Supporting individuals and groups for vibrant living focused on the well-being of all.
About
Partners in Pilgrimage accompanies individuals and groups as they integrate their relationships with self, others, all of creation, and the Transcendent into vibrant living focused on the well-being of all.
Expertise includes support for developing and expressing vision and mission individually and within a community.
Offerings
Explore the profound intricacies of spirituality with our services designed to deepen your understanding and guide your spiritual growth.
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Spiritual Companionship is the experience of being walked with and encouraged to notice and deepen into the activity of The Divine (for simplicity, “God”) in each area of life. In our work as spiritual companions, we seek to accompany others in exploring their deepest beliefs and experiences, as balm for difficult times and as a window into the paths to which they feel invited, and the steps they can take on their journey toward spiritual freedom, authenticity, and connection.
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Supervision is a contemplative, sacred process undertaken individually or in conversation among multiple spiritual companions. Supervision meetings explore the experience of one spiritual companion as they companion a seeker (or seekers).
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Mediation is a process wherein two or more parties meet with mutually-selected neutral persons (mediators) who assists them in negotiating their differences.
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Conflict coaching supports an individual or group in working through a specific conflict and/or learning conflict resolution skills to be more effective in handling conflict generally.
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Discernment is a way of life wherein an individual or group seeks to perceive and align their actions with deep wisdom from within themselves’ and from spiritual traditions. We support those seeking to perceive wisdom in making specific choices, as well as those desiring to lead more broadly discerning lives.
Visioning is a collaborative approach to process the conception of something different or new in the future. We facilitate visioning that treats individuals and group members as change agents in their own right in the context of community with direction of a strategic path.
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Partners in Pilgrimage teach the art of spiritual companionship through several seminaries, and through stand alone classes. This includes teaching and leading groups to support deepening understanding of: spiritual formation, discernment, spiritual practices, ethics, and power dynamics.
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Facilitating difficult conversations involves a voluntary process where the facilitator guides participants to move toward a mutually identified resolution or agreement. The goal is to address issues, meet interests, and improve the situation for all participants with deeper understanding about and for one another while remaining consistent with core values for the common good.
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Grief is a universal natural response to losing someone or something that is important to you. Partners in Pilgrimage helps provide a framework for healing with the complex thoughts, behaviors, and emotions often experienced with loss. The grief processing involves moving an individual or group towards integration of the loss within an understanding of themselves and their life shaped by the loss.
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Co-creating healing rituals are ceremonial practices aimed at restoring health and well-being, often involving music, movement, music, symbols, and traditional healing techniques. These creations come out of a shared communal context of facing what awaits healing and choosing how to move forward with how the experience is transformative.
Who We Are
Anne Blackwood and Charlene Epp have over 60 years (combined) in vocational calls to serve people and creation. Their contexts for living their call have included family, spiritual community, neighborhoods, employment in healthcare settings, teaching, group facilitation, and organizational consulting.
Their experiences have located them on the East and West coasts, in the Midwest, in urban and rural, underserved and affluent settings. Their differences in cultural and racial backgrounds serve as a storehouse of resources to share, grounded in an ever-deepening 30+ year friendship.
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Anne is a physician, trained as a medical oncologist, who has worked in academic medicine, patient care, and cancer drug development for 30 years. Beginning in 2015, Anne pursued discernment at Mercy Center (Burlingame, CA), and then received training in the art of spiritual direction at San Francisco Theological Seminary (San Anselmo, CA). She received supervision training through Spiritual Directors International, and Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, VA). Anne has also served on the Steering committee of Christian Peacemaker Teams and of Health in Harmony, a trailblazing Planetary Health organization. Through her spiritual direction and supervision practices, the teaching of spiritual direction (at both of her seminaries), and her work with peacemaking and creation care organizations, Anne accompanies others in exploring their deepest beliefs and experiences, as balm for difficult times and as a window into the directions into which they feel invited, and the steps they can take on their journey toward spiritual freedom, authenticity, connection, and change-making.
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Charlene Epp is a Holistic Spiritual Practitioner, drawing from years of experience as a Spiritual Director, Interim Pastor, bedside chaplain, staff caregiver, Conference Minister, District Pastor, and teacher. Charlene served on a Conference Minister Team of three supporting 17 congregations representing urban and rural settings across Colorado and New Mexico. Charlene’s primary ministry has been as a chaplain in acute care, Level 1 trauma centers, and hospice settings for twenty-three years. Along with entire hospital coverage, she has served on a Palliative Care team and provided specialized care in the Behavioral Health Unit, Breast Cancer Center, Emergency Department, Labor & Delivery, Mother/Baby, NICU, Pediatrics, and PICU. Her work included staff support based on trauma-informed models such as RISE (Resilience in Stressful Events, a Caring for the Caregiver program developed at John Hopkins Hospital). Charlene received her MDiv degree from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and is ordained in Mennonite Church USA. Before these roles, she taught elementary and preschool children from large urban to small rural migrant communities. Charlene is a Spiritual Director, co-facilitating groups and accompanying individuals in their spiritual walk. Charlene has the joy of having called many places “home”, currently living in Anacortes WA. Among the many delights of living, Charlene enjoys gardening, hiking, hosting guests, quilting, reading, and writing.