A Unique Upbringing

My upbringing floated between two different worlds. One was amongst family and friends who’d inherited or achieved significant wealth, status and opportunity. The other was amongst a community who’d chosen a highly sacrificial, missional life to serve the poor and marginalised as an expression of their Christian faith. Whilst most participants of those communities remained within their own space; my parents constantly moved us (and my four siblings) between the two. It was a unique, highly formative experience: one that continues.

A lifetime spent around Christian spirituality led to me qualifying as a “Spiritual Director”: an ancient role that emerged from Christian monasticism. In the modern era, Spiritual Direction has mostly focused on helping clergy with their spiritual life but in pre modernity, it supported the formation of many high influence individuals: nobility, merchants, knights etc. I apply the breadth of that pedigree here.