Our life journey with Spiritual Direction
It is great to become a trustee at LCSD and I am very much looking forward to working with Karen and the team and finding out more about the work of the centre. As Archdeacon of Northolt, I cover part of the North West of the Diocese of London, and have been in post for 3 years. Before that I worked in the Diocese of Newcastle where I served in Newcastle’s inner city as team Vicar and then team Rector. Then I served in a Northumbrian village which was a half time role alongside working as Continuing Ministerial Development officer for the diocese. Throughout my ministry, my spiritual directors have been an important part of my spiritual, mental, and emotional health. They have helped me remember who I am before God and that I am first loved by God through grace, as a member of the Baptised, and not because of anything I have done or not done.
There have been certain key moments in my life when spiritual direction has been especially important. I remember when I became a mother 16 years ago, my usual spiritual routines went out of the window and were replaced by the round of night feeds and nappy changes. My spiritual director helped me to reclaim something resembling a prayer life which helped me through those early months. She also lent me ‘The 4am Madonna’ by Rachel Barton, which reminded me that Mary probably had similar problems when her son was tiny and helped me see my new baby as part of my prayer life and not in opposition to it.
Another time I particularly needed my spiritual director was after my most recent change of role. I became an Archdeacon and moved 300 miles to a new Diocese in July 2020, the middle of Covid. Amongst all the other changes, I very much missed having a regular Christian community to be part of. My spiritual director helped me think about where Christian community is for me now and helped me to locate myself within the much bigger and wider family of God in an Episcopal area.
Beyond my immediate family and friends, I often feel that it is my spiritual director who knows me the best. Because of the context and structure of the sessions, he or she can tell me hard truths which even my nearest and dearest would hesitate to share and help me face up to things I have been avoiding which are stopping me moving forward on the road of faith.
I am grateful to be asked to be a trustee at LCSD because it feels like an opportunity to give something back to the world of spiritual direction. One of the aspects of being an Archdeacon that I find the most rewarding is the sense of supporting the ministry of others, and I hope to be able to do that through my trusteeship. Keeping an eye on safeguarding, training, websites, and governance is not what everyone thinks of when they consider spiritual direction, but providing the scaffolding within which spiritual direction can happen is also a calling and I am delighted to support LCSD in this way. Thank you for all you do, as spiritual directors for those whom you support. You often do not see the fruits of your labours, but you are more valuable than you will ever know and much appreciated by all of us.
Questions for you and your directees:
When are the times in your life journey that spiritual direction has been most important to you?
Why do you think that was and what were you discovering about yourself and your walk with God?
Ven Catherine Pickford
Catherine Pickford became the Archdeacon of Northolt in September 2020.
Previously, she served in the diocese of Newcastle for 20 years, as Team Rector in Newcastle’s multicultural west end, and latterly as priest in charge of a Northumbrian village and Diocesan Clergy Development Officer.
She was Chair of the House of Clergy and served on General Synod. As a northerner in London, Catherine is particularly interested in the interaction between faith and regional identity.
Catherine is married to John, a sculptor, and they have 3 school aged children.