Welcome! Forest Streams Retreats & Workshops is a new creation. I offer support in helping faith communities and other community organizations with visioning, community development activities, social justice, and faith and spiritual education. Helping people and communities find passion and direction by drawing on their personal and communal gifts is something about which I have strong passion. Forest Streams Retreats & Workshops exists now as a 'place' wherever we happen to meet. I will be offering supportive retreats, workshops and community development at local faith communities, work places, and anywhere I am invited to do so! I live in Halifax, right in the heart of downtown. Please contact me to consider what we might provide as learning opportunity in your community context.
Please check out my Blog - Theology Matters - under more....
What's in a Name?
I have chosen the name 'Forest Streams' because both words are meaningful to me in terms of what this offering is all about for faith communities and other organizations. My Ph.D. work and my passion is dedication to ecological health and well-being. Ecology includes us all, human and other-than-human forms of life. We all live in an interdependent circle of growth and well-being. The Forest is a symbol of this beautiful interdependence. Each tree has its own growth through nourishment and care and all the trees together form a forest, a community of growth and well-being where each individual's strength or weakness depends on the whole. The Forest is a collective as well as a collection of individuals. The Streams are those rivers of life that nourish the trees, in this individual growth, and in the collective growth of the Forest. I see our role as human beings in this context in much the same way as it is for the trees. We have collective streams of consciousness and a responsibility to all life in this forest of intedependence that is life! Our individual and collective streams of consciousness matter as we choose to move to commitment and action together. I honour the trees and birds and water as my teachers in this way.
My BIO
Let me introduce myself to you, briefly. I decided to pursue my passion in ministry as well as a commitment to personal and community well-being through this new work. I am from Newfoundland and Labrador. This is where my passion for supporting others began in my leadership involvement from high school on through the early university years and then onto formal ministry experiences as well as grassroots volunteer and employed work with people marginalized by lack of affordable housing and people living without homes. Currently, I am in team ministry with Wyndholme Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I offer pastoral support, congregational leadership and workshop facilitation. I lived in Ottawa for 10 years, where I worked with the Carlington Community Chaplaincy to create and coordinate the Mentoring Moves Mountains Program for community adults of the Caldwell area,a first in community ministry models. I also worked with the good staff and participants at Centre 507, a community ministry of the United Church of Canada, as a Life Skills Coordinator. At the Ottawa West End Community Chaplaincy, I worked as a Chaplain to coordinate program development, worship, faith development, pastoral counselling, and advocacy support. These were wonderful ministry experiences for me. Previous to these ministry and work experiences, I had been fortunate to work for over 15 years as a volunteer and employed staff with a number of community organizations and churches in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta. I have learned so much. It is now my call to create opportunities for growth and well-being for people and communities in this new way. I am happy to be living here and pursuing my dream and calling! Over the years, I have had opportunity to lead and co-facilitate many retreats, workshops, events, projects and programs, all in community settings.
In terms of my formal education, I have a Ph.D. in Systematic and Historical Theology from Saint Paul University and University of Ottawa (2008). I was very happy to be nourished by participating in an ecumenical formation experience when I completed my Master of Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology, where I have also taught as a sessional lecturer and received my Master of Divinity in 2015. My B.A. in English Literature and Religious Studies is from my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I am also a writer and preacher and have published articles on my Ph.D work and my work in community ministries. My passion lies in the intersection of academic questions with community experiences, lived personal encounters, and pastoral realities. I think this is the appropriate work of contextual theologies today. Another passion of mine!!!
Please check out my Blog - Theology Matters - under more....
What's in a Name?
I have chosen the name 'Forest Streams' because both words are meaningful to me in terms of what this offering is all about for faith communities and other organizations. My Ph.D. work and my passion is dedication to ecological health and well-being. Ecology includes us all, human and other-than-human forms of life. We all live in an interdependent circle of growth and well-being. The Forest is a symbol of this beautiful interdependence. Each tree has its own growth through nourishment and care and all the trees together form a forest, a community of growth and well-being where each individual's strength or weakness depends on the whole. The Forest is a collective as well as a collection of individuals. The Streams are those rivers of life that nourish the trees, in this individual growth, and in the collective growth of the Forest. I see our role as human beings in this context in much the same way as it is for the trees. We have collective streams of consciousness and a responsibility to all life in this forest of intedependence that is life! Our individual and collective streams of consciousness matter as we choose to move to commitment and action together. I honour the trees and birds and water as my teachers in this way.
My BIO
Let me introduce myself to you, briefly. I decided to pursue my passion in ministry as well as a commitment to personal and community well-being through this new work. I am from Newfoundland and Labrador. This is where my passion for supporting others began in my leadership involvement from high school on through the early university years and then onto formal ministry experiences as well as grassroots volunteer and employed work with people marginalized by lack of affordable housing and people living without homes. Currently, I am in team ministry with Wyndholme Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I offer pastoral support, congregational leadership and workshop facilitation. I lived in Ottawa for 10 years, where I worked with the Carlington Community Chaplaincy to create and coordinate the Mentoring Moves Mountains Program for community adults of the Caldwell area,a first in community ministry models. I also worked with the good staff and participants at Centre 507, a community ministry of the United Church of Canada, as a Life Skills Coordinator. At the Ottawa West End Community Chaplaincy, I worked as a Chaplain to coordinate program development, worship, faith development, pastoral counselling, and advocacy support. These were wonderful ministry experiences for me. Previous to these ministry and work experiences, I had been fortunate to work for over 15 years as a volunteer and employed staff with a number of community organizations and churches in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta. I have learned so much. It is now my call to create opportunities for growth and well-being for people and communities in this new way. I am happy to be living here and pursuing my dream and calling! Over the years, I have had opportunity to lead and co-facilitate many retreats, workshops, events, projects and programs, all in community settings.
In terms of my formal education, I have a Ph.D. in Systematic and Historical Theology from Saint Paul University and University of Ottawa (2008). I was very happy to be nourished by participating in an ecumenical formation experience when I completed my Master of Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology, where I have also taught as a sessional lecturer and received my Master of Divinity in 2015. My B.A. in English Literature and Religious Studies is from my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I am also a writer and preacher and have published articles on my Ph.D work and my work in community ministries. My passion lies in the intersection of academic questions with community experiences, lived personal encounters, and pastoral realities. I think this is the appropriate work of contextual theologies today. Another passion of mine!!!