A Letter from Our Presiding Minister

Growing up, I was deeply shaped by Christian faith and ministry. My formation began within evangelical and sacramental traditions, and over the years I immersed myself in theology, ministry, and spiritual practice with seriousness and intensity. I studied across multiple Christian traditions, completed twelve years of ministerial formation across four different Christian traditions - Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, and Presbyterian - and was ultimately ordained within both Lutheran and Anglican traditions. Later, I was consecrated as a bishop within the apostolic lineage of the African Orthodox Church.

Those traditions gave me a profound foundation that continues to shape me today.

Much of my life and work eventually moved beyond the walls of any one denomination and into specialized ministry contexts — hospitals, spiritual care settings, multifaith environments, educational spaces, and relationships with people from vastly different backgrounds and worldviews. In those spaces, I encountered the complexity of human experience in a much more immediate way. I sat with suffering, grief, meaning-making, crisis, transformation, and questions that could not always be answered through inherited categories alone.

That work changed me.

Not because I abandoned my roots, but because I became increasingly convinced that human beings are capable of learning from one another in ways that deepen our humanity and strengthen our capacity to care for the world together.

Over time, my work in chaplaincy, spiritual care, interfaith engagement, and advanced study brought me into meaningful relationships with people from many different traditions and perspectives. I spent time learning from Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, contemplatives, philosophers, and others whose approaches to life challenged and expanded my own understanding. I have also learned from people who would not identify as religious at all, but who nonetheless embody wisdom, compassion, integrity, depth, and profound commitment to human flourishing.

I remain deeply rooted in my own spiritual lineage and convictions. But I no longer believe wisdom, compassion, or moral insight belong exclusively to any one community. I have seen too many examples of courage, kindness, wisdom, contemplation, service, and healing embodied by people from vastly different traditions and philosophies. FOIS was born from that conviction.

The Fellowship of Integral Spirituality exists as a fellowship for individuals and communities who believe spiritual life is strengthened through grounded practice, sincere dialogue, mutual respect, and shared commitment to the well-being of others. We believe people can remain faithful to their own traditions while still being open to growth, encounter, and learning across lines of difference.

Our fellowship is not built around erasing distinctions or constructing a single universal belief system. Rather, it is built around the belief that there is value in bringing thoughtful, compassionate, spiritually grounded people into relationship with one another for the sake of personal formation, ethical living, and service to the world.

In my own life, I have benefitted from teachers, friends, mentors, caregivers, clergy, scholars, and practitioners from many different religious and philosophical backgrounds. Some spoke about God openly and devotionally. Others approached life through philosophy, contemplative practice, moral responsibility, or deeply humanistic commitments to care and meaning. Yet many of them shared a common seriousness about what it means to live well, love others, seek wisdom, and contribute something meaningful to the human community.

That is the kind of fellowship I hope FOIS can continue to become.

A place where people remain rooted, but not closed.
A place where conviction and humility coexist.
A place where spiritual formation is taken seriously.

A place where people from different traditions can work together to care for others without surrendering their integrity or identity. In world divided by political and religious tribalism, I believe those kinds of communities matter.

That is the kind of community The Fellowship of Integral Spirituality aspires to be.