Annand Program for Spiritual Direction

Those of who you are seeking ordination or who are excited to come to YDS for its commitment not only to rigorous academics but also spiritual development may be interested in joining the Annand Program for your first semester. The Annand Program for Spiritual Formation provides spiritual direction for first year students through small groups, retreats, and other events. If you decide to enroll in the Annand program, you will meet with a small group of fellow first-year students led by a mentor on a weekly basis, and explore different opportunities for prayer, spiritual guidance, practice, and worship. It is also sometimes possible for students to have individual sessions with their mentor. The program is focused on spiritual formation, but in an individual rather than a denominational sense. 

This program is open to all first year students, although it is only required of those students seeking ordination and a certificate in Anglican Studies. Many students find these small groups to be a welcome rest from the stress of the first semester, where common experiences of life on campus can be shared. They provide the opportunity to refocus and practice different styles of meditation and prayer, sometimes including adventures off-campus of one sort or another. There will be an opportunity to learn more about the program during BTFO, but we want to take the time now to introduce you to the small group mentors, as well as provide some important information about getting involved in the program.

Each student interested in Annand will need to have an intake interview with Jane Stickney, who is the coordinator for the Annand Program. These interviews will allow you to select the mentor that you would like to work with for the semester. All students interested in participating must meet with Jane during the first week of classes, and you can actually sign for a time slot already by completing this survey. For additional information and clarification about the Annand progrm and whether or not it is something you are interested in pursuing, please contact Annand@yale.edu. Below, you will find brief introductions to the many mentors who will be a part of the program this year.

Bari Dworken

Bari S. Dworken is a lay leader serving in numerous roles at Congregation B'nai Israel in Bridgeport where she has been active for more than twenty five years. Bari has completed the Para Rabbinic Program of the Union of Reform Judaism and has been awarded a Keva certificate for continual advanced learning. A graduate of the first class of the two year Lev Shomea Spiritual Direction Program, she has served as a spiritual director for several years with individuals and groups and at YDS. She completed two units of CPE, worked as a part time On Call Chaplain at Bridgeport Hospital for 10 years, currently is a member of the CPE Consultation  Committee, and has published in the "Journal of Pastoral Care". Bari holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts and works as an Educational Consultant in Organization Development with not for profit groups and community organizations concentrating in the areas of team building, conflict resolution, diversity awareness and strategic planning. She recently retired from the faculty of the University of Connecticut and worked part time as a Hospice Chaplain.  Bari is passionate about social action issues, interfaith study and involvement, learning from the natural world, traveling and "walking" with others on their spiritual journey.

Julie Kelsey

Julie Kelsey is an Episcopal priest ordained in 1997. She has served churches in urban and suburban settings, most recently as Rector of Grace and St. Peter's Church in Hamden and currently as Associated Clergy at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church on Whitney Ave. in New Haven.  She beginning her fifth year as

Assistant Dean of Students at Yale Divinity School where she is also a lecturer in the Practices and Principles of Preaching course and a mentor with the Annand Program. Having provided spiritual direction for years, she has a special interest in translating psychological

language into theological language, and connecting Sunday worship with daily life.

Julie is also one of the founders of Chapel on the Green where she serves on Sundays.  COG is a ministry designed especially for those who are temporarily displaced and/or without a job or home.  It features an outdoor worship service every Sunday at 2 pm on the New Haven Green (regardless of the weather) followed by a bag lunch.  The drumming circle in preparation for worship begins at 1:30.  ALL are welcome.

 Julie has led bereavement groups for adults and for children ages 6-12. She is a mother and grandmother who loves hiking, reading, writing, theatre and music. You will also be hearing more about her quite soon in another post.

Matthew Calkins

Matthew Calkins is an Episcopal priest currently serving as rector of a parish in Fairfield, CT (St. Timothy's). He has served in parish ministry for thirteen years following graduation in 1998 from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Prior to seminary Fr. Calkins worked for twelve years as a carpenter and general contractor, and before that as a teacher of English as a second language and student of Chinese language and philosophy in Taiwan.  

His experience with spiritual direction began under Ken Swanson, now of Christ Cathedral, Tennessee, and continued with Margaret Guenther and others. He has been a mentor in the Annand Program since 2000 and is currently completing his doctorate in ministry degree from Hartford Seminary. His thesis is on the development of a congregational rule of life as a means of clarifying congregational identity and promoting Christian practices. He is pictured in front of the log Chapel of Quiet Joy he recently built on the grounds of St. Timothy's.

Judy Stone

Judy Stone is a 1970 graduate of Yale Divinity School. She has been an active lifelong member of the Episcopal Church. Judy was a member of a Spirituality Group that met weekly for 25 years, reading classics of Christian and other religious traditions. She has been part of a church choir for a number of years and preaches occasionally. For about ten years she coordinated the adult education for her local New Haven Church and served on it's Vestry and several search committees.
Judy recently retired from her career in social work, working with children and families. Midway in her career she earned a master’s in Social Work from UCONN in 1993 with a focus on casework and group work. She finds groups especially helpful personally and professionally,and is intrigued with the connection between some of the therapeutic approaches from her social work  training and traditional spiritual exercises. Judy enjoys hiking, travel, cooking and art work. During the summer she coordinates a local certified organic community garden.

Oscar Brockmeyer

Oscar Brockmeyer is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC). He has pastored churches in northeast CT since 1993. For five years, he chaired an ecclesial Committee on Ministry, providing support and guidance to people discerning calls to ordination. Oscar provides spiritual direction to individuals and groups.  He also trains new directors, and supervises experienced ones, for the Spiritual Life Center (West Hartford, CT).

 Oscar resides with his wife, Bethany, in Pomfret, CT.  He enjoys gardening, painting, and ministry with children. He is grateful to all those who have had a part in his own formation. These include the Roman Catholic teachers of his youth, those who shared Zen perspectives with him in young adulthood, the warm-hearted members of a Baptist church who welcomed him back to Christianity, and those who called forth his gifts for ministry in the United Church of Christ.  Not surprisingly, Oscar enjoys companioning people of diverse faith traditions as they explore and encounter the Sacred in their lives.

Barbara Cheney

Barbara Cheney is an Episcopal priest ordained in 1980. She served as assistant Rector at St. John’s Royal Oak MI and Rector of St. Gabriel’s East Detroit MI. She and her husband, the Rev. K. Dexter Cheney moved to CT in 1993 when she was called to be Rector of St. Paul’s New Haven where she served for seventeen years and oversaw its merger with St. James Episcopal Church in Westville. The St. Paul and St. James congregation, affectionately known as St. PJ’s, has a history of diversity, social outreach, and advocacy for the marginalized. During her time as Rector she and Associate Rector, the Rev. Harlon Dalton, began St. PJ’s Jazz Vespers leading to that congregation’s present Sunday morning focus on jazz music. In 2010 she retired from active parish ministry and is currently working in a newly created Companion Priest relationship with St. James Episcopal Church in Fair Haven Heights. For 7 years she was a Practicum lecturer with the Supervised Ministries program at YDS.
This is her second year working with the Annand program in spiritual formation. Her heart is one for social justice and a concern for the well-being of all people, along with bringing people together in faith communities that reflect the wide, inclusive embrace of God’s love. Her personal discipline of spirituality is nurtured not only through prayer and worship, but also through relationships of intentional prayer and accountability, a focus on health and creative expression through the arts, and delight in God’s gracious gift to us of the natural world around us. She is both a dancer and drummer.

Jane Stickney

Jane Stickney was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1987. She began her ministry in 1972 as a pastor in the United Church of Christ. She understands and is open to working with students from reformed and liturgical traditions. She has served in large and small parishes and was a Christian Education consultant for the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. Jane received an STM in Spiritual Direction in 1987 from the Center for Christian Spirituality at General Theological Seminary, and served on the GTS Summers staff as a small group supervisor between 1991 and 1997. Jane has served as an Annand Mentor since 1994 and became the coordinator of the program in 2005. Her husband is a retired UCC pastor and interim ministry specialist.  They have a married daughter and a grandson and granddaughter.  Jane is a weaver and has taught in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan University: Psychology, Spirituality, and Celtic Art.  She is interested in the value of creativity in a healthy spiritual life.

Susan Fowler

Susan Fowler has served the community in a number of richly diverse ministries, holding leadership positions in pastoral and healthcare ministries, in higher education and in human services organizations.  She holds ordained ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ..         

Teaching, mentoring and social justice ministries have been her passions throughout her career.  She founded or led several nonprofit agencies focusing on social justice work – i.e. grassroots empowerment efforts that included working to ensure access to services and full participation in the life of the community. Her passions came together during her tenures, first as Executive Director of Dwight Hall at Yale, training and mentoring student volunteers and activists, and later when she co-founded the Community Leadership Program at the Graustein Memorial Fund, and trained and mentored community leaders in the art and practice of transformational leadership. 

Rev. Fowler holds the  MDiv degree  in pastoral counseling and an STM in Ethics, both from YDS.  For her PhD work, she served as principal investigator on a five year research study that explored the relationship between individual transformation, transformational leadership and social change.  This study led to the publication of her book, Leading with Spirit: Transforming Leadership for Social Change. Rev. Fowler completed advanced spiritual direction training and received her certification from Sacred Heart University. She served as a spiritual director at Fairfield University, providing direction in the Ignatian spiritual tradition.  She currently serves on the spiritual direction team in the Annand Program at YDS and is an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University, where she teaches philosophy and ethics and served as Interfaith Chaplain.   

Merle Marie Troeger (not pictured) is a spiritual director, retreat facilitator and Bible study mentor.  She serves as a part-time Associate for Spiritual Life at Christ Episcopal Church in Bethany, CT and also offers retreats and spiritual direction beyond the parish.   She accompanies and guide individuals, groups and congregations as they reflect on the Spirit’s action in their lives, gain fresh language to express their experiences and discern faithful ways to respond to their discoveries.  She is a former lawyer and a recent YDS graduate.