On May 11, 2024, Spiritual Directors of Color gathered virtually from many places for A Conversation Among Spiritual Directors of Color, offered by the Ignatian Spiritual Directors Initiative (ISDI) at the Office of Ignatian Spirituality. This unique program brought together spiritual directors from a variety of churches, faith traditions and spiritual paths. It created space for participants to name influential people who have shaped them into the people they are today and pray together for an end to racism. Participants connected with each other, engaged in honest conversation about their experience as Spiritual Directors of Color and fostered bonds of community.

Special guest Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns spoke of her training and experience as a Spiritual Director of Color and opportunities that have opened up to her nationally and globally because of it. She recounted how the Spiritual Directors of Color Network was born out of her experience as one of less than five Spiritual Directors of Color at the 2005 Spiritual Directors International conference. She acknowledged the opportunity and responsibility she has as a Spiritual Director of Color to “embody all that I am, using skills of empathy, sacred healing presence, silence, deep listening, evocative questions, discernment, compassion, and curiosity and self-awareness as I try to navigate my authentic place in the practice of spiritual accompaniment.” She encouraged participants to do the same.

Leadership Team members Ann Harris-Jacobs, Boreta Singleton and Rev. Greg Chisholm, SJ spoke of culturally specific experiences which affect the dynamic of spiritual direction. They shared their experience of accompanying white spiritual directees and ways that race impacts the spiritual direction relationship.

Participants gave voice to the challenges they face, including spiritual direction training programs created by and for white people that do not reflect the richness of cultural diversity. They noted the collective responsibility they carry for educating others about cultural and racial differences. Some shared experiences of exclusion and racism that are part of their spiritual direction story. Those who immigrated to the U.S. brought a distinctiveness to the conversation about racial and cultural challenges they face.

Group members acknowledged their role as pioneers and trailblazers creating paths of diversity and inclusion through the terrain of a predominantly white spiritual direction landscape. They noted the importance of claiming “who we are and whose we are” in their spiritual direction ministry. Some spoke of innovative ways they are meeting the challenge of introducing spiritual direction to Black congregations that are not familiar with it. Protestant spiritual directors spoke of the challenges they face making the concepts and language of spiritual direction accessible to the groups and individuals they serve.

A common thread woven throughout the conversation was the weight that Spiritual Directors of Color bear because they are small in number. The need for each person to care for their own souls was emphasized. Most participants expressed a strong desire for ongoing connection in the future.