Rev Sam Wernham

I have been committed to eco spiritual living over the last 35+ years and since my early twenties have run retreat houses, led workshops, facilitated groups, given guided meditations, hosted many gatherings and made many cups of tea!

I was brought up in a liberal, christian family and spent my childhood in their Kentish apple orchards and riding horses on the Eridge Estate. I learnt much from my mother’s skill as a professional craftswoman and adult educator. From my father I inherited a love of ideas and literature, which I studied at Sussex University. Organic gardening, time in the wild and a concern for environmental issues have remained central throughout my life.

From my late teens I deeply explored other faiths, especially Buddhism, Druidry and Jewish & Christian Kabbalah. In my Dharma days I travelled in Ladakh and Zanskar and studied at the Tibetan Library in Dharamsala, I practised Zen at Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre in California and Vipassana and Mindfulness at Sharpham and Gaia House, spending over a year in retreat and 6 months as a manager. I have been a long term member of Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. I studied Kabbalah with both Jewish and Christian teachers and (from 2000 – 2017) was a tutor with The Kabbalah Society. I trained in interfaith ministry and spiritual counselling and in 2003 was ordained at the One Spirit Interfaith Foundation and remain committed to promoting peace and interfaith understanding.

After ordination I went on to complete four years training in local collaborative ministry mentoring with the Scottish Episcopal Church, including studying theology at Aberdeen University. I worked for five years as a pioneer minister to collaboratively create new ways of being Church in a remote crofting community in the Highlands of Scotland, where I co-created an eco retreat centre with my former husband, Adrian Slocombe (RIP), with whom I was also a partner in our eco architectural practice.

Although brought up as an Anglican, I have also deeply engaged with different Christian traditions and have a particular love of Eastern Orthodox spirituality. The ministry of River Dart Wild Church was formally affirmed by an Anglican Pioneer Assessment Panel in 2018 and my original research into this and the Wild Wisdom School was affirmed by an Anglican Research Degrees Panel at Oxford University in 2020. I have trained for ministry in the Church of England and was a member of Totnes Team Ministry until 2022.

I sense the Holy One primarily calls me to new monasticism through the ministry of contemplative prayer and deep hospitality, including offering one to one support,  as a psychotherapist, spiritual director/mentor and supervisor both online and from my home in South Devon. I have an MA in Mindfulness based Psychotherapeutic Practice with the Karuna Institute and Middlesex University and am currently engaged in doctoral research into transformative education at Canterbury Christ Church University.

I love the creative arts, especially myth and storytelling and have an ongoing fascination with nature based creativity and have studied sacred art, including icon writing with the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and, before covid, co-ordinated yearly icon summer schools with them in Devon. Part of my spiritual and creative work has included raising a family, including home schooling, and creating several eco homes and organic gardens. I now live in my Hunters Moon Micro Monastery in Dartington with a huge ginger cat called Leo.