Coordinating Council

The Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International is the governing body of the not-for-profit, charitable organization. With the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, policy-setting, and personnel oversight responsibilities.

To contact the Coordinating Council, send e-mail to:

Terrence J. Moran, CSSR 2012
Chair / Stirling, New Jersey, USA

I have been a member of Spiritual Directors International for more than ten years, have attended several conferences, and collaborated in the translation of the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Spiritual Direction into Spanish. I have been engaged in the ministry of spiritual direction, retreat ministry, and chapter facilitation in the United States and many other countries across the globe. I am fluent in Spanish, Italian, and French, and I have some knowledge of Portuguese. I bring to the work of the Coordinating Council years of experience with people from a large variety of circumstances, cultures, and spiritual and religious traditions. I have served on several boards--civic, theological, and service oriented. I have given retreats and courses in more than thirty countries. I would like to see Spiritual Directors International make the ministry of spiritual direction more accessible to people of different cultures and economic levels and that its membership would better reflect the cultural and religious diversity of our world.

Miriam Frey 2012
Treasurer / Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

My life experiences, particularly leaving the close-knit Mennonite Church as a twenty year old and then living overseas in Nairobi, Kenya, were my initial preparation for this ministry. The life experiences I bring to the work of the Coordinating Council include leadership, financial management, collaboration, communication, and teaching. The gifts I bring include contemplative listening, a deep appreciation for people of other faiths, cultures, and denominations and a love for the Christian church despite its limitations. My vision for the future of Spiritual Directors International is to build strong bridges between traditions and cultures as we seek to serve God, the Holy Mystery. I hope that more people from outside North America will see the value of Spiritual Directors International and join our organization. Spiritual Directors International has a unique opportunity to lead this important ministry by providing resources, inspiration, and modeling for spiritual directors around the world as they remain open to the leading of the Spirit.

Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann 2015
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I was trained in the first-ever training program of Jewish spiritual director in North America, called Lev Shomea, which means listening heart. Judaism at its very best includes a spirit of curiosity and vibrance, lively debate and argument, earthy, passionate involvement with others and with everyday life, a sense of humor and of the absurd, and a hands-on, heart-on experience of divinity being a part of every moment of life. I aspire to bring these qualities to my new position on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International.

Although I live in Canada now, I grew up in South Africa, which gave me a consciousness of the light and the dark of the earth and its people at a very early age, an awareness of man's inhumanity to others of different races, colors and faith traditions. We all have Shadow, aspects of ourselves, sometimes dark, sometimes light, that are not available to our consciousness. My commitment to my own life and to meeting with others is to walk on the paradoxical Shadow boundary, inevitable in all faith traditions. I aspire to bring my learnings from the challenge of growing up in the troubled and beautiful African continent, as well as the difficulties and blessings of my immigration to Canada to my work on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International.

I am a "God-wrestler," one who questions and argues with God. I am a God-lover one who walks my days in a frequent state of reverence and awe, even when I am wrestling. I am a poet, and my poetry, my prayer-in-writing is how I meet God daily. I will aspire to bring my passionate involvement with life to the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International.

Christopher McCauley 2013
Pasadena, California, USA

I bring my gifts in spiritual discernment, strategic planning for non-profits, and experience in building new models for spiritual organization to the mission of Spiritual Directors International, which is to serve the world in tending the Holy. I hope that we will see our role as developing the first global network to support the spiritual direction worldwide community.

Sally Taylor 2015
Saintfield, Co Down, N Ireland

Sally Taylor is a practitioner within the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition. She lives at, and hosts, Hermitage Cottage and all that emerges from it as a spiritual retreat and contemplative experience. Programmes that reach across faith traditions and speak from the heart, the core of all spiritual traditions, are offered on a regular basis. Her background and training is in religious and political studies, in horticulture, and she has lived and worked in Northern Ireland for over thirty years, where she is an active member of the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum. Sally is a ‘Guardian of Gratefulness’ with ANG*L (A Network of Grateful Living) and www.gratefulness.org. She sits on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International www.sdiworld.org
Her "home of the heart" remains the Pacific Northwest in the USA, where she grew up. She is a mother of three glorious young adults, Christina, Iain and Alex!

Therese Taylor-Stinson 2014
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Therese Taylor-Stinson “loves SDI's inclusiveness, Spirit, Oneness, and openness. My sense of call is intertwined with my sense of Spirit in the organization. It is whom I hear the Spirit calling me to be. I would bring to the Coordinating Council my very fine training from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation as spiritual director and contemplative leader, and my connections as member of Shalem's Board of Directors and Society for Contemplative Leadership. I would bring my connections to people of color across the globe as convener of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network and our desire and ideas to further diversity and spread contemplative practice among peoples of color. I would bring my years of experience in the Presbyterian Church (USA) as member of the Board of Deacons and the governing board (the Session) of my former church. I would bring my experience as Elder Commissioner in the National Capital Presbytery (NCP), the larger PCUSA body in the Washington, DC area, my former membership on NCP's Committee for Women, and my current membership on NCP's Committee on Ministry. I would bring my diverse project management, information technology, leadership, and systems training and experience as a US Federal career civil servant. I would bring my strong talent as ‘systems thinker.’ I would bring my deep faith and trust in God and Spirit, and my unquenchable desire for relationship through my belief in the life and death of Jesus Christ. I envision SDI increasing its reputation and ministry through diversity and global connections.”