Joy Wagler
As a Jubilee Leader:
designated lay ministry
expressive artist
SoulCollage facilitator
spiritual accompaniment
As a Spiritual Companion:
My roots are in the Mennonite church and my adult formation was generously supported by the United Church of Canada while living in Owen Sound for thirty-five years. Those years were formational, especially as I served as DLM - Designated Lay Minister in the United Church of Canada at First United, for seventeen years. During a portion of this time, I also provided spiritual accompaniment through the chaplaincy department of the regional hospital in Owen Sound. I provided accompaniment to the women and child unit, the wider hospital and on an on-call basis. The church generously supported my continuing education. Highlights being, the Jubilee Program under the leadership of Miriam Frey, the Expressive Arts Program at the Haliburton School of Art and Design, and training for SoulCollage facilitation. Allowing my inner invisible experience to become visible through creative expression is soulful nourishing work. My continuing education also included many workshops and courses on grief and loss, and associated life lessons as we lost a beloved adult son to sudden death. Since then, I have been fortunate to explore the issues of grief and loss as a participant in art therapy invitations at Hospice Wellington. Subsequently I have volunteered with the art therapy program and am in training for Therapeutic Touch. God’s presence and absence are felt acutely in times of grief and loss, and it is a gift to walk with others as life unfolds in mysterious ways. The marriage of Spiritual Accompaniment, expressive arts and mindfully being in Creation, is a sacred one to me. It is a privilege to accompany individuals through landscapes of the soul and landscapes of the land by walking local paths together. I take great delight in choral singing, (“Those who sing, pray twice” Augustine) and in letting my brush sing…playing with paint and “spoiling canvases” as Vincent van Gogh says, “One must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with.” Life unfolds one stroke, one breath at a time.
