Ecclesiastical Endorsement and Ordination
The Fellowship of Integral Spirituality (FOIS) is a fellowship of ministers, spiritual practitioners, and communities committed to spiritually grounded living, ethical service, personal formation, and respectful engagement across traditions.
Rooted in an interspiritual approach, FOIS believes individuals can remain deeply grounded within their own traditions while still being shaped and expanded through encounter with others. Our fellowship seeks to cultivate thoughtful, compassionate, and spiritually mature leaders capable of serving diverse communities with integrity, humility, and care.
FOIS offers pathways for individuals seeking ecclesiastical endorsement, ministerial standing, ordination, or priestly ministry within the context of spiritually grounded service and leadership.
Ecclesiastical Endorsement
FOIS provides ecclesiastical endorsement for individuals serving or preparing to serve in specialized ministry settings such as healthcare, hospice, military, corrections, counseling, education, and other institutional environments.
We believe spiritual care in pluralistic settings requires both rootedness and openness — the ability to remain grounded in one’s own tradition while offering compassionate and respectful care to people from many different backgrounds.
Endorsement through FOIS affirms that an individual demonstrates the maturity, ethical grounding, spiritual formation, and vocational readiness necessary for institutional spiritual care and ministry.
Applicants for endorsement are encouraged to pursue appropriate professional preparation, including theological education, spiritual formation, and specialized clinical or pastoral training relevant to their field of service.
Ministerial Ordination
FOIS recognizes that meaningful spiritual leadership exists across many religious, spiritual, contemplative, and philosophical traditions. The fellowship may ordain or formally recognize ministers serving communities rooted in a variety of traditions and approaches to spiritual life.
Ordained ministers within FOIS may serve local fellowships, contemplative communities, spiritual organizations, educational initiatives, retreat settings, or other ministry contexts where formal ministerial standing is beneficial or required.
Ministerial ordination within FOIS is centered on formation, ethical responsibility, spiritual maturity, and demonstrated commitment to service. Candidates participate in a process of discernment, mentorship, formation, and evaluation focused not only on belief, but on character, integrity, relational capacity, and the ability to responsibly care for and guide others.
While ministers within FOIS may come from diverse traditions and worldviews, the fellowship seeks to cultivate leaders who approach ministry with humility, grounded practice, compassion, and respect for human dignity across lines of difference.
Christian Priesthood in Apostolic Succesion
FOIS operates under the ecclesiastical authority of a Christian archbishop consecrated within the apostolic succession of the African Orthodox tradition while maintaining an interspiritual and collaborative fellowship model.
Within the broader fellowship, FOIS maintains a specifically Christian sacramental and priestly lineage through this apostolic succession.
For individuals seeking Christian priesthood within a sacramental and historically apostolic context, FOIS may provide pathways toward priestly formation, ordination, and episcopal oversight rooted in Christian liturgical, sacramental, and pastoral traditions.
Priestly ministry within apostolic succession is understood as a distinctly Christian vocation shaped by the sacramental life of the Church, pastoral responsibility, theological formation, and commitment to Christian spiritual care and community leadership.
The fellowship seeks to hold this lineage with both reverence and humility — honoring the continuity of historic Christian ministry while remaining committed to respectful engagement with people and communities from many traditions. More information can be found here in our Canons.
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