Nancy Phillips
I grew up in SW Ontario and have attended the Anglican Church for as long as I can remember. I spent many years working as a Registered Nurse in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as I followed my ordained spouse, landing in Winnipeg after his appointment as Bishop of Rupert’s Land. I retired from Nursing in 2017. I have a strong desire to deepen my prayer life and have always had a strong and abiding sense of God’s presence. I have learned a great deal from Celtic Spirituality and have had the opportunity to visit holy sites and meet with teachers and communities in England, Scotland, and N. Ireland. The practical wisdom and deep faith of the Celtic Christians and the teachings of the Celtic saints resonate deeply with me. I have a deep love of learning and teaching, including completing a degree in Adult Education in 2000. Over the years, I have led many study groups focussed on various aspects of spirituality and I have a passion for leading retreats and accompanying others in spiritual direction. I enjoy drawing people into a space that allows them to experience a deeper sense of God’s love for them. Most recently I began exploring the spirituality of aging through The Forest Dwelling Program at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, from teachers such as Fr Ron Rolheiser, OMI; Barbara Brown Taylor, Mary Earle, and Marilyn McEntyre. I realized that I have not spent much time developing a rich, nurturing spirituality for my own senior years. Carl Jung observed that “we can’t live the afternoon of our lives the same way we lived the morning”. The Forest Dwelling program helped me to shape and articulate new and previously undeveloped inner vistas and enabled a greater openness to the aging process and its gifts and challenges. I was invited to develop and co-ordinate a similar program in Canada through Queen’s House Retreat Centre in Saskatoon. The Growing in Wisdom program (www.growinginwisdom.ca) provides an opportunity to engage with and develop a deeper spirituality for aging, all from a Zoom context. In addition to my work in Spiritual Direction and spirituality, I am a wife, mother of two grown sons, and grandmother to six delightful grandchildren who feed my soul and bring me joy. I enjoy spending time in the quiet and solace of nature, most especially from a quiet setting in Riding Mountain National Park
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