Bethlehem Centre would like to introduce you to the following practitioners who are available to help guide you on your chosen path.
Alfred DePew
A life-long spiritual seeker, Alfred DePew has explored a variety of wisdom traditions, including Christian mysticism, Sufism, and Jewish Renewal. He has a working knowledge of Benedictine spirituality, the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, and twelve-step recovery. The pandemic called him even more deeply into contemplative prayer as well as his ongoing writing, drawing, and painting practices. For him, spiritual accompaniment involves walking alongside fellow travellers, listening to their experience of prayer, meditation, and creative process in their ever-evolving relationship with the Divine in whatever forms it takes
Colleen Tiltman
Colleen Tiltman is a graduate of the Pacific Jubilee Program for Spiritual Direction and has taught workshops on self-compassion and has provided spiritual accompaniment for bereavement as well as meeting people in all walks of life. She has worked with people in Victoria hospice and senses herself as a story catcher, someone who encourages listening deeply for the meaning and wisdom within their experience. She practices yoga and meditation in her own spiritual journey. Colleen is quiet, thoughtful and deeply experienced.
Doug Smart
Doug’s life-long spiritual journey within the Christian tradition began as a teenager. He has engaged in a variety of spiritual and life practices since then. Significant experiences include facilitating a Centering Prayer group, supporting a Palestinian refugee family, and training in the Pacific Jubilee Soul Guiding program. His family life and career have been an important focus and now in retirement, he offers spiritual companionship. He likes the term “Holy Listening” – deeply listening to the person being accompanied and gently, sometimes deeply, probing where a person’s spiritual journey might be going.
Lynn Haley
Lynn Haley brings a lifetime commitment to ministry across the country including: spiritual direction/ accompaniment, retreat work, religious education, leading worship and sharing end of life ministry. Alongside her calling as an educator and blessed by ten years as a member of an international religious community, Lynn is a Jesuit trained spiritual director and served on the Loyola house retreat staff accompanying individuals of all faiths and walks of life.Recognizing the need today to reach out to all segments of society, Lynn firmly believes that for personal and spiritual growth to occur, the body, heart and soul must be fully engaged…
Mei Chang
Mei Chang is a lifelong spiritual seeker on a journey of awakening and experiencing the deep transforming love of God in all things. Drawn to silence and contemplative life, Mei loves to offer sacred spaces for silence, solitude and soul care, through retreats and creative expression. She has a background in Christian contemplation and Ignatian spirituality, along with an appreciation of whatever spiritual journey a person walks in, either known or unknown to them. Mei has a gentle listening presence and says of her accompaniment practice, “Together we will co-discern and listen to the still small voice and loving invitations…
Nan Goodship
Nan is an artist, spiritual director, retreat leader, and thorough Vancouver Islander. She is interested in the adaptations and evolutions we make in our lives to find joy, understand suffering, and ponder our own hearts and minds. She considers herself a contemplative and finds a daily connection to the natural world both a significant source of inspiration for art-making and a spiritual home. As far as academic training goes she holds a BA in Japanese and Asian studies from UBC, Waldorf teacher training, certification from the Pacific Jubilee Program for spiritual direction, and a Masters in interdisciplinary arts from Goddard…
Nita Ng
Others have called her: an artist, author, teacher, mystic, neshama (soulful), free and intuitive. Nita sees herself as a soul companion to others, and a matchmaker between persons and the Divine. She is blessed to have had the pleasure of walking with people from all over the world, all walks of life, all different faiths – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, inter-spiritual and free thinkers. And in her own spiritual journey, she has spent time in ashrams in India, monasteries in Europe and Asia whirled with Sufis in Istanbul and spent years in semi-to-full hermit living. Her other work experience…
Sandy Pihowich
Sandy was raised in the United Church of Canada and nurtures herself on the wisdom and practices of embodied movement, centering prayer and mystical wisdom from different religions as well as non-religious sources. One of her first mentors referred to spiritual direction as “listening into being.” This is Sandy’s hope in the spiritual accompaniment she offers to others.
Sarah Hovey
Sarah’s approach to spiritual companioning is to listen carefully with an open heart to each person she is with. She says, “I look and listen for the stirrings of the heart in each person, for the yearnings that light a person up. This is the path that we follow.” Sarah brings a wealth of experience from her own eclectic spiritual journey as well as many years in private practice as a craniosacral therapist. She is happy to work with people of all ages, all gender identifications, and from all walks of life. People with a faith background or no faith…
Scott Swanson
Scott’s passion is accompanying people through the transformative process of healing, moving toward wholeness, meaning-making, and living out their deep purpose. A minister of The United Church of Canada since 1998 and in direction himself since 1999, Scott began offering spiritual accompaniment in 2007. He completed the Pacific Jubilee Program in 2015 and has an Associate Certificate in Conflict Coaching from the Justice Institute of British Columbia. Scott’s approach draws on training and experience in the fields of coaching, educational supervision, pastoral care and spiritual direction, as well as his understanding of Myers-Briggs typologies (he is a certified MBTI practitioner) and the…
Tanya Loretto
Tanya’s spiritual journey has been within the Christian tradition though she is comfortable accompanying people from all walks of life and spiritual backgrounds. She has a Master’s in Theological Studies and a certificate from Seattle University in spiritual direction. She has a deep sense of the holy in ordinary life and is connected to Ignatian, Franciscan, Benedictine and Celtic spirituality. She also engages in art practice and dream work. Tanya has a warm quiet presence that invites engagement and trust.