi
Jacqui Paterson
Nyasha Gumbeze, Auckland
Jean-Palmer-2-1
Emily-Colgan
Eleni-Tevi
Mary-R-Aug-2020-IMG_7132
Blythe-photo
Kahui-Wahine-from-website
Bridie-Boyd-pechakucha
Kaye-Dyer-scaled
Jacqui-Paterson-71-20200324_214734
Sophie-Marie-Thirsk-Y10-2mp