Through a programme of teaching, silence, worship and reflection based on a Benedictine monastic pattern The Community for Spiritual Formation creates transformative space for people to be in communion with God, self, others, and creation for the sake of the world.
Dates for your diary
‘Who are you? Living a Godly life’.5pm Tuesday 18th – 1pm Friday 21st July 2023.
Three-Day Community, July 2023 To be held at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford with Rev. Dr. Sam Wells. A few places remain on this event – book now to avoid disappointment!
Recognising that we live our lives in multiple identities, Sam Wells will explore six identities and how each is vital. While showing and extensively illustrating what is entailed by each identity, he accepts that almost no one fulfils all six. Nonetheless, articulating the six helps surface and clarify difficult questions, like how those we greatly admire turn out to be flawed in troubling ways. Having set out the six identities, he will finally explore how these six may become an agenda for faithful living.
Revd Dr Sam Wells has been Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields since 2012. He has served as a parish priest for 25 years – 10 of those in urban priority areas. He also spent 7 years in North Carolina, where he was Dean of Duke University Chapel. Sam is also Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College. He is a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He has published 44 books, including works on Christian ethics, ministry, liturgy, and preaching. Among his recent books is Humbler Faith, Bigger God (Eerdmans 2022).
The flier for this event with more information can be downloaded here
The registration form for this event can be downloaded here or email the Registrar.

‘From the broken middle’
with The Rev.’d Canon Dr. Rachel Mann
Registration is now open for another Three-Day Community to be held in March 2024 at Cliff College, Derbyshire.
5pm on Tuesday 12th – Lunch on Friday 15th March 2024
Rachel writes: ‘The world in which we live feels increasingly fragile and can leave us anxious, tired and over-exposed. Across five sessions, she will explore how it is possible to more richly and hopefully inhabit what she calls the ‘broken middle’: the facts and promise to be found in a messy, complex world. By treating with and embracing the broken middles of body, self, faith and world, it is possible to find joy and goodness in fragility’.
The Rev’d Canon Dr Rachel Mann is a priest, writer, theologian and broadcaster. She has written fifteen books, including the acclaimed ‘Fierce Imaginings’ and ‘Dazzling Darkness’, as well as a poetry collection and novel. She regularly contributes to Thought For The Day, Pause For Thought and a range of radio programmes. She is a member of the Church of England’s Faith and Order Commission and a Visiting Fellow at Manchester Met University

More information on the flier which can be downloaded here.
The registration form can be downloaded here.
Finding rest in God in a chaotic world
The next online Community Day will be on Saturday 18th November 2023 with Margaret Sentamu.
More details will appear here in due course.
Keep in touch
To join the Community mailing list, please email fivedaycsf@btinternet.com
Recent events:
Saturday 18th March 2023. Online Lent Day: Celtic, Incarnate, Relational: a spirituality for today. Around 25 participants shared in an online day during Lent 2023 led by Ruth Harvey, Leader of the Iona Community. Ruth Harvey is Leader of the Iona Community, ‘an international, ecumenical Christian movement working for justice and peace, the rebuilding of community and the renewal of worship.’ With a background in mediation and conflict transformation, she has a passion for reconciliation from the inside out.
Ruth shares more about the theme “Iona, an island on the fringes of modern-day Scotland, was at the heart of the early Celtic Christian church. Whatever the land on which we sit, whatever the stories that nourish us, how might we continue to find ‘new ways to touch the lives of all’? Drawing on the story of the Iona Community, we explored together how our heritage, our story, informs our spiritual practice today.”
- Saturday 19th November 2022. Online Advent Day: Treasures of Darkness. This Advent themed Online Day attracted 25 participants on Saturday 19th November. It was facilitated by Edel McLean, a facilitator and spiritual director who currently works for the Learning Network of the Methodist Church.
- Edel led the participants in reflection and exercise around darkness, light and hope, interspersed with times of silence and the Community liturgies for Morning, Midday and Night prayer.
- All in all a day well spent in this busy period of preparation and anticipation.

Divine Intimacy, Ordinary Holiness: 10th – 15th July 2022, St, John’s College, Durham
- Picking up from the June 2020 cancelled event, Gemma Simmonds CJ, a well-known author and broadcaster on spirituality and Rev. Dr. Andrew Walker, well-known spiritual director, teacher, lecturer and author led the Community in exploring this fascinating theme.
Waiting on the Word: 7th – 12th November 2021, Cliff College, Derbyshire
- A full Five-Day Community focussing on poetry and images for the Advent season with Rev. Dr. Malcolm Guite, well-known contemporary poet (and much else besides) and Sister Margaret Crinyion OSM a Roman Catholic nun who lives as a hermit.
- A wonderful pre-Advent gathering in which 30+ participants enjoyed stimulating teaching, thoughtful worship and preaching and a sense of forming, not merely individual spirituality, but spirituality in community as well.
Financial help with Community events
Please download this attachment for some ideas about finding financial help to attend a residential Community event.
General Information about the Community
Through a programme of teaching, silence, worship and reflection based on a Benedictine monastic pattern,
the Five-Day Community for Spiritual Formation
aims to
- root spirituality in Christian faith and tradition
- provide opportunity for participation in community life
- form people for life in a changing world
Community policies: Up-to-date Safeguarding and Health and Safety Policies for the Community for Spiritual Formation can be downloaded below.
Core Values and Ethos: The Community is linked to the Academy for Spiritual Formation, based in the US. Below you can also download the full Core Values of the Academy, as well as a summary sheet, Community Ethos and Values.
Constitution: The Community is a fully registered charity, number 1188824. The constitution can be downloaded below.