Spiritual Accompaniment exists specifically to help you attend to your life of prayer and your relationship with God. 

Whilst various aspects of your life will inevitably feed into this, a spiritual companion is offering you space to explore questions such as "How is prayer?" "Where is God in your current circumstances?" "How do you sense Love inviting you to proceed?" or "Where do you feel most connected to the vibrancy of the Spirit?". You are also welcome to explore your inability to connect with God, faith crisis, doubt or deconstruction with a spiritual companion.

Spiritual Accompaniment is distinct from counselling or therapy where it is appropriate to bring psychological, relationship and emotional issues. Neither is it coaching where you might discuss career development, strategic direction and project planning. Nor is Spiritual Accompaniment a place for ministry mentoring where clergy might discuss plans for parish ministry or personal relationship with various aspects of the diocese.

Spiritual Accompaniment is about your own life of prayer and unfolding relationship with the Holy. 

"History shows that throughout the centuries followers of the way of Christ have sought help from mature Christians who had a deep capacity to listen with their hearts, were familiar with the signposts and struggles on the Christian journey towards holiness, and who could, when familiar landmarks disappeared in the darkness, provide a strong beacon to keep the light of God alive."  (Pickering, S., Spiritual Direction: an introduction, 2008)

"Each of us needs a soul friend, … who will guide us in growing in the likeness of God … marked more and more distinctly by faith, hope, and love." (Mary C. Earle, Celtic Christian Spirituality, 2012)

"Spiritual direction is a way of meeting with someone - a spiritual director or guide - to share your thoughts and reflections about your faith" (The Retreat Assn, www.retreats.org.uk)

"A place where tired bodies and spirits are warmed by the [camp]fire and refreshed… The job of the spiritual director is to keep the fire burning, because one never knows when a traveller will come to sit." (Simon Brown, cited in Pickering,S., Spiritual Direction, 2008)

For reflection: 

• What is drawing you to seek a Spiritual Companion at this time? 

• If you are primarily here because it has been suggested to you, please take some time to get in touch with your own personal, genuine desire for a relationship as described above, and the benefits you can see it bringing.

We are an ecumenical network of trained Spiritual Companions residing in Coventry and Warwickshire, with links to the Diocese of Coventry. We are from all walks of life, a range of ages, women and men, from various Christian traditions and are found in most corners of Warwickshire and Coventry. The service they provide is ecumenical and broad in its base,  firmly committed to the Christ of the Gospels and  ‘finding God in all things’.

Spiritual companions are formed locally or nationally through training teams, with required hours of practice, ongoing refreshment and development seminars and retreat days. We are supervised in our work, and review our ministry with another regularly. Appropriate safeguarding training and DBS checks are mandatory, and all our companions commit to a Code of Practice.

We all meet regularly with our own Spiritual Companion, and for most of us, it has been such a positive experience over time for us that we have chosen to offer ourselves as companions to others.

We use the term Spiritual Companions and Spiritual Accompaniment interchangeably with the terms Spiritual Directors and Spiritual Direction. We have chosen to emphasize the words 'companion' and 'accompaniment' because we feel they more accurately reflect our ministry. 

For Reflection:

• What are you looking for in a spiritual companion?  Are there particular qualities, charisms or aspects of Christian spirituality you would hope for in a companion?

Meetings are usually at a quiet location chosen by the companion. Sometimes that might be their home, or a quiet area of a local church. Some meet while walking over the local fields and woodland (weather permitting!). Others meet via Zoom.

Meetings are generally between 60 and 90 minutes, and happen every four to twelve weeks. It is very rare for meetings to be more or less frequent than that. Some of these relationships end up going on for many years, others for a shorter period of time. 

Where and when and how often meetings are held is something that pilgrims and companions decide together and can change over time.

Some companions offer this 'soul work' in their spare time, others request a financial contribution.

For Reflection:

• Would you prefer to meet in person or online? How far would you be prepared to travel? Would you be willing to contribute financially?

Take your time to fill in the form linked below. 

When you click submit, your answers (without your identifying details) will be emailed to all the companions in our database who currently have availability for new pilgrims. 

The more thoughtfully and fully you answer the questions, the more likely you are to garner a response from a companion to whom you are well-suited. 

The first companion to read your application and prayerfully sense a good potential for partnership will contact you by email to arrange an exploratory meeting. 

This meeting is a chance for you both to get to know one another a bit more, and to discern whether you are happy to proceed. 

If you don't feel that this companion is someone you can work with for any reason whatsoever, please do come back to and fill in the form a second time so that you might have the opportunity to meet with another possible companion. The chemistry in the room is important and we encourage you to keep looking until you feel settled. This is a natural and important part of the process and can be repeated as many times as you need..

Please note that this process is maintained and monitored by volunteers from the network. If you have questions or issues, we will aim to help you as soon as we can, but we may not reply immediately. Do be patient, we are here to help, but we are not at the desk full-time. You can contact us at  findingaspiritualcompanion@gmail.com with any questions. 

Our emails will come from findingaspiritualcompanion@gmail.com. To ensure that you receive emails from us, please add us to your contacts list or email address book. 

If you do not receive an email from us that you are expecting, please check your junk or spam email folder as it may have gone there.

You can test if our emails are reaching you by filling in your email address at the form linked here

And you can learn how to receive the emails you want at the link here