Jane Killingbeck describes her work as that of reconnection
Like many of us, I thought when I began my One Spirit training that it would mainly lead to creating wedding ceremonies, and perhaps a few funerals and baby blessings.
However, my ministry, although still including those services to individuals, has broadened and evolved to include so much more; and required me to step up to claim a status within my local community, here in rural Ireland, on a par with other spiritual leaders, from which what I offer has more credibility.
One of my ways of serving is by holding workshops based on Joanna Macy’s beautiful experiential spiral method of facing reality, allowing our emotional responses room to be safely felt, and as a result being able to see with new eyes, and go forth into the world ready to contribute to the healing of humanity in whatever way arises for us; and I love the way that process is underpinned with gratitude.
Another strand of my ministry lies in listening; I have been a mentor for Le Cheile for several years, and have found it immensely rewarding, getting to know a parent of a teenager on probation over many months; attempting to be non-judgmental, to listen and encourage, treading that fine line between being a professional and a friend.
It was this experience that led me to do the Samaritans training this summer. With the mental health of so many being affected by the pandemic, it felt like a way to be of use in troubled times. It has been an amazing learning for me; humbling to realise how important it is to have someone at the end of a phone listening compassionately, holding space for a person to explore their feelings; and wonderful to be part of an organization who support each other so thoroughly.
My concern for our world, and the way our society has escalated into such destructive ways, which began in my youth, has naturally infused my ministry; I endeavor to live simply, nurture relationships with all those around me, find the places we connect even if we have very different ways of seeing; listening, holding always that I may be wrong in my ideas; questioning decisions I make in every area of my life, trying to find an equilibrium between extremes, and a way of seeing new and slower ways of living as an opening into a better reality, rather than a deprivation.
I have found Charles Eisenstein’s essays inspiring and thought-provoking, enabling me to see beneath the polarised attitudes that seem to be increasingly dividing the world. His most recent essay ‘Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed’ was uncomfortable reading, in his estimation of how mainstream society is ‘othering’ people who choose not to be vaccinated.
As a One Spirit Minister I see my primary work as that of offering opportunities for people to reconnect with their true selves, with each other, with all beings, with the sacred earth and with the Divine Source – surely this is the work that is so needed in these times.
Whether in the local One Spirit ceremonies of reflection which I hold on the Celtic festivals (and which are also sent by email, so that people can join in energetically from wherever they are in the world) or in workshops where we sit in circle to lament the destruction of our world and find our way towards a deep loving connection with all things, or in the meditation workshops which I am thinking to return to holding; the Taize services I am wondering about offering, and more ordinarily, by inviting often diverse people to tea in my wilding garden, and my old-fashioned scruffy house, giving opportunities for them to make connections, to exchange views, to not allow divisions such as being vaccinated or not, eating meat or not, or agreeing with Brexit or not, to divide us; for we are, at a deep level, uncomfortable as it may seem sometimes, all One.
To find out more about the work Rev Jane is involved in do have a look at her website:
https://janekillingbeck.ie and for more on Joanna Macy’s work that reconnects: www.workthatreconnects.org
