The Interfaith Seminary   History

 

The Interfaith Seminary's line of descent goes back to 1981 when The New Seminary was founded in New York by Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, with the support of religious leaders such as Swami Satchidananda, Methodist minister Rev Jon Mundy and others wishing to explore beyond the boundaries of their own faith.

 

In 1996 Miranda Holden started The New Seminary in London, having spent two years travelling to be trained and ordained in New York. She significantly adapted the US training programme to the particular culture and needs of the UK.

 

As this organisation's spiritual director for its first 10 years, Miranda presided over a steady growth in student numbers, recruited a talented team of programme facilitators and visiting speakers, and led the development of new teaching methods and materials. Our name changed to The Interfaith Seminary in 2002, and we became a registered charity in 2004.

 

Miranda's own growth and development into an outstanding teacher and facilitator of spiritual awakening – as a minister, counsellor, programme leader and author – culminated in her decision in 2006 to step down as the Seminary's spiritual director, and to become a travelling teacher. She now leads spiritual retreats around the world, and is known as Miranda Macpherson, or simply Miranda.

 

 

More than 350 interfaith ministers have been ordained in the UK, drawn from diverse backgrounds. Some have travelled long distances to train, and are now ministers in their own countries – including Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Hong Kong. Another 50 students will be ordained as ministers in August 2008, graduating from training programmes run in three centres: London, Manchester and Perth.

 

We have a close relationship of reciprocal support with the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and Learning Alliance in New York, which also emerged from The New Seminary.  The spiritual director of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, Rev Diane Berke, usually attends and contributes to our annual retreat and Ordination ceremony, and we are represented at the equivalent events in New York.

 

After Miranda's departure, the Seminary's trustees, teaching faculty, and community of ministers and students engaged in a process of deep reflection and renewal, from which has emerged a clear and passionate sense of how Spirit is unfolding in the next stage of our evolution as an organisation.

 

Training ministers is our core purpose, and it is only natural that a programme designed to facilitate the unfolding of spiritual consciousness should itself continually evolve. One way in which this is happening is in the deepening sense that everyone in our Interfaith Seminary community – including our students – is co-creating our future. In doing so, we are modelling a different way of being in relationship, and being in the world.